Apollo.io vs. VanillaSoft

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apollo.io
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Apollo is a sales platform that helps revenue teams find and engage leads, automate outreach, manage deals, and enrich data.
$59
per month per user
VanillaSoft
Score 3.8 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
VanillaSoft is a lead optimization platform designed to assist fast-response sales teams in maximizing their conversion rates. By providing a structured and efficient approach to lead management, VanillaSoft aims to ensure that every potential customer receives the attention they deserve. This platform is beneficial for sales teams that operate in high-pressure environments where timely follow-ups can significantly impact sales outcomes. The primary audience for VanillaSoft…N/A
Pricing
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Editions & Modules
Basic
$59
per month per user
Professional
$99
per month per user
Organization
$1,188
per year per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details20% discount for annual billing on the Basic and Professional plans.VanillaSoft offers several add-ons to use in conjunction with our base platforms including: Auto Dialing Call Recording VoIP SmartCaller ID SMS
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Considered Both Products
Apollo.io
Chose Apollo.io
If you're a call-heavy organization, ZoomInfo is way better for you, in my opinion. If you're somebody that's just looking for emails and the right person to reach out to, then Apollo.io works well. It's going to depend on your industry, so I use a mix of both. I feel like the …
Chose Apollo.io
We found the contact data from Apollo.io was more reliable than Instantly.ai. We used Instantly.ai for about 6 months before stopping our use of it. Growbots doesn't give you as much volume for the same price at Apollo.io. However, we did close sales with Growbots, and we did …
Chose Apollo.io
Way more accurate than both of the other programs.
Chose Apollo.io
Better package options and filters
Chose Apollo.io
Compared to ZoomInfo, Apollo.io offers comparable data coverage at a fraction of the cost with a more intuitive interface. Against Common Room, Apollo.io is more outbound-execution focused while Common Room excels at signal aggregation. Warmly serves a different real-time …
Chose Apollo.io
My company chose Apollo.io but I do prefer it because of the UI and customer service.
Chose Apollo.io
We liked Apollo.io's interface and easy to understand pricing structure more than the rest. We also felt that Apollo.io's value was higher as it included a lot of other features that we currently aren't taking advantage of for the same if not lower price than its competitors. I …
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io was recommended to me as it was a preferred source for lead generation.
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io's ability to push contacts directly through our CRM makes outreach a breeze. The pricing has been our biggest decision factor, I've found it to be the cheapest with the same if not more features. I've used their competitors in the past and I always opt to use …
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io’s lists are higher quality and deliver ability is better.
Chose Apollo.io
We have integrated Hubspot with Apollo.io. Apollo.io is great but the CRM tools of Hubspot are better for our use.
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io is great for getting the exact contact info that these AI tools will not provide. They won't provide names or contact information.
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo has everything with in it and does not require any extra integration and extra tools to be purchased to manage emails, pipelines and does not need to depend on excell sheets for managing everything. It increase productivity and also help me getting right party contact …
Chose Apollo.io
I think Apollo.io has better data than some of the leads we've found through LinkedIn
Chose Apollo.io
I started with Apollo.io, and it was initially overwhelming, but I got the hang of it.
Chose Apollo.io
Cannot provide at this time a full scope, but generating leads is the best so far.
Chose Apollo.io
We've evaluated ZoomInfo, Outreach, Salesloft, and HubSpot Sales Hub as Apollo.io alternatives. Apollo.io won out with its unified interface for lead gen, AI messaging, and analytics—reducing tool switches, costs by 30%, and ramping up outreach speed. No other matched its …
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io is usually better than saleshandy and Lusha because it does many sales tasks in one platform. Lusha is mainly used to find contact details like emails and phone numbers, and saleshandy is mostly used for sending cold email campaigns. Apollo.io, however, combines both …
Chose Apollo.io
I used Growbots for year many years ago, it landed me exactly one client. Apollo.io is much easier to use and has gotten me way more results.
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo is much better than lemlist because it gives you more comprehensive offerings in terms of CRM, automated messages, and the UI is much easier and better.
Chose Apollo.io
Similar, much more affordable for the same type of product.
