Are you tired of your cold emails landing in the spam folder?
Frustrated with low open rates and even lower response rates?
You’re not alone. Cold emailing can be a tough nut to crack.
But what if there was a tool that could help you personalize your outreach, automate follow-ups, and ultimately boost your success?
That’s where Mailshake and Smartlead come in.
In this post, we’ll dive deep into Mailshake vs Smartlead, comparing their features, pricing, and ease of use to help you make the best decision for your business.
Mailshake vs Smartlead: Overview
To give you the most accurate comparison, we’ve spent weeks testing both Mailshake and Smartlead.
We dove deep into their features, sent out numerous campaigns, and analyzed the results to see which platform truly delivers on its promises.
Need a simple way to manage your sales outreach? Mailshake offers an intuitive platform to streamline your workflow and track your progress!
Pricing: It has a free plan. The premium plan starts at $49/month.
Key Features:
- Sales engagement platform
- Email automation
- Lead catcher
Boost your conversion rates by 45% with Smartlead’s AI-powered lead generation. Get started today and see results within the first 7 days.
Pricing: 14 days free trial available. Paid Plan starts at $39/month.
Key Features:
- AI Email personalization
- Multi-channel outreach
- Advanced analytics
What is Mailshake?
Want to warm up your cold emails? Mailshake is your go-to tool. It helps you create highly personalized email outreach campaigns.
Think of it as your friendly automated assistant. It helps you connect with prospects without sounding like a robot.
Mailshake focuses on building relationships and increasing engagement.
It’s known for its simple interface and powerful features.
You can easily create email sequences, track your results, and even A/B test different messages to see what works best.
Also, explore our favourite Mailshake alternatives…
Our Take
Mailshake is a good option for businesses looking to simplify their cold email outreach. However, some users may be concerned about its limited features and potential for spam flagging.
Key Benefits
- Create and send personalized email campaigns.
- Automate follow-up emails to increase engagement.
- Track your performance with detailed analytics.
- Integrates with popular CRM and sales automation tools.
- Offers a free trial to test the platform.
Pricing
Mailshake offers three paid plans:
- Starter: $25 per month per user.
- Email Outreach: $45 per month for 2 users.
- Sales Engagement: $85 per month for 5 users.
Pros
Cons
What is Smartlead?
Want to escape the spam folder and land more meetings? Smartlead is your secret weapon.
It’s an AI-powered cold email platform designed to maximize deliverability and engagement.
Think of it as your email’s bodyguard, clearing a path straight to the inbox.
It also helps warm your inbox so you don’t get flagged as spam. How cool is that?
Also, explore our favourite Smartlead alternatives…
Our Take
Smartlead is a good option for businesses concerned about email deliverability. See smartlead boost your reply rates by over 20% and convert 50% of replies into closed deals! Join over 31,000 businesses finding success.
Key Benefits
- Improve email deliverability with AI-powered optimization.
- Automate email warm-up to build sender reputation.
- Personalize sending schedules to maximize engagement.
- Integrates with popular CRM and sales automation tools.
- Offers a free trial to test the platform.
Pricing
Smartlead offers three paid plans:
- Basic plan: $32.5 per month for 2000 active leads.
- Pro plan: $78.3 per month for 30,000 active leads.
Pros
Cons
Feature Comparison
Both Mailshake and Smartlead are powerful cold email software solutions designed to help sales teams automate their outreach.
This comparison will detail their respective features to help you decide which is the best sales engagement platform for your cold email outreach efforts.
1. Primary Function
- Mailshake: Mailshake is a multi-channel sales engagement platform. It is a provider automated email sequences for sending personalized cold emails across email, phone, and social media, helping sales reps book meetings and close deals.
- Smartlead: Smartlead is a cold email software with a primary focus on cold email automation and premium email deliverability. Its platform is built to help sales team and agencies scale their cold email outreach with an emphasis on keeping emails out of spam folders.
