Clay vs Apollo: research workbench versus the volume outbound incumbent

A research workbench against a data-and-sequence seat

Clay versus Apollo is the compare for teams whose outbound personalization is still a mail merge, not a claim that Clay is a dialer or that Apollo is only a spreadsheet. Apollo is the incumbent in this catalog. Clay is not. Editorial AI-native is 9 out of 10 for Clay and 6 out of 10 for Apollo. The default ranking that removes Apollo is a quiz result. This page does not reorder it and does not wear an affiliate badge. Clay's company record includes a funding announcement. That announcement is not a score.

Clay's pricing page on 21 October 2026 rendered more than one billing toggle at once, so a single starting price would be a choice this check refuses to make. Free includes 500 actions a month, 100 data credits a month, unlimited seats and tables, a cap of 200 rows per table, Claygent for web research, and bring-your-own API key. A Launch heading shows $167 a month and, in the same capture, starts-at figures of $54 a month and $60 a month beside different action buckets. A Growth heading shows $446 a month and starts-at figures of $185 and $205. Enterprise is custom. The catalog still stores a starting price of $149. That figure did not appear in the text captured here. Afterstack does not edit the catalog field, because it can feed a budget filter. Treat $149 as a catalog residue and the page as the live sticker, and do not average them.

Apollo's pricing page the same day named Free, Basic, Professional, and Custom in the FAQ and did not render numeric seat prices in the text that was captured. The navigation stated 240 million contacts and 30 million companies. That is Apollo's claim on the page, not a count Afterstack performed. Credits are pooled, granted at the start of the cycle, and do not roll over. Every seat on an account is on the same plan. Email campaigns are included on every account. Free plans connect Gmail only. Paid plans can connect Microsoft or another provider. A trial can fall back to a free Starter plan that the FAQ says stays free. There is no public dollar on this pass to put next to Clay's $167 or $446 headings.

What you are actually buying

Clay Launch, above the free row, lists phone-number enrichment, unlimited search with Audiences, job-change and other signals, reusable functions, and sending email through Clay or through a sequencing integration. Growth adds CRM sync, warehouse sync, HTTP API, web-intent signals, buying domains and mailboxes for Clay's sequencer, and priority support. The free row stops at 200 rows per table. If your motion is a waterfall across providers plus an agent that writes a first line, that is the product the cards describe. If your motion is a dialer and a sequence in the same seat, Clay's page is telling you to integrate a sequencer, not to replace the dialer.

Apollo's FAQ describes Basic as individual outbound with sequencing and core integrations, Professional as higher credits, AI features, call recording, and advanced CRM integrations, and Custom as SSO and security. Integrations named on the page include Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, Marketo, Sendgrid, and LinkedIn. API access is on Custom. Record selection can be capped. A limit means you select in batches. The page says that without a limit you can select up to 10,000 leads in one click. Using the data to build a product you resell is called out as a different contract. Those are usage rules, not a price.

The catalog calls Clay a GTM data workbench and Apollo a data-plus-engagement incumbent. That split matches the pages. Clay's free plan is real in the sense that a $0 row with action and credit caps rendered. Apollo's free plan is real in the sense that the FAQ describes a lasting free Starter after the trial. The catalog flags hasFreePlan true on both. It stores Apollo's start at $0 and Clay's start at $149. Only the $0 is clearly the free row. The $149 is the discrepancy to show a buyer, not a number to defend.

Clay's Series C post, opened 21 October 2026, says the company raised a $100 million Series C at a $3.1 billion valuation. The post is company intel. It is not a reason Clay outranks Apollo. Apollo's founding year in the catalog is 2015. Clay's is 2020. Neither page printed a customer count that this essay will repeat.

Who should pick which, and what will not migrate

Pick Clay when the leave reason is research quality. The page sells waterfalls, Claygent, and signals, and it prices actions and data credits. Pick Apollo when one seat must hold the database, the sequence, and, on Professional, call recording. If you already own Outreach or Salesloft, Apollo's page says it integrates with them, which is a different architecture from ripping them out. Clay's Growth card says it can sync a CRM and send through a sequencer. Coexistence is what both pages describe. A 1-to-1 rip-out of Apollo's dialer into Clay is not what Clay's pricing page offers.

Skip Clay if you need a single public seat price you can multiply by headcount. The page rendered a family of action buckets, and the catalog's $149 does not match the headings. Skip Apollo if you needed a number for this memo. The FAQ names the plans and withholds the dollars. Skip both if the job is a CRM system of record. Neither pricing page is a Salesforce replacement guide.

