Searchbase vs Apollo (2026 Comparison)
2026-09-08
Quick answer: Searchbase searches the same B2B contact databases you would buy Apollo for, Apollo's own included, plus Hunter and more, and it reads the open web in the same prompt. One request returns a table of companies or people with email and phone where a provider has them, the ads they are running, the jobs they have posted and the social profiles they keep. Describe your ideal customer. Searchbase finds them across Europe in one prompt, with the source on every cell. It works in Italian as well as English, bills in euros, and charges per action rather than per seat (€0 to €199 a month). Apollo is the better pick if you want a dialer, pipeline boards and campaign sending in the same tab ($0 on the free plan, then $49 to $119 per user per month on annual billing). Both are free to start.
What each tool actually does
Apollo (apollo.io) describes itself as "the AI sales platform for smarter, faster revenue growth" and says it "replaces your data provider, outreach platform, dialer, enrichment, and CRM". The core asset is the database: Apollo's own pages claim 240M+ people and 30M+ companies with 98% email accuracy. Around that database Apollo puts the rest of a sales stack. You filter for the accounts and titles you want, you push them into multichannel campaigns, you call them with the built-in dialer, you watch the deal on a pipeline board, and Apollo syncs the whole thing back to Salesforce or HubSpot. There is a Chrome extension for prospecting on other people's sites, a workflow automation engine, and AI features that write call summaries and follow-ups. If your motion is "known company, known job title, contact them", Apollo is one of the two or three obvious answers, next to ZoomInfo and Clay.
Searchbase (searchbase.org, Europe) puts the databases and the open web behind one sentence. You write what you need in plain words, "every digital agency in Milan with an email and a website", "heads of marketing at Italian furniture manufacturers", "creators in the running niche with over 10k followers and a contact email", "companies advertising kitchen furniture on Meta in Italy", and the agent decides where to look. For standard B2B contacts it queries contact databases, Apollo (240M+ people and 30M+ companies, as Apollo states) and Hunter among them, and enriches companies against Crunchbase and the Italian company registry. For everything a database does not hold it searches, opens the pages, reads them and extracts the rows, streaming them into a spreadsheet while you watch. Every cell carries a link to the page or provider it came from, a badge with when it was collected, and the extraction method used. Emails carry the provider's status. If a value cannot be verified it stays n/a instead of being guessed. From the people it finds, the agent drafts personalised email and LinkedIn sequences that you approve before anything launches.
The short version: Apollo queries the one database it owns. Searchbase queries several, Apollo's included, then keeps reading the open web until the table is full, and shows you where each value came from.
Side by side
| Searchbase | Apollo | |
|---|---|---|
| Input | plain-language prompt | filters over a contact database |
| Coverage | B2B contact databases (Apollo alone: 240M+ people and 30M+ companies, as Apollo states; plus Hunter and more) plus any public web page, 12 social platforms, 3 ad libraries (Meta, Google, TikTok), 9 job boards, the Italian company registry, Crunchbase | 240M+ people, 30M+ companies |
| Output | table of companies or people: email and phone where a provider has them, website, LinkedIn, any column you ask for; source link on every cell | contact records with email, phone, company |
| Verification | source link, collection time and method on every cell; provider status on emails; unknown = n/a, never guessed | email accuracy claimed at 98% |
| Ad intelligence | yes, the Meta, Google and TikTok ad libraries | no |
| Creators and social | yes, 12 platforms | limited |
| Languages | English, Italian | English |
| Pricing model | per action, no seats: a 10-person team pays the same as one | per user per month |
| Pricing | €0 / €29 / €79 / €199 per month, billed annually; 150 to 12,000 credits | $0 free; Basic $49, Professional $79, Organization $119 per user per month on annual billing |
| CRM and export | HubSpot push; CSV, JSON, API, webhooks | pipeline boards, deal alerts, Salesforce and HubSpot sync, CSV, API |
| Outreach | drafts personalised email and LinkedIn sequences per lead; you approve before launch | sends multichannel campaigns, dialer included |
| Best for | any team that needs a list a single database cannot give: B2B sales, agencies, recruiters, marketers, European and Italian teams | B2B sales teams running volume outbound |
Where Apollo is stronger
- The dialer and the pipeline. Call recording, conversation intelligence, deal boards and pre-meeting AI summaries live in the same tab as the list. Searchbase returns a phone number where a provider has one and stops there. If your day is a call block, that gap is the whole comparison.
