Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in sales engagement software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 11 tools, reviewed
#1 Overloop
Brussels multichannel prospecting, rebranded from Prospect.io · Belgium · overloop.com
Published pricing 450M+ contact database Operating since 2015
Overloop started in 2015 as a Chrome extension called Prospect.io before rebranding, and Sortlist, a Brussels company, has since acquired it; founder Vincenzo Ruggiero now sits on Sortlist's leadership team, and the vendor says login, data, team, pricing and plans stay the same.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Starter $69/user/month: 250 credits/user/month, 1 email account, 3 campaigns. Growth $99/user/month: 500 credits/user/month, 3 email accounts, 10 campaigns, HubSpot and Pipedrive integration. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Teams wanting prospecting data and outreach sequencing in one subscription
- Strengths: 450M+ contact database (self-reported); Automated email and LinkedIn outreach; Email verification and deliverability controls.
Where it falls short
Credit limits per user mean prospecting volume is capped even on paid tiers, from 250 credits a month on Starter up to 1,000 on Enterprise, and Salesforce integration, the CRM most enterprise buyers already expect, is reserved for the custom-quoted Enterprise tier rather than included on the two published tiers below it.
Wrong for
A team that needs Salesforce integration on a budget tier, since that specific integration only unlocks on Overloop's quoted Enterprise plan rather than on Starter or Growth.
Visit Overloop →
#2 La Growth Machine
French multichannel prospecting across LinkedIn, email, X and calls · France · lagrowthmachine.com
Broadest channel mix Published per-identity pricing Founded 2019
Founded in 2019 by Brice as CEO, Adrien as COO and Boris as CTO, growing out of an outbound agency Brice had run for roughly 450 B2B startups, La Growth Machine is the broadest single-vendor channel mix in this ranking, covering LinkedIn, email, X and calls from one dashboard on cloud-sent infrastructure rather than a browser extension.
- Pricing: Per identity / month. Basic €60/month per identity: 250 leads enriched/month, up to 3 identities, LinkedIn+Email. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Teams wanting the widest channel mix in one sequence and willing to pay per identity for it
- Strengths: LinkedIn, Email, X and Calls in one sequence; Cloud-based sending with dedicated mobile proxies; Lead enrichment.
Where it falls short
The terms of service name the contracting company as B3 SAS, registered in Saint-Mandé near Paris, rather than La Growth Machine, a detail a buyer only finds in the legal pages.
Wrong for
A single-channel team that only needs email or only needs LinkedIn, since the per-identity pricing model is built specifically around running several channels from the same connected sending accounts at once.
Visit La Growth Machine →
#3 Magileads
French multichannel outreach, published entry price from €25/month · France · magileads.com
Low published entry price Email, LinkedIn and SMS France-hosted on OVH
Magileads is positioned specifically around French data residency, hosting on OVH servers located inside France and marketing itself as "100% French," with a published starting price of €25 a month excluding tax that sits below most of this ranking's other entry tiers, though Waalaxy's Pro plan starts lower at €19 per user.
- Pricing: Usage-based. From €25/month excluding tax, set by a configurator on LinkedIn accounts, sender emails, enrichment volume and mobile numbers rather than fixed tiers. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Small French or EU teams wanting a low-cost entry into multichannel sequencing
- Strengths: Email, LinkedIn and SMS campaigns; Contact database creation and enrichment; Campaign analytics.
Where it falls short
There are no fixed tiers: the price beyond the base €25 subscription comes out of a configurator driven by LinkedIn accounts, sender addresses, enrichment volume and mobile numbers, which is harder to compare line by line against competitors' published tier sheets.
Wrong for
A buyer that needs a fixed, tiered price sheet to compare line by line against competitors before any conversation with the vendor, since Magileads prices through a configurator rather than set plans.
Visit Magileads →
#4 Lemlist
French multichannel sequencing, published pricing from $55/month · France · lemlist.com
Published pricing Multichannel sequences Unlimited users on entry plan
Lemlist stands out because its pricing is the most transparent of the eleven vendors reviewed here: two clearly published self-serve tiers, unlimited users and senders on the Email plan, and no sales call required before a team can see what it will actually pay each month.
