Apollo vs Clay: a sales platform or an enrichment workflow tool

Apollo and Clay solve different jobs. Apollo is an all-in-one sales platform with its own contact database (Apollo says 240M+ contacts), sequencing and a dialer, priced per seat from $49 a month billed annually. Clay is an enrichment workflow tool that combines many data providers in waterfall tables, priced per workspace with unlimited seats from $167 a month billed annually. Many teams use both.

Facts about other products checked on 2026-11-09 · sources listed below

	Apollo	Clay
Pricing model	Per seat, pooled credits (email 1, phone 5); credits expire each cycle	Per workspace, unlimited seats; data credits plus actions
Starting price	Basic $59/seat/mo monthly or $49/seat/mo billed annually	Launch $185/mo monthly or $167/mo billed annually
Free plan	100 credits per seat per month, 2 sequences, no time limit	500 actions and 100 data credits per month, 200 rows per table
Data and coverage	Apollo says 240M+ contacts and 30M+ companies	Aggregates 50+ providers (150+ on some pages); no own coverage figure published
Email verification	Apollo says seven-step verification, 98% accuracy; steps not published	Method not published; community answers cite ZeroBounce by default
API	REST with OpenAPI spec; published rate limits	Public API; Tables API Enterprise only; HTTP API column from Growth
MCP / AI agents	Remote MCP at `mcp.apollo.io` on every plan, including Free	Official Clay MCP; plan availability not published; Claygent agents
Phone numbers	Yes, 5 credits each; US dialer from Basic	Phone enrichment from Launch; not on Free
Compliance	Apollo says SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, EU-US DPF	Clay says SOC 2 Type 2 audit completed Sep 2024; custom DPA on Enterprise
Best for	Teams wanting data, sequences and calling in one app	GTM engineers building multi-provider enrichment workflows

How Apollo and Clay differ

Apollo and Clay are often compared, but they sit at different points in a go-to-market stack. Apollo describes itself as a B2B sales platform: a contact and company database with prospecting, enrichment, email sequencing, a dialer and deal management in one app. Clay is a data enrichment and workflow platform. It does not lead with a single database; it aggregates many third-party providers into spreadsheet-style tables, runs waterfall enrichment across them, and adds AI research agents (Claygent), signals and CRM and sequencer sync.

The two also connect. Clay lists Apollo among the providers it aggregates, and Apollo's integration directory lists Clay. Some teams use Apollo as a data source and sending tool, and Clay as the layer that combines sources upstream of it.

Pricing compared

Apollo prices per seat with one pooled credit balance per team. Basic is $59 per seat per month billed monthly (5,000 credits per seat per month) or $49 per seat per month billed annually. Professional is $99 per seat billed monthly or $79 billed annually, and Organization is $119 per seat per month billed annually with a three-seat minimum. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 5. Apollo says unused credits, including purchased add-on credits, expire at the end of each billing cycle, and the add-on per-credit price is not published. More detail is on our Apollo pricing page.

Clay prices per workspace with unlimited seats and two meters. Data credits pay for data from Clay's provider marketplace; actions measure platform work such as enrichment runs, AI calls and exports. Launch is $185 per month billed monthly or $167 billed annually, with 15K actions and 2.5K data credits a month. Growth is $495 monthly or $446 annually, with 40K actions and 6K data credits, plus CRM auto-sync and the HTTP API column. Enterprise is custom. Clay says a lookup with no result is not charged and that data credits roll over, though its pricing page gives conflicting rollover rules. Top-ups carry a 30% premium on Launch and Growth. See Clay pricing.

A worked example: Maya Chen runs a three-person outbound team at Northwind Analytics. On Apollo Basic billed monthly, three seats cost $177 a month and give a pooled 15,000 credits, enough for 15,000 email reveals or 3,000 phone numbers if the whole pool went to one type. On Clay Launch billed monthly, the workspace costs $185 with all three people included. How many emails 2,500 data credits buy is not a fixed number; it depends on which providers the waterfall calls and how many steps run. Apollo is easier to forecast per contact. Clay's seat-free price suits larger teams.

Data, coverage and email verification

Apollo says it has 240M+ global contacts and 30M+ companies, built from 2M+ data contributors (inbox connections, CRM syncs and engagement signals) plus third-party providers, with intent data powered by Bombora. It says it uses seven-step email verification with 98% accuracy plus waterfall verification, but it does not publish the steps or a refresh interval.

