Compared by a third option

Instantly vs Smartlead

Two workspace-priced cold email tools, compared on price, mailboxes and add-ons. We make a third.

14-day trial, no credit card.

Who wrote this.

This page is written by Fuzegenai, which competes with both tools. Neither Instantly nor Smartlead reviewed it. Every price and limit comes from their own pricing pages, linked at the bottom, and the third column shows where Fuzegenai sits so you can discount our view accordingly.

Instantly and Smartlead are closer to each other than to most tools. Both price by workspace rather than per seat, both include unlimited email accounts and warmup, and both have a separate way to pay for lead data. The differences are in volume steps, what is bundled, and what is sold as an add-on.

Instantly vs Smartlead, feature by feature.

Read from both vendors' pages in October 2026. Fuzegenai shown for reference.

Instantly, Smartlead and Fuzegenai compared on pricing, sending, deliverability, data and agency features
	Instantly	Smartlead	Fuzegenai
Pricing
Plans, billed monthly	InstantlyGrowth $47, Hypergrowth $97, Light Speed $358, Enterprise custom	SmartleadBase $39, Pro $94, Unlimited Smart $174, Unlimited Prime $379	FuzegenaiStarter $39, Professional $79, Enterprise priced by our team
Pricing unit	InstantlyWorkspace plan, plus a separate Credits plan for lead data	SmartleadPer account, “not per seat and not per mailbox”	FuzegenaiPer account. Every plan includes several seats
Yearly billing	InstantlyLower per-month prices shown for yearly billing	Smartlead17% off	Fuzegenai$31 and $63 a month when billed yearly
Free trial	Instantly14 days, no card: 2 accounts, 250 leads, 1,000 emails	SmartleadFree trial, no card (length not stated)	Fuzegenai14 days, no card. 1 mailbox and 50 emails
Sending
Email accounts	InstantlyUnlimited on every plan	SmartleadUnlimited on all plans	Fuzegenai10 on Starter, 50 on Professional, 250 on Enterprise
Emails a month	Instantly5,000 on Growth, 500,000 on Light Speed	Smartlead6,000 on Base, 90,000 on Pro, 150,000 and 500,000 on the Unlimited plans	Fuzegenai10,000 a month on Starter, 100,000 on Professional
Contacts	Instantly1,000, 25,000 and 100,000 uploaded contacts	Smartlead2,000 on Base, 30,000 on Pro, unlimited above	Fuzegenai25,000 on Starter, 250,000 on Professional
Warmup	InstantlyUnlimited email warmup	SmartleadUnlimited warmup, pool tier rises with the plan	FuzegenaiIncluded on every plan, with spam and Promotions rescue
Deliverability
Inbox placement tests	InstantlyIncluded: one-time tests on Growth, automated on Hypergrowth	SmartleadSmartDelivery add-on, from $49 a month	FuzegenaiPlacement read from warmup traffic, per mailbox
Spam checking	InstantlySpamAssassin spam-trigger detection in placement tests	SmartleadReal-time spam flag monitoring	FuzegenaiEvery campaign email is spam-scored first. Held for a rewrite at 2.0, blocked at 8.0, held if the scorer is down
Dedicated servers	InstantlyPrivate deliverability network on Enterprise	SmartleadSmartServers, $39 per server a month	FuzegenaiNot offered
Reputation-based throttling	InstantlyNot stated	SmartleadNot stated	FuzegenaiPer-mailbox reputation score. A slipping mailbox sends 20% of its share; a very low one is paused
Data, channels and agencies
Lead database	Instantly450M+ B2B leads on Credits plans, from $47 a month	SmartleadSmartProspect, 300M+ profiles; verified emails $59 a month on Base and Pro	FuzegenaiSuperSearch over 700,000 verified contacts, plus Lead Finder. Paid in credits, 1 credit per work email
Calls and SMS	InstantlyCall and SMS from the browser in Instantly CRM	SmartleadSmartDialer, credit-based, from $9 a month	FuzegenaiEmail only
Agency branding	InstantlyWhite-label on Hypergrowth and Light Speed	SmartleadWhite-label client workspaces, $29 a month each, from Pro	FuzegenaiClient workspaces and portals, not rebranded
Reply inbox	InstantlyUnibox	SmartleadUnified Master Inbox	FuzegenaiUnified inbox with intent labels
CRM integrations named	InstantlyHubSpot	SmartleadHubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho	FuzegenaiSalesforce and Pipedrive two-way sync, HubSpot contact import. Professional and above

Price at your volume.

The cheapest monthly plan on each that covers the volume. List prices, before tax and add-ons.

Monthly price at five sending volumes: Instantly, Smartlead and Fuzegenai
	Instantly	Smartlead	Fuzegenai
5,000 emails a month	Instantly$47 (Growth)	Smartlead$39 (Base)	Fuzegenai$39 (Starter)
10,000 emails a month	Instantly$97 (Hypergrowth)	Smartlead$94 (Pro)	Fuzegenai$39 (Starter)
50,000 emails a month	Instantly$97 (Hypergrowth)	Smartlead$94 (Pro)	Fuzegenai$79 (Professional)
100,000 emails a month	Instantly$97 (Hypergrowth)	Smartlead$174 (Unlimited Smart)	Fuzegenai$79 (Professional)
500,000 emails a month	Instantly$358 (Light Speed)	Smartlead$379 (Unlimited Prime)	FuzegenaiEnterprise, priced by our team

Instantly’s plan cards list Hypergrowth at 125,000 emails a month while its comparison table lists 100,000; either covers 100,000. Lead data is extra on both. Fuzegenai caps mailboxes per plan and the other two do not.

