Anil Salvi Contents
If you are researching Instantly alternatives, it is likely for one of 3 reasons:
- You are hitting feature limits sooner than expected
- Your costs are rising faster than your sending volume
- You want better deliverability or workflow flexibility
Well, whatever your reason, you have landed in the right place.
I evaluated the most popular cold email tools of 2025
And compared them on pricing, reliability, features, AI capabilities,
and deliverability (not just marketing claims.)
Here are the 8 alternatives to Instantly.ai that genuinely outperform it
Let’s get into it!
Instantly.ai Alternatives- TOC
Top 3 Alternatives to Instantly Compared
My list now includes eight cold email tools that offer stronger performance in different areas than Instantly, depending on what you need.
But among them, these are the top 3 Instantly competitors that genuinely go head-to-head in performance, features, and value for money.
Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison 👇🏼
| Feature | Lemlist | Woodpecker | Saleshandy |
| Entry Price | $50/mo per user | $24/mo | $25/mo |
| Unlimited Email Accounts | ❌ Limited | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Clients & Team Management | ❌ Needs separate workspaces ($50/user) | ❌ $27/mo per client | ✅ Unlimited accounts, multi-client support, white-labeling |
| Cold Email Sequences & Follow-Ups | ✅ Automated sequences, manual steps | ✅ Automated follow-ups | ✅ AI sequences, conditional follow-ups |
| Email Warm-Up & Deliverability | ✅ Built-in Lemwarm in all plans | ✅ Warm-up, bounce shield | ⚡Unlimited warm-up |
| Personalization | ✅ Text, image, and variable personalization | ✅ Email personalization | ✅ Mail merge, dynamic fields, scaled outreach |
| Analytics & Reporting | ✅ A/B testing, open/reply rate tracking | ✅ Campaign performance reports | ✅ Unified inbox, open/click/reply tracking |
| Best For | Teams wanting deep personalization & multichannel outreach | Small & mid-size businesses with simple campaigns | Agencies & high-volume senders needing unlimited sending and automation |
8 Best Alternatives to Instantly.ai
I have shared a detailed review of the 8 best tools that stand out as strong Instantly alternatives.
You will see what each one does well, where they fall short, and which tool is most likely to fit your workflow the best.
Let’s get into the details!
1. Saleshandy
G2: 4.6/5 ⭐
Best For: Agencies and high volume senders who want enterprise level deliverability, automation, and client management without enterprise level pricing.
Saleshandy is the number #1 Instantly.ai alternative
If you are looking for a cold email tool that gives more value in its pricing plans.
Instantly has kept most of its advanced features like
The AI sequence generator, A/Z testing, and the sequence score
behind the Hypergrowth plan, which costs ~$77.6/mo when billed annually (~$932/year).
Agencies feel this the most because Instantly requires separate paid workspaces for every client.
If I do the rough maths for managing 8 clients with Instantly, it becomes:
$77.6 x 8 = $620.8 per month
Yearly cost = $7,449.6
And even after paying this, you still upgrade or add credits for:
- email verification
- website tracking
- CRM integrations
- lead database
- enrichment
Now compare this to Saleshandy:
$25 x 8 = $200/mo
Yearly cost = $2,400
The price difference is HUGE!
Why Saleshandy Beats Instantly for Personalization & Workflow Scale
Instantly also limits AI enrichment capabilities on lower plans.
For example:
- You cannot enrich existing lists directly.
- AI credits are not included in base plans.
- With Saleshandy, none of these restrictions exist.
You can:
- Enrich existing prospect lists anytime
- Use 100 free enrichment credits on Starter
- Access top models (GPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.)
Personalize at scale across sequences, variables, and content blocks
This makes Saleshandy a far better tool for hyper-personalized outreach at scale.
For a detailed breakdown, read this blog: Saleshandy Vs Instantly
Pros of Saleshandy
- Saleshandy has a B2B database of 700M plus contacts which is 1.5x than Instantly’s
- You can use the AI sequence generator to build hyper personalized sequences in minutes
- It has a deliverability suite that gives access to features like Inbox placement tests, unlimited email warm up, ESP matching, and bounce detection
- Native integrations with popular CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, etc
- Saleshandy has AI powered features like AI Lead Finder, AI Sequence Generator, and AI Reply Management that make your outreach faster and more efficient
- It has a LinkedIn Chrome extension which Instantly does not have
- Unified unibox has AI capabilities to categorize replies based on filters like interested and not interested
Cons of Saleshandy
- Saleshandy only offers a 7 day free trial
Pricing Plans
Saleshandy has good value for money plans
and also lets you try the product for seven days before purchasing.
