Short answer. Sales automation software in 2026 is priced three ways, and the pricing pages we read on 2 November 2026 put the entry points at $32 a month (Smartlead Base, yearly view), $47 a month (Instantly Growth, monthly), $49 per seat a month (Apollo Basic, annual), $55 a month (lemlist Email, yearly equivalent) and $20 per seat a month (HubSpot Sales Hub Starter, with a $7 "starts at" price also shown). The three models are per seat with credits (Apollo, HubSpot), per plan with sending and contact caps (Instantly, Smartlead), and per plan with unlimited users (lemlist Email). A five-person team can pay $660 a year on one tool or $5,400 on another for what looks like the same category, so this guide lays out each price list as published, what a credit or a send actually buys, and the mailbox line that only one of the five prices on its page.
Key numbers
| Item | Number |
|---|---|
| Apollo Basic, Professional, Organization (per seat a month, billed annually; Organization min 3 seats) | $49, $79, $119 |
| Apollo credits per seat a year (1,200 on Free) | 30,000 to 72,000 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional (annual; $100 monthly; 3,000 credits) | $90 per seat a month |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Starter ($7 starts-at price also shown; 500 credits) | $20 per seat a month |
| Instantly Growth, Hypergrowth, Light Speed (monthly; 5,000, 125,000, 500,000 emails a month) | $47, $97, $358 |
| Smartlead Base to Prime, yearly view (6,000 to 500,000 sends) | $32 to $315 |
| Smartlead mailbox add-ons (plus $13 to $19 per domain a year) | $3.99 to $9 per mailbox a month |
| lemlist Email and Multichannel, yearly equivalent (Email has unlimited users; $69 and $109 struck monthly) | $55 and $87 |
| Five-person team, one year, lemlist Email (unlimited users) | $660 |
| Five-person team, one year, HubSpot Professional (five seats at $1,080) | $5,400 |
Public pricing pages of Apollo.io, HubSpot, Instantly, Smartlead and lemlist, read in Chrome on 2 November 2026; billing toggles as noted in the text.
What you are paying for
Sales automation covers three jobs that vendors bundle differently: finding and enriching contacts, sending and following up across channels, and tracking the pipeline. Apollo and HubSpot sell seats and meter data or AI work in credits. Instantly and Smartlead sell sending capacity, counted in uploaded contacts and monthly emails, with warmup attached. lemlist's Email plan has unlimited users and bundles a leads database and warm-up. Of the five, only Smartlead prices sending domains and mailboxes on its pricing page, which is the cost line covered at the end.
Apollo: $49 to $119 per seat, metered in credits
Apollo's pricing page, shown with annual billing, lists Free at $0 with 1,200 credits per seat a year granted monthly, two sequences, a capped AI assistant, 100 CRM enrichments a month and 150 minutes of call recording. Basic is $49 per seat a month billed annually with 30,000 credits per seat a year granted up front, unlimited sequences, advanced filters, the "Deliverability Suite & Email Warmup," "Domain & Mailbox Purchasing," a US dialer that draws on credits, two automated workflows and six intent topics. Professional, marked most popular, is $79 per seat a month billed annually with 48,000 credits a year, unlimited A/Z testing, 4,000 minutes of call recording with AI insights, unlimited inbound routers, automated workflows, agents, unlimited Gmail and Microsoft mailboxes and pre-built reports. Organization is $119 per seat a month with a three-seat minimum, billed annually, and 72,000 credits per seat a year. Basic and Professional carry a 14-day trial. In annual terms a seat costs $588, $948 or $1,428, and the Organization three-seat minimum is $4,284 a year.
