Lusha and Apollo are both pitched as ways to put contact data in front of an SDR, but they are not the same kind of tool. Lusha is a Chrome extension with a database behind it. Apollo is a full sales engagement platform that also has a database. If you are comparing the two on sticker price alone you are going to end up with the wrong answer.
I am George, founder of Leadpipe. I have watched a lot of SDR teams get this decision wrong in both directions, buying a heavy platform when they needed a lookup tool, and buying a lookup tool when they needed a platform. This post is the straight version, plus the option most comparisons leave out.
The short answer. Lusha wins when you need fast, accurate, single-contact lookups on LinkedIn and other sources, and you already own your sequencer elsewhere. Apollo wins when you want one login that covers list building, sequencing, and dialing for a team. Neither tool identifies the buyers already on your site.
Lusha vs Apollo at a glance
| Dimension | Lusha | Apollo.io |
|---|---|---|
| Product type | Chrome extension + database | Sales engagement platform + database |
| Primary use case | Single-contact lookup on LinkedIn + company pages | End-to-end outbound (list, sequence, dial) |
| Database (claimed) | ~150M+ profiles | ~275M contacts, 73M companies |
| Email accuracy | ~85% (claimed) | 90-95% (claimed) |
| Phone coverage | Direct + mobile, strong EU coverage | Mobile + direct, US-strong |
| Starting price | Free tier, then ~$49/user/mo Pro | $49/user/mo Basic, $99/user/mo Pro |
| Free tier | Yes, limited credits | Yes, limited credits |
| Contract | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Sequencer / dialer | No | Yes, built in |
| Chrome extension | Core product | Yes |
| Intent data | Limited | Light (built-in signals) |
| CRM native | Salesforce, HubSpot | Salesforce, HubSpot |
| Best for | Individual lookups, recruiters, AEs | SDR teams, full outbound motion |
| G2 rating | 4.3/5 | 4.7/5 |
What is Lusha
Lusha is a B2B contact finder. The Chrome extension is the product most people use: you sit on a LinkedIn profile, click Lusha, and it returns direct dial, mobile, and work email. The dashboard and API exist but the extension is how reps actually spend their day.
Strengths:
- Chrome extension is fast and clean. The muscle memory is painless.
- Real strength on EU direct dial and mobile, historically.
- Public pricing, monthly billing, low-friction cancel.
- CRM sync to Salesforce and HubSpot works out of the box.
- Good for recruiters and IC roles who do targeted lookups.
Weaknesses:
- Not a workflow platform. You always plug it into Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, Instantly, or Smartlead.
- Email accuracy at 85% (claimed) is lower than ZoomInfo or UpLead’s claims.
- Bulk list building and segmenting is weaker than Apollo or Cognism.
- Credit math can punish heavy users.
- Intent and ABM are not core offerings.
What is Apollo
Apollo is a full platform. The database (275M contacts, 73M companies) sits under a sequencer, a dialer, a meeting scheduler, and an AI writer. The pitch is that a $99 Apollo seat replaces LinkedIn Sales Nav, a database, and Outreach or Salesloft.
Strengths:
- One tool, one seat, full workflow. No tab-switching between database and sequencer.
- Public pricing ($49 Basic, $99 Pro), monthly or annual.
- Strong self-serve onboarding. New SDRs productive in a day.
- Chrome extension for LinkedIn and company sites.
- Native CRM sync to Salesforce and HubSpot, plus API access.
Weaknesses:
- Broad database, not deep. Decayed titles and thin org charts on niche ICPs.
- 90-95% email accuracy (claimed). Bounce on aged records runs higher.
- EMEA mobile coverage is uneven. Cognism wins there.
- Sequencer is good enough, not best-in-class. Heavy senders migrate to Outreach or Salesloft.
- Deliverability hygiene is on you.
For more context see what Apollo.io is and Apollo vs ZoomInfo.
