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Best Instantly Alternatives

Written by Paddy Stobbs

Co-Founder & CEO

Edited by Steph Leung

Product & Operations Lead

Updated onMar 14, 2025
Instantly has emerged as a popular email automation tool for sales teams looking to streamline their outreach efforts. With its straightforward interface and focus on email sequences, it provides a solid foundation for basic sales automation. However, as sales strategies evolve to encompass multiple channels and more sophisticated workflows, alternatives like Waalaxy, Salesloft, Reply, Apollo, and Lemlist offer compelling advantages for specific use cases. Whether your team prioritizes LinkedIn integration, enterprise-grade CRM capabilities, advanced analytics, multi-channel campaigns, or template-based deployment, understanding how these alternatives compare to Instantly can help you select the optimal solution for your unique sales requirements. This comprehensive comparison examines how each alternative addresses specific sales team needs that Instantly may not fully satisfy.

Best alternatives to Instantly

For teams requiring strong LinkedIn integration for social selling:

Waalaxy product logo

Waalaxy

Stackfix Rating:

5.8 / 10

While Instantly offers only basic email sequences, Waalaxy delivers superior LinkedIn integration that transforms social selling workflows. Waalaxy enables teams to seamlessly add LinkedIn connection requests and messages directly into their outbound sequences, as Instantly lacks any LinkedIn functionality. Additionally, Waalaxy’s native integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows sales teams to easily import prospects and automate LinkedIn engagement at scale. For teams focused on social selling through LinkedIn, Waalaxy’s purpose-built LinkedIn automation capabilities make it a more compelling solution than Instantly’s email-only approach.

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For enterprise teams needing sophisticated pipeline management and CRM integration:

Salesloft product logo

Salesloft

Stackfix Rating:

6.2 / 10

Salesloft’s sophisticated pipeline management and deep CRM integration capabilities make it a superior choice for enterprise teams compared to Instantly’s basic functionality. While Instantly offers only email-based sequences and basic analytics, Salesloft provides comprehensive multi-channel outreach, advanced pipeline stage metrics, and sales forecasting—critical features for complex enterprise sales operations. Additionally, Salesloft’s analytics suite delivers granular pipeline analysis and AI-powered conversation insights, providing robust intelligence for strategic decision-making. For enterprise CRM integration, Salesloft’s extensive connectivity with platforms like Salesforce and deep workflow automation capabilities exceed Instantly’s limited integration depth.

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For sales teams that require advanced analytics and performance tracking:

Reply product logo

Reply

Stackfix Rating:

7.2 / 10

Sales teams seeking advanced analytics and performance tracking will find Reply excels in three critical areas. Reply’s multi-channel analytics dashboard tracks metrics across email, phone, and LinkedIn campaigns, while Instantly offers limited email monitoring. Reply enables individual sales agent performance filtering to identify top performers and coaching opportunities, a capability Instantly does not provide. Additionally, Reply’s call tracking features measure connect rates and outcomes, whereas Instantly lacks call analytics functionality. For teams prioritizing data-driven sales optimization, it delivers comprehensive insights to improve campaign effectiveness and team performance.

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For multi-channel outreach campaigns requiring phone, SMS, and social media integration:

Apollo product logo

Apollo

Stackfix Rating:

6.5 / 10

Apollo offers native phone dialing, LinkedIn integration, and comprehensive analytics across all communication channels, features that distinguish it from Instantly for multi-channel outreach campaigns. While Instantly supports only email sequences, Apollo enables sales teams to seamlessly integrate phone calls into their outreach sequences with a built-in dialer, analyze call transcripts with AI, and track call connect rates. Apollo’s LinkedIn integration allows for automated connection requests and messages within sequences, providing multi-channel orchestration. Additionally, Apollo’s analytics dashboard offers granular insights across email, phone, and social touchpoints, giving sales teams a tool for understanding and optimizing their outreach strategies.

