Comparison
Apollo is for reps who want a 240M-contact database with email sequences and a dialer in one product; LinkedIn Sales Navigator is for sellers who prospect inside LinkedIn's network of 1+ billion members with InMail, job-change alerts and relationship mapping. Both publish prices: Apollo is Free; $49–$119/user/mo (annual) and Sales Navigator is Core $119.99/mo; Advanced $159.99/mo per license.
By Semir JahicCEO & Co-Founder, SalesmotionLast reviewed | Feature | Apollo.io | LinkedIn Sales Navigator |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Contact database with built-in sequences and a dialer | Prospecting and relationship tools on LinkedIn's member network |
| Data | 240M contacts and 30M companies | 1+ billion LinkedIn members |
| Reaching Buyers | Email sequences and a US dialer | InMail: 50 credits a month on every plan |
| Free Plan or Trial | Free plan: 900 credits per seat a year, 2 sequences | Free trial of Core and Advanced for eligible members |
| Pricing | Free; $49–$119/user/mo (annual) | Core $119.99/mo; Advanced $159.99/mo |
| Billing | Annual or monthly on Basic and Professional; Organization is annual | Monthly or annual, per license |
| Best For | Email and phone outbound from one tool | Relationship-led selling on LinkedIn |
Apollo.io is an all-in-one prospecting and engagement platform that combines a database of 240M contacts and 30M companies with sequences, a dialer, enrichment and AI tools. It is designed to be a complete prospecting stack in a single product.
Reps search Apollo's database, reveal contacts with credits, build lists and launch sequences without wiring anything together. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 8. Intent topics are included on every plan, and Apollo adds AI Research, AI Scores, an AI Assistant and Agents inside the prospecting workflow.
Apollo publishes its pricing and has a permanent free plan with 900 credits per seat a year and two sequences. It offers a Chrome extension and Apollo MCP, and lists Salesforce, HubSpot and LinkedIn among its integrations.
Best for: Teams and individual reps who want contact data, email sequences and a dialer in one self-serve product with a published per-seat price
Pricing: Apollo publishes its pricing: a free tier, then Basic at $49, Professional at $79 and Organization at $119 per seat per month on annual billing (3-seat minimum on Organization). Monthly billing is $65 and $99 on Basic and Professional; Organization is annual only.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's prospecting product, built on its network of 1+ billion members. LinkedIn says it is trusted by 1.5M+ sellers. Reps search with 50+ advanced filters, save leads and accounts, and reach people with InMail.
Its strength is first-party access to the LinkedIn graph. Alerts notify reps when a saved lead has an important update such as a job or role change, Relationship Explorer and Relationship Map chart the people at an account, and TeamLink shows connections through colleagues. Buyer Intent, on the Advanced and Advanced Plus plans, shows which companies are actively showing interest.
Sales Navigator also has AI built on LinkedIn data: Account IQ gives insights on target accounts, Lead IQ summarizes a lead's experience and recent activity, and Message Assist drafts messages. It integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics and Oracle, and is sold in three plans: Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus.
Best for: Sellers who prospect and build relationships inside LinkedIn and want job-change alerts, InMail and relationship mapping
Pricing: LinkedIn publishes Sales Navigator pricing: Core at $119.99/month or $1,079.88/year, Advanced at $159.99/month or $1,799.88/year, and Advanced Plus on request. All three plans include 50 InMail credits a month.
How Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator stack up across key capabilities.
| Feature | Apollo.io | LinkedIn Sales Navigator |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Advanced filters and signals; intent filters from Basic | 50+ advanced search filters |
| Outreach | Sequences (2 on Free, unlimited from Basic); US dialer (credits apply) | InMail (50 credits a month); Smart Links |
| AI Research | AI Research, AI Scores, pre-meeting AI insights | Account IQ and Lead IQ, built on LinkedIn data |
| AI Assistance | AI Assistant and Agents | Message Assist |
| Signals | Intent topics on every plan; buying intent; website visitors | Buyer Intent (Advanced and Advanced Plus); job-change and engagement alerts |
| CRM Integrations | Salesforce and HubSpot; CRM integrations from Basic | Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and more |
| Getting Records Into the CRM | CRM Enrichment: 100 records a month on Free | Lead/Contact Creation saves LinkedIn profiles as CRM leads or contacts |
| Free Trial | 14-day trial on Basic and Professional | Core and Advanced, for eligible members; credit card required |
| Seats | Per seat; all seats on one plan; 3-seat minimum on Organization | Per license; up to five Advanced licenses online |
| Cancellation | Takes effect at the end of the current plan term | End of the paid year on annual plans; end of the month on monthly plans |
We held 55 sales and customer calls between August and October 2026. In 22 of them the question was not who to contact but which accounts to work this week, and when.
“the rate of responses is really, really low if they don't know you before.”
