QuasarApollo alternative
Apollo, lemlist and Instantly alternative for local B2B prospecting
When Apollo, lemlist or Instantly fit, when they don’t, and what to use if your customers are local businesses found by city and industry.
Short answer: Apollo, lemlist and Instantly are strong tools for reaching people at companies — decision-makers you find by job title, often with LinkedIn in the mix — and for sending sequences at volume. If your customers are local businesses (restaurants, clinics, shops, workshops, agencies in a given city) you usually need something else: a tool that finds businesses by city and industry from maps data, collects their public contact details and helps you write to each one personally. That is the gap Quasar fills.
Two different kinds of prospecting
| People-based prospecting | Location-based prospecting | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical customer | SaaS, agencies and consultancies selling to mid-size and large companies | Anyone selling to local businesses: web design, marketing, software, supplies, services |
| You search by | Job title, seniority, company size, tech stack | Country, city, neighbourhood, line of business |
| Main data source | Company and contact databases, LinkedIn | Maps (OpenStreetMap, Google Places), business websites |
| Who you reach | A named person (e.g. "Head of Marketing") | The business itself (info@, the owner, the front desk) |
| Typical channels | Email sequences, LinkedIn, calls | Email, WhatsApp, phone |
Neither is better; they answer different questions. The mistake is using a people database to find a bakery in Porto, or a maps tool to find the CFO of a 500-person company.
Apollo, lemlist and Instantly at a glance
These summaries describe each product's core positioning as of October 2026; features and prices change, so check each vendor's own site.
- Apollo — a large B2B database of companies and contacts with filters for title, industry and company size, plus sequences and a dialer. Best when you know the role you want to reach.
- lemlist — cold outreach built around personalisation and multichannel sequences (email plus LinkedIn steps), with a lead database and warm-up. Best for carefully personalised campaigns to named people.
- Instantly — cold email at volume across many sending accounts, with warm-up, a lead database and a unified inbox. Best for teams running high-volume campaigns on dedicated sending domains.
When a location-based tool is the better fit
Choose a location-based approach when most of these are true:
- Your customers are small and local — they have a shop front, not a LinkedIn sales team.
- You think in territories: "every dental clinic in Antalya", "all cafés in Berlin-Kreuzberg".
- The business website or lack of one matters to your offer.
- Many prospects list a phone number but no email, so WhatsApp or a call has to be part of the plan.
- You write to businesses in several languages and countries.
- You want to send from your own mailbox at a modest, safe volume rather than run a fleet of sending domains.
How Quasar compares
| Quasar | |
|---|---|
| Finds | Real businesses by country, city and industry, from OpenStreetMap and, where needed, Google Places |
| Per search | Up to 500 businesses, larger searches run in the background |
| Contact data | Public business details from maps and websites; email addresses are never guessed |
| Messages | One AI-written message per business, in the language of its country (40+ languages), editable before sending |
| Sending | From your own Gmail account at a human pace (30–90 seconds apart), with daily limits and warm-up |
| Opens WhatsApp with the message ready for businesses that only list a phone number | |
| Compliance | One-click unsubscribe (RFC 8058) in every email, permanent suppression and bounce handling |
| Interface | English, Turkish, German |
What Quasar does not do: it has no database of named employees, no LinkedIn automation and no multi-domain sending fleet. If those are what you need, Apollo, lemlist or Instantly are the better choice — and some teams use both kinds of tool side by side.
Getting started
Pick one city and one line of business you already know you can help, run a search, and send personal messages to the first 50 businesses. Our guides on finding local business leads, cold email templates and Gmail and Outlook sending limits cover each step. You can start with Quasar here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Apollo good for finding local businesses?
Apollo is built around a database of companies and the people who work at them, filtered by title, company size and industry. It is strongest for reaching named decision-makers at companies with an online footprint. Small local businesses such as restaurants, clinics or workshops are often thinly covered, so a maps-based source usually finds more of them.
What is the difference between lemlist and Instantly?
Both are cold outreach platforms. lemlist is known for personalisation and multichannel sequences that combine email with LinkedIn steps; Instantly is known for sending at volume across many mailboxes with built-in warm-up. Both also offer lead databases. Check their sites for current features and pricing.
What should I use to prospect local businesses by city?
A tool that searches businesses by location and category — from maps data such as OpenStreetMap or Google Places — collects their public contact details and lets you write to each one personally. Quasar is built for exactly that workflow.
Can I use Quasar together with Apollo or lemlist?
Yes. Many teams use a people database for mid-market and enterprise accounts and a location-based tool for local businesses. Quasar never guesses email addresses, so the lists you combine stay clean.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Check current rules and your own situation with a professional.