Comparison · Pricing checked October 2026
LeadMerlin vs Apollo.io
Both can help you build lead lists, but they are different kinds of tools. Apollo.io is a b2B contact database and sales engagement platform. LeadMerlin is a live local-business search with a full enrichment pipeline on every lead, built to be called from an API or an AI agent.
Verdict
Pick Apollo.io for: Sales teams targeting people at established B2B companies by role and firmographics.
Pick LeadMerlin for: enriched local business leads — owner names, labelled emails, phone line types and tech stack — at one price per lead.
Side by side
| Feature | Apollo.io | LeadMerlin |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Pre-built B2B database | Live Google Business Profiles + website crawl |
| Best target | People at B2B companies | Local small businesses |
| Sequencing built in | Yes | No — export to your sequencer |
| Tech stack from website | Not listed | Yes |
| Agent skill file | Not listed | Yes |
Pricing checked October 2026. “Not listed” means we could not find it on Apollo.io’s public pages — it may still exist.
What Apollo.io is
Apollo is a large B2B contact and company database with built-in prospecting and sales engagement tools. It is strongest for companies and people with an established online B2B footprint.
- Database of 240M contacts and 30M companies with verified emails and phone numbers. [1]
Apollo.io pricing
- Free, Basic, Professional and Custom plans, billed monthly or annually; credits are pooled per team and do not roll over. Exact prices were not shown on the public page when we checked. [1]
LeadMerlin pricing
- Free — $0, 100 leads to start
- Starter — $39/mo ($29/mo yearly), 10,000 leads/mo
- Pro — $49/mo ($39/mo yearly), 20,000 leads/mo
- Agency — $97/mo ($79/mo yearly), 50,000 leads/mo
- That works out to about $1.94–$3.90 per 1,000 enriched leads at full plan usage, with the full pipeline on every lead.
How LeadMerlin credits work
- 1 lead credit per business that has a website to enrich.
- Listings without a website are never charged (counted as skipped, not returned in results).
- Off-niche listings removed by the niche filter are never charged.
- Failed enrichments are refunded automatically.
- A search charges only what your balance covers: with 40 credits left, it enriches the 40 top-ranked matches. Set max_leads to cap any search.
- Locations, niche suggestions, polling and demo endpoints are free.
- Phone line-type lookups have a monthly allowance: 100 on the free start, 1,000 Starter, 2,000 Pro, 4,000 Agency. Numbers looked up before are free. Past the allowance, phones still come back without a line type.
Where Apollo.io is better
- Huge database of people at mid-size and large companies, searchable by title, seniority and firmographics.
- Built-in sequences and sales engagement.
- Mature CRM integrations for sales teams.
Where LeadMerlin is better
- Live discovery of small local businesses straight from Google Business Profiles, including ones with little LinkedIn presence.
- Data pulled from each business’s own website at search time: services, tech stack, page text.
- Simple per-lead pricing and an API built for AI agents.
Choose Apollo.io if…
- You sell to roles inside mid-market or enterprise companies.
- You want a database plus sequencing and dialing in one platform.
- You need firmographic filters like headcount and industry codes.
Choose LeadMerlin if…
- Your buyers are owners of local service businesses — plumbers, dentists, salons, contractors.
- You need every business in a niche and city, not people filtered by job title.
- You want fresh website-level detail for personalization.
Sources
Checked on 2026-10-18. Competitor pricing and features change often — confirm on www.apollo.io before deciding. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
Shopping around? See our Apollo.io alternative page.
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Your first 100 enriched leads are free. No credit card. Run it from the dashboard, the API, or your AI agent.