Instantly and lemlist both send cold email sequences, warm up your inboxes and find leads, but they are priced and built differently. Instantly charges a flat fee and lets you connect as many inboxes as you like. lemlist charges per user and adds LinkedIn, calls and deep personalisation. We compared them using each official pricing page in October 2026, with an honest look at deliverability.
Instantly is better if you send email-only outreach from several inboxes, because every plan includes unlimited email accounts and warm-up from $47 a month, or $37.60 billed yearly. lemlist is better for personalised outreach that mixes email with LinkedIn and calls, from $69 per user a month, or $55 billed yearly. Neither fixes a damaged domain.
Who this is for: Founders, consultants and small sales teams choosing a cold email tool for B2B outreach.
Choose Instantly if your outreach is email-only and you want to spread sending across several inboxes on separate domains for one flat monthly price. Choose lemlist if you send fewer, more personal messages and want LinkedIn steps, calls or custom images in the same sequence.
For a founder or consultant doing their own B2B outreach, both work. Instantly is cheaper as you add inboxes, because its plans include unlimited email accounts. lemlist costs more per person but does more for each message, and its Multichannel plan is the one to pick if LinkedIn is where your buyers answer.
One rule applies to both. A cold email tool only helps if you send relevant messages to people who could genuinely use your offer, from domains set up properly, at a pace that looks like a real person. Used to blast a bought list, either tool will burn your domains and your reputation.
Independent comparison, last reviewed 29 October 2026. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Unbury is not affiliated with, sponsored by or paid by any company compared here. Features and prices change, so check each vendor before you decide.
The two tools charge on different models, so price them for your team and your volume. We checked Instantly's official pricing page and lemlist's official pricing page for this comparison. All prices are in US dollars.
Instantly sells its outreach plans by contacts and emails, not by user. Growth is $47 a month on monthly billing, or $37.60 a month billed yearly, and includes unlimited email accounts, unlimited warm-up, 1,000 contacts and 5,000 emails a month. Hypergrowth is $97 a month on monthly billing, or $77.60 billed yearly, for 25,000 contacts. Light Speed and Enterprise cover larger volumes.
Lead data is sold separately. Instantly's lead database plans start at $47 a month on monthly billing for 1,500 credits, so if you need to find prospects inside the tool, budget for both.
lemlist charges per user. The Email plan is $69 per user a month on monthly billing, or $55 billed yearly, and includes up to 50,000 emails a month, access to its lead database, an email and phone finder, and its warm-up and deliverability tools. Multichannel is $109 per user a month, or $87 billed yearly, and adds LinkedIn automation (profile visits, invites, messages and voice notes), SMS, a built-in dialler, five senders per user and unlimited emails and messages. Enterprise is priced on request.
lemlist says lemwarm, its warm-up tool, is included on all plans. There is a 14-day free trial with Multichannel features.
Say one founder wants to send from three inboxes on two separate domains. On Instantly, Growth covers that for $47 a month on monthly billing. On lemlist, the Email plan for one user is $69 a month on monthly billing. Add two more people and lemlist triples in price while Instantly's plan stays the same, unless you need more contacts. If those three people want LinkedIn steps too, lemlist Multichannel is the only one of the two that does it natively.
This table uses each vendor's own pricing page at the time of writing (October 2026).
| What you need | Instantly | lemlist |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $47 a month, or $37.60 billed yearly (Growth) | $69 per user a month, or $55 billed yearly (Email) |
| Free plan | No free plan | No free plan; 14-day free trial |
| Limit on cheapest plan | 1,000 contacts and 5,000 emails a month, unlimited email accounts | Up to 50,000 emails a month per the Email plan |
| How price grows | By contacts and emails | By number of users |
| Automation | Email sequences with sending across many inboxes | Email sequences; LinkedIn, SMS and calls on Multichannel |
| Personalisation | Custom fields and variations in wording | Custom text and images per recipient |
| Warm-up and deliverability help | Unlimited warm-up included | lemwarm and a deliverability hub on all plans |
| Lead database | Separate credits plans | Included, with an email and phone finder |
| Best for | Email-only outreach across several inboxes | Personal outreach mixing email, LinkedIn and calls |
Every Instantly outreach plan includes unlimited email accounts. The safe way to do cold email is to send small numbers from several inboxes on separate sending domains, so no single inbox sends too much and your main business domain stays out of it. Instantly's model fits that set-up well, and you do not pay more for each inbox you add.
Unlimited warm-up is included on Growth and Hypergrowth. New inboxes need time to build a sending history before they send cold email, and having warm-up for every inbox included keeps that step simple. Our guide to the best email warm-up tools explains what warm-up can and cannot do.
