Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Apollo.io vs Gong vs Sierra
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: Large consumer brands that want an AI agent to handle a big share of their customer conversations end to end.
Overview
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Sierra |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | Builds and runs AI customer service agents for big brands, across chat, email and phone. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $49/seat/mo | See website | See website |
| Free plan | Yes | No | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Sierra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| 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 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Sierra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | – |
| Desktop app | – | – | – |
| Browser extension | Yes | Yes | – |
| API access | 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 | – | – | Yes |
| 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 | Sierra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Founders testing outbound. | Platform fee Custom (billed yearly) Every Gong customer pays this, scaled to team size. | EnterpriseOur pick Custom Large companies with high conversation volumes. |
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. | ||
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. | There is one route: talk to Sierra's sales team. Agree clearly what counts as an outcome you pay for, and what setup and services cost, before you sign. |
Key features
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Sierra |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Sierra |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Apollo.io | Gong | Sierra |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Apollo.io, Gong or Sierra?
They tie on our overall rating (Apollo.io 4.0/5, Gong 4.0/5 and Sierra 3.9/5). 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. Sierra is best for high-volume customer service at large brands and AI phone agents that take real actions.
Which is cheaper, Apollo.io, Gong or Sierra?
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. Sierra: Pricing isn't published; check the vendor's site for a quote.
Which is easier to use, Apollo.io, Gong or Sierra?
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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