Lemlist vs Apollo.io

Why Switch from Apollo to Lemlist?

Apollo.io has become a dominant B2B sales platform partly through its enormous contact database (Apollo claims 240M contacts and 30M companies) and partly through aggressive freemium growth. For European sales teams, the trade-offs are real: Apollo is a US-headquartered company, EU contact data is sourced and held under US infrastructure assumptions, and GDPR-compliant outreach often requires extra workflow around Apollo’s defaults.

Lemlist is the French alternative built around outreach quality rather than database size. Its plans now include a lead database and email finder, but the core strength remains personalisation and deliverability tooling that is genuinely best-in-class, and a French contracting entity simplifies the GDPR conversation.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Lemlist	Apollo.io
Contact database	✅ Included (lemlist claims 650M+ leads) + bring your own	✅ 240M contacts (Apollo’s claim)
Personalisation depth	Video, dynamic images, liquid templates	Standard liquid + basic
Deliverability warm-up	✅ Lemwarm (best-in-class)	Limited
Multi-channel	Email + LinkedIn + tasks	Email + dialer + LinkedIn
Jurisdiction	France 🇫🇷	United States 🇺🇸
GDPR-aware design	✅ Native	⚠️ Configurable
Built-in dialer	❌	✅
CRM integrations	HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Teamleader	HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive
Pricing entry	$55/month billed annually (unlimited users)	Free + paid tiers

Different optimisation points. Apollo is the volume-oriented all-in-one. Lemlist is the quality-oriented outreach specialist.

Pricing

Lemlist tiers:

• Email: $55/month billed annually ($69 billed monthly) — email sequences, lead database, email finder & verifier, unlimited users
• Multichannel: $87/month billed annually ($109 billed monthly) — adds LinkedIn and other channels to sequences
• Enterprise: custom pricing
• A 14-day free trial is available (prices as of October 2026; lemlist bills in $, € or £)

Apollo tiers:

• Apollo’s current tiers are Free, Basic, Professional and Custom; see Apollo’s pricing page for current per-user prices

Apollo’s free tier is genuinely useful for prospecting. lemlist’s strength is in deliverability and personalisation; because its plans include unlimited users, it can work out cheaper for larger teams than per-seat tools.

Privacy & Data Sovereignty

Lemlist’s structural advantages:

• French corporate jurisdiction — Lempire SAS is based in Paris
• EU-hosted databases — lemlist states its database servers are located exclusively within the EU
• GDPR-native with standard Article 28 DPA available
• No US parent company; hosted via Vercel (US) with databases in the EU → indirect CLOUD Act exposure via a US sub-processor
• Opt-out and suppression management built around EU compliance expectations

For European B2B sales teams, this is materially different from Apollo’s US-default operating model.

Migration Guide

Moving an outreach workflow from Apollo to Lemlist:

1. Export Apollo data — sequences, suppression lists, contact data via CSV (1-2 hours)
2. Create Lemlist account with appropriate seat count (15 minutes)
3. Configure email sending domain — SPF/DKIM/DMARC for deliverability (1 hour)
4. Start Lemwarm on your sending domain for at least 14 days before launching real campaigns (operational background)
5. Recreate sequences in Lemlist — note the personalisation features may improve copy structure (2-4 hours for a typical sequence library)
6. Import suppression lists — ensure all Apollo unsubscribes are mirrored (30 minutes)
7. Pilot campaign — small batch to validate deliverability before scaling (1 week)
8. Migrate CRM sync to point to Lemlist outreach activity instead of Apollo (varies)

Estimated total time: 1-2 weeks including Lemwarm preparation period. Difficulty: Moderate; main complexity is sender domain configuration and Lemwarm warm-up timing.

Example Scenarios

Illustrative scenarios of how teams typically use these tools — not documented customer case studies.

A Paris B2B SaaS startup moved from Apollo to Lemlist after EU prospects pushed back on cold emails sourced from Apollo’s database. The shift to GDPR-clean owned data + Lemlist outreach materially improved both reply rates and pipeline-source defensibility.