Choose Instantly if…

It suits teams near 100,000 emails a month, and anyone who wants placement tests and a big database.

01
You send around 100,000 emails a month.
Instantly's Hypergrowth plan at $97 covers that volume. Smartlead's $94 Pro plan stops at 90,000 emails, so the same volume needs Unlimited Smart at $174.
02
You want placement tests in the plan.
Instantly includes unlimited one-time inbox placement tests on Growth and automated tests on Hypergrowth. On Smartlead, placement testing is the SmartDelivery add-on.
03
You want a large lead database.
Instantly's Credits plans open a database of 450M+ B2B leads, from $47 a month on top of the outreach plan.
04
You want to try before you choose a plan.
Instantly's 14-day trial needs no card and includes 2 accounts, 250 leads, 1,000 emails and two placement tests.

Choose Smartlead if…

It suits small starts, agencies that resell, and teams that want to buy deliverability as add-ons.

01
You start small.
Smartlead's Base plan is $39 a month for 6,000 emails, against Instantly's $47 Growth plan for 5,000. At 10,000 to 50,000 emails, Pro at $94 is a few dollars below Instantly's Hypergrowth.
02
You resell outbound under your brand.
Smartlead sells white-label client workspaces at $29 a month each from Pro, and its top plan includes three. Instantly offers white-label on its Hypergrowth and Light Speed plans.
03
You want infrastructure you can buy.
Smartlead sells dedicated SmartServers at $39 per server a month and the SmartDelivery placement add-on from $49 a month.
04
You need many contacts stored.
Smartlead's Unlimited plans store unlimited contacts. Instantly's top self-serve plan stores 100,000 uploaded contacts.

Where Fuzegenai fits.

A third option if you want deliverability decided per send, not tested on the side. 14-day trial, no card.

Every send is checked first.

Fuzegenai scores each campaign email with rspamd before it leaves. It sends under 2.0, holds for a rewrite from 2.0 and blocks at 8.0. If scoring is down, the email waits. Try it on the spam checker.

Mailboxes are throttled by reputation.

A mailbox rated bad sends 20% of its share while warmup repairs it; one rated very bad is paused. The rest of the campaign carries on. More on the deliverability page.

One plan from $39.

Warmup, DNS checks, spam scoring and the unified inbox are on every plan. At 50,000 or 100,000 emails a month that is Professional at $79. See pricing.

It caps mailboxes.

Fuzegenai includes 10, 50 or 250 mailboxes by plan. If you rotate hundreds of mailboxes, Instantly or Smartlead will suit you better.

Already on one of them?

Fuzegenai imports from both, with an API key.

From Instantly, the import brings mailboxes with their limits, campaigns with steps, A/B variants and schedules, leads with their sequence progress, and full conversations. Active campaigns arrive paused.

From Smartlead, it brings mailboxes, campaigns, leads with their category and progress, unsubscribes and conversations. You can run it again, and only new leads and replies are added.

From either, warmup reputation stays behind, because it belongs to the old tool's network. Fuzegenai warms each mailbox itself. Check your domain first on the domain checker, then read how switching works.

Instantly vs Smartlead, answered.

Short answers. The tables above have the detail.

Which is cheaper, Instantly or Smartlead?

It depends on volume. Smartlead's entry plan includes more emails than Instantly's, so it is cheaper at the low end. Around 100,000 emails a month, Instantly's second plan covers the volume while Smartlead needs its third. The tables on this page give the monthly list prices, checked October 2026.

Do both include unlimited email accounts and warmup?

Both vendors say so on their pricing pages: neither caps the number of email accounts, and both include warmup. Fuzegenai, the third option on this page, caps mailboxes at 10, 50 or 250 by plan.

Which is better for agencies?

Both sell to agencies. Smartlead sells branded client workspaces as a per-client add-on from its Pro plan. Instantly offers branding for agencies on its Hypergrowth and Light Speed plans. Fuzegenai has a workspace per client and client portals, but they carry the Fuzegenai name.

Which has the bigger lead database?

Instantly lists a database of 450M+ B2B leads on a separate Credits plan. Smartlead's SmartProspect lists 300M+ business profiles, with verified emails as an add-on on its lower plans.

Where does Fuzegenai fit?

Fuzegenai is a third option for teams that want every campaign email spam-scored before it is sent and held at 2.0, with mailboxes throttled by their own reputation, on one plan from $39 a month. It imports from both Instantly and Smartlead.

Related comparisons.

Instantly alternative

Fuzegenai and Instantly side by side, with where Instantly wins.

Fuzegenai vs Instantly

Smartlead alternative

Fuzegenai and Smartlead side by side, with where Smartlead wins.

Fuzegenai vs Smartlead

Best cold email software

Eight tools on one table, with who each suits.

Read the comparison

Sources

Last checked: October 2026.

Competitor prices and limits come from each vendor’s own pages, read in October 2026. They are list prices in US dollars, before tax and promotions. Vendors change plans often, so check their pricing before you decide. “Not stated” means we did not find it on those pages, not that it does not exist.

Or try the third option.

Import from Instantly or Smartlead, or start with one mailbox.

Start your import How switching works