Sell ·
Best AI SDR Tools for Startups and Small Teams in 2027
Ten AI SDR tools grouped by the job you need done, with published prices, the vendors that hide them, and when a specialist beats Baljia.
By Digvijay Yadav, Founder, Baljia AI
The short answer
Pick by the job. For cold email you run yourself, start with Instantly ($47 a month for Outreach) or lemlist ($69 a month). For LinkedIn from several accounts, look at HeyReach ($79 per sender), and for buyer signals, PumpGTM ($75 per LinkedIn account) or Gojiberry ($99 flat a month).
To pay per person with no monthly fee, there is AiSDR ($1.50 per person prospected). 11x and Artisan are built for sales teams and publish no price. Apollo is the pick if you need contact data first. Baljia is the broad option for an owner with no sales or marketing staff, and it is not a deeper outreach tool than any specialist here. Its Starter is $49.99 a month at its launch price, and plans run up to $249.99.
Disclosure. We make Baljia and it is on this list, so this is not an independent review. Method. We read each vendor's public pages on October 31, 2026, and re-checked prices on November 5, 2026. We did not log in or run these tools. Nothing here measures replies or meetings, and prices change, so confirm them before you buy.
The ten tools at a glance
Sorted by flat monthly entry price, then usage pricing, then tools with no public price. The order is not a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Channels stated | Approval before send | Free start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instantly | $47/mo Outreach | Not stated | Start For Free, terms not stated | |
| Apollo | $49 Basic (see note) | Email, dialer | Agents prompt you at key moments | Free plan |
| Baljia | $49.99/mo Starter, launch price | Email, plus LinkedIn on Growth and Scale | You approve, or switch on what runs alone | 7 days, no card, no LinkedIn |
| lemlist | $69/mo Email | Email; LinkedIn, calls, SMS on Multichannel | Not stated | Trial, length not stated |
| PumpGTM | $75/mo per LinkedIn account (see note) | LinkedIn, X, email | Yes, before outreach starts | 7 days, card required |
| HeyReach | $79/mo per sender | LinkedIn; email through partners | Not stated | Try it free, length not stated |
| Gojiberry | $99/mo Pro | Email, LinkedIn | Your choice | Trial, length not stated |
| AiSDR | $1.50 per person | Email, LinkedIn, AI call steps | Co-pilot mode offered | None stated |
| 11x | Not published | Voice, chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp, social | Not stated | Not stated |
| Artisan | Not published | Email, social | Autonomous by default, approval optional | Not stated |
Notes. Apollo's own pages disagree on plan names and some prices, so we quote Basic only. Check its pricing page before you budget. PumpGTM's body and FAQ say $75, but its page title shows a different figure we could not explain, so we used $75.
Who publishes a price, and who does not
| Price status | Tools | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| On the page | Instantly, lemlist, PumpGTM, HeyReach, Gojiberry, AiSDR, Baljia | You can budget before a sales call |
| Partly clear | Apollo | Free plan and Basic are clear, the rest needs checking |
| Sales call only | 11x, Artisan | You learn the price after the demo |
Several published vendors also keep a custom tier for bigger teams. That is normal. The difference is whether a small buyer can see a number before talking to anyone.
What 500 people a month costs
Some pages give enough to work this out. The math below uses list prices only.
| Tool | Calculation | Monthly | Per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| AiSDR | 500 × $1.50 | $750 | $1.50 |
| PumpGTM | One account, up to 1,000 people | $75 | $0.15 |
| Gojiberry | Flat Pro, up to 1,800 prospects | $99 | $0.20 |
This is not like for like. Each vendor counts a person differently, and what the fee covers differs. AiSDR charges per person prospected and sells extras, such as a warmed-up mailbox for $33. Plans with an allowance cost the same whether you use all of it or none of it. Instantly, lemlist and HeyReach price by emails or senders, so a per-person figure would be a guess. Baljia runs on credits, and one credit does not equal one task, so it has no per-person number either.
Pick by what you want to buy
Groups run from the narrowest job to the broadest, which is why Baljia comes last. Within a group, tools follow the price order above.
You want to run cold email yourself
Instantly is cold email software with a lead database, a CRM and AI sales agents. Outreach alone starts at $47 a month ($37.60 on annual billing). The Starter bundle is $94 a month ($85 annual). You connect unlimited email accounts, and warmup is included.