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For Organizations needing template sequences for quick campaign deployment.:

Lemlist product logo

Lemlist

Stackfix Rating:

5.9 / 10

Organizations seeking quick campaign deployment through templates will find Lemlist outperforms Instantly in three critical areas. While Instantly lacks template sequences, Lemlist provides a comprehensive library of pre-built templates that enable rapid sequence creation. Additionally, Lemlist’s customer support ensures teams can quickly resolve any template-related issues. Finally, Lemlist’s native LinkedIn integration allows organizations to seamlessly incorporate social touchpoints into their templated sequences, whereas Instantly remains email-only.

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PS

Meet your expert: Paddy Stobbs

Stackfix Co-Founder & CEO

I've spent over a decade deep in the world of business software - personally managing more than $2M in purchases across companies I've built and led. From intimate 10-person teams to organizations of 150+, I've developed a particular obsession with Sales and HR tools – testing, implementing, and scaling them at every stage of growth. My journey started at Cambridge University, led me through Google, and most recently culminated in selling my previous venture to TikTok. Now, I'm channeling all of that hands-on experience into helping others navigate the complex landscape of business software.

Instantly logo

Instantly

Waalaxy logo

Waalaxy

Salesloft logo

Salesloft

Reply logo

Reply

Apollo logo

Apollo

Lemlist logo

Lemlist

Our rating
Functionality
3

Functionality

3/10

<p>As a sales engagement tool, Instantly is extremely lightweight. The only channel you can configure in outbound sequences is email (however, you can configure calls and texts from their CRM manually). Therefore if multi-channel outreach is important to you you're better off looking elsewhere. That being said, we were pleased to find a native contact database and lightweight CRM provided.</p>
3

Functionality

3/10

<p>Waalaxy is primarily a LinkedIn outbound tool. Though it does also offer support for email sequencing too. As such it lacks a lot of the channels you'd expect such as phone, SMS or other socials. In terms of prospecting, you have to use Waalaxy's chrome extension to import leads from LinkedIn directly.</p>
7

Functionality

7/10

<p>Salesloft offers very rich and deep functionality in some areas but is completely lacking in others. Its sales forecasting, intent tracking and deal pipeline management features are class leading. However, you'll not find any kind of native contact database present, meaning you'll need to pay separately to source your leads elsewhere.</p>
7

Functionality

7/10

<p>Reply is a well-rounded, all in one sales platform. It's sales engagement features are fairly rich and covers almost all of the bases you'd expect. In terms of channels you can include in sequences - email, WhatsApp, text, phone and LinkedIn are all covered. It's worth noting that its drag and drop sequence builder was one of the best designed and most intuitive we've tested.</p><p><br></p><p>It also incorporates an AI SDR Agent which unlocks automating workflows and lead scoring capabilities, along with personalising emails and drafting full sequences. However, the quality of outputs still often needs review and tweaking by a human.</p><p><br></p><p>It also offers a very rich native contact database which doesn't feel like an afterthought - making this a true all-in-one sales platform.</p>
7

Functionality

7/10

<p>Despite Apollo primarily being a prospecting database, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of its sales engagement feature set. On the email front, we were pleased to find a range of rich functionality including A/B testing, email warmup and support for inbox rotation. On the phone front, the native dialer and AI conversation analysis functionalities were stand out. If we were to call out an area which was lacking it would be on the richness of the sequences builder (complex branching logic is not possible) and also any kind of sales forecasting functionality it limited.</p>
4

Functionality

4/10

<p>Lemlist is feature light. It only provides support for email, LinkedIn and phone call steps in its sequences (and for the latter you'll need a 3rd party integrations). Similarly though it does provide a native contact database, it lacks the depth and quality of some competitors. Additionally, its anlytics suite is basic and lacks customizability too.</p>
Ease of Use
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Instantly's web app is intuitive and easy to navigate. Additionally, its onboarding was simple and not overwhelming. It's core sequence building and analytics pages are intuitive and easy to get acquainted with. It would take an average SMB employee less than 30 minutes to master its use.</span></p>
8

Ease of Use

8/10

<p>Given its limited feature set and modern design, Waalaxy is extremely intuitive to use. It would take an average SMB employee just 10-15 minutes to master its use.</p>
6

Ease of Use

6/10

<p>Salesloft's core interfaces are fairly intuitive to use and well presented. That being said, given the sheer breadth of functionality depth in some areas, some interfaces did feel overwhelming at times and somewhat information dense.</p>
8

