vs
Sales platform vs pay-per-search APIApollo.io API Alternative: The Same Data, Priced Per Search
Apollo pairs a huge B2B database with a full sales platform, sold per seat with credit tiers. If you only want the data (programmatic search, reveal, and enrichment), you can query the same database without buying seats.
Apollo.io sells per-user monthly plans whose credit allowances and API access scale with tier. 1Lookup accesses Apollo's B2B database through a per-call data-broker integration and resells it as flat-priced lookups on universal credits: 2-credit prospect searches with email-availability flags, success-billed contact reveals, and firmographic enrichment, with no seats and no plan tiers to outgrow.
Apollo's data layer, as flat-priced API calls
The response bodies even carry apollo_id fields: it is the same underlying database, restructured into per-lookup pricing with success billing.
People search
Prospect Search API
Filter Apollo's people database by title, seniority, location, and employer. Free when nothing matches; every row flags whether an email is available.
2 credits per search
Contact reveal & email credits
B2B Contact Append API
Reveal a searched row (via its apollo_id) or enrich directly from an email, LinkedIn URL, or name plus company: verified work email with confidence rating.
75 credits per match, free on a miss
Company search
Account Search API
Filter companies by headcount, revenue, location, technology, and keywords. Rows return name, domain, and location; Company Firmographics enriches the ones that qualify.
75 credits, up to 100 companies
Organization enrichment
Company Firmographics API
A domain becomes a full company profile: industry with SIC/NAICS codes, headcount and 12-month growth, revenue, and tech stack.
75 credits per match, free on a miss
1Lookup vs Apollo.io: the same criteria, side by side
Both products measured on identical criteria, with Apollo.io’s numbers taken from its own published pricing.
1lookup1lookup.ioMulti-channel validation- Phone
- IP
apollo.ioB2B contact data- Phone
- Apollo.io · Starts at
- $49 per seat/month billed annually (Basic, $588/seat/yr) including 30,000 credits per seat per year granted upfront; $65/seat/mo billed monthly (2,500 credits/seat/mo). Professional is $79/seat/mo annually ($99 monthly, 48,000 credits/seat/yr); Organization is $119/seat/mo, annual billing only (72,000 credits/seat/yr)
- 1Lookup: $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise)
- Apollo.io · Free trial
- 14-day self-serve free trial of Basic or Professional (from a free plan, activatable once per account; dialer only in Professional trials; no trial on Custom plans). KB-documented caps: 25-record selection limit, 20 phone numbers max, 60 total dialer minutes (10 min/call); non-Gmail/Microsoft mailboxes cannot be linked. Trial credit allowance is published inconsistently on Apollo's own pricing page: plan-card tooltips say 'Trial accounts are limited to 50 lead credits per user' (and that Professional trials 'do not include mobile numbers'), while the FAQ's unified-credit text says 100 credits (legacy text: 50 credits + 5 mobile credits)
- 1Lookup: 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front)
- Apollo.io · Do credits expire?
