Apollo vs Lusha: Data, Credits and Pricing Compared

What is the difference between Apollo and Lusha?

The two tools overlap on contact data, but they are built for different jobs. Apollo.io combines a B2B contact database with sales engagement: sequences, waterfall and CRM enrichment, a dialer and website visitor identification. Per Apollo, its database holds 240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts.

Lusha focuses on B2B contact data and enrichment. It offers bulk, CSV and API enrichment, buying signals and a Chrome extension for looking people up while you browse. Per Lusha, it covers 290M+ verified contacts and 29M+ companies.

Those database figures are each vendor's own claims, and they are counted differently, so do not treat them as a head-to-head measure. The size that matters is how many of your target accounts each tool covers, which you can only learn by testing your own list.

The practical question is simple. Do you want one tool that finds contacts and sends sequences, or a data tool that feeds contacts into a CRM or sender you already use?

How does Apollo pricing work?

As listed on Apollo's pricing page on September 25, 2026, plans are priced per seat per month, and each plan includes a monthly credit allowance.

• Free: $0, with 75 credits a month (monthly billing).
• Basic: $49 billed annually, or $65 billed monthly, with 2,500 credits a month.
• Professional: $79 billed annually, or $99 billed monthly, with 4,000 credits a month.
• Organization: $119 billed annually, with a minimum of 3 seats.
• Apollo says annual billing saves 24%. Basic and Professional include a 14-day trial.

How does Lusha pricing work?

Lusha runs on credits, and the credit cost depends on what you reveal. Per Lusha, revealing an email costs 1 credit and revealing a phone number costs 5 credits. As listed on Lusha's pricing page on September 25, 2026:

• Free: $0, with 40 credits a month, 1 seat, no credit card.
• Starter: $49.90/mo billed monthly, or $37.45/mo billed yearly, with 400 credits a month.
• Pro: $69.90/mo billed monthly, or $52.45/mo billed yearly, with 600 credits a month and 2 seats.
• Premium: $399.90/mo billed monthly, or $299.95/mo billed yearly, with 3,400 credits a month and 5 seats.
• Scale: contact sales.

Apollo vs Lusha side by side

This table uses only what each vendor published on its own site on September 25, 2026. Prices change, so confirm them on Apollo's and Lusha's sites before you buy.

Why credit rules matter more than the sticker price

Two plans with similar monthly prices can buy very different amounts of usable data. The mix of emails and phone numbers you need changes the math.

Take Lusha's Starter plan as listed: 400 credits a month. If you only reveal emails, that is up to 400 emails. If you only reveal phone numbers at 5 credits each, it is up to 80 numbers. Most teams need a mix, so work out your own ratio before you choose a plan.

Apollo bundles credits with each seat, so the total you can use grows with headcount. Read Apollo's current credit rules for exports, emails and mobile numbers before you compare. For either tool, the honest comparison is cost per usable contact: what you spend on data and verification for a batch, divided by the contacts that pass verification.

Who is each tool a good fit for?

Apollo is a strong fit for a small team that wants one login to search for contacts, enrich its CRM, and run sequences and calls. It saves stitching tools together, and the free plan lets you try it before paying.

Lusha is a strong fit for a team that already has a CRM or sending tool and wants a fast way to look up and enrich contacts, including from a browser extension or by API. Its credit rule makes costs easy to predict once you know your email and phone mix.

Some teams use both: Lusha for lookups and phone numbers, Apollo or another tool for sending. That can work, as long as you keep one source of truth for contacts and one suppression list, so nobody is emailed twice or after opting out.

What about Lusha alternatives and other data providers?

If neither fits, look at the job you need done. Cognism offers B2B data and sales intelligence with a European focus, including phone-verified mobile data and CRM enrichment; one credit equals one revealed contact, and its pricing is by quote with Standard and Pro plans that include 5 seats. Seamless.AI offers AI prospecting and contact data with buyer intent and job changes; it has a free plan with 50 credits, and Pro is sold per user with annual credit packages, priced by quote. Clay is a different category: it runs waterfall enrichment across many providers and bills on Actions plus Data Credits. Large providers such as ZoomInfo also exist; we could not verify ZoomInfo's pricing, so check it directly.

What should you check before buying either one?

Run these checks during a free plan or trial, using a sample of your real target accounts.

• Coverage of your own target accounts, tested during the free plan or trial.
• Whether you need phone numbers, and what each reveal costs in credits.
• How many seats you need, and whether pricing is per seat or per plan.
• Monthly versus annual billing, since every listed price differs by term.
• Where verification happens before any address is sent to.
• How contacts sync to your CRM, so data does not live in two places.

Where does Trexinet fit?

Choosing the data tool is the quick part. Building verified lists, warming sending domains, writing and approving copy, and reading every reply takes ongoing operator time. Trexinet runs that system for B2B teams as a managed program, with AI doing research and drafting and a person approving every send. It is one option if you would rather not run it in-house.