Clay vs Apollo vs Clearbit

• Best for building custom, multi-vendor enrichment workflows: Clay
• Best for a contact database bundled with sales engagement: Apollo
• Best for teams already standardized on HubSpot's CRM: Clearbit (now HubSpot Breeze Intelligence)

3 tools side by side

	Clay	Apollo	Clearbit
What it is	A workflow tool for building custom, multi-vendor enrichment and GTM automations✓	A contact database bundled with built-in sales engagement tools✓	HubSpot's Breeze Intelligence add-on, not a standalone product anymore✓
Data sources	One contract covers 200+ data and AI vendors in Clay's marketplace✓	240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts in Apollo's own network✓	Public web data, Clearbit's proprietary data, and LLMs; 100M+ company domains and 380M+ emails indexed✓
Starting price	Free to start; Launch begins at $185 a month✓	Basic starts at $49 per seat a month, billed annually✓	Not sold on its own; requires a paid HubSpot Hub plus HubSpot Credits✓
Free plan	Yes, 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions a month✓	Yes, positioned for founders and light usage✓	No standalone free plan; Breeze Intelligence needs at least one paid Hub✓
Credits model	Actions meter platform usage, Data Credits buy vendor data✓	Credits are the platform currency, capped at 1 per contact for email access✓	HubSpot Credits cost $0.01 each and reset every month with no rollover✓
CRM integrations	Named integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive✓	Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, and Marketo✓	Built natively into HubSpot's own Smart CRM rather than sold as a separate connector✓
API access	CLI and API for coding agents; full Clay API access on Enterprise✓	API Access listed even on the Free plan✓	Not published on the pages we read
Best for	Teams that want to orchestrate their own multi-vendor enrichment waterfalls✓	Teams that want a database and sales engagement in one account✓	HubSpot customers who want enrichment and intent data inside the CRM they already run✓

Clay: infrastructure for building your own enrichment workflows

Clay's homepage describes the product as infrastructure to get any data, run agentic workflows, and launch GTM plays, not a fixed contact database✓. Its data marketplace gives customers one contract to buy data from more than 200 data and AI vendors, rather than locking them into a single provider's records✓. Clay's Free plan already includes unlimited seats and tables, multi-provider waterfalls, Claygent AI enrichment, its native email sequencer, and up to 200 rows per table, with 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions included every month✓.

Paid tiers move quickly toward automation depth. Launch starts at $185 a month and adds phone number enrichment, job change and signal tracking, email campaign integrations, and up to 50,000 rows per table, with 2,500 Data Credits and 15,000 Actions a month✓. Growth starts at $495 a month and adds CRM auto-sync and enrichment, HTTP API integrations, webhook automation, web intent signal tracking, and audience pushes to ad platforms, with 6,000 Data Credits and 40,000 Actions a month✓. Enterprise is custom priced with an annual commitment and adds unlimited Audiences, unlimited row bulk enrichment, full Clay API access, data warehouse syncs, SSO, and role-based access control, with more than 100,000 Data Credits and 200,000 Actions a month✓.

Clay's pricing page explains its two-meter model directly: Actions measure platform usage for enrichment and GTM execution, while Data Credits buy data and AI from vendors inside Clay's marketplace✓. On integrations, Clay's directory names a Salesforce connector for managing records and reports✓, a HubSpot connector for syncing companies and contacts inside Clay tables✓, and a Pipedrive connector for creating and looking up people and organizations✓. For technical teams, Clay's own navigation describes a CLI and API for building directly in Clay via a coding agent✓.

Where Clay falls short

Clay's core workflow, running multiple enrichment providers in sequence, means cost is usage-based across two separate meters instead of a flat per-seat price: a heavy month of Actions or Data Credit usage raises the bill even within the same plan tier✓. Full Clay API access, data warehouse syncs, and SSO are reserved for the custom-priced Enterprise plan rather than included at Launch or Growth✓. And because Clay's core value is orchestrating other vendors' data, the quality of any single enrichment depends on which of its 200-plus providers actually holds the record, not on a single in-house database✓.

