Lemlist vs Apollo Pricing, features and which is better

The short answer

Lemlist and Apollo both find B2B contacts and email them, but they bill on opposite axes. Lemlist Email is $69 a month ($55 on annual billing) for unlimited users, so the price does not move when the team grows. Apollo charges per seat, $49, $79 or $119 per user a month on annual billing, plus consumption credits. At one seat Apollo Basic is cheaper and hands you 30,000 data credits a year. From two seats up, a team that only needs email pays far less on Lemlist. Pick Apollo for the much larger database and a built-in dialer, Lemlist for a whole team sending email on one flat plan. AutoMail is the third option when finding contacts is not the bottleneck and writing the sequence is.

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Sequence Studio

Prospect Pick one, then draft

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Type a real prospect and AutoMail writes the sequence here, from what you enter. On your list the AI does the research for you.

AI worklog research · write · check

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Reply detected · sequence paused Meeting booked ✦ Synced to CRM

Live, interactive · personalized · no card needed

Sequence drafted · inbox-safe Reply detected · meeting booked

Permission-based B2B outreach · 1-click unsubscribe in every send · deliverability protected

Flat pricing from $49/mo, no per-seat fees Warm-up and inbox rotation on every plan One-click unsubscribe and suppression built in

Quick verdict

Who each tool is for

Both Lemlist and Apollo are capable. Here is the shortest honest way to choose, with where AutoMail fits.

Pick Lemlist

Several people need to send email and you do not want the bill to grow with the team. The Email plan is $55 a month on annual billing for unlimited users, with a 650M-contact database and phone finder included.

Pick Apollo

Contact data is the bottleneck, you want a built-in dialer and deal management, or you are one or two seats. Apollo Basic is $49 per seat a month annually with 30,000 credits per seat per year, and there is a real free plan.

Pick AutoMail

You already have a verified list and the actual work is writing a personalized sequence for every prospect and getting replies onto the calendar. Flat per workspace, unlimited seats, no credits.

Lemlist and Apollo land on the same shortlist because both promise the whole outbound motion in one login: find the contact, verify it, put it in a sequence, send. They arrive there from different directions. Apollo grew out of a very large B2B contact database and added sequencing, a dialer and deal management on top, so it reads like a sales platform. Lemlist grew out of cold email personalization and added a lead database later, so it reads like an outreach tool that happens to carry data.

That history shows up in the invoice, and the invoice is usually what decides it. Apollo bills per seat plus credits, so both headcount and data usage push the number up. Lemlist splits its plans by channel instead: the Email plan is flat and covers unlimited users, while the Multichannel plan goes back to per-seat pricing. The result is a genuine crossover point rather than one tool simply being cheaper, and the table below works through it with figures verified first-party on both vendors on August 30, 2026.

One thing neither does is write the sequence for you. Both ship AI that drafts a subject line or rewrites a paragraph, and both still expect you to author the campaign. That is the gap AutoMail fills, so it appears as an honest third column rather than a footnote.

Side by side

Lemlist vs Apollo vs AutoMail

Pricing verified August 2026. Capabilities change, so check each vendor for the latest before you buy.

What matters	Lemlist	Apollo	AutoMail
Best for	Teams sending personalized email and multichannel touches	Teams whose bottleneck is finding and calling the right contacts	Teams with a list who need the copy written and replies booked
Entry price (annual)	$55/mo Email plan, unlimited users ($69 monthly)	$49/seat/mo Basic; a free plan exists with 900 credits per seat per year	$49/mo flat per workspace, unlimited seats
Pricing model	Per plan on Email (unlimited users), per seat on Multichannel	Per seat on every paid tier, plus consumption credits	Flat per workspace, no per-seat and no credits
Higher tiers	Multichannel $87/user/mo annual ($109 monthly), then Enterprise	Professional $79/seat/mo, Organization $119/seat/mo (min 3 seats), annual	$99 Growth, $249 Agency, flat per workspace
Cost for a 5-person team, email only	$55/mo total on the Email plan; seats are free	$245/mo on Basic, $395/mo on Professional	$49/mo on Starter, seats are free on every plan
Cost for a 5-person team, multichannel	$435/mo on Multichannel ($87 per user, annual)	$395/mo on Professional, plus $119/mo for the Advanced Dialer add-on	$49/mo on Starter; email only by design
Team seats	Unlimited on the Email plan; billed per user on Multichannel	Billed per seat on every paid tier; Organization needs at least 3	Unlimited seats on every plan
Lead database	650M-plus contacts, with email and phone finder included	Very large, 210M-plus B2B contacts, its core strength	None, bring or sync your own verified list
What a credit buys	Enrichment and intent signals only; 1 credit = $0.01, $10 per 1,000	Data and enrichment; 30,000 to 72,000 credits per seat per year by tier	Nothing is metered by credits
Monthly email volume	50,000 emails a month on Email; unlimited on Multichannel	Bounded by mailbox limits and plan sending rules	Bounded by safe per-mailbox limits, not by an artificial quota
Sending accounts	Multiple senders; 5 per user on Multichannel	Sends from connected mailboxes; deliverability is a secondary focus	5 on Starter, unlimited on Agency, with rotation
Mailbox warm-up	Deliverability hub included on both paid plans	Available, less central to the product	Included, plus a spam-score check before every send
Dialer and calls	In-app calling on Multichannel	Built-in power dialer; the Advanced Dialer is a $119/team/mo add-on	Email only
LinkedIn and SMS steps	LinkedIn and SMS automation on Multichannel, WhatsApp as an add-on	LinkedIn tasks inside sequences as manual steps, not automation	No, email only by design
CRM and deal management	CRM integrations and API; CRM workspace on Enterprise	Deal management built in, closer to a full sales platform	Integrates with your CRM; routes replies to booking
AI copywriting	lemAgent drafts and rewrites; you author the sequence	Assists and generates variants; you author the sequence	Researches each prospect and writes a full 1:1 sequence
Free plan or trial	14-day trial of Multichannel, no card, no permanent free plan	Yes, a permanent free plan with 900 credits per seat per year	No free plan

