){kind=small}
Looking for the best Mailshake alternative?
Mailshake is a popular cold email tool. However, as I suspect you know since you're reading this article, it’s not ideal for every person or company running outreach.
Luckily, you have other options to choose from. In this guide, we’ll show you some of the best Mailshake alternatives out there to help you run cold email campaigns that get replies.
We’ll look at the benefits of each one and help you find the right Mailshake alternative for your outreach needs.
Let’s jump straight in.
What is Mailshake and What Are Its Limitations?
Mailshake is a sales outreach platform that helps you send automated cold email campaigns to a list of prospects. It's popular for having an integrated AI email writer that can help with creating cold email templates, and for having decent A/B testing tools.
It’s a legitimate platform for sending cold emails. However, it has known limitations.
Mailshake users on G2 and Capterra report that:
1. It can be difficult to use Mailshake. Mailshake users have reported that the initial account setup is confusing, as well as operating within Mailshake can be clunky.
"When it came time to send my first campaign the set up was too confusing. I accidentally mailed a whole big list a blank email because I pushed 1 wrong button."
"Confusing to build the funnels, the verifications sometimes fail, and "the user is on another campaign" never tells you whether the campaign is running or not. Replying from the app is not that awesome."
2. The pricing is prohibitive. For every new user (inbox) added to Mailshake, they charge an extra $58 a month. Because you need at least 5 (rotating) inboxes to keep deliverability high, Mailshake's pricing ($290/mo paid yearly for 5 inboxes) goes directly against your cold email success. Other tools have recognized this and are offering more user-friendly pricing. With QuickMail, for example, you can add 5 inboxes per account and send a generous 30,000 emails monthly for just $49/mo.
3. You can only pay annually. On top of the prohibitive $58 per user policy, Mailshake only has an option for yearly payments, which makes it a bad solution for those who only run a few campaigns per year.
"Mailshake has moved to an annual only plan with a no refund policy. So after I quickly realised the product wasn't for me I asked for a refund but they refused."
"Mailshake requires a yearly subscription. Some companies may not be ready to commit for a full year."
4. It's not an option for agencies. If you are an agency owner, you can't manage multiple outreach accounts with one login. This means you would have to switch between accounts manually, if you managed your agency with Mailshake.
"Doesn't offer an agency level account and the ability to manage multiple accounts with one single login"
If you feel like these may be dealbreakers for you and you're looking for an alternative to Mailshake, let’s take a look at some of the best options.
The Best Mailshake Alternative for Personalized Cold Emailing
1. QuickMail: Get The Best Results From Your Cold Outreach
#1 Mailshake alternative for teams that need powerful outreach automation, monthly billing, collaboration and multi-user support, and the ability to run campaigns for multiple accounts or clients from one login.
Powerful Tools to Improve Your Cold Outreach
QuickMail has all of the same features that Mailshake has for sending cold outreach and more.
The campaign builder lets you create multi-channel outreach campaigns, combining cold email with cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, and any other task you want to include to engage your target audience with.
You can write out personalized emails, using attributes such as {{prospect.first_name}} and {{company.name}} to make each email unique and increase your reply rates.
QuickMail lets you add as many follow-up emails as you want, so if someone doesn’t reply, you’ll have a chance to re-engage them by changing up your value propositions and cold email call-to-action.
When your campaign is ready to send, you can import your prospects from a CSV file or directly from a Google Sheet, thanks to QuickMail’s integration with it.
Prospects who reply to campaigns are automatically removed so they don’t receive any automated follow-ups. The replies to your campaign are synced with your CRM thanks to our range of integrations, such as the two-way HubSpot and QuickMail connection.
Pay Per Month
Unlike Mailshake, QuickMail won't force you to pay for a full year's subscription upfront. If you're an agency with hundreds of clients or a team with a large number of inboxes, this will be too much to pay in one go without knowing if you will even need all the accounts by the end of the year.
