Instantly alternatives: lemlist, Smartlead and 3 more cold email tools compared

Instantly is one of the best-known cold email tools. You connect your own mailboxes, warm them up, and send sequences to prospect lists, with a lead database and AI agents available on top. It's a strong product, and it's also not the only way to run outbound.

This guide is for anyone comparing Instantly with other cold email software, including people searching for a lemlist alternative or a Smartlead alternative, since those three tools are usually compared together. We cover why people look around, then compare five options with the same fields: who it suits, how it bills, sending and deliverability, and where it falls short.

Every fact about a vendor comes from its own pricing page, read in October 2026. Cold email pricing changes often, and most vendors discount annual billing, so check each page before you commit. We quote monthly-billing prices unless we say otherwise.

Why people look for an Instantly alternative

Here's how Instantly's own pricing page lays things out, as of October 2026.

Outreach, leads and bundles are separate products

Instantly sells Outreach plans (sending) and Credits plans (lead data and enrichment) separately, plus bundles that combine them. The Outreach plans are:

Growth and Hypergrowth both list unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up. Annual billing is cheaper. The lead database of 450M+ B2B contacts sits on the Credits side, from $47 a month for Growth Credits.

The jump between tiers is sharp

The entry Outreach plan allows 5,000 emails and 1,000 uploaded contacts a month. The next plan allows 25 times as many emails for about twice the price. If you're between those two, you'll pay for capacity you don't use.

Some features sit in bundles

On the pricing page, the AI Reply Agent and Unibox replies are listed in the Scale bundle ($194 a month), which combines Outreach and Credits. If you only want sending plus a good reply inbox, check which plan includes the reply features you need.

You may want cold email next to your other email

Instantly is built for outbound. If you also send newsletters or automated customer emails, you'll run those in a second tool, with a second contact list and a second idea of who has opted out.

Instantly alternatives at a glance

All figures are as of October 2026. Each tool is described below with the same four fields.

1. lemlist

lemlist is a multichannel outbound tool: email, LinkedIn, calls and SMS, with WhatsApp as an add-on, plus a lead database and AI agents.

• Best for: sales teams that want email and LinkedIn steps in the same sequence.
• How it bills: the Email plan is $69 a month ($55 a month billed yearly) with unlimited users and email senders; the page shows 50,000 emails a month at that price. Multichannel is $109 per user a month ($87 yearly) and adds LinkedIn automation, calls and SMS. Enterprise is custom. Lead data is a separate credit add-on, from $20 a month. The free trial lasts 14 days.
• Sending and deliverability: lemlist says its warm-up tool, lemwarm, and its deliverability protections are included in all plans. Google, Microsoft and SMTP mailboxes are supported, with inbox rotation, sending limits and a unified inbox.
• Where it falls short: LinkedIn steps need the per-user Multichannel plan, so a growing team pays per seat for them.

2. Smartlead

Smartlead focuses on high-volume email outreach for agencies and lead-generation teams.

• Best for: agencies and teams sending at volume across many mailboxes and clients.
• How it bills: by contacts stored and emails sent. Base is $39 a month (2,000 contacts, 6,000 sends), Pro $94 (30,000 contacts, 90,000 sends), Unlimited Smart $174 (150,000 sends) and Unlimited Prime $379 (500,000 sends). Annual billing saves 17%. Smartlead says all plans include unlimited email accounts and a free trial with no card required.
• Sending and deliverability: automatic mailbox rotation within a campaign, warm-up, a unified master inbox, and paid add-ons for email verification, dedicated servers and buying mailboxes through partners.
• Where it falls short: many useful extras, such as verification, dedicated servers and white-label client workspaces at $29 each, are paid add-ons, so the real bill is often higher than the plan price.

3. Saleshandy

Saleshandy combines cold email, a B2B lead finder and multichannel steps in one plan.

• Best for: small teams that want lead data and sending in one price.
• How it bills: by active prospects and emails a month. Starter is $41 a month ($34 billed yearly) with 2,000 active prospects and 6,000 emails; Pro is $99 ($76 yearly) with 30,000 active prospects, 100,000 emails and 10 users; Scale is $189 ($149 yearly). Each plan includes monthly lead-finder credits. There's a 7-day free trial.
• Sending and deliverability: unlimited email accounts with no per-inbox fee, and warm-up included.
• Where it falls short: Starter is a single user, and the trial is short at 7 days.

4. Woodpecker

Woodpecker is a cold email and LinkedIn outreach tool with a different pricing model.

• Best for: teams that would rather pay for the people they contact than for emails or seats.
• How it bills: by contacted prospects per month, set with a calculator. A prospect counts once per campaign; follow-ups don't add to the count.
• Sending and deliverability: unlimited email accounts and unlimited team members at no extra cost, free email verification, and some free warm-ups. Extra warm-ups are $5 per mailbox a month.
• Where it falls short: the same person in two campaigns counts twice, and LinkedIn costs $29 per connected account a month.

5. EterMail

EterMail is our product, so weigh this section with that in mind. It isn't a dedicated outbound suite like the four above. It puts cold outreach, marketing email and replies on one platform.

