Choosing the right CRM
Close vs. Apollo
Have you ever seen a comparison page where the “challenger” comes out better than the company writing the comparison?
Exactly. Neither have we. So when we set about comparing our CRM to others we wanted to take a different approach.
Cost and capability
The comparison we’ve put together is based on whether it’s possible (and how much it costs) to do in Apollo what you can do in Close.
We're biased, not ignorant
For some of you, Apollo will be the better option. What we’re trying to demonstrate is when Close is a better fit than our competitor.
A quick summary
Apollo and Close are common comparisons for small businesses who need a new CRM, but the two products are designed to service drastically different types of businesses. It’s not an even comparison between Apollo and Close as they are actually serving two separate functions in your sales workflow.
Apollo is a great tool for identifying and sourcing contacts, plus doing initial outreach. It’s a close competitor to ZoomInfo.
After the initial outreach, however, Apollo isn’t built for ongoing contact management or customer engagement. Close, on the other hand, is a true CRM: built for ongoing customer management and full, start-to-finish lifecycle sales.
Comparing Close to Apollo is comparing apples to oranges in many ways––even though the two platforms have similar features. It would be more accurate to think of Apollo as a good first step in finding new prospects, then syncing those contacts into Close to manage the rest of your pipeline. Apollo and Close can complement each other in many ways for lead generation and cold outreach, depending on what level of time and spend you’re willing to invest.
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| Target sales team size | <100 | >5 |
| Pricing | All-inclusive Pricing publicly available |
Low initial cost Many add-ons required when scaling |
| Budget | Best value | Affordable |
| Customer success | Dedicated success team | Pay extra |
| Calling | Global calling built-in | Global calling with add-on purchase |
| Email automation | Built-in | Add-on purchase required |
| Training & implementation | $0 customized onboarding | Add-on purchase required |
| GetApp "ease of use" rating | 4.7 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Admin or developer needed? | No | No |
Close ideal customer checklist
You do (or plan to do) high volume outreach by email, voice, or SMS
You need to qualify large lead lists quickly
You aim to close more than ten deals a year
You’re looking for a scalable system to match your team’s growth
You prefer having an all-in-one system over disparate tools
The rest of this page will help you understand why we think Close is a better alternative to Apollo both in terms of value and pricing.
What can you not do in Apollo?
Apollo is a great prospecting tool, but it is not a full CRM with extended contact and customer management features or automation.
There are also some key sales functions that, even with a third-party app, you just cannot perform using Apollo (such as call coaching, VoIP, and power dialing). With Close, they’re all built-in.
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| Full CRM features |
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| Sales forecasting |
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| Built-in Call Coaching |
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| Predictive Dialer |
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| Power Dialer |
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| Territory management |
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When should you choose Apollo, and when Close
Close
Close is a CRM built to double your sales team’s productivity.
It’s an “all in one” platform which you can use standalone without needing any other sales emails tools or calling products.
It has been built with scalability in mind and can handle a high volume of leads.
Apollo
Apollo is good option if you already have a CRM you’re not looking to switch from, but you’re on the market for a prospecting tool like ZoomInfo.
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