2. Data Finder and Prospecting
- Mailshake: Mailshake has a data finder feature that helps users find contact data. mailshake’s data finder allows you to search for prospects by job title, company, and location, helping you build a list of qualified leads.
- Smartlead: Smartlead focuses on the outreach itself and does not have a native data finder. The platform assumes you already have your list of prospects and provides a robust system for managing and sending to them.
3. Personalization
- Mailshake: Mailshake enables users to send personalized cold emails using custom fields and variables. It offers tools and templates to make it easy for sales reps to create personalized cold emails at scale.
- Smartlead: Smartlead also offers advanced personalization features, including dynamic content and AI-driven personalization, to create personalized cold emails. This helps ensure each email feels tailored to the recipient.
4. Multichannel Outreach
- Mailshake: Mailshake is a multi-channel sales engagement platform that supports email, phone, and social media. A standout feature is the unlimited free dialer minutes for cold calling, which is a major benefit for sales teams.
- Smartlead: Smartlead is primarily a cold email software, but it does offer some multi-channel capabilities to manage cold email outreach and other channels from one place. However, its core strength is email.
5. Deliverability and Warm Up
- Mailshake: Mailshake provides an email domain setup assistant and an advanced warm-up feature to help ensure high email deliverability and avoid cold email outreach efforts landing in spam.
- Smartlead: This is a major strength of Smartlead. It offers unlimited email warm up for all connected mailboxes. Smartlead is considered by many to be the best cold email software for deliverability, using a unique infrastructure to protect sender reputation.
6. Inbox Management
- Mailshake: Mailshake provides a unified inbox to manage replies, but it is not as feature-rich as Smartlead’s inbox.
- Smartlead: Smartlead’s centralized master inbox is a key feature. It consolidates replies from all connected mailboxes into a single, unified view, making it simple for a smartlead team to manage conversations and qualified leads.
7. User and Mailbox Limits
- Mailshake: Mailshake’s plans have limits on the number of email accounts you can connect, depending on the plan.
- Smartlead: Smartlead is known for offering unlimited mailboxes on its plans, which is a huge advantage for agencies and sales teams who need to scale email campaigns without worrying about per-account costs.
8. Automation Features
- Mailshake: Mailshake is a provider automated email sequences, enabling sales teams to set up automated follow-ups and triggers to manage their sales engagement effectively.
- Smartlead: Smartlead is a provider automated email sequences for cold email automation. Its platform provides robust automation features, including automatic mailbox rotation and conditional follow-ups, to optimize cold email campaigns at scale.
9. Lead Management
- Mailshake: Mailshake’s lead catcher and other lead management features are built to help a sales team keep track of their pipeline.
- Smartlead: While Smartlead excels at cold email automation and deliverability, some users report having trouble uploading leads correctly or find that its lead management capabilities are not as intuitive as other platforms.
10. Customer Support
- Mailshake: Mailshake has a responsive support team available through in-app chat to assist sales reps with campaign setup and troubleshooting.
- Smartlead: The smartlead team also provides solid customer support, with many users praising their responsiveness and willingness to assist with technical issues related to cold email outreach.
11. LinkedIn Automation
- Mailshake: Mailshake offers a Chrome extension for some linkedin automation, but it is not as deeply integrated as some other platforms. It’s a useful feature, but not its main focus.
- Smartlead: While Smartlead is an exceptional cold email software, it does not have a strong focus on linkedin automation as a core part of its platform.
What to Look For When Choosing a Cold Email Tool?
- Deliverability: This is non-negotiable. Your tool should prioritize getting your emails into the inbox. Look for features like email warm-up, sender reputation management, and spam testing.
- Ease of Use: You don’t want to spend hours figuring out how to use the software. Choose a tool with an intuitive interface & straightforward navigation.
- Integrations: Does the tool integrate with the existing CRM, email provider, or other essential business tools? Seamless integrations can save you time and streamline your workflow.
