Apollo.io vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator
A straight comparison of Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator for B2B teams. We sell our own product, Creator, and we say so up front. Every price on this page was read on the vendor's own pricing page, with the date and the link next to it.
The short answer
Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator are not interchangeable. Apollo.io suits sales teams that need a combined prospecting database, email sequencing, and LinkedIn touchpoints in one platform. LinkedIn Sales Navigator suits sales reps who need precise LinkedIn search filters and the official InMail allowance. On price, Apollo.io starts at $49 on its Basic plan (per seat/month billed annually, 30,000 credits per seat per year) and LinkedIn Sales Navigator starts at US$119.99/month on its Core plan (per license, month to month), both read on the vendor pricing pages on 10 September 2026.
Sales teams that need a combined prospecting database, email sequencing, and LinkedIn touchpoints in one platform.
Sales reps who need precise LinkedIn search filters and the official InMail allowance.
Apollo.io vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator at a glance
The price, free plan and scaling rows come off the vendors' own pricing pages. Category and best for are our own read. Where a cell says not verified, it is blank on purpose: we had no figure we could stand behind, and a months-old number is worse than a gap.
| Attribute | Apollo.io | LinkedIn Sales Navigator |
|---|---|---|
| Category (our read) | Sales engagement | Sales engagement |
| Entry price (vendor page) | $49Basic plan, per seat/month billed annually, 30,000 credits per seat per year | US$119.99/monthCore plan, per license, month to month |
| Free plan (vendor page) | Yes. A free plan at $0 with 900 credits per seat per year granted monthly, 2 sequences, and basic filters. | No free tier. A free trial is offered. |
| How the price scales | Priced per seat, per month, on annual billing, with a credit meter on top. | Priced per license, per month. |
| Best for (our read) | Sales teams that need a combined prospecting database, email sequencing, and LinkedIn touchpoints in one platform. | Sales reps who need precise LinkedIn search filters and the official InMail allowance. |
Pricing, plan by plan
Every figure below carries the plan name it belongs to, the basis the vendor states, a link to the page it came from, and the date we read it. Currencies appear exactly as each vendor publishes them. We never convert one currency into another, because a converted price is a price nobody will ever be charged.
Apollo.io pricing
Checked 10 September 2026- Free900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly$0
- Basicper seat/month billed annually, 30,000 credits per seat per year$49
- Professionalper seat/month billed annually, 48,000 credits per seat per year$79
- Organizationper seat/month billed annually, minimum 3 seats, 72,000 credits per seat per year$119
- Inbound add-onper team/month, billed annually$119
- Advanced Dialer add-onper team/month, billed annually$119
Free tier: Yes. A free plan at $0 with 900 credits per seat per year granted monthly, 2 sequences, and basic filters.
What the price is per: Priced per seat, per month, on annual billing, with a credit meter on top.
Worth knowing: The billing toggle defaults to annual and we could not read a monthly-billed figure, so no monthly rate is published here. The page also carries stale structured data that contradicts what it displays; the figures above are the displayed ones.
Source: www.apollo.io/pricing, read 10 September 2026.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing
Checked 10 September 2026- Coreper license, month to monthUS$119.99/month
- Coreper license, billed annually, stated as a 25% savingUS$1,079.88/year
- Advancedper license, month to monthUS$159.99/month
- Advancedper license, billed annually, stated as a 6% savingUS$1,799.88/year
- Advanced Plussized to team, CRM integration and onboarding needsRequest demo for pricing
Free tier: No free tier. A free trial is offered.
What the price is per: Priced per license, per month.
Worth knowing: LinkedIn states that listed prices are estimates, may exclude VAT or GST or promotional discounts, are subject to change, and may vary slightly across device types. The page publishes five currencies; we publish the dollar figures.
Source: business.linkedin.com/sell/sales-navigator/compare-plans, read 10 September 2026.
