I Compared Best Cold Email Software of 2025

That’s why cold emails are still a killer way to land new customers.

That’s where cold emailing software saves the day.

But, there are so many, which one to choose?

Don’t worry, I tried dozens of cold emailing tools and shortlisted the best ones to make it easy for you.

In this article, I’ll cover:

1. How to choose the best cold email software?
2. Comparison of best cold email software
3. Email marketing tools not suitable for cold emailing
4. How to build an email list?

Here’s a quick comparison for easy access.

Now let’s jump to a detailed comparison…

But before that, does cold emailing still work?

Does cold emailing work anymore?

Cold emailing isn’t dead—it’s actually doing great. Don’t believe me?

Well numbers don’t lie!

Cold emailing open and reply rate

These numbers are definite proof that cold emails still work, especially if you use the right approach.

Cold emailing case studies

Here are 3 more case studies to prove cold emailing still works.

1. Ambition
2. Crazy Eye Marketing
3. Marco Massaro

1. Ambition cold email case study

Their efforts paid off, with 73 responses and an impressive 12.6% response rate.

2. Crazy Eye Marketing cold email case study

The results are more than impressive!

1. 50% average open rate
2. 8% average response rate

3. Marco Massaro cold email case study

The results of this campaign were also pretty great. He got 67 replies, which means a solid 13.4% response rate.

So yes, cold emailing still works.

But why do I need cold email software?

How do I send thousands of cold emails?

Sending cold emails manually is a nightmare. A cold email software does the heavy lifting, so you can focus on closing deals.

1. Saves time—automates sending thousands of emails in one go
2. Improves deliverability—keeps your emails out of spam
3. Personalizes at scale—customizes each email automatically
4. Tracks results—shows open rates, clicks, and replies
5. Sends follow-ups—nudges prospects without manual effort

But there are literally hundreds of options online, which one to choose?

How to choose the best cold email software?

When most people choose a cold email tool for the first time, they usually focus on two things:

1. It should send a lot of emails quickly
2. It should have tons of features

That’s how they end up wasting time and money on tools that don’t work for cold outreach.

Picking the right tool isn’t just about flashy features. It’s about solving these common pain points.

Not every email-sending tool is built for cold emailing—it’s not the same as email marketing.

I didn’t want to fall into that trap.

So, I did my homework. I spent hours reading reviews, posts, and comments from real users in cold outreach and email marketing communities.

This deep dive showed me the real struggles people face when doing cold outreach:

1. Emails ending up in spam
2. Complex, clunky software that’s a headache to use
3. Tools claim to scalability but break when sending larger campaigns
4. Expensive pricing structure

Factors to look for in a cold email software

You really need to focus on 5 key things when picking a cold email tool.

1. Deliverability
2. Ease of use
3. Affordability
4. Scalability
5. Integrations

The tool has to get your emails into inboxes, not spam. Look for features like email warm-up and tools to keep your sender reputation strong.

It should be super easy to set up and use, even if you’re not techy. A simple, clean interface makes life so much easier.

It needs to fit your budget. Don’t pay extra for a bunch of features you’ll never use.

For this article, I compared the most popular plans of these tools and average cost per 1000 emails.

It should be scalable. Whether you’re sending 100 emails or 10,000, the tool should handle it without crashing. It should grow with you as your needs grow.

To judge scalability, I checked the maximum emails per month and daily rate cap implemented by each tool.

It should easily connect to your CRM (if you’re using any), email verifier, or any other tools you’re already using. This saves you time and keeps things smooth.

Additionally, reviews and ratings also matter.

Check what other users are saying. Tools with consistently good feedback are usually the ones you can trust.

To maintain consistency and ensure a transparent comparison, I focused on reviews from G2 and Capterra, as I find these platforms the most reliable.

But what specific features should I look for in a cold email tool?

Features a cold email tool should have

You can’t completely ignore features. To get the best results, make sure the tool you choose has these features.

1. Email personalization—customize emails with names and details
2. Email tracking—track opens, clicks, and replies
3. Automated follow-ups—send follow-ups automatically
4. Spam testing—check spam score to boost deliverability
5. Integration options—connect with CRMs and other tools
6. Analytics dashboard—view campaign performance easily
7. Warm-Up features—gradually increase sending to build reputation

Based on these findings, I compared more than 30 cold email and other email marketing automation tools and found 7 best options for cold emailing.

Best cold email software of 2025

1. SalesHandy

Capterra rating: 4.5 G2 rating: 4.6

Features

1. Email sequencing and a/b testing
2. Auto follow-up
3. Unified inbox
4. Email deliverability tools
5. Sender rotation
6. Email warm-up
7. Sequence scoring
8. Email verification
9. Lead finder

Deliverability

What I loved about SalesHandy is its top notch deliverability. The tool offers so many advanced features to optimize your email deliverability.

