Lemlist vs Instantly (2026) Compared
Cold email has split into two camps. One side says personalization wins. The other says volume wins. Lemlist and Instantly represent these camps perfectly. Lemlist pioneered personalized images and videos in cold emails. Instantly made it possible to send thousands of emails per day from unlimited accounts with AI warmup. Choosing between them isn't about which tool is better. It's about which sending philosophy matches your market.
The Short Version
Lemlist is for teams that sell high-ACV deals where each email needs to feel handcrafted. It costs more ($39-$159/user/mo), but the personalization features, including custom images and landing pages, drive higher reply rates on targeted lists. Instantly is for teams that want to blast volume efficiently. At $30-$97.50/mo with unlimited email accounts, it's built for agencies and SDR teams running wide-funnel outbound. Pick Lemlist for precision. Pick Instantly for scale.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | lemlist | Instantly |
|---|---|---|
| Core Approach | Personalization-first. Custom images, dynamic landing pages, and video embeds make each email feel one-to-one. Multichannel sequences across email, LinkedIn, and phone. | Volume-first. Unlimited email sending accounts, AI warmup, and inbox rotation let you scale outreach across thousands of prospects per day. |
| Email Account Limits | Depends on your plan. You connect your own email accounts, but there's no "unlimited accounts" pitch. Designed for quality over quantity. | Unlimited email accounts on all plans. This is the headline feature. Connect as many sending accounts as you want and rotate between them. |
| Email Warmup | Offers email warmup through its lemwarm feature. Gets the job done, though it's not the primary selling point. | AI-powered warmup is a core feature. It's built to manage hundreds of accounts warming simultaneously. This is table stakes for Instantly's volume model. |
| Personalization | Best-in-class. Dynamic images with the prospect's name, company logo, or LinkedIn photo. Personalized video thumbnails. Custom landing pages per prospect. | Basic merge fields and Spintax for variation. No image or video personalization. The personalization story is mostly about A/B testing subject lines and copy. |
| Multichannel Outreach | Email, LinkedIn steps, and phone call reminders in one sequence. True multichannel workflow builder. | Email only. If you want LinkedIn or phone steps, you'll need separate tools. Instantly stays in its lane. |
| Lead Database | Recently added a B2B lead database for prospecting. It's growing but not as established as dedicated data providers. | Built-in lead finder with a B2B contact database. You can source leads and email them from the same platform. |
| Deliverability Tools | Email health checks, custom tracking domains, and deliverability boosters. Solid but not the central focus. | Deliverability is a core pillar. Inbox rotation, send-limit management, bounce detection, and warmup analytics. Built for people who worry about landing in spam. |
| Analytics | Campaign-level metrics with open, click, and reply tracking. Sequence performance comparison. Decent dashboards. | Account-level and campaign-level analytics. Warmup health scores. Deliverability metrics per sending account. More granular on the sending infrastructure side. |
| Pricing Model | Per-user pricing at $39, $69, and $159/user/mo. Gets expensive as you add team members. Each seat is a full feature license. | Flat monthly fee, not per-user. $30, $50, and $97.50/mo. Much more cost-effective for teams and agencies managing multiple accounts. |
Deep Dive: lemlist
What They're Selling
Lemlist bet early on a simple insight: people ignore generic cold emails but respond to ones that feel personal. The platform's signature feature is dynamic image personalization, where you can embed a prospect's name, headshot, or company logo directly into an image within the email. Pair that with personalized video thumbnails and custom landing pages, and you've got a cold outreach tool that punches way above its weight on reply rates. Add LinkedIn and phone steps to build true multichannel sequences, and Lemlist becomes a full outbound workflow.
What It Actually Costs
The $39/mo Email Starter plan gives you email campaigns and basic personalization. But the real value is in the $69/mo Email Pro plan, which adds multichannel steps, CRM integrations, and advanced personalization. The $159/mo Multichannel Expert plan adds LinkedIn automation and a dedicated account manager. Here's the catch: it's per user. A 5-person SDR team on the Pro plan costs $345/mo. That's significant. Factor in another $50-$100/mo for supplementary tools like a lead database, and you're looking at $400-$500/mo for a small team.
What Users Say
Users consistently praise the personalization features as a differentiator. Reply rates of 5-15% on cold campaigns are common in reviews, which is above industry average. The complaints? Pricing feels steep for what's included, especially compared to Instantly's flat-fee model. Some users report that the LinkedIn automation can be buggy. And the learning curve for setting up image personalization is steeper than it looks.