What each vendor publishes about its own product
This section is quotation, not opinion. Each line comes off the vendor's own pricing page on 10 September 2026. We list only what a vendor states. Silence on a feature is not evidence a tool lacks it, so nothing here says a tool cannot do something.
Apollo.io
Apollo.io joins a B2B contact and company database to a sales engagement suite. You search the database, spend credits to reveal verified emails and phone numbers, then run sequences, a dialer, meeting scheduling, call recording and deal management in the same tool.
- · Published credit costs: 1 credit an email, 8 credits a phone number, 1 to 8 credits to enrich data, 1 credit an AI research run, 2 credits a minute on the US dialer.
- · Organization is the only tier with a seat minimum.
- · Prices exclude any applicable taxes.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's own paid prospecting product. It opens 50+ advanced search filters over LinkedIn's member and company graph, saved lead and account lists, real-time alerts on job changes and posts, AI account and lead summaries, and InMail to people you are not connected to.
- · All three tiers include 50 InMails a month.
- · Core is built for individual sellers.
- · Advanced adds team seat management, centralised billing, TeamLink, Smart Links and team reporting.
- · Advanced Plus adds CRM sync with Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics and Oracle, plus buyer intent and CRM-embedded profiles.
Which tool for which job
Most comparison pages rank two tools on a single line and call it a verdict. That is not how the decision works. The right answer changes with the job in front of you, so here is the matchup, job by job. Rows built on a vendor figure say so. Rows built on our opinion say that too.
| The job | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want to try it without a card | Apollo.io | Apollo.io publishes a free plan. Yes. A free plan at $0 with 900 credits per seat per year granted monthly, 2 sequences, and basic filters. LinkedIn Sales Navigator does not. No free tier. A free trial is offered. |
| One person, one account, smallest bill | Apollo.io | Apollo.io opens at $49 (Basic, per seat/month billed annually, 30,000 credits per seat per year). LinkedIn Sales Navigator opens at US$119.99/month (Core, per license, month to month). Same currency, so the numbers compare directly, but read the unit too. |
| You are adding a second and third user | Read the unit, not the headline | Apollo.io: Priced per seat, per month, on annual billing, with a credit meter on top. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Priced per license, per month. |
| You are choosing inside one category, sales engagement | Read both descriptions | Category does not separate these two, so the shape of your week does. Apollo.io: Sales teams that need a combined prospecting database, email sequencing, and LinkedIn touchpoints in one platform. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Sales reps who need precise LinkedIn search filters and the official InMail allowance. |
| You need content, DMs, lead capture and pipeline in one place | Creator | That job spans more than either tool covers on its own. Creator installs the whole loop and runs it for you, which is a different purchase from buying software. |
What to expect from sales engagement tools
Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator are competing for the same budget line, so the category itself sets most of what you should be checking.
Sales engagement
Sales engagement platforms sit around the whole sequence: the data, the sending, the dialer, the meetings and the pipeline. They are heavier to set up and they replace several smaller tools. Judge them on the quality of the data you get for your credits, and on whether your team will actually work inside them every day. A platform nobody logs into is the most expensive line on the stack.
How to choose between them in an afternoon
You do not need a six-week evaluation. You need five answers, and four of them come off the vendor sites in under an hour.
- 1. Write down the one job you are buying for. Not three jobs. One. If the sentence needs the word and twice, you are shopping for two tools, and you should say so out loud before you compare anything.
- 2. Check the pricing unit, not the headline number. Apollo.io bills like this. Priced per seat, per month, on annual billing, with a credit meter on top. LinkedIn Sales Navigator bills like this. Priced per license, per month. Run both against the number of people and accounts you will have in six months, not today.
- 3. Find the cheapest tier that still has the feature you came for. Entry prices are usually gated. The plan you actually need is often one or two tiers above the number in the ad, and that gap is where budgets break.
- 4. Run one real list through the trial. Not a demo list. Fifty of your own prospects, your own copy, your own sending times. Two days of that tells you more than every comparison page on the internet, including this one.
