.svg){kind=small}
![Instantly vs. Apollo: Which Cold Email Platform is Better? [2026]](https://ib8nrja70n2lsqtp.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/production/instantly-vs-apollo-featured.avif)
Imagine how much time and effort you would save if you could find your ideal prospects and reach them via the same platform. That would be fantastic, right?
Cold email platforms have become essential parts of modern sales strategies, helping businesses discover new leads, enrich them with valid contact details, ensure the cold emails are delivered to their prospects’ inboxes, and drive revenue growth. With many available options, choosing the right cold emailing tool can be a daunting task.
Instantly and Apollo are two popular contenders in the cold emailing space, each offering unique features and strengths that stand out. In this article, we will compare two great options, Instantly and Apollo, so you can zero in on the best choice for your business.
Instantly vs. Apollo: A Quick Glance
Here is the summary:
- Instantly is better if you want to access lead databases, personalize and send your cold emails at scale, and ensure deliverability through the warmup feature.
- Apollo is an ideal choice for anyone who wants to access its vast database, personalize emails, and reach their prospects via multiple channels such as emails, phone calls, or LinkedIn.
Here is a quick comparison of the two cold email tools, but keep reading to learn about their differences and make informed decisions.
| Instantly | Apollo.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead Database | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s vast database of 275 million contacts offers more lead-generation options for your email outreach campaigns. |
| Email Personalization | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s AI writing assistant creates personalized emails based on various dynamic variables, ensuring the message is compelling to your audience. |
| Multichannel Options | Instantly’s campaign sequence editor promotes cold outreach efforts via emails. | Apollo allows you to reach your ideal buyers via multiple channels such as emails, cold calling, or LinkedIn. |
| Email Warmup | Instantly has a dedicated warm-up feature to ensure emails reach your prospect’s inbox. | With the Inbox warm-up feature, Apollo runs a manual warm-up to gradually send your cold emails to more recipients. |
| Integrations | Instantly offers limited integrations for its users. You may need to seek an alternative option to integrate with more platforms. | Apollo integrates with a wide range of tools, including CRMs, marketing automation software, video conferencing platforms, and more. |
| source: coldiq.com | ||
| Instantly | Apollo.io | |
| Lead Database | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s vast database of 275 million contacts offers more lead-generation options for your email outreach campaigns. |
| Email Personalization | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s AI writing assistant creates personalized emails based on various dynamic variables, ensuring the message is compelling to your audience. |
| Multichannel Options | Instantly’s campaign sequence editor promotes cold outreach efforts via emails. | Apollo allows you to reach your ideal buyers via multiple channels such as emails, cold calling, or LinkedIn. |
| Email Warmup | Instantly has a dedicated warm-up feature to ensure emails reach your prospect’s inbox. | With the Inbox warm-up feature, Apollo runs a manual warm-up to gradually send your cold emails to more recipients. |
| Integrations | Instantly offers limited integrations for its users. You may need to seek an alternative option to integrate with more platforms. | Apollo integrates with a wide range of tools, including CRMs, marketing automation software, video conferencing platforms, and more. |
| source: coldiq.com | ||
| Instantly | Apollo.io | |
| Lead Database | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s vast database of 275 million contacts offers more lead-generation options for your email outreach campaigns. |
| Email Personalization | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s AI writing assistant creates personalized emails based on various dynamic variables, ensuring the message is compelling to your audience. |
| Multichannel Options | Instantly’s campaign sequence editor promotes cold outreach efforts via emails. | Apollo allows you to reach your ideal buyers via multiple channels such as emails, cold calling, or LinkedIn. |
| Email Warmup | Instantly has a dedicated warm-up feature to ensure emails reach your prospect’s inbox. | With the Inbox warm-up feature, Apollo runs a manual warm-up to gradually send your cold emails to more recipients. |
| Integrations | Instantly offers limited integrations for its users. You may need to seek an alternative option to integrate with more platforms. | Apollo integrates with a wide range of tools, including CRMs, marketing automation software, video conferencing platforms, and more. |