- Support: Problems happen. Ensure the tool offers reliable customer support via email, chat, or phone.
- Pricing: Consider your budget and the number of emails you must send. Look for a tool that offers flexible pricing to match your needs.
- Unique Features: Some tools offer unique features, such as AI personalization, advanced analytics, or multi-channel outreach. Consider which features are most important to your cold email strategy.
- Trial Period: Most reputable tools offer a free trial or demo. Take advantage of this to test the software and see if it suits you.
Final Verdict (Our Pick)
Choosing between Mailshake and Smartlead depends on your specific outreach needs and budget.
If you’re looking for a robust email outreach software with advanced deliverability features and multichannel outreach capabilities, Mailshake emerges as the winner.
Its sophisticated features like AI-powered personalization, automated email rotation, and LinkedIn outreach give you a competitive edge.
Plus, Smartlead’s tiered pricing makes it a more budget-friendly option compared to Mailshake.
However, Mailshake excels in email automation and integrates seamlessly with popular CRMs like HubSpot.
If your primary focus is cold outreach and you need a tool that works well with your existing sales stack, Mailshake is a solid choice.
Ultimately, the best Smartlead alternative or Mailshake alternative is the one that aligns with your outreach goals and budget.
Consider factors like email verification, cold calling features, and the level of outreach automation you need to make an informed decision.
We hope this comparison helps you choose the best outreach software to boost your email outreach and achieve your sales goals!
Don’t forget to explore other cold outreach tools and email outreach software like Apollo.io vs Smartlead to find the perfect fit for your sales teams.
More of Mailshake
Here’s a comparison of Mailshake with its alternatives:
- Mailshake vs Snov IO: Mailshake focuses on streamlined email outreach and AI-powered writing. Snov IO is stronger in email finding, verification, and a broader sales suite.
- Mailshake vs Instantly: Mailshake offers more customization and comprehensive analytics for email campaigns. Instantly excels in automation, engagement, and rapid campaign setup.
- Mailshake vs Apollo: Mailshake provides user-friendly personalized email outreach. Apollo offers a vast B2B contact database and comprehensive sales intelligence.
- Mailshake vs Hunter IO: Mailshake specializes in email campaign automation and follow-ups. Hunter IO is primarily an email finder and verifier, with basic sending.
- Mailshake vs Reply IO: Mailshake focuses on efficient email automation and A/B testing. Reply IO provides robust multi-channel outreach, including LinkedIn and calls.
- Mailshake vs UpLead: Mailshake optimizes email outreach automation and deliverability. UpLead is a powerful source for high-quality, verified B2B lead data.
- Mailshake vs Lemlist: Mailshake offers straightforward, affordable email campaigns. Lemlist excels in hyper-personalization with rich media and advanced multi-channel features.
- Mailshake vs Woodpecker: Mailshake leads with AI-driven email and personalization. Woodpecker focuses on human-like sending patterns and strong email deliverability.
- Mailshake vs Smartlead: Mailshake simplifies personalized email campaigns. Smartlead offers unlimited mailboxes, advanced AI warm-ups, and multi-channel scaling.
- Mailshake vs Saleshandy: Mailshake handles varied outreach channels with automation. Saleshandy specializes in cold emailing with deliverability features and a lead finder.
- Mailshake vs Klenty: Mailshake is user-friendly for email automation beginners. Klenty provides a comprehensive sales engagement platform with deeper CRM integration.
- Mailshake vs Warmbox: Mailshake includes email warm-up within its outreach platform. Warmbox is a dedicated, specialized tool for robust email warm-up and deliverability.
- Mailshake vs Maildoso: Mailshake provides integrated email warm-up and campaign management, while Maildoso offers a robust multi-channel experience and email hosting services.
- Mailshake vs Manyreach: Mailshake focuses on personalized cold email automation. Manyreach offers cost-effective scalability with unlimited prospects and a unified inbox.