Pros
- Image and video personalization is a genuine differentiator that competitors haven't matched
- Multichannel sequences (email + LinkedIn + phone) in one tool eliminate the need for separate LinkedIn automation
- The warm-up feature (lemwarm) works well enough that you don't need a separate deliverability tool
- Strong template library and community for cold email inspiration and proven sequences
Cons
- Per-user pricing scales painfully for teams larger than 3-4 people
- Not built for high-volume sending. If you need to email 5,000+ prospects per day, this isn't the tool
- LinkedIn automation steps can be unreliable and risk account restrictions if overused
- The learning curve for personalized images and landing pages takes time to master properly
Deep Dive: Instantly
What They're Selling
Instantly was founded in 2021 and grew fast by solving a specific problem: how do you send a lot of cold emails without landing in spam? The answer was unlimited email accounts, AI warmup at scale, and smart inbox rotation. Connect 50 sending accounts, warm them all up automatically, and distribute your sends across them. Your daily volume goes up while per-account volume stays low enough to keep deliverability high. For agencies and SDR teams running large prospect lists, this model is a breakthrough. The 38 active job postings suggest the company is growing aggressively.
What It Actually Costs
Instantly's pricing is straightforward and cheap relative to what you get. The $30/mo Growth plan covers 5,000 emails/mo and unlimited accounts. The $50/mo Hypergrowth plan bumps you to 25,000 emails/mo. The $97.50/mo Light Speed plan covers 50,000 emails/mo. None of these are per-user. A 10-person team pays the same as a solo founder. The real cost is in the email accounts themselves. You'll need to buy domains and Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 accounts for each sending address. Budget $5-$15/mo per sending account. If you're running 30 accounts, that's $150-$450/mo on top of Instantly's fee.
What Users Say
The community loves the value proposition. Getting unlimited accounts and warmup for $30/mo feels like a steal, and users say so frequently. The tool is fast and the UI is clean. Common complaints include: the lead database is still maturing and not as accurate as dedicated providers, customer support can be slow during rapid growth periods, and the lack of multichannel features means you need additional tools for a full outbound stack.
Pros
- Unlimited email accounts on every plan makes high-volume outreach cost-effective
- AI warmup across all accounts is practical and saves hours of manual setup
- Flat pricing (not per-user) makes it a no-brainer for agencies and larger teams
- Fast product iteration. The team ships new features weekly based on user feedback
Cons
- Email-only. No LinkedIn, phone, or SMS steps. You'll need separate tools for multichannel
- Personalization is limited to basic merge fields and Spintax. No image or video customization
- The hidden cost of buying domains and email accounts adds up for high-volume senders
- Built-in lead database is newer and less reliable than established data providers like Apollo or ZoomInfo
Which Should You Pick?
The Honest Take
These tools aren't competitors as much as they're different philosophies. Lemlist assumes fewer, better emails win. Instantly assumes more emails to more people wins. Both are right depending on your situation. If you're selling $50K enterprise contracts, blasting 5,000 emails a day from Instantly is wasteful and damages your brand. If you're an agency booking meetings for local businesses, spending 20 minutes personalizing each Lemlist email is a terrible use of time. The job posting gap is telling: Instantly has 38 openings vs. Lemlist's 3. That's a company in hypergrowth mode, which means fast feature development but also growing pains. Lemlist is more mature and stable but isn't growing at the same clip. Pick the tool that matches your outbound philosophy, not the one with the flashier feature list.
Questions to Ask Before Buying
- How many prospects do you need to reach per month? If it's under 1,000, Lemlist's personalization makes each email count. Over 5,000, Instantly's volume model is more practical.
- Do you need LinkedIn and phone steps in your sequences, or is email-only sufficient for your market?
- What's your average deal size? High-ACV sales justify the extra cost and effort of Lemlist's personalization features.
- How many sending email accounts are you willing to manage? Instantly's model requires you to set up and maintain dozens of accounts for maximum effectiveness.
- Are you an individual contributor or running a team/agency? Instantly's flat pricing has a massive advantage for multi-person operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I do high-volume sending with Lemlist?
You can, but it's not what the tool is optimized for. Lemlist works best for targeted campaigns of a few hundred to a few thousand prospects where personalization matters. For 5,000+ emails per day, Instantly's architecture handles that better.
Does Instantly offer any personalization beyond merge fields?
Not much. You get merge fields (first name, company, etc.) and Spintax for copy variations. There's no image personalization, video embedding, or custom landing pages. If personalization is your strategy, Lemlist is the clear choice.
Which tool has better deliverability?
Instantly, by design. Its entire product is built around deliverability at scale, with inbox rotation, AI warmup, and send-limit management. Lemlist has lemwarm and decent deliverability tools, but it's not the core focus the way it is with Instantly.
Can I use both Lemlist and Instantly together?
Some teams do. They use Instantly for top-of-funnel volume campaigns and Lemlist for targeted, high-personalization sequences to warm prospects. It works but adds cost and complexity to manage two platforms.