• Best for: founders, SaaS teams and stores that want B2B outreach and their marketing email in one place, without either one hurting the other's reputation.
• How it bills: in credits, where 1,000 credits = $1. A cold email costs 5 credits, about $5 per 1,000, paid from the same credits as marketing email (2 credits each). On the Ultra plan ($299 a month), cold email isn't charged per send at all; volume is bounded by Ultra's 300 mailboxes and each mailbox's safe daily limit. Mailbox limits by plan are 1 on Free, 5 on Starter ($19), 20 on Growth ($49), 100 on Pro ($149) and 300 on Ultra. EterMail doesn't sell mailboxes: you buy them from your provider.
• Sending and deliverability: you connect your own Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or any SMTP mailbox. New mailboxes warm up gradually, starting low and adding a set number of emails a day each week up to a safe daily cap. Sending spreads across mailboxes inside business hours. Cold email always runs on separate mailboxes and domains from your marketing email, so a cold campaign can't hurt your newsletters. Follow-ups stop when someone replies, bounces or opts out. At a 2% bounce rate a mailbox holds its volume; at 3% it pauses.
• Replies: every mailbox's replies land in one shared inbox, matched to the prospect and sequence. Real replies, auto-replies, unsubscribes and bounces are told apart, and AI drafts an answer that you edit and send from the original mailbox, in the same thread.
• Where it falls short: no LinkedIn steps and no built-in lead database; you import your own prospect list as a CSV. Outreach is switched on for a workspace after a short review of what you plan to send. By default, a person approves each sequence before it goes out.

More detail is on our cold email software page.

A cost example

Say you send 10,000 cold emails a month. On EterMail that's 50,000 credits, about $50 of sending, plus what you pay your provider for the mailboxes. Each mailbox sends only up to a safe daily limit, so plan your mailbox count first; EterMail's built-in guide works out how many you need. At much higher volume, Ultra removes the per-send charge. Put the same numbers into each vendor's pricing page, because what you get for the money (lead data, LinkedIn, seats) differs a lot.

Looking for a lemlist alternative or a Smartlead alternative?

The same five fields apply, but the reasons people switch tend to differ.

• Leaving lemlist is often about cost for teams that don't use LinkedIn steps. If you only send email, compare lemlist's Email plan with Instantly's and Smartlead's sending plans, and with Saleshandy, which includes lead credits.
• Leaving Smartlead is often about add-ons. If you're paying separately for verification and servers, compare a plan that bundles more, such as Saleshandy or Woodpecker, which both include email verification or lead data.
• Leaving Instantly for either of them makes sense if you want LinkedIn (lemlist) or agency workspaces (Smartlead).

If your outbound sits next to newsletters and customer email, a platform that runs both on separate domains, like EterMail, is the other route.

What matters more than the tool

Switching tools won't fix deliverability problems on its own. Whichever you choose:

1. Send from separate domains. Keep cold email off the domain you use for customers and newsletters.
2. Authenticate every domain. SPF, DKIM and DMARC must pass. Our SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide walks through the records.
3. Warm up and stay under a daily cap. A new mailbox that sends hundreds of emails on day one looks like spam. Our email warm-up guide covers the ramp.
4. Verify your list. High bounce rates damage a mailbox quickly.
5. Write short, relevant emails. Here's an example opener we wrote for this guide:

More on this in our cold email deliverability guide.

A note on the law

This is general information, not legal advice. In the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide says "the law makes no exception for business-to-business email". Every commercial email needs accurate sender information, an honest subject line, a physical postal address and a working opt-out that you honor. Rules in the EU and UK are stricter. Check the official texts for every country you send to.

How to choose

• You want email and LinkedIn in one sequence: lemlist.
• You're an agency sending at volume for clients: Smartlead.
• You want lead data included in the plan: Saleshandy, or Instantly with a bundle.
• You'd rather pay per person contacted: Woodpecker.
• You want cold email, marketing email and replies on one platform, paid per email: EterMail.

FAQ

What is the best alternative to Instantly?

It depends on what you need beyond sending. lemlist suits teams that want LinkedIn steps, Smartlead suits agencies sending at volume, and Saleshandy bundles lead data into its plans. Compare the plan that covers your monthly sends, mailboxes and users, not just the entry price.

Is Smartlead better than Instantly?

Neither is better for everyone. Both list unlimited email accounts and offer warm-up. Smartlead prices by contacts and sends with paid add-ons for verification and servers, and Instantly separates sending from its lead database. Pick the one whose plan matches your volume and the extras you'll use.

Is lemlist cheaper than Instantly?

At the entry level, lemlist's Email plan ($69 a month, or $55 billed yearly) costs more than Instantly's Growth Outreach plan ($47), but lemlist's plan includes more emails a month. Above that, it depends on your volume, team size and whether you need LinkedIn.

Can I use my own Google Workspace or Outlook mailboxes?

Yes. All the tools in this guide connect your own mailboxes; lemlist and EterMail list Google, Microsoft and SMTP, and several vendors also sell pre-configured mailboxes. Buy them on a domain separate from your main one, and warm them up before you send.

Is cold email legal?

B2B cold email is legal in many countries when it's relevant, honest about who you are and easy to opt out of, but rules differ by country. In the US, CAN-SPAM applies to business-to-business email too. This isn't legal advice, so check the rules for each country you send to.

How many cold emails can I send per mailbox a day?

There's no single official number, and providers enforce their own limits. Most cold email tools keep each mailbox low and spread volume across many mailboxes and domains. EterMail caps each warmed-up mailbox at a safe daily limit and ramps new ones up over several weeks.