With QuickMail, you'll get billed on a monthly basis which will allow you to spread your costs evenly and have more control over your spending.
Not only that, but if one of your clients decides to leave halfway through a monthly subscription, QuickMail will automatically credit the remaining time back to your organization, so you will never need to worry about lost revenues if a client is scheduled to leave 2 weeks away from renewal.
And if you're a solo founder launching cold email campaigns sporadically, QuickMail's monthly subscription is the obvious choice over having to pay the entire year in advance for Mailshake.
Made for Teams and Agencies
QuickMail has everything you need to run campaigns as a single business or team member. However, there are also powerful features built specifically for growing teams and agencies who need to manage multiple campaigns and clients from one account.
Unlike Mailshake, we don’t charge you per seat. You can bring as many teammates as you need to, at no extra cost.
When you add your team inboxes, you can start to send campaigns from multiple inboxes at once to spread your sending volume and improve deliverability.
Many QuickMail users run agencies and need to manage campaigns for multiple clients from one account. To help you manage that process, you can split up your campaigns based on the client you’re running them for.
It makes it easy to send and manage campaigns, then report back all of the key metrics to your clients, no matter how many you’re managing.
Always Land in the Primary Inbox
Deliverability plays a key factor in the success of any cold outreach campaign. QuickMail has a native integration with MailFlow, a free email warmup tool that ensures email service providers like Gmail and Outlook trust your inbox and always send your cold emails to your prospects’ primary inboxes.
Anyone can use the MailFlow Auto Warmer for free, and you can add as many inboxes as you need to it, so it’s ideal for agencies or large teams.
You can see where your emails are landing in MailFlow's Auto Warmer Report and make changes to your strategy if you notice too many emails landing in spam.
Mailshake does have an email warm-up tool, but you can only use it on one account at a time, as the platform isn’t designed for teams sending emails from multiple inboxes.
You can test out QuickMail with a free trial today and see how it helps you start more conversations with qualified prospects.
Pricing: QuickMail makes outreach affordable at every scale. Generous paid plans start from $49/mo.
Key features:
Send personalized cold email campaigns and automate the follow-up process
Add as many email inboxes as you need to one QuickMail account and save needing to switch between accounts
Want to dig deeper? See a complete breakdown of Mailshake vs QuickMail: Pros, Cons, and Features
9 Other Mailshake Alternatives
2. MixMax
Mailshake alternative for Gmail that sits on top of your existing inbox and adds features to help you with cold emailing.
Not everyone needs a standalone cold email platform like Mailshake. Instead, some users may want a lightweight option that adds features to your Gmail account and helps you send a smaller volume of cold emails.
If that’s what you’re looking for, MixMax is a good option. It works on top of your inbox and helps you schedule campaigns to go out to a list of recipients. The templates can include merge tags, so each email that goes out is personalized, and MixMax will track the number of opens, clicks, and replies that your emails are receiving.
There’s also an integrated calendar so that you can easily schedule sales meetings without leaving your inbox to create a link, which makes it easy to go from email to meeting.
It’s a good alternative to Mailshake if you want a tool that works on top of your Gmail account and makes it easy to send sales campaigns.
Pricing: Starts from $9 per month
Key features:
Send cold email campaigns straight from Gmail
Built-in calendar scheduling and email productivity tools
Save your best performing email templates to quickly re-use
3. RightInbox
Free email tracking tool for Gmail to help you understand email performance.
RightInbox is a lightweight Mailshake alternative to help you track your email open and click-through rate.
It’s not made for sending mass cold email campaigns like Mailshake, but is a good option if you were looking at Mailshake mainly to help you with email tracking.
The tool lets you schedule emails to go out in the future, and create follow-up sequences that will go out automatically if your recipient doesn’t reply.
Compared to Mailshake it’s very affordable, and you can use it on a limited free plan.
