To do cold email well, you first need to get your technical details in order. In other words, you can’t just fire up your Gmail account and start spamming people with cold messages. You need a professional tool to set up and warm up your inboxes first, which improves your deliverability and overall email results.
One of the tools that promises to fix this problem is Mailscale, giving you access to everything for cold email outreach in one place. Today, we find out if Mailscale is worth it, and we look at some of the best competitors in the market for cold email campaigns.
What is Mailscale and who is it for?
Mailscale is an email tool that lets you instantly generate affordable inboxes designed for cold emailing. It’s built for marketers specializing in cold email campaigns, as it lets you create hundreds of mailboxes for effective outreach, instead of using just one for your main email communication.
Top Mailscale features
Mailscale can be a game changer for any business struggling to make their emails reach the primary inbox. Here are some of its main features.
Automatically create up to 1,000 email accounts
Mailscale can automatically generate large batches of email accounts across multiple domains. Users can scale their outreach efforts quickly without manually creating each mailbox.
Secondary domain purchasing
Mailscale allows users to buy additional domains directly through the platform. These secondary domains can be used to diversify sending addresses, which helps reduce the risk of deliverability issues or domain blacklisting.
DKIM, DMARC and SPF setup
The platform handles the technical setup of key email authentication protocols like DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance), and SPF (Sender Policy Framework).
These settings improve email deliverability and help prevent emails from being flagged as spam or phishing attempts.
Email forwarding
Mailscale offers automatic email forwarding from created accounts to a master inbox or designated email address. This allows users to monitor replies and manage communication from multiple accounts in one place.
Email inbox warmup
Mailscale gradually sends low-volume, natural-looking emails from new accounts to build their sender reputation over time.
This warmup process helps prevent deliverability problems that can occur when new email addresses start sending large volumes right away.
Mailscale pricing
Three plans are available.
The Solopreneur plan starts at $63/month and includes 2,000 prospects. Features include generating up to 15 email inboxes, easy domain acquisition, integrations with your existing email tool, automated DNS setup/DKIM/SPF Records, 24/7 live support, managed infrastructure, and much more.
The Business plan is $95/month and it unlocks everything from the previous plan, only now for 10,000 prospects and up to 50 inboxes. You also get a deliverability consultant and access to cold email scripts, for large scale outreach.
Finally, the Enterprise plan is $199/month and it opens up 30,000 prospects and up to 200 inboxes, with the ability to add more at $1/inbox/month, making it a great choice for cold emailers with advanced needs.
Reviews from real Mailscale users
Some users complain that Mailscale is not very transparent about its pricing. If you want to purchase additional domains for cold email outreach, the price they show you is different from what you actually end up paying.
“Their FAQ page says domains cost $9-13, but the .com domains were $15 when I logged in. (which is almost double what other providers charge). I couldn’t see this pricing change until I had already subscribed to Mailscale, so you have to pay the increased rate to continue with no warning. Also, you can’t add a profile picture to your inboxes. I think this would lower anyone’s reply rate, but this remains to be seen.” – Source
Another issue that pops up is that your cold email infrastructure should be based on Mailscale only. In other words, you’re forced to buy domains and finish the entire process with them.
“You’re forced to buy domains inside of Mailscale, which can be more expensive than other providers. Not a big deal, but would love some flexibility to bring in my own domains.” – Source
Lastly, if you want to warm up multiple email accounts, you’ll have to wait a few weeks before you get started with your campaigns. Despite the automated setup, you can’t skip the waiting period, which is fairly long compared to most competitors.
“Only downside is waiting 2-3 weeks for emails to warm up. However, there are very few companies that offer that, and they are usually very expensive.” – Source
The best Mailscale alternatives for cold email campaigns in 2025
If you want to stay out of the spam folder and have your messages delivered to the primary inbox, Mailscale is just one of the many cold email tools. Here are a few great alternatives for cold email marketing that will help you achieve the best deliverability possible.
Woodpecker
Woodpecker is a full-featured cold email platform that balances automation power with high deliverability and ease of use. It offers everything you need for sophisticated email outreach while protecting your sender’s reputation.