VanillaSoft
Chose VanillaSoft
Simply put, VanillaSoft is a better value for your dollar than any CRM I have tried on the market. Although Salesforce is a good product, it is way too expensive for many small to medium-sized businesses. VanillaSoft offers a premiere CRM experience that businesses of any size …
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is a lot easier to use and manage (from the admin perspective) when compared to using SalesLoft or Outreach. Since our main requirement was related to customization of the whole product, VanillaSoft hit the nail hard at the right place and the right time for us. …
Chose VanillaSoft
We've evaluated SalesLoft instead of VanillaSoft as they had similar features that we were looking for. We decided on VanillaSoft as we had better close references from it, but we didn't find any issue with SalesLoft.
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft has more internal functionality than ring central. It has an easy learning process for our virtual assistants and allows for immediate implementation. It allows for us to check our staffs' productivity and keep things in check. Also, it makes dialing really really …
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft has very similar offerings to Outreach in terms of usability and opportunities for streamlined prospect engagement. The main differences lie with their user experience, customer service, and how information is presented through the platform in terms of knowledge …
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft stacks up against Microsoft Power BI very well by allowing the data visualization in a more effective way, Power BI has positioned itself as one of the more robust and intuitive tools for business intelligence and data presentation. VanillaSoft and Microsoft Power …
Chose VanillaSoft
The companies we evaluated are not on the list you provided. VanillaSoft was selected due to its flexibility and other stewardship connection streams.
Chose VanillaSoft
VS could add the hard copy mail correspondence to be more on the same level with Rocket Referrals. Also the ability to send out testimonial/review requests would be another nice addition for VS.
Chose VanillaSoft
Ruffalo Noel Levitz Engage was the previous platform used. VanillaSoft is much more user-friendly and allows in-house customization and implementation reducing costs.
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is easy to use and set up. It does not require any coding or complicated setup. The dashboard is pretty straightforward.
Chose VanillaSoft
It's been so many years since I've used the others, but the VanillaSoft is well above and beyond the two I listed. The ease of functions, flexibility in setup, and the outbound calling and email features are leaps and bounds above the others. I could not see ever going back to …
Chose VanillaSoft
I cannot recall which other products we considered so many years ago, but VanillaSoft has been a great choice. We have been so impressed with their Support team's responsiveness.
Chose VanillaSoft
I have not been able to use any other systems like VanillaSoft and I am actually very happy about that. VanillaSoft does any and everything I need it to in order to work. What I like best about VanillaSoft is that it is so easy to navigate the system by the categories, …
Chose VanillaSoft
I have not used any other products like VanillaSoft. Since I have been with my company we have only operated with VanillaSoft. I assume this is because of the many benefits that come with working with VanillaSoft and lack of issues experienced over the years. I hope to continue …
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is used for a different purpose than Revolution EHR, so it's hard to compare the two. VanillaSoft has been easier to learn how to use though.
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is far more user friendly than any other CRM I have ever used. With GoldMine, CampusNexus, etc., we were never able to make changes ourselves. Any changes had to be made by developers. With VanillaSoft, you can completely customize the experience yourself and you …
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is so much better than ViciDial overall.
Chose VanillaSoft
I haven't used any other products
Chose VanillaSoft
All these systems were great, but VanillaSoft in my opinion is less complicated, easier to use and navigate, as well as VanillaSoft is just as productive, fast and effective as the others are. Their customer support is second to none. I feel very very confident in trusting …
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is the best sales-call data system. No other program keeps the salespeople as focused.
