Which lead generation tool should a small business use?
Apollo, for most small businesses selling to other businesses: one tool holds the contact database, finds and checks emails and sends sequences, and its free plan has no time limit. Add LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Core at US$119.99 a month or US$1,079.88 a year, when your buyers are senior people you want to research and approach on LinkedIn; Lusha when you need direct phone numbers, free for 40 credits a month and $37.45 a month billed yearly on Starter; Hunter when you know the company and need the right address, free for 50 credits a month; and Clay once someone on the team can build enrichment workflows, free for 500 actions a month. In India, a bought or scraped list is personal data under the DPDP Rules notified in November 2025, so record where every contact came from. The rule: start on Apollo's free plan with one channel, and pay for a second tool only when you can name the gap it fills.
The government's own plain-language backgrounder on the DPDP Act and the Rules notified in November 2025: what a data fiduciary must do, what rights people have, and what the penalties are.
It orders the seven ways early customers actually arrive (network, cold outbound, investors, community, content, press, launch) by how much trust each one starts with, which is the missing map for a first-time seller. Built from interviews with founders at Figma, Notion, Databricks and Slack rather than theory.
Apollo's own pricing page. The free plan stays free with no time limit; paid Basic and Professional seats add credits, sequences and AI features, and credits are pooled across the team.