Because Instantly does not charge per user, a small agency or sales team can share one plan. That makes it the cheaper of the two once more than one person is sending, as long as you stay within the contact and email limits.
Instantly is built around email sequences and inbox rotation, and that focus makes it quick to learn. If you only send email and do not want LinkedIn or calls in your sequences, you are not paying for features you will never use.
Hypergrowth moves you from 1,000 to 25,000 contacts for $97 a month on monthly billing, or $77.60 billed yearly, with the same unlimited inboxes and warm-up. If outreach starts working and you want to reach more of the right businesses, you can step up a plan rather than rebuild your campaigns somewhere else. Just keep the daily volume per inbox low as you grow, and add domains and inboxes rather than pushing more mail through the ones you have.
lemlist's Multichannel plan lets one sequence visit a LinkedIn profile, send an invite, follow up by email and prompt a call. Many B2B buyers answer on LinkedIn before they answer a cold email, so for consultants selling to other businesses, that mix can feel more natural than email alone.
lemlist lets you add custom text and images for each recipient, for example a screenshot of their own website with a note on it. Used with care on a short, well-researched list, that kind of detail shows you have done your homework. Used as a gimmick on thousands of strangers, it does not help.
The Email plan already includes lemlist's lead database and an email and phone finder, so you can build a small list and send from one tool. On Instantly, the lead database is a separate plan.
lemwarm is included on all plans, alongside a deliverability hub that helps you check your set-up. That is useful guidance for a founder doing outreach for the first time, though it does not replace getting your domain records right.
If you are a consultant who sends a handful of carefully chosen messages each day, lemlist's per-user price is easy to justify. You get leads, warm-up, email and, on Multichannel, LinkedIn and calls in one place, so there is less to connect and less to manage. The trade-off is cost as a team grows, which is where Instantly's flat pricing pulls ahead.
Neither tool can rescue a domain that is already damaged, a list full of old or guessed addresses, or a message nobody asked for. Warm-up builds a sending history, but inbox providers still judge you on how real people respond. If recipients mark you as spam or never reply, no warm-up network will hold up your placement for long.
Before you send a single cold email, do the basics. Send from separate domains, never your main business domain, so a problem with outreach cannot hurt your client emails. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on every sending domain (our SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide walks through it), warm each new inbox up slowly, and keep daily volumes per inbox low. Check the latest Gmail and Yahoo sender requirements too.
Then send like a person. Target a short list of businesses that could really use what you offer, say who you are, give a clear way to opt out, honour it straight away, and follow the rules on business email where you and your prospects are based. Run your set-up through our free email deliverability checker before you scale up.
Who should not switch? If your current tool sends on time, your domains are healthy and you are getting replies, moving tools in the middle of a campaign rarely helps. Change the message and the list first.
1. Is your outreach email-only? If yes, Instantly does the job for less, especially across several inboxes. If your buyers answer on LinkedIn, lemlist Multichannel is the one built for that.
2. How many people will send? One person can use either. A team of three or more usually pays less on Instantly, because lemlist charges per user.
3. Do you need leads inside the tool? lemlist includes its lead database on the Email plan. On Instantly, add a lead credits plan or bring your own list. Either way, check every address before you send. If you are also choosing where to send from, read our guide to the best SMTP server for cold email.
A done-for-you studio fits when outreach should be filling your calendar but you do not have time to research prospects, write sequences that sound like you and keep your domains healthy week after week. That is what we do at Unbury: we find where your marketing loses people, build the fix and run it with you. You can start with a free marketing audit.
For email-only outreach across several inboxes, Instantly is usually the better value, because every plan includes unlimited email accounts and warm-up. lemlist is better if you want LinkedIn steps, calls and personalised images in the same sequence. The right choice depends on your channels and team size.
Usually, yes, once more than one person sends. Instantly's Growth plan is $47 a month, or $37.60 billed yearly, and is not priced per user. lemlist starts at $69 per user a month, or $55 billed yearly, so its cost rises with every person you add.
Yes. lemlist says lemwarm, its warm-up tool, and its deliverability protections are included on all plans. Instantly includes unlimited warm-up on its outreach plans too. Warm-up helps new inboxes build a sending history, but it does not replace proper domain set-up and a clean list.
No. Send cold outreach from separate domains set up just for it, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC in place, so any complaints cannot hurt the domain you use for clients and invoices. Warm each new inbox up slowly and keep daily volumes low.
Yes, on the Multichannel plan. It can visit profiles, send invites and messages, including voice notes, as steps in a sequence alongside email. Use it at a sensible pace and keep messages personal, because LinkedIn also limits accounts that behave like bots.
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