- Pricing: Flat or per user / month. Email plan $55/month billed annually ($69/month monthly): 50,000 emails/month, unlimited users and senders, lead database and email/phone finder included. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Teams wanting transparent published pricing across email, LinkedIn and calls
- Strengths: Email sequencing with deliverability tooling; Lead database and email/phone finder (all plans); LinkedIn and SMS automation (Multichannel tier).
Where it falls short
The vendor discloses little beyond its Paris legal notice, no founding date, no leadership page, and no customer count, which is thinner public information than several competitors provide.
Wrong for
A large sales organization that wants forecasting, deal-risk flagging or conversation intelligence bundled in rather than pure sequencing, which points toward one of the quote-only US majors reviewed further down this list instead.
Visit Lemlist →
#5 Waalaxy
LinkedIn-first sequencing, published per-user pricing from €19/month · France · waalaxy.com
Published per-user pricing Unlimited campaigns on entry tier Registered SAS Waapi entity
Waalaxy is a LinkedIn-automation product first, with cold email sequencing added only on the top Business tier, and its Montpellier registration under SAS Waapi, publicly disclosed with RCS Montpellier number 841124001, is a level of transparency few competitors in this category match. Published per-seat pricing across three clear tiers, plus discounts for quarterly or annual billing, makes it straightforward to budget for a small team before signing anything.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Pro €19/user/month: 300 LinkedIn invites/month, unlimited campaigns, sequences, automated follow-ups, CRM sync, 25 email-finder credits/month. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: LinkedIn-first prospecting teams wanting predictable per-seat pricing
- Strengths: LinkedIn connection and messaging automation; Pre-built outreach sequences; CRM sync.
Where it falls short
LinkedIn invite volume is capped even on the top published tier at 800 invites a month, which limits pure outbound scale compared with a cloud-sending competitor, and cold email sequencing only arrives on the most expensive Business plan rather than being available further down the pricing ladder the way it is with several rivals.
Wrong for
A team whose outreach is mostly email-based rather than LinkedIn-based, where a product built LinkedIn-first will feel like the wrong tool for the channel that actually carries most of the reply volume.
Visit Waalaxy →
#6 Expandi
Dutch cloud-based LinkedIn automation, no browser extension · Netherlands · expandi.io
Published pricing Cloud-based sending Account-safety focus
Expandi's dedicated cloud IP model, rather than a browser extension pulling from a rep's own machine, is its core account-safety pitch in a category where LinkedIn's own terms restrict automated activity.
- Pricing: Flat monthly. Business $99/month, or $79/month billed annually (20% discount): account safety tooling, multichannel outreach, unlimited campaigns, integrations. Agency: custom, for 10+ seats, with white-label option. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Teams whose primary channel is LinkedIn and who want account safety
- Strengths: Cloud-based LinkedIn automation (no browser extension); Multichannel outreach; Unlimited campaigns.
Where it falls short
The homepage footer names LeadExpress B.V. while the privacy notice names ProfitSoft B.V. as controller at the same Eindhoven address, and the relationship between the two is not explained anywhere on the vendor's own pages, which leaves a buyer to infer the corporate structure, and pricing above the flat Business tier is quote-only for agencies rather than published in a clear ladder.
Wrong for
A team whose outreach is mostly email rather than LinkedIn, where Expandi's core cloud-sending infrastructure, built specifically around LinkedIn account safety, is not the product's strength.
Visit Expandi →
#7 Woodpecker.co
Polish cold-email sequencing, usage-based pricing · Poland · woodpecker.co
Usage-based pricing Unlimited seats Email-first
Woodpecker's usage-based pricing, by contacted prospect rather than by seat, is the one genuinely different pricing model in this ranking, and unlimited team members and unlimited email accounts on every plan removes the per-seat penalty a growing team runs into on almost every other vendor reviewed here.
