Home

Clay Announcements
Discuss Anything
GTM Career Advice
Introduce Yourself
Member Spotlight
Share Content and Events
Share Full-time Jobs
Share Part Time Jobs
Share Tables, Tools, and Workflows

Community Guidelines

Hire GTME Talent
Explore Events

Powered by Tightknit

Discuss Anything

Apollo vs Instantly vs Smartlead: Which is Best for Outbound? | Clay

Discuss Anything

Apollo vs Instantly vs Smartlead: Which is Best for Outbound?

·Jul 02, 2025 11:12 PM·

Anyone got a view on Apollo vs instantly vs smartlead for running outbound? Currently using Apollo but wonder if it's worth switching at an early ish stage befire it's too entrenched?

9 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Sean W.
·
·
I find a lot of success with Instantly. Tried smartlead for a bit but it was super buggy.
Daniel J.
·
·
Are you using ai content gen with instantly?
elom
·
·
It’s best to have a dedicated sending tool while keeping apollo for list building only. both instantly and smartlead are great. If you’re going to utilize apis heavily, then I’d go with smartlead, if not instantly works.
Daniel J.
·
·
Thanks. Why is that? Don't have apis at the moment - why is instantly better? Better AI content creation?
Daniel J.
·
·
Or just easier to manage?
elom
·
·
It’s easier to get going. The analogy I’ve seen used for this is apple vs android. Instantly has everything you need out of the box to run campaigns at scale. Smartlead requires a bit more tinkering to set things up
👍1
Daniel J.
·
·
Thanks
elom
·
·
np Daniel. Feel free to dm if I can help with anything else
👍1
Moon
·
·
Apollo is solid for finding leads and basic outreach, but deliverability can suffer if you’re sending directly through it. Instantly feels smoother for managing multiple inboxes. Pairing it with a tool like GoBoxMate (for domain setup + warmup)…really helped us cut bounce rates and improve deliverability. Smartlead gives you more control with inbox rotation and sending logic.
👍1