Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Apollo.io vs Gong vs Pipedrive
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: Sales leaders running a team of reps who want to coach from real calls and forecast deals more accurately.
Pick it if: Small businesses, agencies and sales teams of one to twenty people who want a clear view of every deal without a complicated CRM.
Overview
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Pipedrive |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | B2B contact database with emails and phone numbers, plus sequences to reach them. | Records and analyses sales calls and emails to coach reps and forecast deals. | Simple sales CRM that shows every deal as a card on a board, with an AI sales assistant. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $49/seat/mo | See website | $14/seat/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Pipedrive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.1Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 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 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 2.5 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Pipedrive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | 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 | – |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | – | – | – |
| 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 | – | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | Gong | Pipedrive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Founders testing outbound. | Platform fee Custom (billed yearly) Every Gong customer pays this, scaled to team size. | Lite $14/seat/mo billed yearly, or $24 monthly One person who just needs a pipeline and reminders. |
Basic $49/seat/mo billed yearly Individual sellers doing regular outbound. | Per-user licenceOur pick Custom per user (billed yearly) Each rep or manager who records and reviews calls. | GrowthOur pick $39/seat/mo billed yearly, or $49 monthly Small teams who live in their inbox. | |
ProfessionalOur pick $79/seat/mo billed yearly Full-time reps. | Add-ons (Engage, Forecast, Enable) Custom Teams that want outreach, forecasting or coaching in Gong too. | Premium $59/seat/mo billed yearly, or $79 monthly Teams that want to capture and score leads too. | |
Organization $119/seat/mo billed yearly (min 3 seats) Sales teams wanting advanced controls. | Ultimate $79/seat/mo billed yearly, or $99 monthly Bigger teams that need the highest limits and tighter security. | ||
| 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. | Start with the core licence for reps who run customer calls and add Forecast or Engage only once the team uses Gong daily. Push back on bundles and multi-year terms during negotiation. | Growth is the plan most small teams should start on, because Lite has no proper email sync or automations. Move to Premium if you want web forms and lead scoring without paying for add-ons. Prices exclude tax and vary by country. |
Key features
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Pipedrive |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Pipedrive |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Pipedrive |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Apollo.io, Gong or Pipedrive?
Pipedrive scores highest overall in our ratings (Apollo.io 4.0/5, Gong 4.0/5 and Pipedrive 4.1/5). Apollo.io is best for finding business emails and phone numbers and Building B2B lead lists. Gong is best for coaching reps from real call recordings and spotting at-risk deals early. Pipedrive is best for tracking deals from first contact to signed and reminders so no lead is forgotten.
Which is cheaper, Apollo.io, Gong or Pipedrive?
Apollo.io: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $49/seat/mo. Gong: Pricing isn't published; check the vendor's site for a quote. Pipedrive: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $14/seat/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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