The 7 best cold email software options

As a serial email deleter, I know how hard it is to get people to open a cold email. But I've also had the unique privilege (yes, I'm calling it a privilege) of being a sender of cold emails. 

I know that personalizing hundreds of emails, scheduling sequences, and replying to leads that bite takes time—so much time that doing it manually is impossible once you have a sizable prospect list. 

Cold email software speeds up and optimizes your outreach. If you're looking to try out a cold email app and you don't know where to start, you're in the right place. I spent time researching and testing some of the most highly regarded cold email tools available. Here's what I learned.

The 7 best cold email tools

• Hunter for freelancers and cold email beginners

• Klenty for customizing email sequences with AI

• Instantly for easy scaling

• Woodpecker for generating email bodies with AI

• Apollo for automated lead engagement

• GMass for managing email campaigns via Chrome extension

• Mailshake for multichannel cold outreach

What makes the best cold email tool?

If you haven't gotten your hands dirty actually testing cold email tools, it might seem like they all do pretty much the same thing—sending emails to strangers and then sending more when they don't respond. And yes, they do that. But there are differences, both major and subtle, and the apps I selected distinguished themselves in these four core areas:

• Automation and scheduling: How much of the workflow can you automate?  And if you schedule an email sequence, do you have to babysit it to make sure it goes smoothly? A good cold email app needs to make your job easier. 

• Deliverability: Will emails sent using the app land in your lead's main inbox? At a basic level, cold email software is useless if it can't make it past the average spam filter. Email warm-up is a must.

• Analytics: What kind of data can you access for your email campaigns? Does it show more than just bounce and open rate? Without detailed analytics, you won't be able to measure how well your cold email outreach is performing.

• Integrations: Can the app sync with major CRMs and other tools in your marketing and sales stack? Integration capabilities determine how well a cold email tool fits into your existing workflows.

The best cold email software at a glance

Best cold email software for freelancers and cold email beginners

Hunter (Web)

Hunter pros:

• Extensive free plan

• User-friendly interface

• Domain search feature

Hunter cons:

• Limited automation options

If you're new to the cold email game, free trials and free plans will be your best friend. While some apps offer heavily restricted free plans, Hunter lets you test out a 500-recipient campaign and gives you access to analytics, browser extensions, and CRM integrations—all without spending a dime. 

When I signed up, I was greeted with a crisp, easily digestible interface and a basic suite of email and lead generation tools: a lead searcher, campaign creator, lead verifier, campaign manager, and a few others. If you're a cold email novice, these basics are likely all you'll need. And even if you never upgrade to a paid plan, you'll have permanent access to Hunter's integrations with Zapier, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and more.

With the free plan, you'll be limited to 25 email searches and 50 verifications a year. You also won't be able to access the domain search feature that helps you find email addresses from a company name or website. It's also worth mentioning that even if you subscribe to the most expensive plan, Hunter lacks the AI and automation tools offered by other cold email apps.

But for freelancers with limited email campaign needs, Hunter's free plan might be all you need. If not, it's still an excellent app to learn the ropes of cold email, as it's been designed with beginners and startups in mind. For users with more extensive outreach needs, Hunter's scaling options leave something to be desired—even the pricey Business plan ($499/month) is limited to 20 email accounts. 

By connecting Hunter to Zapier, you can automate all your cold email workflows. For example, you can automatically validate new leads from any source and send them to your other sales and marketing apps—without any manual effort. Here are some examples to get you started.

Hunter pricing: Free plan is free forever and lets you run one 500-recipient campaign at a time; paid plans start at $49/month for the Starter plan and include unlimited team members

Best cold email app for customizing email sequences with AI

Klenty (Web)

Klenty pros:

• IQ features streamline and automate workflows

• AI assistant can generate email sequences

• Stepwise metrics

Klenty cons:

• Complicated user interface

• Fairly pricey

I'm a firm believer that any part of the email outreach process that can be automated should be automated. Klenty seems to have this same goal in mind, as it's devoted significant resources to making its platform AI and automation-ready. 

Klenty's free trial gave me a preview of its IQ features, which let you do things like import a full prospecting list from LinkedIn or a CRM with one click and automatically route leads to the right sales rep. And there's the AI assistant—an incredibly helpful feature that can build out entire email sequences, call scripts, LinkedIn messages, and texts in seconds. The AI will auto-detect your company's name in an email subject line and create a sequence based on your value propositions and problems solved, complete with personalized opens for each prospect.

Klenty also boasts a strong analytics suite, with detailed stepwise metrics that show you bounce rate, open rate, and other data for every single email in a given sequence. 

This app's impressive functionality does come at a cost, however. Its interface is tricky to get a handle on, and doing something as simple as starting a new email campaign required me to do some clicking around. (They call sequences "cadences" for some reason.)

