# Apollo.io - Research Comparison How does Apollo.io compare to Common Room? - Website: https://apollo.io - Updated: 2026-10-28 - Status: watch - Web version: https://www.commonroom.io/compare/apollo-io/ai/ ## Summary AI-powered Go-to-Market system combining 270M+ B2B contacts with sales engagement tools. Prospect, run automated email sequences, and manage deals in one unified SaaS platform. ## Company info - **Funding:** $251.3M (Series D) - **Founded:** 2015 - **Team:** 1000 ## Critical Notes - Combines massive B2B data provider with full-stack sales engagement at disruptive price - Generous free tier and low-cost plans dominate startups/SMBs, undercutting ZoomInfo - Uneven data accuracy; high bounce rates on emails marked verified - LinkedIn changes forced automated LinkedIn outreach steps to become manual tasks - $1.6B unicorn valuation in 2023; hyper-growth continues ## Key Features - B2B contact and company database with 270M+ records - Automated email sequencing and outreach campaigns - Built-in dialer and call tracking - Apollo Chrome extension for LinkedIn and website prospecting - AI Context Center for drafting emails and building lists - Waterfall data enrichment to keep CRM records updated - Buying intent data and signals - CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and others ## Details Founded 2015 by Tim Zheng and Ray Li; began as B2B contact database, expanded into full sales engagement platform. Series D $100M (Aug 2023, Bain Capital Ventures), $1.6B valuation; $251.3M raised over six rounds. ~$265M ARR, ~9M monthly visits, ~105K LinkedIn followers. Product-led: freemium, no credit card, 10K contact searches/month free, credit-pack upsells, 600K+ companies. Sales-led overlay: Apollo for Enterprise with governance, admin controls, seat minimums, premium support, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR. Proprietary closed-source. Strong on price and free tier; weaker on data accuracy and signal breadth. ## Signals compared to Common Room ### 1st Party - Included: Bi-directional CRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) even on free tier; Gmail/M365 email and calendar activity logging; CRM enrichment on record create/update - Missing: No product usage or data warehouse ingestion; no marketing automation, CS, chat/support, or paid ads sources; website visitor de-anonymization limited/unverified ### 2nd Party - Included: LinkedIn Chrome extension for one-click prospecting, bulk import, and enrichment from profiles and search pages - Missing: LinkedIn-only, and automated steps now manual; no open source, community, review site, event, or commerce coverage ### 3rd Party - Included: Bombora topic-level intent, technographics, company news, job change alerts, Crunchbase funding data layered onto contact database for sequence activation - Missing: Single intent provider; no job listings/hiring trends; no LinkedIn company-page listening; technographic depth undocumented ### Custom - Included: REST API, webhooks (incl. async enrichment results), Zapier, Make, bulk CSV import/export - Missing: None; no native Google Sheets connector mentioned 1st Party: CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) bi-directional sync on free tier, Gmail/M365 activity logging, no warehouse or product usage. 2nd Party: LinkedIn Chrome extension only, degrading as automation becomes manual. 3rd Party: Bombora topic intent, technographics, news, job changes, Crunchbase; single intent vendor. Custom: REST API, webhooks, Zapier, Make, CSV. ## Identity compared to Common Room ### Enrichment - Included: Firmographics, technographics, contact details, Bombora, Crunchbase appended; 70-90% CRM match rates; email accuracy ~84-91%; sequence/CRM enrichment triggers - Missing: Waterfall claim contested, appears single-database; direct-dial accuracy ~60%; high bounce reports on verified emails; quarterly refresh; no multi-provider cascade ### AI Powered - Included: NLP title/field normalization on ingestion; probabilistic email-pattern prediction; ML lead scoring against ICP; AI call summaries downstream - Missing: AI improves matching to own database only; no cross-source identity resolution; no signal-triggered auto-enrichment; scoring partly black box ### Identity - Included: Fuzzy matching of CSV/CRM records against 275M contacts and 73M companies using email, domain, name, LinkedIn URL - Missing: Database lookup, not identity resolution; no cross-source merging; relies on CRM dedupe rules and can create duplicates; no merge review flow; quarterly profile updates Identity: fuzzy matching against 275M contacts/73M companies via email, domain, name, LinkedIn URL; relies on CRM dedupe; resolves to work profile only. Enrichment: firmographics, technographics, contacts, intent, funding; 70-90% match; email accuracy 84-91%; direct dials ~60%; quarterly refresh; single-database waterfall limits. AI: NLP normalization, probabilistic email prediction, ML ICP scoring, AI writing and call summaries. ## Automation compared to Common Room ### Combine - Included: Stack Bombora intent, first-party engagement (web visits, opens), and 65+ database filters into segments and workflow conditions - Missing: Capped by missing inputs; no product usage, community, open source, CS, or review signal combinations ### Score - Included: AI-assisted lead scoring with customizable weights blending firmographics, behavior, and intent; ICP-match highlighting - Missing: Inputs limited to Apollo data model; no product usage, community, support, or warehouse fields; no documented account-level impact points ### AI Message - Included: AI Writing Assistant drafts personalized emails from company, role, and lead context; templates, snippets, AI sequence generator - Missing: Unsure; personalization bounded by Apollo data without community/product context ### AI Research - Included: AI Power-Ups run custom research prompts across filtered account lists, returning structured summaries or custom scores usable as filters/triggers - Missing: Limited to public signals and Apollo database; no first-party, community, or product context; credit cost unsure Workbench: Cockpit/Control Center with Task Manager. Workflow: Plays with trigger-condition-action, narrow trigger set. Alerts: Slack/internal on web behavior. Combine: intent + engagement + 65 filters. Score: AI lead scoring with custom weights. AI Message: Writing Assistant, strong. AI Research: Power-Ups custom prompts across account lists. ## Support compared to Common Room ### Systems - Included: Zendesk-hosted knowledge base (knowledge.apollo.io), support@apollo.io, in-app ticketing, premium support and account management for Enterprise - Missing: Free/low tiers self-serve only; human support gated to Enterprise ### Content - Included: Large knowledge base, API docs, Apollo Academy (courses, certifications), YouTube tutorials, third-party tutorials, in-app templates/snippets - Missing: Unsure; baseline unspecified ### Community - Included: 6,000+ member Slack community; 8+ free events/month (email teardowns, cold-call webinars, social selling challenges, IRL meetups); LinkedIn takeovers; unofficial ecosystem (Reddit, trainers, agencies) - Missing: Sales-tactics community, not ingested as product signal; unsure vs. baseline ...