Clay vs Apollo: orchestration layer or all-in-one GTM system?

Clay vs Apollo is a choice between building and buying. Apollo is an all-in-one GTM system on its own database of 240M+ contacts, with email outreach, a dialer and AI agents. Clay is infrastructure for building custom workflows from 200+ data and AI vendors. Many teams use both: Apollo for data and sending, Clay for enrichment and scoring.

Facts come from each vendor's own site, checked in October 2026: clay.com and apollo.io.

At a glance

	Clay	Apollo
Positioning	Infrastructure to get data, run agentic workflows and launch GTM plays	AI GTM system: data, intelligence and execution
Data	Marketplace of 200+ data and AI vendors under one contract	240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts, waterfall enrichment
AI	Claygent research agents	Agents that research, build lists, write outreach and follow up
Workflow	Visual canvas built with clicks, code or chat	Ready-made workspace for prospecting, outreach and dialing
Outreach	Integrations, email sequencer, ad sync to LinkedIn, Meta and Google	Email sequences, dialer, deliverability tools
Integrations	Your existing GTM tools	200+ integrations, plus "Apollo Anywhere" in CRM, Gmail and AI assistants
Security	See vendor site	SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001
Free option	Free plan and a 14-day trial	Free plan

Where Clay wins

• Flexibility. If you can describe a play, you can usually build it.
• Data coverage. Combining many vendors can fill gaps that one database leaves.
• Custom scoring and routing. Build exactly the lead scoring model your team needs.

Where Apollo wins

• Speed to value. Search, sequence and call from one workspace on day one.
• One vendor. Data, outreach and dialing under one contract.
• Enterprise readiness. Governance, permissions and security certifications.

How they work together

A common pattern: pull accounts and contacts from Apollo, enrich and score them in Clay, then send through Apollo or another sequencer. It is powerful, but it needs someone to own it, often a GTM engineer.

Which should you choose?

• Choose Apollo if you want one system for email and phone prospecting.
• Choose Clay if you have the skills to build and need data from many sources.
• Use both if you have a GTM engineer and run several plays at once.

Clay vs Apollo pricing (as of Oct 2026)

Both publish self-serve prices, but they bill for different things:

	Clay (pricing)	Apollo (pricing)
Free option	Free: 500 actions and 100 data credits a month	Free plan
Entry paid plan	Launch, from $167/month	Basic, $49/month
Next plan	Growth, from $446/month	Professional, $99/month on monthly billing
Top tier	Enterprise, custom	Custom, through sales
Unit of cost	Actions and data credits used	Seats on the same plan, with credits
Trial	14 days	Free plan to start

Clay costs scale with how much you run through your tables. Apollo costs scale with seats. A single GTM engineer running high volume may find Clay cheaper per result; a sales team of ten will usually find Apollo easier to budget.

Feature depth

Data

Clay is a marketplace: it pulls from 200+ data and AI vendors under one contract and lets you chain them in a waterfall. Apollo is a single database of 240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts, with waterfall enrichment on top.

Workflows

Clay is a visual canvas you build with clicks, code or chat; Claygent agents research accounts for you. Apollo is a ready-made workspace for prospecting, sequencing and dialing, with agents that build lists, write outreach and follow up.

Outreach

Apollo has email sequences, a dialer and deliverability tools built in. Clay has an email sequencer and ad sync to LinkedIn, Meta and Google, but most teams still push its output into another sending tool.

Who each one suits

Clay suits teams with a GTM engineer who want custom enrichment, scoring and routing, and are happy to build and maintain tables.

Apollo suits sales teams that want to search, sequence and call from one tool on day one, with predictable per-seat pricing.

Other options to consider

Depending on what you need, these are worth comparing. Descriptions and prices come from each vendor's own site, checked in October 2026.

GTM Plays

What it is: an AI agent for LinkedIn. It finds people showing intent signals, scores each one for fit against your ICP, writes a message for each person and sends it from your own LinkedIn account. Replies come into one inbox, where you take over. It does not book meetings by itself.

Pricing: Pro is $149 a month after a 7-day free trial, and each extra agent is $59 a month. Live Leads, a one-off extraction of a LinkedIn company page's followers or a post's engagers, is paid per lead with credits and is separate from Pro.

Best for: founders and small teams who want signal-led LinkedIn outreach without building workflows.

Integrations and exports: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Attio, folk, Breakcold, Instantly, Smartlead, SmartReach, HeyReach, Slack, Clay and Zapier, plus webhooks, a REST API and an MCP server. CSV export, and credits for email and phone enrichment. Live Leads exports in Clay, Instantly and Smartlead formats.

Limits: it is not a contact database to browse, and it has no built-in email sequencer or dialer; for email it connects to tools such as Instantly, Smartlead and SmartReach.

ZoomInfo

What it is: a go-to-market intelligence platform with 420M+ global contacts, 145M+ companies, buyer intent and website visitor data, according to zoominfo.com.

Pricing (as of Oct 2026, zoominfo.com/about/pricing): not published. ZoomInfo asks you to request a quote and says price depends on features, licences and credit usage.

Best for: larger teams that need deep contact and company data.

Limits: you need a sales conversation to see the price.

Lusha

What it is: a B2B contact data platform with a browser extension, CRM enrichment, an API and an MCP server, according to lusha.com.

Pricing (as of Oct 2026, lusha.com/pricing): a permanent Free plan with 40 credits a month; Starter at $49.90 a month (400 credits), Pro at $69.90 (600 credits) and Premium at $399.90 (3,400 credits) on monthly billing, with lower annual prices. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 5.

Best for: reps who need emails and phone numbers quickly.

Limits: it supplies data, not outreach.

Valley

What it is: signal-led outbound that researches prospects, checks fit and drafts LinkedIn and email messages in your voice for review, according to joinvalley.co.

Pricing (as of Oct 2026, joinvalley.co/pricing): Starter is $199 per seat a month ($149 billed quarterly) and is LinkedIn only. Plus is $299 per seat a month and adds 1,000 emails a month and onboarding. Growth is $499 per seat a month and adds monthly credits. Scale is custom for five seats or more. The 7-day trial requires a payment method.

Best for: teams who want pre-built signal plays across LinkedIn and email.

Limits: one seat connects one LinkedIn account, and discovery and enrichment use credits.

Migration checklist: moving between Clay and Apollo

1. List the plays you actually run and which tool each step depends on.
2. Export enriched tables or saved lists to CSV.
3. Translate your scoring rules, from Clay formulas or Apollo filters, into the new tool.
4. Repoint CRM sync and sequencer pushes, and switch off the old ones.
5. Run both for one cycle on the same segment before cancelling.
6. Compare cost per reply, not cost per row.

Where GTM Plays fits

Neither tool is LinkedIn-first. If your buyers reply best on LinkedIn, GTM Plays is built for that: its agent finds intent signals, scores fit against your ICP, writes a message for each person and sends it from your own LinkedIn account, with replies in one inbox. It does not book meetings for you. Pro is $149 a month after a 7-day free trial.

Read more: Clay alternatives, Apollo alternatives and Apollo vs ZoomInfo.