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Cognism vs Apollo.io

Prospecting shouldn’t cost you more. With Apollo.io’s recent credit hikes on mobiles, reps face 60% higher spend. Cognism gives you access to Diamond-verified mobiles with no credit burn and no hidden costs..

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How does Cognism match up?
Apollo.io
No credit ceilings
Enterprise-grade compliance
Built-in verified data
Dedicated support

Why thousands of brands have switched to Cognism

01

80% better data accuracy

Cognism provides Diamond Data™ with industry-leading mobile connect rates.

Customers report higher first‑connect rates and fewer wasted dials.

“We’re really happy with Cognism’s data quality, which was 80% accurate after evaluation. Apollo and Lusha had inconsistent data, especially for European prospects.” Victor, Docfield

02

80% increase in mobile data quality

Apollo may be restrictive if you’re looking for deep enrichment and integration flexibility. Teams have switched to Cognism because it integrates seamlessly into your existing GTM stack.

“Since using Cognism, we’ve seen an 80% increase in mobile data quality compared to Apollo. We reach key decision-makers like VPs of Real Estate and CTOs, boosting our email reply rates from 2-5% to over 20%.” Stevie, SUB1

03

60% more deals closed

Customers switching to Cognism report a higher number of connects, leading to more closed/won deals. 

“The tool has paid for itself. The largest deal closed in company history was helped by generating an email from the Cognism platform. The email address allowed us to reach the contract decision-maker and close the deal earlier than anticipated.” Marc, OneUp Sales

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What’s the difference between Apollo.io and Cognism?

In an independent survey of Pavilion members who compared sales prospecting tools, both Apollo.io and Cognism registered top scores.

Cognism was praised for its high-quality cell phone numbers, UK/EU market data, GDPR compliance, and seamless integration. Apollo.io was praised for its affordable pricing and large contact database.

To summarise how Cognism compares to Apollo.io:

Cognism
Apollo.io
Best for
Cognism
Larger sales, marketing, RevOps and GTMOps teams looking to drive customer revenue growth in Europe.
Apollo.io
Start-ups and SMEs seeking an all-in-one platform for US prospecting.
Pricing
Cognism
Two tiers to choose from to suit your needs best. Unrestricted views/ individual and page-level exporting on all packages.*
Apollo.io
Credit-based subscription plans with limited mobile and export credits. Add-on credits are available.
Integrations
Cognism
Included in all packages: Salesforce, HubSpot, MS Dynamics, Pipedrive, Salesloft, Outreach & Zapier.
Apollo.io
Integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, MS Dynamics, Pipedrive, Salesloft, Outreach & Zapier.
Compliance status
Cognism
GDPR & CCPA compliant, SOC 2 accreditations, TPS & DNC screening across 13 countries & notified database.
Apollo.io
GDPR & CCPA compliant with DNC list checking in the UK & US. ISO 27001 and SOC II certified.
Browser extension
Cognism
Compatible with LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, and company domains.
Apollo.io
Chrome extension works across Salesforce, HubSpot, Gmail, and more.
Intent data
Cognism
Bombora intent data.
Apollo.io
Bombora and LeadSift intent data.
Enrichment
Cognism
API enrichment and on-demand CSV enrichment.
Apollo.io
Manual CRM enrichment, real-time enrichment, CSV, Salesforce and scheduled CRM enrichment.
Built in Phone-verification research on-demand service
Cognism
Exclusive phone-verified Diamond Data® mobiles & on-demand-verification service.
Apollo.io
Not available.

Alternatively, see other Cognism comparisons👇

Key features of Cognism vs Apollo.io

Cognism equips teams with everything they need to exceed quota month over month. It focuses on supplying accurate global B2B data that’s compliant with GDPR and CCPA regulations.

The Apollo.io platform is an all-in-one tool and advertises several features to help sales and marketing teams create pipeline and close deals.

Here’s a list of both tools’ features, side by side:

Cognism

Sales Companion

For personalised access to in-depth account data to ensure fresh and fast outreach.

Phone-verified cell phone numbers

To help you connect with 87% of your list.

Diamond Data®

Exclusive on-demand verified cell phone and email data set.

Unrestricted access to person and company-level data*

Subject to a generous fair usage policy.

Enrich

API enrichment and on-demand CSV enrichment.

Intent & Signal data

Intent data by Bombora. Real time signal data for hiring trends, funding rounds, and technographic insights.