Ease of Use

8/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Reply offers quite a smooth experience when onboarding and the intuitiveness of most interfaces makes the product easy to pick up. On average, SMBs may take less than 30 minutes to get acquainted with the system.</span></p>
6

Ease of Use

6/10

<p>Apollo's web app is relatively simple and easy to navigate. Additionally, when tested, we find it's search pages were generally fast to load.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Apollo's web app is generally intuitive and easy to navigate. Additionally, its onboarding was simple and not overwhelming. Our only complaint is that some of its sequence builder interfaces were slightly non-standard and therefore take a bit more time to get used to. On average, it would take an SMB employee less than 45 minutes to master its use.</span></p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Lemlist's web app is simple and intuitive to use. It's core sequence building interface is well laid out and very familiar - even complex branching logic can be implemented with relative ease. However, certain interfaces, such as the prospecting interface, are cumbersome to use.</p>
Look and feel
8

Look and feel

8/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Instantly's design aesthetic is modern and clean. Unlike many competitors, we found most pages to be well laid out and not overflowing with information. When tested, we find its page load times to be fast (often &lt;1s) and core interfaces such as the sequence builder to be slick and intuitive.</span></p>
8

Look and feel

8/10

<p>Waalaxy's web app is well designed and very modern. It's aesthetic is vibrant and pleasing to the eye, something which meaningfully differentiates it from most other sales engagement tools.</p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Salesloft's UI is fairly modern and intuitive. It's pages are quick to load and the product feels smooth to use.</p>
7

Look and feel

7/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Reply's UI is mostly easy to navigate. In terms of the engagement features, the drag and drop sequence builder is worth flagging as particularly well designed and slick.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">However, some other interfaces can feel a bit overwhelming and crowded due to the sheer feature breadth that Reply presents.</span></p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Apollo's web app is relatively simple and easy to navigate. Additionally, when tested, we find it's search pages were generally fast to load.</p><p>However, some of its engagement centred interfaces were a bit clunky and overwhelming. For example, its sequence builder was unintuitive to use on initial glance.</p>
5

Look and feel

5/10

<p>Lemlist's design aesthetic is modern, clean and easy on the eyes. However, we noticed some elements of the UI were often positioned poorly or cut off by other components - for example, the inability to close toast messages was particularly annoying on many occasions. Additionally, we encountered some bugs in testing - such as the inability to load some community template sequences.</p>
Customisability
6

Customisability

6/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Instantly offers a number of channels for customisation, including basic ways such as creating custom searches in the prospecting database or adding custom fields to individual leads. There are also some deeper levels which you can customise your experience such as by connecting to OpenAI via API and creating custom prompts to do small tasks such as cleaning company names or guessing company pain points. </span></p>
3

Customisability

3/10

<p>Waalaxy offers very little in terms of channels for customization. you're able to create custom lists and templates for sequences but that's about it.</p>
7

Customisability

7/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">From an engagement perspective, there are a number of customization options Salesloft offers. For example, you can provide their AI with context about your business and targets which will then be used across a range of touchpoints. Salesloft's analytics dashboards are also very customizable and among some of the most granular we've tested</span></p>
8

Customisability

8/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You can build custom sequences with rich branching logic, create custom filters for prospects and share them with teammates. A great new addition is the custom playbook for training the AI SDR. If there's one area we'd like to see greater room for customizability it's in the analytics dashboards.</span></p>
7

Customisability

7/10

<p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From an engagement perspective, there are a number of customization options Apollo offers. For example, you can provide their AI with context about your business and targets which will then be used when drafting AI email sequences. Apollo's analytics dashboards are also extremely customizable and among some of the most granular we've tested.</span></p>
5

Customisability

5/10

<p>Lemlist offers most of the standard facets for product customization. For example, you're able to create and save custom sequence templates for your team to use. Additionally, you can create custom dashboards in their analytics suite (though we did find the overall ability to customize individual graphs or datapoints to be restrictive).</p>
Ease of Setup
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Instantly offers a simple, self-serve free trial for their platform. When tested, we found the initial setup to be simple (taking &lt;10 mins). Additionally, connecting email addresses to their outbound platform was relatively trivial too - with a one click connect feature for popular providers like Google and Outlook. However, when choosing a paid plan, their pricing model is very complex with varied plans depending on if you need standalone lead generation or need some outbound sequencing functionality too.</span></p>
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p>Waalaxy offers a self serve free trial for its product. Additionally, for its core use case (LinkedIn sequencing) - it offers one click sign in and connect functionality meaning there's very little set up needed. Additionally, the range of templates available means that there's very little subsequent setup needed either.</p>
3