| source: coldiq.com | ||
| Instantly | Apollo.io | |
| Lead Database | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s vast database of 275 million contacts offers more lead-generation options for your email outreach campaigns. |
| Email Personalization | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s AI writing assistant creates personalized emails based on various dynamic variables, ensuring the message is compelling to your audience. |
| Multichannel Options | Instantly’s campaign sequence editor promotes cold outreach efforts via emails. | Apollo allows you to reach your ideal buyers via multiple channels such as emails, cold calling, or LinkedIn. |
| Email Warmup | Instantly has a dedicated warm-up feature to ensure emails reach your prospect’s inbox. | With the Inbox warm-up feature, Apollo runs a manual warm-up to gradually send your cold emails to more recipients. |
| Integrations | Instantly offers limited integrations for its users. You may need to seek an alternative option to integrate with more platforms. | Apollo integrates with a wide range of tools, including CRMs, marketing automation software, video conferencing platforms, and more. |
| source: coldiq.com | ||
| Instantly | Apollo.io | |
| Lead Database | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s vast database of 275 million contacts offers more lead-generation options for your email outreach campaigns. |
| Email Personalization | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s AI writing assistant creates personalized emails based on various dynamic variables, ensuring the message is compelling to your audience. |
| Multichannel Options | Instantly’s campaign sequence editor promotes cold outreach efforts via emails. | Apollo allows you to reach your ideal buyers via multiple channels such as emails, cold calling, or LinkedIn. |
| Email Warmup | Instantly has a dedicated warm-up feature to ensure emails reach your prospect’s inbox. | With the Inbox warm-up feature, Apollo runs a manual warm-up to gradually send your cold emails to more recipients. |
| Integrations | Instantly offers limited integrations for its users. You may need to seek an alternative option to integrate with more platforms. | Apollo integrates with a wide range of tools, including CRMs, marketing automation software, video conferencing platforms, and more. |
| source: coldiq.com | ||
| Instantly | Apollo.io | |
| Lead Database | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s vast database of 275 million contacts offers more lead-generation options for your email outreach campaigns. |
| Email Personalization | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s AI writing assistant creates personalized emails based on various dynamic variables, ensuring the message is compelling to your audience. |
| Multichannel Options | Instantly’s campaign sequence editor promotes cold outreach efforts via emails. | Apollo allows you to reach your ideal buyers via multiple channels such as emails, cold calling, or LinkedIn. |
| Email Warmup | Instantly has a dedicated warm-up feature to ensure emails reach your prospect’s inbox. | With the Inbox warm-up feature, Apollo runs a manual warm-up to gradually send your cold emails to more recipients. |
| Integrations | Instantly offers limited integrations for its users. You may need to seek an alternative option to integrate with more platforms. | Apollo integrates with a wide range of tools, including CRMs, marketing automation software, video conferencing platforms, and more. |
| source: coldiq.com | ||
| Instantly | Apollo.io | |
| Lead Database | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s vast database of 275 million contacts offers more lead-generation options for your email outreach campaigns. |
| Email Personalization | Instantly’s AI generator creates personalized emails that resonate with your prospects. | Apollo’s AI writing assistant creates personalized emails based on various dynamic variables, ensuring the message is compelling to your audience. |
| Multichannel Options | Instantly’s campaign sequence editor promotes cold outreach efforts via emails. | Apollo allows you to reach your ideal buyers via multiple channels such as emails, cold calling, or LinkedIn. |
| Email Warmup | Instantly has a dedicated warm-up feature to ensure emails reach your prospect’s inbox. | With the Inbox warm-up feature, Apollo runs a manual warm-up to gradually send your cold emails to more recipients. |
| Integrations | Instantly offers limited integrations for its users. You may need to seek an alternative option to integrate with more platforms. | Apollo integrates with a wide range of tools, including CRMs, marketing automation software, video conferencing platforms, and more. |
| source: coldiq.com |
Instantly vs. Apollo Comparison Table
What’s Instantly?