Pricing: Free plan available, full access for $7.95 per month
Key features:
Schedule emails and automatic follow-ups
Works with Gmail and integrates seamlessly with your inbox
Lightweight and made for people that don’t need a standalone outreach tool
4. Gmass
Gmail extension and outreach tool that adds useful outreach features to your Gmail inbox.
Mailshake doesn’t have a Gmail extension, and if you need a cold email tool that works in your inbox, Gmass is a good option.
With Mailshake, you need to send campaigns from their standalone app, but with Gmass, you can manage the whole process from your inbox, seeing all sent emails and replies in one place.
Like with Mailshake and QuickMail, the tool lets you add attributes to emails to ensure each one is personalized and gives you the strongest chance of getting a reply from your sales prospects.
Pricing: From $19.95 per month
Key features:
Adds cold email features to your Gmail account
Personalize emails using attributes and add custom images and videos to the templates
Send more emails than Gmail’s email sending limits typically allow for
5. Vocus
Standalone app and offers a range of email outreach tools similar to Mailshake.
Vocus’ email outreach tool is similar to Mailshake and lets you create multi-step cold email campaigns that include personalized emails and automated follow-ups.
You can import your prospects, create your campaigns, then schedule your emails to go out to your prospects.
Just like in Mailshake, data on your email campaigns are collected and reported back to you. Another similarity is that it’s made for individuals rather than teams, so if you need a cold email tool for teams, QuickMail is still the better option.
Another interesting part of Vocus is that in addition to the cold email tool, there’s a Gmail extension that gives you access to some of the Vocus outreach tools in your inbox. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support Outlook – so if you’re using that as your inbox provider, then Mailshake or QuickMail are better options.
Pricing: Send email campaigns from $10 per month
Key features:
Gmail extension and standalone platform to manage your campaigns and responses
Save templates to re-use in future campaigns
Integrates with most CRMs to streamline your workflow
6. Reply
Includes powerful outreach features like Mailshake but is designed for enterprise sales teams.
Reply is an outreach platform designed for larger sales teams with a minimum of three people using the platform.
The outreach tools included in the platform cover all of the areas that Mailshake does, and you can use it to run multi-step and multi-channel outreach campaigns as well.
As you’re writing out your email templates before sending them to your prospects, Reply will scan them and give your cold email copy a rating based on how engaging it is. When your prospects reply, you can manage the entire follow-up process inside Reply.
Reply has a far wider range of features than Mailshake and most other cold email tools. But, if you want a tool that’s specifically designed for cold outreach, then Mailshake or QuickMail may be the better choice because it’s easy to get slowed down among all of Reply’s features.
Pricing: Starts at $70 per month per user
Key features:
Multi-channel outreach across email, cold calls, and LinkedIn outreach
Made for enterprise companies so comes with a price tag
Integrates with a wide range of other sales tools including CRMs so you can keep track of your leads
7. Outreach
Sales outreach platform that’s a good Mailshake alternative if you’re part of an enterprise sales team.
Outreach is a sales engagement platform that offers similar cold email features to Mailshake. However, it’s designed for enterprise users. If you don’t have an enterprise-size company, Outreach might be overkill and you’d be better off using Mailshake, or an option built for growing teams and agencies like QuickMail.
You can build multi-step email campaigns in the campaign creator, and your team can share the best templates and campaign setups if you’re seeing results.
Outreach also includes smart reply analytics that helps your team identify the accounts to focus on based on engagement levels and the tone of the replies you’re receiving.
All-in-all, it’s a powerful platform for cold emailing if you’re part of a large company and need an alternative to Mailshake that has everything you need to manage outreach in a team with multiple sales reps and campaigns running simultaneously.
Pricing: Available upon request
Key features:
Mailshake alternative for enterprise companies with large sales teams
Integrates with almost every sales platform that large teams need
Smart features to help you identify the most engaged sales leads to target
8. Woodpecker
Cold email platform similar to Mailshake that lets you send personalized outreach campaigns.
