Comparison
Programmable vs Apollo
Both help you find companies and the people to contact at them. Apollo is a sales platform built around its own contact database, with outreach, calling and deal tools in one place. Programmable is an agent you describe in a sentence, which hands leads to the tools you already use and waits for you first. Here is what each is built for, where each is stronger, and how to bring a list over if you want to.
Apollo's side describes how Apollo works as a product, as of October 2026. Apollo changes often; check its own site for prices and limits.
Built for
What each is built for
Apollo
A sales platform for running outbound in one place. You search its database of contacts and companies with filters, save people to lists, and run sequences of emails, calls and tasks. It also has a dialer, a meeting scheduler, call review and deal tracking, plus AI that can do prospecting work for you. It suits teams who want one tool for the whole sales day.
Programmable
A prospecting agent you supervise. You describe who you sell to in a sentence; it finds new companies each run, the right people, researches each company, drafts the outreach and asks before it sends. It doesn't try to replace your sending tool or CRM, and it doesn't keep your lists or results.
An example
The same job, both ways
Each week, find new dental groups in Texas that are hiring, reach the owner, and add them to a campaign with an opener about why now.
Working in Apollo
- Search companies with filters for the industry and state, and use the job postings filter to see who's hiring.
- Search for people by job title and save the ones you want to a list.
- Spend credits on the email addresses and phone numbers you need.
- Build a sequence, with Apollo's AI helping on the steps and wording if you want it.
- Add the list to the sequence. Automatic email steps send on their own; manual steps wait as tasks for your team.
- Repeat next week, or set up Apollo's Outbound Copilot to add people on a schedule.
Describing an agent
“Find dental groups in Texas with five or more locations that are hiring. Reach the owner, write an opener about why now, and add them to Instantly every Monday.”
- It's read into a plan: who it finds, what it researches, who it reaches, where results go and when. Anything unclear gets a question, not a guess.
- You confirm the plan, with the cost of each lookup and its source.
- Each Monday it runs the stored plan on companies it hasn't covered, and the leads wait paused for you.
Compared
Side by side
| Programmable | Apollo | |
|---|---|---|
| How you start | Write one sentence: who you sell to, what to find out, who to reach, where leads go and when it runs. It's read into a plan you confirm once. | Search the database with filters, save people to lists and add them to sequences. Its Outbound Copilot can also be set up to do this for you. |
| What runs each time | The stored plan. Later runs don't re-plan, take only companies the agent hasn't covered, and behave the same way every time. | The sequences and workflows you've set up, and an Outbound Copilot if you use one, set to how often it runs and how many people it adds. |
| Data | Up to 486 columns a row, 468 of them from 56 included sources with no keys of your own; 23 public sources to find companies from. People come from public profiles, company sites, email pattern checks and any provider you connect. There's no contact database of its own to search. | Its own database of contacts and companies, which you search and filter directly, with waterfall enrichment to fill gaps. |
| Phone numbers | Only through a provider you connect: mobile numbers need your own Apollo or People Data Labs key. | Built in, paid for with credits, alongside email addresses. |
| Your own keys | Bring keys for 20 providers (Apollo, Hunter, People Data Labs and more) and your own AI. Set the order they're tried in. Your keys add no credits here. | Runs on Apollo's own data and credits. Your Apollo key also works inside Programmable, as a data source and as a place to send leads. |
| Pricing model | Credits per researched row: one a row, plus one for each heavier group asked for. AI questions on included AI add credits; your own AI key doesn't. 500 included to start; Starter $19/month with 20,000 credits, Growth $49/month with 75,000 credits, Scale $149/month with 300,000 credits. Unused plan credits lapse at renewal; credits from a pack never expire. | Plans for your team, with a shared pool of credits for emails, phone numbers and other actions. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle. See Apollo's pricing page for today's prices. |
| What's stored | Your lists and results aren't stored. Only receipts, agent settings and which companies an agent has covered are kept. | Saved contacts and lists stay in your Apollo account, so you can come back to them, add them to sequences or export them. |
| Sending | Asks before it sends by default: leads land paused in Instantly, Smartlead, Lemlist, Woodpecker, Reply.io or Apollo, with an optional AI reviewer and one Approvals screen. Your tool does the sending. | Runs the sequences itself. Automatic email steps send without anyone completing a task; manual steps wait for your team. An Outbound Copilot can be set to approve new people manually or automatically. |
| Calls and meetings | Not part of it: there's no dialer, call recording or meeting scheduler. | A parallel dialer, a meeting scheduler, conversation intelligence and deal management. |
| From other tools | Every agent has a link: one HTTP step in Zapier, n8n or Make, a Google Sheets formula, or the API. | Integrations with CRMs and other tools, a Chrome extension for working in LinkedIn and Gmail, and an API. |
Trade-offs
Where each is stronger
Apollo is stronger when
- You want one tool for data, sequences, calls, meetings and deals.
- Your team calls prospects: phone numbers and a dialer are built in. Here, numbers need a provider of your own and calling happens elsewhere.
- You like searching a contact database by hand and building lists yourself.
- You want your lists kept in the tool for the team to come back to. Programmable deliberately doesn't keep them.
- You sell to people in the EU, the EEA or the UK. Apollo holds contacts there, under its own GDPR limits; Programmable skips people there altogether.
- You need a security report for a buyer: Apollo's trust center lists SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. Programmable holds no certification.
Programmable is stronger when
- You'd rather describe who you sell to once than search and filter every week.
- You want companies found from 23 public sources, such as government contracts and company filings, as well as any provider you connect.
- You want each company researched, not only a contact record: 468 columns are included with no keys of your own.
- You want outreach to wait for you by default, with one screen to approve or discard.
- You don't want your lists and results stored by the tool that built them.
- You already have a sending tool and a CRM, and want leads handed to them rather than a new platform to move into.
- You sell to online stores: platform, apps, payments, shipping and returns, and speed measured during the run.
Questions
Can I bring my Apollo list?
Yes. Export your contacts or a list from Apollo as a CSV and upload it under Data, or start an agent from Your list. The website, email or LinkedIn column is found on its own, every column you brought is kept in order, and the research is added alongside. The file isn't stored. Sequences, tasks and call history don't come across.
Can I use Apollo and Programmable together?
Yes. Connect your Apollo key and an agent can use it for people and email lookups, and send leads into an Apollo sequence with the same key. By default that sequence is created switched off, with its emails marked for review, so nothing goes out until you've read them. Your key adds no credits here; what Apollo charges for its lookups stays on your Apollo plan.
What happens if my Apollo credits run out during a run?
The run keeps going. Programmable stops calling Apollo for the rest of that run and moves to the next provider in your order, if you've connected one, while the included email pattern checks keep running. The run's summary says what happened, and nothing is bought on your behalf.
Does Programmable have a contact database?
No, and that's the biggest difference. Each run finds people fresh from public profiles, company sites, email pattern checks and any provider you connect, and nothing about them is kept afterwards. If you want a database to browse, Apollo gives you one.
Is Programmable a cheaper Apollo?
It's a different shape of tool. Apollo is somewhere your team works all day; Programmable is an agent you check in on. If you use Apollo mainly to build lists and start sequences, an agent may cover that. If your team lives in its dialer and deal tools, it won't replace them.
Is Programmable SOC 2 certified?
No. We don't hold SOC 2 or another certification. What we keep and don't, how keys are encrypted and which services are involved is all on the security page.