Smartlead vs. Instantly: Which Mass Prospecting Tool Is Right for You?

Smartlead and Instantly are two powerful prospecting tools designed specifically for large-scale email campaigns. Unlike more traditional (and well-known) solutions like Lemlist, Waalaxy, or La Growth Machine, these two platforms focus on high-volume outreach.

At first glance, Smartlead and Instantly share many similarities—their lead management and campaign editing tools look nearly identical. But a closer look reveals some key differences. Instantly presents itself as an all-in-one solution with an integrated lead database, while Smartlead is built primarily for campaign management, with a strong focus on deliverability optimization—a critical factor in mass prospecting.

Our top pick? Smartlead. Here’s why.

Smartlead vs. Instantly at a Glance: Summary Comparison

Solution	Smartlead	Instantly
Best for	Companies and B2B agencies managing high-volume prospecting (up to several million emails/month)	B2B companies and agencies looking for an all-in-one solution to find leads, run campaigns, and manage follow-ups
Core focus	A specialized, high-performance platform for mass cold emailing	A generalist tool covering all prospecting needs (lead database, emailing, mini CRM)
Our take	A powerful choice for large-scale cold emailing, offering top-tier deliverability features	A promising all-in-one tool, but its individual features lack depth. Certain limitations may be frustrating.
Key strengths	Outstanding deliverability management Unlimited email accounts with warm-up features Intuitive and easy-to-use interface	All-in-one solution: B2B lead provider + campaign manager + CRM Unlimited email accounts with warm-up features Responsive customer support
Weaknesses	Basic lead management (no segmentation features) Limited customer support on the base plan Few native integrations	Limited lead database for the French market Basic CRM and automation features Relatively high pricing
Free trial	14-day trial	14-day trial
Starting price	$39/month	$37/month

Smartlead: Our Quick Analysis

Between the two, Smartlead is our clear favorite. This software is built for companies and agencies managing large-scale email campaigns, from tens of thousands to millions of emails per month.

Its biggest strength? Deliverability optimization. Smartlead provides advanced tools to maximize inbox placement, including unlimited sender addresses, intelligent warm-up, and powerful testing and analytics. Everything is designed to ensure high email deliverability, and it delivers on that promise.

Another advantage is its intuitive, user-friendly interface, making it easy to get started. However, Smartlead falls short on CRM functionalities and third-party integrations.

Instantly: Our Quick Analysis

Instantly offers a more comprehensive solution than Smartlead, integrating a lead database, an email marketing tool, and a mini CRM. On paper, this all-in-one approach is appealing. The polished interface and well-rated customer support are also strong points.

However, a closer look reveals a lack of depth and flexibility in each module :

• The lead database is very limited for the French market.
• The campaign editor is fairly basic.
• The CRM features are too simplistic for the price.

In short, Instantly tries to do it all, but doesn’t truly excel in any area. As needs evolve, users may find the platform too limited and costly.

Smartlead vs. Instantly: What Their Customers Say

Last update: 27-06-2025	Smartlead	Instantly
G2	4.6 ( 213 reviews )	4.8 ( 3,496 reviews )
Trustpilot	No opinion	4.1 ( 393 reviews )

Smartlead: What Customers Say

Users particularly appreciate how easy it is to use. The platform offers a smooth and intuitive interface, making campaign management straightforward.

Other highlights include:

• High-performance warm-up features that significantly boost email deliverability rates.
• A wealth of resources, including a help center, an online academy, and a very active Slack community where users can exchange tips and best practices.

However, some users report occasional technical bugs (e.g., campaign interruptions, lost lead categories). Others find customer support limited on the basic plans.

Instantly: What Customers Say

Customers particularly like:

• Its user-friendly interface, which appeals to both beginners and experienced users.
• Its highly responsive customer support, which receives widespread praise (we haven’t tested it ourselves).

The main criticisms focus on:

• Email quotas, which many find too restrictive.
• Pricing, which increases quickly when additional features are needed.

