Instantly vs QuickMail
QuickMail
The only GraphQL API in this directory $49/Instantly vs QuickMail agree on the unusual part and disagree on everything after it. Both refuse to charge per mailbox or per seat: QuickMail gives unlimited email senders, unlimited LinkedIn accounts and unlimited users on all three plans, and Instantly gives unlimited email accounts with warmup on every Outreach plan. Where they part is the integration surface, and Instantly ships the API and webhooks from $47.
Where they actually differ
Every value comes from the same record that drives the Sending APIs listing, so this table cannot disagree with the cards. Accented tags are data one provider returns and the other does not.
| Compare | Instantly | QuickMail |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Sending and data sold separately, or bundled | GraphQL, unlimited seats, and webhooks only at $299 |
| Entry price | $47/mo | $49/mo |
| Unit cost | Not sold by the unit | Not sold by the unit |
| Billing model | Subscription Credit packs | Subscription |
| Free tier | No free tier. Outreach and Credits are sold separately from $47 each. | No free tier. 14-day trial and no automatic charge when it ends. |
| GTM motion covered | Source Enrich Engage | Engage |
| Data returned | Work emailFirmographicsJob postingsIntent and news | Work emailLinkedIn profile |
| MCP server | Yes https://mcp.instantly.ai/mcp | No |
| Interfaces | REST API MCP server Webhooks Bulk or async n8n node | REST API Webhooks |
| Auth | Bearer token, from a scoped API v2 key in workspace settings | API key in an Authorization header |
| Rate limits | 100 req/s and 6,000/min, shared across v1, v2 and every key in the workspace. | Not published. The public API reference is no longer reachable. |
| Coverage | Global | Global |
| Compliance | GDPR DPA | GDPR DPA |
| Best for | Best for unlimited mailboxes and warmup | The only GraphQL API in this directory |
Pick each one when
Instantly
- Webhooks matter and you are not spending $299 a month.
- A documented REST API with a published 100 requests a second.
- Warmup included on every mailbox rather than through a separate tool.
QuickMail
- Unlimited LinkedIn accounts as well as unlimited mailboxes and users.
- A GraphQL API suits your client better than REST.
- Volume is the point: 500,000 emails a month on the Agency plan.
A sender's rate card is not the part that bites. Confirm the API is on the plan you intend to buy, then run one real sequence of 200 contacts through each on a mailbox you have already warmed, and compare what the API tells you afterwards: which replies it classifies, what it reports on a bounce, and whether the webhook arrives at all. None of that is on a pricing page.
What each one costs, tier by tier
Both publish a full rate card, so this comparison runs on numbers rather than on adjectives. Instantly lists 4 tiers and QuickMail lists 3. Every figure is read off the vendor's own pricing page, and the pages they came from are listed at the foot of this one.
| The short version | Instantly | QuickMail |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | Outreach only, $47 | Starter, $49 |
| Tiers published | 4 | 3 |
| Free tier | No free tier. Outreach and Credits are sold separately from $47 each. | No free tier. 14-day trial and no automatic charge when it ends. |
| Unit cost at entry | Not sold by the unit | Not sold by the unit |
The cheapest paid plan is rarely the plan you end up on, because what moves you up a tier is usually volume rather than a feature. The two rate cards below are what you are choosing between.
Instantly
Instantly publishes 4 tiers, none of them free, and the paid ladder runs from $47 to $194.
Outreach only
- Unlimited email accounts and warmup
- 5,000 emails, 1,000 uploaded contacts
- No database access
Credits only
- 1,500 credits a month
- 450M contact database and waterfall enrichment
- No sending
Starter bundle
- Both halves, at the same combined price
- 5,000 emails, 1,000 contacts, 1,500 credits
- AI Sales Agent
Scale bundle
- 100,000 emails, 25,000 uploaded contacts
- 5,000 credits a month
- AI Reply Agent and premium live support
QuickMail
QuickMail publishes 3 tiers, none of them free, and the paid ladder runs from $49 to $299.
Starter
- Unlimited email senders, LinkedIn accounts and users
- 1 workspace, 1,000 uploaded contacts
- Free AutoWarmer with MailFlow
- Zapier, but no API
Growth
- The first tier with the API
- 25,000 uploaded contacts
- Unlimited senders and users
- Priority support
Agency
- API and webhooks
- 2 workspaces, $49 for each extra
- 100,000 uploaded contacts
What Instantly and QuickMail cost at your volume
Put your own volume in. The model picks the cheapest published plan that covers it on each side, which is the question a rate card cannot answer and the one that decides the bill.
Instantly
Priced on the volume you use, so the plan that covers a normal month is the one that decides the bill.
QuickMail
Priced on the volume you use, so the plan that covers a normal month is the one that decides the bill.
Plans are read from each vendor's own pricing page and the model picks the cheapest one that covers you, so these are list prices before any discount you negotiate and before annual billing, which most of these vendors discount.
