Cold Email Software Pricing Compared (2026): Apollo, Reply.io, Woodpecker, Saleshandy, Mailshake and More

Cold email software pricing, in short: entry plans run from $29 to $69 a month on monthly billing. Woodpecker and Smartlead start at $39, Saleshandy at $41, Instantly at $47, Mailshake at $49 for unlimited sends, Reply.io at $59, Apollo at $65 per seat and lemlist at $69. Yearly billing takes 10% to 33% off. The bigger difference is what the price counts: emails, contacts, mailboxes or users.

Cold email tools look similar on the surface: connect mailboxes, write a sequence, send, catch replies. Their prices look similar too, until you notice that one charges per user, another per contact and a third per email, with mailboxes and lead data billed on top. This guide puts eight tools side by side on the same basis, explains what drives each bill, and works out what a small team would actually pay.

Key takeaways

How much does cold email software cost?

Most small teams pay $39 to $99 a month for a cold email tool, before mailboxes and lead data. The table shows each tool's entry plan and what it covers; the sections below list every plan.

Prices checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 25 and 26 October 2026, in US dollars, excluding promotional codes and banners. Apollo labels its current prices “introductory pricing” that may change. Reply.io was checked from outside the US; we saw no sign of regional pricing, but confirm on the page before you buy.

What does Apollo.io cost?

Apollo costs $49, $79 or $119 per seat a month billed yearly, or $65 and $99 billed monthly for Basic and Professional. Organization is sold yearly only with a minimum of three seats. There is a free plan with two sequences and 250 emails a day.

Apollo's credits pay for its contact database: an email address costs 1 credit and a phone number 8. That is what you are really buying. If you already have your lists, a sender priced by volume is usually cheaper; if you need the data, Apollo can replace a separate data tool.

What does Reply.io cost?

Reply.io's Email Volume plan is priced by active contacts a month: $59 for 1,000, $69 for 2,000, $79 for 3,000 and $99 for 5,000, per user, on monthly billing. From 10,000 contacts ($179) the price covers unlimited users. The Multichannel plan is $99 per user a month ($89 yearly) with unlimited contacts.

Reply.io's AI SDR, Jason, starts at $500 a month. Calls and SMS are a $29 add-on per account a month, and LinkedIn steps a $69 add-on per account.

What does Woodpecker cost?

Woodpecker is priced by emails sent a month, with unlimited email accounts and team members on every plan. The Email plan is $39 a month for 5,000 emails, $79 for 50,000 and $119 for 100,000; yearly billing saves a third ($26, $52.66 and $79.33 a month).

Every plan includes three warm-ups and 100 lead finder credits. The trial runs 14 days or 500 emails, whichever comes first, with no card.

What does Saleshandy cost?

Saleshandy costs $41, $99 or $189 a month (Starter, Pro, Scale), or $34, $76 and $149 a month billed yearly. Starter is for one user; Pro covers ten users and 30,000 active prospects.

Saleshandy also sells mailboxes from $2.99 to $3.99 each a month, plus $14 per domain a year. We compare it directly in Saleshandy vs Instantly.

What does Mailshake cost?

Mailshake is priced per user: Starter $29, Email Outreach $49 and Sales Engagement $99 a month, or $25, $45 and $85 billed yearly. Starter sends only 1,500 emails a month from one mailbox, so most teams start on Email Outreach.

Mailshake lists no free trial; its FAQ says payment is taken up front.

And Instantly, Smartlead and lemlist?

We cover these three in full elsewhere. In short: Instantly is $47, $97 or $358 a month ($37.60, $77.60 and $286.30 yearly), with lead data in a separate Credits plan. Smartlead is $39, $94, $174 or $379 a month ($32 to $315 yearly). lemlist is $69 a month for the Email plan across the whole workspace, or $109 per user for Multichannel ($55 and $87 yearly).

Which pricing model is cheapest for your team?

The cheapest tool depends on two numbers: how many people will use it and how many new prospects you contact each month.

Take a three-person team on monthly billing. On a per-user tool such as Mailshake Email Outreach, that is three seats at $49, or $147 a month. On a per-workspace plan such as lemlist Email it is $69, and on Saleshandy Pro, which covers ten users, $99. The same team on Apollo Basic pays $195 a month for three seats, but gets data credits with each.

What costs are not on the pricing page?

• Mailboxes: cold email should go from separate mailboxes on a separate domain. Google or Microsoft mailboxes cost a few dollars each a month, and several tools resell them.
• Domains: about $13 to $19 a year each through the tools that sell them.
• Lead data: credits or a separate data tool, unless you build your own lists.
• Email verification: often an add-on; verifying lists keeps bounces low.
• A CRM: most senders are not CRMs, so replies that turn into deals need somewhere to go.

How many mailboxes you need depends on volume; see how many cold emails per day per inbox. And because every tool sends from the same mailbox providers, the rules in our deliverability checklist matter more to results than the tool you pick.

Where does Scalry fit?

Scalry, which publishes this guide, includes cold email sequences in its $29, $79 and $199 plans, priced per workspace rather than per user, alongside the CRM, funnels and booking pages, so a reply lands on the contact and the deal. You connect your own mailboxes over SMTP or a sending service, each with its own daily cap, and a sending domain can pause itself when bounces or complaints pass a threshold.

Where the specialist tools beat it: Scalry does not sell mailboxes or domains or run a shared warm-up network, so very high-volume senders are better served by Instantly or Smartlead. It has no built-in contact database like Apollo's. And it has no LinkedIn steps, which lemlist, Reply.io and Woodpecker's Multichannel plans offer. More comparisons are in the cold email and deliverability hub.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest cold email software?

On monthly billing, Woodpecker ($39 for 5,000 emails) and Smartlead Base ($39) have the cheapest entry plans with unlimited mailboxes. Mailshake Starter is $29 but sends only 1,500 emails a month from one mailbox, and Apollo's free plan allows two sequences and 250 emails a day.

Is Apollo cheaper than Instantly?

It depends on what you need. Apollo Basic is $65 per seat a month ($49 yearly) and includes contact data credits; Instantly Growth is $47 a month for sending, with lead data in a separate Credits plan. For one sender with their own lists, Instantly is cheaper; if you need data, Apollo may be.

How much does Reply.io cost?

From $59 a month per user for 1,000 active contacts on monthly billing ($49 yearly), rising to $99 for 5,000. From 10,000 contacts ($179) the price covers unlimited users. Multichannel is $99 per user a month.

Is per-user or per-volume pricing better?

Per-volume pricing is usually cheaper for a team that shares one sending operation; per-user pricing suits one or two people who also need calls or other channels in the same tool.

Do cold email tools include mailboxes?

Most let you connect unlimited mailboxes you already own, but the mailboxes themselves cost extra. Instantly, Smartlead, Saleshandy and Mailshake sell them as add-ons.

To run sequences inside the CRM instead of beside it, see Scalry's cold email.