- Our pick is Smartlead on its published pricing: unlimited email accounts on every plan, from $39 a month ($32 billed yearly). None of the cold email tools here were tested by us.
- Instantly Growth is $47 a month with 1,000 uploaded contacts and 5,000 emails; lemlist Email is $55 billed yearly per user; Apollo Basic is $49 per seat billed annually.
- Gmail mail merge costs nothing extra on an eligible Workspace plan and allows up to 1,500 recipients a day, but lists no tracking or automatic follow-ups.
- Under a dozen emails a week, send them by hand. All prices and limits were read from each vendor's page on 2026-10-08.
The best cold email software depends on how many emails you really send. A vending operator pitching 20 property managers a week needs something very different from an agency sending 100,000 a month. This guide compares Smartlead, Instantly, lemlist, Apollo sequences and Gmail mail merge on their own published prices and limits, read on 2026-10-08, and says plainly where the cheap option is enough. We have not tested any of them. Our pick is chosen on pricing and published features, and we label that throughout.
- Quick answer: five options, none of them tested by us
- How we checked
- Side-by-side table (checked 2026-10-08)
- Smartlead: our pick, not tested by us
- Instantly: similar tool, flat plans, not tested by us
- lemlist: adds LinkedIn and SMS steps, not tested by us
- Apollo sequences: contacts and sending in one account, not tested by us
- Gmail mail merge: free if you already have it
Part of our complete guide: how to find vending machine locations.
The short answer
- Pick Smartlead if you will send a few hundred to a few thousand cold emails a month across several mailboxes. It lists unlimited email accounts on every plan and starts at $39 a month ($32 billed yearly). Not tested by us.
- Pick Gmail mail merge if you are under about 50 emails a day, already pay for an eligible Google Workspace plan and want to pay nothing extra.
- Pick Instantly if you want a similar tool with a flat Growth plan at $47 a month. Pick lemlist if you want LinkedIn and SMS steps in the same sequence. Pick Apollo if you also want its contact database in the same account.
- Skip all of them if you send under a dozen emails a week. A hand-written email from your own inbox does the job and avoids new deliverability problems.
Affiliate link. We earn a commission if you sign up through it, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which tool we recommend.
VendBuddy is our product, and it is a tool for finding vending locations, not an email sender. We mention it once below because the best sender in the world cannot help if you do not know who to write to. We have not run any of these cold email tools, and every number in this post is a published one.
Quick answer: five options, none of them tested by us
- Smartlead: our pick on pricing and features. Unlimited email accounts and AI warmup, from $39 a month. See Instantly alternatives and lemlist alternatives for how it compares one on one.
- Instantly: Growth at $47 a month with 1,000 uploaded contacts and 5,000 emails a month.
- lemlist: $55 or $69 per user per month on the Email plan, $87 or $109 on Multichannel.
- Apollo sequences: $49 per seat per month billed annually for unlimited sequences, with a free plan for testing.
- Gmail mail merge: built into eligible Google Workspace plans, up to 1,500 recipients a day.
How we checked
On 2026-10-08 we read Smartlead's pricing page, Instantly's pricing page, lemlist's pricing page, Apollo's pricing page and Google's Gmail mail merge help page and copied plan names, prices and limits. We did not sign up, connect a mailbox or send a message, so we cannot speak to inbox placement, warmup quality or support. We give no 1-to-5 scores, because a score for a tool we have not used would be invented.
We compared five things: the first paid price, how many contacts and sends it includes, how many mailboxes it allows, whether warmup is included, and whether a card is needed to start. Cold email deliverability depends mostly on your domain, your list quality and your message, not the logo on the tool, and no software changes that.
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Start building free →Side-by-side table (checked 2026-10-08)
| What you care about | Smartlead | Instantly | lemlist | Apollo | Gmail mail merge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First paid price | Base $39/mo; $32/mo billed yearly | Growth $47/mo | Email $69/mo, $55 billed yearly, per user | Basic $49 per seat per month billed annually | No extra charge on an eligible Workspace plan |
| Contacts and sends | Base: 2,000 contacts, 6,000 sends a month. Pro $94: 30,000 contacts, 90,000 sends | Growth: 1,000 uploaded contacts, 5,000 emails a month. Hypergrowth $97: 25,000 contacts, 125,000 emails | Unlimited contacts on all plans | Basic: unlimited sequences, 250 emails a day | Up to 1,500 recipients a day, 1,500 per message |
| Mailboxes | Unlimited email accounts on every plan | Unlimited email accounts on Growth | Email plan: unlimited senders. Multichannel: 5 senders per user | Basic: 1 mailbox per user. Professional: unlimited Google and Microsoft mailboxes | The one Gmail account |
| Warmup | AI warmups listed | Unlimited warmup on Growth | lemwarm included on all plans | Not listed on the page text we read | None |
| Free start | Free trial, no card, per its FAQ | Not stated on the page text we read | 14-day trial | Free plan: 2 sequences, 250 emails daily; 14-day trial on paid | Part of Workspace |
| Tested by us? | No | No | No | No | No |
Sources: the five pages linked above, read 2026-10-08. Plans change often; confirm on the vendor page before you buy. The Instantly page text we read did not give a clear yearly price, so we show only the monthly one.
