Looking for alternatives to Lemlist?
If you're doing cold outreach, you've probably used (or at least heard of) Lemlist.
While it's a good tool for small multi-channel outreach campaigns, it's known that it has some big limitations in its capabilities.
In this article, we'll briefly expand upon those limitations and then suggest 6 Lemlist alternatives that might be a better fit for your use case.
Let’s dive straight in.
What Is Lemlist And What Are Its Main Limitations?
Lemlist is a cold outreach platform that enables you to send and reply to cold email campaigns from its platform. You can send basic sequences with Lemlist, personalize them with attributes and A/B test your emails.
However, there are a few limitations that Lemlist has that are worth mentioning. Let's go through them. We will also list reviews that users on G2 and Capterra have added.
1. Prohibitive pricing: You need to pay $59 for each standard seat (inbox) you use in the account. Because you need at least 5 inboxes to keep deliverability high, Lemlist's pricing ($295/month for 5 inboxes) is prohibitive to your success with cold email. Other tools have recognized this and are offering more user-friendly pricing. With QuickMail, for example, you can add a whopping 30 inboxes per account for just $49/mo.
"Lemlist comes at a relatively high cost, especially as services are priced per user. It doesn't take long for the total cost to add up and become quite an expensive tool to use."
2. Not made for scaling: When using Lemlist, you are limited to a single inbox per campaign. Even though Lemlist now includes inbox rotation, you’ll need to upgrade to $99 per seat, making this a costly option.
"The tool never completes sending emails in the designated time. We're not talking about huge campaigns or anything. The tool simply fails to send 70 emails in 12 hours."
"There are times where Lemlist does not send emails according to the set daily sending limits. Sometimes the sends are less than the limits. Although you set the limits, it's not a guarantee that that will be followed."
“The system lags add up and are infuriating, even with low volume on a trial. At scale it’s a nightmare”
3. Limitations within its email warm-up. When using Lemlist, you can only warm 1 inbox per seat without racking up a bill. If you want to warm up backup or new inboxes, each one costs an extra $29 per month. Even then, many users have reported that their emails are going to spam.
"I was shocked to see that most emails landed in spam, and when I ran a campaign on the same list in a different tool, it worked fine."
"Maintaining sender reputation isn't the funniest thing on the planet, but that's not just Lemlist."
4. Agency features are limited to custom pricing plans.
As well as that, users on Capterra report that the UI is difficult to use and that the campaign reporting can be limited. On G2 users also complained about canned responses from customer support and long wait times.
Some of these things may not be deal breakers for you. If they’re not, Lemlist has a free trial, so you can test the platform out for yourself.
However, if you’re looking for alternatives to Lemlist, we’ll show you some of the best options in the next section.
The Best Lemlist Alternatives to Get Results from Cold Email
1. QuickMail - Get the best results from your cold outreach
Cold email platform with everything that Lemlist has, but made to help you scale your outreach beyond one inbox.
QuickMail vs. Lemlist: Key Differences
QuickMail is made to scale your outreach, whereas Lemlist is best for one-off campaigns
QuickMail integrates natively with a free email warm-up tool MailFlow, whereas Lemlists requires you to pay for Lemlist’s full feature set before you’re ready to start sending outreach on a new inbox
QuickMail lets agencies manage multiple client campaigns in one account. Lemlist isn’t made for that level of campaign complexity.
Next, let’s look at what makes QuickMail the best option for sending cold emails that get replies.
Personalization at Every Touchpoint
Cold email will only work as a lead-generation channel for your business if you can get replies from your prospects.
QuickMail has everything you need to create unique emails and send them to cold prospects at scale.
First, you’ll build your prospect list in a Google Sheet or Excel. Then, import your CSV or use the Drive integration to import your prospects into QuickMail.
After that, it’s time to write your unique messages. Personalized emails will maximize your open rate and reply rates, so it’s an essential step.
You can write out your email templates, adding attributes wherever you want to add personalization.
When your email is sent, the templates will populate with the fields from your prospect sheet, ensuring everyone on your list receives a unique email.
You can also create multichannel outreach steps, such as using the Aircall integration to make cold calls directly from QuickMail or adding tasks for your team (as you would in, e.g., Asana or Trello, such as reaching out to your prospect on LinkedIn.
Scale Campaigns without the Complexity
One of the main limitations of most cold call tools, including Lemlist and alternatives to Lemlist, is that they’re not made for people who want to scale their outreach.
QuickMail eliminates this problem.
You can add as many inboxes as you need to one account. This means if you’re running campaigns for multiple clients, you can handle them all in one place without needing to log in and out all day.