- Pricing: Usage-based. Usage-based: $7.00 per 100 contacted prospects on monthly billing, with a lower per-prospect rate at higher volumes and 33% off billed annually. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Lean teams doing high-volume cold email who want unlimited seats
- Strengths: Cold email sequencing; Built-in email verification; Inbox warm-up.
Where it falls short
LinkedIn is not native to the platform.
Wrong for
A team whose outreach is LinkedIn-heavy rather than email-heavy, where the paid add-on pricing and secondary positioning make Woodpecker a materially worse fit than a LinkedIn-native tool.
Visit Woodpecker.co →
#8 Apollo.io
US data-and-engagement workspace with a free Starter plan · United States · apollo.io
Free tier 240M+ contact database CRM sync
Apollo.io, founded in 2015 and legally operated by ZenLeads, Inc., is the only one of the four US majors in this ranking with a published free Starter tier, which is what pulls it above the fully quote-only platforms among the majors.
- Pricing: Free + paid tiers. Four plans: Free, Basic, Professional and Custom. The free Starter plan has no time limit and includes email campaigns, with Gmail accounts only. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Teams wanting prospecting data and sequencing bundled in one subscription, starting from zero
- Strengths: 240M+ contacts, 30M companies database (self-reported); Multichannel Sequences (email, calls, LinkedIn); AI-drafted messaging.
Where it falls short
Exact paid-tier dollar pricing is not published in a form that could be independently confirmed at the time of writing, since the pricing table on apollo.io/pricing loads dynamically via JavaScript rather than as static text, so a buyer should expect to check the current figures directly on the vendor's own site rather than rely on a fixed number quoted here.
Wrong for
A buyer with strict EU data-residency requirements, since Apollo.io is a US company operated by ZenLeads, Inc., and the prospect database itself is not sourced or hosted inside the EU.
Visit Apollo.io →
#9 Outreach
Seattle agentic sales execution platform for enterprise revenue teams · United States · outreach.ai
Enterprise breadth Founded 2014 Agentic AI platform
Outreach, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Seattle, has layered agentic AI on top of its original sequencing product: deal-risk-flagging agents, forecasting, conversation-intelligence rep coaching and account-expansion or renewal-risk monitoring, positioning it as a broader sales execution platform rather than a pure cadence tool.
- Pricing: Quote only. Four per-user tiers (Amplify Essentials, Core, Plus and Pro), no platform fees, support included; prices only on request. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Enterprise revenue teams wanting sequencing bundled with forecasting and deal intelligence
- Strengths: Prospecting and engagement sequences; AI deal-risk flagging agents; AI-assisted forecasting.
Where it falls short
No pricing is published anywhere on the vendor's site; a buyer only learns a number after a sales conversation, which rules out comparing Outreach against a competitor's list price in advance the way a buyer can with the seven vendors here that publish their prices.
Wrong for
A small outbound team that only needs sequencing, since Outreach's AI deal-risk flagging and forecasting layers are built for a sales organization with a pipeline complex enough to actually need them.
Visit Outreach →
#10 Salesloft
Atlanta sequencing platform, now combined with Clari · United States · salesloft.com
Well-known cadence platform Combined with Clari as of 2026 Conversation intelligence
Salesloft is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and as of 2026 Salesloft and Clari operate as a combined company: Salesloft's own site navigation now lists logins for Salesloft, Clari Forecast, Conversations, Drift and Groove together as one product family, and clari.com redirects to salesloft.com, which is real, directly observed evidence of that combination.
- Pricing: Quote only. Not published in what we could access; quote-only. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams wanting sequencing bundled with forecasting and conversation intelligence from one now-combined vendor
- Strengths: Sequences and cadence automation; Conversation intelligence; Deal and forecast management.
Where it falls short
No exact street address for Salesloft's Atlanta headquarters could be confirmed from an accessible fetched source, only the city and state, and pricing is quote-only with no published number anywhere on the site.