Smartlead's free trial needs no card, which is the cheapest way to see whether sequences and warmup are worth paying for.
Affiliate link. We earn a commission if you sign up through it, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which tool we recommend.
Smartlead: our pick, not tested by us
Best for: an owner or small team that wants to send from several mailboxes without paying per mailbox. Price: Base $39 a month, Pro $94, Unlimited Smart $174, Unlimited Prime $379; yearly billing saves 17%, which puts Base at $32 and Pro at $78.
What its pricing page lists: unlimited email accounts on every plan, AI warmups, a master inbox, rotation of sends across connected mailboxes, a free trial with no card, and no lock-in contract. Buying mailboxes inside the tool through its SmartSenders add-on is listed at $13 per domain per year and $4.50 per mailbox per month for a Google provider. Email verification and white-label workspaces are paid add-ons, and a power dialer (SmartDialer) is sold as an add-on with credit plans from $9 a month.
Downsides from the page: the monthly send limits matter more than the mailbox count. Base allows 6,000 sends and 2,000 contacts a month, and Pro jumps to $94. Mailboxes, domains and email verification are extras. There is also a lot here that a one-person route does not need. Skip it if you send fewer than a hundred emails a month.
Instantly: similar tool, flat plans, not tested by us
Best for: someone who wants a close alternative at a similar price. Growth is $47 a month with 1,000 uploaded contacts, 5,000 emails a month, unlimited email accounts and unlimited warmup. Hypergrowth is $97 with 25,000 contacts and 125,000 emails, and Light Speed is $358 with 100,000 contacts and 500,000 emails. Its page also sells a B2B lead database and a CRM.
Downside from the page: Growth caps uploaded contacts at 1,000, half of Smartlead Base. Detail in Instantly alternatives.
lemlist: adds LinkedIn and SMS steps, not tested by us
Best for: someone who wants emails plus LinkedIn and SMS steps in the same sequence. The Email plan is $69 a month ($55 billed yearly) per user with unlimited users and email senders, a 650M-plus lead database, lemwarm and unlimited contacts. Multichannel is $109 ($87 billed yearly) per user with 5 senders per user, LinkedIn automation, SMS automation and a built-in call dialer. The trial is 14 days and includes 200 credits to find emails and phone numbers.
Downside from the page: it is priced per user, so a team of three costs three times as much. Detail in lemlist alternatives.
Apollo sequences: contacts and sending in one account, not tested by us
Affiliate link: VendBuddy may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Best for: someone who wants the contact database and the sending tool in one place. Free gives 2 sequences, 250 emails a day and one mailbox per user. Basic is $49 per seat per month billed annually with unlimited sequences, 250 emails a day and a US dialer that uses credits. Professional is $79 with unlimited daily sends and unlimited Google and Microsoft mailboxes, and Organization is $119 with a 3-seat minimum.
Downside from the page: the daily send cap of 250 on Basic and one mailbox per user limit scale. Credits are consumed by lookups and dialer use.
Gmail mail merge: free if you already have it
Best for: a small, personal send to a spreadsheet of prospects. Google's help page says you can use mail merge in Gmail on eligible Workspace plans (Workspace Individual, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and the Education equivalents). You add recipients from a spreadsheet, insert tags like @firstname and send up to 1,500 recipients a day. Standard Gmail accounts have a daily send limit of 500 messages, and work accounts 2,000, with mail merge sharing that quota.
Downsides from the page: the help page does not list open or click tracking, warmup or automatic follow-ups, so you follow up by hand. It is the right tool for a first batch of 20 to 50 pitches and a poor one for a multi-step sequence.
If you are not sure where to start, most people pull a free list of the businesses near them in the before they do anything else. Five contact reveals are free and there is no card, so it costs you a search and about ten minutes.