If you need integrations, Klenty's got you covered. You'll be able to sync up with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, but you'll need to sign up for the costly Growth plan ($70/month) to do so. But if you're on the base plan, you can use the Zapier integration instead, which lets you connect Klenty to all the other apps you use at work. Here are a few pre-made workflows to get you started.

Klenty pricing: Offers a 14-day free trial; paid plans start at $60/user/month, billed quarterly, for the Startup plan

Best cold email tool for scalability

Instantly (Web)

Instantly pros:

• Unlimited email accounts and warm-ups

• Clean, legible interface

• AI-powered automations for lead management

Instantly cons:

• Barebones email design features

As your business grows, your outreach needs will likely grow with it. To scale your campaigns, you'll have to send more emails to more people (and use more accounts to do it). While this may sound simple, it's important to ensure your cold email software of choice can keep up with you.

Instantly is all about scalability. Even on the basic Growth plan ($37/month), you'll be able to connect and warm up unlimited email accounts from any provider. And however many accounts you use, they can all be accessed from one convenient "Unibox." Now, you won't be able to send unlimited emails—there's a 5,000 monthly email limit for the Growth membership—but no app lets you do that without shelling out some serious dough.

If and when you're ready to upgrade, Instantly's Hypergrowth plan ($97/month) will net you a whopping 100,000 monthly emails, plus advanced warm-up capabilities to ensure they all make it past the dreaded spam filter. Fortunately, the app doesn't get any harder to use when you're dealing with big numbers. You'll use the same basic campaign tools whether you're targeting 50 opens or 50,000.

The interface is incredibly easy to use, and I was able to set up a test campaign in a matter of minutes. But while you can automate your sequences and follow-ups, Instantly doesn't let you generate emails with AI (at least for now).

Instantly has a standard range of integrations, although it really wants people to try out its new, proprietary CRM (currently in Beta). And it connects to a few popular platforms like Slack, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, but you can use Zapier to connect it to thousands of other apps too. Learn more about how to automate Instantly, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.

Instantly pricing: Offers a 14-day free trial; paid plans start at $37/month for one user on the Growth plan

Best cold email software for generating email bodies with AI

Woodpecker (Web)

Woodpecker pros:

• AI email generator

• Lots of native integrations

• Personalized email sequences

Woodpecker cons:

• Barebones analytics

• Limited number of warm-up email accounts

Woodpecker is a very straightforward cold email app. It doesn't try to break the mold or masquerade as a fully-fledged CRM—it helps you craft email sequences and delivers them to the right place (not the spam folder). 

Woodpecker's AI email writing tool makes this process faster and easier. As I was writing my first test email, I saw a prompt to generate it with AI. This opens a window where you can enter a prompt (write me an email with XYZ), select a tone of voice (like formal or informal), and a text length (from short to "super long"). Other apps have AI generators and assistants, but they don't run as smoothly as Woodpecker's. If email outreach was my day job, I'd be using this tool all the time. 

The rest of the app's features are a bit more standard. You can automate and personalize follow-ups, verify the addresses on your prospect list, and see your campaign stats using a somewhat meager analytics suite.

It's also worth noting that Woodpecker limits users to two free warm-up email accounts. If you want more, you'll have to pay an extra $5/month per inbox. 

Overall, Woodpecker is a solid tool for businesses with modest cold email needs, especially if AI email generation is important to you. Plus, it integrates natively with a range of CRMs and tools, and you can use Zapier to connect it with thousands of other apps. Learn more about how to automate Woodpecker, or get started with one of these templates.

Woodpecker pricing: Offers a 7-day free trial; paid plans start at $29/month and include unlimited team members

Best cold email app for using a B2B database to find leads

Apollo (Web)

Apollo pros:

• AI assistant can write and personalize email sequences

• Large B2B database

• Extensive free plan

Apollo cons:

• Analytics are exclusive to premium memberships

• Has a learning curve

Apollo's motto is "Cut your stack. Do it all in Apollo." It advertises itself as a complete, end-to-end sales platform. That's because, in addition to cold email, it helps you find and vet prospects, make calls and social media requests, and automate workflows from start to deal-close. 

Apollo has an excellent free plan that lets you test most of the app's functionality without ever signing up for a subscription. I used this plan to try out its cold email tool and found it fast and user-friendly. 

As soon as you start building your first email sequence, you're greeted with a helpful (optional) tutorial video and a button to generate the sequence using AI. If going full AI doesn't appeal to you, the software offers pre-built templates, so you never have to start from scratch. All of this works on the free plan, but you'll be limited to two active email sequences at a time. 

Another key selling point is the B2B database—what Apollo calls a Living Data Network. With it, you'll get access to 156 million business and personal emails, along with phone numbers and other information. So, if you want an app that rolls cold email and lead prospecting into one comprehensive package, Apollo may be your best bet.

Apollo offers a standard range of integrations, plus a proprietary Chrome extension that pulls lead information from platforms like LinkedIn and Gmail. You can also use Apollo's Zapier integration to connect Apollo with all the other apps in your workflow. Learn more about automating Apollo, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.

