Cold email tools lie.
They say “unlimited sending.”
They promise “inbox placement.”
They give you a nice-looking UI.
But here’s what they don’t give you: replies.
That’s the problem with tools like Instantly.
It works—until it doesn’t.
So I picked the 7 most talked-about Instantly alternatives—tools like Smartlead, Lemlist, Mailshake, Apollo, Quickmail, and others.
This article breaks it all down:
If you care about cold emails that land, get opened, and get replies, read this before switching tools.
Instantly works... until you actually try to scale.
Then the bugs show up. Emails hit spam.
And you’re stuck paying $1,000/month for features that used to be free.
So here are 7 Instantly alternatives to see which ones actually work for cold outreach at scale.
Here’s the honest take:
Smartlead – Sends volume. Handles 100k+ emails. But buggy UI and weak support slow things down.
Lemlist – Pretty campaigns. Good multichannel flows. But costs stack fast and deliverability dips.
Mailshake – Simple, reliable, solid follow-ups. But Gmail-only and not built for real scale.
Saleshandy – Cheap, does the basics well. But glitchy UI and limited support if things break.
Quickmail – Deliverability nerds love it. But it’s clunky and not beginner-friendly.
Apollo.io – Great for contact data + prospecting. Outreach tool? Just okay.
And then there’s Salesforge — yeah, I built it.
Not just because I wanted another sending tool.
But because I was tired of stitching together 6 platforms just to send one campaign right.
Salesforge gives you:
If you’re doing cold email for real — not as a side hustle — Salesforge will save you time, deliver better, and scale clean.
Let’s break it all down 👇
Instantly looks good on the surface.
Easy setup. Simple UI. Cheap to start.
But here’s what nobody tells you until it’s too late:
You’re on shared IPs with strangers.
If one of them spams… your emails die too.
You’ll see decent delivery at first.
Then you wake up one day and your emails hit spam.
Why? The system can’t scale cleanly.
No IP rotation. No inbox-level control.
No insight into why deliverability dropped.
Canned replies. No urgency.
While you bleed leads.
CRM? Extra.
Reply tracking? Extra.
Basic features get locked behind higher tiers.
Instantly is fine if you're sending 20 emails a day.
But if you're sending hundreds or thousands — it breaks fast.
That’s why people start looking for better options.
More control. More reliability. More results.
The next 7 tools in the list?
They do what Instantly can’t — and I’ll show you exactly how. But before that let’s check out the pricing of Instantly first.
At first glance, Instantly looks affordable.
Pretty solid, right?
But here’s the catch:
Once you grow, your costs explode.
And most users don’t realize it until they’ve already committed.
Here’s Where the Frustration Kicks In
It starts cheap.
But once you need to scale?
You’re paying over $1,000/year — and you still don’t get:
That’s why users complain.
You hit a wall, and the only answer is: “Upgrade again.”
Instantly Alternatives Comparison Table
Let me know if you'd like a simplified 3-column version or one optimized for Google Docs/WordPress tables.
If you’ve ever duct-taped 5 tools just to send cold emails, this is your fix.
Salesforge isn’t just a sender.
It’s a full ecosystem built to run cold email at scale, without burning your time or reputation.
Here’s what you get:
Everything just connects and works.
Also, check out the Top 10 AI SDRs Comparison
Let’s talk about what breaks with Instantly:
And the kicker? You’re paying more for less.
Real Pricing Comparison
Here’s what Instantly charges in 2025:
Now compare that to Salesforge:
Key Difference?
Salesforge includes infrastructure, lead sourcing, warm-up, and reply handling — not just sending.
No hidden costs. No “upgrade to unlock CRM.”
You get the system, not just the surface.
If you’re just dipping your toe in cold outreach, Instantly works — until it doesn’t.
But if you’re a founder, agency, or growth team trying to send 10k+ emails/month without getting flagged, Salesforge is the system that won’t collapse.
You don’t need another tool. You need a machine that actually delivers.
If your cold email strategy is: “Send more. Send faster.”
Then Smartlead might be your weapon.
Smartlead.ai is built for senders who care about output above everything else.
You can spin up unlimited inboxes, send 150,000+ emails/month, and manage everything through one central inbox.
Add ChatGPT-4 personalization, API access, and some clever warm-up tech — and you’ve got a scale machine.
But here’s the tradeoff:
It’s not the smoothest ride.
A lot of users leave Instantly when they hit send limits or deliverability drops.
Smartlead gives you:
It’s the closest thing to “cold email brute force” on this list.
⚠️ Agency model? You’ll pay $29/month per client on top. 10 clients = $290 extra.
Smartlead is what you use when you need volume fast.
It’ll let you send big. No caps. No stress about inbox limits.
But that power comes with pain:
If you’re technical and know how to manage deliverability and infra, it’s a beast.
But if you want less maintenance, less guessing, and more reliability…
There are better-balanced tools ahead.
Final call? Use Smartlead if you care more about quantity than control.
If your cold emails feel boring, Lemlist lets you dress them up and send them everywhere.
