Instantly vs lemlist

The short answer

Both send cold outreach, and they optimize for different definitions of the word "more".

Choose Instantly if your constraint is sending volume. Unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up on every plan, with outreach plans from $47 per month, exist so that volume can be spread across many mailboxes and domains without any single one being pushed past what filters tolerate.

Choose lemlist if your constraint is channels. Its Multichannel plan at $87 per user per month billed annually moves a sequence between email, LinkedIn, SMS, WhatsApp and calls, which suits smaller, more considered campaigns aimed at people who ignore email.

Where Instantly wins

Instantly wins on infrastructure economics. Unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up are included from the $47 per month Growth plan, and for an agency running dozens of mailboxes across several domains that is the difference between a workable cost base and a per-seat bill that does not add up.

It wins on managing the mess that volume creates. Unibox pulls replies from every sending account into one place, which is the practical problem once you are sending from ten mailboxes rather than one.

And it wins on the top end of raw capacity: Lightspeed at $358 per month carries 500,000 emails and 100,000 uploaded contacts, and the bundles add lead credits on top for teams that want data and sending from one vendor.

Where lemlist wins

lemlist wins on channel coverage. A sequence that emails, then connects on LinkedIn, then sends a message, then sets a call task, reaches people who never open cold email. For high-value B2B targets, that reach matters more than sending capacity.

It wins on the completeness of a single seat. Every plan includes the lead database of over 650 million contacts, the email and phone finder, lemAgent and the deliverability hub with warm-up, so a single rep gets find, verify, warm and send without assembling a stack.

It also gives you longer to evaluate: a 14-day trial without a credit card, with an extended 30-day trial for new signups, against no free option at all on the other side.

Verdict

Count mailboxes and channels. An operation with many domains and mailboxes where email is the channel should use Instantly, and the unlimited-accounts model is the specific reason.

A small team selling something considered, where LinkedIn is where your buyers actually are, should use lemlist and accept the per-user price.

One caution that applies to both, and matters more than the choice: the legal obligations of cold outreach are yours. Under GDPR that means a lawful basis, accurate sender details and a working opt-out, and neither tool provides that for you. Send from separate domains, warm up properly, and keep lists narrow. A tool that makes volume cheap also makes burning your market cheap.