Apollo has become a default for a lot of go-to-market teams, including plenty in life science, because it is affordable, self-serve, and combines a large contact database with built-in email sending in one place. What it does not do is know which of those contacts actually resemble a life science buyer, or whether something just happened at their company that makes this the right moment to reach out. That is a different job, and it is the one Arcova is built for.
What Apollo actually does
Apollo runs a tiered, per-seat pricing model with a genuine free plan and paid tiers that typically run from roughly the high double digits to around a hundred dollars or more per user per month on annual billing, unlocking more monthly credits, intent data, and API access at higher tiers. Credits are the core mechanic: revealing an email or phone number, or exporting a list, each consumes credits, and heavy outbound teams often spend meaningfully more than the sticker price once overages are included.
For that price, Apollo gives you a large, searchable database across every industry, a built-in sequencer and dialer, and enough filtering to build a reasonable list quickly. It is a strong, low-friction way to find and reach contacts. It does not evaluate whether a company is a life science fit, and it has no concept of clinical, regulatory, or life science hiring signals, because it was not built around one industry.
What Arcova adds on top
Arcova starts after the contact exists, whether it came from Apollo, another provider, or your CRM. It scores company fit on the attributes that matter for a CRO, CDMO, or life science tools and services vendor, therapeutic area, modality, development stage, and similarity to your best customers, then scores buyer fit on function and seniority rather than a title-matching rule that breaks down across company sizes. See how fit and readiness prioritize an account list for the full model.
On top of fit, Arcova tracks the buying signals that actually matter in biotech and pharma, funding, hiring, trial progress, regulatory milestones, and conference activity, so a good-fit contact moves to the top of the list the moment something real changes, instead of getting worked on a fixed cadence regardless of timing.
| Apollo | Arcova | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Self-serve contact database and sender | Life science fit and readiness layer |
| Industry scope | Every industry, one search and filter model | Life science only, purpose-built |
| Sending | Built-in sequencer and dialer | Writes the sequence; exports or hands off to your sender |
| Buying-readiness signals | General intent topics on higher tiers | Funding, trials, regulatory, hiring, conferences |
| Pricing | Free tier, then per-seat credit-based plans | Free to start |
When Apollo is the better fit
If you need a large, affordable, self-serve database with sending built in and your team sells outside life science, or sells into it as one segment among several, Apollo's breadth and low per-seat cost are hard to beat. It is also the more practical choice if contact volume and an all-in-one prospecting-plus-sending workflow matter more to your motion than vertical-specific fit scoring, or if your team is small and wants one tool that does discovery and outreach without a second system to manage.
Related comparisons
See how Arcova compares to ZoomInfo, Clay, and SciLeads as well.