Ease of Setup

3/10

<p>Salesloft does not offer any kind of trial. Additionally, the product is not self-serve - meaning you'll have to hop on a minimum of two calls with sales representatives before you can even try the tool.</p>
6

Ease of Setup

6/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Reply offers a simple, self-serve free trial for their platform. When tested, we found the initial setup to be simple (taking &lt;10 mins). Additionally, connecting email addresses to their outbound platform was relatively trivial too - with a one click connect feature for popular providers like Google. However, given the sheer breadth of functionality that Reply offers, there are a lot of features you'll want to customize to get the most out of the platform which can take several days to configure (e.g. details about your business for the AI SDR to use as context).</span></p>
6

Ease of Setup

6/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Unlike many of similar products of this scale, Apollo offers a simple, self-serve free trial for their platform. When tested, we found the initial setup to be simple (taking &lt;10 mins), especially if you're using google workspace to power your emails. However, given then feature breadth that Apollo offers, it can take a lot of time to fully customize the experience. For example - most customers will still need to connect CRMs and customize Apollo's AI 'power-ups' to suit their needs.</span></p>
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Lemlist offers a simple, self-serve free trial for their platform. When tested, we found the initial setup to be simple (taking &lt;10 mins). Additionally, connecting email addresses to their outbound platform was relatively trivial too - with a one click connect feature for popular providers like Google and Outlook.</p>
Customer Support
5

Customer Support

5/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You can contact Instantly's support agents via a live chat widget within their web app. When tested, we find it relatively easy to contact a real agent (&lt;30 minutes). However, we find agents to be relatively unhelpful at times, often referring to unhelpful help centre documents instead of answering questions directly. Additionally, though Instantly does provide a help centre, its articles are often light on detail.</span></p>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>Waalaxy offers customers support via a live chat widget in its web app. On initial contact, you'll deal with an AI agent which we found to be more than capable of answering almost all of our questions. Reaching a real agent was also fast when needed.</p>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>Salesloft primarily offers customer support via two channels - traditional support tickets and live chat. They also offer a very rich and comprehensive help centre which should be able to answer most questions.</p>
8

Customer Support

8/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Reply has great customer support, with an in-built chat bot which can guide you through most of your questions and the option to get in touch with their team if need be. This is also supported by an extensive knowledge base which you can search through.</span></p>
8

Customer Support

8/10

<p>Apollo offers support via a live chat widget within its web app. When tested, we find agents to be helpful and about to troubleshoot technical questions often in the first response.</p><p>Additionally, Apollo provides a detailed help centre which was able to answer almost all basic question we had in testing.</p>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>Lemlist's primary means for customer support is via a live chat widget within their web app. It was quick and simple to contact a real support agent (often &lt;5 mins) and when tested, we find them to be helpful and about to troubleshoot technical questions often in the first response.</p>
Integratability
4

Integratability

4/10

<p>Though instantly does provide integrations with core CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive), automation platforms (Zapier) and email providers (Gmail, Outlook) - we would like to have seen native integrations with more established lead sources such as Apollo.</p>
2

Integratability

2/10

<p>Waalaxy offers almost no native integrations. We would like to have seen integrations with more popular CRMs as well as popular prospecting databases and automation platforms like Zapier.</p>
9

Integratability

9/10

<p>Salesloft is one of the best integrated tools on the market. It offers strong integrations with core CRM platforms, automation platforms like Zapier, email providers and also ad-hoc services like document signing platforms and prospecting databases.</p>
6

Integratability

6/10

<p>Reply offers integrations with most tools you'd expect including major CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot), automation platforms (Zapier) and some external contact databases (Lusha, Hunter).</p>
7