The Spintax feature allows you to make every email unique by generating different versions of your email.

Additionally, it offers spam word detection and sender rotation features too.

The only thing I didn’t like about SalesHandy is its email warm-up feature. It needs some improvement.

Ease of use

It’s pretty easy to use and offers a clean UI. The sign up process and sequence setup is guided and pretty simple.

You might experience some bugs or occasional glitches while using the tool.

Integrations

1. PipeDrive
2. Zoho
3. Hubspot
4. Zapier

Pricing and scalability

1. 7 days free trial
2. $1 per 1k emails

You can send up to 1.5M cold emails per month and it also offers a custom plan tailored to your needs.

Expert opinion

The future of cold email tools has arrived. The simplicity and straightforwardness of the tool are great.

Thomas Foley,Founder, High touch

My opinion

The tool is great for freelancers and SMEs due to its simplicity, deliverability stack, and affordable pricing plans.

But you’ll have to pair it with a lead finder and email verification tool.

2. Instantly

G2 Rating: 4.9

Features

1. Email warm-up
2. Email verification
3. Advanced sequences and scheduling
4. No email account limits
5. Deliverability network
6. Inbox rotation

Deliverability

The main highlight of this tool is its warm-up feature. Instantly offers a really great email warm-up system. It’s fast and works really well.

I used it a few times, on a small scale and had no complaints about deliverability.

Ease of use

The UI is clean and offers a guided introduction to all features when you sign up for the first time.

It doesn’t offer a lot of fancy features, so setting up, launching, and monitoring a cold email campaign is super easy.

Integrations

1. Slack
2. Zapier
3. OpenAI
4. PipDrive
5. Hubspot
6. Salesforce

Pricing and scalability

1. 250 free emails
2. $0.8 per 1000 emails

You can send up to 500k emails per month with the light speed plan and request a custom plan tailored to your needs too.

Expert opinion

I've tried a few other email automation tools but Instantly beats all of them in terms of ease of use, deliverability optimization settings, unlimited email account additions. One top of the amazing features, their support team is world class and very helpful when needed.

Sanjay John Eapen,Cofounder and CEO, Thincture Media

My opinion

Though I didn’t use this tool at scale but it pretty much does what it advertises – deliver emails to inbox.

With affordable pricing, it’s a great cold email software for SMEs who need a simple and reliable solution without fancy features.

3. Smartlead

G2 rating: 4.6

Features

1. AI warm-ups
2. Spam rescue
3. IP allocation for each campaign
4. ESP matching
5. Smart email senders with diversified mailboxes
6. Mobile application
7. Automated follow-ups

Deliverability

Like all other tools, this one also offers top notch deliverability. In fact, as per seasoned cold email campaigners, this one offers the best deliverability among all tools.

The reason is AI. Smartleads uses AI to mimic human email sending patterns. It also offers a spam rescue feature and has unique triggers to optimize deliverability.

Ease of use

Smartleads offers a clean and beginner-friendly interface. From sign-up to creating a campaign, the process is seamless.

But the interface is a little buggy.

It’s a problem that personally I encountered and many others reported too. It’s a rare thing but can be frustrating for many.

Integrations

1. Gmail
2. Slack
3. Zapier
4. Zoho
5. Outlook
6. Hubspot

Pricing and scalability

1. 14 days free trial
2. $0.6 per 1000 emails

It's a super scalable tool. You can get up to 6 million email sending credits per month with a custom plan.

Expert opinion

It has all the elements of every well known sending platform, but with deeper technical ability.

David Sinclair-Black,Founder, Prospective

My opinion

If you’re looking for a tool that can scale according to your requirements, Smartleads is the ideal choice.

It’s not only affordable but also has everything you need in a cold email software.

4. Mails AI

G2 rating: 4.9 Caperra rating: 4.8

Features

1. AI powered email sequencing
2. Email warp-ups
3. AI email writer
4. Email verification
5. Inbox rotation

Deliverability

Deliverability is top notch. Though I didn’t use it extensively but the reviews and user feedbacks I found on social media clearly praise the deliverability of this tool

Ease of use

Mails AI has a user-friendly interface but the setup process is a little time consuming. My personal benchmark for a good UI is one-click access to key features.

Mails AI fails this certain benchmark.

The user experience is not smooth. As a beginner, you might find it a little difficult to use.

Pricing and scalability

1. Can’t send emails using free plan
2. $19.8 per 1000 emails (unique contacts)

Mails AI offers an unlimited plan which is cheaper than the starter ones. It also supports custom pricing options for scaling based on your requirements.

