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Cold email tools: prices side by side, with what each price counts

Cold email tools price by different things: emails sent, contacts, prospects contacted or seats. A cheap headline can count a small unit. The table lists each vendor's own list price on its monthly view with the unit, the trial and the date read. It is one table with no total score, and Sellinger is on it only as an email agent, not as sending infrastructure.

Published by Sellinger AI. Numbers and settings checked on 19 October 2026 against the fact register. Report an error.

Smartlead Base per month, 6,000 sends (Sellinger Email Starter is $39 as well, a different product): $39
Instantly Growth per month, 5,000 emails and 1,000 uploaded contacts: $47
Woodpecker per month for 500 contacted prospects, the smallest tier of its usage calculator: €35

Prices as stated, monthly view

Currencies are as each vendor shows them and are not converted. VAT is left out. Annual prices are lower at most vendors and are not mixed in.

Cold email tool prices, read 19 October 2026
Tool	Plans as listed	What the price counts	Trial
Instantly	Growth $47 (5,000 emails, 1,000 uploaded contacts); Hypergrowth $97 (125,000 emails); Light Speed $358 (500,000 emails)	Flat per tier; unlimited email accounts. AI agents and lead data are a separate credits plan	14 days, no card
Smartlead	Base $39 (6,000 sends); Pro $94 (90,000); Unlimited Smart $174 (150,000); Unlimited Prime $379 (500,000)	Flat per tier by send volume; unlimited email accounts	14 days, no card
lemlist	Email €69 (unlimited users and senders, 50,000 emails a month); Multichannel €109 per user	Email is flat; Multichannel is per user	14 days, no card; then a Freemium plan
Reply.io	Email Volume from $59 per user for 1,000 active contacts; $99 per user for 5,000; Multichannel $99 per user	Per user at lower tiers, flat from 10,000 active contacts ($179)	14 days, no card
Salesforge	Pro $48 (5,000 emails, 1,000 active contacts); Growth $96 (50,000 emails)	Flat per tier; unlimited mailboxes	14 days, no card
Woodpecker	500 contacted prospects €35; 2,000 €67; 10,000 €188	Per contacted prospect a month; a prospect in 5 campaigns counts 5 times; unlimited team members	14 days or 100 cold emails, no card
Mailshake	Starter $29; Email Outreach $49; Sales Engagement $99	Per user; Starter capped at 1,500 sends and 1 email address	No free trial
Apollo	Free $0; Basic $65; Professional $99; Organization $149 (annual only, 3 seat minimum)	Per seat per month plus pooled credits for emails, phones and enrichment	14 days on paid plans for teams on free
Sellinger Email	Starter $39, Growth $149, Scale $449 per month	Per module per month; an agent that writes and answers, not sending infrastructure	30 days free on messaging modules and bundles, no card

Sources: instantly.ai, read 19 October 2026; smartlead.ai, read 19 October 2026; lemlist.com, read 19 October 2026; reply.io, read 19 October 2026; salesforge.ai, read 19 October 2026; woodpecker.co, read 19 October 2026; apollo.io, read 19 October 2026; mailshake.com, read 19 October 2026, where the page text showed monthly and yearly figures without marking the active view. Sellinger from the pricing page.

How to read the table

Emails sent is not the same as people reached. A sequence of five steps uses five emails per person, so 6,000 sends can reach 1,200 people.
Flat pricing with unlimited mailboxes, as at Instantly, Smartlead and Salesforge, suits teams that send from many domains. Per user pricing suits small teams that write by hand.
Add ons change the total. Woodpecker lists LinkedIn at €29 per connected account and API access at €20 a month, and Smartlead lists mailboxes and domains separately.
Deliverability tools such as warm up and inbox placement tests are listed by several vendors and are not compared here, because a price table cannot show how well they work.

Where Sellinger does and does not fit

Sellinger Email fits when

you want an agent to research each person, write the email and answer the reply, and book the meeting,
you want email next to LinkedIn and WhatsApp in one inbox, with a built in CRM,
volume is hundreds of people a week, not hundreds of thousands of emails.

A sending platform fits better when

you send emails at high volume from many domains and mailboxes,
you want warm up and inbox placement tooling at its core,
you write the copy yourself and want the lowest cost per thousand sends.

For the email product itself, see the email agent.

Common questions

Which cold email tool is cheapest?

By headline, Smartlead Base at $39 and Mailshake Starter at $29, but they count different units: 6,000 sends against 1,500 sends and one email address. Compare the unit first.

Do these prices include mailboxes and domains?

Not always. Instantly and Smartlead list unlimited email accounts, and mailboxes and domains are sold separately at several vendors. Check each pricing page.

Are the prices monthly or annual?

Monthly, from each vendor's monthly view, read 19 October 2026. Mailshake's page showed both figures without marking the active view, as noted under the table.

Is Sellinger a cold email sender like Instantly?

No. It is an agent that writes and answers, and it is not email infrastructure. Instantly and Smartlead lists are better for bulk sending.

Sources and method

Vendor cells read from each vendor's own pricing page on 19 October 2026, linked in the table note. Sellinger from pricing.