Source: Instantly
Instantly is a sales engagement & lead intelligence platform built for cold email at scale. It combines Outreach (sequencing with unlimited sending accounts and automated warmup), SuperSearch (a 450M+ verified B2B contact database with waterfall enrichment), Copilot (a chat‑based AI assistant for full campaign generation), and a native CRM.
Trusted by 40,000+ customers and rated 4.8/5 across 3,700+ G2 reviews. Flat‑fee pricing by module: Outreach from $37/mo, Leads from $47/mo, CRM from $47/mo. Differentiators include a deliverability network with SISR (Server & IP Sharding & Rotation) and unlimited Inbox Placement tests.
What’s Apollo?
Source: Apollo
Apollo is a cold email automation tool designed for lead generation and outreach campaigns. With its vast B2B database, the cold emailing software identifies potential business leads from various industries and gathers their verified contact information to build targeted lead lists for outreach.
The cold email software also automates various sales processes, whether email personalization, cold email outreach, or sales call dialing, to create an efficient process for sales teams. Additionally, the cold email platform seamlessly integrates with popular third-party platforms including CRMs to effectively track and manage all leads and customer interactions, enhancing collaboration and productivity.
Overall, Apollo remains one of the best cold email software options to boost your sales efforts. Businesses can track their outreach performance, identify improvement areas, and optimize their processes for better results.
Instantly vs. Apollo: Core Features Compared
Instantly and Apollo share similar features such as:
- Lead Database
- Email Personalization
- Cold Email Outreach
- Email Warmup
- Native Integrations
Lead Generation
Instantly and Apollo offer lead generation features to find the ideal buyers that can fill your sales pipeline. Here, we will compare these features and examine their similarities and differences.
Instantly
SuperSearch provides 450M+ B2B contacts and finds verified work emails using waterfall enrichment (5+ providers checked in sequence). You can enrich, filter, and push leads directly to campaigns - no CSV juggling.
The cold email platform also features advanced filters which you can use to filter the search results and target your most qualified leads. It also verifies lead information, allowing you to reach your ideal buyers easily and fostering your lead-generation efforts.
Prospecting with Instantly
Apollo
Apollo is a sales intelligence platform where you can get detailed information about your ideal buyers. With a lead database of 275 million contacts from over 73 million companies, you can search and identify the ideal decision-makers relevant to your business.
The cold email platform also features over 65 advanced filters to help you narrow the search results. In other words, you can filter the search result based on specific criteria such as industry, job titles, technology used, or firmographic details to create a more refined lead list. This approach helps in targeting the most qualified prospects who can advance your prospecting efforts.
Prospecting with Apollo
Apollo also features a data enrichment feature to boost your outreach effort. It gathers valid contact information such as their email addresses and phone numbers to ensure you reach them and prevent loss of leads.
Email Personalization
Once you have identified your ideal prospects, the next step is to create personalized messages that fit their needs to elicit responses. Instantly and Apollo offer AI personalization features that craft compelling messages for your ideal buyers.
Instantly
Instantly’s AI tools help personalize at scale: AI Sequence Writer generates full sequences, AI Prompts/personalized lines map variables (first name, company, site, etc.), and AI Spintax Writer varies phrasing to protect deliverability. There’s also an AI Spam Words Checker to catch risky copy before sending.
Email Personalization with Instantly
Additionally, Instantly consists of “Spintax,” a personalization feature that creates variations of texts and phrases in your cold emails. You can use this feature to instruct the cold email platform to alternate words when sending your cold emails. For instance, if you create a syntax such as {{Random |Regards | Cheers | Bye}}, Spintax will randomly alternate between “Regards,” “Cheers,” and “Bye” during the sending process.
Apollo
Apollo, which also serves as a sales engagement platform, has an AI writing assistant that crafts personalized messages that resonate with your ideal prospects. Based on specific prompts, the AI writing assistant can generate your email copies, analyze messages, or rephrase some selected options.
