Apollo.io vs Salesforce Sales Cloud comparison

Apollo.io and Salesforce are both solutions in the Opportunity Management category. Apollo.io is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. Apollo.io holds a 17.6% mindshare in OM, compared to Salesforce’s 13.1% mindshare. Additionally, 71% of Apollo.io users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Apollo.io

Read 6 Apollo.io reviews

587 Views
354 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Read 114 Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews

658 Views
346 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Apollo.io

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Salesforce Sales Cloud and Apollo.io compete in the CRM and sales automation space. Salesforce Sales Cloud appears more robust due to its extensive features and integrations, while Apollo.io gains an edge with its modern interface and affordability.

Features: Salesforce Sales Cloud provides customizable workflows, advanced analytics, and seamless integration with various third-party applications. Apollo.io focuses on lead generation and sales intelligence, offering data enrichment, email automation, and a user-friendly interface.

Room for Improvement: Salesforce Sales Cloud could improve its cost-effectiveness for small businesses, the steep learning curve, and the complexity of customization options. Apollo.io could enhance its integration capabilities, expand its feature set to match larger competitors, and improve its scalability for growing businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Salesforce Sales Cloud offers both cloud-based and on-premise deployment options, providing extensive support and training resources. Apollo.io features a straightforward cloud-only deployment with responsive customer support but fewer customization options than Salesforce.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Sales Cloud generally has higher upfront costs but aims for long-term value through scalability and extensive features. Apollo.io offers a lower-cost entry point with a focus on rapid ROI through essential sales functionalities, making it more accessible for smaller businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed Apollo.io vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Apollo.io vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Apollo.io

Ranking in Opportunity Management

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Ranking in Opportunity Management

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

114

Ranking in other categories

CRM (1st), Sales Force Automation (1st), Conversation Intelligence Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Opportunity Management category, the mindshare of Apollo.io is 17.6%, up from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Sales Cloud is 13.1%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Opportunity Management

Featured Reviews

Vaibhav Patil

Digital Marketer at DigiLiterate

It makes finding your target audience easy, has a verified contact details feature, and its customer support is helpful and always available

My company used Seamless AI and Hunter.io, but I found Apollo.io more affordable based on the number of leads it gives versus what other products provide. Apollo.io has around one hundred fifty industries you can target, so it has a more extensive lead database than other products. The tool also has a more user-friendly interface and is easy to use versus other tools. You first need to learn how to use Apollo.io, which becomes pretty easy. Other advantages of Apollo.io over other products include more filters you can use to find your target audience. It also shows you verified emails and has mass email and cold call features which you can't find in other tools.

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Richard Mottershead

Enterprise Architect at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees

Infinitely customizable, good end-to-end sales and customer management processes but lacks good documentation

Essentially, it's the CRM solution for managing customers and leads. The features that had the most significant impact on our sales efficiency include flexibility, regular updates, and very good end-to-end sales and customer management processes. AI and machine learning are on the agenda for next year. Initially, it will be very silo-based, but eventually, we'll be integrating MIBI data into our solution. Sales Cloud's reporting and analytics capabilities influenced our sales strategy quite a lot. We can build every report as a dashboard, and there are various sorts of things. We are using Tableau as our MIBI analytic solution, which is also owned by Salesforce these days.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I like the tool's UI. Its user experience is clear."

"What I like most about Apollo.io is it lets you find your target audience. The tool also helps you find verified contact details, apart from allowing you to send bulk emails to people you're looking to contact."

"The product's most valuable feature is its ease of use, especially for beginners."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the intent data it provides our company. I find it really interesting how Apollo.io can detect the intent of companies looking for your company's solution."

"It is a scalable solution."

"Apollo is very user-friendly."

"The dashboards and dashboard customization are great."

"Salesforce Sales Cloud is very reliable and provides good stability and security."

"We use workflows for sales flows and various automation, such as assignment rules and validations provided by Salesforce. When out-of-the-box solutions aren't enough, we delve into coding, utilizing synchronous and asynchronous methods. Additionally, we employ tools like lightning components."

"The solution has the ability to run reports on the pipeline and understand the likelihood of the sales. The analytics tools are very good."

"It is a very stable solution."

"The product is very fast and responsive. There's no lag time when you are on the platform."

"The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are increased productivity and business accuracy."

"On the high level, it's all about managing the clients, managing the opportunities around those clients, managing the tasks, calls, activities, all those things."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pros

Cons

"The solution's initial setup process could be better."

"What's missing in Apollo.io is a proper CRM and pipeline management system. The tool is excellent at finding contact information, but it has room for improvement in sending emails and tracking the sales pipeline."

"They should provide a larger number of free emails."

"Apollo.io still needs to work on the CRM part because it has started building some CRM infrastructure for companies to use and track their sales activities."

"The solution sends callouts when not in maintenance mode, which is a headache for the people involved."

"Sometimes we get the wrong information on Apollo. They should improve the emails because we are connecting all the emails and logging on to Apollo.io."

