Apollo.io vs Clearbit
Apollo is an outbound prospecting platform. Clearbit (now HubSpot Breeze Intelligence) was an enrichment API — now locked inside HubSpot’s paid tiers. Two tools that served different purposes, both with significant limitations in 2026.
What happened to Clearbit?
HubSpot acquired Clearbit in November 2023 and rebranded it as HubSpot Breeze Intelligence. The standalone Clearbit API and product have been progressively deprecated. It is now exclusively available within HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional ($890/month) or Enterprise ($3,600/month). Customers report narrowing coverage and reduced match rates since the acquisition.
Choose Apollo if…
- You’re building cold outbound lists from scratch
- You want email sequencing and enrichment in a single affordable tool
- You don’t want to be locked into HubSpot Enterprise
Choose Clearbit/Breeze if…
- You’re already on HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro or Enterprise
- You need form shortening and buyer intent natively in HubSpot
- A single-vendor HubSpot-only stack is your preference
Apollo.io vs Clearbit — Feature comparison
| Feature | Apollo.io | Clearbit / Breeze |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Outbound prospecting database | CRM enrichment (HubSpot-only) |
| Standalone product | Yes | No — bundled in HubSpot only |
| Requires HubSpot Pro/Enterprise | No | Yes — $890/month minimum |
| Data freshness | Database — periodic refresh | Database — narrowing post-acquisition |
| Email sequencing | Yes — core feature | No |
| Clay / Zapier / Make / API | Yes | No — HubSpot only |
| Contact match rate trend | Stable | Declining post-acquisition |
| CSV batch enrichment | Limited | No |
| Free plan | Yes — generous free tier | No |
| Starting price | From $49/month | HubSpot Pro: $890/month |
These two tools serve fundamentally different jobs
Apollo is a prospecting tool: you search its database to find new contacts to reach out to, then use its email sequences to engage them. Clearbit was an enrichment API: you submitted contacts you already had, and it returned company and contact data to fill out your records.
Post-acquisition, Clearbit no longer exists as a standalone product. If you were a Clearbit customer, you’ve either migrated to HubSpot Breeze (and are now paying for HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro/Enterprise) or you’re looking for an alternative. Apollo doesn’t replace Clearbit’s enrichment function — it’s a different tool for a different job.
Apollo’s staleness problem — and Clearbit’s too
Both tools maintain databases that decay over time. 20–30% of B2B contacts change roles every year. Apollo’s “verified” emails still bounce at 15–25% in practice. Clearbit’s coverage has narrowed since the HubSpot acquisition — customers report reduced match rates on European contacts in particular.
Neither tool continuously monitors your specific CRM contacts for job changes. Neither performs real-time lookups that reflect what’s true today. For teams where data freshness is critical, these are structural limitations that no amount of database size resolves.
Enrich-CRM — the independent enrichment layer
Enrich-CRM fills the gap that Clearbit’s deprecation created: a focused enrichment product that works on all HubSpot plans (not just Enterprise), scrapes the live web in real-time using a proprietary LLM (AWS EU Paris, no US AI dependency), and also integrates with Clay, Salesforce, Zapier, Make, n8n, CSV, and direct API.
Job change detection, intent signals, 250+ company datapoints, 50+ contact datapoints. From €29/month, 100 free credits to start, no annual contract.