How this page was made. Every figure was read from each vendor's own pages on 19 September 2026 and is linked at the bottom. emailcampaign.ai is the third column and the publisher of this page; where Instantly or Apollo.io is the better choice, the page says so. Prices change; check the linked pages before buying.
Instantly is a sending engine that has grown a community; Apollo is a contact database that has grown sequences. Instantly prices by emails and contacts with unlimited mailboxes, Apollo by user plus credits with a free plan. Many teams run both, finding in one and sending from the other. The question this page answers is what you lose if you try to make one do both jobs. One caution: Apollo's pricing table did not render when we read it, so its figures come from Apollo's own snippets and third parties.
Side by side
| Instantly | Apollo.io | emailcampaign.ai | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $37.60 a month annual ($47 monthly) for 5,000 emails and 1,000 contacts | Free plan; Basic $49 a user a month billed annually; Professional $79; Organization $119 with a three-user minimum (monthly about $59, $99 and $149 per third parties) | Free 14-day trial; Basic $39 a month; Pro $94 a month |
| Pricing model | Plan by emails and contacts; unlimited email accounts and warm-up; pre-warmed Google accounts $10 each a month in batches of five, domains $15 a year | Per user plus credits; mailbox counts per plan are stated inconsistently between the pricing page and the knowledge base | Plan by emails per month; unlimited mailboxes and warm-up on every plan; infrastructure at cost plus $5 setup per mailbox |
| Provisions mailboxes and domains | Yes, Google only: pre-warmed accounts with DNS pre-configured; Instantly retains domain ownership and administrator access | Yes: dedicated sending domains and mailboxes bought inside Apollo with automatic SPF, DKIM and DMARC; prices not shown | Yes: domains (about $12 a year), Google Workspace seats ($8.40 a month), Microsoft 365 seats at Microsoft's rate, or self-hosted servers from $39 a month; you own the domains and accounts |
| DNS | Pre-configured on provisioned accounts | Automatic on bought domains | SPF, DKIM (selectors read from the provider), DMARC and postmaster records written through the registrar and shown before they go live |
| Warm-up | Included, unlimited | Available for any connected mailbox per the deliverability page; the knowledge base says select plans | Included, unlimited, with a maintenance level after the ramp; never reaches your inbox |
| Placement test | Yes, a separate Inbox Placement product with 25 free credits | Inbox placement and blacklist monitoring listed | Yes, per mailbox at Gmail and Outlook |
| White-label | Hypergrowth ($77.60) and Light Speed plans: custom domain and logo for a client portal; clients with campaign access see every campaign in the workspace | None found | Yes: a complete webmail and admin console on the client's own domain, plus dashboard branding |
| Reviews | G2 4.8 from 4,134; Trustpilot score withheld, 1,165 reviews with 25 percent one-star | G2 4.7 from 9,696; Capterra 4.5 from 398; Trustpilot 3.1 from 1,317 | New listing; reviews being gathered |
| Best for | Teams that already own their mailboxes and want the largest community and template library | Teams whose main need is the database and who send modest volumes from a few mailboxes | Teams that want the mailboxes, domains, DNS and warm-up done for them behind one approval, and agencies that need a client-branded door |
| Watch out for | Provisioned domains stay owned by Instantly; reviews report features behind paywalls that only appear after purchase and pre-warmed domains arriving with poor reputation | Reddit users report high hard-bounce rates on 'verified' contacts; agency users say pricing changes made it less agency-friendly; Trustpilot themes are support and 'nickel and diming' | The recommended 8 to 10 sends a day per mailbox means volume comes from fleet size; if you want 100 a day from one mailbox, nothing here will let you |
Where Instantly is stronger
Built for volume. One plan, $37.60 a month billed annually, covers unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up. Apollo prices per user from $49 a month annual, and states mailbox counts per plan inconsistently between its pricing page and its knowledge base.
Deliverability tooling. Warm-up is unlimited and included; a separate Inbox Placement product comes with 25 free credits; pre-warmed Google accounts are $10 each. Apollo's deliverability page says warm-up is available for any connected mailbox while its knowledge base says select plans.
Agency features. A client portal on your domain on the upper plans; Apollo has none.
Where Apollo.io is stronger
The data. A database with 9,696 G2 reviews behind it and a free plan to start; prospecting, enrichment and sequences in one login. If most of your time goes into finding people rather than sending to them, that is the whole argument.
Provisioning without a partner. Dedicated sending domains and mailboxes are bought inside Apollo with SPF, DKIM and DMARC written automatically, although prices are not shown. Instantly's add-on is Google only and Instantly keeps the domains.
A free plan. Apollo's entry tier costs nothing; Instantly starts at $37.60 a month.
Where emailcampaign.ai fits
emailcampaign.ai is closer to Instantly's side of the line and takes the infrastructure further: it buys domains, creates Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailboxes under your ownership, writes and confirms the DNS, warms, and sends, with a client-branded webmail for agencies. It is not a contact database; teams that pair Apollo's data with a sending platform can pair it with this one on the same basis. It caps each mailbox at 8 to 10 cold emails a day and is new to the review sites.
Decide by the question you are asking
- “We need to find the people first.” Apollo, whatever you send from.
- “We already have lists and need reach across many mailboxes.” Instantly or emailcampaign.ai.
- “We want the domains and mailboxes created and owned by us.” emailcampaign.ai; Apollo sells them without showing prices, Instantly keeps ownership.
- “We are an agency.” Instantly's portal or emailcampaign.ai's client door; Apollo has no white-label, and agency reviewers describe its pricing changes as unfriendly.
- “Bounce rates worry us.” Reddit users report high hard-bounce rates on Apollo's verified contacts; verify a sample before a big send from any tool.
Sources: Instantly: Pricing · Instantly: Pre-warmed accounts · Instantly: White-label · Apollo.io: Pricing (snippet only) · Apollo.io: Deliverability · Apollo.io: Capterra · emailcampaign.ai: Pricing · emailcampaign.ai: Infrastructure ·
Questions, answered straight
- Can Apollo replace Instantly for cold email?
- For modest volume from a few mailboxes, yes: sequences, provisioning and warm-up all exist. For a fleet, the per-user pricing and the inconsistent mailbox limits work against it, and there is no white-label.
- Can I use Apollo data with Instantly or emailcampaign.ai?
- Yes; exporting a list from Apollo and sending it from another tool is the common pattern. Verify the addresses first; Reddit threads report hard-bounce rates on Apollo's verified contacts that would hurt a new domain.
- What do the review sites say?
- Instantly: G2 4.8 from 4,134; Trustpilot withholds the score, with 25 percent one-star among 1,165 reviews. Apollo: G2 4.7 from 9,696, Capterra 4.5 from 398, Trustpilot 3.1 from 1,317 with support and nickel-and-diming the themes. Both carry a wide gap between the G2 and Trustpilot pictures; read the one-star reviews of each before deciding.
Published 19 September 2026. Updated 19 September 2026. Written by the team that runs the infrastructure; numbers come from the platform's own provisioning and sending, and from the providers' published documentation at the time of writing.