Its entry plan starts at $25/mo,
and along with the cold emailing features, you also get:
- 6000 sending credits
- 50 Lead Finder credits
- 1000 email verification credits
What Users Have to Say?
“Saleshandy stands out for its ease of use, intuitive interface, and powerful automation features. Setting up cold email sequences is quick and seamless, and the platform offers AI powered tools like the Sequence Copilot and Lead Finder, which save time and improve targeting.”
2. Lemlist
G2: 4.5/5 ⭐
Best For: Hyper personalizing multichannel sequences with custom landing pages, images, and videos.
Lemlist is among the best Instantly competitors.
You can create automated multichannel sequences
across email, calling, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp.
And it offers advanced personalization capabilities
that let you create and add custom images, YouTube thumbnails, and even dynamic landing pages.
This helps you to reach out without losing the human touch and improve engagement rates.
One of my favorite Lemlist features is the AI ice breaker.
It creates personalized emails at scale after analyzing your prospect’s data.
And the quality is genuinely better than most tools in the market.
So if you are looking for an alternative to Instantly and you want to run true multichannel campaigns,
with next-level personalization, Lemlist is a great fit.
But if Instantly’s pricing is already worrying you,
Lemlist isn’t the best choice.
Lemlist is actually more expensive than Instantly.
To add extra email accounts, you pay $9/mo.
You can only add up to 5 team members in the multichannel and email outreach plan.
And if you want to create workspaces for your clients, then you have to get a new subscription to separate plans that start at $55/mo.
So yes, Lemlist will limit you if you want to scale.
Pros of Lemlist
- UI and UX are very intuitive
- It has a built in email warm up tool called Lemwarm
- You can manage all your client conversations from all channels and senders in one centralized inbox
- Lemlist offers a variety of B2B lead databases of six hundred million plus
- Works smoothly with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive
Cons of Lemlist
- To add unlimited team members you need to buy a custom plan
- Users on G2 say the learning curve is steep for a few features
- Pricing plans are not suitable for low budget teams
Pricing Plans
Lemilst has three pricing plans.
The entry plan starts at $55/mo/user and gives you up to 3 sending emails per user.
This plan is mainly for cold email.
If you want multichannel sequences,
the pricing is $79 per month per user, with 5 email sends per user.
For a detailed pricing breakdown of Lemlist, read this blog.
What Users Have to Say?
“I think Lemlist offers an incredibly versatile range of use cases. With the integration of AI, WhatsApp, and even phone options, the platform basically covers everything you need for a well structured outreach process.”
3. Woodpecker
G2: 4.4/5 ⭐
Best For: Small teams and beginners who want a simple cold email tool with basic LinkedIn steps.
Another Instantly Alternative on my list is Woodpecker.
You can create automated email and LinkedIn sequences in Woodpecker, but for cold calling, you need to add tasks manually.
Similar to Instantly, it lets you connect unlimited email accounts.
But it limits how many emails you can actually send.
When I was setting up my sequence, I found the interface very easy to navigate. You can launch condition-based campaigns without any confusion, which is a plus.
However, you can only A/B-test 5 variants in a single sequence.
What disappointed me the most were the add-ons.
Many features that should have been part of the base plan are charged extra for.
You need to pay $5 per month to warm up email accounts and $20 for integrations.
Pros of Woodpecker
- Simple and intuitive interface
- The customer support team responds quickly
- Integrations with Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, and HubSpot
- Clear reports and analytics to track key metrics
Cons of Woodpecker
- Many users on G2 say the warm up does not work properly
- The B2B database is not reliable and users have complained about a limited database, bugs, and slow performance
- Pricing becomes expensive if you manage many mailboxes or need a higher sending volume
Pricing Plans
Woodpecker gives a 7-day free trial, but the features in the free plan are very limited.
The paid plan starts at $24 per month, but in this plan, you can only contact 500 prospects, and you get only 2 warm-ups included.
And these are just the base plans.
To access most of its important features, you need to pay extra.
- Agency panel: $27/mo/active client
- White labeling: $5/mo/active client
So yes, Woodpecker may say it offers unlimited email addresses, but it limits you in many ways.
And once you add all the extra costs, the pricing becomes almost equal to what you would end up paying Instantly.
You can also check out Woodpecker alternatives.
What Users Have to Say?
“Woodpecker makes scheduling, personalizing, and analyzing emails easy, all in one place. With its simple UI and helpful features like A B testing, template management, and analytics, our team saves hours every week, reaches more prospects, and boosts response rates.”
4. Smartlead
G2: 4.6/5 ⭐
Best For: High volume senders who want unlimited accounts and deliverability tools similar to Instantly.