Migration difficulty

Clay's named Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive connectors cover the most common CRM targets without custom development✓. Because Clay is a workflow layer rather than a closed database, most of what a team builds (waterfalls, enrichment sequences, sync rules) lives in Clay's own tables and can be rebuilt against a different downstream tool if needed, though Clay does not publish a one-click export process on the pages we read.

Apollo: a contact database bundled with sales engagement

Apollo's data product page states its network includes 240 million-plus contacts and 30 million-plus accounts, with verified B2B data, firmographics, and signals✓. Apollo positions its Free plan for founders and early-stage teams exploring the product or running very light usage✓, and it uses credits as the single currency for actions across the platform, never charging more than 1 credit to access a contact's personal or business email✓.

On data quality, Apollo describes a seven-step email verification process that checks emails within catch-all domains and verifies data in real time✓, on top of an automated multi-step verification process it says keeps records accurate and up to date✓. Beyond data, Apollo bundles sales engagement directly into the same account, plus a built-in Email Deliverability Suite covering domain and mailbox setup, authentication, warmup, verification, reputation protection, and monitoring✓. Apollo documents integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, and Marketo✓, and its pricing page lists API Access among the Free plan's features✓.

Apollo's pricing page lists Basic at $49 per seat a month✓, Professional at $79✓, and Organization at $119 with a 3-seat minimum, all billed annually, while the Free plan comes with 900 credits per seat a year✓.

Where Apollo falls short

Apollo's own FAQ acknowledges that third-party email verification tools sometimes flag its verified emails as invalid, because most popular checker tools rely on SMTP tickling, a method that cannot tell valid emails from invalid ones on catch-all domains✓. Apollo also locks every seat on an account to the same plan tier: the pricing page states plainly that a team cannot have some users on Professional and others on Basic✓. Unlike Clay, Apollo does not publish a marketplace of outside data vendors a customer can mix and match; its waterfall enrichment pulls from third-party sources Apollo selects, not ones the customer chooses✓.

Migration difficulty

Apollo's credits reset at the start of each billing cycle and do not roll over if unused, so unused capacity does not carry into a new contract term✓. Apollo also caps how many records a user can select from the database in one action, up to 10,000 leads per click without a limit in place, though bulk export of already-saved records is still available in one step✓. Its documented integration list and API access make moving data in and out relatively standard✓.

Clearbit: now sold only as HubSpot's Breeze Intelligence

Clearbit's own website states plainly that Clearbit has joined HubSpot, describing itself as the B2B data provider now part of HubSpot's B2B customer platform✓. Its homepage still describes the underlying data approach: gathering public data from the web, Clearbit's proprietary data, and the power of LLMs to convert unstructured information into standardized data sets✓. That data now powers score-and-route features, industry categorization, corporate hierarchy mapping, buying-intent signals drawn from anonymous website traffic through IP intelligence, and dynamic form shortening that removes fields Clearbit can already enrich✓.

A HubSpot webinar page for Breeze Intelligence, the product this data now lives inside, states it is available only to paid customers with access to at least one Hub, not as a self-serve standalone signup✓. HubSpot describes Breeze Intelligence as AI-powered tools that take a customer's Smart CRM further: identifying target markets, gauging website visitor intent, and enriching contact and company data directly inside HubSpot✓. HubSpot's data enrichment product page states its database indexes more than 100 million company domains and more than 380 million email addresses, sourced from public info, third parties, and the web✓.

Pricing runs through HubSpot's general credit system rather than a Clearbit-specific rate card: HubSpot Credits cost $0.01 USD per credit, sold up front in packs of 1,000 credits for $10 USD or through pay-as-you-go overages✓. HubSpot's knowledge base lists Data Hub Starter, Professional, and Enterprise as the subscription tiers that come with included HubSpot Credits for usage-based features like Data Enrichment✓, and those credits reset every month with unused amounts expiring rather than rolling over✓.