- Pick it if you are comfortable managing your own lists and mailboxes and want the lowest flat paid price here.
- Skip it if you need LinkedIn in the same tool, or want approval settings in writing before you pay. The page says you can create agents that run outbound autonomously but does not state how approval works.
Apollo combines a contact database, agents and outreach, from individual sellers up to enterprises. It has a free plan, and page data lists Basic at $49. Credits do not roll over, and annual plans are paid upfront.
- Pick it if your first problem is finding contacts and you want a free way to start. The free plan connects Gmail only.
- Skip it if LinkedIn is your main channel. Email and a dialer are what the page states.
lemlist runs sequences across several channels. The Email plan is $69 a month ($55 yearly) for 50,000 emails. Multichannel is $109 per user a month ($87 yearly). Enrichment starts at $20 a month and intent signals at $29 a month as add-ons.
- Pick it if you want one sequence covering email, LinkedIn, calls and SMS.
- Skip it if a per-user price hurts. Multichannel for a team of two comes to $218 a month before add-ons, and approval settings are not stated.
You want LinkedIn reach
HeyReach sends from many LinkedIn accounts under one fee. Growth is $79 per sender a month ($64 yearly), and Agency is $999 a month for 25 or 50 senders. Team members are free.
- Pick it if you run several LinkedIn senders, as an agency or a sales team. Three senders on Growth is $237 a month.
- Skip it if you have one account and want the tool to choose your buyers. Its public pitch is sending at scale.
You want warm buyers from signals
PumpGTM finds buyers from signals and automates outreach on LinkedIn, X and email, with WhatsApp in beta. The Starter plan costs $75 for each LinkedIn account every month, covers up to 1,000 people, and includes an email inbox and an X account. The 7-day live trial is $0, but a card is required. The first month's base fee is returned if no qualified meeting comes, under its guarantee terms, so read them.
- Pick it if you are a founder new to these tools and you want to approve the buyers and the LinkedIn sequence before anything starts.
- Skip it if you need more than outreach, or more than 1,000 people a month on a single account.
Gojiberry detects warm leads from buying signals and runs personalized outreach on email and LinkedIn. Pro costs $99 a month, which covers 2 AI agents and as many as 1,800 prospects contacted.
- Pick it if you want a flat price and the choice between review before sending and fully autonomous.
- Skip it if you need to know whose accounts it uses before you start. The page does not state that, so ask.
You want to pay per person
AiSDR finds prospects, researches them and sends on email and LinkedIn, with AI call steps through Aircall. It charges $1.50 per person prospected, daily, with no monthly fee. Team plans for 1,000 or more people a month are volume-priced, up to 40% lower per contact, on quarterly contracts. A per-campaign managed service costs $149 a campaign, and full management costs $2,500 a month.
- Pick it if your volume is small or uneven, or you would rather pay someone to run it. On the per-campaign service, you approve before anything sends.
- Skip it if you plan steady volume on a small budget. At list price, 1,000 people a month is $1,500.
You have a sales team and want an agent to carry outbound
11x offers AI agents for outbound, inbound and expansion across voice, chat and email, for revenue teams. There is no public price. Its pricing URL returns a 404 and the site points to a demo.
- Pick it if you want voice and chat as well as email, and a sales process does not bother you.
- Skip it if you need a price or an approval policy before you talk to anyone. Neither is stated.
Artisan sells Ava, an AI BDR that finds leads, writes outreach and handles replies. Team covers about 2,500 leads contacted a month and Scale about 6,000, both through sales. It sends in your reps' names from your own domains. Calls are queued for reps to dial.
- Pick it if you have reps and your volume runs into the thousands.
- Skip it if you are a founder with a small list. Its smallest tier is sized well above that.
You need more than outreach
Baljia is an AI employee for founders and small businesses that gets you found and books meetings. It finds people, prepares email and LinkedIn outreach, paces follow-ups and helps with replies. It also works on visibility in Google and AI answers, and on content and social posts. With no product yet, it builds a web app first. Apps can take bookings and orders, but card checkout into your own payment account is not available yet.
Starter is $49.99 a month at its launch price, Growth is $99.99 and Scale is $249.99, with 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 credits. LinkedIn campaigns come with Growth and Scale only, not Starter or the trial. You approve each message or switch on what may run by itself.