International coverage

EMEA, NAM, APAC.

Integrations at no extra cost

Salesforce, HubSpot, MS Dynamics, Pipedrive, Salesloft, Outreach & Zapier.

GDPR and CCPA-compliant

SOC 2 accreditations, TPS & DNC screening across 13 countries & notified database.

AI Search

Find prospects using ChatGPT-style textual or voice prompts.

Apollo.io

Dialer

Enables outbound calling from within Apollo to streamline prospecting.

AI email composer

Basic sequence automation and AI-assisted email writing.

Buying intent

Surfaces signals to show which accounts are actively researching solutions like yours.

Automated workflows

Sequences emails, calls, and tasks to scale outreach with less manual effort.

Data enrichment

Fills in missing details on prospects to keep CRM and sales records accurate.

Chrome extension

Let’s reps pull contact details directly from company websites.

From Apollo.io to Cognism

“I wanted to keep costs down at SUB1, so I was happy to get good deals with TAMI and Apollo. However, they both lacked accurate contact data." “It took me 6 months to realise that I should have implemented Cognism straight away.”
Read the full case study
Helped generate
7-figure opportunities
Stevie_SUB1
Stevie Howlett
Director of Business Development @SUB1
“We previously used ZoomInfo and saw contact information accuracy rates of around 50%.” “When we tested Cognism’s data as part of the procurement process, we recorded data accuracy of around 85%.”
Read the full case study
10-15%
improvement in contact data deliverability
1722862896093
Justin Humphreys
Head of Revenue Operations @Bright Network
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Apollo.io versus Cognism: Compliance

Apollo claims CCPA and GDPR compliance. The vendor has recently started checking DNC lists in the UK and US (the feature is in Beta for new direct dial requests), compared to Cognism, which checks lists in 13 countries.

Another difference between Apollo.io and Cognism is that Apollo charges credits if a phone number is revealed on a DNC list.

On the other hand, Cognism’s licence model ensures you don’t waste credits on DNC numbers.

If data compliance is one of your top priorities, we recommend you study Apollo.io’s Terms of Service.

“Cognism is our comfort blanket when it comes to compliance. Whenever a prospect asks where we get their data from, we can confidently say that we’ve sourced their information from a reputable ISO 27001 and SOC Type II certification data company." “With Cognism, you aren’t snowing yourself under with ICO complaints. I couldn’t recommend it enough.”
Read the full case study
Richard Caldicott
IT Director @Henderson Scott

While being GDPR and CCPA compliant, Cognism also scrubs all mobile numbers against:

  • TPS/CTPS lists in the UK.
  • Do-Not-Call lists in the USA, Canada, Australia and European countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia, Portugal, Sweden and more. 

If a number is marked as TPS or DNC, it means that the user has opted out of receiving unsolicited phone calls by applying to the national do-not-call registry. 

Cognism allows admins to choose whether to hide or show contacts that are on DNC lists from reps. Meaning that its customers have complete confidence in the legality of its outreach.

The Cognism platform follows these compliance-based actions: 

  • A stringent B2B data verification process. 
  • Ensures all data is legally sourced and of the utmost quality.
  • Is regulated by the ICO and provides users with a notified database.

Apollo.io vs Cognism: Usability & Integrations

Apollo.io reviews mention that the desktop platform is easy to use, with good filters and a simple search dashboard.

Apollo integrates with Salesforce, Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesloft, Outreach, and Zapier. Plus a two-way sync with certain platforms.

Cognism offers a trusted alternative for compliant, reliable access to lead data, including LinkedIn workflows. It uses GDPR & CCPA-safe, phone-verified data without scraping risk.

While you prospect, the browser extension part of Sales Companion works hard to surface all the important signal data you need to surface in-market buyers. 

Cognism’s AI Search feature means that you can find prospects even faster with three different routes: Text-to-command, direct prospect or account search, and voice search.

Cognism also integrates with leading CRMS, and customers speak highly of the interface, usability and support.

sales-companion-integrations-webp

Sounds great, but...

Apollo is a more affordable all-in-one tool. 

Apollo’s upfront cost looks appealing, but the total cost of ownership (credits, support gaps, rep inefficiency) climbs fast. Cognism offers predictable costs with connect rates that drive revenue, not just upfront savings. 

