Instantly vs Waalaxy: Cold Outreach Tools Compared 2024

Instantly.ai offers a straightforward approach to email sequencing, providing users with the ability to create simple, linear sequences for their outreach campaigns. While it may lack some of the more advanced features like conditional branching, it can be an effective tool for those looking to get started with basic email automation.

Key features of Instantly.ai's sequencing:

• Linear sequences: Create straightforward, step-by-step email sequences
• Easy setup: Quickly create and launch campaigns with minimal complexity
• Variant support: Add variants to your email steps for A/B testing

Reddit users have recommended Instantly.ai for personalized email campaigns:

👍 "combine this with instantly.ai for our results" - r/sales

Waalaxy streamlines multi-channel prospecting by providing a range of sequence templates designed for LinkedIn and email outreach. These templates serve as starting points for users to create and customize their own campaigns, making it easy to engage with leads across multiple platforms.

Key features of Waalaxy's sequences:

• Pre-built templates: Waalaxy offers a library of recommended sequence templates for various use cases, such as LinkedIn invitations, messages, and email finders.
• LinkedIn integration: Users can import leads directly from LinkedIn searches, allowing for targeted outreach to specific audiences.
• Multi-channel campaigns: Sequences can include a mix of LinkedIn actions (invitations, messages) and emails, enabling a comprehensive approach to lead engagement.
• Customization options: Templates can be easily modified to suit individual needs, with the ability to personalize messages and set up custom workflows.

"Step-by-step guide for LinkedIn outreach campaigns" - r/Waalaxy

Instantly.ai offers a comprehensive email warming feature to improve deliverability and avoid spam filters when sending cold emails. The platform allows users to connect multiple email accounts and automatically warm them up to establish a positive sending reputation.

Key features of Instantly.ai's email warming:

• Unlimited email warming: Even the most basic package includes unlimited email warming for all connected accounts.
• Customizable warmup settings: Users can adjust the daily email increase, set a maximum daily limit, and specify a target reply rate percentage.
• Realistic engagement simulation: The warmup process simulates genuine email opens and reads to mimic natural engagement with your emails.
• Spam monitoring: Instantly.ai alerts users if any of their emails get blocked by spam filters, allowing for quick adjustments to maintain good deliverability.

However, Reddit users have expressed mixed opinions about Instantly.ai's Sequences Deliverability feature:

👎 "their email warmup is just a claim and did not work" - r/Emailmarketing

Waalaxy provides features to help maintain high deliverability rates and avoid spam issues when sending campaigns through the platform. The tool supports multiple inboxes and employs techniques like email warming and rate limits to ensure optimal deliverability.

Key deliverability features:

• Daily quotas: Waalaxy sets daily limits on actions like LinkedIn invitations, messages, and profile visits to prevent accounts from being flagged as spam.
• Credits system: Users are allotted a certain number of credits each month, which are used for sending emails. This helps regulate email volume and maintain sender reputation.
• Multiple inboxes: The ability to connect and send from multiple email accounts allows for better distribution of email sends, reducing the risk of hitting sending limits or triggering spam filters.

Instantly.ai provides a robust set of features for personalizing outreach emails within their campaign function. Users have complete control over customizing their email content to tailor it to each individual lead.

• Pre-made and custom templates: Instantly.ai includes a variety of pre-made email templates to help users get started quickly. Users can also create their own templates from scratch for maximum flexibility.
• Variables for personalization: Personalization variables can be easily inserted into email templates using double curly braces, such as {{accountSignature}}. This allows for dynamic content that is automatically populated with lead-specific information.
• Previewing emails: The handy preview button lets users see exactly how their email will look with the personalized variables filled in before sending.
• Rich content options: In addition to text, Instantly.ai supports adding links, emoticons, and images to outreach emails for more engaging and expressive content.
• Email settings: Users can control email tracking and set daily sending limits to optimize their outreach efforts and stay within best practices.

Waalaxy provides an intuitive way to personalize your email campaigns using custom variables. This feature allows you to tailor your messages to each individual lead, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.

Key features of email personalization in Waalaxy:

• Custom variables: Easily insert variables like {{FirstName}}, {{LastName}}, and {{Company}} to dynamically populate lead-specific information in your emails.
• Intuitive interface: The user-friendly editor makes it simple to add and manage variables within your email templates.
• Seamless integration: Waalaxy automatically pulls data from your lead lists to populate the variables, ensuring accurate personalization for each recipient.

By leveraging Waalaxy's personalization capabilities, you can create highly targeted and relevant email campaigns that resonate with your leads, ultimately improving your sales engagement efforts.

Despite the company's name suggesting AI capabilities, there is no clear evidence of AI being used to generate content or leverage custom signals for each lead within the sequences feature.

It's important to note that while AI can be a powerful tool for automating and optimizing various aspects of sales engagement, not all platforms that include "AI" in their branding necessarily provide AI-driven functionality in every feature.

When evaluating sales engagement tools, it's essential to look beyond the company name and thoroughly examine the specific features and capabilities offered by the platform to ensure it aligns with your team's needs and expectations.

Waalaxy leverages artificial intelligence to streamline the process of finding and engaging with potential leads on LinkedIn. The AI Prospect Finder feature allows users to quickly identify relevant contacts based on specific criteria and import them directly into the platform for outreach campaigns.

