Apollo became the default first sales stack for small and mid-sized teams by bundling the pieces an SDR needs into one per-seat product: a large native contact and company database, sequencing, a dialer, meeting scheduling, enrichment and intent signals, all inside one interface. AstroFabric approaches the same buyer from the data side: seven agents that identify accounts, find and verify people, run waterfall enrichment across many sources, watch signals, build audiences and write first touches, then deliver the finished rows into the tools you already send from - including Apollo. The comparison is really about whether you want one seat that does everything adequately or an agent layer that does the data work thoroughly and feeds whatever sends. Public information as of September 2026; verify current numbers on Apollo's pricing page.
The short version
Apollo sells a seat: a person logs in, searches the database, builds a sequence, makes the calls. AstroFabric sells outcomes: an objective goes in, a verified list with evidence per row comes out and lands where the work happens. If your team is the seat, Apollo is a strong default. If your team is the objective-setter and the data work is what you want off the calendar, the agent layer is the purchase.
What Apollo actually is
Apollo's core is a native database of contacts and companies in the hundreds of millions, searchable by the usual firmographic and role filters, wrapped in the execution tools an SDR uses all day: multi-step email sequences, a dialer, meeting scheduling, deal tracking, and enrichment that fills CRM records from the same database. Intent signals, job-change alerts and AI-written copy sit alongside. The pricing, as published in September 2026: a Free plan with limited credits; Basic at $49 per user per month billed annually or $59 monthly; Professional at $79 annual or $99 monthly; and Organization at $119 annual or $149 monthly with a three-user minimum. Plans carry annual credit allotments (independent breakdowns put them at roughly 30,000, 48,000 and 72,000 credits a year for the three paid tiers), a verified email costs one credit and a phone reveal several, and international dialing and some data features are add-ons. The honest read: for a small team that wants to search, sequence and dial from one place, the bundle is hard to beat on convenience, and total cost rises with credits and add-ons once outbound volume gets serious.
What AstroFabric actually is
AstroFabric is agentic AI for business intelligence, the GTM-data kind. The prospecting agent identifies accounts by firmographics, technology, hiring, funding, similarity to your best customers or location, and finds the people by title, seniority and department. The enrichment agent runs waterfall enrichment across many sources, field by field, with the source and date on every value. The verification agent checks emails and phones, dedupes and suppresses customers and competitors before a row is marked ready. The signals agent keeps a standing watch; the audience agent turns the list into matched audiences on LinkedIn, Meta and Reddit; the personalization agent writes the first touch from each row's evidence and loads it into the outreach tool you already use. There are no seats: pricing is credits, enrichment is charged only when a source answers, every external write passes an approval gate, and every run is bounded by a credit ceiling. Sending is deliberately yours - AstroFabric loads the sequence, it does not own the mailbox.
Side by side
| Dimension | Apollo | AstroFabric |
|---|---|---|
| Interaction model | A person searches, sequences and dials in one tool | Agents execute objectives and deliver into your tools |
| Data | One native database plus enrichment from it | Waterfall across many sources, provenance per field |
| Sending and calling | Built in: sequences, dialer, meetings | Loads the outreach tool you send from, Apollo included |
| Audiences | Outside scope | Matched and custom audiences on connected ad accounts, platform-ready exports |
| Pricing (published) | Free; $49 / $79 / $119 per user per month annual ($59 / $99 / $149 monthly); credits and add-ons on top | Credits, no seats, charged when a source answers, under credit ceilings |
| Governance | Seat permissions and team settings | Approval gate on every external write, audit log on every action |
| Surfaces | Web app, extension, integrations | Console, REST API, MCP, CLI, Slack, Telegram, email |
Choose Apollo if
Choose Apollo if your team is a handful of reps who want one login for search, sequencing and calls, if a single native database covers your market well enough, and if a predictable per-seat price is easier to buy than usage. It is the right first stack for a founder-led sales motion or a small SDR team that values convenience over data breadth, and its meeting and dialer features are things AstroFabric does not attempt. Teams that already run Apollo well and only need more coverage often keep it as the sending seat and add an agent layer for the data, rather than replacing it.
Choose AstroFabric if
Choose AstroFabric if you want the data work done by agents on an objective rather than by a person on a seat, if your coverage needs a waterfall rather than one database, if lists need to become ad audiences and signal watches as well as sequences, if you integrate through an API, MCP or the CLI, or if governance - approvals, ceilings, an audit log - matters to procurement. Many teams run both: AstroFabric builds, enriches and verifies; Apollo sequences and dials. The two are not mutually exclusive, and the handoff is a delivery target rather than a migration.
Frequently asked questions
Is AstroFabric an Apollo alternative?
For the data work - identifying accounts, finding and verifying people, enrichment, signals, audiences - yes. For sequencing, dialing and meeting scheduling, no: AstroFabric loads the tools you send from, Apollo included, rather than replacing them.
How does Apollo pricing compare to AstroFabric in 2026?
Apollo publishes per-seat plans: Free, Basic at $49 per user per month on annual billing ($59 monthly), Professional at $79 ($99 monthly) and Organization at $119 ($149 monthly) with a three-seat minimum, plus credits and add-ons. AstroFabric has no seats: credits, charged when a source answers, under credit ceilings. Which is cheaper depends on team size and data volume; model both against your numbers.
Does AstroFabric have its own contact database?
AstroFabric runs waterfall enrichment across many sources rather than selling access to one database, so each field is filled by the source that answers best for that segment and carries its provenance. Apollo’s data comes from its own native database.
Can I use Apollo and AstroFabric together?
Yes. A common setup is AstroFabric building, enriching and verifying the list from an objective and delivering it into Apollo as the sequencing and dialing seat, with the same list feeding matched audiences and a signal watch.
Sources
Every playbook on this blog ships as a runnable mission.
Open a workspace and the playbook library is waiting - describe the outcome and the agents carry it end to end, on your plan's monthly credits.