Expert opinion

I love that Mails.ai lets me have unlimited inboxes (no extra charge per inbox). It automatically warm ups my emails and boosts its reputation. All I do is upload my contacts , set up campaign preferences and daily limits, and its AI does all the job for me. I check in a few times a week to keep up with emails, but the AI does all the tough stuff for me.

Alexandra Przekazinska,Data and research lead, ProspectHunter

My opinion

If you’re looking for a cold outreach tool with AI powered automation, Mails AI is a good fit. It has all the features you need for cold email campaign management.

But it’s expensive for individuals and small businesses though.

5. Mailshake

Capterra rating: 4.6 G2 rating: 4.7

Features

1. Email warm-up
2. Sender rotation
3. Email validation
4. LinkedIn automation
5. Mail merge
6. Email personalization and AI writer

Deliverability

Top notch deliverability and strict compliance rules makes it one of my favorites. You’ll have to stick to the sending limits and rest is handled by the platform.

Offers warm-ups, validation, and inbox rotations too.

Ease of use

It’s easy to use but the interface is quite slow. Plus the reports are a little hard to understand for beginners.

Integrations

1. Hubspot
2. Salesforce
3. Pipedrive
4. And 30+ more

Pricing and scalability

1. No free plan
2. $1.63 per 1000 email sending

The tool does claim unlimited email sending, but it has a rate cap of 1000 emails per day.

You can’t send more than 30k emails per month, so technically, it’s not that scalable.

Expert opinion

Does cold email outreach really, really well. It is very easy to use, very intuitive. No unnecessary bells and whistles.

Guarav Harode,Founder & CEO at Enablix

My opinion

It’s good for beginners and if you need a tool that basically sends emails in bulk and hits the inbox, without any fancy features, Mailshake is good for you.

It’s definitely not scalable and doesn’t offer features suitable for a medium-sized or enterprise level business.

6. Lemlist

Capterra rating: 4.6 G2 rating: 4.5

Features

1. People database
2. Email finder and verifier
3. A/B testing
4. Multi-channel sequencing
5. Advanced conditional sequences
6. Inbox rotating
7. Warmup booster
8. LinkedIn outreach tools

Deliverability

Lemlist also offers a free deliverability testing tool that highlights deliverability issues and gives you a score.

Ease of use

It’s too complicated for a beginner. You’ll find so many fancy features but understanding them and using the platform is a headache.

But the customer support is good. They help you in onboarding and understand how the platform works.

Integrations

1. Hubspot
2. Salesforce
3. PipeDrive
4. Zapier
5. Clay
6. And 15+ others

Pricing and scalability

1. 14 days free trial
2. $5 per 1000 emails + $24 per email warm-up

Lemlist is super scalable. You can send unlimited emails and there’s no restriction on the number of active contacts.

Expert opinion

Lemlist is not only the best tool on the market for deploying cross-channel campaigns (Emailing and Linkedin) but also the most comprehensive.

Frédéric Duhirel,Cofounder of Stepward

My opinion

If you’re looking for a tool that helps you with both cold emailing and LinkedIn outreach, this one does exactly that.

But it’s too expensive for individuals and small businesses. If you want a tool just for cold emailing, you should consider other options.

7. Emailchaser

Since it’s a new tool, it’s not listed on popular review sites like G2 or Capterra. So whatever I share is based on personal experience and social media reviews.

Features

1. Cold email campaign tools
2. Email finder and verifier
3. Sales CRM
4. GPT powered optimization
5. Auto follow-ups
6. Inbox rotation

Deliverability

From user feedback and personal experience, I can confidently say that Emailchaser has pretty amazing deliverability.

It uses ChatGPT instead of spintax to generate different versions of your email copy. This means every recipient receives an email super personalized for him.

Ease of use

It’s so far the easiest cold email software I’ve used. The UI is clean and every important feature is literally one click away from you.

Setting up your campaign is pretty straightforward. There are no fancy features in the tool.

Integrations

1. Zapier
2. DigiParser

Pricing and scalability

1. Unlimited free forever plan
2. $12 to $30 per 1000 emails (unique contacts)

There’s no rate cap mentioned on Emailchaser’s pricing page and it claims you can send unlimited emails.

But I found a rate cap of 40 to 100 emails per day.

This means you can only send roughly 1200 emails per month, so it’s not at all scalable.

P.S. I didn’t find any notable expert reviews.

My opinion

It’s a good tool for beginners who are just getting started with cold email outreach and need a tool that fits in their budget and has great deliverability.

Definitely not recommended for larger campaigns.

But which one of them is best for me?

Which cold emailing software is best for me?

If you need a software that offers the best deliverability, I’d recommend using Saleshandy, Instantly or Emailchaser. These 3 tools offer top notch deliverability.

