SalesRipe vs Apollo.io: SalesRipe Is Gone - Here's What to Use Now
SalesRipe shut down on June 5, 2020. Every page that still frames this as a live comparison is recycling dead copy. If you used SalesRipe and need a replacement - or you're just trying to figure out what happened - this is the only honest breakdown you'll find.
30-Second Verdict
What SalesRipe Was
SalesRipe was a straightforward, credit-based contact data provider. You searched, you previewed for free, and you burned a credit only when you downloaded a contact to Excel. Credits rolled over month-to-month. Pricing ran $49/mo for 200 credits, $79/mo for 1,000, and $129/mo for 2,500 - working out to roughly $0.052-$0.245 per contact depending on your tier. Overages cost $0.03-$0.10 per credit depending on plan.
The database covered about 20M B2B contacts and 200M consumer records, with self-reported 90% accuracy and monthly refreshes. SalesRipe had virtually zero footprint on G2 or Capterra - no meaningful review history exists. When the shutdown notice went live, SalesRipe's own site recommended three alternatives: UpLead, ZoomInfo, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Apollo.io in 2026
Apollo is a legitimate all-in-one prospecting platform with 210M+ contacts, built-in email sequencing, and a dialer. The free plan gives you 10 export credits/month to test the interface. Paid plans start at $49/user/month (annual) for Basic, $79 for Professional, and $119 for Organization. Professional unlocks API access and a US dialer. Organization adds international dialing and requires a minimum of three seats.
Credits expire at the end of each billing cycle - no rollover. Overage credits cost $0.20 each with a 250-credit minimum purchase.
Use Apollo if you want prospecting, sequencing, and calling in one tool and you're willing to invest in learning the platform.
Skip Apollo if you just need clean contact data. Apollo's credit math gets tight fast: exporting an email costs 1 credit, a mobile number costs 5, and a fully enriched contact with both runs 6 credits. On the Basic plan's 1,000 monthly export credits, that's roughly 166 fully enriched contacts at about $0.29 each.
Apollo charges $0.29 per enriched contact and still delivers 15-25% bounce rates. Prospeo gives you 300M+ profiles at $0.01/email with 98% verified accuracy and a 7-day refresh cycle. Same credit-based simplicity SalesRipe had - with 15x the database.
Replace SalesRipe's model with data that actually works in 2026.
Where Apollo Falls Short
The most common complaint on Reddit isn't pricing - it's data freshness. One r/coldemail thread puts it bluntly: "half the emails are stale or straight-up role accounts," even on lists marked as verified. Bounce rates can land in the 15-25% range if you skip external verification.
For phone-heavy workflows, the credit system is punishing. At 5 credits per mobile number, a team dialing 200 prospects a week burns through 1,000 credits on phone numbers alone - leaving nothing for email exports.
Here's the thing: in our testing, Apollo's data holds up reasonably well for mid-market titles at known companies but falls apart for local SMBs. A r/gtmengineering post describes getting generic info@ addresses and front-desk contacts instead of actual decision-makers, which tracks with what we've seen when running side-by-side comparisons on the same target lists.
What to Use Instead
If you liked SalesRipe's model - credit-based, self-serve, no contracts, affordable - Prospeo is the closest modern equivalent, with a dramatically larger database and verified accuracy that actually holds up.
The database covers 300M+ profiles with 98% verified email accuracy and a 7-day data refresh cycle instead of SalesRipe's monthly updates. Pricing lands at roughly $0.01 per verified email. A free tier includes 75 emails and 100 Chrome extension credits per month, so you can test before spending anything. We've run this data against Apollo's on the same target lists, and the accuracy gap is real - Meritt, one customer, saw bounce rates drop from 35% to under 4% after switching. That's the difference between sequences that build pipeline and sequences that burn your domain.
Native integrations with Instantly, Lemlist, Smartlead, HubSpot, Salesforce, Clay, Zapier, and Make mean you pair it with whatever sequencer you already use rather than being locked into one platform's workflow. No sequencer built in, but honestly, most teams already have one they prefer.
Meritt dropped their bounce rate from 35% to under 4% after switching to Prospeo. No built-in sequencer to learn - just clean data that plugs into Instantly, Lemlist, Smartlead, HubSpot, or whatever you already run. Self-serve, no contracts, cancel anytime.
Stop paying Apollo prices for emails you have to re-verify anyway.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | SalesRipe (Historical) | Apollo.io | Prospeo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Shut down (June 2020) | Active | Active |
| Database | 20M B2B / 200M consumer | 210M+ contacts | 300M+ profiles |
| Email accuracy | 90% (self-reported) | ~75-85% (user reports) | 98% (verified) |
| Starting price | $49/mo (200 credits) | $49/user/mo (annual) | Free; ~$0.01/email |
| Cost per contact | ~$0.052 (Ultimate) | ~$0.29 (Basic, enriched) | ~$0.01 (email) |
| Data refresh | Monthly | Not disclosed | Every 7 days |
| Credit rollover | Yes | No | N/A (pay per use) |
| Contracts | None | Annual recommended | None |
| Sequencing | No | Yes (built-in) | No (integrates w/ tools) |
Let's be honest: Apollo is still the best all-in-one GTM platform for teams that will actually use the sequencer, dialer, and CRM features together. But most people who used SalesRipe don't need all-in-one. They need accurate data at a fair price - and on that metric, the table tells the whole story.
FAQ
Is SalesRipe still available?
No. SalesRipe shut down permanently on June 5, 2020. All accounts were deactivated and payment methods deleted. The official site now displays a shutdown notice recommending UpLead, ZoomInfo, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator as alternatives.
Is Apollo.io free?
Apollo offers a free plan with 10 export credits per month - enough to evaluate the interface, not enough to run real prospecting. Paid plans start at $49/user/month on annual billing. Monthly billing bumps that to $59.
What's the cheapest alternative with accurate data?
Prospeo's free tier includes 75 verified emails per month, and paid plans run roughly $0.01 per email with 98% accuracy on a 7-day refresh cycle. No contracts, no annual commitment, self-serve onboarding - the closest thing to SalesRipe's original model that still exists in 2026.