Wrong for
A buyer who wants full transparency on corporate structure before signing, since the Salesloft-Clari combination's exact mechanics are not publicly documented by either company at the time of writing.
Visit Salesloft →
#11 Groove (Clari Groove)
Salesforce-native sequencing, folded into the combined Salesloft-Clari company · United States · salesloft.com
Salesforce-native Acquired by Clari in 2022 Layered ownership history
Groove began as Groove.co, an independent San Francisco sales engagement platform built specifically around deep Salesforce-native integration, sequences, activity capture and deal intelligence, before Clari acquired it in 2022.
- Pricing: Quote only. Not confirmed in this research; quote-only, standard for the category. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Salesforce-committed teams who want sequencing paired with Clari's forecasting tools and don't mind the layered ownership
- Strengths: Salesforce-native sequencing; Activity capture into Salesforce; Deal intelligence (via Clari).
Where it falls short
There is no longer an independent groove.co; the domain redirects to clari.com, which itself redirects to salesloft.com, and Groove is reached only through Salesloft's product navigation rather than a site of its own.
Wrong for
A buyer wanting to evaluate Groove as a standalone product with its own pricing page and website, since that option no longer exists independently of Salesloft's navigation.
Visit Groove (Clari Groove) →
Questions and answers
What is the best sales engagement software in 2026?
Overloop ranks first of 11, best for teams wanting prospecting data and outreach sequencing in one subscription. La Growth Machine is second (teams wanting the widest channel mix in one sequence and willing to pay per identity for it) and Magileads third (small French or EU teams wanting a low-cost entry into multichannel sequencing). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
Is Lemlist or Waalaxy better for a small sales team?
Lemlist wins on channel breadth: its Multichannel tier covers email, LinkedIn, SMS and calling in one published-pricing plan, with WhatsApp as an add-on.
Which of these tools are free to use?
Only Apollo.io offers a genuinely free plan, a Starter tier that is a taste of the product rather than a working sequencing setup, since real send volume, the dialer and AI-drafted messaging all sit behind paid tiers.
What happened to Groove after Clari acquired it?
Clari acquired Groove.co, a Salesforce-native sequencing platform, in 2022.
Is cold email to EU prospects legal under GDPR?
B2B cold email in the EU is generally argued under the "legitimate interest" legal basis in GDPR rather than prior consent, but that basis carries real conditions: the recipient must be relevant to the sender's business, an easy opt-out must be offered on every message, and several EU member states, including France and Germany, layer additional ePrivacy rules on top of the GDPR baseline.
Which of these vendors are US companies, and does that matter?
Apollo.io, Outreach, Salesloft and Groove (Clari Groove) are all US-incorporated, which puts customer prospect data within reach of US legal process regardless of where a customer is based.
Is Apollo.io's free plan enough to run real sequences?
No. Apollo.io's free Starter plan is a taste of the product, useful for evaluating the database and interface, but real send volume, the dialer and AI-drafted messaging all sit behind paid tiers whose exact current prices were not published anywhere we could access in this research.
What's the difference between sales engagement and sales enablement software?
Sales engagement software is narrow and mechanical: it schedules and sends the email, LinkedIn and call touches in a cadence against a list of prospects who haven't replied yet, and hands a rep the ones that need a human.
Do any of these tools protect a LinkedIn account from getting restricted?
Expandi and La Growth Machine both lead specifically with cloud-based sending from a dedicated IP rather than a browser extension running on a rep's own machine, positioned as safer against LinkedIn's own automation detection.
Why is Groove (Clari Groove) ranked below the other US majors?
Groove is the least independently documented tool in this ranking: it has no standalone website any more, its pricing could not be confirmed anywhere in what we could access, and its ownership history, originally Groove.co, acquired by Clari in 2022, now apparently folded into a combined Salesloft-Clari company, is the most layered and least publicly transparent of any vendor here.
How often is this ranking updated?
Whenever a fact underneath it changes: a pricing update, an acquisition or company combination like Salesloft and Clari's in 2026, or a product that stops being maintained.
