Instantly vs lemlist
We give Instantly a 2.6 GPA and lemlist a 2.8, out of 4.0. lemlist grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Instantly
Cold email from unlimited inboxes, priced by emails and contacts
lemlist
Cold email and LinkedIn sequences with a built-in lead database
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAInstantlyGood | 2.8GPAlemlistGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AA team of five needs Hypergrowth, since Growth's 1,000-contact total and read-only inbox won't stretch that far: $77.60 a month billed yearly for everyone, about $15.52 a head. That's under 60% of the cheaper quarter's $32.50 in this category. | AFive people share the Email plan, which has unlimited users: $55 a month billed yearly for 50,000 emails, $11 a head, a third of the cheaper quarter. LinkedIn, calls and SMS are another story: Multichannel is $87 per user billed yearly, in this category's dearest tenth. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but a 14-day trial with no card. It stops at 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails, which is enough to warm up and send a small first campaign, and not much more. | CNo free plan you can send from, since Freemium can't launch campaigns. The 14-day Multichannel trial needs no card and gives 200 credits and 50 emails a day, but leaves out lemwarm and calling. |
| Features | CThe email side is complete: unlimited inboxes and warm-up, multi-step campaigns, A/Z tests, one inbox for replies and automations. But there are no LinkedIn steps at all, and lead search and the AI agents need a separate credits plan from $9 a month. | BThe whole job: emails, LinkedIn invites, messages and voice notes, calls, SMS and WhatsApp in one sequence, with conditions and an automatic stop on a reply. Warm-up, a 650M-lead database and one inbox for every channel sit alongside. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record. You'll be connecting mailboxes and waiting on warm-up before the first real send, and actually replying from the Unibox needs Hypergrowth. | CNo App Store rating on record. There's a fair bit to set up, from senders and warm-up to conditional steps and personalized images, so give it a few days before a sequence feels right. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but with HubSpot, Slack, Zapier, Findymail, RB2B and ChatGPT links, webhooks from Hypergrowth and a public API. No phone or desktop app on record. | BWeb, plus a Chrome extension that runs lemlist from Gmail and LinkedIn on Multichannel. HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zapier, Make, n8n, Clay and Aircall connect, and there's a public API. No phone or desktop app. |
| Best for | cold email from as many inboxes as you like | email and LinkedIn in one sequence |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Instantly and lemlist. How we grade
Price against what you get
Instantly starts at $37.60 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. lemlist starts at $55 a month and scores 2.7.
lemlist scores higher, and starts $17.40 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other cold outreach tools on the chart, 3 score higher than Instantly for less, and 1 scores higher than lemlist for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Instantly starts at $37.6 per month for 5,000 emails, billed yearly ($47 monthly). lemlist starts at $55 per month for 50,000 emails, billed yearly ($69 monthly).
- Only lemlist lists a browser extension.
- Instantly also covers workflow automation.
- lemlist also covers templates.
At a glance
| Instantly | lemlist | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $37.6 per month for 5,000 emails, billed yearly ($47 monthly) | $55 per month for 50,000 emails, billed yearly ($69 monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no card required, with 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails | 14-day free trial of Multichannel, no card required, with 200 credits and 50 emails a day |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Foo Monk, LLC (Instantly) | lempire |
| Price read from | instantly.ai | lemlist.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Instantly
- Agencies and teams spreading volume across many mailboxes
- Senders who want warmup included rather than bought per inbox
- Buyers who want a lead database and sending in one account
lemlist
- Sales teams that combine cold email with LinkedIn and calls
- Teams sending email at volume with many users on one bill
- Senders who personalize each message with images or conditional text
Worth knowing
Instantly
- There is no free plan; the 14-day trial stops at 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails.
- The uploaded-contact limit is a total across all campaigns, not a monthly one. On Hypergrowth and up, 25,000 more contacts cost $87 a month.
- Lead data and the AI agents need an Instantly Credits plan, from $9 a month for 150 credits; the CRM is a separate add-on from $47 a month.
- Replying from Unibox, webhooks and full A/Z testing need Hypergrowth, $97 a month billed monthly.
lemlist
- No free plan for sending: after the trial, accounts drop to Freemium, which cannot launch campaigns. The trial itself leaves out lemwarm and calling.