No Clay import article for an Apollo sequence library was opened. No Apollo export article for Clay tables was opened. This page does not describe a CSV of cadences, a call-recording archive, or a credit balance that transfers. General guidance, not a vendor doc: contacts you can export under Apollo's selection rules are the likely portable object, and sequences, dialer settings, and Clay waterfalls are rebuilds. Confirm that on the knowledge-base articles when you open them. They were not the sources for the prices above.

A practical test that stays inside the stickers: build one table on Clay Free, inside 200 rows and 500 actions, and run the same accounts as an Apollo sequence on the free Starter the FAQ describes. If the value was the research, the action meter is the bill. If the value was the dial and the task, Apollo's missing dollar is still a sales conversation, and Clay's sequencer line is an integration, not a phone. Affiliates do not choose the winner. The quiz does, after you set whether a dialer is mandatory.

Checkboxes that explain the price pages

Clay is filed as founded in 2020, not an incumbent. Editorial scores are 6 for ease of use, 9 for AI-native, 6 for implementation speed, 5 for reporting, 8 for customization, 6 for value, 6 for data migration, 7 for relationship intelligence, and 8 for outbound. Apollo is filed as founded in 2015 and as an incumbent, with 7, 6, 7, 6, 5, 7, 6, 4, and 8. Outbound is a tie at 8. Customization is not: 8 against 5, which matches a workbench versus a seat. Apollo's value score of 7 is an editorial judgment that the catalog considers the seat accessible relative to enterprise suites. It is not a confirmation of a dollar, because the pricing FAQ did not render one on 21 October 2026.

Clay's flags: calling false, sequences false, pipeline false, marketplace false, custom objects true, open API true, Gmail and Outlook true. The Growth card on the pricing page talks about buying domains and mailboxes for Clay's sequencer and about sending through an integration. A false sequences flag beside a sequencer sentence is another residue this page will not edit. If the quiz requires a native sequence product, the flag can remove Clay while the pricing page is describing a sequencer add-on. Apollo's flags: calling true, sequences true, pipeline true, marketplace false, custom objects false. That is a database attached to a cadence, which is what the FAQ's plan names describe. Professional is where the FAQ puts call recording. Clay's page does not claim that recording archive.

The not-for lines are the short version of the compare. Clay is not a CRM, not a fit for a non-technical SDR who wanted a simple cadence, and not self-host. Apollo is not filed for enterprises that need a heavyweight engagement-admin suite, not for a buyer who wants an AI worker with no human sequencer, and not self-host. Cons on Clay in the catalog are the learning curve, credit bills that surprise, and the fact that it is not a system of record. Cons on Apollo are variable data quality, that it is not an autonomous AI SDR, and noise. The navigation claim of 240 million contacts and 30 million companies is Apollo's number. It is not an audit, and it does not answer the quality con.

Which meter you would actually exhaust

Clay Free, as rendered, is 500 actions a month, 100 data credits a month, unlimited seats and tables, and 200 rows per table, with Claygent and a bring-your-own key. Launch's heading showed $167 a month and also starts-at figures of $54 and $60 beside other action buckets, because more than one billing toggle was on screen. Growth's heading showed $446 and starts-at figures of $185 and $205. Enterprise is custom. The catalog still stores $149. That number was not in the capture. It remains the stored start so a budget filter does not move, and it is the wrong number to quote in a meeting. Quote the heading you are willing to defend, and say the page was showing several.

Apollo's FAQ names Free, Basic, Professional, and Custom, says credits are pooled and do not roll over, and says every seat is on the same plan. Email campaigns are on every account. Free connects Gmail only. Paid plans can connect Microsoft. A trial can fall back to a lasting free Starter. API access is on Custom. Without a selection limit, the page says you can select up to 10,000 leads in one click. There is still no seat dollar to set beside $167 or $446. A free row exists on both sides in the catalog's hasFreePlan flag. Only Clay's free row came with rendered caps. Apollo's free row came as a described Starter.

The Series C post says Clay raised $100 million at a $3.1 billion valuation. That is company intel from the post that was opened. It does not change Apollo's rank and it does not pick a Launch price. No import article for an Apollo sequence library, and no export article for Clay tables, was opened. Contacts you can export under Apollo's selection rules are the likely portable object. Sequences, dialer settings, and waterfalls are rebuilds until a doc says otherwise. Build one Clay table inside the free caps and one Apollo sequence on the free Starter. If the value was the research, the action meter is the bill. If the value was the dial, Clay's calling flag is false and Apollo's price is still a conversation. The quiz decides after you say whether a dialer is mandatory. Affiliates do not.