Smartlead vs. Instantly: Functional Scope

Prospect Database

Instantly

One of Instantly’s key differentiators is its built-in prospect database, which allows users to find new leads directly within the platform. This database includes over 80 million B2B contacts.

However, its coverage is quite limited for the French market, with only 160,000 contacts available. In contrast, coverage is significantly better in the U.S.

To search for prospects, users can apply standard filters (job title, industry, company size, etc.) or leverage an AI-powered natural language search for more precise results. This feature is practical and fairly effective.

Instantly also allows users to enrich existing prospecting lists by filling in missing data. However, results can vary significantly depending on the available data within Instantly’s system.

Smartlead

Unlike Instantly, Smartlead does not include a built-in database. This means users must import their own prospect lists to run campaigns.

This is an intentional choice by Smartlead, as the platform focuses entirely on email campaign automation and management rather than lead sourcing.

That said, Smartlead offers powerful tools for importing and cleaning large prospect lists, including:

• Automatic de-duplication
• Removal of invalid email addresses

However, one of its limitations is the lack of segmentation options once contacts are imported. There are no built-in tools to categorize or label leads after import, making list management more challenging.

Email Campaign Management

Smartlead

This is where Smartlead truly excels.

The platform allows users to send emails from an unlimited number of sender addresses, with intelligent warm-up features to maintain sender reputation.

The campaign editor is relatively simple, offering linear email sequences with limited dynamic personalization options. However, where Smartlead really stands out is in its deliverability-focused features, which help ensure emails land in inboxes, not spam folders.

Key deliverability features include:

• Email address rotation
• Daily sending limits per address
• Dedicated IP servers for sending
• Plain-text email sending
• Automated email verification before sending
• Anti-spam and anti-blacklist testing

With these advanced features, Smartlead is well-equipped to handle high-volume campaigns, sending up to millions of emails per month while keeping spam risks to a minimum.

Instantly

Instantly also supports unlimited sender addresses and includes email warm-up features to improve deliverability.

One unique feature Instantly offers is the ability to use pre-warmed “ready-to-send” email addresses. However, this can be a double-edged sword, as using domains with unknown reputations can sometimes hurt brand credibility.

On the campaign editor side, Instantly provides slightly more advanced personalization options than Smartlead, including:

• A/B testing for email subject lines
• Custom sending rules based on the recipient’s email provider

However, when it comes to deliverability optimization, Instantly falls short compared to Smartlead.

For example, IP rotation and sending limit settings are available but less advanced and customizable than Smartlead’s.

Bottom line? Instantly works well for medium-scale campaigns, but for large-scale mass emailing, Smartlead is the better choice due to its superior deliverability tools.

CRM and Lead Management

Smartlead

Smartlead’s lead management features are relatively basic.

All imported contacts are centralized in one place, but there are no options to segment leads into lists or assign tags.

The lead interaction history is accessible within each contact profile, but it only tracks campaign-related activity—there are no dedicated fields for:

• Lead status
• Opportunity value
• Sales pipeline tracking

However, Smartlead does offer a useful feature for team collaboration: the Master Inbox.

This shared inbox centralizes all replies from leads, making it easier to:

• View and respond to incoming emails
• Assign tasks and follow-ups
• Coordinate campaigns when multiple team members are involved

Instantly

Instantly goes a step further than Smartlead by integrating a mini CRM directly into its interface.

Users can access a kanban-style view of their leads, with customizable statuses to track progress through the sales cycle.

Other notable features include:

• A lead scoring system based on configurable criteria (e.g., company size, decision-making authority, etc.).
• The “Instant AI” module, which automatically enriches lead profiles with publicly available web data.

However, this built-in CRM remains quite basic compared to dedicated CRM solutions.

More importantly, its most advanced features—such as sales pipeline tracking and advanced sales reporting—are only available on Instantly’s highest-tier plan.

At nearly $100 per month, you’d expect a more robust CRM experience. That being said, Instantly’s pricing model is not per user—one license can be used by an unlimited number of team members.