Integratability

7/10

<p>Though Apollo offers a very large integrations marketplace, its clear that most integrations are geared not towards using Apollo as a sales engagement tool, but rather as a prospecting database. As such, some integrations such as document signing platforms were missing. That being said, all the core integrations including CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot) and automation platforms (Zapier) were present.</p>
5

Integratability

5/10

<p>Lemlist provides a number of integrations with popular CRMs (Salesforce, Hubspot) and automation platforms like Zapier. However, we were disappointed to see a lack of integration with more popular lead sources such as Apollo or ZoomInfo.</p>
Ease of Migration
6

Ease of Migration

6/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Instantly offers self-serve export functionality via their web app. Additionally, Instantly offers an API through which businesses are able to interact with their database directly - however, documentation for this remains relatively light.</span></p>
5

Ease of Migration

5/10

<p>Waalaxy offers self-serve export functionality with its web app like most other sales engagement platforms.</p>
6

Ease of Migration

6/10

<p>Salesloft offers self-serve export functionality for contact lists and analytics data within its web app. It also offers a well documented API through which you can interact with data in Salesloft programatically.</p>
6

Ease of Migration

6/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Allows you to export contacts, reports and replies in your inbox on the platform. However there are some limitations on how many contacts you can export on different pricing tiers (100,000 contacts on the free tier)</span></p>
6

Ease of Migration

6/10

<p>Apollo offers self-serve export functionality for contacts directly within their web app. High export limits are also available for larger enterprises depending on what plan you are on.</p><p>Additionally, Apollo offers a well-documented API through which businesses are able to interact with their database directly.</p>
6

Ease of Migration

6/10

<p>Lemlist offers self-serve export functionality within its web app.</p><p>Additionally, Lemlist offers a well-documented API through which businesses are able to interact with their database directly.</p>

Waalaxy: Instantly alternative for teams requiring strong LinkedIn integration for social selling

Waalaxy product logo
Waalaxy

Stackfix Rating:

5.8 / 10

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Starting at

$0

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
While Instantly offers only basic email sequences, Waalaxy delivers superior LinkedIn integration that transforms social selling workflows. Waalaxy enables teams to seamlessly add LinkedIn connection requests and messages directly into their outbound sequences, as Instantly lacks any LinkedIn functionality. Additionally, Waalaxy’s native integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows sales teams to easily import prospects and automate LinkedIn engagement at scale. For teams focused on social selling through LinkedIn, Waalaxy’s purpose-built LinkedIn automation capabilities make it a more compelling solution than Instantly’s email-only approach.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Instantly vs. Waalaxy.

Pros

  • Exceptional User Interface Design

  • Strong LinkedIn automation

Cons

  • Limited Functionality

  • Poor Customization Options

  • Weak Integration Ecosystem

Compare all Sales Engagement platformsRead the full review

Salesloft: Instantly alternative for enterprise teams needing sophisticated pipeline management and CRM integration

Salesloft product logo
Salesloft

Stackfix Rating:

6.2 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Salesloft’s sophisticated pipeline management and deep CRM integration capabilities make it a superior choice for enterprise teams compared to Instantly’s basic functionality. While Instantly offers only email-based sequences and basic analytics, Salesloft provides comprehensive multi-channel outreach, advanced pipeline stage metrics, and sales forecasting—critical features for complex enterprise sales operations. Additionally, Salesloft’s analytics suite delivers granular pipeline analysis and AI-powered conversation insights, providing robust intelligence for strategic decision-making. For enterprise CRM integration, Salesloft’s extensive connectivity with platforms like Salesforce and deep workflow automation capabilities exceed Instantly’s limited integration depth.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Instantly vs. Salesloft.

Pros

  • Comprehensive analytics and activity tracking

  • Best-in-class integration capabilities

  • Strong sales forecasting functionality

Cons

  • Extremely Poor Setup Experience

  • Complete Lack of Native Prospecting Capabilities

Compare all Sales Engagement platformsRead the full review

Reply: Instantly alternative for sales teams that require advanced analytics and performance tracking

Reply product logo
Reply

Stackfix Rating:

7.2 / 10

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Starting at

$59

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Sales teams seeking advanced analytics and performance tracking will find Reply excels in three critical areas. Reply’s multi-channel analytics dashboard tracks metrics across email, phone, and LinkedIn campaigns, while Instantly offers limited email monitoring. Reply enables individual sales agent performance filtering to identify top performers and coaching opportunities, a capability Instantly does not provide. Additionally, Reply’s call tracking features measure connect rates and outcomes, whereas Instantly lacks call analytics functionality. For teams prioritizing data-driven sales optimization, it delivers comprehensive insights to improve campaign effectiveness and team performance.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Instantly vs. Reply.