HubSpot Sales Hub: $0, then $20 or $90 per seat
HubSpot's Sales Hub page shows Free at $0 a month for up to two users, no card required. Starter is listed at $20 per seat a month, with a "Starts at $7/mo/seat" figure alongside it, two billing-period prices, and a separate note that discounts are for new customers only; it includes 500 HubSpot Credits, Agent Hub, Agent Builder, a prospecting agent and a notetaker. Professional is $100 per seat a month paid monthly or $90 paid annually, with 3,000 HubSpot Credits, sequences, forecasting, conversation intelligence and deal progression in beta. Enterprise starts at $150 per seat a month with 5,000 credits. Credits are usage-based: "Pay when work gets done. Credits are used when features take action across the platform," bought in packs or pay as you go. The page also carries a bundle promotion for new customers: Revenue Hub Professional at US$57 per seat a month (was US$95) or Enterprise at US$98 (was US$140) when bought with Sales Hub and billed annually. A Professional seat is $1,080 a year on annual billing; Enterprise starts at $1,800 a seat a year at the listed $150.
Instantly: $47 to $358 a month for sending capacity
Instantly's Outreach pricing, on the monthly toggle, lists Growth at $47 a month with unlimited email accounts, unlimited warmup, 1,000 uploaded contacts and 5,000 emails a month; Hypergrowth at $97 a month with 25,000 uploaded contacts, 125,000 emails a month and premium live support; and Light Speed at $358 a month with 100,000 uploaded contacts, 500,000 emails a month and the "SISR System." Enterprise is custom from 500,000 emails a month with a private deliverability network. Growth caps uploaded contacts at 1,000 and emails at 5,000 a month. At monthly rates the three plans are $564, $1,164 and $4,296 a year; a yearly toggle exists but we did not read its prices.
Smartlead: $32 to $315 a month, mailboxes sold alongside
Smartlead's pricing page opened on its "Yearly, 17% OFF" view. Base is $32 a month with 2,000 contacts, 6,000 email sends and 2,000 verified emails, with CRM access as a $59 a month add-on. Pro is $78 a month with 30,000 contacts, 90,000 sends and 30,000 verified emails. Unlimited Smart, marked most popular, is $144 a month with unlimited contacts, 150,000 sends, 50,000 verified emails, a premium warmup pool and CRM access included. Unlimited Prime is $315 a month with 500,000 sends, 170,000 verified emails and three SmartServers. A banner offers 50 percent off the first month on any plan. Smartlead is also the one vendor of the five that prices mailboxes on the same page: Google or Outlook mailboxes through Zapmail at $13 per domain a year and $4.5 per mailbox a month, Outlook through InfraInbox at $16 per domain a year and $5 per mailbox a month, SMTP through Mailreef at $19 per domain a year and $3.99 per mailbox a month, and pre-warmed Outlook or Google at $18 per domain a year and $9 per mailbox a month. The yearly-view plans work out at $384, $936, $1,728 and $3,780 a year.
lemlist: $55 or $87 a month, unlimited users on Email
lemlist's pricing page shows two prices per plan, the struck monthly figure and the yearly equivalent. Email is $69 struck to $55 a month, with unlimited users and email senders, 50,000 emails a month, an email and phone finder over a "650M+ leads database," lemAgent, warm-up and a deliverability hub, CRM integrations and API. Multichannel is $109 struck to $87 a month, with unlimited emails and messages, five senders per user, LinkedIn automation, SMS automation, a WhatsApp add-on and a built-in dialer. Enterprise is custom with five or more senders per user, SSO and a dedicated account manager. Data add-ons are $20 struck to $16 a month for 2,000 enrichment credits (400 emails or 100 phones) and $29 struck to $21 a month for 100 buying-intent signals. On the yearly equivalents, Email is $660 a year for any number of users and Multichannel $1,044 a year.