If you want to increase your sending volume on a campaign, you can easily add a new inbox to that campaign, rather than needing to copy-paste that campaign into a new one.
It’s a powerful way for agencies running cold email campaigns or teams of sales reps who want a way to increase their sending volume without facing a host of logistical problems.
Powerful Deliverability Tools, Including Native Integration With a Free Email Warm-Up Tool
QuickMail integrates natively with a free email warm-up tool, MailFlow, that warms up your inbox, just like Lemwarm, but without the $29 per month cost.
You can run this on your cold email inbox for two to three weeks before sending a campaign to ensure your campaigns won’t be hurt by poor deliverability.
MailFlow uses real business language in the email templates and you’ll only be communicating with other real inboxes – no fake profiles to game the process.
You can track your deliverability over time in MailFlow's Auto Warmer reports to ensure your emails are never caught in the spam filters.
QuickMail also has integrated email verification to ensure you never reach out to an invalid email address, as well as custom domain tracking and inbox rotation.
Pricing: Generous paid plans from $49/mo.
G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5 (69 reviews)
Capterra rating: 4.8 out of 5 (25 reviews)
What users on G2 and Capterra are saying:
“By send volume - we book 4X more meetings in QuickMail than our previous platform.”
“The inbox rotation tool is a game-changer. Combined with the native inbox management, replying to large volumes of replies is a breeze.”
“We're running email outreach via 50+ inboxes (30+ customers), and QuickMail works exceptionally well, with no hiccups or issues.”
Key features:
Send personalized emails with automatic follow-ups to prospects that don’t reply
Made for scale, letting you add as many inboxes to campaigns as you need
6 Other Lemlist Alternatives
2. MixMax
Simple cold email tool that adds-on to your existing inbox to help with automating your outreach and adding personalization to emails.
MixMax is one of the better alternatives to Lemlist if you need a lightweight email scheduling tool that works directly inside your Gmail account.
After you install MixMax and connect it with your inbox, it adds tools directly to your Gmail and slots into your existing workflow.
It gives you tools like basic calendaring, email scheduling, lets you build bulk email campaigns with merge tags to personalize emails to each recipient, and can even sync your activity with Salesforce if you’re on the most expensive pricing plan.
Pricing: $24 per inbox per month for basic outreach. From $49 per inbox per month if you want to add personalization to your email sequences. $69 per inbox per month for Salesforce integration.
Pros:
An affordable cold email tool, starting at $24 per month
Simple UX and no need to adapt to a new workflow because MixMax works inside of Gmail
Built-in calendar system to replace Calendly
Cons:
Only works with Google Workspace and Gmail, not with Outlook or other custom email providers
Some users on G2 report that the customer service is lacking if you run into problems
Other users on G2 also highlight that the feature set is limited compared to standalone cold email platforms
3. Gmass
Gmail extension that gives you tools to send personalized emails in bulk from your main inbox.
Like MixMax, Gmass is one of the best alternatives to Lemlist for anyone who doesn’t want to leave their Gmail inbox. It has similar features, like email personalization, multi-step campaigns, and reporting.
Because it’s a Google Workspace native product, there are useful integrations available, such as the ability to create your prospect list inside Google Sheets, then import that sheet directly to Gmass. The platform will use the columns from your prospect list to personalize your outreach emails, and once your email templates are ready, you can schedule the campaign to send straight from your Gmail account.
Gmass also states that the platform has tools that can help you get around the Gmail email-sending limits of 2,000 emails per day. If you’re a Gmail power user, it’s a simple and effective way to boost your email-sending capabilities.
Gmass is similar to Lemlist in terms of capabilities.
Pricing: From $19.95 per month to send one-off email campaigns. Send email sequences from $29.95 per month. High-priority support from $49.95 per month.
Pros:
Adds cold emailing functionality straight to your Gmail inbox without needing to learn a third-party platform
Automatically create campaigns using prospect lists from Google Sheets
Cons:
Some users on G2 report that it can be hard to format emails
No features for running campaigns from multiple inboxes at once like on QuickMail
4. Reply
Enterprise sales platform with email automation like Lemlist, and more.
Reply is an all-in-one sales engagement platform for sending personalized cold emails, making cold calls, calendar features, sending WhatsApp and SMS messages, and more.
If you’re looking for Lemlist alternatives that have one platform to handle every process in your outreach system, this could be an option.
Pricing: Starts at $60 per user per month. Email warm-up and multichannel features from $90 per user per month (minimum two users).
