Quick answer
Pick Instantly if you mostly send email: Hypergrowth is $97 a month for 125,000 emails, against 50,000 on Salesforge Growth at $96, and above that Instantly stays far cheaper per email. It also adds calls and SMS through its CRM. Pick Salesforge if LinkedIn belongs in the same sequence: Growth includes unlimited LinkedIn senders, one inbox for both channels, unlimited workspaces and AI personalization credits. At the entry level the two cost the same, $47 against $48 for 5,000 emails. Prices are for monthly billing, checked on both pricing pages on 14 October 2026.
Same entry price, different limits
Instantly Growth and Salesforge Pro cost almost the same and both send 5,000 emails a month. The limits sit in different places:
| Instantly Growth | Salesforge Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly billing | $47 | $48 |
| Billed annually, per month | $37.60 | $40 |
| Emails a month | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| Contacts | 1,000 uploaded | 1,000 active, unlimited stored |
| Mailboxes and warmup | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Team members | Not on Growth | 1 user |
| Answering replies in the shared inbox | No, Unibox is preview only | Yes, in Primebox, with AI sentiment tags |
| API | Yes | No, Growth only |
| No | 1 sender, 300 social action credits | |
| AI writing | AI Sequence Writer | 300 personalization credits a month |
| Email validation | Sold separately | 300 credits a month |
Sources: Salesforge's pricing page, plus Instantly's pricing summary and plan comparison.
One detail to check before you sign up: on Instantly Growth you can read replies in Unibox but not answer them there. Replying from Unibox, inviting team members and webhooks start on Hypergrowth. On Salesforge Pro you answer in Primebox but get no API. Pick the entry plan by what you'd miss more.
For context on who's comparing: I'm a GTM consultant who builds cold email and LinkedIn outbound for B2B companies, with 2000+ meetings booked for clients.
Disclosure. I run Salesforge for clients, together with Mailforge, Infraforge and Warmforge, and I've written guest articles for Salesforge's blog. No tool in this article pays me, and there are no affiliate links. Take my view as a preference from daily use, not a verdict. Below I say plainly where Instantly is the better buy, and on price per email it usually is.
From $96 up, Instantly sends far more
One step up, the picture changes. Instantly Hypergrowth is $97 a month for 125,000 emails and 25,000 uploaded contacts. Salesforge Growth is $96 for 50,000 emails and 10,000 active contacts. Past those limits, Instantly sells an Outreach add-on of 125,000 emails and 25,000 contacts for $87 a month. The calculator on Salesforge's pricing page adds blocks of 50,000 emails and 10,000 active contacts at $86 a month each. On monthly billing:
| Emails a month | Instantly | Salesforge |
|---|---|---|
| 50,000 | Hypergrowth, $97 | Growth, $96 |
| 125,000 | Hypergrowth, $97 | Growth plus two blocks, $268 |
| 250,000 | Hypergrowth plus one add-on, $184 | Growth plus four blocks, $440 |
| 500,000 | Light Speed, $358 | Growth plus nine blocks, $870 |
For email volume, Instantly wins by a wide margin. If cold email is your only channel and you send more than 50,000 a month, I'd pick Instantly over Salesforge on price alone.
The contact count works the other way. Instantly counts every contact you upload. Salesforge counts only the people in an active sequence and stores the rest for free. If you load a big list and work through it in batches, Salesforge's count is kinder, though at 125,000 emails a month Instantly is still cheaper.
This is how I set it up for clients: 20 to 30 cold emails per mailbox a day, after 3 to 4 weeks of warmup. So 125,000 emails over about 22 sending days takes roughly 190 to 285 mailboxes. Both tools connect that many without charging per mailbox.
LinkedIn: the reason to pay Salesforge's price
Instantly has no LinkedIn step in its sequences. Its automations, included on every Outreach plan, pass leads to Aimfox, HeyReach, La Growth Machine, Valley or Expandi on triggers such as a reply or an accepted connection. Leads sent to Aimfox, HeyReach or Valley need a LinkedIn URL.
Salesforge runs LinkedIn inside the sequence. Its multichannel page lists invites, messages, InMails, follows and profile views next to the emails, with branches on conditions you set and replies from both channels in Primebox. A flow like this needs both channels in one place:
- Day 1: first email. 30 to 40 words, one concrete problem, one question.
- Day 3: connection request without a note.
- Day 6: accepted? A two-line LinkedIn message. Not accepted? A second email with a new angle.
- Day 10: a last short email. Anyone who replied on either channel has already dropped out.
The Day 6 message can be this short:
"Thanks for connecting, Marta. I emailed you on Monday about ramping new reps faster. Happy to pick it up here if that's easier."
With Instantly you'd build the email half in Instantly and the LinkedIn half in HeyReach or Expandi, joined by an automation. That works. You end up with two tools, two bills and two places to read replies.
| Setup, monthly billing | Instantly Hypergrowth plus HeyReach | Salesforge Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Email plus 1 LinkedIn profile | $97 + $79 = $176 | $96 |
| Email plus 2 LinkedIn profiles | $97 + $158 = $255 | $96 |
HeyReach's pricing page lists $79 a month per LinkedIn sender on its Growth plan. Keep in mind the Instantly column also sends 125,000 emails against Salesforge's 50,000, so Salesforge only comes out ahead here when LinkedIn is part of the plan. On Salesforge's side, LinkedIn steps use social action credits: 1,000 a month on Growth, 300 on Pro. Salesforge estimates 400 to 500 per profile a month at full capacity, so Growth covers about two busy profiles before you buy more, from $50 a month on its calculator.
If LinkedIn already runs in HeyReach or Expandi and works, keep it. Instantly next to a dedicated LinkedIn tool is a perfectly good stack, and HeyReach lists a native Instantly integration.