Key features:
- Automated email sequencing with condition‑based follow‑ups
- Inbox rotation and built‑in warm‑up to boost deliverability
- Real‑time analytics with open, click, reply, and bounce tracking
- A/B testing and dynamic personalization snippets for optimized messaging
- Unlimited team members and mailboxes on all plans
- CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier) and robust API access
- AI‑powered email assistant for crafting messages faster
Pricing:
- Starter plan starts at ~$20/month per mailbox
- Professional add-ons available for extended features, such as LinkedIn outreach automation, lead finder, additional domains, white-label reporting and more
- Free 7‑day trial with no credit card required
Considerations:
✅ Delivers powerful automation with a clean, intuitive interface
✅ Reliable customer support praised by many users
✅ Warm‑up and inbox rotation tools help maximize inbox placement
❌ Some users find the per‑mailbox pricing may add up
❌ Reporting is solid but could be more customizable
What users say:
“A very intuitive UI that makes campaign management simple… outstanding customer support. After trying several tools, Woodpecker offers the best support I’ve experienced”
“Woodpecker offers tons of tools specialised for cold outreach. Their sequencing is easy to use… Karina from Woodpecker was so supportive in answering my many questions”
“It’s simple and effective for cold email. You can scale without hurting deliverability.”
While Mailscale excels at building and managing outbound email infrastructure, Woodpecker delivers a more comprehensive outreach experience, from email sequencing and personalization to analytics and deliverability safeguards, all wrapped in a user‑friendly package.
If your priority is to hit inboxes, automate follow‑ups, and scale outreach efficiently, Woodpecker is the standout choice. Try it out for free today.
Maildoso
Maildoso is built for companies that rely heavily on cold email and want full control over deliverability factors. The platform handles domain management, authentication setup, and inbox reputation monitoring, allowing users to run high-volume outreach while trying to avoid spam filters.
Key features:
- SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication checks
- Purpose-built inboxes and domains for cold outreach
- Domain forwarding and master inbox management
- MX records setup and domain redirect configuration
- Mailbox reputation checks and daily inbox placement monitoring
Pricing:
- For 32 mailboxes and eight domains: $100 per month.
- For 68 mailboxes and 17 domains: $166 per month.
- For 400 mailboxes and 100 domains: $733 per month.
All plans include full deliverability features.
Considerations:
✅ Strong focus on authentication and deliverability
✅ Supports high mailbox volumes for outbound teams
✅ Ongoing monitoring of inbox reputation
❌ Deliverability issues are still possible even with safeguards
❌ Limited customization, no DNS setup allowed
❌ Some reliability concerns with domain replacements
What users say:
“What I dislike about Maildoso is that even with all the preventative measures we’ve put in place, our inboxes still seem to get affected pretty quickly. So I’m still unsure if deliverability is actually the issue—or if it’s more about the niche we’re currently targeting, which is on the riskier side when it comes to health-related content.”
“Unfortunately, we cannot connect these domains to other services because we are not allowed to configure DNS. It is limited to connecting it only to certain tools.”
“I had to reach out to support almost every day because there would be issues with the portal you log in to to manage. I’ve been sending cold emails for years and never burned a domain. Then with Maildoso, every single domain was burned in a single day because of a ‘large scale issue’ they were facing.”
Smartreach
Smartreach offers a complete cold outreach platform that goes beyond just email. It combines email sequences with LinkedIn, calling, and other channels, making it a solid choice for sales teams, recruiters, and agencies that need multichannel outreach. The platform includes a full deliverability suite, AI content generation, and flexible prospecting CRM features.
Key features:
- Email sequence builder with multichannel outreach
- Unified shared inbox to manage all conversations
- Reports and analytics to track campaign performance
- AI-powered content generation for email copy
- Prospecting CRM with built-in database management
- Deliverability suite with inbox rotation, warmup, and ESP matching
- LinkedIn email finder and outreach integration
Pricing:
Email Outreach Basic starts at $29 per month (1,000 prospects, 10 warmup accounts).
Email Outreach Plus is $89 per user per month (50,000 prospects, 25 warmup accounts, unlimited users, integrations).
Email Outreach Pro is $199 per month (100,000 prospects, 3 client dashboards, 75 warmup accounts).
Email Outreach Scale is $499 per month (500,000 prospects, 10 dashboards, unlimited warmup accounts).
Considerations:
✅ Covers email, LinkedIn, calling, and more in one platform
✅ Scales easily for high-volume outreach
✅ Built-in warmup and deliverability tools
❌ Learning curve for new users
❌ Some metrics and click tracking may be inaccurate
❌ Reporting could be more detailed
What users say:
“I’d never used SmartReach before joining Raw Selection, so this was all new to me and took me a while to work it autonomously. For new users, the platform may have a slight learning curve, especially for those who are not familiar with email automation tools.”