Pros:
Useful to have all of your sales and outreach tools under one roof
There’s an email warmer to help improve your email deliverability
Users on G2 say the fact that you can define your potential customers’ time zones makes it easy to ensure you reach out at the perfect time for them
Cons:
Reply users on Capterra say that it’s hard to set up campaigns
Users on G2 report that the terminology and UI can lead to mistakes such as sending a barrage of emails to prospects before you’re ready
5. Outreach
Sales platform for large companies that includes outreach tools, a CRM, deal analytics, and more.
Outreach is best for companies with established teams of sales and business development reps who need more powerful tools than Lemlist has to offer.
It includes tools for prospecting, outreach, and deal management.
Like with Lemlist, you can create multi-touch outreach campaigns across email, LinkedIn, and even extra channels like SMS.
It expands on Lemlist’s features with extra tools like an AI coach that plugs into your meetings. For example, it’ll suggest questions to ask or topics to bring up, based on how a conversation is progressing. Outreach also has a useful sales forecasting tool that helps you estimate the revenue in your sales pipeline at any given time.
You can also tap into pre-built workflows for different situations that Outreach suggests based on your goals.
The platform is aimed at a different type of customer than Lemlist.
Pricing: Available on request.
Pros:
Powerful platform for large companies with a growing sales team
Send cold outreach, LinkedIn messages, cold calls, and more
Includes AI-based sales coaching to help you close more deals
Cons:
Expensive option and pricing is custom based on your company size and requirements
Users on G2 say that the platform isn’t intuitive to use and takes time to get used to
Users on Capterra say that you can’t personalize emails in a sequence for select individuals
6. Mailshake
Cold email platform with similar features and price point to Lemlist
As Lemlist alternatives go, Mailshake is a pretty similar platform. Both let you import cold prospects, create personalized email templates, and send your emails on a schedule of your choice.
The UI is relatively simple compared to Lemlist, so it’s better if you need to get your campaigns up and running more quickly.
Like QuickMail, Mailshake lets you run AB tests with relative ease, which is a handy feature if you want to test different cold email templates or call-to-actions. As well as that, there are clear email analytics to help you understand how your campaigns perform.
Pricing: From $58 per user per month, but billed annually. Social selling features, cold calling, and LinkedIn outreach tools are available from $83 per month.
Pros:
The platform is easy to use compared to Lemlist
It connects with both Gmail and Outlook, as well as other email providers
Plans include email list verification to help reduce your bounce rate
Cons:
The LinkedIn outreach and cold call features are
Users on Capterra highlight that you can’t manage multiple client accounts from one login very easily
Some customers on G2 mention that the cold calling and LinkedIn outreach steps in a campaign aren’t easy to automate
7. Mailchimp
Email marketing platform for keeping your existing customers and subscribers engaged with marketing content.
Lemlist is a cold email tool. That means it’s made to send emails to cold prospects that have never interacted with your business. For Lemlist alternatives that can send email sequences to your existing customers or email list, you’ll need an email marketing platform like Mailchimp.
Mailchimp lets you set up email capture forms on your website, segment your list into different subsections and build visual email templates with images, buttons, and any other content you want to include.
While it’s not a direct competitor, it’s a good alternative to Lemlist if you’re looking for a platform to nurture your customers with email marketing.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $11 per month for 5,000 monthly emails.
Pros:
Build engaging visual templates to help your email campaign stand out in the inbox
Integrates with 300+ other tools that you can use to automate your email marketing workflow
Create custom journeys for subscribers that match specific criteria, like buying a product or signing up via a particular landing page.
Cons:
Not possible to send cold email outreach. It’s against Mailchimp’s terms of service.
Becomes expensive as you grow. For example, the plan for 150,000 monthly emails starts at $299 per month.
What is Lemlist Used For?
Lemlist is a cold email and outreach platform. You can use it to send cold emails to sales prospects, follow up with warm leads, and track your campaign results.
Lemlist’s Key Features
Lemlist was one of the first cold email platforms to release a cold email warm-up tool, which is called Lemwarm. At the time, this was a strong differentiator and if you used Lemwarm it made sense to use Lemlist as well.
However, cold email warm-up tools are now available from other platforms.
Some, like the MailFlow's Auto Warmer, are free to use, rather than costing $29 per month like Lemwarm.
Wrapping Up
Lemlist is a good tool for sending cold email outreach campaigns, but there are other excellent platforms available, often with more features for the price.
If you’re looking for a cold email platform that:
Lets you send personalized, multi-touch cold email campaigns
Effortlessly scale campaigns using inbox rotation for free, and adding new team members to your account
Email tracking and reports to measure your results
Run A/B tests to find your best-performing email template variations
Then, QuickMail is for you. See if it’s right for you with a 14-day free trial.