Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Apollo.io vs Gong vs Retell AI
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: Service businesses and agencies that want an AI receptionist or phone agent without hiring developers.
Overview
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | AI phone agents that answer calls, book appointments and make outbound calls. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $49/seat/mo | See website | About $0.07–$0.31/min |
| 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 | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.1Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| 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 | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | – |
| Desktop app | – | – | – |
| Browser extension | 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 | – | – | – |
| 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 | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Founders testing outbound. | Platform fee Custom (billed yearly) Every Gong customer pays this, scaled to team size. | Pay as you goOur pick About $0.07–$0.31/min Most small businesses and agencies. |
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. | Enterprise Custom High call volumes and compliance needs. | |
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. | ||
Organization $119/seat/mo billed yearly (min 3 seats) Sales teams wanting advanced 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. | 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. | Start on pay as you go with the free credits, build one agent for your most common call and test it on your own phone. Talk to sales only once you run thousands of minutes a month. |
Key features
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Retell AI |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Retell AI |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Apollo.io, Gong or Retell AI?
Retell AI scores highest overall in our ratings (Apollo.io 4.0/5, Gong 4.0/5 and Retell AI 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. Retell AI is best for AI receptionist for a small business and booking appointments by phone.
Which is cheaper, Apollo.io, Gong or Retell AI?
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. Retell AI: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at About $0.07–$0.31/min.
Which is easier to use, Apollo.io, Gong or Retell AI?
Apollo.io rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Founders, small sales teams and marketers who need to find B2B contacts and email them.
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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