CRM and sales decision
Apollo
Build a narrow replacement (searchable contacts + basic sequencing and email sending) if you only need core outreach workflows; do not expect to replicate Apollo’s proprietary data scale, verification accuracy, or enterprise compliance without major ongoing investment.
Visit website↗$59/mo
$708/yr
Not verified against a pricing page.
$100one-off80 h to build
$120/mo12 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 3 seats.
The code exists. It is not what you are paying for.
These 2 projects are real, published, and do the core job — and this page still says keep paying. What the subscription buys is proprietary data, infrastructure at scale and proprietary data, and none of that ships in a repository. Fork one anyway if you want to. Go in knowing what it does not carry. What stays hard ↓ · All Apollo alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Search & filter B2B contacts → enrich & verify contact records → run multichannel outreach sequences → record activity and basic analytics
What it still won’t have
- Access to Apollo’s large proprietary data network (scale and coverage)
- High-frequency real-time verification and the vendor’s claimed 98% email accuracy
- Enterprise certifications and compliance posture baked into the platform
- Built-in wide catalogue of native integrations and prebuilt workflows
- The scale and breadth of records (hundreds of millions) and continuous refresh
What remains hard
- Proprietary data
Powered by Apollo Data — one of the largest, most accurate business data networks on the planet.
- Infrastructure at scale
240M+ contacts and 30M+ companies
- Proprietary data
The way we consistently grow our database through our 2 million data contributor network and engagement tools is unique and unparalleled in the industry.
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 3 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal self-hosted B2B prospecting platform using Node.js (Express), PostgreSQL, and React. Core features in scope: (1) import CSV and basic web-scrape to create contact/company records with deduplication, (2) index records for search and implement 10 filter fields, (3) email campaign sender/recorder using a transactional provider (Mailgun/SendGrid) with bounce tracking, (4) simple sequence scheduler for follow-ups and task creation, (5) CSV export and single webhook sync endpoint. Out of scope: collecting a global proprietary contact crawl at scale, advanced verification algorithms, enterprise compliance certifications, and built-in third-party integrations. Include error handling, input validation, tests for import/export and sequencing logic, Docker-based deployment, and documentation for maintenance and credential rotation.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Pay verdict base20
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Hard moats found in the evidence-9
- Evidence score19
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productApollo homepage
- official pricingApollo pricing
- official docsApollo Data (B2B data page)
- open sourcekrayin/laravel-crm
- open sourceDolibarr/dolibarr
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