What a year costs for a small sender
Our arithmetic for one user sending from 3 mailboxes on one domain. We used Smartlead's own Google mailbox price of $4.50 each per month and $13 for the domain per year, and we did not check mailbox costs for the other tools, so those lines show the software only.
| Option | Software, 12 months | Mailboxes and domain | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smartlead Base billed monthly | $39 x 12 = $468 | 3 x $4.50 x 12 + $13 = $175 | $643 |
| Smartlead Base billed yearly | $32 x 12 = $384 | $175 | $559 |
| Instantly Growth (monthly) | $47 x 12 = $564 | Not checked | At least $564 |
| lemlist Email, billed yearly | $55 x 12 = $660 | Not checked | At least $660 |
| Apollo Basic, billed annually | $49 x 12 = $588 | Not checked | At least $588 |
| Gmail mail merge | $0 beyond your Workspace plan (price not checked) | Your existing address | Workspace cost only |
Two honest points. The mailboxes are most of what separates the tools in practice, because a sender with only one inbox is stuck at a low daily limit. And the Gmail option costs nothing extra, but it runs from your main address, which is also the address your customers write to. Do not send cold email from the inbox you rely on.
How to choose, and the rules that matter more than the tool
Ask three questions. First, how many emails a week? Under 50, Gmail mail merge or a hand-typed email is enough. A few hundred to a few thousand a month points to Smartlead or Instantly. Second, who is on the other end? A property manager at one building reads a short, plain note. A mass blast reads like one. Third, do you have a second domain? Cold email should come from a separate domain you can afford to damage, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up and a warmup period, whatever tool you pick.
A few rules apply on any platform. US marketing email requires a working unsubscribe link and your physical mailing address. Write to a named person with a reason to care, not a role mailbox. And keep the list to businesses where you have a real offer. We cover the message itself in cold email scripts for vending contracts, and the first-touch order of operations in how to find business owner contact information.
The other half of cold email is the list. Need someone to email first? Find them with VendBuddy, our product. Best for: finding local businesses near you (offices, apartments, gyms, medical) and the person who decides there. Searching a ZIP is free, and one credit gets the best contact on file for one business. It is built for vending operators looking for locations. If you are an enterprise sales team that needs technographics, intent data or 100,000-contact exports, it is not for you, and Apollo or a data vendor will fit better.
Compare in more depth
- Instantly alternatives: when you want a different plan shape or mailbox rules.
- lemlist alternatives: when per-user pricing does not fit.
- Cold email scripts for vending contracts: what to write in the first email.
- Best newsletter platform for small business: for people who asked to hear from you, not cold prospects.
Start with the free trial, connect one inbox on a separate domain, and send 20 emails before you spend more.
Affiliate link. We earn a commission if you sign up through it, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which tool we recommend.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best cold email software for a small business?
On published pricing we pick Smartlead, because every plan lists unlimited email accounts and it starts at $39 a month ($32 billed yearly). We have not tested it. If you send under about 50 emails a day and use an eligible Google Workspace plan, Gmail mail merge costs nothing extra. Read from each vendor's page on 2026-10-08.
How much does cold email software cost?
From the pages we read: Smartlead from $39 a month, Instantly from $47, lemlist from $55 per user billed yearly ($69 monthly), and Apollo from $49 per seat billed annually. Mailboxes and domains are extra. Smartlead lists Google mailboxes at $4.50 each per month and $13 a domain per year.
Can I do cold email with Gmail?
Yes, to a point. Gmail mail merge on eligible Workspace plans sends personalized messages from a spreadsheet to up to 1,500 recipients a day, per Google's help page. That page does not list open tracking or automatic follow-ups. Do not run cold email from the inbox you rely on for customers.
Do I need a separate domain for cold email?
It is the standard advice, because bad deliverability can hurt your main domain. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC and warm the mailboxes before sending in volume. No tool removes that risk, and we have not tested any of them.
Is cold email legal in the US?
US marketing email must include a working unsubscribe link and your physical mailing address, among other rules. This is general information, not legal advice. Ask a lawyer if you plan to send at volume.
What is selling, which buildings say yes, and the numbers before you buy a machine. Free, confirm from your inbox, unsubscribe in one click. Refer one friend and get 25 VendBuddy credits.
Walk-ins and cold emails find locations. A small site with your own machine photos and a request-a-machine form lets the next one find you. Around machine three to five, an AI builder drafts it in an evening. Wix is the mature site builder; Base44 also builds working tools like a quote form. Start with the AI website walkthrough or Wix vs Base44.
General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change, so check the official source. Revenue and income figures are examples, not promises. See our terms.