Grain vs Apollo.io
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Grain and Apollo.io.
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Verdict: Apollo.io wins
Apollo.io scores 4.2/5, edging out Grain at 4.0/5. SDR and founder-led outbound teams that want one subscription for B2B contact data plus sequencing and calling, and are willing to manage a credit budget.
Grain AI meeting recording and insights for sales | Apollo.io AI-powered B2B prospecting and outreach | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.0 (1 review) | 4.2 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best For | Sales and customer-facing teams of roughly 5-50 seats that want meeting capture, CRM-ready notes, and call coaching at published per-seat prices. | SDR and founder-led outbound teams that want one subscription for B2B contact data plus sequencing and calling, and are willing to manage a credit budget. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | free tierteam features | free tierteam features |
| Visit Grain → | Visit Apollo.io → |
Grain
Pros
- + Bot-free desktop capture meant no notetaker robot to explain at the start of customer calls — the transcripts and AI notes held up in my checks
- + Transparent per-seat pricing from $15/mo (annual) with a usable free tier, against quote-only enterprise incumbents
- + Custom AI prompts let me steer summary shape to match our CRM hygiene process instead of accepting a generic template
- + MCP server on the platform (basic on Free, advanced on Business) let Claude query workspace meeting data directly
- + Trackers, deal boards, and AI coaching bring Gong-style call intelligence to a five-to-fifty-seat team at a fraction of the price
Cons
- - Recorder-seat rules on Free are contradictory in Grain's own docs (pricing page: unlimited notetaker seats; support article: one, plus a 20-bot-recording cap for personal emails)
- - Free tier walls are hard: 45-minute meetings, short history (30 days per the pricing page), and no uploads, CRM, or coaching
- - Starter caps uploads at 10/month and its 10-upload limit bites teams importing external recordings
- - All paid seats in a workspace must be on the same plan tier — no mixing Starter and Business to control costs
- - Thinner revenue intelligence than Gong-class tools: no predictive deal scoring or deep forecasting
Apollo.io
Pros
- + Free tier is genuinely functional — I built filtered searches, pulled verified emails and ran a short sequence before hitting any paywall
- + Database, sequences, dialer and deliverability tooling in one seat price replaces two or three subscriptions for a small team
- + Credit grants are generous at the Professional tier (48,000 credits per seat per year at time of writing, per apollo.io/pricing)
- + Waterfall enrichment and AI lead scoring surfaced active accounts my manual filters had missed in my test run
- + Pricing is published and self-serve through Organization tier — no forced sales call to start
Cons
- - Three separate meters (seat credits, mobile credits, enrichment credits) make real cost hard to forecast — my export credits drained fastest on direct dials
- - Data quality thins out outside US tech: stale titles and re-routed inboxes on older and smaller-company records in my sample
- - Licensing forbids reselling or powering external products with Apollo data without a custom agreement
- - Call coaching is shallow versus dedicated conversation intelligence tools; call recording is metered (4,000 AI-insight minutes at Professional)
- - Buying intent is capped (6 topics at Professional) and intent data is a paid-tier feature only
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Grain or Apollo.io?▼
Apollo.io scores higher at 4.2/5 vs 4.0/5 for Grain, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Grain and Apollo.io?▼
Grain: Grain records, transcribes and summarises meetings, and clips the moments worth sharing into the CRM or a message. Apollo.io: Apollo.io combines a B2B contact database with sequencing, dialling and deal tracking for go-to-market teams.
Is Grain or Apollo.io more affordable?▼
Grain starts at €0/mo, Apollo.io starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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