21 Mailshake Alternatives to Consider in 2023

Looking for an effective cold email platform? So are a lot of marketers who have learned that cold emails are an effective way to improve your B2B lead generation. This rush to take advantage of the edge you can gain from such tools is the reason why so many different Mailshake alternatives have appeared in the last couple of years.

There’s no shortage of choices when it comes to selecting a cold email platform, the challenge is sorting out the differences between them and choosing the right one for you.

Mailshake has been one common option for cold emails but there are many other platforms now available, each with its own range of features & functionalities. To make you aware of the alternatives to Mailshake that you have, I’ve put together this comprehensive list of cold emailing platforms, along with a few words about each.

Use it to compare services and think about which combination of features best suits your needs.

Mailshake overview

Let’s start with some key facts about Mailshake:

• Enhanced deliverability measures
• Rich personalization options
• Integrations available for most other platforms you use
• Starts at $58/month on annual subscription

On the other hand, users often complain about:

• A lack of campaign metrics
• Extra charges for team members and poor functionality for teams
• Limits on daily emails sent

List of Mailshake alternatives

Now let’s turn to the long list of alternatives to Mailshake that are available.

Have a look and dive deeper into any name that catches your eye!

Woodpecker

Woodpecker comes with several extremely useful tools that help to ensure that your message lands in prospect inboxes, like account warm-up and email verification. It also uses algorithms that work in the background that spread out the sending times of your messages so you don’t attract the attention of spam filters.

Woodpecker’s offer is divided into three different products, each with its own free trial — Cold Email, Sales Assistant and Agency. Each offers a tailored package of features to get the most out of cold emails for different use cases.

Arguably the best alternative to Mailshake, Woodpecker’s well-deserved reputation is based on being a leader in the cold email space and continuing to improve its service over the years with constant innovation.

Here are some of the things that make Woodpecker stand out:

Features

• Dedicated, automated tools to boost deliverability and keep your messages out of spam
• Deep personalization of emails, A/B testing and automatic follow-ups that stop when a prospect replies to your email
• Simple integrations with all the tools you already use
• 3 products to meet the unique needs of different types of users (simple cold email campaigns, expanded functionalities for complex sales campaigns, power users in agencies)

Support

• Amazing library of materials on how to write, send & track effective cold emails
• Extensive guides on how to get the most out of Woodpecker
• The best support team in the business ready to help when you need it

Value

• A free trial that lets you sample all three Woodpecker products
• Best value for money considering price points and what’s offered
• Basic plan includes features that require extra payment from other platforms

Outreach.io

Outreach.io places an emphasis (and their platform) in the broader context of sales campaigns based on cold emails. Here’s some of what you’ll find there:

• Pipeline generation & deal management modules
• Not really a cold emailing tool, more general sales outreach
• Strangely, pricing plans only available on request
• No free trial but you can request a demo

Reply.io

Another tool that’s more about general sales than strictly cold emails, Reply.io describes itself as a “Full-cycle sales engagement solution”:

• email finder, AI assistant, CRM integrations to broaden support
• Three levels of features & tools available – Starter, Professional & Custom
• Higher price point needed to get important campaign metrics
• Starts at $60 a month with open, click and reply tracking
• Free trial available

Mixmax

This is a sales engagement platform designed to work with Gmail. Mixmax offers familiar features like:

• Custom email sequences & workflows
• Integration with whole revenue team is a central idea of Mixmax
• Questionable ability to guarantee high delivery rates
• Free plan with basic tools, paid plans start at $24 / month with basic email functionality
• 2-week free trial, no credit card required

Yesware

Yesware is more oriented towards power users working at a medium to large scale. Not for everyone but just what some users need:

• Limited to Gmail and Outlook
• Deep integration with Salesforce for updated customer status information
• Accessible price points and tier options with different functionalities for different needs
• No A/B testing, many features you’re unlikely to use if not connected to a CRM

Apollo.io

They might be over-promising a bit when they pledge to help you “reach every buyer on Earth”, but Apollo.io puts an emphasis on using business intelligence to enhance your lead generation:

• Cold emails not really the focus of this platform, more oriented towards using their database to create prospects
• The crucial issue of email deliverability is not even mentioned on their site
• Good features for end-to-end automation
• No free trial but there is a free plan with limited features

Salesloft

This is another platform that really doesn’t specialize in cold emails, focusing on larger sales processes instead. It’s right there in the name, Salesloft:

• Send what they call “sales emails” and get the usual analytic insights – clicks, opens, etc.
• No special features to avoid spam filters and boost deliverability
• No free trial but you can request a demo
• Pricing info available only on request

Klenty

Here’s a comprehensive, all-in-one tool that folds prospecting, lead gen, automation and a few other things all into one Swiss Army knife of marketing outreach. A lot of tools is great, but too many choices can make the whole thing too complicated:

• Good inventory of support materials to help navigate the system
• Interesting feature that lets you pitch to accounts (companies) rather than individuals
• Two-week free trial with no credit card required, demo available
• $50 monthly starting price point doesn’t come with as many useful features as you might expect

