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 3.9 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
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 information8.10 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
Tags7.60 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
TechTarget Priority Engine
TechTarget Priority Engine
Score 9.8 out of 10
HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub
Score 8.5 out of 10
Enterprises
TechTarget Priority Engine
TechTarget Priority Engine
Score 9.8 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.
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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.
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  • 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.
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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.
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  • 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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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  • 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.
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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.