# Apollo pricing vs Ballast

> Apollo pricing runs $49 to $119 a seat a month billed annually, plus credits. See what a team pays, the send limits, and how to send from Ballast.

Canonical: https://ballast.to/compare/apollo
Last updated: 2026-11-04

Compare · Checked November 2026

Apollo charges per seat: $49 to $119 a seat a month billed annually, $65 and $99 on monthly billing, with credits for its contact data. Ballast charges for emails sent, from $19 a month, with unlimited seats and no contact data.

You don't have to pick one. Keep Apollo to find leads, pull its lists into Ballast with your API key, and send from your own mailboxes.

Ballast is cold email software with every feature on every plan. Connect unlimited mailboxes, send sequences at a pace your domains survive, and handle replies in one inbox, priced by the emails you send.

Apollo only

per month

- 5 Professional seats × $79
  $395

240,000 credits a year

$395

Apollo plus Ballast

per month

- 1 Apollo Basic seat
  $49
- Ballast Growth, 125,000 emails
  $39

30,000 credits a year

$88

5 reps send cold email and one builds the lists. Apollo billed annually, Ballast at its monthly price.

Apollo pricing

## What each Apollo plan costs, per seat.

Credits, mailboxes and daily sends as their plan table lists them.

| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Credits a seat a year | Mailboxes | Emails a day |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | $0 | 900 | 1 per user | 250 |
| Basic | $49 | $65 | 30,000 | 1 per user | 250 |
| Professional | $79 | $99 | 48,000 | Unlimited Google and Microsoft, plus 5 SMTP, per user | Unlimited |
| Organization 3 seats minimum | $119 | Annual only | 72,000 | Unlimited Google and Microsoft, plus 15 SMTP, per user | Unlimited |

Per seat, per month, before tax, from [Apollo's pricing page](https://www.apollo.io/pricing), checked November 2026. On monthly billing, credits are granted per month: 2,500 on Basic, 4,000 on Professional. With the monthly toggle on, their page shows Organization at $149, marked Annual Only.

Seats

## What a team pays a month.

Every seat on an Apollo account is on the same plan, so the bill grows with the team. Ballast has no seat count: the bill follows the emails you send. This isn't like for like: Apollo's price includes contact credits and deal management, and Ballast's includes neither.

| Seats | Basic | Professional | Organization | Ballast Growth |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | $49 | $79 | 3 minimum | $39 any number of seats |
| 3 | $147 | $237 | $357 |  |
| 5 | $245 | $395 | $595 |  |
| 10 | $490 | $790 | $1,190 |  |

Apollo billed annually. Ballast Growth sends 125,000 emails a month, with any number of seats and mailboxes.

Credits

## What Apollo's credits pay for.

- An email address
  1 credit
- A phone number
  8 credits
- Enriching a record
  1 to 8 credits

Credits are pooled across the team and granted upfront at the start of each billing cycle. Unused ones expire when the cycle ends and don't roll over. Depending on the plan, Apollo says they also cover email warmup, domains and mailboxes. Ballast has no credits: warmup and every other feature come with the plan, and the only thing metered is emails sent.

Feature for feature

## What Apollo's pricing page lists, next to Ballast.

"Not on their pricing page" means exactly that: the feature may exist, but the pricing page doesn't say.

| Feature | Ballast | Apollo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What you pay for | Emails sent a month, nothing else | Seats, with credits per seat |
| Contact data | None. Bring your list, or pull it from Apollo | Contact and account data, paid with credits |
| Team seats | Unlimited, every plan | Priced per seat, every seat on the same plan |
| Mailboxes | Unlimited, every plan | 1 per user on Free and Basic; unlimited Google and Microsoft, plus 5 or 15 SMTP, from Professional |
| Emails a day | Set per mailbox: 30 by default, with a warning above 50 | 250 on Free and Basic; unlimited from Professional, under their Fair Use Policy |
| Warmup | Included, every plan | Deliverability Suite and Email Warmup listed from Basic |
| Unified inbox | Unibox with AI labels, every plan | Unified Inbox row in the plan table, tier shown by icon |
| API and MCP | REST API, webhooks and MCP, every plan | API enrichment from Basic, Apollo MCP listed, custom integrations on Custom plans |
| Placement tests | Included, every plan, 10 tests a day | Not on their pricing page |
| Dialer, deals, CRM | None. Email only | US dialer (credits apply), deal management and CRM integrations |

