ChatGPT
Claude
Perplexity
Google AI
On this page
Most people who search for a way off Apollo already know what they want to leave. It isn't usually the database. It's the hours: building lists, tuning sequences, cleaning bounces and working replies, in a tool that is billed per seat because it expects someone to sit in the seat. If that someone is you, and you would rather be building, this guide is how to move your work into Revnu without losing anything that matters.
The short version: your list, your best sequence and your do-not-contact list come over in a few minutes. Your send history stays in Apollo. And the work you were doing in Apollo every week becomes Revnu's job, with your approval on what goes out.
What changes when you switch
Apollo is a toolbox. It gives a person a contact database, a sequencer and a dialer, and that person decides who to contact, writes the emails and works the replies. Revnu is the person. It finds companies that fit who you sell to, finds the right person at each, writes to them in your voice, sends at a human pace, reads the replies and drafts your answers. It also works the channels Apollo doesn't touch, like SEO, LinkedIn and ads, so what it learns in outbound can shape the rest. If you want the longer comparison, Apollo vs Revnu covers it.
What doesn't change is who decides. You approve the first sequence before anything sends, and you can keep every new one waiting for you.
What to bring over
Before you cancel anything, collect four things from Apollo:
Your list. From the list or search you actually use, export the people as a CSV. Exports spend Apollo export credits, so export the people you would genuinely contact, not the whole database.
Your best sequence. The one with the replies. Copy each step and note the wait between them.
Everyone you must not contact. Current customers, people who asked to be left alone, competitors, any account a colleague owns. A column of emails or domains is enough.
Who you sell to, in words. Your Apollo filters are a description of your buyer. Write it as a sentence: "operations leaders at logistics companies with 50 to 500 people in the US."
How each piece comes in
Your list. Drop the CSV into the chat on your Revnu dashboard (or in Slack, if Revnu is in your workspace) and say what it is: "here's my lead list, add these to my leads." The chat takes a PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, text file, image or video, up to 10 files of 10 MB each, so an Excel export works too. Revnu reads the file as it is, saves each company and person to your Leads page with the title, email and LinkedIn profile from the export, and labels the batch so you can find it later. It also checks every company against who you sell to, and tells you which rows it skipped as a poor fit and why.
We tested this with a file shaped like Apollo's people export, with Apollo's own column names. In three runs, every company in the file landed on the Leads page, and every person who fit who the account sells to was saved with their verified email, ready for a sequence. The ones that didn't fit came back as skipped, each with a one-line reason, which is worth reading before you assume the whole file is queued.
Your sequence. Paste your best-performing sequence into the chat, every step with its wait. Revnu keeps your words as they are unless you ask it to change something, and saves the sequence for you to review on the Leads page, where you can edit any step and approve it. A sequence is a first email plus up to three follow-ups, one to 30 business days apart, each sent in the same thread and stopped the moment someone replies. Your first sequence always waits for your yes. After that, the Start Sequences setting decides: Ask Me First keeps each new sequence waiting for you, and Just Do It lets Revnu start them itself.
Your do-not-contact list. In Settings, open the Block List, add entries, and paste a column of emails, company domains or LinkedIn profile links straight from the export; a messy CSV column works without cleaning. A domain blocks everyone at that company. The list is checked before every send, email and LinkedIn alike, so nobody on it hears from Revnu. You can also tell Revnu in chat: "never contact anyone at these companies."
Who you sell to. Paste your sentence into the chat, or edit it yourself in Settings under Memory, in About This Business. Revnu reads it every time it picks a company, writes an email or decides a row is a poor fit.
Your mailbox. If Apollo sent from your Gmail or Outlook, connect that same inbox. Your own Gmail or Google Workspace inbox, or Outlook or Microsoft 365, connects on the Connections page. It can send the day you connect it, and Revnu writes as the person who owns it. For cold email at volume, Revnu can also set up separate outreach domains that look like yours, with inboxes on them, so your main domain's reputation is never on the line. It proposes the domains, buys nothing until you approve, and warms the new inboxes for about two weeks before they send.
LinkedIn. Connect your LinkedIn account on the same Connections page. Revnu sends connection requests and messages as you, inside daily caps and normal working hours, and can put LinkedIn steps in a sequence: an invite, then a message once they accept.
What Revnu takes off your plate
The hours you were spending inside Apollo each week:
Finding new people. When your imported list runs dry, Revnu finds more companies that fit and the right person at each. You don't search, filter or export.
Emails, found and verified. Revnu looks up each work email and checks it before anything sends, so bounces don't eat your domain. There are no credits to manage.
Writing. If your sequences have gone stale, Revnu writes new ones in your voice for you to approve, and keeps your words exactly when you'd rather use your own.
Sending and follow-ups. At a human pace, inside your sending window, with follow-ups in the same thread that stop the moment someone replies.
Replies. Revnu reads every reply and drafts your answer, with your booking link when they want to talk. Replies to prospects wait for you.
Reporting. What went out, who replied and what's working, without you building a dashboard.
What doesn't carry over
Honest list, so nothing surprises you:
Send history. Past emails, opens, clicks, replies and sequence stats stay in Apollo. Revnu starts counting from your first send with it. If you might want that history later, export it from Apollo before you cancel.
The dialer. Revnu doesn't make phone calls. If calls are a big part of how you sell, keep a dialer.
Apollo's CRM side. Deal stages, tasks and notes you kept in Apollo don't import. Revnu tracks the leads it works itself, and when you say you're handling a lead yourself, it stops contacting them.
Your credits. Unused Apollo credits stay with Apollo.
Rows that don't fit. Revnu won't queue people it thinks are a poor fit for what you sell. It tells you which ones and why, so read that list.
One practical rule while both are live: don't email the same person from both tools. Pause the Apollo sequences for anyone you import, or block the people still in them until they finish.
The five-minute setup
Go to revnu.com/sign-up and give it your website. Revnu reads the site, which takes about a minute.
Check what it found: what you sell, who you sell to, and anything it should never say. That becomes its memory of your business, and you can edit it any time in Settings.
Add your card on Stripe's page. Plans start at $99 a month.
On the Connections page, connect your Gmail or Outlook inbox, and LinkedIn if you use it.
Drop your export into the chat and say what it is.
If you live in a coding agent, you can do the whole thing from there. In Claude Code, run claude mcp add --transport http --scope user revnu https://revnu.com/api/mcp, then say "Set me up with revnu.com" and it walks you through the same steps. Other agents are on the setup page.
Where this leaves you
If someone on your team works Apollo as a real part of their week and the database is the bottleneck, keep Apollo. It is still one of the best-value toolboxes in sales software, and the list of Apollo alternatives covers the other databases if coverage is the problem.
If the seat is empty, or it's you, move the four things above into Revnu this afternoon. Export the list, paste the sequence, paste the block list, connect your inbox. Then approve the first sequence and let Revnu do the weekly work you were doing in Apollo.
Written by
Co-founder, Revnu
