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Cognism vs Apollo
Side-by-side comparison of pricing, features, and trade-offs, and which one actually fits your team.
What each tool does
Cognism: Cognism is a B2B sales intelligence platform built for European markets with verified mobile numbers and GDPR-compliant data.
Apollo: Apollo is an all-in-one sales intelligence platform combining a 275M+ contact database with outreach automation and a dialer.
Cognism vs Apollo at a glance
| Cognism | Apollo | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Paid | Freemium |
| Starting price | Paid | Freemium Free, $49/user/mo (Basic), $99/user/mo (Professional) |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Category | sales | sales |
| Best for | Outbound-heavy B2B revenue teams of 5 to 100 reps selling into Europe | B2B sales teams of 1-50 reps prospecting mainly in North America |
| Top strength | Its phone-verified mobile numbers reach a 45% connect rate versus 18% for standard numbers. | It replaces a separate lead database, outreach tool, and dialer with one consolidated platform. |
| Main limitation | No pricing is published anywhere, and both tiers require a minimum of 5 seats. | Data accuracy is weaker outside North America, with more bounced emails and bad numbers. |
| Full review | Cognism review → | Apollo review → |
Strengths & weaknesses
Cognism highlights
Pros- European data depth: best in class for EMEA prospecting.
- Verified mobile numbers (Diamond Data): actual reach rates higher than competitors.
- GDPR compliance workflow: Notify automates legal notifications.
- Strong intent data: Bombora plus Cognism behavioral data.
- Chrome extension UX: data inside LinkedIn and Salesforce.
- Annual contracts only: no monthly trial of paid tiers.
- US data slightly behind ZoomInfo: still strong, but ZoomInfo deeper.
- Pricing opaque: sales call required.
- UX less polished than newer competitors: enterprise-feel, not consumer-grade.
Apollo highlights
Pros- Generous free tier: 100 credits per month with basic sequencing is enough to validate whether Apollo works for your use case before committing money. Very few competitors offer this.
- Intuitive interface: The UI is clean and well-organized. Most reps can start prospecting within 30 minutes of onboarding. The learning curve for advanced features (sequences, AI scoring) is reasonable.
- Strong Chrome extension: The browser extension pulls contact data directly from LinkedIn profiles, company websites, and Gmail. It works reliably and saves a lot of tab-switching.
- Solid email deliverability tools: Built-in warm-up, per-mailbox sending limits, and deliverability scoring help teams avoid the spam folder. Not as solid as dedicated deliverability platforms, but good enough for most.
Which should you pick?
Cognism: Cognism suits outbound-heavy B2B teams of roughly 5 to 100 reps selling into Europe, but it has no published pricing, no free trial, and a 5-seat minimum that prices out solo sellers.
Apollo: Apollo suits B2B sales teams of 1 to 50 reps prospecting mainly in North America who want to consolidate their tech stack, but global data accuracy lags for enterprise buyers.
Still unsure? Read the deep-dive reviews: Cognism and Apollo.
Sources
Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.
- Apollo pricing, checked Sep 2026
Frequently asked questions
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