- 5. Ask what breaks when you stop paying. Sequences, data, inbox history and reporting all live somewhere. Find out what you can export and what you lose, before you have anything worth losing.
Our read on each
Everything below is our own assessment from running LinkedIn pipelines for B2B firms. It is opinion, not vendor documentation, and we label it that way so you can weigh it against the vendor sections above.
Apollo.io
Sales intelligence and engagement platform.
- + A free plan that includes 900 credits per seat per year
- + Database and sequencer in one platform, so no second subscription
- + Credits granted upfront for the year on the paid plans
- − Every reveal spends credits, so real cost tracks usage, not the seat price
- − Organization is the only plan with a seat minimum, at 3 seats
- − Content generation is generic - not trained on your LinkedIn account
- − No LinkedIn content calendar, post scheduling, or lead magnets
- − Primarily cold outbound - no warm inbound layer
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn's own sales prospecting tool.
- + Official LinkedIn product - zero account-safety risk
- + Lead search and filtering built on LinkedIn's own data
- + InMail allowance unlocks contact outside your network
- − Search + InMail only - no automation, no content, no pipeline
- − Priced per seat, which adds up across a team
- − CRM sync is locked to the quote-only Advanced Plus plan
- − LinkedIn states listed prices are estimates and may exclude VAT or GST
Four ways this comparison goes wrong
We have watched a lot of teams pick between tools like these. The same four mistakes account for most of the regret.
The entry tiers of Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator are not the same product shape. Apollo.io: Priced per seat, per month, on annual billing, with a credit meter on top. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Priced per license, per month. At one user those numbers look comparable. At five they usually are not.
Every tool in this space demos well. What separates them is the hundredth time you do the routine task, whether that is approving a sequence, editing a draft or answering a reply. Ask a current user what they do every Monday, not what impressed them in week one.
Neither Apollo.io nor LinkedIn Sales Navigator decides who you target, what you say or why anyone should reply. Software makes a working motion faster and a broken motion faster to fail. Get the offer and the list right first, then automate them.
Most stacks are strong at sending and thin at everything after it. Replies land in an inbox, someone has to qualify them, and the handoff into a calendar is where pipeline quietly leaks. Decide who owns that step before you pick either tool, or the tool will decide for you.
If neither one covers the job
Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator each solve one slice. Content, DMs, lead capture and pipeline reporting still have to meet somewhere, and in most firms that somewhere is a person with no time. Creator is the install that closes the loop: we set the whole thing up and run it, and you own it.
Built for B2B founders, consultants and agencies who use LinkedIn as their main pipeline channel. See the system and the results.
Frequently asked
- What is the main difference between Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
- Apollo.io is positioned as sales intelligence and engagement platform and sits in the sales engagement category. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is positioned as LinkedIn's own sales prospecting tool and sits in the sales engagement category. In practice Apollo.io suits sales teams that need a combined prospecting database, email sequencing, and LinkedIn touchpoints in one platform, while LinkedIn Sales Navigator suits sales reps who need precise LinkedIn search filters and the official InMail allowance.
- How much does Apollo.io cost?
- Free at $0 (900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly); Basic at $49 (per seat/month billed annually, 30,000 credits per seat per year); Professional at $79 (per seat/month billed annually, 48,000 credits per seat per year); Organization at $119 (per seat/month billed annually, minimum 3 seats, 72,000 credits per seat per year); Inbound add-on at $119 (per team/month, billed annually); Advanced Dialer add-on at $119 (per team/month, billed annually). Read on https://www.apollo.io/pricing on 10 September 2026. Yes. A free plan at $0 with 900 credits per seat per year granted monthly, 2 sequences, and basic filters.
- How much does LinkedIn Sales Navigator cost?
