Instantly vs SmartReach | Which Delivers the Best ROI?
Instantly and Smartlead are two popular cold email outreach platforms and picking one of them is difficult.
In this article, I will provide an in-depth comparison of Instantly vs Smartlead, highlighting their core features and pricing, helping you pick one.
Additionally, I’ll introduce SmartReach.io as a powerful alternative—an AI-powered cold email platform for improved deliverability, automation, and multichannel outreach.
You will learn more about its unique advantages in this article.
Instantly vs Smartlead vs SmartReach.io: comparative overview
Here’s a comparative table highlighting the key features and pricing of Instantly, Smartlead, and SmartReach.io –
| Features | Instantly | Smartlead | SmartReach | Winner 🏆 |
| Pricing → | Starts @ $37/month | Starts @ $39/month | Starts @ $29/month | SmartReach(most affordable) |
| Email account limits → | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Tie |
| Email warmup → | Unlimited | Unlimited | Upto 10 accounts | Instantly (as per pricing) |
| Email verification → | Excluded | Excluded | Included (Free + unlimited) | SmartReach |
| Customer support → | Chat support | General support | Chat + Call support | SmartReach |
| Multichannel Outreach → | No | No | Yes (Email, LinkedIn, Call & WhatsApp) | SmartReach |
| Integrations → | Limited | Limited | Extensive | SmartReach (most integrations) |
*Note: Pricing and feature details are based on available information and may vary.
Instantly vs. Smartlead: core features + pricing comparison
Now let’s understand their core features.
Core features of Instantly.ai
- Unlimited email account integration
Instantly allows users to connect multiple unlimited email accounts, facilitating broader outreach without additional costs.
Users can manage campaigns from multiple domains, but there are limitations in sender reputation management compared to Smartlead.
- Unlimited email warmup
The platform includes an automated email warmup feature to improve email deliverability, ensuring emails land in the recipient’s inbox.
However, it lacks granular control over warmup settings.
- Automated follow-ups
Instantly supports basic follow-up sequences that trigger based on recipient actions like opens or clicks.
But Instantly.ai lacks AI-based automation or behavioral-based sequencing (a.k.a, “email drips”)
- Basic campaign analytics & tracking
Instantly users can track open rates, reply rates, conversions and bounce rates.
However, it does not provide deep analytics like inbox placement reports, heatmaps, or spam trigger analysis.
- Lead management
Instantly offers a simple CRM for lead segmentation and basic categorization. However, it currently lacks an advanced CRM or sales pipeline tracking system.
- Email personalization
It supports basic merge tags for cold email personalization (e.g., first name, company name).
Their email copies are not as personalized as Smartlead’s AI-powered dynamic personalization.
- Email scheduling
Instantly lets its users schedule emails to be sent at optimal times.
But there is currently no AI-based optimization for determining the best send times per recipient. (Which btw SmartReach provides through its Best Time to Send Report)
Instantly.ai pricing
Instantly provides 3 separate pricing tiers for its 3 separate services – email sending & warmup, lead management and CRM.
Let’s take a look at its only email sending & warm-up service tiers for comparison with Smartlead.
| Plans | Pricing | Features |
| Growth Leads | $37/month | Unlimited email accounts, unlimited warmup, 1,000 uploaded contacts, 5,000 emails/month |
| Hypergrowth | $97/month | All previous plan features + 25,000 uploaded contacts, 100,000 emails/month + live support |
| Light Speed | $358/month | All previous plan features +100,000 uploaded contacts, 500,000 emails/month + IP & Server handling |
*Instantly.ai also provides a custom enterprise plan available only on a yearly subscription.
Now let’s learn about the core functionalities of Smartlead.ai
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Core features of Smartlead.ai
- Unlimited email accounts & warmup
Like Instantly, Smartlead supports unlimited email accounts and includes an email warmup feature.
But Smartlead provides the email warm-up with AI-driven optimizations, whereas Instantly provides a more basic warmup system.
- Dynamic IP rotation
Smartlead improves email deliverability by rotating sender IP addresses, reducing the chances of emails being marked as spam.
Instantly offers this feature at its highest tier plan ($358/month), making Smartlead a more affordable choice for avoiding spam filters.
- AI-Powered smart sequences
Smartlead provides email follow-ups based on recipient behaviour, ensuring personalised and timely engagement with automated replies and optimised sending times.