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft fits well with our smaller organization. It's user-friendly and easy to navigate. I will be exploring the rest of the features to train my team to get the most functionality it has to offer for us. I really like using the VS Connect as I've never used that type of …
Chose VanillaSoft
I have used Salesforce but feel that it is an old outdated platform. VanillaSoft has more capabilities that make it easy to do all your work from one platform. It's easy to see who you have contacted and what you did in your daily work. It has helped me build my pipeline fast …
Features
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Prospecting
Comparison of Prospecting features of Product A and Product B
Apollo.io
8.1
Ratings
5% above category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Advanced search8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Identification of new leads8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
List quality7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
List upload/download8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Ideal customer targeting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Load time/data access8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Intelligence Data Standards
Comparison of Sales Intelligence Data Standards features of Product A and Product B
Apollo.io
8.2
Ratings
5% above category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Contact information8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Company information8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Industry information8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Augmentation & Lead Qualification
Comparison of Data Augmentation & Lead Qualification features of Product A and Product B
Apollo.io
7.8
Ratings
5% above category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Lead qualification process7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Smart lists and recommendations7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Salesforce integration8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Company/business profiles8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Alerts and reminders7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Data hygiene7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic data refresh7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Tags7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Filters and segmentation8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Intelligence Email Features
Comparison of Sales Intelligence Email Features features of Product A and Product B
Apollo.io
7.7
Ratings
3% above category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Sales email templates7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Append emails to records7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Small Businesses
Lead411
Lead411
Score 8.3 out of 10
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Lead411
Lead411
Score 8.3 out of 10
HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
TechTarget Priority Engine
TechTarget Priority Engine
Score 10.0 out of 10
Outreach
Outreach
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.5
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Likelihood to Recommend
Ideally, you can organize your list of potential clients based on various criteria, such as business unit, economic sector, location (by country or city), company size, etc. I have tested this with companies in my country and confirmed that the results are genuine, provided the contacts are verified. El mejor escenario es que puedes organizar la lista de clientes potenciales basado en muchos ítems como: unidad de negocio, sector económico, ubicación (por país o ciudad), tamaños de las empresas, etc. Lo he probado con empresas de mi país y he certificado que los resultados son reales si son contactos verificados. This review was originally written in Spanish and has been translated into English using a third-party translation tool. While we strive for accuracy, some nuances or meanings may not be perfectly captured.
Read full review
VanillaSoft is well suited for the call center scenarios, it helps the representatives to keep all the leads information well organized and in one single place to speed up daily tasks efficiently and effectively. VanillaSoft is easy to set up, even someone who is new can have it up and running in minutes.
Read full review
Pros
  • Firstly, finding the details of the potential customers that is there name, designation email and phone number since these are the most important cases most of the times I can get this data in Apollo.io
  • I can pull the bulk data of the targeted organization, or I can pull the emails based on the location and job titles
  • Apart from the email capture, the thing which helpful is that the email sequence can find emails and send emails in Apollo.io itself and also the report and the dashboard are so clean
  • Friendly UI and UX Apollo.io was the first tool which I used. Since then I'm still using Apollo.io for easy understanding
Read full review
  • One of my favorite features is the ability to customize routing. Quite often a caller is told by a prospect to call back at a certain date and time, the caller can set that and the record will pop up in the front of the database on that date and time letting you know that you have a call to make.
  • We also send out information on behalf of our clients to prospects, which we do directly out of VanillaSoft. After the information is emailed the system will actually let us know when it was opened and moved that prospect record to the front of the database to be a priority in call rotation.
  • I also love that we were able to customize it so that the callers have everything they need to see right in front of them. We have a area that has the prospects information, name and address, then an area that has required information fields with questions the caller needs to ask and place answers in the appropriate fields, then we have an area with a notepad, an area to access the calendar, and an area that gives the caller all the previous activity on the record.
  • These are considered strengths for us as all of these examples make my job and the callers job much easier and saves us a ton of time and money.
Read full review
Cons
  • Apollo.io's sync to Salesforce is incredibly finnicky and created a large number of duplicates.
  • Apollo.io's workflow functionality is rigid and doesn't play nicely with middleware like Zapier.
  • Apollo.io is focused on helping you spin up many different emails and phone numbers in a spammy manner instead of focusing on domain reputation.
Read full review
  • Telephone numbers should contain dialing code in same column when exporting.
  • Should be easier to import dialing code for telephone numbers by country code.
  • Data should automatically mark other contacts closed when an appointment is scheduled with that company (should say 'having appt').
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
at this moment Apollo.io seems to be the perfect tool that has mastered all aspects of outbound marketing and CRM to handle and manage sales cycle.
