Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Apollo.io vs Clay vs Hiver
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Founders, small sales teams and marketers who need to find B2B contacts and email them.
Pick it if: Growth marketers, sales ops people and agencies who build targeted lead lists and personalised outbound.
Pick it if: Small and mid-sized teams who answer customers or suppliers from a shared Gmail address and want structure without leaving Gmail.
Overview
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Clay | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | B2B contact database with emails and phone numbers, plus sequences to reach them. | Builds and enriches lead lists from 100+ data sources, with an AI agent for web research. | Shared inbox and helpdesk that runs inside Gmail, with AI that drafts and answers replies. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Paid |
| Starting price | $49/seat/mo | From $167/mo | $25/user/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | No | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Clay | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0Winner | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 2.5 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Clay | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | – | Yes |
| Desktop app | – | – | – |
| Browser extension | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | – | Yes | – |
| Understands images | – | – | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | – | – | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | – | – |
| Works in many languages | – | – | – |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 8/ 17 | 7/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Clay | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Founders testing outbound. | Free Free Learning Clay and small tests. | Growth $25/user/mo billed yearly, or $35 monthly Small teams running one or two shared inboxes. |
Basic $49/seat/mo billed yearly Individual sellers doing regular outbound. | LaunchOur pick From $167/mo, less billed yearly Founders and small teams building outbound lists. | ProOur pick $55/user/mo billed yearly, or $65 monthly Support teams that need targets and connected tools. | |
ProfessionalOur pick $79/seat/mo billed yearly Full-time reps. | Growth From $446/mo, less billed yearly Teams syncing Clay with their CRM. | Elite $85/user/mo billed yearly, or $95 monthly Larger teams wanting AI quality checks and tighter security. | |
Organization $119/seat/mo billed yearly (min 3 seats) Sales teams wanting advanced controls. | Enterprise Custom Large teams needing SSO and controls. | ||
| Which plan to pick | Start on Free to check the data covers your market. Basic suits one person prospecting; Professional is worth it if you also call prospects or want AI scoring. Monthly billing costs noticeably more than the yearly prices shown. | Learn on Free, then move to Launch when you are ready to run real campaigns. Only take Growth if you need CRM sync or the API. Set credit budgets on every table. | Growth is enough for a small team that just needs a tidy shared inbox with AI help. Choose Pro if you need response-time targets, CRM or Shopify data next to each email, or the API. Voice is an add-on at $30 per seat. |
Key features
Pros and cons
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Clay | Hiver |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Clay | Hiver |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Apollo.io, Clay or Hiver?
Apollo.io scores highest overall in our ratings (Apollo.io 4.0/5, Clay 3.7/5 and Hiver 3.9/5). Apollo.io is best for finding business emails and phone numbers and Building B2B lead lists. Clay is best for building niche lead lists and finding emails and phone numbers from many sources. Hiver is best for running support@ or info@ as a team and assigning and tracking customer emails.
Which is cheaper, Apollo.io, Clay or Hiver?
Apollo.io: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $49/seat/mo. Clay: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $167/mo. Hiver: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $25/user/mo.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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