Pros

  • Outstanding Customer Support

  • Exceptional Ease of Use

  • Powerful Contact Database

  • Superior Sequence Building

Cons

  • No Sales Forecasting Capabilities

  • Limited Analytics Customization

  • Missing Social Media Integration

  • Limited Pipeline Analytics

Compare all Sales Engagement platformsRead the full review

Apollo: Instantly alternative for multi-channel outreach campaigns requiring phone, SMS, and social media integration

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Apollo

Stackfix Rating:

6.5 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Apollo offers native phone dialing, LinkedIn integration, and comprehensive analytics across all communication channels, features that distinguish it from Instantly for multi-channel outreach campaigns. While Instantly supports only email sequences, Apollo enables sales teams to seamlessly integrate phone calls into their outreach sequences with a built-in dialer, analyze call transcripts with AI, and track call connect rates. Apollo’s LinkedIn integration allows for automated connection requests and messages within sequences, providing multi-channel orchestration. Additionally, Apollo’s analytics dashboard offers granular insights across email, phone, and social touchpoints, giving sales teams a tool for understanding and optimizing their outreach strategies.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Instantly vs. Apollo.

Pros

  • Best-in-class contact database

  • Excellent customer support

  • Strong email engagement features

Cons

  • Clunky User Interface

  • Limited Channel Integration

  • Limited Sequence Functionality

Compare all Sales Engagement platformsRead the full review

Lemlist: Instantly alternative for Organizations needing template sequences for quick campaign deployment.

Lemlist product logo
Lemlist

Stackfix Rating:

5.9 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Organizations seeking quick campaign deployment through templates will find Lemlist outperforms Instantly in three critical areas. While Instantly lacks template sequences, Lemlist provides a comprehensive library of pre-built templates that enable rapid sequence creation. Additionally, Lemlist’s customer support ensures teams can quickly resolve any template-related issues. Finally, Lemlist’s native LinkedIn integration allows organizations to seamlessly incorporate social touchpoints into their templated sequences, whereas Instantly remains email-only.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Instantly vs. Lemlist.

Pros

  • Quick and Simple Setup Process

Cons

  • Poor Analytics Capabilities

  • Limited Integration Options

  • Basic and Limited Functionality

  • Problematic UI Elements

  • Restricted Customization Options

Compare all Sales Engagement platformsRead the full review

How we test products

With countless Sales Engagement platforms on the market, we focus on identifying the best options for small and midsize businesses. Our evaluation process reflects real-world usage, prioritizing functionality, ease of use, and overall value. Here’s how we do it:

Functionality

We start by mapping out the key use cases for sales teams—from outreach and automation to engagement tracking and pipeline management. We then assess how well each product supports these needs by running real-world workflows. Platforms that provide essential features without unnecessary complexity score highest.

User Experience & Onboarding

A powerful tool is useless if it’s frustrating to use. We test each platform’s interface by navigating core features without prior training. We also track onboarding time—from account setup to launching a first campaign. Products that require extensive customization or technical knowledge to function properly lose points.

Automation & AI Capabilities

Sales teams rely on automation to streamline outreach and improve efficiency. We evaluate the quality of automation features, from email sequencing and call tracking to AI-driven insights. We prioritize tools that enhance productivity without adding unnecessary complexity.

Integrations & Compatibility

Sales Engagement platforms need to work seamlessly with CRMs, email providers, and other sales tools. We test how well each product integrates with key business systems and assess whether native integrations or third-party connectors are required.

Pricing & Value

We compare pricing across competitors, analyzing what each plan includes and whether critical features are locked behind paywalls. Hidden costs—such as per-user fees, premium automation features, or required onboarding services—are factored into our assessment. Products that offer strong core functionality at a fair price score highest.