"One aspect I find challenging with Salesforce Sales Cloud is its forecasting feature. While it's useful for analyzing sales data and predicting future revenue, I've encountered instances where the outcomes weren't as perfect as expected."

"It does not include a professional accounting system, it is operations and it is CRM. It is not capable of accounting things."

"There could be an option to change the price list without creating a new quote."

"Salesforce could improve its response speed."

"The connectivity has some latency. It could be more responsive."

"The solution's customer support is not so good."

"It might be easier if there were better integration with other sales systems or clouds that are not powered by Salesforce. For example, when we work with partners, such as Amazon or any other major tech company, sometimes we collaborate to develop a sales lead."

"The cost of this solution could be improved."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's price is reasonable."

"Apollo.io is more affordable than its competitors. I'm on an unlimited plan that costs $19 monthly. Nowadays, Apollo.io has a $99 plan that gives you ten thousand emails monthly. Other products would cost $2,000+ annually."

"Paid versions are likely to provide more accurate information and offer more convenience to users."

"With my idea about the pricing aspect of Apollo.io, I feel that the solution's pricing model is super good and a steal for what the product offers."

"The price of the product is very high. I rate the product price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means expensive."

"We pay a yearly subscription fee."

"The main issue is the price. Because it's SaaS, you will have to pay on a monthly or yearly basis."

"It's expensive, storage being the most costly aspect."

"Sales Cloud is quite expensive."

"In terms of investment value and return of the investment, Salesforce right now is pretty good on the Western markets where the price of the employees is pretty high."

"You need to pay for the license per user per month. For example, you need to pay $100 per user. If you have 200 users using your Salesforce, that would be multiplied by a hundred, that's $20,000 per month and a quarter million per year."

"The overall price of Salesforce Sales Cloud could be better, it is more expensive than other competitors. There is an annual license for Salesforce Sales Cloud."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Educational Organization

77%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apollo.io?

The product's most valuable feature is its ease of use, especially for beginners.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apollo.io?

We are using the free version of the solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Apollo.io?

Sometimes we get the wrong information on Apollo. They should improve the emails because we are connecting all the emails and logging on to Apollo.io.

See all answers

What do you like most about Salesforce Sales Cloud?

The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Salesforce Sales Cloud?

Improving system performance and processing speed would enhance productivity and allow for even smoother workflows according to my view. Additionally, introducing faster data retrieval and real-tim...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Salesforce Sales Cloud?

My primary use case for Salesforce is to streamline sales strategies, define key sales parameters, and manage focus areas effectively. I leverage Salesforce to record, track, and optimize our sales...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 72% of the time

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Compared 19% of the time

Salesgear vs Apollo.io

Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 30% of the time

SAP CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

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Oracle CX Sales vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

Camunda vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Opportunity Management

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Sales Cloud

March 2025

Download Salesforce Sales Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sales Cloud, SFDC, Salesforce

Overview

The sales intelligence and engagement platform to crush your sales numbers every quarter. Use our data of over 220 million contacts and 30 million companies to find and engage your future customers at the right time with the right message in our all-in-one platform.

Apollo.io

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a comprehensive CRM platform designed for efficient lead management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement, offering extensive customization and cloud-based accessibility.

Aimed at enhancing business efficiency, Salesforce Sales Cloud supports core business processes like CRM, lead and opportunity management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement. Its robust integration capabilities allow seamless connectivity with ERP systems and various applications. The platform offers pipeline tracking, process automation, and advanced sales cycle management. Users appreciate its cloud-based accessibility, allowing teams to operate remotely and manage sales operations effectively. However, users highlight concerns about its complexity, cost, and the need for a more intuitive interface.

What features does Salesforce Sales Cloud offer?

Customization: Tailor the CRM to meet specific business requirements.
Robust Reporting: Comprehensive analytics and data insights.
Lead Management: Efficiently manage and convert leads.
API Integration: Seamless connectivity with multiple applications.
Cloud Accessibility: Work from anywhere with cloud-based access.

What benefits should be evaluated in Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews?

Enhanced Productivity: Streamline sales processes with automation.
Improved Collaboration: Facilitate team coordination and client engagement.
Accurate Forecasting: Make informed decisions with reliable sales forecasts.
Flexibility: Accommodate diverse industry needs with ease.
Legacy System Integration: Efficiently update and integrate with existing systems.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, supporting sales teams in tracking and managing sales operations. Its use extends to reporting, collaboration, and enhancing client interactions, allowing companies to tailor Salesforce to meet industry-specific requirements efficiently.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kuoni Global Travel Services, Financial Times, Just Eat, Jobsite, H.R. Owen, PlayerLayer, O2, DMGT, Philips, Xtreme.ie, Business Stream, Remote Asset Management, Dialogue Group

Buyer's Guide

Apollo.io vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

March 2025

Free Report: Apollo.io vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

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We monitor all Opportunity Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.