- Lead data costs extra: the enrichment add-on is $16 a month billed yearly ($20 monthly) for 2,000 credits, and buying signals $21 ($29) for 100.
- On Multichannel, WhatsApp is $20 per user a month, extra email senders $9 each a month, and SMS needs a $15 a month number plus 6 credits a text.
- LinkedIn, SMS and calling need the per-user Multichannel plan; SSO, custom roles and CRM-embedded use are Enterprise only.
Key features
Instantly
- Unlimited sending accounts and warmup
- Every Outreach plan connects and warms up any number of email accounts from any provider; the plan limits emails sent and contacts uploaded instead.
- Sequences and A/Z testing
- Multi-step campaigns with sending schedules, a global block list and bounce detection. Growth gets basic A/Z testing; Hypergrowth and above test up to 26 variants.
- Unibox
- Replies from every connected account land in one inbox. It is preview-only on Growth; replying in the app and custom reply labels start at Hypergrowth.
- SuperSearch lead database
- Search more than 450 million B2B contacts and enrich them through several email providers, paid for with Instantly Credits, a separate subscription.
- AI Sales Agent and AI Reply Agent
- Agents that find and contact leads or draft answers to replies. Each lead or reply generated costs 5 credits from the credits plan.
- Automations
- A visual trigger-and-action builder routes and tags leads when they reply, visit your site or book a meeting, and is included on every Outreach plan.
lemlist
- Multichannel sequences
- Campaigns mix emails with LinkedIn visits, invites, messages and voice notes, calls, SMS and WhatsApp, with conditional next steps and an automatic stop.
- lemwarm and deliverability tools
- Warm-up, inbox rotation, rotating IPs, custom tracking domains, sending limits and a deliverability hub with alerts are included on every plan.
- Lead database and finders
- Search more than 650 million leads and find emails and phone numbers through 25+ data providers, paid for with credits: $1 covers 20 emails or 5 phone numbers.
- Personalization
- Liquid syntax for conditional content, custom variables, personalized images and AI-written lines tailored to each lead.
- lemAgent and AI agents
- lemAgent plus signal, enrichment and messaging agents research leads and write outreach. AI also flags reply intent and out-of-office replies and drafts answers.
- Unified inbox and extension
- Replies from every channel land in one inbox, and on Multichannel a Chrome extension runs lemlist from Gmail and LinkedIn.
Plans
Instantly
Growth$37.6
per month for 5,000 emails, billed yearly ($47 monthly)
1,000 uploaded contacts, unlimited email accounts and warmup, basic A/Z testing and a preview-only Unibox.
Hypergrowth$77.6
per month for 125,000 emails, billed yearly ($97 monthly)
25,000 uploaded contacts, replying from Unibox, webhooks, A/Z tests of up to 26 variants and premium live support.
Light Speed$286.3
per month for 500,000 emails, billed yearly ($358 monthly)
100,000 uploaded contacts and SISR, which rotates dedicated servers and IP addresses for sending.
EnterpriseCustom
More than 500,000 emails a month, a private deliverability network and a dedicated account manager.
lemlist
Email$55
per month for 50,000 emails, billed yearly ($69 monthly)
Unlimited users and email senders, lemwarm, the lead database and AI agents. Price rises with volume: $71 a month at 100,000 emails, billed yearly.
Multichannel$87
per user / month, billed yearly ($109 monthly)
Unlimited emails and messages, 5 email senders per user, LinkedIn and SMS steps, a call dialer, and lemlist inside Gmail and LinkedIn.
EnterpriseCustom
Multichannel plus lemlist inside your CRM, custom roles, SSO and SAML, custom terms and a dedicated account manager.
Ways to pay less
Instantly
- Annual discount
About 20% off with yearly billing
Billed yearly, Growth is $37.6 a month instead of $47, Hypergrowth $77.6 instead of $97 and Light Speed $286.3 instead of $358.
lemlist
- Annual discount
Save 20% with yearly billing
lemlist lists a 20% saving for yearly billing and 10% for quarterly: Email at 50,000 emails is $55 a month yearly, $62 quarterly and $69 monthly.