A Berlin agency uses Lemlist for personalised video-in-email cold outreach to prospective clients. The video personalisation feature, combined with French jurisdiction, was the procurement gate for the agency’s data-protection-focused client base.

A London-based recruitment firm uses Lemlist for candidate outreach with strict deliverability requirements. Lemwarm protects their sender reputation across multiple recruiting domains.

Company Background

Lemlist is the flagship product of Lempire, a French SAS founded in 2018 in Paris by Guillaume Moubeche, Vianney Lecroart, and François Lecroart. The company grew rapidly through community-driven content marketing and a strong product focus on cold-email deliverability and personalisation.

By 2026, Lempire serves tens of thousands of paying customers worldwide — primarily B2B sales teams, agencies, and growth-focused startups. The company maintains profitability and product independence; the founders have publicly committed to bootstrapping over venture exit.

Security & Compliance

• GDPR-native with Article 28 DPA
• Databases hosted in the EU (hosting provider: Vercel Inc., US)
• TLS 1.3 for all data in transit
• SOC 2 controls aligned
• Sub-processor transparency — list of sub-processors published
• CNIL alignment for French regulator expectations
• Audit logs with retention policies

Integration Ecosystem

• CRMs: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Teamleader, Copper, Close
• LinkedIn: built-in integration for multi-channel sequences
• Email providers: Gmail, Outlook, custom SMTP, dedicated sending domains
• Webhooks and API for custom workflows
• Zapier / Make (Integromat) for low-code automation

Who Should Switch?

Lemlist is ideal for:

• European B2B sales teams with GDPR-aware data practices
• Agencies and consultancies doing high-personalisation outreach
• B2B startups needing best-in-class deliverability
• Anyone who has been burned by Apollo-sourced contact data quality or GDPR concerns

The Bottom Line

Apollo remains the right choice if database breadth is your dominant need and your sales team operates primarily in markets where US data-sourcing norms apply. For European sales teams that source contact data deliberately (not from a US-aggregated database) and prioritise outreach quality, Lemlist is the better choice — and the EU jurisdiction makes the entire GDPR conversation simpler.

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Looking for more European marketing-tech alternatives? See also: Brevo vs Mailchimp and Mailjet vs SendGrid.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Lemlist compare to Apollo for B2B sales?

They optimise differently. Apollo is built around its large contact database (it claims 240M contacts) plus outreach tools. lemlist focuses on outreach quality — personalisation, deliverability, multi-channel orchestration — and its plans now also include a lead database (lemlist claims 650M+ leads) and an email finder and verifier. You can still bring your own data (LinkedIn Sales Navigator, dedicated providers, owned database). For European businesses with GDPR-aware data practices, the legal basis for using any sourced contact data remains your responsibility.

Is Lemlist GDPR-compliant for cold outreach in the EU?

Lemlist provides the technical infrastructure for GDPR-compliant outreach (suppression lists, opt-out tracking, EU data residency, DPA). The legal basis for cold outreach to business contacts (legitimate interest under GDPR with appropriate balancing) is your responsibility as the sender. Lemlist's design supports compliant practice but does not relieve you of the legal assessment.

What is Lemwarm?

Lemwarm is Lemlist's sender-reputation warm-up service. It gradually builds your email sender reputation by exchanging genuine-looking emails with other Lemwarm participants, preventing your outreach from being immediately flagged as spam. For organisations starting cold-email programmes from a cold domain or after deliverability problems, Lemwarm is often the most valuable feature.

Where is my data stored?

lemlist's privacy policy says the servers that process and store its databases are located exclusively within the EU (it does not specify France), while its hosting provider is Vercel Inc. (US). Transfers outside the EU happen under adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses. Lempire SAS (Paris) is subject to EU and French law. No US parent company; hosted via Vercel (US provider, databases in the EU) → indirect CLOUD Act exposure via a US sub-processor.

Does Lemlist integrate with CRMs?

Yes. Native integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Teamleader. Webhook and API access for custom integrations. The CRM-side workflow is generally well-supported for typical B2B use cases.