Apollo plus Ballast

## Keep Apollo for the data. Send from Ballast.

[How to connect Apollo](https://ballast.to/docs/integrations#lead-sources)

1. Build your lists in Apollo and save the contacts.
2. Connect your Apollo API key in Ballast. It needs a paid Apollo plan and charges no credits for this.
3. Pick a list. The contacts come in with their custom fields; duplicates, suppressed and invalid addresses are counted, not sent to.
4. Connect your mailboxes and send, with warmup and replies in one place.

The honest part

## When Apollo alone is the better pick.

- ### You want data, sending, calls and deals in one tool
  Apollo has a contact database, a dialer, deal management and CRM integrations next to its sequences. Ballast does cold email and nothing else.
- ### You spend most of your credits
  If a team uses the credits on every seat, those seats are buying data as much as sending. Dropping them saves less than the invoices above show, because you'd have to buy that data somewhere.

How we checked

## Sources and dates.

- Apollo plans, credits and limits: [apollo.io/pricing](https://www.apollo.io/pricing), read on November 4, 2026, both billing options, US dollars.
- Ballast plans: [ballast.to/pricing](https://ballast.to/pricing).
- Tools priced by emails a month: [all the comparisons](https://ballast.to/compare).

## Questions

### How much does Apollo cost?

Billed annually, Apollo is $49 a seat a month on Basic, $79 on Professional and $119 on Organization, with at least 3 seats. On monthly billing, Basic is $65 and Professional $99; Organization is annual only. These are their prices in November 2026, before tax.

### Is Apollo free?

There is a Free plan: 900 credits a seat a year, granted monthly, 1 mailbox per user, 250 emails a day and 2 sequences per team. Free accounts connect Gmail only.

### How do Apollo credits work?

An email address costs 1 credit, a phone number 8, and enrichment 1 to 8. Credits are pooled across the team and granted upfront at the start of each billing cycle. Unused ones expire at the end of the cycle, add-on credits included.

### How many emails can Apollo send a day?

Their plan table lists 250 a day on Free and Basic, with one mailbox per user, and unlimited on Professional and Organization, where "unlimited" is subject to their Fair Use Policy. On Ballast, each mailbox has its own daily limit, 30 by default, and you connect as many as you need. Unlimited mailboxes doesn't mean unlimited sending: pace is what keeps a domain out of spam.

### What is the difference between Apollo and Instantly?

Apollo charges per seat and credits pay for its contact data. Instantly charges by emails a month and uploaded contacts, from $47 a month on monthly billing, and sells lead credits in bundles. Ballast charges by emails sent alone, from $19 a month, and sells no data.

[Compare Ballast with Instantly](https://ballast.to/compare/instantly)

### Is Ballast an Apollo alternative?

For sending, yes: sequences, mailboxes, warmup and replies. For contact data, no. Ballast has no database of people, so if you use Apollo to find leads, keep it for that and send from Ballast.

### Can I use Apollo and Ballast together?

Yes. Connect your Apollo API key in Integrations, pick a list and Ballast pulls its saved contacts with their custom fields, checking duplicates, suppressions and invalid addresses on the way in. Apollo's API needs a paid Apollo plan and charges no credits for this. It returns the first 50,000 contacts of a list, so split bigger lists in Apollo.

[Connect Apollo](https://ballast.to/docs/integrations#lead-sources)