Where Clearbit falls short

The pages we read give no standalone Clearbit price at all; clearbit.com's own site routes new visitors straight to the HubSpot relationship rather than a self-serve plan✓. Buying the enrichment features Clearbit used to sell on its own now requires an existing paid HubSpot Hub subscription before HubSpot Credits are even usable, which raises the effective entry cost for a team not already on HubSpot✓. And unlike Clay or Apollo, none of the pages we read publish a dedicated public API for Clearbit's enrichment data outside of what HubSpot's own platform exposes.

Migration difficulty

Because Clearbit's enrichment now runs inside HubSpot's own Smart CRM rather than as a portable connector, adopting it effectively means adopting HubSpot's CRM and its credit system, not a lightweight add-on that plugs into an outside stack✓. Moving away is the mirror image: the pages we read do not describe an export path for Clearbit-sourced enrichment data that is separate from a general HubSpot account export, so leaving means leaving the credit and Hub structure behind too✓.

How the 3 tools handle waterfall enrichment vs single-source data

Clay and Apollo both describe waterfall enrichment in nearly identical terms: search several data providers in sequence until one returns a valid result, rather than relying on a single source. Clay's waterfall page frames it as a choice, stop relying on one contact database and instead access more than 150 databases to maximize coverage of contact info or any other data point✓, and explains the mechanism as searching multiple providers sequentially to maximize data quality and coverage✓. Clay says this routinely triples its customers' data coverage and quality✓, and its own work-email waterfall checks named providers including Prospeo, DropContact, Datagma, Hunter, PeopleDataLabs, Nimbler, Apollo, Lusha, and Snov✓, meaning Clay can call on Apollo's own data as one input among many rather than treating it as a competitor to pick between.

Apollo runs a similar idea inside its own database rather than across outside vendors it lets a customer choose: no single data provider has everything, so Apollo's waterfall enrichment fills gaps in a record by pulling from more than 20 trusted third-party sources in sequence until each field is complete✓. The difference from Clay is control: Apollo picks which 20-plus sources feed its waterfall, while Clay lets a customer choose and reorder providers, including Apollo itself, inside a single workflow✓.

Clearbit, now Breeze Intelligence, does not describe its enrichment as a waterfall across competing vendors at all. Its own data foundation statement describes gathering public data from the web, Clearbit's proprietary data, and LLMs into one standardized engine✓, and HubSpot's data enrichment page describes a single indexed database of more than 100 million company domains and 380 million emails rather than a sequence of outside providers a customer can pick between✓. For a buyer, that means Clay and Apollo both offer a way to raise match rates by trying more than one source per field, while Clearbit's coverage depends on the completeness of its single underlying index.

Which of the 3 tools should you choose?

Choose Clay if you want to design your own enrichment and GTM workflows across more than 200 data vendors, including the option to route through Apollo or other single-source tools as one input among many✓.

Choose Apollo if you want a ready-made contact database with built-in sales engagement, calling, and deliverability tools inside one account, and you are comfortable with Apollo choosing which third-party sources feed its own waterfall✓.

Choose Clearbit if your team already runs on HubSpot and wants enrichment, buying-intent signals, and form shortening built into the Smart CRM you already pay for, rather than a separate standalone tool✓.

FAQ

How we researched this

We read Clay's pricing, homepage, integrations directory, and waterfall enrichment pages; Apollo's pricing, product data, sales engagement, and data overview pages from earlier verified research; and Clearbit's own homepage alongside HubSpot's Breeze Intelligence, data enrichment, and HubSpot Credits pages, all on September 30, 2026. Every factual claim in this article links to the specific vendor page it came from, with an exact quote saved at the time we read it. Where a vendor did not publish a figure or feature on the pages we could read, we said so instead of estimating one.

How Modern Inbound can help

Picking a data and enrichment layer is one decision inside a larger outbound system: list building, verification, sending infrastructure, sequencing, and reply handling all have to work together regardless of which of these three tools sits underneath. Modern Inbound builds and runs that full system for clients, and can help you test Clay, Apollo, or Clearbit's Breeze Intelligence against your actual target list before you commit to a contract.