- Mailshake vs Warmy: Mailshake includes email warm-up as part of its outreach. Warmy is a dedicated email deliverability tool, specializing in advanced warm-up processes.
More of Smartlead
Here’s a comparison of Smartlead with its alternatives, highlighting their unique strengths:
- Smartlead vs Snov IO: Smartlead excels in email deliverability and AI-powered warm-up features. Snov IO is strong in email finding, verification, and a comprehensive sales automation suite.
- Smartlead vs Instantly: Smartlead offers advanced deliverability and AI-driven warm-up. Instantly provides an integrated lead database and simpler campaign management.
- Smartlead vs Apollo: Smartlead focuses on robust deliverability and campaign management. Apollo boasts a massive B2B database and extensive sales intelligence.
- Smartlead vs Hunter IO: Smartlead offers advanced email automation and deliverability. Hunter IO primarily specializes in email finding and verification.
- Smartlead vs Reply IO: Smartlead prioritizes AI-powered deliverability and high-volume sending. Reply IO features strong multi-channel engagement and AI insights.
- Smartlead vs UpLead: Smartlead emphasizes humanized sending patterns for deliverability. UpLead provides highly accurate, verified B2B contact data for prospecting.
- Smartlead vs Mailshake: Smartlead focuses on advanced deliverability and multi-channel capabilities. Mailshake offers an AI email writer and effective follow-up automation.
- Smartlead vs Lemlist: Smartlead is known for unlimited warm-ups and robust deliverability. Lemlist specializes in hyper-personalization with custom images and multi-channel sequences.
- Smartlead vs Woodpecker: Smartlead provides unlimited AI-powered email warm-up and scaling. Woodpecker focuses on the overall outreach experience and leads database access.
- Smartlead vs Saleshandy: Smartlead offers robust deliverability and advanced analytics for campaigns, while Saleshandy provides comprehensive email tracking and automation for sales teams.
- Smartlead vs Klenty: Smartlead excels in deliverability and robust email automation. Klenty offers a wider range of native CRM integrations and intuitive workflows.
- Smartlead vs Warmbox: Smartlead integrates warm-up into its broader outreach platform. Warmbox is a dedicated, specialized tool for advanced email warm-up and reputation building.
- Smartlead vs Maildoso: Smartlead offers a robust email deliverability infrastructure. Maildoso emphasizes high-volume sending with master inbox management.
- Smartlead vs Manyreach: Smartlead offers tiered plans and expiring credits. Manyreach provides credit-based pricing with non-expiring credits and a unified inbox.
- Smartlead vs Warmy: Smartlead includes email warm-up within its comprehensive platform. Warmy is a focused deliverability tool with AI behavior tracking and detailed reports.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Smartlead alternative for cold outreach?
If Smartlead isn’t the right fit, Mailshake is a strong contender with excellent email automation and integrations with popular CRMs. Apollo.io is another powerful cold outreach tool worth exploring.
Is Smartlead better than Mailshake for multichannel outreach?
Yes, Smartlead offers more extensive multichannel outreach capabilities. It allows you to connect with prospects across various platforms like email, LinkedIn, and even SMS, making your outreach automation more comprehensive.
Does Mailshake offer unlimited email accounts like Smartlead?
No, Mailshake doesn’t offer unlimited email accounts. The number of email accounts you can use depends on your chosen pricing tier. If you need to manage multiple email addresses for various outreach needs, Smartlead might be a better option.
Which platform is better for sales teams with limited budgets?
Smartlead generally offers more budget-friendly pricing plans compared to Mailshake. Its tiered pricing starts at a lower point, making it a more accessible option for sales teams looking to maximize their outreach efforts without breaking the bank.
What are some other cold outreach tools worth considering?
Besides Mailshake and Smartlead, other popular cold outreach tools and email outreach software include Apollo.io, Lemlist, and Outreach.io. Each of these tools offers unique features and vs Mailshake or Smartlead vs comparisons can help you identify the best fit for your specific outreach and email strategies.