“I just feel like we have a lack of visibility into ... what accounts are actually hot”
“one of the things I'm always trying to figure out is the right timing”
Both vendors publish their prices. Apollo publishes its pricing: a free tier, then Basic at $49, Professional at $79 and Organization at $119 per seat per month on annual billing (3-seat minimum on Organization). Monthly billing is $65 and $99 on Basic and Professional; Organization is annual only. The free plan includes 900 credits per seat a year and two sequences, credits are pooled across the team, and an email costs 1 credit while a phone number costs 8.
LinkedIn publishes Sales Navigator pricing: Core at $119.99/month or $1,079.88/year, Advanced at $159.99/month or $1,799.88/year, and Advanced Plus on request. All three plans include 50 InMail credits a month. LinkedIn notes that the prices are estimates that may exclude VAT or GST and are subject to change. Up to five Advanced licenses can be bought online; Advanced Plus is bought through LinkedIn's sales team.
The two charge for different things. Apollo's seat price includes a credit allowance for revealing emails and phone numbers, plus sequences and a dialer. Sales Navigator's license price covers access to LinkedIn's network, 50 InMail credits a month and its alerts and relationship tools. Teams that use both pay for both, so cost out which reps need each one.
Apollo is strongest at integrated prospecting and engagement, and Sales Navigator at people and relationships on LinkedIn. Both are built around finding and reaching individuals. Salesmotion is built for the step before that: account intelligence that tells a rep which accounts to work now and what to say.
It is the layer that sits alongside a contact database or sequencer. Reps keep Apollo for contacts and sending and Sales Navigator for people and relationships, and use Salesmotion for cited research and signals on each account.
Salesmotion's Research Agent turns 1,000+ public sources into an account brief, with every data point linked to its source.
The Signal Agent monitors target accounts for 50+ signal types drawn from earnings calls, SEC filings, news, job postings and leadership announcements.
The Outreach Agent drafts a message anchored to the event that triggered it and pushes it to lemlist. Salesmotion starts at $85/month on a monthly contract.
Salesmotion gives your reps the account intelligence they need to book more meetings and close bigger deals.
Apollo is a contact database with outreach built in; Sales Navigator is a prospecting tool on LinkedIn's network. Apollo covers 240M contacts and 30M companies and includes email sequences and a US dialer. Sales Navigator searches 1+ billion LinkedIn members with 50+ filters, reaches them with InMail, and alerts reps to job and role changes.
On published list prices, Apollo's entry plan costs less per seat than Sales Navigator Core, and Apollo also has a free plan with no time limit. Apollo publishes its pricing: a free tier, then Basic at $49, Professional at $79 and Organization at $119 per seat per month on annual billing (3-seat minimum on Organization). Monthly billing is $65 and $99 on Basic and Professional; Organization is annual only. LinkedIn publishes Sales Navigator pricing: Core at $119.99/month or $1,079.88/year, Advanced at $159.99/month or $1,799.88/year, and Advanced Plus on request. All three plans include 50 InMail credits a month.
Yes. Apollo lists LinkedIn among its integrations and offers a Chrome extension, and both tools integrate with Salesforce and HubSpot. One way to split the work is Sales Navigator for finding and following people on LinkedIn, and Apollo for contact details, email sequences and calls.
Apollo has a free plan and Sales Navigator has a free trial. Apollo's free plan stays free with no time limit and includes 900 credits per seat a year and two sequences, with a 14-day trial on Basic and Professional. LinkedIn offers a trial of Core and Advanced to members who are not on a paid LinkedIn subscription and have not used a LinkedIn free trial in the past 365 days; the plan page does not state the trial's length.
It depends on the channel. Apollo is built for email and phone: sequences are unlimited from the Basic plan and a US dialer is included, with credits applying to calls. Sales Navigator is built for LinkedIn: every plan includes 50 InMail credits a month, and Message Assist drafts messages.
Yes, from different sources. Apollo includes intent topics on every plan (1 on Free, 6 on Basic and Professional, 12 on Organization) along with signal filters and website visitor identification. Sales Navigator's signals come from LinkedIn: alerts on job and role changes and content engagement, and Buyer Intent on the Advanced and Advanced Plus plans.
Both include AI research on their own data. Apollo offers AI Research, AI Scores and pre-meeting AI insights inside its prospecting workflow. Sales Navigator offers Account IQ for insights on target accounts and Lead IQ for summaries of a lead's experience and recent activity, built on LinkedIn data.
Salesmotion is the account intelligence and signal layer that sits alongside a contact database or sequencer. Its three AI agents (Signal, Research and Outreach) monitor 1,000+ public sources for 50+ signal types, write cited account briefs and draft outreach anchored to the event that triggered it. Teams keep Apollo for contacts and sending and Sales Navigator for people on LinkedIn. Pricing starts at $85/month on a monthly contract.
A Signal Agent, Research Agent, and Outreach Agent — working 24/7 so your team spends less time researching and more time closing.