Email Personalization with Apollo
Apollo allows users to personalize their cold emails based on three dynamic variables — basic, custom, and advanced. The basic variable personalizes elements such as the {{first_name}}, {{job_title}}, {{company_name}}, and more. The custom variables are the ones you can create, particularly based on your preference. The advanced variables use conditions and often work with the “if-statement.”
Cold Email Outreach
Next, let’s look at how to create cold email sequences using the two cold email platforms.
Instantly
Instantly is built for scale: unlimited sending accounts, advanced scheduling, auto‑optimize A/Z testing, subsequences, and reply‑stop logic, with Unibox for managing responses. Outreach runs on flat‑fee plans so agencies and teams avoid per‑seat caps.
Creating Sequences with Instantly
However, unlike many popular cold email platforms, Instantly doesn’t offer multichannel options for its outreach campaign. In other words, you can only reach your ideal buyers via email. Other channels such as phone calls, LinkedIn, or Twitter are not available for users.
Apollo
Similar to Instantly, Apollo offers comprehensive and diverse ways to create cold email sequences.
First is the AI-assisted option where you can instruct the platform’s AI to create a simple outbound email sequence. Next is the Pre-formatted option where you can use a pre-built template for your outbound campaign. There is also the Clone option where you can duplicate existing sequences. Finally, you can use the Manual option to create your sequence from scratch.
Creating Sequences with Apollo
Apollo also offers a multichannel approach to reach your prospects. This is helpful for users whose prospects span across different channels such as emails, phone calls, LinkedIn, and more. By reaching your prospects on their preferred channel, you can boost your outreach efforts. For instance, you can choose to schedule your cold emails to be sent at a particular time or automate various LinkedIn processes such as sending a connection request, sending a message, and more.
Email Warmup
Email warmup is another critical part of your cold email campaign. After all, you want your cold emails to reach your prospect’s inbox, not the spam folder. But how do the two cold email platforms work in this regard? Let’s find out.
Instantly
Instantly has one‑click warmup via a deliverability network plus SISR rotates/isolates IPs to keep send reputation high. Inbox Placement runs unlimited automated tests, checks SPF/DKIM/DMARC, and monitors 94 blacklists so issues are caught before launch.
Apollo
Unlike Instantly, Apollo doesn’t have a dedicated warmup feature that automatically warms up your cold email. Instead, the cold email software offers a manual approach to warming up your cold emails. With their Inbox Ramp-Up feature, you can connect new accounts, which gradually increase the volume of emails sent over a period of two weeks.
Native Integrations
Integrations remain stellar in the cold email industry, as a single tool can’t help you achieve your goals. As a result, there is a need for multiple tools to work together and streamline all your sales processes for an efficient operation. But how do Apollo and Instantly achieve this?
Instantly
Instantly integrates with limited sets of tools mainly through API. So, if you intend to work with more tools, you may need to seek an alternative option. It’s also essential to note that these integrations come with the platform’s paid versions, especially the Hyper Growth plan. That said, Instantly integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Google Calendar, Slack, Open AI, and Zapier. As at the time of this writing, integration with CRMs isn’t available.
Apollo
On the other hand, Apollo seamlessly integrates with more third-party platforms including CRMs, video conferencing tools, marketing automation software, sales engagement and intelligence, and more. Integrating with this software helps to scale your sales operations efficiently. Some common platforms Apollo integrates with include HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Adobe Marketo, Outreach, SalesLoft, JustCall, Koncerto, and more.
How Much Does Instantly Cost?
Instantly offers a 14-day free trial for its users. Its paid plans allow you to access more exclusive features that enhance your outreach and overall sales efforts. These paid plans include:
- Growth plan for $30 per month
- Hypergrowth plan for $77.6 per month
- Lightspeed plan for $286.30 per month
- Enterprise plan which requires a custom quote.
How Much Does Apollo Cost?