What a year costs at three volumes
The same plan-fit arithmetic as the model above, run out to a year, because an annual number is what a budget actually asks for. Every column moves with volume, because all of these meter usage rather than seats.
| A year at | Instantly | QuickMail |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 a month | $564 Outreach only | $1,188 Growth |
| 10,000 a month | $2,328 Scale bundle | $1,188 Growth |
| 50,000 a month | $2,328 Scale bundle | $1,188 Growth |
2 of the 2 providers here publish enough to be put in this table. These are list prices on the published plan that covers each volume, so they are the number before you negotiate and before annual billing, which most of these vendors discount by between a fifth and a half.
How this plays out once it is running
The meters are uploaded contacts and emails sent in both cases, and at the entry tier they are close, QuickMail at $49 for 1,000 contacts and 5,000 emails against Instantly at $47 for the same 1,000 contacts and 5,000 emails. QuickMail has no API at all on Starter, puts it on the $99 Growth plan, and holds webhooks back until the $299 Agency plan, which is the strictest webhook gate in this category.
QuickMail's API is also GraphQL rather than REST, the only one in this directory, which is pleasant if you want to fetch exactly the fields you need in one round trip and an unwelcome surprise if you assumed REST and sized your client accordingly. There is a GraphiQL explorer at api.quickmail.com, though the public reference page is no longer reachable.
What each one is genuinely good at
Not a feature list. These are the things that make somebody keep paying after the novelty has worn off, which is a different question from what the marketing page leads with.
Instantly
Webhooks without a $299 plan
QuickMail holds webhooks for the Agency tier at $299 a month. Instantly's $47 halves carry the API, so for an event-driven build the entry cost differs by a factor of six.
A documented REST API at 100 requests a second
Published per workspace. QuickMail's API is GraphQL, which suits some clients better and is a less common skill, and its rate limits are not published in the same way.
Warmup included on every mailbox
Rather than through a separate tool. QuickMail bundles AutoWarmer with MailFlow on every plan too, so this is closer than it looks, and the difference is that Instantly's warmup pool is part of the same product rather than an integration.
QuickMail
Unlimited LinkedIn accounts as well as mailboxes and users
On every plan including the $49 Starter. Instantly does not automate LinkedIn at all, so for a multichannel motion QuickMail covers a channel that is simply absent from the other side.
A GraphQL API
One request shaped to your needs rather than several REST calls stitched together. Whether that is an advantage depends entirely on your client, and for a team that already runs GraphQL it removes a layer.
Volume at the top: 500,000 emails a month
On the $299 Agency plan, with 100,000 uploaded contacts, two workspaces and $49 for each extra. Instantly's $194 Scale bundle is 100,000 emails and 25,000 contacts, so at the top QuickMail is five times the sending for a different shape of money.
Where each one falls down
Every provider on this site has a case it handles badly, and the people who find out are the ones who bought it for that case. These are the ones worth knowing before you sign rather than after.
Instantly
No LinkedIn automation
Instantly is an email sender. If the motion is multichannel, the LinkedIn half lives in a third product and this comparison is only about part of your stack.
The contact ceiling is tight at the entry price
A thousand uploaded contacts on the $47 Outreach tier, against QuickMail Starter's 1,000 at $49. Level at the bottom, and QuickMail's Growth plan at $99 jumps to 25,000 where Instantly's $94 bundle stays at 1,000.
QuickMail
Webhooks are held back for the $299 plan
The API arrives at Growth, $99, and webhooks only at Agency. That is the only product in this directory that separates the two, and it means an event-driven build on QuickMail costs $299 a month.
Starter has no API at all
At $49 with 5,000 emails and 1,000 contacts, it is the cheapest-looking plan on this page and it is not a programmatic product. A build starts at $99.
GraphQL is a narrower skill
Not a weakness in the API and a real consideration for a team that has never written a GraphQL client. Factor the learning curve rather than only the rate card.
Using Instantly and QuickMail together
A two-way comparison assumes the answer is one of them. On this pairing it often is not, and the arrangement below is what teams actually end up running.
Both send email, so this is a choice, and the LinkedIn half is the thing that most often makes it one rather than a straight price comparison.
If LinkedIn matters and the budget is small, QuickMail Starter at $49 covers both channels without an API, which is a legitimate purchase for a team that is not building anything. If anything programmatic is involved, compare Instantly's $47 against QuickMail's $99, and if it needs webhooks compare it against $299.
Instantly or QuickMail, for you
Five questions, answered from the same records as the rest of this page. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no result to email yourself.
Each answer leans one way. The recommendation appears here once you have picked at least two.
A tool like this can only weigh what is on the page. It does not know your segment, and the one test that does is the bake-off further down: real rows, cheapest entry on each side, spend divided by survivors.
Where an answer leans on a certification or an integration, it means that vendor publishes it on the pages this directory read, which is not the same as the other one lacking it. The sources are listed at the foot of the page.
Where the data comes from, and what you may do with it
The question that arrives late and expensively is not how good the data is, it is who is allowed to hold it. These are the fields each one returns, the coverage it claims and the compliance it publishes.
| Provider | Fields returned | Coverage | Compliance | Redistribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instantly | Work email, Firmographics, Job postings, Intent and news | Global | GDPR DPA | Not stated |
| QuickMail | Work email, LinkedIn profile | Global | GDPR DPA | Not stated |
None of these states a redistribution position on its pricing or docs pages. Internally that never matters. Put the rows in something your customers can see and it becomes the question your legal team asks first.
