Contact database · comparison
Apollo.io alternative
Apollo sells you contacts. We tell you which ones still exist.
What Apollo.io is
A contact database of roughly 265 million business records, bundled with sequencing and a CRM. You search for a persona, export a list, and send.
The database. Nothing open source comes close to 265 million records, and if your problem is 'I do not know who to contact', Apollo solves it in an afternoon.
Pick Apollo.io when: You need to find people you have never heard of, at companies you have not shortlisted. That is a data problem, and we do not sell data.
You already have a list and your bounce rate is hurting your domain. Apollo tells you an address existed when the record was written. It does not open an SMTP connection to check whether it exists today.
Side by side
| Apollo.io | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact database | 265M records, credit-metered | None. We infer from public evidence at send time |
| Mailbox verification | Inferred, bundled | Real SMTP probe, on your machine |
| Your list | Uploaded to their servers | Never leaves your machine |
| Source code | Closed | MIT, readable |
| Catch-all domains | Reported as valid | Reported as unverifiable, because they are |
Apollo starts free with limited credits and rises steeply with seats and exports. Free and MIT, or $59/mo hosted.
The honest summary
Verdict has no contact database and does not send campaigns. It opens an SMTP connection to the receiving server, asks whether the mailbox exists, and reports what the server said. When the server refuses to answer, or the domain accepts every address, it says so instead of guessing. That is the whole product, it is MIT licensed, and it runs on your own machine so the list never goes anywhere.
Try it on a real list
Paste up to 500 addresses. Free, no signup, nothing stored. The fairest test is your last campaign's bounce list, since you already know which ones failed.