Apollo offers a free plan for users to explore some of its features. However, it’s essential to note that this plan has some restrictions, inhibiting you from harnessing the platform’s full potential. Hence, you may want to consider some of its paid plans which include:
- Basic plan for $59 per month
- Professional plan for $99 per month
- Organization plan for $149 per month.
Instantly vs Apollo: Pros and Cons
Instantly and Apollo have complementary strengths and weaknesses during usage. Here is a summary of these pros and cons.
Instantly Pros and Cons
Instantly is renowned for its user-friendly interface, personalization, and email warmup feature that ensures deliverability. However, its lack of multichannel outreach, smaller database, and limited integrations is a drawback.
Instantly Pros
- Massive lead coverage: 450M+ B2B contacts with multi‑provider waterfall verification.
- Scale without per‑seat costs: flat‑fee Outreach with unlimited sending accounts and automated warmup.
- Deliverability controls: SISR + unlimited Inbox Placement tests (blacklists + SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks).
- AI workflows end‑to‑end: Copilot for campaign creation; AI Sequence/Spintax/Spam‑check for copy.
- Social proof: 40,000+ customers, 4.8/5 on G2 from 3,700+ reviews.
Instantly Cons
- Some advanced AI features (e.g., AI Sequence Writer, A/Z testing) require higher‑tier Outreach plans.
- Leads & CRM are separate modules (credit‑based for Leads; phone numbers/credits for calling/SMS), so total cost scales with usage
Analytics depth: Power users on G2 occasionally want more granular reporting/filters.
Apollo Pros and Cons
Apollo is renowned for its prospecting, personalization, and multichannel options. However, its lack of email warmup feature and limited email account are reasons why you may want to consider an alternative.
Apollo Pros
- Ease of Use: Apollo’s interface is intuitive for users, especially beginners. You don’t need some technical knowledge to use its features.
- Wider Database: Apollo offers a lead database of over 275 million contacts from 73 million companies. This allows you to quickly identify and reach your ideal buyers.
- Multichannel approach: Unlike Instantly, Apollo doesn’t restrict users to a single channel. You can reach your prospects via multiple channels such as cold emails, phone calls, and more.
- Integrations: Apollo seamlessly connects with more platforms such as CRMs, video and web conferencing tools, dialers, marketing automation software, and more. This streamlines your workflow and improves your productivity.
Apollo Cons
- Lack of Email Warm-up Feature: Apollo doesn’t have a dedicated warmup feature to ensure email deliverability.
- Contact Management: Reviews on G2 showed that users find it difficult to manage contacts on the platform. Whether it’s pushing contacts to CRMs or managing your cold email sequence, users find it a bit challenging to achieve this goal.
Instantly vs. Apollo: Conclusion and Recommendations
In conclusion, Instantly and Apollo are two unique cold email solutions that cater to the different needs of businesses. While both platforms offer valuable features for sales teams, they differ in terms of operations, particularly in the areas of lead intelligence, sales engagement, and integrations.
Recommendations
Based on our detailed comparison, here are our recommendations for potential users:
For lead intelligence, cold outreach, and email warmup, we recommend Instantly.ai. With access to a vast database for potential leads and a powerful warm-up feature to ensure deliverability, Instantly is ideal for sales and marketing teams that want to scale their cold email campaigns.
For sales prospecting and engagement at scale, we recommend Apollo.io. With its extensive database and sales engagement features, Apollo is perfect for various businesses, especially those focused on multichannel outreach and who need more integrations.
Conclusion
When choosing between Instantly and Apollo, it’s essential to consider your needs and overall business objectives. After all, these cold email tools significantly impact your sales performance. Consider the type of data you need, the customization process, and how it enhances your workflow.
That said, if you find it challenging to scale your sales process with modern technologies, seeking an alternative can be your best shot. At ColdIQ, our sales team utilizes the latest AI technologies to fill your pipeline with the most qualified opportunities to drive revenue growth. Our unique approaches build valuable relationships to help you get the most returns from your investment. Get in touch with us today.