- Core at US$119.99/month (per license, month to month); Core at US$1,079.88/year (per license, billed annually, stated as a 25% saving); Advanced at US$159.99/month (per license, month to month); Advanced at US$1,799.88/year (per license, billed annually, stated as a 6% saving); Advanced Plus at Request demo for pricing (sized to team, CRM integration and onboarding needs). Read on https://business.linkedin.com/sell/sales-navigator/compare-plans on 10 September 2026. No free tier. A free trial is offered.
- Is Apollo.io or LinkedIn Sales Navigator cheaper?
- Apollo.io opens at $49 on Basic (per seat/month billed annually, 30,000 credits per seat per year). LinkedIn Sales Navigator opens at US$119.99/month on Core (per license, month to month). Compare the unit before the number: one vendor may charge per seat while the other charges per account or a flat fee, and the currencies are published as each vendor publishes them. Both figures were read on 10 September 2026.
- Can I use Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator together?
- Most teams pick one. Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator both sit in the sales engagement category, so running both usually means paying twice for the same job. The exception is a migration, where you run the old tool until the sequences in the new one are stable.
- Which should a solo founder pick, Apollo.io or LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
- Start from the unit. The Apollo.io entry tier is Basic at $49, per seat/month billed annually, 30,000 credits per seat per year. The LinkedIn Sales Navigator entry tier is Core at US$119.99/month, per license, month to month. A solo founder is buying one seat and one account, so the tool with the lower entry tier and the smaller learning curve usually wins. Our read: pick Apollo.io if this describes you. Sales teams that need a combined prospecting database, email sequencing, and LinkedIn touchpoints in one platform. Pick LinkedIn Sales Navigator if this describes you. Sales reps who need precise LinkedIn search filters and the official InMail allowance.
The verdict
The money question resolves cleanly. Apollo.io opens at $49 on Basic, LinkedIn Sales Navigator at US$119.99/month on Core, both checked 10 September 2026. The unit matters more than the headline. Apollo.io: Priced per seat, per month, on annual billing, with a credit meter on top. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Priced per license, per month.
Apollo.io is the pick if this describes you. Sales teams that need a combined prospecting database, email sequencing, and LinkedIn touchpoints in one platform. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the pick if this describes you instead. Sales reps who need precise LinkedIn search filters and the official InMail allowance. If you read both descriptions and neither matches the job in front of you, the problem is probably bigger than a tool choice, and that is the case Creator exists for.
One caveat we will repeat: pricing pages move. The figures here were read on 10 September 2026 and each one links back to the page it came from. Click through before you sign anything. If a number on this page no longer matches the vendor's page, tell us and we will fix it.
How this page was sourced
We run one rule on every comparison we publish. A fact about a named company's product, pricing or features appears here only if we read it on that company's own page. Every figure carries the plan name it belongs to, the basis the vendor states, the URL it came from, and the date we read it.
Two things follow from that rule, and both are visible on this page. Where a vendor publishes in euros or pounds, the price stays in euros or pounds. We do not convert, because a converted number is a number nobody will ever be charged. And where we have no verified figure, the page says so and leaves the space empty rather than filling it with a price from months ago.
We also do not infer absence. If a vendor's page does not mention a feature, that is not evidence the tool lacks it, and you will not find a line on this page claiming otherwise. The opinionated parts, the categories, the pros and cons, the recommendations, are labelled as ours so you can weigh them separately from the sourced parts.
Last pricing pass: 10 September 2026. We sell a competing product, Creator, and we take no affiliate commission from any tool named on this page.
Key terms
- Cold OutreachCold outreach is contacting a prospect who has had no prior relationship or interaction with the sender. typically via cold email, cold DM, or cold call.
- ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)An ICP is a written description of the exact customer who would benefit most from a product. and is most likely to buy, stay, and refer.
- DM SequenceA DM sequence is a series of LinkedIn direct messages sent to a prospect over time, typically triggered by a specific event like a comment or a profile view.
- B2B Lead GenerationB2B lead generation is the process of identifying and capturing potential business customers. typically other companies or their decision-makers.