Pricing, properly
Lusha:
| Tier | Price | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Very limited | 5 credits/mo trial |
| Pro | ~$49/user/mo | Moderate | Most SDR and AE seats |
| Premium | ~$79/user/mo | Higher | Bulk enrichment, intent signals |
| Scale | Custom | Custom | SSO, API, team admin |
Apollo:
| Tier | Price | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited | Basic features, sequences |
| Basic | $49/user/mo | Moderate | Sequencer, mobile access |
| Professional | $99/user/mo | Higher | AI writer, full dialer, reports |
| Organization | Custom | Custom | SSO, advanced controls |
Side-by-side math on a 10-SDR team:
| Scenario | Lusha Pro only | Apollo Pro only | Lusha + Outreach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Database + extension | Lusha | Apollo | Lusha |
| Sequencer | Not included | Apollo | Outreach (~$130/user/mo) |
| Dialer | Not included | Apollo | Separate |
| Annual cost (10 seats) | ~$5,880 | ~$11,880 | ~$21,480 |
The pattern. If you already own a sequencer, Lusha is cheap. If you do not, Apollo’s bundle math wins.
Data quality
Both tools claim similar accuracy ranges. What differs is where each one leans.
| Category | Lusha | Apollo |
|---|---|---|
| Email accuracy (claimed) | ~85% | 90-95% |
| EU direct dial coverage | Strong | Moderate |
| US mobile coverage | Moderate | Strong |
| Title freshness | Decent, decays | Decent, decays |
| Company firmographics | Light | Deeper |
| Technographic filters | Light | Better |
Vendor accuracy numbers are claims, not measured truths. For a real tool comparison always sample 100 target accounts before you sign annual. Deliverability on aged records will always be worse than the marketing page suggests.
The scenario where each wins
Pick Lusha if:
- Your reps do targeted single-contact lookups, not bulk list builds.
- You already own Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, or a cold-email tool.
- You sell into Europe and direct-dial coverage matters.
- You want a lightweight Chrome extension and low monthly cost.
- You want to keep your stack modular.
Pick Apollo if:
- You are building an SDR function from scratch and want one tool.
- You sell mostly US SMB and mid-market.
- You want sequencer, dialer, and database in one UI.
- Bulk list building is a core part of your motion.
- You want public pricing with monthly billing.
Pick neither, at least not first, if your website gets meaningful traffic. That is the next section.
The third angle
Lusha and Apollo both treat the SDR workflow the same way: find a cold contact, get a number or an email, reach out. That is a fine motion for purely cold markets. It is no longer the highest-ROI motion for any B2B company with real web traffic.
The fastest path to 2026 pipeline is not buying better cold lists. It is identifying the warm visitors on your site you already paid to acquire.
Cold email reply rates have fallen below 1% for most teams and connect rates on cold dials are not healthier. Meanwhile 97-98% of your B2B website visitors never fill a form, and Apollo and Lusha do not touch them.
Leadpipe fills that gap. A 2-5 minute pixel install, deterministic matching against our own identity graph, full person records on 30-40%+ of US B2B visitors. Name, business and personal email, phone, LinkedIn, company firmographics, 100+ data points, 60B intent signals, 24-hour refresh, REST API and webhooks.
Pricing: $147/mo for 500 identifications on Pro, $299/mo for 1,500 on Growth, $599/mo for 5,000 on Scale. Month-to-month. No seat math.
Our independent accuracy test across 75,000 visitors over 120 days scored Leadpipe at 8.7/10. For more on what this unlocks for a sales team see the SDR playbook for identified website visitors and how to identify anonymous website visitors.
This is not “replace Lusha with Leadpipe.” The correct stack is usually a contact database (Lusha or Apollo) for true cold plus visitor identification (Leadpipe) for warm. The warm channel is smaller and converts 3-10x better. Your cold channel should shrink accordingly.
Our verdict
Lusha is the better buy for individual contributors, recruiters, and teams that already own a sequencer. The extension workflow is tight.
Apollo is the better buy for SDR teams running full outbound in one tool. Consolidation beats best-of-breed at this price point.
For the warm pipeline hiding in your own traffic, use a tool built for that job. For more see Leadpipe vs competitors and the top 10 visitor identification software tools.
If you want the short version: $147/mo gets you person-level identification on 500 visitors with full contact data. See full pricing
