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Published September 7, 2026 · Updated September 7, 2026
The answer up front: these are the two biggest names in autonomous AI outbound, and they now fail differently. 11x publishes its pricing - $3,750/month billed annually, a $45,000/year floor - but its most consistent review complaint is that Alice cannot carry a conversation once someone replies. Artisan handles replies autonomously and books meetings, but hid its pricing behind a sales call in mid-2026 (its old public plans were $250/$600 a month, billed annually upfront; third parties report real deals at $1,500-5,000/month). Pick 11x if you want published terms and an inbound voice agent from the same vendor; pick Artisan if reply handling is the job; and if the autonomy premise itself failed you, that is a different category - covered at the end.
Disclosure: this comparison is published by Valley, which competes with both for outbound budget. Every claim below is dated September 7, 2026 and carries its source, so you can check us line by line. Where either tool is the better fit, we say so.
Valley is an AI outbound platform that finds the people most likely to buy from you - from live buying signals, natural-language search, or your own lists - qualifies them against your ICP, researches each one, and sends personalized messages across email and LinkedIn that get 15-45% reply rates, against a category average of about 2%.
Head to head, on what is verifiable
11x (Alice) | Artisan (Ava) | |
|---|---|---|
Published price | $3,750/mo billed annually ($45,000/yr), Growth tier; Pro/Enterprise custom | None since mid-2026. Archived plans: $250/$600/mo billed annually; reported deals $1,500-5,000/mo |
Contract | Annual minimum on every plan; multi-year on upper tiers | Sales-scoped; old plans were annual prepay dressed as monthly |
Volume model | Per-lead: 2,000 new prospects/mo on Growth, 5,000-10,000+ above | Credit-based; ~2,500 leads contacted/mo on entry tier, ~6,000 on Scale |
Channels | Email-first from 11x-managed mailboxes (domains, warmup, rotation included); Julian handles inbound calls/chat from $5,333/mo | Email + social from your own domains; "Ava emails, your reps dial" - calls are queued for humans. LinkedIn functionality is disputed by mid-2026 reviewers and defended by Artisan |
Reply handling | The weak spot: "Alice can't handle responses... needs constant manual intervention" (G2 reviewer, quoted in 2026 roundups) | The strong suit: autonomous replies and meeting booking are in every plan |
Database | Charges per lead; sourcing included | 250M+ verified contacts; enrichment from 22+ sources |
Reviews | G2 ~4.5/5 from only ~30 reviews - thin for this contract size | Trustpilot 4.2/5 from 41 reviews: 83% five-star, 10% one-star barbell |
Security | SSO/SLA on Enterprise | SOC 2 Type II, SSO/SAML, GDPR stated |
Trust history | March 2025 TechCrunch report on displayed non-customers and disputed ARR; founder stepped down as CEO May 2025; company continues, now with public pricing | The 2024 "Stop Hiring Humans" billboards, which the CEO later called "mostly just for attention"; today's H1 says "alongside your team" |
What the reviews actually say
On 11x: the recurring G2 theme is activity without conversation - meetings depend on humans catching replies fast. One independent 200-lead test logged 847 emails, 11 replies, 1 meeting (single-author test, 2026; directionally consistent with the review pattern). The March 2025 TechCrunch story - ZoomInfo denying it was a customer and threatening legal action over logo use, ex-employees alleging inflated ARR - is public record; 11x disputed parts of it, removed the logos, and told TechCrunch retention was "currently 79%."
On Artisan: the sharpest documented complaint is output quality - "only about a 0.07% positive response rate, and almost none of the responses turned into meaningful interest" (Trustpilot, April 2026) - and a mid-2026 reviewer claim that LinkedIn automation stopped working, which Artisan publicly disputed in its replies. The five-star majority praises the hands-off operation and onboarding. Both dossiers, in full: 11x alternatives and Artisan alternatives.
The decision, by scenario
Enterprise team, 5,000+ prospects a month, wants inbound voice too: 11x. Published terms, one vendor for outbound and inbound phone, and the per-lead model scales predictably. Budget honestly: marketplace data puts median contracts near $40,000/year and real first-year costs at $50,000-60,000.
Mid-market team that wants replies handled without hiring: Artisan. Autonomous reply handling and booking is the exact gap 11x reviewers complain about. Price it in writing on the call, ask what the old "billed annually, credits upfront" structure became, and get the LinkedIn channel status confirmed - the playbook of questions is in our Artisan pricing explainer.
Either way, run the same pilot math: replies from qualified prospects per 100 contacted - not activity dashboards. Category-wide costs for calibration: AI SDR pricing in 2026.
And if the premise is the problem
A meaningful share of teams reading this page have already run one of these tools and are here because autonomy disappointed - the category's 90-day churn is famous. If that is you, the fix usually is not the other autonomous vendor; it is a system where you keep approval. That is the lane Valley occupies: buying signals pick the prospects, 200+ sources of research feed each message, drafts are written in your voice across LinkedIn and email, and you approve every send or delegate to sequences you configured. 15-45% reply rates against a ~2% category average, methodology published. $149/month billed quarterly, no annual contract, 7-day free trial. Head-to-heads: Artisan vs Valley · Valley vs 11x.
► The third option in one sentence: outbound you sign your name to - free for 7 days
How to choose in 30 seconds
Published pricing and inbound voice: 11x. Autonomous reply handling: Artisan. Keep control and pay monthly: Valley. Whatever you pick, get reply-rate commitments in writing - one of these vendors used to publish output ranges on its pricing page and no longer publishes the page at all.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Artisan or 11x? On reported numbers, Artisan: third parties put typical deals at $1,500-5,000/month against 11x's published $3,750/month floor (both annual). But Artisan's price is sales-scoped since mid-2026, so the honest answer is: 11x is the only one you can price without a call.
Which handles replies better? Artisan, per both vendors' own materials and the review record: autonomous replies and booking are core to Ava, while weak reply handling is 11x's most consistent G2 complaint.
Do either work for LinkedIn-first outbound? Neither is LinkedIn-native. 11x is email-first from managed mailboxes; Artisan says "email and social" while mid-2026 reviewers disputed its LinkedIn functionality (Artisan disagrees). For LinkedIn-led motions look at signal-based tools instead.
Are the 11x controversy reports still relevant? They are history worth knowing, not a current verdict: the March 2025 TechCrunch report and May 2025 CEO change are documented; since then 11x publishes pricing and continues operating. Weigh it like any vendor-risk signal - and note its G2 base is only ~30 reviews.
Where does Valley fit in this comparison? Different premise: not an autonomous employee, but a signal-based system you run - you approve every message or let vetted sequences flow, at $149/month with a 7-day free trial. If autonomy burned you, that is the design response.
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