Apollo.io vs. VanillaSoft

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apollo.io
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Apollo is a $1.6B AI-powered sales platform that helps revenue teams find and engage leads, automate outreach, manage deals, and enrich data. Boasting B2B database of more than 210 million contacts and 35 million companies, Apollo’s end-to-end platform helps businesses of all sizes unlock their full market potential with precision and ease. With users among 500,000+ companies, including Autodesk, Cyera, and DocuSign, Apollo offers a go-to-market platform to…
$59
per month per user
VanillaSoft
Score 3.7 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
It is more advanced than Outplay, better integrations, introduction of AI features. It was a better fit than Outplay for our business needs.
Chose Apollo.io
havent used many others, but, to me, Apollo.io seems to be the best,
Chose Apollo.io
I just did the trial so this question in not relevant.
Chose Apollo.io
Outreach is way better than Apollo.io
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo has a built-in customer and contact base. That was the major point.
Chose Apollo.io
less expensive and more comprehensive.
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo is much cheaper compared to the others. The filter options are much better in Apollo.
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io has all features of prospecting, outreach automation including email sequences, campaign tracking, lead scoring, and analytics in one interface which enables sales persons to manage their entire sales funnel without having any other extra tool. Another benefit is for …
Chose Apollo.io
In Outreach, when a Sequence ends, a pop-up automatically appears prompting you to add the person to the next Sequence. Apollo.io doesn’t have this feature. Outreach also allows you to run Sequences directly from the Extension, and the workflow is person-centric. For example, …
Chose Apollo.io
I think the platform is more user-friendly, and the data is more concise.
Chose Apollo.io
In terms of everything Apollo.io was very user friendly and was more accurate. The data received was on point and we did get more contact and email data from Apollo.io rather than Linkedin. The value for money was way better than the platforms we tried.
Chose Apollo.io
As of now Apollo definitely seems to be better than ZoomInfo.
Chose Apollo.io
So we have evaluated Seamless AI, Enrich AI, and Snov.io before finally deciding to settle for Apollo. These platforms have better UI and some, like Snov, have good email sending capability, but they all lag when it comes to their database; they do not match up to Apollo. …
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo is my favorite in terms of the quality for emails and phone . and i have been using so many other tools which unable to gave me that kind of data.
Chose Apollo.io
I have not used other products.
Chose Apollo.io
The main other product I've used is Hubspot but I used that as more of a CRM and where I wasn't focused on prospecting, generating leads, sequences, etc with it even though I know that is a possibility. So I can't necessarily compare the two given I used them for separate tasks
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io has a mid tier dialer that I was looking to replace. Ultimately, I never replaced Apollo.io's dialer because it was really nice to just have one single tool that everything worked through, and never had to transfer data or call logs between platforms.
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io stacks up against other interfaces because of its overall all in one prospecting tool capabilities right from account identification to end to end reachout to leads no other prospecting tool provides such wide range of features for a bd reachout. It's a …
Chose Apollo.io
Apollo.io is much faster in gathering data that I'm searching for and it's pretty simple to control. I can also save searches, lists, and export the data at whichever capacity I desire. Also, I like the new features that involve AI, Buying Intent, and LinkedIn data scraping. …
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
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 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
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 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
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
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
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
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 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 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
I haven't used any other products
Chose VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is so much better than ViciDial overall.
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
7.9
Ratings
2% above category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Advanced search7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Identification of new leads7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
List quality7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
List upload/download8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ideal customer targeting7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Load time/data access8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Intelligence Data Standards
Comparison of Sales Intelligence Data Standards features of Product A and Product B
Apollo.io
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Contact information7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Company information8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Industry information7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Augmentation & Lead Qualification
Comparison of Data Augmentation & Lead Qualification features of Product A and Product B
Apollo.io
7.7
Ratings
4% above category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Lead qualification process7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Smart lists and recommendations7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Salesforce integration8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Company/business profiles7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Alerts and reminders7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data hygiene7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic data refresh7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Tags7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Filters and segmentation8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Intelligence Email Features
Comparison of Sales Intelligence Email Features features of Product A and Product B
Apollo.io
6.9
Ratings
8% below category average
VanillaSoft
-
Ratings
Sales email templates6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Append emails to records7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Small Businesses
Lead411
Lead411
Score 9.1 out of 10
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Lead411
Lead411
Score 9.1 out of 10
Mixmax
Mixmax
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
TechTarget Priority Engine
TechTarget Priority Engine
Score 9.9 out of 10
Outreach
Outreach
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apollo.ioVanillaSoft
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(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
-
(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
The automatic email feature is extremely helpful for quickly contacting more potential clients. It is user-friendly and easy to access all buttons, which helps you navigate the task efficiently. It could greatly help to acquire more clients for a project to be successful. I cannot see anything less appropriate for me to achieve the goal I am aiming for.
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.
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Pros
  • Consolidates tool and packs in a lot of functionality
  • Keeps up with the industry trends for prospecting and data enrichment
  • Offers the basics you need to get going
  • Account mapping to Salesforce - reps can prospect in Apollo and can easily toggle on views to only see their own accounts.
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
  • I thought the AI email-generating function was weak. The email sounded way too robotic.
  • I wish there were a split-screen option that allowed me to view my lists and leads simultaneously.
  • I wish putting contacts into lists wouldn't cost any credits.
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').
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Likelihood to Renew
Generally quite a reliable tool with decent data quality/availability. Pricing works well for our team and our use case
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.
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Usability
Apollo.io has an amazing amount of features. It's great being able to complete so many tasks in one space but it's also overwhelming. It took me a few days to work through all of the options when searching for a company or person. After a few days it started to provide companies for me which was confusing before I understood what was happening. At first, I was also confused about what a "sequence" was so maybe some of the jargon can be confusing. I think with time I will become more comfortable once I understand all of the options offered.
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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.
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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.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Apollo.io has all features of prospecting, outreach automation including email sequences, campaign tracking, lead scoring, and analytics in one interface which enables sales persons to manage their entire sales funnel without having any other extra tool. Another benefit is for pricing related which has been understand from our management team.
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
  • Increased # of booked meetings from outbound email outreach.
  • Our sales team's productivity has improved when prospecting/doing outreach (which has a monetary value, given our salaried status). This makes us more productive, enabling us to accomplish more and reach a greater number of people in a day.
  • We've only recently implemented this, so we're still waiting to close, but leads are on their way to doing so.
Read full review
  • 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 Find every prospect. Uncover high-intent contacts in your market.Screenshot of Connect with every contact. Orchestrate multi-step sequences at scale.Screenshot of Optimize your sales strategy. Unlock efficiencies and opportunities across your entire workflow.Screenshot of Apollo B2B Lead Database - Access data on more than 250M people and companies.Screenshot of Apollo Engagement Suite - Automate personalized messages across your entire pipeline.Screenshot of Apollo Intelligence Engine - Improve your revenue strategy across your workflow and boost efficiencies.

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.