Lemlist is a multichannel outreach platform that helps you send cold emails that don’t feel like cold emails.
Instead of plain text, you can add:
It’s more than a cold email sender.
It’s an attention engine — built for teams that want to get creative and boost replies.
A lot of Instantly users feel stuck sending generic campaigns.
Lemlist gives you personalization, LinkedIn automation, and visual content built right in.
You also get:
If you want your outreach to stand out in noisy inboxes, Lemlist makes that easy.
Lemlist is for people who want their outreach to feel more like a conversation than a cold pitch.
It helps you look personal, show effort, and stand out in cluttered inboxes.
But it’s not for everyone:
Final call? Use Lemlist if you want your outreach to look and feel more human — across email, LinkedIn, and beyond.
Not every sales team needs a multichannel monster or 100k sending power.
Sometimes you just need a tool that works. That’s where Mailshake shines.
Mailshake is a lightweight, easy-to-use cold email tool designed for solo SDRs and lean teams.
You won’t find AI agents or visual campaign builders here.
But you will find:
It's the tool for teams who just want to send, follow up, and get replies.
A lot of ex-Instantly users get tired of bugs, feature upsells, or overly complex dashboards.
Mailshake keeps it simple.
If your workflow isn’t complicated, Mailshake won’t get in your way.
👍 Pricing is predictable. No hidden charges or “pay-per-feature” surprises.
Mailshake is what you use when you don’t want to think about the tool.
It won’t blow your mind with features.
But it will send your emails, follow up, and help you stay on top of replies — without breaking, glitching, or upselling you every five minutes.
Perfect for solo SDRs, early-stage teams, or founders who just want a basic outbound setup that works.
Final call? Use Mailshake if you value simplicity, stability, and speed over fancy features.
Apollo.io is a lead database + outreach tool rolled into one.
You get access to 260 M+ contacts with verified emails and phone numbers, plus the ability to:
It’s like if LinkedIn Sales Nav, Hunter, and Mailshake had a baby, with CRM integration baked in.
Most people leave Instantly because it lacks lead sourcing, enrichment, and calling.
Apollo fills all those gaps — and adds a massive contact database on top.
It’s ideal if you don’t want to stitch together a dozen tools just to run outbound.
⚠️ Want automation? You’ll need at least the Professional plan at $79/month.
Apollo is perfect for SDRs who need everything in one tool.
Instead of juggling 4 tabs, you can just:
It’s not the best at deep deliverability or AI-based personalization.
But for pipeline-building and speed to outreach, it’s a solid bet.
Final call? Use Apollo if you want fast access to leads + outreach in a single platform — without the integrations headache.
Reply.io is a multichannel outbound platform for SDRs and agencies who already have leads and want one tool to:
It’s not here to help you find leads, but if you’ve got them, Reply lets you attack across all fronts.
Most people outgrow Instantly when they realize email alone isn’t enough.
Reply.io brings email, SMS, LinkedIn, and calling under one roof — so you can stop switching tabs and start converting.
If your outreach process is multistep, multichannel, and built for serious follow-ups, this tool can do it.
⚠️ LinkedIn, SMS, AI tools = paid add-ons. The $99 plan doesn’t include everything.
Reply.io is built for SDR teams who already have leads and need to hit them from every direction.
But it’s not for beginners.
It’s for teams who already have a workflow and want to automate it across multiple channels without stitching tools together.
Use Reply.io if your outbound needs more than email, and your team is ready to handle the full funnel.
Snov.io is a lead finder, email verifier, outreach platform, and mini-CRM rolled into one.
You can:
No fancy AI. No heavy automations. Just a solid starter tool that gets the job done.
A lot of Instantly users are piecing together multiple tools just to get basic outbound running.
Snov.io simplifies it.
You don’t need:
Everything’s built in — and it works well for teams that are still getting their outbound off the ground.
💡 One credit = 1 lead search or 1 email send. So you’ll want to use credits wisely.
Snov.io is perfect if you’re starting outbound and want everything in one clean, affordable package.
It won’t give you hyper-targeted filters like Apollo.
It won’t give you visual flows or advanced AI like Salesforge.
But it will give you:
Use Snov.io if you want to find, verify, and email leads fast, without overcomplicating your stack.
5 Best Snov.io Alternatives For Cold Email Outreach
Let’s get honest.
You’ve seen the features. You’ve seen the pricing.
But the real problem?
Most of these “Instantly alternatives” are just Band-Aids.
They solve one part of the problem — and leave you to figure out the rest.
If you're running B2B outbound at volume, and need a cold email system that can:
There’s only one platform we found that checks all those boxes, and that’s Salesforge.
It Can:
This isn’t just another alternative to Instantly.
This is what cold email software looks like when it’s built to scale.
If you’re serious about cold email deliverability, reply rates, and revenue, you don’t need another point solution.
You need a system that does the job end-to-end.
And right now, that system is Salesforge.
✅ Built for scale
✅ Built by sales pros
✅ Built so you don’t have to worry about whether your next email will even land
Try it free now — before you duct-tape another tool that breaks the moment you grow.