- Yes. Apollo's KB (updated Jul 23, 2026) states: 'Per our terms of service, unused credits expire at the end of your billing cycle and do not roll over to the next billing cycle,' and the about-credits page repeats it ('Credits do not roll over into the following billing cycle or upon renewal'). Paid annual plans unlock the full year's credits upfront at the start of the billing cycle; the Free plan's 900 credits/yr are granted monthly. Credits for Apollo-verified emails that bounce within 30 days (sent via Apollo) are refunded in the next cycle; phone-number credits are never refunded
- 1Lookup: Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year
| Criteria | 1Lookup | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact-data coverage | EmailPhoneIP | EmailPhoneIP |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans with universal credits; core phone, email and IP lookups cost 1 credit, enrichment and intelligence products cost more | Per-seat SaaS subscription (Free / Basic / Professional / Organization, plus sales-quoted Custom plans) with a unified per-seat credit pool covering data access: 1 credit per verified email reveal, 8 credits per phone number, up to 9 credits per enriched record (pricing FAQ), 1 credit per Power-up/AI-research run, and dialer minutes billed in credits by region (2 credits/min US & North America, 10 Europe/APAC, 15 Central-South America, 35 Middle East, 45 Africa). Annual billing is the default display ('Save 24%'); Basic and Professional are also sold monthly at higher rates, Organization is annual-only. Recurring add-on credits are self-serve on paid plans at tiered per-credit prices ($0.025 falling to ~$0.015 at 250k/yr). Add-ons (Inbound, Advanced Dialer) are each $119 per team per month billed annually ($149 monthly) at introductory pricing. |
| Starting price | $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise) | $49 per seat/month billed annually (Basic, $588/seat/yr) including 30,000 credits per seat per year granted upfront; $65/seat/mo billed monthly (2,500 credits/seat/mo). Professional is $79/seat/mo annually ($99 monthly, 48,000 credits/seat/yr); Organization is $119/seat/mo, annual billing only (72,000 credits/seat/yr) |
| Free option | Free single lookups via the online tools at 1lookup.io/tools, no account required | Free plan at $0: 900 credits per seat per year granted monthly (75/mo), AI Assistant (5-chat limit), 2 sequences per team, 25-record selection limit, 250 emails/day, 5,000 AI-writing words/mo, Gmail/Microsoft email integration only, website-visitor ID for 20 companies/mo. Free plans are limited to 1 seat after 100 days of active use, and the pricing FAQ says phone-number access is only for a limited time before it is disabled unless you upgrade |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front) | 14-day self-serve free trial of Basic or Professional (from a free plan, activatable once per account; dialer only in Professional trials; no trial on Custom plans). KB-documented caps: 25-record selection limit, 20 phone numbers max, 60 total dialer minutes (10 min/call); non-Gmail/Microsoft mailboxes cannot be linked. Trial credit allowance is published inconsistently on Apollo's own pricing page: plan-card tooltips say 'Trial accounts are limited to 50 lead credits per user' (and that Professional trials 'do not include mobile numbers'), while the FAQ's unified-credit text says 100 credits (legacy text: 50 credits + 5 mobile credits) |
| Do credits expire? | Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year | Yes. Apollo's KB (updated Jul 23, 2026) states: 'Per our terms of service, unused credits expire at the end of your billing cycle and do not roll over to the next billing cycle,' and the about-credits page repeats it ('Credits do not roll over into the following billing cycle or upon renewal'). Paid annual plans unlock the full year's credits upfront at the start of the billing cycle; the Free plan's 900 credits/yr are granted monthly. Credits for Apollo-verified emails that bounce within 30 days (sent via Apollo) are refunded in the next cycle; phone-number credits are never refunded |
What Apollo.io costs at volume
| Volume | Apollo.io price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 30,000 credits/yr (Basic, 1 seat, annual) | $588/yr ($49/seat/mo billed annually); 1 credit = 1 email reveal, 8 credits = 1 phone number | $19.60 per 1,000 credits |
| 2,500 credits/mo (Basic, monthly billing) | $65/seat/mo billed monthly | $26.00 per 1,000 credits |
| 48,000 credits/yr (Professional, 1 seat, annual) | $948/yr ($79/seat/mo billed annually) | $19.75 per 1,000 credits |
| 72,000 credits/yr (Organization, per seat, annual-only) | $1,428/seat/yr ($119/seat/mo billed annually) | $19.83 per 1,000 credits |
Apollo is priced per user per month with annual credit allowances; 1Lookup is priced per lookup (2 credits per search, 75 per reveal, success-billed). If data volume, not rep count, drives your usage, compare a month of your actual searches and reveals against a seat bill.