Apollo pricing: Free plan is free forever and lets you run two active sequences; paid plans start at $59/user/month for the Basic plan

Best cold email tool for managing email campaigns via Chrome extension

GMass (Web)

GMass pros:

• Works inside Gmail

• Syncs with Google Sheets

• Refreshingly simple

GMass cons:

• Less functionality than other apps 

• Requires a separate subscription for each email account

GMass runs entirely in Gmail using a Chrome extension. If learning a new platform scares you like it scares me, GMass might be just what you need.

While GMass used to offer a free plan (for sending up to 50 emails a day), now you'll need to start a free trial to test it out. It's as simple as adding the GMass extension to Chrome on the same account you use for Gmail. Then, whenever you compose an email, you'll see a new GMass button next to the send button.

Although this is a simpler tool than other apps on this list, it has a broad range of features, including A/B testing, automatic follow-ups, email testing, and campaign metrics. But you won't be creating full sequences in seconds using AI, scheduling meetings, or automating lead engagement like you might on other platforms. This one is strictly about email.

If you want to use GMass efficiently, it's best to sync it with Google Sheets. This way, if you have spreadsheets containing lead contact information, GMass can use them to create email contact lists. 

GMass is by far the easiest way to send mass emails directly from Gmail, and it practically dominates its niche. Despite its relative simplicity, the tool is a bit costly at $25/month per email account, but if you want to avoid opening a can of new software worms, it's worth a close look.

And you can do even more with GMass by integrating it with Zapier, so you can connect GMass to all the other apps you use. Here are a few pre-made workflows to get you started.

GMass pricing: Offers a 7-day free trial; paid plans start at $25/user/month for the Standard plan 

Best cold email software for multichannel cold outreach

Mailshake (Web)

Mailshake pros:

• Handles cold email, cold calling, and cold connecting on social media

• Great for lead management

• Easily add existing email templates

Mailshake cons:

• Limited prospect data

• Tricky to learn

If you want your cold email software to pull double (or triple) duty, consider giving Mailshake a shot. 

On top of a very solid platform for email outreach—complete with an aptly-named AI email writer called SHAKEspeare—its Sales Engagement plan ($99) gives you access to LinkedIn automations and unlimited dialer minutes across five phone numbers. 

Even if you stick to the cheaper, email-specific plans, you'll be getting a lot of value out of Mailshake thanks to unlimited warm-up and automated sequences. Its Lead Catcher stores all your leads in one place, letting you reply to their messages with one click and mark prospects as won, lost, or ignored. 

Mailshake also offers a lead database, but it's much more limited than the ones offered by competitors. You might also have some trouble with its strict spam compliance filter, which sometimes marks emails as "risky" without giving context. 

As far as integrations go, Mailshake does what you'd expect: it connects to Salesforce, Pipedrive, and HubSpot, but also Calendly (for scheduling) and Twilio (if you want to do SMS on top of email). Zapier has you covered for integrating with the other apps you use on a daily basis. Learn more about how to automate Mailshake, or get started with one of these templates.

Mailshake pricing: No free trial available; paid plans start at $29/user/month on the Starter plan

Other cold email apps

There are dozens of cold email tools on the market, and it's worth shouting out some great apps that didn't quite top the ones I selected.

• lemlist boasts an impressive lead database and great customer service and automates with Zapier.

• Salesforge has unlimited email warm-up and an extensive AI toolset.

• Autoklose offers a built-in prospect database and sales tracking functionality.

• Reply includes AI sales development representative (SDR) agents. 

• Snov.io benefits from strong multichannel outreach capabilities and a wide range of email campaign templates.

• SmartReach has an AI assistant that can generate subject lines and bodies and tweak existing copy.

• MailRush.io generates templates for a wide variety of email outreach campaigns.

• Overloop can facilitate multichannel outreach with a slick user interface.

Other tools you might need for cold email

While some cold email apps include CRM and lead enrichment features, they don't typically exist in a vacuum. This means you'll need to pair your email platform of choice with other tools to get the best results for your outreach efforts.

• Lead enrichment: Certain cold email apps (like Apollo) can handle lead data enrichment for you, but you may need to consider a separate service that specializes in it, like Clay or Cognism.

• Chatbots: Many cold email tools incorporate some form of AI assistance, but you can also use AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini to help you create your campaigns. Try these ChatGPT prompts that generate usable sales emails. 

• CRMs: This might seem like an obvious one since virtually every cold email app integrates with one or more CRMs, but it's worth reiterating. Check out Zapier's roundup of the best CRMs to see which one aligns best with your company.

You can then connect your cold email app to all these other tools using Zapier, so your cold outreach workflows can run automatically.

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• A guide to putting your email to work, automatically

• The best marketing automation software

• The best email drip campaign software

• Popular ways to automate Recruit CRM