There’s no wonder that most marketers consider Apollo and ZoomInfo as top-selected data providers. Users of G2 rated Apollo with 4.8/5 stars and 4,732 reviews, whereas ZoomInfo was praised in 6,422 reviews and got 4.4/5 stars.
But let’s go beyond users’ ranking and look under the hood to decide which data provider suits your business goals better.
Data Quality
The accuracy and relevance of b2b audience data define its quality. If you’ve never worked with platforms like ZoomInfo or Apollo, you should first consider the following:
- Completeness of a record. It implies that data exports should include a prospect’s job title, corporate contacts, and social media accounts.
- There shouldn’t be any mistaken values in a record.
- Businesses go bust, emerge, and merge daily. So data providers must keep their records up-to-date.
ZoomInfo has a truly massive database that amounts to 200 million daily-updated profiles. However, some users complain about low accuracy and considerable bounce rates within their cold email campaigns. It seems alarming as the provider claims an accuracy of 95%.
On the other hand, Apollo got over 400 million profiles in their datasets. Plus, according to G2 analysis, users praise its accuracy more. To summarize, we’d recommend you request data samples for your specific industry from both services and use them in similar cases to choose the best fit.
Data Coverage
Data coverage defines how comprehensive providers’ databases are. This aspect is vitally important as it helps you build business connections with brand-new regions. Moreover, it provides new opportunities to diversify your services and product lines.
In terms of data coverage, we’re all for Apollo. Its database contains a wide breadth of contact and phone number records. But you can also leverage ZoomInfo to add quality company-level data to your targeted ad dataset.
Ease of Use
A low entry threshold would make your work with a data provider service way quicker and more effective. In fact, both ZoomInfo and Apollo provide a smooth user experience so that you won’t struggle with data search and management. Users confirm that both services have onboarding tutorials and knowledge bases to help newcomers fast-track their work.
We recommend you decide which platform is more convenient by considering your current workflow and workload peculiarities. Both platforms offer comprehensive Help Center documentation and customer support to address questions.
Data Cost
On average, ZoomInfo’s plans cost more than those of Apollo. But that’s predictable due to its data’s breadth and deep, detailed profiles. However, the advantages of each provider might be uneven in terms of data quality and coverage.
ZoomInfo doesn’t provide pricing information directly on their site. Instead, you must schedule a call with the sales rep to discuss your requirements. The starting price of the annual plan is $15,000 and includes access for up to three users.
Conversely, Apollo offers transparent pricing that isn’t blocked behind the sales process. Besides, the entry cost is way more attractive compared to ZoomInfo.
Wrapping Up
Both data providers offer rich datasets with verified and up-to-date information that might suit various ICP marketing purposes. Here are the most distinct features of both platforms for your consideration:
ZoomInfo:
- 100+ Companies
- 63M+ Phone Numbers
- Features: Search Tool with Filters, Chrome Extension, Company Alerts, News, Contact Management, Intent Signals Tracking, CRM Integration
- Pricing: starting at $15,000 annually, contract and minimum number of seats required
Apollo:
- 30M+ Companies
- 120M Phone Numbers
- Features: Contact Data Sourcing, Chrome Extension, Email Automation (Sequencer), Dialer (call list builder), Lead Sourcing, Contact Enrichment, CRM Integration
- Pricing: Free plan + four tires of pricing starting from $50/user/month
However, from our experience, just one data provider is rarely enough to achieve all your marketing goals. And since every data provider usually specializes in certain areas, it would take 4-6+ data providers, depending on the industry you’re working in, to get a genuinely comprehensive b2b lead profile. For such cases, we recommend using an audience builder platform like Primer that pulls data from 12+ data providers and allows you to combine different data points with your CRM records for astounding match and reach rates.