The five price lists in one table
| Platform | Entry paid plan | Billing unit | What the entry plan caps | Top listed plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo | $49 per seat a month, annual | Seat plus credits | 30,000 credits per seat a year | $119 per seat, min 3 seats |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | $20 per seat a month ($7 "starts at" price also shown) | Seat plus HubSpot Credits | 500 credits | from $150 per seat a month |
| Instantly | $47 a month, monthly | Plan with caps | 1,000 contacts, 5,000 emails a month | $358 a month |
| Smartlead | $32 a month, yearly view | Plan with caps | 2,000 contacts, 6,000 sends | $315 a month |
| lemlist | $55 a month, yearly equivalent | Plan, unlimited users on Email | 50,000 emails a month | $87 a month, Multichannel |
What a five-person team pays
Take five sellers running email sequences for a year. On Apollo Professional that is five seats at $948, $4,740 a year, with 48,000 credits per seat. On HubSpot Sales Hub Professional it is five seats at $1,080, $5,400 a year, plus credit packs if the plan's 3,000 HubSpot Credits run out. On lemlist Email, with unlimited users, it is $660 a year for the whole team at the yearly equivalent. On Instantly Hypergrowth it is $1,164 a year at monthly rates and on Smartlead Pro $936, if one plan covers all five users, which neither page states. The spread is a factor of eight before anyone has bought a domain, and it reflects what each tool includes: Apollo and HubSpot bundle credits and sales features, the sending tools bundle warmup and volume, and lemlist bundles a leads database and warm-up at a lower cap.
The line none of them includes
Sending domains and mailboxes are a cost of their own. Smartlead's add-on card prices them at $13 to $19 per domain a year and $3.99 to $9 per mailbox a month; Apollo's Basic plan lists domain and mailbox purchasing as a feature; the other three pages we read do not price them. For a team sending at volume, the mailbox layer is a recurring cost, and the way it is set up affects whether the sequences reach the inbox. We cover the hosting options and their prices in email hosting cost, and the domain, authentication and warmup build that sits under a sending programme in our email infrastructure service. If Apollo is on your shortlist mainly for data, the best Apollo alternatives in 2026 compares the database side.
How to pick
Price the unit you will run out of. Seat-based tools penalise large teams and reward small ones that need data; capacity-based tools penalise large lists and reward small teams with many mailboxes; lemlist's unlimited-user model rewards teams over about two people who can live inside 50,000 emails a month. Then add the mailbox line, because it is paid every month regardless of which tool wins. All figures are from the public pricing pages as read on 2 November 2026, with the billing toggles noted; several vendors show lower figures on annual terms and higher ones month to month.
Frequently Asked Questions
On pricing pages read on 2 November 2026, entry paid plans were $32 a month at Smartlead (yearly view), $47 a month at Instantly (monthly), $49 per seat a month at Apollo (annual), $55 a month at lemlist (yearly equivalent) and $20 per seat a month at HubSpot Sales Hub Starter, which also shows a $7 starts-at price. Top listed plans run from $87 a month (lemlist Multichannel) to $358 a month (Instantly Light Speed) and from $150 per seat (HubSpot Enterprise).
For a team of more than two people sending email, lemlist's Email plan at the $55 a month yearly equivalent with unlimited users came to $660 a year whatever the team size. Per-seat tools such as Apollo ($588 to $1,428 per seat a year) and HubSpot ($1,080 per seat a year on Professional) scale with headcount.
Apollo grants credits per seat per year: 1,200 on Free (monthly), 30,000 on Basic, 48,000 on Professional and 72,000 on Organization, granted up front on Basic. Credits apply to the US dialer.
Yes. Free covers two users; Starter is $20 per seat a month (a $7 starts-at price is also shown); Professional is $90 per seat a month billed annually or $100 monthly; Enterprise starts at $150 per seat. Plans bundle 500, 3,000 or 5,000 HubSpot Credits, which are consumed when features take action, with packs or pay-as-you-go for more.
Only Smartlead prices them on its pricing page, at $13 to $19 per domain a year and $3.99 to $9 per mailbox a month; Apollo lists domain and mailbox purchasing as a Basic feature; the Instantly, lemlist and HubSpot pricing pages we read do not price mailboxes.
At the entry level Smartlead Base is $32 a month on its yearly view with 2,000 contacts and 6,000 sends, against Instantly Growth at $47 a month billed monthly with 1,000 uploaded contacts and 5,000 emails and unlimited email accounts. At the top, Smartlead Prime is $315 a month for 500,000 sends and Instantly Light Speed $358 a month for 500,000 emails. Billing periods differ, so compare on the same toggle.