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Put your outbound workflow to work.
Saniya Sood
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Published October 8, 2026 · Updated October 8, 2026
In 60 words: lemlist wins if you need LinkedIn, SMS or calls in the same sequence as email, dynamic personalization, or one price for a whole team on the Email plan. Mailshake wins if you want a simpler email tool at $29 per user, a built-in dialer and unlimited North American minutes at $99, and you do not need LinkedIn. Neither finds or researches prospects for you.
What we checked, and when: each vendor's pricing and features pages, its help centre, Vendr where it publishes contract data, and the public review listings we could open (Capterra, Trustpilot; G2 blocked automated reads on most pages and is cited only where it rendered or where the vendor states its own score). All read on October 8, 2026. This is a documentation and reviews-based assessment, not a hands-on test.
Disclosure: Valley makes an outbound platform and competes for part of this budget. Where Valley appears it is marked, and every price and claim below was read from the source named next to it on October 8, 2026.
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%.
Give your sales team
an unfair advantage.
Side by side
Prices and limits from lemlist.com/pricing, the lemlist help centre and mailshake.com/pricing, read October 8, 2026.
lemlist | Mailshake | |
|---|---|---|
Entry price | Email $69 a month monthly, $55 yearly, per workspace with unlimited users | Starter $29 per user monthly, $25 yearly |
Full plan | Multichannel $109 per user monthly, $87 yearly | Sales Engagement $99 per user monthly, $85 yearly |
Channels | Email, LinkedIn, SMS, WhatsApp, calls (Multichannel) | Email, calls and SMS via the dialer, social tasks |
LinkedIn automation | Yes, capped at 20 invites and 30 messages a day | No |
Dialer | 400 minutes per user a month on Multichannel | 5 phone numbers, unlimited North American minutes on Sales Engagement |
Data | 650M+ lead database; enrichment $20 for 2,000 credits | Data Finder: 50 credits on lower plans, 2,500 on Sales Engagement; add-on $19 |
Email accounts | Unlimited senders on Email; 5 per user on Multichannel | 1, 2 or 10 addresses per account by plan |
Sending cap | 50,000 emails a month on Email (tiers to 1M) | 1,500 a month on Starter; unlimited above |
Trial | 14 days, no card | None; payment up front |
Reviews (Capterra) | 4.6 from 387 | 4.6 from 161 (snippet; page not opened) |
Channels and sequencing
lemlist's Multichannel plan runs email, LinkedIn visit, invite and message, SMS, WhatsApp and calls in one branching sequence with a unified inbox. Mailshake runs email sequences with a dialer and SMS on its top plan, and social steps as tasks. If LinkedIn is in your motion at all, this dimension decides it.
Verdict: lemlist, unless you never touch LinkedIn.
Pricing and team maths
For a team of five sending email only: lemlist's Email plan is one $55 a month fee on yearly billing for the whole workspace, 50,000 emails a month. Mailshake's Email Outreach plan is $45 per user yearly, so $225 a month, with two sending addresses each. For one person who wants calling: Mailshake's $99 plan includes a dialer with unlimited North American minutes; lemlist's $109 Multichannel includes 400 minutes.
Verdict: lemlist for teams on email; Mailshake for a solo seller who dials.
Deliverability and limits
Both include warm-up. lemlist's guidance is conservative and specific: start at 10 to 15 emails a day per mailbox and cap at 25 to 30, and it throttles across seats when one domain dips. Mailshake caps Starter at 1,500 sends a month and reviewers mention per-day limits and spam flags outside Google Workspace. Mailshake sells ready-to-use mailboxes at $12 a month; lemlist does not.
Verdict: even. lemlist is stricter by design; Mailshake is simpler to set up on Google Workspace.
Support and reliability
Both score 4.6 on Capterra, and both draw the same complaint in different words: lemlist's support is called friendly but non-technical with slow escalation; Mailshake's reviews cite bugs, lag and a HubSpot integration that misbehaves. Mailshake has no trial and collects payment up front, which lemlist does not.
Verdict: Mailshake is the simpler product with fewer moving parts; lemlist has more to go wrong and more people to ask.
Give your sales team
an unfair advantage.
Verdict by use case
Agency running client email at volume: lemlist Email, one workspace fee and 50,000 emails; add Multichannel seats only for the reps who need LinkedIn.
Founder doing email plus calls: Mailshake Sales Engagement at $99 with the dialer, or lemlist Multichannel at $109 if LinkedIn matters more than minutes.
SDR team with LinkedIn in the sequence: lemlist, with the 20-invites-a-day cap in mind.
Smallest budget, email only: Mailshake Starter at $25 a user on yearly billing, within its 1,500 sends a month.
Where Valley fits
Both tools send to a list you bring. Valley (our product) is the layer before that: it finds the people from live buying signals or your own list, qualifies them against your ICP, researches each one and writes the first message in your voice, then runs the LinkedIn and email steps itself. If the sequence is fine and the replies are not, the fix is upstream of either tool. Starter is $199 a month or $149 billed quarterly; the honest comparison is in Valley vs lemlist.
► Want to see the research-first version on your own ICP? Book a demo
FAQ
Is lemlist better than Mailshake? For multichannel outreach and team email pricing, yes. For a simple email tool with a dialer at a lower entry price, Mailshake. Neither automates prospect research.
Which is cheaper, lemlist or Mailshake? Per user, Mailshake: $25 to $85 on yearly billing against lemlist's $87 for Multichannel. Per team on email only, lemlist: $55 a month covers unlimited users on the Email plan.
Does Mailshake do LinkedIn automation? No. Social steps are tasks a rep completes. lemlist automates LinkedIn visits, invites and messages on Multichannel.
Does Mailshake have a free trial? No. Mailshake collects payment up front and offers onboarding instead. lemlist has a 14-day trial with no card.
Which has the better dialer? Mailshake's Sales Engagement plan includes five numbers and unlimited North American minutes; lemlist's Multichannel includes 400 minutes per user a month.
How this page was made: the facts were read from the sources named in the text on October 8, 2026; drafted with AI assistance; fact-checked, reviewed and edited by Saniya Sood.