Workspaces, agencies, calls and CRM
- Workspaces. Instantly's help center says each workspace needs its own subscription. Salesforge includes unlimited workspaces on both plans. If you keep clients or brands apart, Salesforge costs less as you add them.
- White-label. Instantly includes an agency portal on Hypergrowth and Light Speed. Its help article lists the limits: one portal per workspace, and clients with campaign access see every campaign in that workspace. Salesforge offers white-label as a reseller program with a 20% recurring revenue share.
- Calls and SMS. Instantly's CRM lets you call and text prospects from the browser. Salesforge lists neither and stops at email and LinkedIn. If a phone step belongs in your process, that's a point for Instantly.
Deliverability and mailboxes
| Instantly | Salesforge | |
|---|---|---|
| Warmup | Unlimited on every plan | Unlimited, run by Warmforge, on both plans |
| Inbox placement tests | Unlimited one-time tests on Growth, automated tests on Hypergrowth | 1 free test per mailbox a month |
| Extra protection | Deliverability AI Agent from Hypergrowth, dedicated servers and IP rotation (SISR) on Light Speed | ESP matching on Growth, IP rotation on both plans |
| Google mailboxes | Done-for-you $5 a month, pre-warmed $10 | Primeforge, $4.50 a month, minimum 10 |
| Cheaper mailboxes | Airmail accounts, $4 a month | Mailforge, $3 a month, minimum 10 |
| Domains | $15 a year | $14 a year for .com |
Sources: Instantly's pricing summary and inbox placement page, Salesforge's warmup page, Primeforge and Mailforge pricing.
Instantly is ahead on testing: its inbox placement page includes unlimited one-time tests on Growth and automated tests on Hypergrowth. Salesforge is a little cheaper per mailbox but sells at least 10 at a time. Neither saves a badly set up domain. Separate sending domains, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, warmup and low volume per mailbox decide where you land. My cold email deliverability guide walks through the setup.
AI and lead data
Instantly keeps lead data and AI agents on a separate Credits subscription. Growth Credits is $47 a month for 1,500 to 2,000 credits, which cover its 450M+ B2B lead database, enrichment and AI agents. The AI Sales Agent and AI Reply Agent use 5 credits per lead or reply. The Outreach plans include an AI Sequence Writer.
Salesforge puts AI writing into the plan: 1,000 personalization credits a month on Growth for emails written by AI and unique to each lead, plus AI-drafted replies in Primebox and sequences in any language. Its AI SDR, Agent Frank, is sold separately after a demo: $599 a month billed quarterly or $499 billed annually. Lead data sits in Leadsforge, a separate product, listed at $49 a month in the sample stack on Salesforge's pricing page.
Which one to pick
Pick Instantly if
- Email is your main channel and you send more than 50,000 a month.
- You want an API on the cheapest plan, or webhooks from $97.
- You want calls and SMS in the same app.
- You want lead data in the tool you send from.
Pick Salesforge if
- You want email and LinkedIn in one sequence and one inbox.
- You run several workspaces, for clients or brands, and don't want a subscription for each.
- You want AI personalization and email validation included in the plan.
- You keep big lists and only work part of them at a time.
Where I wouldn't pick Salesforge: email-only outreach at high volume. Instantly sends far more for the money. Smartlead is the other tool worth a look: see Salesforge vs Smartlead or the three-way Smartlead vs Instantly vs Salesforge.
Run both trials the same way. Instantly's 14-day trial needs no card and covers 1,000 emails and 250 uploaded contacts. Salesforge's 14-day trial covers 100 emails and 50 contacts, enough to check inbox placement and the LinkedIn steps but not a real campaign. Use your own domains and send to test inboxes on Gmail and Outlook before you move a live campaign.
Key takeaways
- The entry plans cost the same, $47 and $48 for 5,000 emails, but Instantly Growth can't answer replies from Unibox and Salesforge Pro has no API.
- At about $96, Instantly sends 125,000 emails a month and Salesforge 50,000. At 250,000 a month, Instantly costs $184 and Salesforge about $440.
- Salesforge runs LinkedIn steps natively in the same sequence and inbox. Instantly hands leads to HeyReach, Expandi and other LinkedIn tools through automations.
- Instantly needs a subscription per workspace. Salesforge includes unlimited workspaces on both plans.
- Instantly adds calls and SMS through its CRM and includes placement tests in its plans. Salesforge stops at email and LinkedIn.
FAQ
Is Instantly better than Salesforge?
For email only, yes on price: Hypergrowth sends 125,000 emails a month for $97, against 50,000 for $96 on Salesforge Growth. Salesforge is the better fit when LinkedIn steps belong in the same sequence and inbox as your emails.
Which is cheaper, Instantly or Salesforge?
At the entry level they're almost equal: $47 for Instantly Growth and $48 for Salesforge Pro, both with 5,000 emails a month. Above that, Instantly is far cheaper per email. Prices checked 14 October 2026.
Does Instantly have LinkedIn automation?
Not as a sequence step. Its automations send leads to Aimfox, HeyReach, La Growth Machine, Valley or Expandi, which you pay for separately. Salesforge has LinkedIn steps built into its sequences.
Can you reply from Unibox on Instantly's Growth plan?
No. On Growth, Unibox shows replies as a preview only. Instantly's plan comparison lists replying from Unibox, team invites and webhooks from Hypergrowth, at $97 a month.
Does Salesforge have a free trial?
Yes, 14 days with 50 contacts and 100 emails, which is enough to test placement and LinkedIn steps. Instantly's 14-day trial covers 1,000 emails and 250 uploaded contacts with no card.