Apollo.io alternative
CrustAPI is an Apollo.io alternative for people who just want the data. It is one clean data API for the whole Google menu (Search, Maps, News, Shopping, and more), LinkedIn profiles, and local business leads, billed one credit per successful call, with no seats, credits that never expire, and 3,000 free every month.
One request, real response
Apollo.io hands you a database to filter inside its app. CrustAPI hands you an API you call from your own stack. Here is a business-leads query and the records it returns. The API returns clean JSON, and the same rows are available as CSV, so they drop straight into Sheets or a CRM.
Those businesses as CSV, one row each (phone masked here, full data in the API):
Add gl and hl for country and language, and raise limit for a bigger list. Every endpoint runs from the docs and the no-code playground too.
The full record, ready to use
Every business comes complete, so you build a list or a dataset with no second call. The API returns clean JSON, and the same rows are available as CSV for Sheets or a database:
Or the same record as clean JSON straight from the API:
Notice what is missing: an email. Google Maps business records carry name, address, phone, website, rating, reviews, categories, and hours, not personal email addresses, and any tool that claims Google Maps returns emails is guessing. CrustAPI gives you the business record and the public web around it, the account-level data, not a person-by-person contact list. If verified personal emails and outreach are the core of your job, that is where Apollo.io earns its price, not CrustAPI.
Apollo.io vs CrustAPI, plainly
These are different tools, so the fair comparison is by job: an all-in-one sales platform you sit inside, or the raw public data itself, billed by the result.
| Apollo.io | CrustAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A sales platform: a pre-built B2B contact database plus sequences, a dialer, and deal tracking | One clean data API for public data across the Google menu, LinkedIn profiles, and local business leads, pulled fresh on demand |
| Billing model | Per-seat plans metered by a credit allowance | One credit per successful call: Maps bills one credit per business returned, every other search one flat credit per query, and a query that returns nothing is free |
| Free tier | A real free plan with monthly limits | 3,000 credits a month, no card |
| Credit expiry | Tied to your plan period | Never expire |
| Data ownership | Access to their database under your plan | Clean JSON you keep and export, or the same rows as CSV, no storage limits |
| Endpoints covered | Its own B2B contact and company database | Twelve Google surfaces: Search, Maps, Places, News, Shopping, Images, Videos, Scholar, Patents, Reviews, Autocomplete, and Webpage |
| People and emails | Verified person-level contacts with emails and direct dials | Public web, business, and profile records, not verified personal emails or a dialer |
| Data freshness | A pre-built database refreshed on their schedule | Pulled from public pages at query time |
| Outreach | Built in: sequences and a dialer | None. Bring your own sending tool |
| Integrations | Native CRM integrations | MCP, n8n, LangChain, CrewAI, Clay, plain JSON everywhere else |
The Apollo.io column describes their public product and plan model in general terms as of July 2026. We put their strengths in the table on purpose. Check their site for current pricing and specifics.
One credit per successful call
No seat, no plan tier, no renewal date. Prepaid packs, and credits never expire: 25k for $49 · 100k for $149 · 500k for $549 · 2.5M for $1,999, up to 250M, all self-serve, ex-tax. You pay one credit per successful call: a Maps query bills one credit per business returned, so 20 businesses cost 20 credits, while every other search is one flat credit per query, and a query that returns nothing costs nothing. The free tier resets to 3,000 credits every month with no card.
When Apollo.io is the better pick: you want one tool that finds the contact and sends the email, your SDR team shares sequences and a dialer all day, you sync deals to a CRM inside the same product, or you would rather browse a database with filters than write queries. If that is your shape, Apollo.io is good at that job and a raw data API will feel like extra work. CrustAPI is the better pick when you mainly want fresh public lists flowing into your own stack, paid for by the result.
Related: Google Maps scraper API · Business leads database · Google Search API · Google Reviews API
Common questions
Clay
Run one real query first
3,000 free credits covers a real test. Pull a business list for your market, run a few Google searches around it, and look at the JSON before you spend a dollar.
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