Woodpecker is one of the closest competitors to Mailshake and QuickMail. You can use the platform to send cold email campaigns with automatic follow-ups to anyone that doesn’t reply.
Because Woodpecker is solely focused on cold outreach, you can get set up quickly. It also works with any inbox provider, so you’ll be able to use it whether you’re using Gmail, Outlook, or another inbox.
Like Mailshake and QuickMail, it also lets you run basic multi-channel campaigns. However, these rely on a manual process and you’ll need to set reminders to execute the tasks in your campaign. These are also priced on a separate plan, so if you want to send both cold emails and run multi-channel campaigns, the monthly running costs will quickly increase.
Woodpecker is a good Mailshake alternative and offers a similar suite of features, so if you’re torn between the two, we’d recommend trying each one out, as well as QuickMail, before committing.
Pricing: Send cold emails from $39 per month per user
Key features:
Cold email tool that lets you send automated outreach campaigns
Works with Gmail, Outlook, and custom inbox providers, unlike some other options in this guide
Smart email sending limits to reduce the likelihood of campaigns ending up in the spam folder
Discover how QuickMail compares against Woodpecker and why QuickMail is the best Woodpecker alternative
9. Salesloft
Sales engagement tool for enterprise teams needing more features than Mailshake offers.
Mailshake does come with a solid range of features for cold outreach, but it’s not suitable for all types of companies. Once you go past a couple of team members needing access, you’ll start to be limited.
Salesloft is an outreach platform for teams that want to manage every part of their sales pipeline in one place. You can add your leads, build multi-channel campaigns, and manage follow-ups and replies on the platform. There are a variety of multi-channel tools available as well, so you can make calls and send SMS messages to leads from Salesloft.
Salesloft is a much more feature-rich platform compared to Mailshake, but keep in mind that it’s only right for larger teams. If you’re only planning to use Mailshake for individual use, it’s still a good choice. If you’re part of a small team or agency, you’ll be better off with QuickMail.
Pricing: Available upon request
Key features:
Run multi-channel campaigns that your whole sales team can have visibility into
Sync every touchpoint with your CRM for everyone to view
Create sales campaigns that you use to reach out to leads on every channel
10. HubSpot Sales Hub
Sales tools integrated with HubSpot CRM to help you manage your sales email campaigns.
HubSpot is one of the leading sales platforms for teams. It offers everything from a CRM, to pipeline tools, to sales document tracking.
If you’re looking at Mailshake alternatives due to it not having any pipeline management features, then HubSpot Sales Hub may be a good choice. After you’ve reached out to prospects and got a reply, you can manage the nurturing process in HubSpot.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for an alternative because the Mailshake and HubSpot integration is only a one-way integration, then you may want to consider QuickMail, thanks to the native two-way integration. All data from HubSpot is sent to QuickMail, and vice versa. This makes it easy to stay on top of your prospecting activities and ensures no lead is ever left ignored.
The main downside to HubSpot is that it’s easy to become locked into their ecosystem, and it can get expensive as your team grows.
Pricing: Sales outreach plan from $414 per month for five users
Key features:
Two-way native sync with QuickMail
Manage your leads in the HubSpot sales CRM
Made for teams and lots of collaboration and sharing features so everyone has access to crucial information
Wrapping Up
Mailshake is a powerful tool but it’s not right for every company. There is a wide range of powerful alternatives to Mailshake on the market, which we’ve looked at above. There’s no single right choice, and we’d recommend that you talk to the team behind each product and see if any of them offer the features you need.
QuickMail will be the best Mailshake alternative for you if you need a tool that can:
Automate your cold outreach and follow-ups at scale
Ensure your emails always land in the inbox with powerful deliverability features
Scale with your team as you grow
Handle multiple client accounts if you’re running an agency
You can try QuickMail out with a free trial, and if you have any questions, our support team will be happy to help you out.