One of the Instantly alternatives that comes close to its functionality is Smartlead.
Just like Instantly, Smartlead gives you unlimited email accounts, unlimited warm-up, and the ability to send a high volume of emails.
Smartlead is also known for strong deliverability features, such as automated warm-ups, inbox rotation, and dynamic IP addresses, which help improve send rates.
It also offers pre-warmed accounts, just like Instantly, so you can purchase pre-warmed inboxes and start sending cold emails right away.
However, on Reddit, many users have reported that SmartSenders have negatively affected the deliverability of their campaigns.
I also found the interface outdated when compared to other cold email tools in the market.
For a full feature-by-feature breakdown of how Smartlead compares with Instantly, read this blog: Instantly vs Smartlead.
Pros of Smartlead
- You can send intent based follow ups with subsequence features
- Native integrations with popular CRMs like HubSpot and third party tools like Clay
- It has a built in CRM to manage your entire sales process
Cons of Smartlead
- It does not have a B2B database
- The interface is not intuitive
- Despite having deliverability features, some users say emails still land in spam even after warm ups
Pricing Plans
Smartlead offers a 14-day free trial.
Its basic plan starts at $32.5/mo when billed annually.
The custom plan is only available on monthly billing.
You can get the detailed breakdown of Smartlead’s pricing in this blog.
What Users Have to Say?
“The volume Smartlead can handle is wild. I am running 30 plus inboxes with warm up, sequencing, and deliverability optimization all under one roof. The campaign builder is super flexible, and I can run multivariate tests without breaking a sweat for my clients.”
5. Apollo
G2: 4.7/5 ⭐
Best For: Users who want strong prospecting and data research features with basic outreach capabilities.
You should consider Apollo as an Instantly alternative if you want better prospecting capabilities along with simple outreach features.
Apollo combines an extensive contact database of more than 270M contacts with email and multi-channel sequence automation.
Along with Waterfall Enrichment, Apollo provides Intent Topics and Intent Filters, prospecting features that Instantly does not offer.
That said, I found creating sequences, making calls, and completing tasks inside Apollo a bit messy.
Also, if you run an agency, I would not recommend Apollo because it does not allow you to add team members and workspaces.
Another feature I really like is Apollo’s AI research. It provides insights into your prospects, reducing your manual research time and helping you craft more personalized messages.
Get a detailed breakdown of Instantly vs Apollo
Pros of Apollo.io
- AI assisted email writing tool with persona builder and enrichment options
- Direct CRM sync with Salesforce, HubSpot, Gmail, Outlook, and Zapier
- Features for inbound leads like website visitor tracking, form enrichment, and builder
- Access to a US Dialer
Cons of Apollo.io
- The interface is clunky and overcrowded
- Users have complained about data inaccuracy and outdated contact records
- Customer support is slow and inconsistent
Pricing Plans
Apollo has a free forever plan with 1,200 credits/user/year.
The paid plan starts at $49/user/mo when billed annually and gives 30,000 credits per year.
What Users Have to Say?
“I find Apollo.io to be incredibly useful for generating leads for business purposes. It helps me make lists for campaigns, schedule calls, and manage deals more efficiently than traditional methods. I am impressed with how well I can keep track of emails, including whether they have been opened or marked as spam.”
6. Mailshake
G2: 4.7/5 ⭐
Best For: Users who want to automate cold email, calling, and social touches from one platform.
You should choose Mailshake as an Instantly alternative if you want to automate cold email and social outreach all through one platform.
Mailshake also allows you to find your prospect’s email address from a database of 100M plus prospects using decent search filters.
Which is great, as you can start building sales outreach cadences with email, phone, and social in a few minutes.
The email warm-up tool works well, too.
Also, the interface is clean and intuitive, and setting up automated follow-ups is very easy.
I like the clean UI, the ability to personalize messages at scale, and the automation of follow-ups based on opens, clicks, or replies.
The built-in analytics also make it easy to see what is working and what needs improvement.
Pros of MailShake
- AI email writing assistance with SHAKEspeare
- Native integrations with Salesforce, Pipedrive, and HubSpot
- Built in power dialer with unlimited free dialer minutes to North American phone numbers
- List cleaning credits to build a verified email list
Cons of MailShake
- Contact data quality is often poor and sometimes outdated
- Many users have reported deliverability issues
- Pricing is complex and can be high because of user based billing
- Some features require additional plans
- No free plan, no free trial, and no refunds even for early cancellations
Pricing Plans
Starts at $25 per month for connecting email accounts.
You get unlimited uploaded contacts, email warm-up, campaigns, and email verification.
