Instantly vs Lemlist

In this post, we see how Instantly compares to Lemlist—to help you find the right AI sales tool for outbound sales campaigns.

Both Lemlist and Instantly are AI sales tools used for outbound sales campaigns.

Outbound sales campaigns need AI sales tools that do the following:

• Generate hyper-targeted databases of potential sales prospects;
• Enrich that data from other sources, such as LinkedIn, to create a clearer picture of how a prospect aligns with your ideal customer profile (ICP);
• Find a prospect’s contact details, especially email, and LinkedIn;
• Create a hyper-personalized sequence of outbound emails, follow-ups, and even LinkedIn interactions.

However, not every AI sales tool is as good as another.

Let’s see how Instantly stacks up against Lemlist . . .

Lemlist vs Instantly: What are the main differences?

Lemlist is an AI-powered multi-channel outreach B2B SaaS platform.

Instantly is an AI-powered sales tool with a few useful features.

Now, let’s see how they compare.

Lemlist

Implement multi-channel outbound campaigns at scale, with new AI-powered features.

Features:

• Access a 450 million database including email contacts and LinkedIn profiles
• Use a Chrome scrapper to find more data for leads, such as phone numbers
• Automate multi-channel sequences and even send LinkedIn voice notes and images with messages

Pros:

• A 14-day free trial is offered, where you can perform certain tasks to see if Lemlist is suitable
• Lemlist benefits from email marketing-based tools that are part of the platform, plus new AI features.

Cons:

• The technical setup isn’t done-for-you (DFY), so if you’ve never done this before it could be confusing and could go wrong. They only offer a step-by-step guide and customer support instead of an actual DFY setup.
• Avoiding spam is a basic part of outbound sales. However, Lemlist’s email warmup feature, Lemwarm is only available with higher-priced tiers, so at the lowest tiers, you need to pay for it as an extra.

Instantly

Instantly is an AI-powered sales tool.

Instantly says that 20,000 businesses are using it to get more clients.

Features:

• DFY email setup and automated warmup;
• A Lead Finder database (or you can use your own);
• Automated outbound campaigns.

Pros:

• A low-ish cost compared to some AI sales tools;
• 24/7 support team.

Cons:

• DFY setup doesn’t work as well as advertised, with higher hard bounce rates than expected;
• Customer support struggles to keep up with the high levels of support tickets.

Lemlist vs Instantly: How do they compare?

Both AI sales tools have pros and cons.

Lemlist is the more established tool, whereas Instantly is putting a lot of money into marketing and customer support which the product isn’t as good as finely-tuned marketing campaigns would have many believe.

When it comes to pros and cons, here’s how they compare:

• Apollo only offers “guided mailbox setups” instead of a DFY setup, putting deliverability at risk.
• With Apollo, pricing is a little confusing. You can source 10K leads, but there’s a limit on the number of emails you can send at every pricing tier.
• Despite what’s advertised, Instantly’s DFY setup doesn’t work as it should. Apollo’s is better, even though it’s not completely DFY.
• Instantly’s version of AI-powered personalization at scale requires more manual work than you’d expect.
• Leads and Warmup are two separate products you’ve got to pay for with Instantly.

Here’s how Lemlist compares with Instantly for core features.

Is there a tool that does a better job than either Lemlist or Instantly?

We have an alternative: Overloop AI.

Lemlist or Instantly alternative? Overloop AI

Overloop AI is a powerful AI sales prospecting platform.

With Overloop AI, you’ve got everything you need to scale sales and revenue on autopilot, at a fraction of the cost of a human BDR (without replacing them!).

Simple and Quick DFY, AI-powered Setup

Before anyone can start prospecting, you need to set up a sales campaign the right way.

Business owners and founders: If you don’t buy domain names that are variants of your primary, you risk emails from your primary domain being flagged as spam.

It’s not a risk you want to take, not when you’re sending 1000s of emails every month.

Think of adding “get”, “try”, etc., and other versions as secondary domains you can use purely for these sales campaigns.

As part of the setup sequence, new customers need to:

• Buy a domain, or several, if you’re planning a mass-volume campaign
• Open a Google Workspace with that domain and create one or more email addresses
• Give us access, and we’ll do the rest!

We take care of all of the more technical aspects of account and domain configuration.

Next, we start the warmup sequence, which doesn’t take too long.

After that, you’re ready to go.

Unlike other AI Agents, the domain(s), email addresses, and Google Workspaces are 100% yours. You own and control them, so you don’t need to worry about being locked in or not being able to make use of those emails and domains.

AI-powered B2B database

Every sales campaign depends on having a database of prospects.

Overloop taps into an advanced AI-powered B2B database containing over 450 million contacts.

Our AI Agent automatically enriches those contacts, providing you with as much accurate information as possible to ensure every email is hyper-personalized.

We do this at scale, so you or your sales team can focus on booking calls and closing deals instead of manually scraping for any information that might help you generate and convert leads.

Find leads and send emails while you sleep!

To get started, define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), and Overloop AI will take care of the rest. Our AI Agent will automatically build your lists.

You can go as granular as you need:

• Specific cities and regions within countries;
• Funding or revenue;
• Technologies companies and people are using;
• And loads more!

Find which ICPs are worth targeting, then use our AI-powered database to double down on the markets that have the biggest appetite for your product or services.

AI-powered Email Writing

The hardest part of any sales campaign is giving prospects a reason to reply.

Generic emails with no follow-up are usually ignored.

If you send 1000 emails and 99% are ignored or deleted, your BDR team won’t get anywhere with a sales campaign. Our system acts as an AI Agent, ensuring emails are perfectly tailored for every recipient.

Overloop’s AI engine analyzes the lead’s website and social media profiles to craft ultra-personalized and impactful cold emails, giving prospects a reason to reply.

Our AI Agent handles everything, allowing your BDRs to focus on what matters most – building meaningful connections and growing your business.

AI-powered follow-up sequences and LinkedIn engagement

For BDRs, SDRs, and anyone in demand-gen, booking meetings is the #1 goal.

Booked calls, demos, and meetings are the KPI every BDR is targeted against, and also, how bonuses and commissions are calculated.

In sales, conversions are the only thing that matters.

That’s why hyper-personalization with emails and the prospects you target make such a big difference. With Overloop AI, you aren’t simply sending out 1000s of generic emails and hoping for the best.

Our AI Agent tool implements high-performing multi-channel outbound campaigns, optimizing the timing and sequencing of each message for maximum engagement.

Get Overloop AI for your AI Sales Tool: Everything you need to grow 100% on autopilot, at a fraction of the cost of a human SDR.