Instantly

More oriented toward the email side of things rather than general sales, Instantly is more focused than many of the other services on this list:

• Important Warm-up function included among their features
• Not much support material to answer questions, guide you through the product
• Limits on the number of contacts you can use and mails you can send
• Free Trial button doesn’t tell you what you get or for how long, you have to open account first

YAMM

Yet Another Mail Merge is built to allow users to send mass emails from Gmail with some additional functionalities sprinkled on top:

• Built for Gmail and Gmail only. Don’t like/use Gmail? Nothing for you here.
• No special features for guaranteeing delivery or avoiding spam
• Quite inexpensive, just $25 a year for single user
• Limits on daily mails, recipients

HubSpot Sales Hub

One of the biggest names in the business, HubSpot enjoys a reputation for quality products and a rabid fan base of subscribers. No one disputes their standard of quality, but are you ready to pay $10,000 a year to use it?

• Outstanding performance across the board – the gold standard for lead generation
• Pricing puts it out of reach for many small & medium businesses
• Plans with lower price points exist, but also come with much lower functionality, not for cold emailing
• May be difficult to find staff that can operate Hubspot

Quickmail

Quickmail brings the focus back to cold emails and the basic features associated with cultivating prospects, like automated responses at scale, etc.:

• Warm-up offered but no specific features for boosting deliverability or avoiding spam
• Extensive options for automating all of your outreach
• Relatively high starting price point ($59) still comes with daily limit of 500 emails
• Free trial available, good support materials for cold emails

Streak

Another Gmail-based lead gen service, Streak essentially builds on top of it and adds its own analytics and automation possibilities:

• Options to easily add some attractive elements to your cold emails, like charts and graphs
• Good tools for automated follow-ups to your messages
• Platform not really oriented toward B2B lead generation, tries to be too many things at once
• Most useful features only available at higher price points

Saleshandy

After Woodpecker, Saleshandy is probably the second-most-focused service on cold emails on this list. Unlike some others, they don’t try to be a general, all-things-marketing tool:

• Good mix of the tools you need for cold email outreach
• Extra modules to target leads in certain industries
• Limits on emails and recipients at all price points
• Email verification, free with Woodpecker, costs an extra $60

Lemlist

Another cold email-centered service, Lemlist offers a complete set of tools to support cold outreach:

• Dedicated warm-up tool for boosting deliverability and keeping your message out of spam folders (but comes at extra cost)
• Extensive options for personalization
• Agency module available for managing multiple accounts
• Lower price points missing important functions like email verification

GMass

We’re back to the world of Gmail with GMass. As with a few others on this list, GMass is essentially an extension of Google’s email service:

• Great if you really love Gmail and don’t want to work with anything else
• Uses its own technology to get around Gmail’s daily sending limits that would otherwise trigger spam filters
• Behavioral-based campaigns and the personalization & follow-up options you need
• Very limited with integration with other tools, email-only support
• No free trial

Vocus.io

A visit to their website makes it clear that Vocus.io doesn’t want to waste your time with lots of stuff to read. Getting a fair impression of what they have offer is difficult:

• The basics of cold emailing – personalizing, automating and tracking
• No mention of cold emails, deliverability or avoiding spam on their site
• The good news — the highest package is $20. The bad news — what do you think you’re getting for $20?
• 30-day free trial with no credit card required

SmartReach

SmartReach offers all the tools and services you expect from names on this list, like automation, personalization, follow-ups, etc. Beyond that, however, there isn’t much to make it really stand out.

• Zero reference to enhanced deliverability beyond what you get using a free email service
• Limits on daily emails sent on all plans
• Kind of pricey compared to other options, basic plan is $99 / month
• Fairly limited integrations

Overloop

Visit their site and you’ll read a lot of promises about HUGE! results but lots of details are missing. Overloop offers the standard mix of sales automation tools, including email, but they’re apparently keen on keeping the specifics a secret:

• The basics that you need to put together a cold outbound campaign, including templates, address finder, LinkedIn integration, etc.
• The last addition to their blog was ten months ago as we publish this, so draw your own conclusions
• High starting price point – 99 Euro a month (but this is 14-day free trial)
• No detailed information on cold emails or deliverability

Postaga

Postaga ticks a lot of the right boxes for a good cold email tool. The high starting price point is a turn-off and may discourage many who are just starting out:

• Good, balanced package of essential tools for cold emails
• Missing features designed to boost deliverability and avoid spam
• Free trial available
• Rather expensive compared to other options

Cirrus Insight

More of a general sales platform, Cirrus Insight is more focused around automating the sales process rather that cold mails specifically:

• Great functionality and well presented, but cold emails are only a very small, barely mentioned part
• Knowledge base and support materials badly organize, hard to find what you want
• Quite low price points, but what you get for each package is very poorly explained

Decision time

As you can see, there’s no shortage of options when it comes to picking a Mailshake alternative. When choosing the best one for you, consider the features, price and your overall comfort level when using it.

Some are more focused on cold emails, while others are for more general sales efforts and your own needs and expectations will determine which way to go. Try them out — so many free trials to sign up for! — and conduct your own research to find the best Mailshake alternative!