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Saniya Sood
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Published October 8, 2026 · Updated October 8, 2026
In 60 words: Apollo wins if you need a database: 240M+ contacts, sequences, a dialer and an AI Assistant from $49 a seat on annual. lemlist wins if the sequence needs LinkedIn, SMS or calls alongside email, or if a whole team can share one $55 Email workspace. Apollo's weakness is data accuracy and expiring credits; lemlist's is a 20-invite LinkedIn cap and support.
What we checked, and when: each vendor's pricing and features pages, its help centre, Vendr where it publishes contract data, and the public review listings we could open (Capterra, Trustpilot; G2 blocked automated reads on most pages and is cited only where it rendered or where the vendor states its own score). All read on October 8, 2026. This is a documentation and reviews-based assessment, not a hands-on test.
Disclosure: Valley makes an outbound platform and competes for part of this budget. Where Valley appears it is marked, and every price and claim below was read from the source named next to it on October 8, 2026.
Valley is an AI outbound platform that finds the people most likely to buy from you - from live buying signals, natural-language search, or your own lists - qualifies them against your ICP, researches each one, and sends personalized messages across email and LinkedIn that get 15-45% reply rates, against a category average of about 2%.
Give your sales team
an unfair advantage.
Side by side
From apollo.io/pricing, lemlist.com/pricing, the lemlist help centre, Vendr and Capterra, read October 8, 2026.
lemlist | Apollo | |
|---|---|---|
Entry price | Email $69 a month monthly, $55 yearly, per workspace, unlimited users | Free; Basic $49 a seat a month on annual, $65 monthly |
Full plan | Multichannel $109 per user monthly, $87 yearly | Professional $79 ($99); Organization $119 with 3 seats |
Database | 650M+ contacts; enrichment $20 for 2,000 credits | 240M+ contacts, 30M+ accounts; 30,000 to 72,000 credits a seat a year |
Channels | Email; plus LinkedIn, SMS, WhatsApp and calls on Multichannel | Email and calls automated; LinkedIn tasks manual |
LinkedIn automation | Yes, capped at 20 invites and 30 messages a day | No |
Dialer | 400 minutes per user a month on Multichannel | Add-on, $119 per team a month on annual |
AI | lemAgent builds and launches campaigns | AI Assistant, free on paid plans as an introductory promotion |
Trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days on Basic; permanent free plan |
Vendr median | Stale (per-user Email Pro still listed) | $19,000 a year across 101 purchases |
Reviews (Capterra) | 4.6 from 387 | 4.5 from 398 |
Data
Apollo is a database first: filters, intent topics on Organization, enrichment and a Chrome extension, with credits granted per seat per year. lemlist has a 650M-contact database too, but it is a feature inside a sequencer, with enrichment sold as $20 add-on credits. Apollo's reviewers complain about accuracy more than lemlist's, which is the price of breadth.
Verdict: Apollo, for anyone who needs to build lists from scratch.
Channels and sequencing
lemlist's Multichannel plan runs email, LinkedIn visit, invite and message, SMS, WhatsApp and calls in one branching sequence. Apollo automates email and calls and leaves every LinkedIn step as a manual task. If LinkedIn is in the motion, this is decisive.
Verdict: lemlist.
Pricing and team maths
Email only, team of five: lemlist's Email plan is one $55 a month workspace fee on yearly billing with unlimited users and 50,000 emails; Apollo Basic is $49 a seat, so $245. Multichannel, team of five: lemlist is $435 a month on yearly ($87 a user); Apollo Professional is $395, but with manual LinkedIn. Apollo's free plan is a real way to test the data; lemlist's trial is 14 days.
Verdict: lemlist for email-only teams; Apollo per seat when the database is the point.
Deliverability, support and reliability
Both include warm-up and deliverability tooling, and both guide to 50 emails a day per mailbox or less. The complaints differ: lemlist's reviewers cite non-technical support and unreliable open and click reporting; Apollo's cite week-long support waits, confusing credit consumption and tier-locked features. Both score within a tenth of each other on Capterra.
Verdict: even. Pick on the dimensions above.
Give your sales team
an unfair advantage.
Verdict by use case
No list yet, email and calls: Apollo.
Have a list, need LinkedIn in the sequence: lemlist Multichannel.
Small team, email only, one bill: lemlist Email at $55 a month for the workspace.
Testing before buying: Apollo's free plan, then lemlist's 14-day trial for the multichannel side.
Both: common. Apollo for the data, lemlist to send; lemlist lists Apollo among its 58 integrations.
Where Valley fits
Apollo gives you contacts; lemlist gives you a sequence. Neither decides who is worth a message this week or what it should say. Valley (our product) finds prospects from live buying signals or your own list, qualifies them against your ICP, researches each person and writes the first message in your voice, then runs the LinkedIn and email steps itself. Starter is $199 a month or $149 billed quarterly. The honest comparisons are Valley vs Apollo and Valley vs lemlist.
► Want the research-first version on your own ICP? Book a demo
FAQ
Is lemlist better than Apollo? For multichannel sequences with LinkedIn, SMS and calls, yes. For building lists from a database at the lowest seat price, Apollo. Many teams run both.
Which is cheaper, lemlist or Apollo? Per seat, Apollo: $49 on annual against lemlist's $87 for Multichannel. Per team on email only, lemlist: $55 a month covers unlimited users on the Email plan. Read October 8, 2026.
Does Apollo automate LinkedIn? No. LinkedIn steps in an Apollo sequence are manual tasks. lemlist automates visits, invites and messages on Multichannel, capped at 20 invites a day.
Does lemlist have a database? Yes, 650M+ contacts with an email and phone finder, plus $20 enrichment credit packs. Apollo's 240M database is the larger product with deeper filters.
Can I use lemlist and Apollo together? Yes. lemlist lists Apollo among its integrations, and the common pattern is Apollo for data and lemlist for sending.
How this page was made: the facts were read from the sources named in the text on October 8, 2026; drafted with AI assistance; fact-checked, reviewed and edited by Saniya Sood.
