Apollo vs Cargo
Sales Engagement pricing comparison · 2026
Apollo pricing ranges from $0–$119/undefined, while Cargo ranges from $250–$3000/month. Apollo is typically 95% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.
Apollo and Cargo both serve go-to-market teams, but they take fundamentally different approaches. Apollo is a sales intelligence and outbound engagement platform with a built-in contact database of 200M+ prospects — designed for SDRs doing email and call outreach at scale. Cargo is a revenue orchestration platform built around credits and AI agents that automate GTM workflows, data enrichment, and territory management by connecting to 100+ integrations rather than maintaining its own contact database.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | Apollo | Cargo |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free /user/month | Free / |
| Basic | $49 /user/month | $250 / |
| Professional | $79 /user/month | $1.2K / |
| Organization | $119 /user/month | $3K |
Our Verdict
Choose Apollo if you need a self-contained outbound system: a prospect database, email sequences, a dialer, and CRM sync all in one place. Apollo's Basic plan at $49/user/month (or $588/year upfront) gives 30,000 credits/year, deliverability tools, and unlimited sequences — a strong value for SDR-led outbound teams. The free tier with 900 credits/year is also genuinely usable for testing.
Choose Cargo if your GTM team already has data sources and CRM in place and needs AI-powered orchestration to automate workflows, enrich records, and route leads intelligently. Cargo's Starter plan at $250/month provides 2,500 credits for workflow automation across 100+ integrations. It's a better fit for RevOps teams managing complex multi-tool stacks than for SDRs doing raw outbound prospecting.
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Apollo cheaper than Cargo?
Apollo's free tier with 900 credits/year is available without a credit card, while Cargo's free tier offers 100 credits total. For paid plans, Apollo Basic at $49/user/month (billed annually as $588/year) targets individual SDRs, while Cargo Starter at $250/month covers a team. A 3-person SDR team on Apollo Basic costs $147/month vs Cargo Starter at $250/month, but the products serve different workflows.
02 Which is better for outbound prospecting: Apollo or Cargo?
Apollo is the clear choice for outbound prospecting. It includes a 200M+ contact database, email deliverability tooling, waterfall enrichment, and a built-in dialer — Cargo has none of these. Cargo is designed to orchestrate data you already have (from your CRM, data warehouse, or enrichment tools), not to source new prospects from scratch.
03 Can Cargo replace Apollo?
Not directly. Apollo and Cargo are complementary rather than substitutes. Some teams use both: Apollo for prospecting and outbound sequencing, Cargo for automating lead routing, enrichment workflows, and territory management on top of the contacts Apollo surfaces. Replacing Apollo with Cargo would leave a gap in contact sourcing and outbound execution.
04 Which has a better free plan: Apollo or Cargo?
Apollo's free plan is more functional for outbound teams, providing 900 credits/year (granted monthly), 2 sequences, Gmail and Salesforce extensions, and basic filters. Cargo's free plan gives 100 total credits (not monthly) with access to all features including AI agents and 100+ integrations — useful for testing the platform but insufficient for ongoing operations.
05 How much does running 1,000 outreach sequences cost on Apollo vs Cargo?
On Apollo, the Professional plan at $79/user/month includes 48,000 credits/year, A/Z sequence testing, and unlimited mailboxes — sufficient for high-volume sequencing. Cargo doesn't run sequences natively; its credits are consumed by AI agent actions, data enrichment calls, and workflow executions rather than email sends. The pricing models are not directly comparable because the products perform different tasks.
06 What are the hidden costs of Apollo vs Cargo?
Apollo's hidden costs include the US dialer (credits apply separately), and scaling to the Organization plan at $119/user/month for SSO and advanced reporting. Annual billing is required for the cheapest rates. Cargo's hidden costs are credit consumption rates — complex AI agent workflows and high-volume enrichment can burn through the 2,500 Starter credits quickly, pushing teams to the Professional plan at $1,190/month.