Stackfix’s Fit Score

All of these factors contribute to Stackfix’s Fit Score, a proprietary ranking system that measures how well each tool aligns with a buyer’s needs. It combines two key elements:

  • Requirements Met – How many buyer requirements the Sales Engagement platform fulfills
  • Stackfix Rating – Our expert assessment of the software’s overall quality, usability, and value

The result? A clear, data-driven recommendation that helps businesses choose the right Sales Engagement software—without hours of trial and error.

FAQs

What is a Sales Engagement Platform?

A sales engagement platform is a tool that helps sales teams automate, track, and optimize their outreach efforts across multiple channels. It provides email sequencing, LinkedIn automation, and phone dialing tools to streamline engagement—ensuring reps can connect with prospects more efficiently and close deals faster. The key features of a sales engagement platform usually include:

  • Multichannel Outreach: Supporting email, phone, SMS, and LinkedIn automation, allowing reps to reach prospects on their preferred channels.
  • Automation & Personalization: Enabling teams to create automated outreach sequences with AI-driven personalization, ensuring messages feel tailored while scaling outreach efforts.
  • Engagement Tracking & Analytics: Providing insights into email open rates, reply rates, call activity, and meeting conversions to help teams optimize their sales playbooks.

What should I consider when buying Sales Engagement software?

Choosing the right Sales Engagement platform can make or break your outreach and conversion efforts—so it’s essential to find one that fits your sales process, integrates with your tech stack, and aligns with your budget. Here are the key factors to consider before making your decision.

  1. Your outreach strategy. Are you primarily email-first, or do you need a true multichannel approach that includes phone and LinkedIn automation? Make sure the platform supports your preferred outreach methods.
  2. Ease of use. A sales engagement platform should help your team move faster, not slow them down. Look for an intuitive interface that makes sequence building, automation, and performance tracking seamless. That’s why Stackfix rates every platform on Ease of Use—click into each product above to see the details.
  3. Integration with your tech stack. Does the platform connect with your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive etc) and prospecting tools (Apollo, Cognism, ZoomInfo)? Native integrations are crucial for a smooth sales workflow.
  4. Deliverability & Compliance. Email deliverability tools (like warm-up services and inbox rotation) help prevent outreach from landing in spam. If you’re targeting regulated industries, check for GDPR and TCPA compliance features to avoid legal risks.
  5. Pricing & scalability. Some platforms charge per seat, while others have limits on contacts, sequences, or automation steps. Factor in hidden costs like API access, premium integrations, or additional outreach channels as your team scales.
  6. Customer support & training. Outreach is time-sensitive—if something breaks, will you get fast support? Check for 24/7 support, live chat response times, and onboarding resources before committing.

What are the common mistakes to avoid when buying Sales Engagement software?

Avoiding common pitfalls when choosing Sales Engagement software can save you time, money, and missed opportunities. Here are some of the biggest mistakes startups make—and how to avoid them.

  1. Ignoring multichannel needs. Email is great, but adding phone, SMS, and LinkedIn steps dramatically improves engagement. Ensure the platform supports all the channels your team needs.
  2. Overlooking email deliverability features. A sales engagement tool is useless if emails land in spam. Look for email warm-up, domain authentication, and AI-powered sending optimization.
  3. Not testing CRM integrations. Just because a platform claims to work with your CRM doesn’t mean it syncs everything correctly. Test contact syncing, activity logging, and automation triggers before committing.
  4. Choosing based on features instead of efficiency. A feature-packed tool isn’t helpful if it’s slow, clunky, or hard to navigate. Prioritize platforms that help your team engage prospects faster rather than those with unnecessary complexity.
  5. Not considering scalability. Will the platform grow with your team? Ensure it can handle increased outreach volume, additional users, and new automation needs without major pricing jumps.

How much does X Software typically cost?

A few providers like Apollo and Yesware offer free plans with basic functionality, though these typically restrict sequence steps and automation capabilities.

For enterprise plans (like Salesloft and Outreach) and above, you can expect to speak to sales for a bespoke price. These custom quotes typically factor in team size, integration needs, and advanced analytics requirements. To skip the demo calls, be sure to check out our pricing calculator.

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