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Sales intelligence and contact data · September 2026 Edition

Apollo.io vs ZoomInfo

Eleven of twelve models named Apollo.io first on the direct prompt; two named ZoomInfo. Both were named by all twelve models and Apollo.io carries 67 labels and ZoomInfo 61, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Apollo.io

endorsed leader

San Francisco, United States, founded 2015. Named in twenty categories this edition.

ZoomInfo

criticized challenger

Vancouver, Washington, United States, founded 2000. Named in eighteen categories this edition.

First-choice share76%17%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate16%44%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 13; printed, not drawn.
Labels6761A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Apollo.io reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Cognism was named alongside these two in nine of the twelve direct answers. Apollo.io vs UpLead · ZoomInfo vs UpLead

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; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the sales intelligence and contact data page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Apollo.ioFirst choices, of twelve modelsZoomInfo
Direct1127 against ZoomInfo
Paraphrase914 against ZoomInfo
Comparative68
Budget-constrained1105 against ZoomInfo
Scale-constrained141 against ZoomInfo
Negative0011 against Apollo.io · 10 against ZoomInfo
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Apollo.io and ZoomInfo stood in it.

Both were the first choice

1 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.
GPT-5.4 miniApollo.io, ZoomInfo alternatives: Cognism

Apollo.io first, ZoomInfo an alternative

10 of 12 modelsZoomInfo was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Claude Haiku 4.5Apollo.io alternatives: Amplemarket, Lead411, ZoomInfo
Gemini 3.5 FlashApollo.io alternatives: Clay, Cognism, UpLead
Perplexity SonarApollo.io alternatives: Cognism, UpLead
Grok 4.1 FastApollo.io alternatives: Cognism, Lead411, UpLead
Mistral SmallApollo.io alternatives: Cognism, Lusha, Salesmotion, UpLead
DeepSeek V4 FlashApollo.io alternatives: Cognism, Lusha, ZoomInfo
Qwen 3.7 FlashApollo.io alternatives: HubSpot Breeze Intelligence, Lusha, ZoomInfo
Kimi K2Apollo.io alternatives: Cognism, UpLead
GLM 4.7 FlashXApollo.io alternatives: Lusha, UpLead
MiniMax M2.5Apollo.io alternatives: 6sense, Cognism, Lead411, LinkedIn Sales Navigator

ZoomInfo first, Apollo.io not the choice

1 of 12 modelsApollo.io was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Llama 4 MaverickZoomInfo alternatives: Cognism, Salesloft, UpLead

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Apollo.io leads by ninety-four points.
Apollo.io94%#1 of 10
ZoomInfo0%#10 of 10
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Apollo.io leads by sixty points.
Apollo.io76%#1 of 13
ZoomInfo17%#2 of 13
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: ZoomInfo leads at enterprise.
ZoomInfo67%#1 of 11
Apollo.io4%#4 of 11
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Apollo.io

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of three in this category shown.

“Apollo’s "single-source" database approach often leads to high bounce rates... shares the same "scraping controversy" as Seamless.ai” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“the safest single-tool recommendation is usually Apollo if you want the best balance of coverage, affordability, and built-in sales engagement” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · first choice
“the best starting point is usually Apollo.io because it combines a large B2B database with outreach/sequencing features and offers a free tier” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · first choice

What the models said about ZoomInfo

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.

“ZoomInfo is a B2B data and GTM platform that provides verified contact data on 500M contacts... It is a comprehensive platform that offers a wide range of features” Llama 4 Maverick · scale prompt · first choice
“the best choice is usually: ZoomInfo if you want the strongest all-around enterprise-grade contact data, intent data, and sales intelligence” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · first choice
“ZoomInfo - Known for its comprehensive contact data and intent signals, making it a popular choice for mid-market and enterprise teams.” Llama 4 Maverick · direct prompt · first choice
Also compared
Apollo.io vs UpLeadZoomInfo vs UpLeadThe full sales intel standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.