AI Sales Prospecting Software
Surfe
SF 7.5LinkedIn to CRM prospecting workflow platform
Free · PaidPro from $23/moFree plan available; paid plans start at $23 per user per month annual
AI Sales Prospecting Software
Apollo.io
SF 8.9AI sales intelligence and engagement platform
Free · PaidPro from $49/moFree plan available; paid plans start at $49 per user per month annual
Quick decision guide
Choose based on your workflow
Surfe may fit better if...
- LinkedIn Extension
- Contact Enrichment
- AI Assistance
Apollo.io may fit better if...
- B2B Database
- Email Sequences
- Built In Dialer
Overview
How each tool is described
Surfe
What is Surfe?
Surfe is a sales intelligence and CRM workflow platform that helps go-to-market teams capture, enrich, and manage prospect information directly from LinkedIn and other sales workflows. It connects LinkedIn prospecting activity with CRM systems, allowing sales teams to collect contact details, update records, and maintain customer data without repeatedly switching between separate tools.
- LinkedIn prospecting workflow: Surfe allows sales professionals to capture LinkedIn profile information, identify relevant contacts, and transfer prospect data into sales workflows while keeping LinkedIn as part of the prospecting process.
- CRM enrichment and synchronization: teams can enrich and update CRM records with contact information gathered during prospecting, helping maintain more accurate customer databases and reducing manual data entry.
- Sales collaboration tools: Surfe helps sales teams share prospect information, organize relationship data, and coordinate outreach activities across revenue workflows.
- Revenue team fit: the platform is designed for sales teams, recruiters, agencies, and RevOps professionals that rely on LinkedIn-based prospecting and need stronger connections between social selling activities and their CRM.
Surfe is most suitable for organizations that use LinkedIn as a major prospecting channel and want to connect relationship-building activities with structured CRM workflows.
Apollo.io
What is Apollo.io?
Apollo.io is a go-to-market platform that combines B2B sales intelligence, data enrichment, outbound engagement, and AI-assisted prospecting in one system. Revenue teams can search for people and companies, build targeted prospect lists, enrich CRM records, run email and multichannel sequences, and manage prospecting workflows without stitching together separate data and engagement products.
- Prospecting and enrichment: Apollo helps users identify companies and decision-makers, build targeted lists, and enrich contact and account records with demographic, firmographic, technographic, intent, and other business data. Enrichment can be applied to CRM records, CSV files, or other systems through Apollo’s API.
- Sales engagement: teams can build sequences that combine automated emails with calls, LinkedIn tasks, and other follow-up activities. This allows prospect discovery and outbound execution to remain connected instead of moving leads between separate intelligence and sales-engagement tools.
- Apollo AI Assistant: Apollo’s current AI Assistant goes beyond generating copy. Users can give it natural-language instructions to find and qualify prospects, research people and companies, build or enrich lists, create personalized sequences, improve messaging, and assist with campaign optimization. Apollo also provides AI Research for generating reusable research fields about people and companies.
- CRM and revenue workflows: Apollo can enrich and synchronize data with supported CRM environments, including Salesforce and HubSpot, while its APIs enable organizations to connect prospecting, enrichment, sequences, tasks, and other Apollo data with their broader sales technology stack.
Apollo.io is particularly relevant to sales, business development, RevOps, and go-to-market teams that want prospect data, enrichment, outreach execution, and increasingly agentic AI workflows within the same platform. Its suitability depends on required data coverage, outreach channels, CRM architecture, and how much of the outbound process a team wants to operate inside Apollo.
Side-by-side
Key differences
Criteria
AI Sales Prospecting SoftwareSurfe
AI Sales Prospecting SoftwareApollo.io
Best for
AI Sales Prospecting Software
AI Sales Prospecting Software
Score
7.5/10
8.9/10
Pricing
Free · PaidPro from $23/mo
Free · PaidPro from $49/mo
Category / audience
AI Sales & CRM Software › AI Sales Prospecting Software
- ai assistance
- chrome extension
- prospecting
AI Sales & CRM Software › AI Sales Prospecting Software
- email sequences
- ai sales intelligence
- b2b contact database
OVERLAP
Where Surfe and Apollo.io are similar
Both tools cover similar catalog signals. The deciding factor is usually workflow fit, implementation needs, and ecosystem fit.
2 capabilities0 workflows
Shared capabilities
Capability overlap
Feature check
Side-by-side feature check
Feature
Surfe
Apollo.io
LinkedIn ExtensionChrome extension across LinkedIn captured prospect profiles
-
Contact EnrichmentEnrich contacts across captured LinkedIn prospect profiles
-
AI AssistanceAI assistance across the LinkedIn prospecting workflow
-
Workflow AutomationAutomate workflows across LinkedIn to CRM steps
-
B2B DatabaseVerified contacts across 270M+ B2B database
-
Email SequencesRun multichannel email sequences across SDR teams
-
10 capabilities compared.8 differentiating rows are shown first.
Use cases
Who they're built for
Surfe
- Capture LinkedIn prospects fast todayCapture LinkedIn prospects fast across Chrome extension workflow
- Enrich captured LinkedIn contacts todayEnrich captured LinkedIn contacts across verified B2B data
- Sync prospects into CRM todaySync prospects into CRM across captured LinkedIn workflow
Apollo.io
- Build prospect lists at scaleBuild prospect lists across Apollo B2B database for outreach
- Run cold email sequences todayRun cold email sequences across SDR teams at scale
- Enrich CRM contact records todayEnrich CRM contact records across captured Apollo data
The trade-offs
Pros & cons of each tool
Trade-offs
Surfe
Pros
- Affordable LinkedIn focused prospecting platform with free tier
- Chrome extension workflow across LinkedIn captured prospects today
- Strong CRM sync across captured LinkedIn contact data
Cons
- Smaller public review base; specialist LinkedIn focused vendor
- LinkedIn focused; limited depth across other prospecting channels
Trade-offs
Apollo.io
Pros
- Massive contact database with affordable per seat plans
- Free starting tier across new sales teams today
- Combines prospecting and engagement across single platform
Cons
- Public reviews note data accuracy varies by segment
- Credit limits can pinch heavy outbound prospecting users
Shared trade-offs
Catalog data lists these trade-offs for both tools.
Cons
- AI features are layered, not deeply AI native
Final verdict
Apollo.io has the stronger catalog fit
Current catalog data gives Apollo.io more decision signals for this pair. Verify pricing, setup effort, and ecosystem fit before committing.
Shared catalog overlap
Surfe and Apollo.io share 2 catalog signals, so the decision should focus on fit rather than broad capability alone.
Differentiators available
Surfe has 4 visible decision signals and Apollo.io has 4.
Score signal
Apollo.io has the higher SoftFinders Score in the current catalog data.
Choose Surfe if…
- Capture LinkedIn prospects fast today
- Enrich captured LinkedIn contacts today
- Sync prospects into CRM today
- LinkedIn Extension
Choose Apollo.io if…
- Build prospect lists at scale
- Run cold email sequences today
- Enrich CRM contact records today
- B2B Database
TRY THEM YOURSELF
See which one fits your workflow
Both tools have their strengths, the best way to decide is to spend a few minutes inside each.