Why I switched from Lemlist to Instantly and never looked back

instantly_convert · 2026-03-08 · 2,190 views

I was paying $99 per user per month for Lemlist's multichannel plan. Three users on my team. That's $297/month just for the sending platform. After 6 months, I did a hard audit on what we were actually using and what was driving results. The answer surprised me.

What we used on Lemlist: Email sequences. That's basically it. We set up a few LinkedIn automation steps in the beginning but stopped after month 2 because managing LinkedIn accounts alongside email accounts was too much overhead for our small team. The LinkedIn connection request steps had a 12% acceptance rate and the follow-up messages got a 2% reply rate. Decent, but not worth the complexity and cost premium.

What we didn't use: LinkedIn automation (stopped after month 2). The Lemlist image personalization feature (tried it, made no difference in reply rates for our ICP). The landing page builder. The API integrations we thought we'd build but never did.

The switch to Instantly: Instantly Growth plan at $30/month. Not per user. $30 total. Unlimited email accounts connected. Unlimited warmup. The same core email sequencing functionality we were actually using on Lemlist. We connected all our PuzzleInbox accounts via OAuth, imported our sequences, and were sending within an hour.

What changed after switching:

Costs dropped from $297/month to $30/month. $267/month saved. $3,204/year. For a small team, that is meaningful.

Reply rates stayed the same. 3.6% on Lemlist, 3.7% on Instantly with identical copy and prospect lists. The sending platform does not determine your reply rate. Your infrastructure (inboxes) and your copy determine your reply rate. The platform just delivers the emails from your inboxes.

Warmup is built in. On Lemlist we were paying for Lemwarm separately. On Instantly, warmup is included. Another small savings.

The Instantly lead management features (lead finder, Unibox for unified reply management) have improved significantly since early versions. It covers 90% of what we need without any add-ons.

What I miss from Lemlist: Honestly, the multi-channel concept was good in theory. Email plus LinkedIn in a single sequence is a strong outreach strategy. But for our team of 3, the operational overhead of managing LinkedIn accounts alongside email accounts was not worth it. If I had a team of 10 with a dedicated person managing LinkedIn, Lemlist's multi-channel might make sense.

The email template editor on Lemlist is also slightly better. More polished. But for cold email where you're sending plain text (no HTML, no images, no fancy formatting), the editor barely matters.

When Lemlist makes sense: Teams with 5+ reps who actively use LinkedIn automation as part of their outreach sequence. Companies where multi-channel (email plus LinkedIn plus calling) is a core strategy, not an experiment. Organizations with dedicated ops people who can manage the complexity.

When Instantly makes sense: Solo operators and small teams focused on cold email. Anyone whose primary outreach channel is email and LinkedIn is handled separately (or not at all). Budget-conscious teams that want unlimited email accounts without per-user pricing. Agencies managing multiple clients where Instantly's per-account pricing is dramatically cheaper than Lemlist's per-user pricing.

The platform you send from matters less than the inboxes you send from. I run Instantly connected to pre-warmed PuzzleInbox accounts and my deliverability is excellent. Same infrastructure on Lemlist would produce the same results at 10x the cost.