Key AI-powered features in Waalaxy:

• AI Prospect Finder: Automatically searches for and identifies potential leads on LinkedIn based on user-defined criteria.
• Prospect Import: Seamlessly imports AI-generated prospects into the Waalaxy platform, ready for outreach campaigns.
• Messaging Optimization: Utilizes AI to analyze and optimize messaging strategies for improved engagement and response rates.

By harnessing the power of AI, Waalaxy simplifies the process of finding and connecting with high-quality leads, enabling users to focus their efforts on crafting effective outreach campaigns and building relationships with potential customers.

Instantly.ai provides a Lead Finder feature that allows users to enrich their lead lists with additional data points. This data enrichment helps provide valuable insights into buyer signals and lead qualifications.

• Upload and enrich lists: Users can upload their own lead lists and have Instantly.ai enrich the data with additional fields.
• Filtering options: The Lead Finder offers an array of filters to narrow down leads, including job titles, location, industry, company size, revenue, and more.
• Buyer signals: Enriched data provides insights into buyer signals that can help qualify and prioritize leads.

It's important to note that while Instantly.ai can enrich uploaded lead lists, it does not appear to offer a native database for lead generation. The focus is on enhancing existing lists rather than sourcing new leads directly within the platform.

👍 "Try instantly.ai — it's the best for leads and verification" - r/LeadGeneration

Waalaxy offers native enrichment capabilities that enhance your lead data with valuable information from LinkedIn and other sources. This dynamic data enrichment provides deeper insights into your prospects, helping you tailor your outreach and improve conversions.

• LinkedIn data integration: Automatically pull in key data points like job title, company, and location from prospects' LinkedIn profiles to keep your lead information up-to-date and accurate.
• Buyer signals: Waalaxy aggregates data from various sources to surface important buying signals that can help you prioritize and personalize your outreach. These insights can include recent job changes, company growth, or other relevant events.
• Dynamic updates: As new information becomes available, Waalaxy continuously updates your prospect data, ensuring you always have the most current and relevant insights at your fingertips.

While Instantly.ai offers a range of sales engagement features, it does not appear to have native support for automating social media outreach on platforms like LinkedIn. To achieve social automation, users would need to integrate with a separate tool like Dripify or Hey Alfred.

This lack of built-in social automation functionality may be a drawback for sales teams looking to streamline their outreach efforts across multiple channels within a single platform. However, the ability to integrate with specialized social automation tools still allows users to create comprehensive campaigns, albeit with additional steps and potential costs.

Key takeaways:

• No native social media automation within Instantly.ai
• Integration with third-party tools like Dripify or Hey Alfred required for social outreach
• May add complexity and costs to the user's workflow

Waalaxy offers a unique feature that allows users to leverage their LinkedIn connections for prospecting and lead generation. By connecting Waalaxy to LinkedIn, users can import prospect data directly into their campaigns, streamlining the process of building targeted outreach lists.

Key aspects of Waalaxy's LinkedIn integration:

• Sync with popular CRMs: Waalaxy integrates with Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and other major CRM platforms, enabling seamless data transfer between systems.
• Enrich prospect data: By connecting LinkedIn profiles to Waalaxy, users can access valuable information about their prospects, such as job titles, company details, and contact information.
• Automate outreach: With prospect data imported from LinkedIn, users can create targeted email and social media campaigns directly within Waalaxy, saving time and effort.

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Instantly offers straightforward pricing plans designed to accommodate the needs of businesses of various sizes. The pricing is based on the number of emails sent per month, with all plans including unlimited email accounts and warmup emails to prevent messages from being marked as spam.

Key aspects of Instantly's pricing:

• Billing Model: Monthly or yearly subscription, with a 20% discount for annual payments
• Free Trial: 14-day free trial available for all plans
• Price Per Usage: Plans are priced based on the number of emails sent per month, starting at $30/month for 5,000 emails (Growth plan) and scaling up to $286.30/month for 500,000 emails (Light Speed plan)
• Included Features: All plans include unlimited email accounts, unlimited email warmup, and live chat support
• Enterprise Features: The Light Speed plan offers additional features like "Everything in Hyper Growth+" and 100,000 uploaded contacts
• Sales Contact: No sales call required to test or purchase the product

Waalaxy's pricing model is designed to cater to various user needs, with a free plan and two paid tiers. The prices are displayed in Euros, and the cost varies depending on the subscription duration, with discounts available for longer commitments.

• Free Plan: The free tier offers 80 invitations per month, pre-filled message templates, and 25 emails finder credits. It's a good starting point for those new to the platform.
• Advanced Plan: Priced at €112/month, this plan includes 800 invitations per month, CRM synchronization, auto-imports of prospects, and live chat with real humans.
• Business Plan: The top-tier plan costs €160/month and offers additional features such as LinkedIn + Emails features, cloud-based solution, cold emailing automations, and 500 emails finder credits.

Users can also purchase add-ons like Waalaxy's Inbox and extra credits for the email finder tool. The pricing page does not mention a free trial or the need to contact a sales representative, suggesting a self-serve model where users can sign up and choose a plan directly from the website.