Apollo Alternatives for Small Businesses (2026): Data, Price and the Work Left for You

Apollo is a big contact database with sequences built in. If you're a small business, the database is rarely the bottleneck. Here's how the main alternatives compare, and what we learned building our own people search.

Full disclosure: I'm the founder of Selamly, one of the tools below. I'll say where each tool fits, including where Selamly doesn't. Prices are from each company's own pricing page in November 2026. Apollo's page didn't show plan prices in plain text when we checked, so for Apollo I describe the plans rather than quote numbers; check its page for today's per-seat price.

Why small businesses look for an Apollo alternative

Apollo is mainly a B2B contact database with email sequences on top. It has a free plan, and paid plans (Basic, Professional, Custom) are priced per seat, with credits pooled across the team that reset each cycle and don't roll over. On the free plan you can only connect a Gmail account for sending.

That's a good deal if your problem is "I need contacts". For most small businesses it isn't. The usual reasons people leave are:

• A huge database still leaves you to decide who is worth emailing. Filters get you a list, not a reason to write to someone today.
• Credits run out on exports and phone numbers faster than expected.
• Deliverability is on you: domains, mailboxes and warm-up are separate jobs.
• You still write every message. AI helpers speed it up, but someone has to check them.

Quick comparison

1. Hunter: if you only need emails for companies you already know

Hunter is the simplest option. You type a company domain, it finds addresses and verifies them. Starter is $49/month billed monthly ($34/month billed yearly) for 2,000 credits; a found email costs 1 credit and a verification half a credit. Every plan has unlimited team members, and there's a basic sequence tool.

Good fit if you already have a list of target companies and just need the right address. It won't tell you which companies to target.

2. Snov.io: if you want a cheap all-in-one

Snov.io bundles an email finder, verifier, sequences and inbox warm-up. Starter is listed at $39/month, or $29.25/month on yearly billing, with 1,000 credits and 5,000 recipients. The free trial gives 50 credits but no export.

Good fit for a founder who wants one inexpensive tool and is happy to do the list building and writing.

3. Lusha: if you need phone numbers

Lusha is about contact data, especially direct dials. Starter is $49.90/month monthly or $37.45/month yearly, with 400 credits a month; an email costs 1 credit and a phone number 5. It's not a sending tool, so you'll pair it with something else.

4. lemlist: if you want sequences and data in one place

lemlist starts at $69/month on monthly billing ($55/month yearly) for the Email plan, and $109/month ($87 yearly) for Multichannel. Lead data enrichment is a paid add-on. There's no free plan, but there is a 14-day trial.

Good fit for a small sales team that wants polished multi-step sequences. You still choose the leads and review the copy.

5. Selamly: if the database isn't your problem, time is

This is the tool I build, so weigh it accordingly. Selamly isn't a database you search. You enter your website and an agent does the outbound work:

• It works out what your customers have in common: what they sell, how big they are, who they sell to. Your best customers' websites help, if you add them.
• It finds the person who does the job at companies that fit, from public professional profiles and company websites.
• It reads each company's site and scores the fit; companies that don't fit are never emailed.
• It looks for a reason to write now, like a recent post about the problem you solve or a request for a recommendation, and writes to those people first.
• It verifies the work address, writes a short personal email and one follow-up, and brings back the interested replies.

Plans start at $99/month, billed monthly, with sending domains and mailboxes set up and warmed up for you. Where it's not a fit: if you want to hand-pick every contact, or you need phone numbers for a calling team, a database like Apollo or Lusha is the better tool.

What we learned building our own people search

We built Selamly's people search over the past weeks and ran it on ourselves first. A few things surprised us, and they apply whichever tool you pick:

Industry filters beat keywords

We tested several ways to find "small B2B software companies": a keyword like "SaaS", keyword combinations, and plain industry plus company-size filters. The industry filter gave clearly more companies that actually fit, at a lower cost per good contact. Keyword searches matched people who mention SaaS in their profile, which includes consultants, agencies and job seekers. If your database tool has a proper industry field, start there.

No single email finder is enough

For the people who fit, no one provider found the person's own work address most of the time. Running several finders in sequence, and verifying the result, found noticeably more. If a tool gives you only one finder, expect gaps, and expect some of what it returns to be a generic inbox.

info@ is not a person

Generic addresses like info@ or hello@ are easy to find and easy to send to, but they are usually read by whoever has time, not the person who decides. We now treat them as a last resort: a company where we only have info@ ranks below one where we have the right person's own address.

A database tells you who, not when

The best moment to write is when someone has just shared the problem you solve. A static list can't tell you that; you need something that looks at what people recently said. That's the part we found worth automating first.

Which one should you pick?