What’s more, teams that start with all‑in‑one tools end up hitting limitations like data accuracy, integration depth, workflow complexity, etc. and have to rip and replace later. Cognism fits into your chosen tools rather than forcing them into one stack.

0%

Better conversion rates (Lead Forensics)

0%

Improved connect rates (Druva)

0%

Time saved each week (UpCloud)

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Cognism vs Apollo.io: Databases & Data Coverage

Apollo.io does not state what regions its database covers. When answering the question on its site, the response is to sign up for a free account and run a search.

Cognism’s dataset offers the most complete coverage in EMEA. The tool has EU and US research teams, making it a great option for anyone looking to find highly-targeted global leads, including NAM and APAC.

Moreover, quality is of utmost importance to Cognism, with phone-verified numbers, the most complete data in Europe and leading mobile number coverage in the United States.

We interviewed Marc Parsons, SDR Team Lead at OneUp Sales, to discover why he chose Cognism over Apollo.io. He said:

“Firstly, we trialled Apollo using a test data sample, which didn’t produce adequate results. We proceeded to evaluate ZoomInfo but found the data to be too US-centric. This didn’t fit our ICP of targeting UK companies.”

“The SDRs have pulled data from Cognism for every demo booked. For every deal closed, the AEs have used the database to pull relevant contact details to influence the deal.” 

“Overall, 60% of our deals have come from the team pulling a number from Cognism.” 

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Where do Cognism and Apollo.io get their data?

Apollo openly admits to ”scraping millions of records monthly.” They also “use machine learning algorithms and a proprietary data network of contributors.”

According to Apollo.io’s T&Cs, Apollo’s customers grant Apollo a “perpetual and irrevocable licence” to access and use, share, sublicense, display, copy, publish, and distribute any customer-submitted data. 

This means that by connecting your CRM to Apollo’s software and using its services, you’re adding data to their database.

In contrast, at Cognism, your customer data stays with you.

Apollo has a 7-step email verification process, while Cognism uses 16 steps to verify emails. Apollo mentions verification via data contributor networks, public data crawling, and third-party data providers. 

Unlike Apollo, Cognism excludes personal emails from its email database for lower legal risks and to ensure you are only contacting a notified B2B email database. However, we recommend testing a data sample from both providers to check their accuracy.

Cognism gathers data via its proprietary sources and fills in the gaps from third-party data providers, publicly available sources, manual research and strategic partnerships - the tool does not use customer data to supplement its database. 

Cognism ensures up-to-date B2B data via machine learning processes that check millions of data points daily. A team of in-house researchers verifies the data, ensuring accuracy and compliance. This stringent verification process applies to Cognism’s entire database.

However, Cognism takes data verification to the next level through its exclusive data asset, Diamond Data®.

Diamond Data® comprises phone-verified mobile numbers that make it 3x more likely you’ll connect with your ideal customer. The team phone verifies mobile numbers and includes contacts specifically requested by customers leveraging the Diamonds-on-Demand® service.

Diamond Data® allows sales teams to connect with 87% of prospecting lists. Companies are seeing a 54% increase in mobile coverage, and ROI is increasing due to 70% of outbound meetings booked from Cognism mobiles. 

Here’s how Cognism mobile phone numbers differ from standard mobile numbers. 👇

How standard mobile numbers compare to Cognism's phone-verified numbers.

Sounds great, but...

Apollo.io has stronger US coverage.

While Cognism is known for its excellent EMEA data coverage, it’s not lacking in the US. Customers have reported 90% accuracy in US markets, with praise for contacts in niche markets. 

0%

Data Accuracy in the US (Darwinbox)

0%

Influenced closed/won deals (Openprise)

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Comparing the pricing of Apollo.io and Cognism

**Cognism and Apollo pricing information is dependent on your company’s needs. For accurate pricing, please contact your preferred data provider.

Cognism Pricing

What really makes Cognism stand out from Apollo.io is unrestricted data views. 

Cognism’s main packages allow reps unrestricted data views and exports of 25 records at a time.

Cognism’s pricing model is split into two tiers: 

  • Grow gives you the essential quality data you need for your prospecting. With contact and company data, including Cognism’s phone-verified Diamond Data®.
  • Elevate gives you all the benefits of Grow with the added benefit of combining Cognism’s high-quality data with advanced intelligence and actionable signals.

In addition, users can add more intent data topics (12 are included in the Elevate package) and Diamonds-on-Demand® to their package.

