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I Cancelled Apollo.io ($99/Month) and Built the Same Pipeline for $5

#b2b #salestools #apify #automation

I was paying Apollo.io $99/month. Then I noticed I was only using two features: contact email lookup and LinkedIn profile data.

Cancelled it. Rebuilt both workflows in a weekend. Monthly cost now: $4.80.

Here's the exact setup.

What Apollo Does That You're Actually Using

Most Apollo users use a fraction of the features:

  1. Contact email finder — find email for a person at a company
  2. Company search — find companies by industry/size/location
  3. LinkedIn enrichment — get job title, seniority, company data from a LinkedIn URL
  4. Sequences — automated email outreach (we'll address this separately)

The search and enrichment features are just organized web scraping. Apollo crawls LinkedIn, company websites, and public databases — then charges you $99/month+ for the cleaned output.

The Replacement Stack

1. Contact Email Finder → Apify Contact Info Scraper

Apollo charges per credit for email lookups. This Apify actor scrapes emails directly from company websites.

Input: List of company website URLs

Output: Emails, phones, LinkedIn handles found on the site

Cost: ~$0.005 per company

# Quick test run
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/lanky_quantifier~contact-info-scraper/runs" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"startUrls": [{"url": "https://company.com"}], "maxPagesPerStartUrl": 3}'
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For 1,000 companies: ~$5. Apollo: ~$50 at their cheapest tier.

2. LinkedIn Enrichment → Apify LinkedIn Job Scraper

Apollo's LinkedIn enrichment pulls title, company, seniority, department. The LinkedIn Job Scraper gets you company-level data including who's hiring (a buying signal).

What you get for free:

  • Job titles at target companies
  • Department sizes (from hiring volume)
  • Tech stack hints (from job requirements)

3. Company Search → Google Maps Scraper

Apollo's company search is essentially a database query. For local/regional targeting:

{
  "searchStrings": ["marketing agencies in Austin", "SaaS companies in New York"],
  "maxCrawledPlacesPerSearch": 100
}
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Output: Business name, website, phone, address, review count — enough to start your outreach list.

4. Sequences → n8n + Gmail

This is the only Apollo feature you can't directly replace with a scraper. But n8n gives you:

  • Gmail/Outlook integration
  • Conditional email sequences
  • CRM updates via webhook
  • Slack notifications on replies

Setup time: 2-3 hours. Monthly cost: $0 (n8n self-hosted) or $20 (n8n cloud).

The Full Workflow 

1. Identify target companies (Google Maps scraper or manual list)
2. Get company websites
3. Run Contact Info Scraper → extract emails + phones
4. Enrich with LinkedIn data (job titles from LinkedIn Job Scraper)
5. Import to CRM (HubSpot free or Notion)
6. Run outreach sequence via n8n
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Total monthly infrastructure cost for 500 contacts:

  • Apify contact scraper: ~$2.50
  • Apify LinkedIn scraper: ~$1.50
  • n8n self-hosted: $0 (your own server) or $20 (cloud)
  • HubSpot CRM: Free tier

Total: $4-24/month vs Apollo's $99-349/month.

What You Give Up

Be honest with yourself:

Data freshness: Apollo maintains a database with regular updates. Scraper data is current but you run it on-demand. If someone changed jobs last week, Apollo might know; your scraper will tell you when you run it next.

Legal comfort: Apollo has a ToS, GDPR compliance, data processing agreements. DIY scraping is legal for public data but you're on your own for compliance documentation.

Sequences UI: Apollo's visual sequence builder is genuinely good. n8n is more powerful but takes longer to set up.

Phone verification: Apollo verifies phone numbers. The scraper gives you numbers that may or may not be active.

When Apollo Is Still Worth It

  • Your team lives in sequences and the UI saves significant time
  • You need verified data at massive scale (50k+ contacts/month)
  • You need intent data (Apollo's Bombora integration)
  • Your legal team requires verified compliance documentation

For a 2-person sales team doing 100-500 outreach/month? The DIY stack saves $70-90/month and works just as well.

Get Started in 10 Minutes

  1. Create free Apify account at apify.com (includes $5 monthly credit)
  2. Run Contact Info Scraper on your first target list
  3. Export to CSV → import to your CRM

The $29 Apify Scrapers Bundle has pre-configured inputs for the Contact Info Scraper, LinkedIn Job Scraper, Google Maps Scraper, and 32 more actors — so you skip the setup trial-and-error.

Get the Bundle →

Running a similar comparison with other tools? Drop a comment — I'm tracking which SaaS replacements are working best for developers.

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