SayIntel vs Apollo
Apollo and SayIntel are often compared, but they solve different halves of the same problem. Here's exactly when to use each — and why most teams end up using them together.
What each tool actually is
Apollo is a 275M-contact static database. You filter by industry, title, headcount, and tech stack to build a target list, then reveal emails and run sequences.
SayIntel starts from a real-time signal — a conference speaker page — and produces a qualified, message-ready list of the people who just spoke about your space. Same end goal (booked meetings), opposite starting point (signal vs database).
Why the starting point matters
A title in a database tells you what someone does. A talk title at a conference tells you what they're working on right now. The second is a buying signal; the first is a guess.
Cold replies on database lists run 1–3%. Cold replies that reference a specific recent talk run 8–15% in our customers' data. The lift comes from relevance, not volume.
Feature comparison
Apollo strengths: massive contact volume, mature sequencer, phone numbers on higher tiers, CRM sync, intent data partnerships.
SayIntel strengths: turns a public conference URL into an enriched, ICP-qualified list in minutes; drafts messages that quote the speaker's actual talk; cuts enrichment spend with pre-qualification before any email reveal runs; works across any conference, summit, or industry event.
Where they overlap: SayIntel uses Apollo as one of its enrichment providers. So you're not paying twice for data — you're paying SayIntel for the speaker-extraction, ICP scoring, message drafting, and pre-qualification on top.
When to use Apollo alone
Pick Apollo by itself when your motion is broad-firmographic outbound — "all VPs of Engineering at 100–500 person SaaS companies in the US" — and you don't have a specific event signal to anchor on. Apollo + a sequencer + good copy is still the fastest way to start a cold pipeline from zero.
When to use SayIntel alone
Pick SayIntel when your buyer cluster shows up at conferences — RevOps, DevTools, fintech, healthtech, cybersecurity, climate. Speaker rosters give you 50–800 high-signal prospects per event with a built-in opener (the talk itself). You'll get more meetings from one conference than from a month of cold-list dialing.
When to use both (most teams)
Run Apollo for the always-on broad outbound. Run SayIntel on every relevant industry conference as it announces speakers. The SayIntel leads will out-convert the Apollo leads 3–5×, but the Apollo leads keep the pipeline full between events.
Both feeds drop into the same sequencer (or your CRM) — see the workflow in our scraping & personalization guide.
Pricing posture
Apollo prices per seat with metered email/phone credits (~$59–$149/user/mo). SayIntel prices per qualified lead so you only pay for speakers that pass ICP scoring — see pricing. On a typical 800-speaker conference, pre-qualification cuts the billable lead count by 60–70% before any enrichment runs.