Comparison reflects publicly available pricing and positioning as of August 2026. Company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

The third option

Where AutoMail fits between them

The AI writes the sequence

Both tools above leave the copy to you. AutoMail researches each prospect and writes a genuine 1:1 opener and follow-ups, so relevance, not just volume, drives the reply rate.

Deliverability built in

Inbox rotation, gradual warm-up and a spam-score check on every send keep personalized copy in the primary inbox, built for the 2026 Google and Microsoft sender rules.

Replies become meetings

When a prospect answers, the sequence pauses, intent is classified, and meeting-ready replies route to your booking link and CRM. Flat per workspace, unlimited seats, no credits.

One honest caveat: AutoMail has no built-in lead database, so bring or sync your own verified list. If prospecting data is what you need most, keep a data tool for that and run the outreach here.

Good questions

Lemlist vs Apollo, answered

The difference that decides most purchases is what each one is built around. Apollo is a sales platform built on a very large contact database, with sequencing, a power dialer and deal management on top, billed per seat plus credits. Lemlist is an outreach tool built around personalized sending, with a 650M-contact database added later, and its Email plan covers unlimited users on one flat price. Apollo wins on data and calling, Lemlist on cost per head for email.

It depends entirely on seat count. At one seat, Apollo Basic is cheaper at $49 a month on annual billing and includes 30,000 data credits a year, against $55 for Lemlist Email. From two seats up, Lemlist Email wins and the gap widens fast, because $55 covers unlimited users while Apollo charges each one. A five-person team pays $55 on Lemlist Email and $245 on Apollo Basic.

For a small team that mainly sends email, usually yes, on price. Lemlist Email is one flat $55 a month on annual billing no matter how many people log in, so adding a colleague costs nothing. Apollo adds $49 to $119 for every seat. Apollo is the better pick for a small team whose real problem is finding contacts and phone numbers, since that database and dialer are what you are paying for.

Apollo does, Lemlist does not. Apollo runs a permanent free plan with 900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly, which is enough to test the database and sequencing properly. Lemlist offers a 14-day full-access trial of the Multichannel plan with no credit card required, but nothing permanent. If you want to evaluate without a deadline, that difference matters.

Not in the same way. Lemlist Multichannel automates LinkedIn steps and SMS inside a sequence, with WhatsApp as an add-on. Apollo puts LinkedIn touches in sequences as manual tasks that a human still performs, rather than automating the account itself. If automated LinkedIn touches are part of the plan, Lemlist Multichannel covers it natively and Apollo does not.

Neither finishes the job. Lemlist ships lemAgent and Apollo ships AI assists, and both will draft a subject line or rewrite a paragraph, but you still design and write every sequence yourself. That is the gap AutoMail fills: it researches each prospect, writes the full personalized opener and follow-ups, warms and rotates the sending inboxes, then pauses on reply and routes meeting-ready answers straight to your booking link.

Keep comparing

More head-to-head comparisons

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The same $79 a seat buys a B2B database or a LinkedIn account. Here is what each one actually includes.

HeyReach vs Dripify

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Reply.io vs Instantly

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Reply.io vs Smartlead

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See how AutoMail compares to each tool

Skip the copywriting, keep the deliverability

AutoMail personalizes every email, rotates and warms your inboxes, follows up, pauses on reply and books meetings into your calendar and CRM. Flat monthly fee, not per-seat, permission-based by design.

See pricing

Flat pricing from $49/mo, no per-seat fees · 1-click unsubscribe in every email · CAN-SPAM and GDPR