Instantly vs Smartlead vs lemlist vs Saleshandy

Written head to head: Instantly vs Smartlead · Instantly vs lemlist, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Instantly Free trial · from $37.60/mo VisitRemove	Smartlead Free trial · from $32.50/mo VisitRemove	lemlist Free trial · from $55/mo VisitRemove	Saleshandy Free trial · from $34/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Cold email platform with unlimited sending accounts and warmup, priced by emails sent and contacts uploaded	Cold email platform with unlimited mailboxes and warmup, priced by sends and stored contacts, not seats	Multichannel outreach across email, LinkedIn, calls and WhatsApp, with an email-only plan priced by volume	Cold email with unlimited mailboxes and warm-up plus a lead database, at flat prices with users included
Free plan	No	No	No	No
Cheapest paid plan	$37.60/mo billed annually (Growth)Instantly pricing	$32.50/mo billed annually (Base)Smartlead pricing	$55/mo billed annually (Email)lemlist pricing	$34/mo billed annually (Starter)Saleshandy pricing
What it covers	Outreach plan: 5,000 emails a month, 1,000 uploaded contacts, unlimited email accounts and warmup. Lead data and AI agents need a separate Instantly Credits plan; the cheapest, Nano, is $9 a month for 150 credits.	2,000 stored contacts, 6,000 email sends and 2,000 verified prospect emails a month, unlimited email accounts; $390 a year on annual billing. No CRM, API or webhooks on Base.	50,000 emails a month with unlimited users and email senders; $62 a month on quarterly billing. Higher volumes cost $89 (100,000), $159 (200,000), $359 (500,000) and $659 (1,000,000) a month on monthly billing.	1 user, 2,000 active prospects, 6,000 emails a month, 1,500 lead finder credits a month, unlimited email accounts and warm-up; $408 a year on annual billing. Prices exclude taxes.
Free trial	14-day free trial, no card needed, with 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails	Free trial on every plan, no card needed; length not stated	14-day free trial with Multichannel features (except in-app calls) and 200 credits	7-day free trial, no card needed; trial sending is capped at 100 emails
Platforms	Web, API	Web, API	Web, Chrome extension, API, CLI	Web, iOS, Android, API, CLI
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Native connections with Clay, HubSpot, Zapier, Slack, Salesforce and 18+ more	58 integrations across 8 categories, including HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zapier, Make, n8n and Clay	Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho and Zapier, plus Make, n8n and Pabbly, an MCP server and a REST API
Open source	No	No	No	No
Good for	Sending cold email from many mailboxes without per-inbox fees Agencies running high-volume campaigns for several clients Finding leads and writing sequences with AI in the same tool that sends them	Agencies sending high volumes across many mailboxes Running client campaigns in separate whitelabel workspaces Scaling sends without per-seat or per-mailbox fees	Running email and LinkedIn outreach in one sequence Teams that want unlimited users on an email-only plan Building campaigns from a written brief with an AI agent	Solo founders starting cold email on a small budget Teams of up to ten that want users included in a flat price Finding verified leads and emailing them from one account
Watch out for	Growth caps sending at 5,000 emails and 1,000 uploaded contacts a month; going over a plan's volume means upgrading, not paying overage Lead data and AI agents need a separate Instantly Credits subscription Webhooks and full in-app Unibox replies start on Hypergrowth	Base has no CRM, API or webhooks and caps stored contacts at 2,000 Verified prospect emails cost $59 a month extra on Base and Pro Dedicated servers and client workspaces are paid add-ons below Unlimited Prime	LinkedIn, SMS, calling and the Gmail and LinkedIn extensions are only on the per-user Multichannel plan Lead finding and intent signals use credits sold as separate add-ons WhatsApp steps cost an extra $20 per user a month	Starter is a single user with 2,000 active prospects and 6,000 emails a month CRM integrations and webhooks start on Pro SSO and whitelabel are listed under the custom Enterprise tier
Made by	Foo Monk, LLC	521 Products Pty Ltd	lempire SAS	Ikigai Infotech

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in cold email and sales outreach tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.