However, remember this is for only one account.
For agencies, Mailshake offers a custom plan.
Check out these Mailshake Alternatives
What Users Have to Say?
“I love how Mailshake allows me to automate and personalize our outreach efficiently. With this tool, I can upload a list, and it automatically sends customized emails, making each message feel personal. The HTML template feature is fantastic, enabling us to send beautifully branded emails effortlessly.”
7. Snov.io
G2: 4.5/5 ⭐
Best For: Users who want email finding plus simple multichannel outreach.
The last Instantly alternative on my list is Snov.
It allows you to find emails and automate multichannel sequences.
You can create cold email and LinkedIn sequences, and with Snov, you can add unlimited follow-ups, email campaigns with AI, sender accounts, and mailbox rotation.
While exploring the product during the free trial, I was impressed with the drip campaign builder.
It shows your sequence in a clean flowchart style, making it easy for me to understand how my multichannel sequence will look.
Pros of Snov.io
- It offers a multichannel outreach across email, LinkedIn, SMS, and calls
- Native CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and others
- Detailed analytics for clear reporting insight
- User friendly for daily outreach with task automation to save time
Cons of Snov.io
- Some users reported that the email finder is not responsive on LinkedIn
- The platform lacks many direct integrations
- Reporting and visibility features are limited
Pricing Plans
Snov offers a free trial with 50 free credits.
The paid plan starts at $29.25 per month and gives you unlimited emails.
However, to add LinkedIn account slots, you need to pay $69 per month per slot.
What Users Have to Say?
“Snov.io makes it easy to find, verify, and reach out to leads all in one place. The platform is simple to navigate, and the email sequencing and automation features help save time for our team.”
8. Reply.io
G2: 4.6/5 ⭐
Best For: Businesses and lead generation agencies that want accurate contant info. and scalable outreach at cost effective pricing.
Reply.io is one of the best AI-powered alternatives to Instantly.
It allows you to add unlimited email addresses and send unlimited emails to your prospects.
You can automate multichannel sequences for email, LinkedIn, calls, and SMS.
And you can use AI-generated sequences with AI SDR, AI variables, and custom emails at scale.
Reply.io also offers a deliverability toolkit to help your emails land in the primary inbox rather than spam.
Another interesting feature is the AI agent.
You can use Reply’s AI agent named Jason, who finds prospects for you and even handles responses.
It also supports WhatsApp semi-automatically.
Pros of Reply.io
- It offers a multichannel outreach across email, LinkedIn, SMS, and calls
- Native CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and others
- Detailed analytics for clear reporting insight
- User friendly for daily outreach with task automation to save time
Cons of Reply.io
- Many users have reported bugs, technical issues, and slow customer support
- Compliance and LinkedIn automation may carry risks like GDPR issues or account locks. Lower priced plans have limited features
- Many people have complained about LinkedIn automation causing account lock issues
Pricing Plans
The paid plan starts at $159 per month.
Email Automation
You get unlimited mailboxes and can increase your daily sending capacity by adding more mailboxes.
- LinkedIn Automation: Costs $69 per month per account
- Calls and SMS Automation: Costs $29 per month per account
Apart from this, Reply also has separate plans for AI SDR and for agencies.
Check out these Reply.io Alternatives
What Users Have to Say?
“Reply.io offers a wide set of outreach options across different channels. What our team values most is the ability to run automatic LinkedIn steps as part of a full multichannel sequence without disrupting anything. That is a huge bonus compared to many other platforms.”
So, Which Is the Instantly.ai Alternative?
I have concluded my unbiased review of all the Instantly alternatives!
So, which one is the best Instantly alternative?
Well, the answer depends on your outbound requirements.
Do you want to scale your cold email outreach, do multi-channel targeting, or streamline your entire sales process?
However, if you are still unsure which of these Instantly alternatives to choose, you can sign up for Saleshandy. It has a 7-day free trial, which can help you make a decision faster.
FAQs
1. How to Choose the Right instantly.ai Alternative for Your Needs?
To find the right alternative to Instantly, you need to:
- Identify your needs
- Evaluate the platform’s deliverability and technical capabilities
- Check the features you will use daily
- Review your budget
- Look at the quality of customer support
2. Which Alternative to instantly.ai Is Best for Agencies?
Saleshandy is the best cost-effective Instantly alternative for agencies because you can add clients at no extra cost.
You also get white labeling and the ability to add team members for free.
3. Does Instantly Have a Free Trial?
Yes, Instantly offers a 14-day free trial.
For a detailed breakdown of Instantly’s pricing, you can check out the full pricing blog.
