Best cold email software: eight tools grouped by billing unit and agency fit

Best cold email software: a shortlist by how you will use it

• An agency with several clients: Woodpecker, Instantly, Smartlead or Reply.io, each of which lists a way to keep clients apart. Saleshandy and Mailshake also list agency routes.
• A B2B team that wants email plus calls, SMS or WhatsApp: lemlist or Reply.io.
• A seller who needs contacts as much as sending: Apollo, which pairs a contact database with sequencing, or lemlist.
• A small team sending modest volume: Mailshake or Saleshandy, whose entry plans set a monthly send cap.

How each tool bills: the criteria to compare

• Woodpecker: emails sent each month on a six-tier slider, unlimited team members and mailboxes, a price for each connected LinkedIn account, and the Agency panel billed per active client.
• lemlist: an Email plan sized by email volume with unlimited users and senders, a Multichannel plan priced by user, and credits for lead data sold as add-ons.
• Instantly: outreach plans sized by emails sent each month and uploaded contacts, with unlimited email accounts, plus separate credit plans for lead data.
• Smartlead: tiers sized by contacts stored and emails sent each month, with unlimited email accounts on every plan and a free trial.
• Mailshake: a plan ladder where the Starter plan caps sends each month and higher plans raise the number of email addresses per account. The FAQ says there is no free trial.
• Reply.io: per-user multichannel plans with a 14-day trial, and an email-volume plan sized by active contacts with unlimited users and mailboxes.
• Saleshandy: Starter, Pro and Scale plans sized by emails sent and active prospects, with unlimited email accounts and a 7-day trial.
• Apollo: Free, Basic, Professional and Custom plans, and every seat on an account shares one plan level.

Agency check: how each lists client separation and fit

• Woodpecker: an Agency panel with a sub-account for each client, roles and view-only client access, plus a White Label add-on, billed per active client.
• Instantly: its agency page lists a separate workspace for every client and per-client reports.
• Smartlead: extra client workspaces from the Pro tier up, and a white-label add-on for each client workspace.
• Reply.io: an Agency Core tier with multiple client workspaces, an agency dashboard, role-based access and optional white label, sold through a sales call.
• Saleshandy: a Clients row on its pricing page lists unlimited clients from one account, and whitelabel for agencies appears among its custom-tier items.
• Mailshake: its FAQ suggests the client creates a team, pays for it and adds the agency as a user. An Agency plan with unlimited email addresses is sold through sales.
• lemlist and Apollo: the pricing text read here lists seats, guests and roles but no per-client panel, so ask how client data is kept apart.

Where this guide leans, and why

For an agency running several client accounts, this guide leans toward Woodpecker. Its pricing page describes a dedicated panel with sub-accounts, roles, view-only client access and bulk actions, and it lists unlimited team members. That lean rests on what each vendor's own pages describe.

Instantly and Smartlead are the closest alternatives for agencies that put mailbox volume and a workspace for every client first, and Reply.io suits agencies that want an agency tier sold through sales. Lemlist vs Woodpecker covers the multichannel case in detail.

Price each client before you commit

Whatever you pick, work out the monthly cost for one client: that client's share of the plan, any per-client panel or white-label line, plus mailboxes, domains and data credits. Divide by the meetings booked for that client to get a cost per booked meeting. The agency start guide walks through the arithmetic, and the Woodpecker pricing guide lists that vendor's cost lines.