# Apollo.io vs HubSpot Sales Hub: which do AI models recommend for sales engagement, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, Sales engagement platforms. Five of twelve models named Apollo.io first on the direct prompt; zero named HubSpot Sales Hub. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/sales/sales-engagement/apollo-io-vs-hubspot-sales-hub/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo.io | 33% | #2 of 10 | 16% | 57 | 12 of 12 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | 8% | #4 of 10 | 4% | 48 | 12 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Mistral Small: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Outreach, Salesloft)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesloft)
- Llama 4 Maverick: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io, Outreach, Salesloft)
- Kimi K2: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Outreach, Salesloft)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: apollo.io first (first choices: Apollo.io) (alternatives: Salesloft)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesloft)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Salesloft) (alternatives: HubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Outreach)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Outreach) (alternatives: Apollo.io, Salesloft)

## What the models said about Apollo.io

- "Apollo.io is the most cost-effective platform on the market because it consolidates your contact database and your outreach tool into one platform." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about HubSpot Sales Hub

- "Never use for cold email: HubSpot Sales Hub" (Kimi K2, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "some features are only accessible in high-tier plans, which can be costly, and the platform can sometimes be slow" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt, soft negative)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.