Instantly provides only basic automated follow-ups without behavioral-based personalization.
- Centralised master inbox
It consolidates responses from multiple campaigns and email accounts into a single inbox called as “master inbox”
Instantly does offer a centralised inbox for managing responses but it comes under their paid plan ($38) under the CRM services.
- Advanced personalisation
Smartlead supports spintax-based personalisation, conditional logic for custom content variations, and dynamic personalisation based on lead attributes and past interactions.
- Advanced A/B testing & campaign reporting
It provides A/B testing with in-depth analytics, inbox placement reports, response rate trends, spam detection, and bounce rate analysis to optimize email performance.
Instantly offers basic A/B testing but lacks advanced engagement analytics.
- Limited multichannel outreach
Smartlead supports LinkedIn automation and webhook integrations but does not include the advanced multichannel outreach features available in SmartReach.io.
Instantly focuses solely on cold email without LinkedIn or webhook integrations.
- CRM & API Integrations
Smartlead offers native integrations with major CRMs and third-party automation tools, allowing automated contact syncing, lead tracking, and pipeline management.
Instantly has limited CRM integrations compared to Smartlead.
Smartlead.ai pricing
Smartlead offers 3 pricing tiers for cold emailing such as –
| Plans | Pricing | Features |
| Basic | $39/month | Unlimited email accounts, unlimited email warmup, 2,000 leads, 6,000 emails/month, centralized master inbox, basic analytics |
| Pro | $94/month | All Starter features + ChatGPT4, 3000 leads, 15,000 emails per month, API access, unlimited seats |
| Custom | $174/month | All pro + basic features + 12M leads, 60M emails/month, custom CRM, dynamic sequence |
Smartlead vs Instantly: final verdict
If you are looking for a simple, beginner-friendly cold email tool with essential automation, Instantly is a good choice.
However, it lacks advanced AI-driven automation, sender reputation management, and in-depth campaign analytics.
For teams that require AI-powered personalisation, centralised inbox management, and behaviour-based sequencing, Smartlead is a superior choice.
It provides more automation, better deliverability features, and advanced outreach capabilities compared to Instantly.
If you need an even more powerful solution that includes multichannel outreach, unlimited free email validation, and extensive integrations, SmartReach.io stands out as the best alternative to both of these platforms.
It offers the most comprehensive features at a competitive price, making it the best option for maximizing outreach effectiveness while maintaining high deliverability rates.
What is SmartReach.io?
SmartReach.io is an AI-enabled sales engagement platform that supports email, LinkedIn, calling, and more channels for outreach.
It provides high deliverability with unlimited sending accounts, ensuring broader and more effective outreach.
Designed to automate cold outreach campaigns, SmartReach.io integrates various features to maximize engagement and increase meeting bookings.
Why SmartReach.io is unique than Instantly and Smartlead
SmartReach.io distinguishes itself through a combination of innovative features and user-centric design, setting it apart from both Instantly.ai and Smartlead.ai.
Here are some key aspects that set SmartReach.io apart –
- Built-in B2B lead database for quality prospects
Unlike Smartlead, SmartReach.io includes a B2B lead finder, helping users to source and validate high-quality leads directly within the platform.
This includes over 250 Million+ B2B contact data for easy data enrichment.
This eliminates the need for subscribing any third-party tools, making lead generation more affordable and efficient.
- Outbound calling suite for multichannel engagement
Unlike Instantly and Smartlead, which focus only on email automation, SmartReach.io offers a dedicate cold calling suite for teams that focus on outbound selling.
This helps users to execute phone-based VoIP outreach alongside email campaigns, ensuring a true multichannel approach for higher conversion rates.
- Free AI-powered email writing with SmartReach AI
SmartReach.io includes an AI email writer that generates personalized, high-converting cold email templates based on user prompts.
It has been trained on with the latest industry best practices and machine learning models to craft email copies at scale with added personalization.
This AI assisted email writing is not freely available on Instantly or Smartlead.
- Unlimited free email validation for higher deliverability
SmartReach.io provides an built-in email validation mecanism, reducing email bounce rates and improving deliverability.
Instantly and Smartlead charges this feature as add-ons over the subscription plan.
SmartReach.io provides it for free for unlimited times.