Before you sign: Apollo.io and 1Lookup on the operational terms
The terms that decide what a year actually costs, rather than what the first month does. A blank means we could not verify it on either product’s published pages, not that the answer is nothing.
| Term | 1Lookup | Apollo.io |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum commitment | None. Monthly plans with no contract and no minimum volume; cancel any time | Apollo's comparison page states 'All plans are billed annually.' Per the pricing-page FAQ: upgrades (plan or seat count) take effect immediately; plan and seat-count downgrades also take effect immediately with access updated and no mid-term refund, and the new price applies from the next billing cycle; add-on downgrades and cancellations take effect at the end of the billing cycle. |
| Cost per extra seat | — | Priced per user per month. Organization is listed at $119/user/month with a stated minimum of 3 users; Basic $49/user/month and Professional $79/user/month have no stated minimum. |
| Going over your quota | — | Additional credits can be bought in-app at any time: 'Once logged in, users can buy more credits at any time.' Unlimited plans are capped by a fair-use limit rather than billed as overage: for paid accounts 'the lesser of $ Paid / $0.025 or 1 Million credits per account per year', and 10,000 credits per account per month for non-paying accounts. |
| API access | Included on every plan and during the free trial; there is no tier that unlocks it | 'Access to Apollo API depends on your Apollo plan.' The pricing-page FAQ states 'Custom plans offer API access for advanced integrations', while the rate-limits doc publishes distinct limits for Free, Basic, Professional and Organization. |
| Rate limit | 1,000 requests per minute on standard accounts, with higher limits available on request | Enrichment endpoints: Free 50/minute, 200/hour, 600/day; Basic, Professional and Organization 1,000/minute with no hourly or daily limit. All other endpoints: Free 1-50/minute, 20-200/hour, 50-600/day; Basic and Organization 200/minute, 400/hour, 2,000/day; Professional 200/minute or custom, 600/hour or custom, 6,000/day or custom. |
| Compliance | — | ISO 27001 certified by A-LIGN; SOC-2 certified by A-LIGN; GDPR compliant as both Data Processor and Data Controller; certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. |
| Support | Starter: Email Support; Growth: Priority Email & Chat Support; Professional: Chat + Live Meeting; Enterprise: Dedicated CSM | 'live, in-platform support via chat, voice, or screen share'; a dedicated Go-To-Market Engineer (GTME) for qualifying accounts. |
Apollo.io fine print worth reading twice
Published terms that change what Apollo.io costs or what you can do with it. Each one links to the Apollo.io page it was read on, because a claim about somebody else’s contract should be checkable in one click.
Promotional discounts apply only to the initial subscription term: 'The Offer only applies to the initial term of your subscription and upon renewal your subscriptions fees will be at Apollo's then-current pricing.'
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteThe Organization plan at $119/user/month requires a minimum of 3 users.
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteApollo states that all plans are billed annually.
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteAccess to the Apollo API depends on the plan, and upgrading or contacting sales is the stated route to obtain it.
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteUnlimited plans are governed by a fair use policy capping paid accounts at the lesser of $ Paid / $0.025 or 1 million credits per account per year.
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteExport credits are consumed when exporting contacts outside Apollo, including CSV files, CRM syncs, and API enrichment.
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteTrial plans include only 50 credits and 5 mobile credits, and linking a non-Gmail/Microsoft account for email campaigns requires a paid plan or setup by a sales representative.
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteFree accounts can only connect Gmail addresses for email campaigns; Microsoft Office and other providers require a paid account.
Read it on Apollo.io’s siteSome API endpoints, such as Get a List of Users, are only accessible with a master API key.
Read it on Apollo.io’s site
What you actually work in
Apollo.io is a app screenshots of the lead-database search UI, including a Filters panel (Intent Data, Job Change, News, Company, Location, # Employees, Technologies, Revenue, Funding) with Load/Save, plus personas setup, a lead-scoring model builder, and the Gmail and Google Calendar Chrome extension views product you log into. 1Lookup is an API and a dashboard you mostly do not log into: you call it from the system that already has the record. Which of those you want is usually the whole decision, so here is theirs.
Apollo.io interface
Apollo.io’s API reference
Their public developer documentation, so you can judge the integration before you start one.