Reporting

Smartlead

Smartlead’s reporting tools are fairly standard, but they cover all the essential cold emailing KPIs, including:

• Emails sent
• Open rate
• Click rate
• Response rate
• Number of leads generated

Users also get performance insights for each sender address, including daily send volume and response rates.

This is particularly useful for monitoring sender reputation and adjusting deliverability strategies accordingly.

Additionally, the “Global Analytics” dashboard provides an account-wide view, with filters by campaign or sender address.

For more advanced reporting needs, Smartlead allows users to export data via webhooks or its API.

Instantly

Instantly provides a more advanced reporting suite than Smartlead, though there is still room for improvement.

Users get standard campaign analytics (open rate, click rate, response rate, etc.), which can be filtered using multiple criteria.

Where Instantly really stands out is its sales performance report, which includes:

• Number of opportunities generated
• Lead conversion rate
• Revenue generated from campaigns

This makes Instantly’s reporting a significant advantage over Smartlead, offering a more business-oriented perspective that aligns with sales teams’ needs.

Of course, it’s not as powerful as a dedicated BI tool, but for most use cases, it gets the job done.

Smartlead vs. Instantly: Integrations

Smartlead offers a limited number of native integrations. It provides built-in connectors for major email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Zoho Mail), making it easy to add sender addresses.

Additionally, there is a Slack integration that sends notifications when you receive replies.

For more advanced integrations, you’ll need to rely on Zapier or Smartlead’s API. The API allows users to:

• Sync data with third-party CRMs, compensating for the lack of native CRM integration.
• Leverage webhooks, which offer a simpler alternative to API-based integrations.

On the other hand, Instantly offers slightly more built-in integrations, particularly with CRMs like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Salesforce.

It also supports Slack notifications, along with some useful connectors like Google Calendar and OpenAI.

Like Smartlead, Instantly provides a Zapier integration and an API for custom workflows.

In summary, Instantly has a slight edge when it comes to native integrations, but in both cases, most integrations will require Zapier or API workarounds. From this perspective, both tools are relatively similar in their approach to third-party connectivity.

Smartlead vs. Instantly: Pricing

Smartlead offers three pricing plans:

• Basic – $39/month: Up to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails/month, unlimited warm-up, email support.
• Pro – $94/month: Up to 30,000 contacts and 150,000 emails/month, dedicated support, integrations, and webhooks.
• Custom – $174/month: Up to 12 million contacts and 60 million emails/month, CRM functionalities.

A major advantage of Smartlead is that it does not charge per user—you can add unlimited team members at no extra cost.

Instantly’s pricing is structured differently, dividing its plans into three categories:

• Emailing-only plans ($37–$358/month): Covers campaign management, lead tracking, and reporting (essentially matching Smartlead’s functionality).
• Emailing + Leads plans ($47–$492/month): Adds access to Instantly’s lead database, with a monthly quota of new leads depending on the chosen plan.
• Emailing + Leads + CRM plans ($47–$97/month): Includes CRM functionalities in addition to email marketing and lead generation.

Instantly’s pricing model can be somewhat complex, and understanding what’s included in each plan requires careful consideration.

For example, to get a decent monthly lead quota and advanced CRM features, users must combine the “HyperLeads” and “Hyper CRM” plans, which can add up to nearly $300/month.

By contrast, Smartlead’s pricing is simpler and more cost-effective, especially for high-volume email senders.

For instance, Smartlead’s $94/month plan allows 150,000 emails per month, making it one of the most competitive offers on the market. However, this plan does not include CRM functionalities.

Which tool is the better choice?

• If CRM is a priority, Instantly is the better option, despite its higher cost.
• If you need to run large-scale email campaigns with top-tier deliverability, Smartlead is the smarter investment.

Fortunately, both tools offer a 14-day free trial, so you can test them before making a decision.

Our advice: define your specific needs, then test both platforms with clear objectives to determine which one best suits your workflow.

Enjoy your comparison!