SmartReach Users no longer have to rely on external tools to verify their email lists.
- Multichannel outbound for higher response rates
While Instantly and Smartlead are primarily email-focused, SmartReach.io supports Email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Text messaging and cold calling.
With multichannel campaigns, you can connect with prospects across multiple touchpoints, increasing engagement and response rates.
SmartReach.io offers behaviour based multichannel sequences called as “Conditional multichannel drips”.
They automate follow-up across multiple channels based on the prospect engagement.
- Priority customer support for faster assistance
SmartReach.io provides 24×6 customer support on chat, email and on-demand videos calls ensuring quick resolutions and dedicated assistance for all plans.
The average chat response time is less than 5 minutes. And SmartReach resolves technical issues at the earliest possible.
Unlike Instantly and Smartlead, which offer standard chat support and takes 24 hours to respond.
SmartReach.io provides a more personalized customer service experience.
- Extensive CRM and API integrations for seamless workflows
SmartReach.io provides native integration with multiple CRM platforms and sales tools.
And it also offers robust API access, helping you connect it with your existing sales and marketing tech stack.
Instantly and Smartlead have limited integration options, making workflow automation more restrictive.
- Email deliverability suite for maximising email outbound
SmartReach.io includes a premium email deliverability suite that comes with automated email warmup, inbox rotation, domain health monitoring, global blacklist monitoring service etc.
These features combined will help your cold emails land in the primary inbox of the prospects and prevent spam folder issues.
This will give your campaigns a higher email deliverability compared to Instantly and Smartlead.
SmartReach pricing: it’s better than Instantly & Smartlead
Pricing is a key factor when choosing a cold email outreach platform.
SmartReach.io provides better pricing, more features, and greater value than Instantly and Smartlead.
SmartReach.io’s pricing plans start at $29/month, making it the most affordable option as compared to Smartlead.ai or Instantly.ai.
Even its base plan includes advanced automation, email warmups, and unlimited free email verification, which are often limited in Instantly and Smartlead’s lower-tier plans.
It also allows unlimited email sending, unlike its competitors that impose restrictions.
For users needing multichannel features, SmartReach.io’s $39 per month plan includes LinkedIn, WhatsApp outreach, Calling etc.
With just $499 per month, you can reach up to 500,000 prospects, giving you the platform to scale your outreach efforts effectively.
Instantly and Smartlead either lack these features or charge significantly more for similar capabilities.
Unlike Instantly and Smartlead, SmartReach.io integrates B2B lead sourcing, cold calling, and a full deliverability suite at no extra cost.
Additionally, SmartReach.io provides email warmup tools, inbox rotation, domain health monitoring, and active lead tracking at no extra charge.
These features ensure high deliverability and help emails land in inboxes instead of spam folders.
With superior pricing and a more robust feature set, SmartReach.io offers the best value compared to Instantly and Smartlead.
Try SmartReach.io for FREE!
Yes, you heard it right.
You can try almost all the SmartReach.io features for free.
Getting started with SmartReach.io is quick and hassle-free.
SmartReach.io offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
This allows you to test the features, explore its automation capabilities, and experience firsthand how it improves deliverability and outreach success.
Sign up today and see why SmartReach.io is the best choice for cold email campaigns!
Instantly vs SmartReach: F.A.Qs
Q. What is the difference between Instantly and Smartlead?
Instantly and Smartlead are both cold email automation tools, but Smartlead offers unlimited mailboxes, advanced AI personalization, and better deliverability. Instantly focuses on ease of use, while Smartlead provides more scalability and automation features for outreach campaigns.
Q. Is Smartlead AI good?
Yes, Smartlead AI is effective for email outreach. It offers advanced warm-up features, AI-powered personalization, and automation, improving email deliverability and engagement. Users find it useful for scaling cold email campaigns while avoiding spam filters.
Q. What is the difference between Smartlead and Apollo?
Smartlead specializes in cold email automation, while Apollo is primarily a B2B lead database with sales intelligence. Smartlead focuses on deliverability and automation, whereas Apollo offers contact data, enrichment, and outreach tools alongside CRM integrations.
Q. How much does Smartlead cost?
Smartlead pricing starts at $39 per month. It offers multiple plans, including unlimited email accounts and AI-driven automation. Custom pricing is available for enterprise users based on outreach volume and feature requirements.
