Bombora vs. Apollo.io: Which should you choose?

About Bombora

Bombora tracks company research activity across B2B websites — revealing intent signals when businesses spike their research on specific topics. You get Company Surge scores that pinpoint buying interest, plus seamless CRM integrations that feed this data directly into your existing workflows. But here's the catch: Bombora identifies which companies are interested without giving you the contact information to actually reach decision-makers at those accounts.

About Apollo.io

Apollo.io combines 200+ million contacts with sales engagement tools — email sequences, basic CRM functions, and prospecting capabilities all in one platform. Their transparent freemium pricing starts at $0, with paid plans running $49-119 per user monthly. This makes Apollo accessible for startups and small teams who want to find prospects and execute outreach without juggling multiple tools.

What do users say?

Users praise Bombora as a reliable intent data powerhouse that effectively identifies companies showing buying signals through robust data enrichment. Reviewers love the advanced filtering options, seamless HubSpot integration, and comprehensive reporting that targets audiences by location, job title, and company characteristics. The frustrations? Limited European market coverage, zero historical data storage, a clunky dashboard interface, and those painful 3-4 month wait times for adding new intent keywords.

Apollo.io users appreciate the comprehensive contact database and cost-effectiveness — many call it the "best bang for the buck" compared to expensive alternatives like ZoomInfo. The advanced search filters help identify qualified leads effectively, making it a go-to for prospecting. However, users consistently report significant data accuracy issues, email deliverability problems (hello, spam folder), billing complications, and limited LinkedIn outreach that can tank campaign performance.

Comparison

Bombora

• Bombora delivers industry-leading intent data through its comprehensive co-op network — hundreds of intent topics with strong privacy compliance built-in. The downside? Zero contact information and opaque pricing that makes budget planning a nightmare.

Apollo.io

• Apollo.io excels as an all-in-one prospecting platform with transparent, affordable pricing starting at $49/month. The trade-off comes from crowd-sourced data accuracy issues and limited enterprise integrations compared to higher-end alternatives.

Choose Bombora if you're running enterprise or mid-market ABM strategies with dedicated marketing ops teams — and you already have contact acquisition solved. Apollo.io fits startups, SMBs, and cost-conscious teams who need integrated prospecting and outbound execution without enterprise complexity or budget requirements.

Neither tool delivers a complete marketing solution on its own — highlighting the critical gap most marketers face daily. Bombora identifies interested companies but gives you zero way to reach them. Apollo.io provides contact data with accuracy concerns that can damage your sender reputation. Modern B2B marketing demands both high-quality intent signals AND reliable contact information — often requiring multiple tools or platforms that effectively combine both capabilities.

Do you need account-based marketing, or something else?

Here's what's disrupting traditional ABM: your funnel isn't about anonymous accounts. It's about the exact decision-makers and influencers within those accounts.

Enter contact-based marketing (CBM) — the breakthrough approach. Instead of chasing broad account intent signals, CBM pinpoints the specific people engaging with your content in real-time, even when they don't convert.

This solves the core tension in intent-based marketing by eliminating the guesswork.

Contact-level data reveals high-priority leads by identifying individuals behind key touchpoints. Deliver hyper-targeted ads based on specific contact behaviors. Bridge the gap between marketing and sales with actionable, lead-level insights that actually drive pipeline.