Apollo.io Pricing

Apollo.io’s pricing includes three paid plans that are set per user per month.

Apollo’s plans have unlimited emails and a set number of credits for exporting data. There is also a set number of credits for accessing mobile numbers on all but the Free and Basic plans. The higher up your plan, the more advanced features you get, like sequencing.

With Apollo.io, buying an extra 1,000 add-on mobile credits costs $170/mo, and an extra 1,000 export credits cost $50/mo. If you’re a heavy dialer, Apollo.io can be more expensive than Cognism.

Learn more about Apollo data enrichment pricing.

FAQs about Apollo.io vs Cognism

Cognism and Apollo.io source intent data but from different providers. Cognism partnered with the industry leader Bombora, while Apollo uses a mix of Bombora and LeadSift. 

LeadSift uses contact and account intent, custom search terms and public web scraping. 

Unlike LeadSift, Bombora’s intent data isn’t scraped. It’s consent-based and collected from a cooperative of 5,000 B2B sites, where B2B buyers actively research a topic when they’re ready to make a purchase. 

  • It considers the historical baseline or typical content consumption when calculating intent.
  • It considers the context and the length of each interaction.
  • Bombora’s dataset is 70% exclusive.

Combining Bombora’s buyer intent with Cognism’s contact data, you can find, prioritise, and connect the right prospects at the right time. It shortens the sales cycle, improves targeting, and creates a more relevant buyer journey. 

Apollo offers low-cost monthly subscriptions that appeal to companies with tight budgets or companies that don’t want to commit to annual plans. 

However, Apollo’s credit-based system, with very limited access to mobile credits, may lead to unexpected costs.

Cognism’s pricing model was created to overcome the scarcity mindset and allow teams to prospect without worrying about credits. Cognism doesn’t restrict access to mobiles and emails. With Cognism, users can view as many contacts or companies as they want without incurring additional costs.

For accurate pricing, please contact your preferred data provider.

Yes, Cognism is an excellent alternative when comparing Apollo.io competitors. 

Cognism provides highly accurate and up-to-date contact information that helps revenue teams find the information they need to make fewer calls, contact the most relevant people, and hit quota faster. 

Furthermore, Cognism has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from its users. Many users praise its user-friendly interface, accurate data, and excellent customer service.

Cognism is one of the best Apollo.io alternatives, with leading data in EMEA.

It’s the only data provider actively phone-verifying mobile numbers, making it a great choice for global B2B prospecting.

Cognism prides itself on being a compliant B2B data provider that easily integrates with your existing workflows and systems to flatten the adoption curve.

We interviewed Marc Parsons, SDR Team Lead at OneUp Sales, to discover why he chose Cognism over Apollo.io. He said:

“Firstly, we trialled Apollo using a test data sample which didn’t produce adequate results. We proceeded to evaluate ZoomInfo but found the data to be too US-centric. This didn’t fit our ICP of targeting UK companies.”

“The SDRs have pulled data from Cognism for every demo booked. For every deal closed, the AEs have used the database to pull relevant contact details to influence the deal.” 

“Overall, 60% of our deals have come from the team pulling a number from Cognism.” 

👉 Give Cognism a try with a free data sample tailored to your ICP.

Cognism is the better choice for businesses looking for a sales intelligence platform that offers up-to-date, accurate data in an easy-to-use interface.

The quality of its verified mobiles and B2B emails are unmatched by Apollo.io, as are its extensive features and excellent customer service. 

So, if you’re looking for the best tool to help you reach out to potential leads and target customers, Cognism is the clear winner.

If a number is marked as TPS or DNC, it means that the user has opted out from receiving unsolicited phone calls by applying to the national do-not-call registry. 

The Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO) has issued fines totalling £180,000 for two companies that made more than 480,000 unlawful marketing calls to businesses signed up with the UK’s “Do not call” register.

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform that is one of the best Apollo alternatives. Be it sales, marketers, RevOps, or GTM leaders, this B2B data provider prides itself on its global data coverage and compliance, data accuracy, and the best integrations with leading CRMs and sales engagement tools.

Cognism offers a premium phone-verified cell phone numbers database (Diamond Data®), so you don’t have to worry about not finding a prospect’s mobile number.

The solution has an AI-powered Sales Companion, so you can always see the data that matters the most to you.

Try Cognism, an Apollo.io alternative

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