Clay does not publish a coverage figure of its own. It says it aggregates 50+ built-in providers (150+ on other pages), naming Apollo, ZoomInfo, Clearbit, People Data Labs, Lusha, Hunter, Wiza and others, and that waterfalls routinely triple customers' coverage. Clay's official verification method is not published. Community answers say email waterfalls validate with ZeroBounce by default and count catch-all addresses as valid unless "only mark safe to send" is enabled, so check that setting before sending. A catch-all email cannot be confirmed at mailbox level.

Third-party review themes overlap. G2 reviewers of Apollo mention outdated contact records, a steep learning curve and cost; third-party reviews of Clay mention a steep learning curve, costs that scale quickly with volume and some outdated provider data. On G2 (third-party), Apollo shows 4.7/5 from 9,859 reviews, and Clay about 4.7/5 from about 192 reviews per search results, not confirmed on the live page.

API, MCP and AI agents

Apollo offers a REST API with API keys and an OpenAPI spec, and publishes rate limits: paid plans get 200 requests a minute on general endpoints and 1,000 a minute on enrichment, and Free gets 50 a minute and 600 a day. Apollo states API plan access inconsistently across its pages. Its remote MCP server at mcp.apollo.io, plus native connectors in Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity, is available on every plan including Free and can search and enrich people and companies, create contacts, build sequences and report on campaigns.

Clay's public API covers routines, search and credits, but the Tables API is Enterprise only and rate limits are not published. The HTTP API column, which calls any endpoint from a table, starts on Growth. Clay has an official MCP for Claude, ChatGPT and Codex that exposes its data providers and research agents; plan availability is not published. If the term is new, see what an MCP server is.

When to choose Apollo

You want one tool for data, sequences and calling, with a US dialer from Basic.
You need phone numbers alongside emails and want a known credit cost per reveal.
Your team is small, so per-seat pricing stays low.
You need certifications today: Apollo says it is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified.
You want an MCP connector on a free plan.

When to choose Clay

You want coverage from several providers in one waterfall rather than a single database.
A GTM engineer will build and maintain tables, AI research steps and signals.
Many people need access, and unlimited seats matter.
You already send from Outreach, Salesloft, Instantly, Smartlead or another sequencer and want enrichment and routing upstream of it.
You need a SOC 2 report: Clay says it completed a SOC 2 Type 2 audit in September 2024.

Where Leadsets fits

Leadsets is narrower than both. It is a B2B data API and remote MCP server with eight tools: people and company search, person and company enrichment, email verification, company and careers-page scraping, and a usage check. There is no sequencer, dialer or table builder. Pricing is flat per month with no credits (Solo $29, Pro $99, Team $399, Max $999), with fair-use limits per five hours and per week, and 1,000 free records to start. Emails are labelled verified, catch-all, unknown or invalid, and catch-all is never reported as valid.

It can sit next to either tool: an agent in Claude or Cursor can call it directly, and Clay users can call it from an HTTP API column. It is not a fit if you need phone numbers (not offered yet) or a SOC 2 report today (Type I is planned, targeting Q3 2027). Head-to-head pages: Leadsets vs Apollo and Leadsets vs Clay.

Questions and answers

Is Clay cheaper than Apollo?

It depends on team size. Apollo Basic costs $59 per seat per month billed monthly ($49 billed annually), while Clay Launch costs $185 per month billed monthly ($167 annually) with unlimited seats. For one to three seats Apollo Basic billed monthly costs less, and from four seats Clay Launch's flat price is lower, before counting how far each plan's credits go.

Can you use Apollo data inside Clay?

Yes. Clay lists Apollo among the data providers it aggregates, and Apollo's integration directory lists Clay. That means Apollo can be one step in a Clay waterfall alongside other providers.

Do Apollo and Clay have free plans?

Both do. Apollo Free gives 100 credits per seat per month, 2 sequences and a record selection limit of 25, with no time limit. Clay Free gives 500 actions and 100 data credits per month with up to 200 rows per table, but no phone enrichment, signals or CRM and HTTP integrations.

Which has phone numbers, Apollo or Clay?

Both can return phone numbers. Apollo charges 5 credits per phone number and includes a US dialer from the Basic plan. Clay offers phone enrichment from the Launch plan, not on Free.

Do Apollo and Clay have MCP servers?

Yes. Apollo runs a remote MCP server at mcp.apollo.io with native connectors in Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity on every plan, including Free. Clay has an official MCP for Claude, ChatGPT and Codex, but its plan availability is not published.

Are Apollo and Clay SOC 2 compliant?

Apollo says it is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified by A-LIGN and participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Clay says it completed a SOC 2 Type 2 audit in September 2024 and has a trust center, with a custom DPA on Enterprise.

Sources · checked 2026-11-09

Prices and features change. If something here is out of date, email support@leadsets.ai and we'll fix it.

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