An honest, side-by-side look at pricing, data, sending and fit, plus the flat-rate alternative that replaces the recurring bill of both.
Plans from $19.90 a month · cancel anytime
Replaced Apollo overnight. Reply rate went from 2% to 14% in week one. Wish I found this sooner.
I sent 300 emails on day one. By week 2 I had a closed deal. The verification alone is worth it.
47 demos booked in 30 days. The unlimited sending is a game changer, I used to pay $300/mo for half this.
They solve different problems: Apollo is a persona-searchable database with sequencing, Hunter is a domain email finder. For building prospect lists from scratch, Apollo wins. For finding addresses at specific companies you already know, Hunter is simpler and excellent.
| Dimension | Apollo.io | Hunter.io |
|---|---|---|
| Search model | Persona search: title, industry, size, tech | Domain search: emails at a known company |
| Pricing | $49-149/user/mo + credits | $49-499/mo by credit volume |
| List building at scale | Filter and export thousands by ICP | Needs a domain list as input |
| Single lookups | Heavier tool for the job | Fast, accurate, great free tier |
| Outreach | Sequences + dialer built in | Basic campaigns |
| Verification | Basic, credit-metered | Strong verifier, credit-metered |
Based on publicly listed plans and features, July 2026. Verify current details on each vendor's site.
Apollo is data-first: one of the largest native databases here, plus a dialer, sequencing and buying-intent signals on higher tiers. The catch is credit-based, per-seat pricing that makes an active seat cost far more than the sticker.
Hunter is excellent at one job: domain email search. Give it a company and it returns likely addresses and the pattern. It is weak as a full prospecting tool because it cannot search a large database by persona or send at scale.
Both tools above bill monthly, and neither covers the full workflow alone. Getlead bundles the lead database, SMTP verification, cold email sending and warm-up in one flat plan from $19.90 a month.
| Tool | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Getlead | Founders, freelancers and agencies who want the entire lead gen and cold email stack for one flat monthly plan. | $19.90/mo |
| Apollo.io | Sales teams that want a large native database, a dialer and intent data in one platform. | $49-149/user/mo |
| Hunter.io | Finding email patterns for a specific domain you already know. | $49-299/mo |
Full breakdowns: Getlead vs Apollo.io · Getlead vs Hunter.io · Apollo.io pricing · Hunter.io pricing
Apollo searches a database by persona (title, industry, size); Hunter finds email addresses at domains you already know. Different inputs, different jobs.
At low volume, yes ($49/mo Starter). At real list-building volume Hunter's credit tiers ($149-299/mo) meet or exceed Apollo's per-seat cost without offering persona search.
No. Hunter needs company domains as input. To go from ICP to list, you need a searchable database like Apollo or Getlead.
Getlead combines a 177M+ persona-searchable database with verification and sending for a flat $19.90 a month, covering the Apollo job and most of the Hunter job.
Getlead bundles the lead database, SMTP verification, cold email sending and warm-up in one flat plan.
From $19.90 a month · cancel anytime