- Pick it if you have no sales or marketing staff and the gap is both being found and starting conversations, or you have no product yet.
- Skip it if outreach is the whole job, or if your buyers need phone calls. Baljia does not make or answer calls, and each plan covers one business, so it does not suit an agency running outreach for many clients.
We publish no reply or meeting figures for Baljia, so judge it on your own short test.
When a specialist beats Baljia
Baljia is broader, not deeper. Choose the specialist in these cases:
- You run several LinkedIn senders. HeyReach is built for that, and Baljia is not.
- You send high-volume cold email. Instantly and lemlist are made for volume, mailboxes and warmup.
- Buying signals are the heart of your outbound. PumpGTM and Gojiberry lead with them.
- You need voice or a dialer. 11x, Artisan, AiSDR, Apollo and lemlist all list calling in some form, and Baljia does not make calls.
- Contact data is the gap. Apollo starts with a database.
- You want LinkedIn on the lowest paid plan. Baljia's LinkedIn starts at Growth, $99.99 a month.
Which one fits you
| Your situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Founder, one mailbox, no budget | Apollo free plan | Contacts plus a free start |
| Founder, comfortable with email tools | Instantly | Lowest flat paid price here |
| Founder who wants to approve buyers | PumpGTM | Approval is stated up front |
| Agency with many LinkedIn profiles | HeyReach | Priced per sender, team seats free |
| Small, uneven volume | AiSDR | No monthly fee |
| Sales team with budget for a demo | Artisan or 11x | Built for teams |
| Owner with no sales or marketing help | Baljia | Covers being found, outreach and product |
Stay with Gmail and a spreadsheet if you are still sending fewer than a few dozen messages a week and have not yet found a message that gets real conversations. No tool here fixes that, and our first sales hire post explains why proof comes first. You can start with a one-day exercise.
One risk that covers the whole category
Any tool that automates LinkedIn from a member's account carries account risk under LinkedIn's terms, and that includes Baljia. LinkedIn says users risk restricted or closed accounts. Sending limits reduce volume. They do not guarantee account safety. Read our safety post before you connect a profile you cannot afford to lose.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI SDR tool is best for a startup?
It depends on the job, so no single tool wins. On published prices, a founder running email can start with Instantly at $47 a month. One who wants to approve buyers can look at PumpGTM at $75 per LinkedIn account. Confirm prices first.
How much do AI SDR tools cost?
Published entry prices run from $47 a month to $99 a month, or $1.50 per person on AiSDR, as of November 5, 2026. 11x and Artisan do not publish prices, so you only find out after a sales conversation.
Which AI SDR tools do not show pricing?
11x and Artisan do not publish a price. Artisan lists tiers by lead volume but sends you to its sales team. Apollo's plan details conflict across its own pages, so check before you budget.
Is there a free AI SDR tool?
Apollo has a free plan, and it connects Gmail only. Instantly has a Start For Free button with terms not stated. Baljia's free trial runs 7 days, needs no card and leaves out LinkedIn outreach. Most others offer a trial, not a free plan.
Do AI SDR tools get LinkedIn accounts restricted?
They can. LinkedIn's terms bar unauthorized automated methods, and its help page warns of restricted or closed accounts. Any vendor's sending limits lower volume but do not remove that risk.
Do I need an AI SDR if I have no product yet?
No. An outreach tool has nothing to sell until the product or offer exists. Build or validate that first. Baljia can build a web app first, then work on finding buyers for it.
Compare it yourself
Before you choose anything, send the five questions in our AI SDR buyer checklist to your top two picks. If Baljia is one of them, there is a 7-day free trial, no credit card, at https://baljia.ai/. The trial does not include LinkedIn, and the AI sales outreach page shows how the outreach works.
Sources
- https://instantly.ai/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://www.apollo.io/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://www.lemlist.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://pumpgtm.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://www.heyreach.io/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://gojiberry.ai/ (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://aisdr.com/pricing/ (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://www.11x.ai/ (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://www.artisan.co/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
- https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement (checked October 31, 2026)
- https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1341387 (checked October 31, 2026)
- https://baljia.ai/llms-full.txt (checked October 31, 2026)