Two practical notes that apply to every provider on this page. A compliance badge describes the vendor, not your use of it, so a GDPR DPA does not give you a lawful basis for the outreach you send. And every one of these vendors runs its own opt-out, which means a person who asks you to delete their record has to be removed from your copy as well as from theirs.
Moving between Instantly and QuickMail
Most readers of this page are already on one of these two. A swap is four hours of code and a month of watching, and the order below is the one that catches the expensive mistakes while they are still free.
Measure the thing you are about to lose
Run 500 rows you already have through Instantly and record the match rate, the fields that came back populated and the cost. Without that number a migration cannot be judged, because every provider looks cheaper per unit than the one you are paying for today.
Check the fields, not the field count
QuickMail does not return Firmographics, Job postings and Intent and news, which Instantly does. If anything downstream reads firmographics, that is a change to your pipeline and not just to your vendor.
Rewrite the auth and the limits, in that order
Instantly authenticates with bearer token, from a scoped API v2 key in workspace settings. QuickMail uses API key in an Authorization header.
The limits are the part that bites later. Instantly rate: 100 req/s and 6,000/min, shared across v1, v2 and every key in the workspace.
QuickMail rate: Not published. The public API reference is no longer reachable. A loop tuned to the first will either crawl or get throttled on the second.
Run both for one billing cycle
Keep the old key live and route a slice of real traffic to the new one. A month is the shortest honest test, because credit expiry, rollover and the overage rate only show up at renewal and those are where the surprises live.
Cancel on the renewal date, not before
Credits on most of these plans do not survive a downgrade. Check what happens to the balance you have already paid for, and time the switch so you are not buying the same records twice.
The step people skip is the first one, and it is the only one that cannot be done after the fact. Once the old key is off you have nothing to compare the new match rate against, so a provider that is quietly worse on your segment looks like a provider that is fine.
The wider field for both
A two-way comparison assumes the answer is one of these two. Often it is not, and the reason you are comparing them at all points somewhere else entirely: Instantly alternatives both start from the reason people leave.
Related comparisons
The 26 providers behind every pairing here are in the main listing.
Pairings that share a side with this one: Instantly vs Outreach, Smartlead vs QuickMail and Instantly vs lemlist.
And: Instantly vs Saleshandy and Instantly vs Woodpecker. Every comparison in the directory is on the compare hub.
Apollo API vs Instantly
One seat that does everything against two subscriptions that each do one thing well.
Compare them →Smartlead vs Instantly
The two senders that both give you unlimited mailboxes, gating the API in opposite ways.
Compare them →Instantly vs Reply.io
Unlimited mailboxes with no stated ceiling against unlimited mailboxes with a published ratio.
Compare them →Comparison pages end at the rate card. Your list does not.
We run the bake-off on your actual data, pick the provider order, and build the pipeline behind it: waterfall routing, credit ceilings and the write-back that puts a verified contact in front of a rep the same day.
Worked with 300+ companies. A senior operator runs your account.
Instantly and QuickMail, answered
Read from the same records that drive the table above.
Is Instantly or QuickMail cheaper?
On the entry plan it is Instantly, $47/mo against QuickMail at $49/mo. The entry price is the comparable figure, because they do not meter the same thing.
Can I try Instantly and QuickMail for free?
Instantly: No free tier. Outreach and Credits are sold separately from $47 each. QuickMail: No free tier. 14-day trial and no automatic charge when it ends.
What are the rate limits on Instantly and QuickMail?
Instantly: 100 req/s and 6,000/min, shared across v1, v2 and every key in the workspace. QuickMail: Not published. The public API reference is no longer reachable.
Do Instantly and QuickMail both have MCP servers?
One of them. Instantly ships one (https://mcp.instantly.ai/mcp); QuickMail documents none.
Which is better, Instantly or QuickMail?
Instantly vs QuickMail agree on the unusual part and disagree on everything after it. Both refuse to charge per mailbox or per seat: QuickMail gives unlimited email senders, unlimited LinkedIn accounts and unlimited users on all three plans, and Instantly gives unlimited email accounts with warmup on every Outreach plan.
What are the downsides of Instantly and QuickMail?
Measured against each other rather than in general. Instantly: there is no free tier, so you cannot measure your own match rate before paying. QuickMail: there is no free tier, only a trial, so test your own list inside its limits before paying; there is no documented MCP server, so an agent has to go through your own code.
Can you use Instantly and QuickMail together?
Both send email, so this is a choice, and the LinkedIn half is the thing that most often makes it one rather than a straight price comparison.
Can I migrate from Instantly to QuickMail without losing data?
Not without losing a field. QuickMail does not return firmographics, job postings and intent and news, which Instantly does, so anything downstream that reads it has to change. Either way, measure your match rate on 500 rows before you switch, because that number is the one you cannot recover afterwards.