“Click tracking wasn’t always accurate. I got more responses than were sometimes showing on my dashboard.”
“We have a desire for more detailed reporting. Additionally, adding in increased automation options, such as Gmail integration and automatic contact importation upon receiving an email, would be super helpful.”
Saleshandy
Saleshandy focuses on helping outbound teams scale their cold email efforts with features aimed at sales, recruitment, and agency use cases. It combines multi-account management with warm-up tools, email rotation, and advanced testing options to improve deliverability and response rates.
Key features:
- Unified inbox to manage multiple campaigns and accounts
- Sender rotation to spread sending volume across multiple addresses
- Automatic email warm-up to build sender reputation
- A/B and multivariate testing (A-T testing) for optimizing campaigns
- Email verification is available as an extra paid feature
Pricing:
No free plan available. Paid plans for cold emailing start at $36 per month. Email verification is charged separately. Pricing varies based on use case, with packages for cold emailing, lead finding, and agency services.
Considerations:
✅ Multi-account sender rotation supports large volume sending
✅ Built-in warm-up helps avoid deliverability issues
✅ Flexible packages for different business models
❌ Limited CRM integrations on lower plans
❌ Follow-up automation requires an additional plan
❌ Complex pricing structure with many plan options
What users say:
“The user interface and managing contacts can be confusing. It’s tough to navigate and use the tool smoothly.”
“Saleshandy doesn’t fully work with Zoho, and it needs more HTML sample templates. It makes it harder to create good emails without extra work.”
“There could be more integrations.”
Cakemail
Cakemail is built for small businesses that need simple email marketing without a steep learning curve. The platform covers both marketing and transactional emails, giving users basic automation features and audience segmentation tools to run targeted campaigns. Its interface is clean and beginner-friendly, making it a good choice for companies just starting with email outreach.
Key features:
- Email marketing campaigns with responsive, branded templates
- Marketing automations for welcome emails, timed sends, and behavior-based flows
- Audience segmentation using tags, preferences, and custom fields
- Email API access for syncing data and automating transactional emails
- A/B testing for subject lines and content variations
- Analytics and reporting to monitor campaign performance
Pricing:
Free plan available. Paid plans start at $9 per month for Growth and $14 per month for Premium, but pricing increases as contact lists grow. For 10,000 contacts, Growth costs $50 per month and Premium costs $77 per month.
Considerations:
✅ Easy to use, even for beginners
✅ Clean interface and solid basic features
✅ API access for transactional email and integrations
❌ Customer support can be slow and limited
❌ The template library is small, and some features are missing
❌ Pricing gets expensive as contact lists grow
What users say:
“The first issue that pops up is customer support. Several users mention it’s slow or not always available, especially when help is needed most.”
Gmass
Gmass is a powerful mail merge and email automation tool that works directly inside your Gmail account. It is especially popular with individuals and teams who want to run cold email outreach without using a separate platform. Gmass removes Gmail’s sending limits and gives users access to advanced features that go far beyond basic email blasts.
Key features:
- Go beyond Gmail’s native sending limits
- Campaign performance analytics to track opens, clicks, and responses
- Automated follow-ups based on recipient behavior
- Personalization options for dynamic email content
- Scheduling and email polling for interactive campaigns
- Segmented campaigns and audience targeting
- Unsubscribe and reply management to stay compliant
- Built-in email list builder to create campaigns faster
- A/B testing to optimize subject lines and content
Pricing:
Individual plans start at $25 per month for Standard, $35 per month for Premium, and $55 per month for Professional. The Team Premium plan costs $145 per month.
Considerations:
✅ Extremely powerful for Gmail users
✅ Built-in follow-up automation and personalization
✅ Easy to launch campaigns without separate email infrastructure
❌ So many features can feel overwhelming
❌ Limited CRM integrations, mostly relies on Google Sheets
❌ Pricing could be more flexible for some users
What users say:
“There are a ton of functions in GMass; which could lead to confusion. However, the extension has been so user-friendly, so if I’m not sure how to make something work it is always a simple Google search.”
Conclusion
Mailscale is better than using traditional methods for outreach, like sending out emails from your Google workspace account. But besides the easy email setup, there are plenty of pitfalls, such as the lack of pricing transparency and long warmup times. Email marketers deserve a better choice.
With Woodpecker, you get all the tools in one cost effective platform. Cold email setup, domain warmup, email verification, priority support for all users… Are just some of the many reasons why marketers choose Woodpecker for cold outreach.