1Lookup
Apollo.io
What reviewers say about Apollo.io
G2
4.7 out of 5
from 9,300+ reviews
(source: G2, opens in a new tab)TrustRadius
8.5 out of 10
from 520+ reviews
(source: TrustRadius, opens in a new tab)Capterra
4.5 out of 5
from 390+ reviews
(source: Capterra, opens in a new tab)Trustpilot
2.9 out of 5
from 1,000+ reviews
(source: Trustpilot, opens in a new tab)
Reviewer scores split sharply here: 4.7 / 5 on G2 from 9,300+ reviews, against 2.9 / 5 on Trustpilot from 1,000+ reviews. Both are shown as published. Scores are never averaged across platforms.
Scores are shown as each platform published them, last confirmed July 2026. Counts are floored to what could be confirmed at that check, so the platforms may show more.
Where Apollo.io wins
- All-in-one GTM platform: B2B contact/company database, sequences, dialer, enrichment (incl. waterfall), buying intent, workflows, and AI research in one per-seat price, with 500,000+ companies claimed as customers and G2 4.7/5 from 9,015 reviews shown on the pricing page
- Genuinely free forever plan (900 credits/seat/yr) plus a self-serve 14-day trial of Basic or Professional - low-friction entry compared with sales-gated competitors like ZoomInfo
- API access is included on ALL plans, including Free (per Apollo's knowledge base, July 2026), and per-plan API rate limits are published in the pricing page's plan-comparison chart - unusual transparency for the B2B-data category
- Credits refunded automatically when an Apollo-verified email bounces within 30 days (sent via Apollo), and requesting an email includes the office phone number at no extra credit cost
- Strong compliance posture stated on its own pages: GDPR-compliant, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified, EU-US Data Privacy Framework certified
Where 1Lookup wins
- No per-seat pricing: costs scale with lookups, not team size
- 2-credit searches with email-availability flags before you spend on reveals
- Success-billed enrichment: a no-match costs nothing, so messy lists don't inflate the bill
- One API and credit balance across prospecting, firmographics, SEO data, and validation
Apollo.io pricing and product facts verified against apollo.io as of July 2026. Prices change; always confirm on the vendor’s site. 1Lookup numbers come from the live rate card.
Who this is for
A quick, honest read on which tool fits your use case.
Choose 1Lookup if: you want the prospecting data without per-seat plans or credit tiers: flat-priced searches and per-contact reveals through one API alongside validation.
Consider Apollo.io instead if: you want an all-in-one sales platform where reps prospect, sequence, dial, and email inside the same seat-based tool.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from buying Apollo directly?
Apollo is sold per user per month, with credit allowances, feature gates, and API access that vary by tier, the right shape when your reps live in its sequencing and dialer tools. 1Lookup sells the data layer only: every search or reveal is an individually priced API call from a shared credit balance, with no seats, so the cost tracks usage instead of headcount.
Is it really the same data as Apollo?
Prospect Search, Account Search, B2B Contact Append, and Company Firmographics query Apollo's database through a per-call data-broker integration, result rows carry apollo_id identifiers you can use to reveal specific people. 1Lookup adds normalization on top: seniority levels, email-confidence ratings, and standardized SIC/NAICS codes.
What does searching cost?
2 credits per prospect search regardless of how many matches return, and zero when nothing matches. Reveals and enrichments are 75 credits and success-billed, so a miss costs nothing. Exact per-plan economics are on the pricing page, and the dashboard shows the cost before every call.
When should I stick with Apollo?
If your team wants the all-in-one motion (prospecting, sequences, dialer, deals) inside one seat-based tool, Apollo's platform is the point, and its free tier is a genuinely easy way to start. 1Lookup wins when you are building your own workflow or product and just need the data through an API.
Can I bulk-enrich an existing list?
Yes. B2B Contact Append and Company Firmographics run in the bulk CSV pipeline: upload your list, and pay only for the rows that come back matched.
Is Apollo.io worth it in 2026?
For SDR teams that want database, sequences, and dialer in one tool, Apollo is one of the best-value all-in-ones, and the free plan makes trying it painless. Budget for the credit mechanics: phone numbers consume 8 credits versus 1 for an email, and export caps push heavy users to higher tiers. Billing disputes are the loudest complaint in public reviews, so watch renewal settings. Teams that only need lookups or verification are usually better served paying per search.