Read full review
We have no reason not to renew. VanillaSoft has been the best CRM (for us) that we have ever used. The value is great, we love the system, and it's easy to get assistance from VanillaSoft team when needed. Our team is so used to the calling and admin functions there is no desire to change.
Read full review
Usability
There is a learning curve with Apollo.io, but it's not overwhelming. There's simply a lot of functionality, so it takes a bit to learn the navigation and feature set. I wouldn't let that scare you, though, as there's an AI chat to help you find what you're looking for.
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The entire system is set up so perfectly. It makes training callers much quicker, and admin tools are so easy to navigate when you get used to using it. Also, if there is ever something I cannot figure out, I can get support from VanillaSoft very quickly to resolve and get my task accomplished.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
It is very rare that we have system issues. Maybe a handful of times over the years, we had to contact support about being unable to access. It was always a quick response from the VanillaSoft team, and they would clearly explain the issue and usually give time frame on fixing, or have it fixed immediately.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
I work on all aspects for VanillaSoft for our company. The pages overall do load very quickly. Reports are amazing, I can get quick report, customized reports, and anything I may need to present to client in very little time. It has made my job so much simpler. As far as I know, integration goes smoothly as well.
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Support Rating
The team wants to solve probelms, but we are finding that they don't know how to solve the more technical issues quickly. I suspect that they don't have a mature process for escalations, and they don't have a usable knowledge base article repository. They seems to push emails around to let us know that people are working on the issues to find solutions, but this takes weeks and oftentimes still leaves us without a resolution.
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Response time was acceptable for the relatively few problems any of our users may have encountered. Fortunately, such occasions were rare.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
It was very helpful and informative. The learning of the tool is something anyone can do, as the setup is so well thought out.
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
It was very thorough. VanillaSoft team did not rush us. They explained the various functions clearly and were open to any and all questions we had as we began to learn the system. Also, once training completed, if we encountered anything we could not figure out, the support team was fantastic in helping us out.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Our implementation was very easy.
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Alternatives Considered
If you're a call-heavy organization, ZoomInfo is way better for you, in my opinion. If you're somebody that's just looking for emails and the right person to reach out to, then Apollo.io works well. It's going to depend on your industry, so I use a mix of both. I feel like the Apollo.io extension works a lot better than ZoomInfo because ZoomInfo always gives you a lot of errors, and sometimes it doesn't work or load. For the most part, Apollo.io does, and I never have an issue with the extension as well.
Read full review
VanillaSoft has very similar offerings to Outreach in terms of usability and opportunities for streamlined prospect engagement. The main differences lie with their user experience, customer service, and how information is presented through the platform in terms of knowledge base and analytics. Both are suitable tools, the differentiation comes down to preference of interface and data presentation.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
VanillaSoft has been great. The flexibility of the system is wonderful. The scalable software options are impressive as well. I would strongly support VanillaSoft's capabilities in this area. You really can do just about anything to get the setup and or integrations you may desire for your company needs.
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Return on Investment
  • Apollo.io has helped me find a good set of new target audience for the business that I am in, essentially helping me build a prospective line and grow my lead database by 25 to 30% where I lack a certain skill
  • The Apollo.io quality of the data that it has is significantly better through other competitors like Lusha and others
  • In terms of the revenue increase, there have been certain instances where I have found a new acquirer that essentially I would not have found in a general scenario and that has help me generate from the new identified lead
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  • Ability to contact more clients each day.
  • The ability to save my correspondence and notes on each interaction allowing for the appearance to the customer that I am very engaged when we are speaking.
  • Increased sales from the calendar setting and saving my notes.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Apollo.io Screenshots

Screenshot of people, appearing in ApolloScreenshot of Apollo's data enrichment dashboardScreenshot of a view of unified customer dataScreenshot of Apollo's AI-assisted meetings

VanillaSoft Screenshots

Screenshot of the VanillaSoft Call Activity Dashboard, used to to monitor sales campaigns.Screenshot of where to build reports using the VanillaSoft Web Reports Wizard.Screenshot of where VanillaSoft offers the ability to arrange modules into four panels for access to almost everything in one screen.Screenshot of VanillaSoft's caller screens, which can be displayed in three panels.