- Sending is live. Apollo runs the campaign: sequences go out, the dialer places the call, deliverability guardrails are built in. In Searchbase the agent writes the drafts and you approve them, and launching from the campaign wizard is still rolling out.
- One stack, one bill. Chrome extension, workflow automation, Salesforce and HubSpot sync, a public API, an app marketplace and a lot of third-party tutorials. Teams buy Apollo partly to delete three other subscriptions, and standards are easy to hire for.
Where Searchbase is stronger
- One prompt, every source. Apollo can only answer from Apollo. Searchbase asks the contact databases, Apollo (240M+ people and 30M+ companies, as Apollo states) and Hunter among them, and then keeps going into the open web, social platforms, ad libraries, job boards, Crunchbase and the Italian company registry, in the same request. It is the superset, not the alternative: whatever a database holds, plus everything that only exists on a public page.
- You can check every number. A cell in Searchbase is a claim with a link, a collection time and the method attached. When a client asks "where did this email come from?", you click and show them. Apollo returns the value and an accuracy claim about the database as a whole, which tells you some records are wrong without telling you which.
- Unverifiable stays empty. Searchbase writes
n/arather than a plausible guess. A blank cell you can trust is worth more than a filled cell you cannot. - Competitor ads. Searchbase reads the Meta, Google and TikTok ad libraries. "Who is advertising kitchen furniture in Italy this month, and what are they saying" is a table, not a week of manual searching. Apollo does not do this.
- Creators and social. Twelve social platforms, so influencer and creator research is a first-class use case rather than a workaround.
- No seat tax, and built for Europe. Searchbase charges for actions, so a ten-person team pays what one person pays. Apollo's Organization plan has a three-user minimum at $119 per user per month, which is $4,284 a year before anyone has run a search. On top of that: prompts, interface and results in Italian as well as English, euro pricing a European finance team can process without a conversion, and a European company on the other side of the contract, so GDPR is the default frame rather than an export question. Apollo's own plan comparison puts the US dialer on Professional and the international dialer only on Organization. That is a reasonable way to build a US-first product. It is just not the same product as one built for a seller in Milan or Madrid.
How credits work in Searchbase
You pay per action, not per seat. Reading a page costs about 1 credit, a social profile about 3, a Deep Research report 20 to 40. The Free plan renews 150 credits every month with no card. Starter (€29) gives 1,000 credits, Pro (€79) gives 4,000 with API access and rollover, Business (€199) gives 12,000 with webhooks. Export is JSON on every plan, CSV from Starter, API from Pro, webhooks on Business, with a direct HubSpot push for contacts.
Frequently asked questions
Is Searchbase an Apollo alternative? For building a list, Searchbase is the wider tool: it queries the contact databases, Apollo's among them, and then reads everything a database does not hold. For a dialer, pipeline boards and live sending in one tab, Apollo is the more complete product today. Plenty of teams run both.
Which one is cheaper? It depends on how many people use it. Apollo is per seat: $49, $79 or $119 per user per month on annual billing, with a three-user minimum on Organization. Searchbase is per action: €29 to €199 a month for the whole workspace, however many people log in. One power user with heavy volume may pay less on Apollo. A five-person agency almost certainly pays less on Searchbase.
Does Searchbase send emails? No. The agent drafts a personalised sequence for each person it found and you approve every message before anything launches. Launching from the campaign wizard is being switched on progressively. Apollo sends today, with deliverability guardrails and a dialer.
Can Apollo find creators, local businesses or companies running ads? Not really. Apollo is built on B2B firmographic and contact data, the same category as ZoomInfo and Lusha. Creators, small local businesses and advertisers are mostly outside it. Searchbase covers that database layer too, and then reads the ad libraries, the social platforms and the open web on top.
Can I export to my CRM? Searchbase pushes contacts straight into HubSpot and exports JSON, CSV, an API from Pro and webhooks on Business. Apollo syncs natively with Salesforce and HubSpot and exports CSV.
Where does the data come from? Searchbase: B2B contact databases including Apollo and Hunter, plus company sites, 12 social platforms, 3 ad libraries, 9 job boards, Crunchbase, the Italian company registry, reviews and press, each linked from the cell. Apollo: its own database of 240M+ people and 30M+ companies.
Prices and features checked on 2026-09-08 from https://www.apollo.io/, https://www.apollo.io/pricing and https://www.apollo.io/insights/apollo-alternatives. Tell us if something changed.