The starter sales stack

All three tools here have a genuine free tier, so a working configuration costs nothing while you evaluate it. The 03 COSTS table above breaks down each tool's pricing. Three meters climb with use: Apollo's credit allowances for contact data and sequencing, ChatGPT's message and file caps, and the seats across the roster as the founding team grows. Apollo's credits tend to bite first as the list expands, which is a sign the outbound is working. Each upgrade is an independent decision, not a bundle.

Rarely. Apollo and ChatGPT are the core: Apollo's free tier hands you contact-data credits and sequencing, ChatGPT researches each prospect and writes outreach worth answering, and together they send the first email. The numbered steps are workflow order, find then write then record, not a buying sequence. Connect Attio to your email and calendar early anyway: it logs activity passively, and back-filling deal history by hand later is the tax you avoid.

Then you already own the writing half. ChatGPT researches each prospect and drafts outreach that does not read like a template, and your subscription covers that. What it cannot do is find people or remember them. Apollo supplies contact data and sequencing tools to reach a list you lack; Attio logs email and calendar activity so the deal history keeps itself. Add the list and the memory around writing you already trust.

Apollo and ChatGPT both touch the outreach message, the one real overlap here. The dividing rule is who the email is for. ChatGPT wins when the message is researched and written for a single named prospect: the personalised opener, the follow-up that references something specific. Apollo's built-in sequencing wins when the same message goes to a whole segment, where send mechanics matter more than a bespoke line.

Two signals, both scope not price. The first is more than the founder selling: once outbound is a team sport, you need shared lists and sequences a free CRM floor and hand-sent emails cannot coordinate. The second is volume outgrowing manual work: when reaching the list needs multichannel cadences and deliverability tooling, not a founder sending by hand, the motion breaks. Both point to the competitive tier, the professional sales stack.

Keep confidential material off ChatGPT until it is on a business or enterprise tier: consumer plans may train on your inputs unless you opt out, so customer lists, deal terms and credentials stay out. Attio's auto-enrichment and activity logging are personal-data processing: settle your lawful basis and scope which mailboxes connect before switching them on. Where its call intelligence records a call, telling everyone on the line is your obligation.