If you’re tight on budget and need the most affordable cold email software, I’d recommend Smartleads and Instantly.

They are the most affordable options with solid deliverability too.

If you’re looking for a cold email software that can scale as your business grows, I recommend Saleshandly and Smartleads.

Both of them are super scalable and won’t compromise on deliverability at scale.

But what if I use platforms like Mailchimp for cold emailing?

Which email sending tools are not suitable for cold emailing?

Not all email-sending tools are built for cold emailing. All the emails sent via bulk email sending tools fall under 3 main categories:

1. Transactional
2. Marketing
3. Cold outreach

Transactional emails are one-off automated messages triggered by user actions, like password resets or purchase confirmations.

These are functional emails sent to existing users.

Email marketing is all about sending newsletters, promotions, or updates to people who’ve opted into your list.

The goal is to engage subscribers and build long-term relationships.

Cold emailing, on the other hand, is about reaching out to people you’ve never contacted before.

The focus is on starting a conversation, generating leads, or making sales.

Popular platforms like Mailchimp, Brevo, and SendGrid are built for email marketing and transactional emails.

They excel in their respective fields, but they fall short when it comes to cold emailing.

Why don't these tools work for cold emails?

There are mainly 3 reasons why these tools are not a good fit for cold emailing.

1. Opt-in policy
2. Poor deliverability
3. HTML-heavy templates

These platforms enforce opt-in policies, meaning you can only send emails to people who have given their consent.

If you use them for cold emailing, you risk getting your account suspended or banned.

They have really poor deliverability because most of these tools use shared IP addresses.

If another user sends spam from the same IP, your emails can land in spam folders, even if they’re clean.

Also most of them lack critical features like email warm-up and spam testing, which are essential for keeping cold emails out of spam.

Some email marketing software like Mailchimp focus on HTML-heavy designs for newsletters. Cold emails, however, need to look personal and plain-text-like.

These platforms aren’t designed for that style of communication.

But I don’t know how to collect emails.

Well, Lobstr.io can help you.

How to build an email list using Lobstr.io?

Lobstr.io is not just an ordinary data collection tool. It can enrich data with verified emails too. You can use it to build a solid email list from your Sales Navigator leads.

If you want to build an email list of local businesses, you can use our Google Maps Search Export tool.

It not only collects all important data points from each listing on Google Maps, but also enriches the data with emails.

Now before wrapping up, let me answer some FAQs.

FAQs

Can I use Gmail to send cold emails?

You can, but it’s not ideal. Gmail limits you to 500 emails a day (or 2,000 with Google Workspace), and going over that can get your account flagged.

Plus, it doesn’t have functionalities like follow-ups, spam filter optimization, or tracking. If you’re serious about cold emailing, use a proper tool like Instantly or Smartlead.

Is Gmail or Outlook better for cold emails?

Between the two email service providers, Gmail is better for cold emails.

It offers higher daily send limits and better deliverability compared to Outlook. Gmail also works seamlessly with most cold email platforms, making it the preferred choice for outreach.

Is cold emailing illegal?

No, cold emailing isn’t illegal, but you need to follow certain rules to stay compliant. Laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM allow cold emailing, but they require you to:

1. Email people for legitimate business purposes
2. Include a clear way to unsubscribe
3. Avoid misleading subject lines or content

What is Email Marketing Automation?

Email marketing automation uses tools to send tailored emails automatically based on actions or schedules.

Instead of manually sending each email, you set up workflows that trigger emails when someone takes an action, like signing up for a newsletter or abandoning a cart.

For example, when someone signs up on your site, an email tool instantly sends them a welcome email without you lifting a finger!

What is the ideal cold email?

An ideal cold email is short, personal, and straight to the point. It should grab attention, address the recipient’s needs, and make it easy for them to respond.

How can I clean my email list?

Why didn't I include tools like Hunter, Reply.io, and Woodpecker?

The list highlights the most ideal tools with top-notch deliverability and ease of use. Initially, I had 15 tools in my final selection, but I narrowed it down to the top 7.

Since deliverability and ease of use were my main priorities, I had to focus on tools that truly excelled in these areas.

This is why I removed Hunter, Reply.io, Woodpecker, and about 5 other tools that didn’t make the cut.

What’s the best cold email tool for lead generation?

All tools in the list are great for lead generation. They’re built for outbound sales, verify emails in real-time, and track key metrics.

They make your outreach efforts faster and more effective.

What are the best email templates for cold email marketing?

The best templates are short, personal, and focused on value. For sales outreach or outreach campaigns, use templates that help prospects discover solutions to their problems.

Track metrics like open rates and replies to improve your outreach strategy over time.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap on the best cold email software list of 2025. You can combine Lobstr.io with any of the tools from the list to create a world-class cold emailing workflow.