Comparison
Lead Scorer vs Apollo.io
Apollo sells a 270M-contact database with sequences on top. Lead Scorer sells an agent that finds the accounts, scores them and writes the messages. For one person, the difference shows up in what the entry plan physically cannot do.
Verdict
Pick Apollo if you need global database coverage and a dialer in one product, and you can move to Professional at $79 the moment you need more than one mailbox. Pick Lead Scorer if you want the research and the copy done for you at €49/month, with no seat arithmetic and no database to rent.
What Apollo.io really costs one person
500 new prospects a month, one person, a 3-touch email sequence (1,500 emails).
Advertised
$49/seat/month billed annually (Basic) — $59 monthly, reported
Real month, one person
≈ $158/month
3.2× the advertised price
Lead Scorer, same month
≈ $251/month — Scale at €199 (≈$230) plus your own 3 mailboxes (≈$21). One inbox on Solo (€49) carries about 200 prospects a month at 3 touches, which is the volume we are actually built for.
Billed monthly, cancel anytime. Yearly billing takes 20% off Solo, Pro and Scale: €468, €948 and €1,908 a year (€39, €79 and €159 a month). Optional — monthly still cancels anytime.
Read on Apollo's own pricing page. The $59 monthly figure is third-party and is labelled as such.
apollo.ioWhat the advertised price leaves out
- Basic ships one mailbox. A 3-touch sequence to 500 prospects is 1,500 emails a month — 68 a day through a single inbox, far outside any safe deliverability range. Professional at $79 is the real floor.
- Apollo sends nothing on LinkedIn, at any tier. The scenario needs a third tool: Waalaxy Advanced at €49 ≈ $57/month.
- 3 Google Workspace mailboxes ≈ $21/month and 2 secondary domains ≈ $1.74/month. Apollo neither sells them nor mentions them.
- The Organization tier enforces a 3-seat minimum: $119 becomes $357/month for one person who needs one feature from it.
- Apollo publishes no overage rate. Two third-party sources disagree by a factor of 8 ($0.20 vs $0.025 per credit) — precisely because the vendor publishes nothing.
How we priced this
- Scenario
- 500 new prospects a month, one person, a 3-touch email sequence (1,500 emails).
- Infrastructure counted in every total
- 3 mailboxes at 30 emails/day (Google Workspace Business Starter, ≈$21/month) and 2 secondary domains (≈$1.74/month) are counted in every stack, because every vendor leaves them out.
- Billing
- Annual commitment wherever one exists — the assumption most favourable to the vendor.
- LinkedIn cap
- LinkedIn's ~100 invitations/week soft cap means a single account cannot physically work 500 new prospects a month. The totals model 500 by email and ~400 on LinkedIn.
- Exchange rate
- €1 = $1.155 (US Federal Reserve H.10, 2026-08-06). Conversions are marked ≈.
- Limits
- No purchase was made. Every official figure comes from a vendor page read on 2026-08-09; third-party figures are labelled as such and never used as prices.
Side by side
| Feature | Lead Scorer | Apollo.io |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Full CRM, forever | Free plan with limited credits |
| Entry price | €0 · €49/mo with the agent | $49/seat/mo (Basic, annual) |
| Real cost, 500 prospects/month | ≈ $251 (Scale €199 + your 3 mailboxes) | ≈ $158 (Professional + LinkedIn tool + mailboxes) |
| Seat minimum | None | None on Basic/Pro · 3 on Organization ($357/mo) |
| LinkedIn sending | Included from €99 (Pro) | None at any tier |
| Finds and qualifies for you | Agent sources, scores and rejects off-ICP leads | You filter the database yourself |
| Writes the messages | Agent drafts, playbook + sanitization | AI writing assistant inside sequences |
| Published overage rate | Yes — €0.049/credit | Not published |
| Contact database | None — official registry + your network | 270M+ contacts |
| Agent access | MCP server, 104 tools, OAuth 2.1 | REST API |
Where Apollo.io beats Lead Scorer
Written by us, about our own product.
- 270M+ contacts, worldwide. Our discovery runs on the official French State registry (SIRENE + INPI RNE) — more reliable per record, and France-first. If you sell to US mid-market, Apollo has data we simply do not have.
- A built-in dialer and a sequencer that has been in production for years. We have neither.
- Salesforce, HubSpot and Outreach integrations that already work, plus intent data and scoops we do not offer.
- Apollo's free tier gives real database credits. Ours gives a CRM, not contacts.
Where Lead Scorer wins
Same standard of evidence, opposite direction.
- €49/month buys an agent, not a list: it picks the companies, resolves the actual decision-maker, scores both against what you sell, and writes the sequence.
- No seat minimum, ever. Apollo's Organization tier starts at three.
- We publish our overage — €49 per 1,000 credits. Apollo publishes none, which is why third-party sources differ 8×.
- Every company carries a verified SIREN and a named dirigeant from the state registry. No invented firmographics.
- The whole product is an MCP server (104 tools, OAuth 2.1), so Claude, ChatGPT or your own agent can run the motion.
Which one is for you
Pick Apollo.io if…
Sales teams doing global outbound at volume, who need database coverage and a dialer in one place and have the seats to justify $79–$357/month.
Pick Lead Scorer if…
A solo founder who wants 100–200 well-researched prospects a month found, written and queued for €49, and who would rather approve messages than build lists.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lead Scorer cheaper than Apollo?
At the volume we priced — 500 prospects and 1,500 emails a month — no. Apollo Professional plus a LinkedIn tool and mailboxes lands at ≈$158/month; the same month on Lead Scorer needs Scale at €199 plus your own mailboxes, ≈$251. At 100–200 prospects a month, €49 covers the agent, the research and the copy, and the Apollo equivalent is $49–$79 plus whatever you use to write. Compare at your volume, not at the entry price.
Why can't Apollo's $49 Basic plan run 500 prospects a month?
Basic includes a single mailbox. Three touches to 500 prospects is 1,500 emails a month, about 68 a day through one inbox — every deliverability guideline in 2026 puts the safe ceiling at 20–50 per mailbox per day. The plan price is real; it just does not buy that scenario. Professional at $79 is the first tier that does.
What does going over your Apollo credits cost?
Apollo does not publish a rate. We looked: two third-party sources give $0.20 and $0.025 per credit, a factor of 8 apart. We will not pick one for you. Apollo is one of 12 tools out of the 17 we priced that publish no overage rate at all.
Does Apollo's 'Save 24%' annual discount check out?
Not as published. On 2026-08-09 the annual selector announced 24%, but no published pair of prices on that page produces 24% — the real gaps are 17% and 20%. It is a small thing, and it is the kind of small thing that tells you to compute the total yourself.
Can I use Apollo and Lead Scorer together?
Yes, and several users do. Apollo for database discovery, CSV export, then Lead Scorer to enrich, score against your product and write the sequence. You spend Apollo credits only on accounts that survive scoring.
Other comparisons
Run your outreach on autopilot with AI agents.
Free CRM forever. The outbound agent from €49/month — it finds the accounts, scores them, writes the messages. Nothing sends until you approve it.