Best email warm-up tools: 18 compared on price per mailbox
Standalone warm-up services and sending tools that include warm-up, side by side: what 3 mailboxes cost each month, which ones also send your campaigns and LinkedIn messages, and why the network’s quality matters more than its size.
Emelia is our product, and it is part of this comparison. Every price comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, read on October 18, 2026, in US dollars on monthly billing unless stated; Emelia’s prices exclude VAT.
Email warmup tools compared: cost for 3 mailboxes, sending and LinkedIn
The price column follows Emelia’s Start plan: 3 warmed mailboxes, with campaign sending and a LinkedIn account. For tools billed by daily warm-up volume, we use the vendor’s own sizing when it publishes one, never a price per mailbox of our own.
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Email warmup tools compared: cost for 3 mailboxes, sending and LinkedIn
Tool
3 mailboxes, per month
Sends your campaigns
LinkedIn and email finding in the same plan
How it is billed
Type
Our product
$37 (Start)
Cold email, LinkedIn, email finder
Included from Start: one LinkedIn account, emails and numbers in credits
Per plan: 3, 50 or unlimited mailboxes
Included in a sending tool
$47 (Growth)
Cold email, no LinkedIn
No LinkedIn; email finding sold as a separate subscription
Per sending plan, unlimited accounts
Included in a sending tool
$69 (Email plan)
Cold email; LinkedIn on Multichannel
LinkedIn on Multichannel, $109 per user; emails in credits
No LinkedIn automation; Data Finder sold as an add-on
Per user: 1, 2 or 5 to 10 mailboxes depending on the plan
Included in a sending tool
$41 (Starter, up to 5 mailboxes warming at once)
Cold email, no LinkedIn
No LinkedIn; Lead Finder credits included
Per sending plan, warm-up through TrulyInbox
Included in a sending tool
$39 (Email, 5,000 emails, 3 warm-ups included)
Cold email; LinkedIn as a paid add-on
LinkedIn at $29 per account; emails in Lead Finder credits
Per tier of emails sent, free warm-ups by tier
Included in a sending tool
$100 (All-in-one seat)
Cold email and LinkedIn
One LinkedIn account per seat; email-finding step in sequences
Per LinkedIn seat, unlimited mailboxes
Included in a sending tool
$75 (3 × $25)
Warm-up and spam tests
No LinkedIn, no email finding
Per mailbox, $25 down to $16
Standalone warm-up
$54.45 (3 × $18.15 on average)
Cold email sequences, no LinkedIn
No LinkedIn
Per inbox, $19 down to $9.50
Warm-up with sequences
$87 (3 × $29)
Warm-up only; lemlist sends
No LinkedIn, no email finding
Per email address, $29 (Essential)
Standalone warm-up
$29 (Starter, sized for 3)
Warm-up only
No LinkedIn
Daily volume shared by unlimited accounts
Standalone warm-up
No monthly price (yearly billing only)
Monitoring and placement reports
No LinkedIn
Per mailbox, billed annually
Deliverability platform
$147 (3 × $49)
Warm-up and placement tests
No LinkedIn
One plan per mailbox, from $49 (Starter)
Standalone warm-up
From $149 (1 sender profile)
Works with your sending tool
No LinkedIn
Seed emails per day and sender profiles
Standalone warm-up
$79 (Start-up)
Warm-up only
No LinkedIn
Bundles of 1, 3 or 6 inboxes
Standalone warm-up
$189 (Growth)
Warm-up with expert calls
No LinkedIn
Bundles of 1, 3 or 10 mailboxes
Standalone warm-up
$29 (Starter, by daily volume)
Warm-up, tests, verification
No LinkedIn
Daily volume shared by unlimited mailboxes
Standalone warm-up
Monthly billing, as listed on each vendor’s pricing page on October 18, 2026; Folderly publishes no monthly price, so none is shown for it. For sending tools, the price shown is the cheapest plan that covers the mailboxes, sending included. Warmy assigns a plan to each mailbox in its app, while its comparison pages speak of plans for several mailboxes without saying how many.
The 18 email warm-up tools, one by one
Who each tool suits, what it does best and where it falls short. A tool’s name links to its full comparison page once that page is published.
Warm-up for unlimited accounts; Premium pool sold separately
For: high-volume senders who connect many mailboxes and don’t need LinkedIn.
Strength: warm-up for as many accounts as you connect from $47 a month, in a network Instantly puts at 1,000,000+ accounts.
Limit: a workspace with more than 100 SMTP accounts on Growth drops to the Basic pool, the Premium pool costs from $500 a month, and there are no LinkedIn steps.
The pool follows the plan: Foundation on Base, Premium higher up
For: agencies and senders who rotate many mailboxes on email alone.
Strength: unlimited mailboxes and warm-up from $39 a month, and warm-up emails don’t count against the send quota.
Limit: Base warms in the entry Foundation pool, the Ultra Premium pool is reserved for accounts that pass Smartlead’s criteria, and LinkedIn isn’t covered.
Warm-up included, but each user connects only a few mailboxes
For: small teams sending from a handful of mailboxes, without LinkedIn steps to automate.
Strength: unlimited warm-up on Starter, Email Outreach and Sales Engagement at no extra cost, and ready-made mailboxes (a domain and 5 addresses for $12 a month) warmed automatically.
Limit: billed per user, with 1, 2 or 5 to 10 mailboxes each depending on the plan: 3 mailboxes take 2 Email Outreach users ($98 a month, Starter’s 1,500 monthly sends being counted for the whole team); no free trial, and LinkedIn steps are manual tasks.
For: email-only teams that want sending, a lead database and warm-up in one subscription.
Strength: sequences and 1,500 Lead Finder credits a month from $41, with warm-up at no extra cost.
Limit: warm-up advertised as unlimited, but limited to 5 mailboxes warming at once on Starter (20 on Pro, 50 on Scale) according to its help center (checked on October 18, 2026); no LinkedIn.
3 free warm-ups on the first tier, then $5 per mailbox
For: teams sending from a handful of mailboxes who want warm-up in the same subscription.
Strength: unlimited mailboxes and team members, warm-up provided by Mailivery or Warmy, and LinkedIn automation at $29 per account.
Limit: free slots stop at 3 on the first tier (10 on the 50,000-email tier), then $5 per mailbox, 20 extra at most: warming 50 mailboxes at once takes the 250,000-email tier plus 20 extra slots ($319 a month).
For: teams and agencies that send from many mailboxes next to LinkedIn.
Strength: no mailbox limit per seat and warm-up at no extra cost, with LinkedIn steps and email finding in the same sequence.
Limit: priced per LinkedIn account ($100 a month, in dollars); warm-up called unlimited on the pricing page but held to 100 mailboxes per team by its terms; the 7-day trial asks for a card first.
For: senders who want deliverability tests and human support with their warm-up.
Strength: placement tests on every plan (5 a month on Starter) and a 7-day trial without a card.
Limit: its app gives every mailbox its own plan (the cheapest, Starter, costs $49), discounts for several mailboxes aren’t published, and no plan sends campaigns.
Never billed per mailbox; placement tests and blacklist monitors included
For: senders who warm many mailboxes and want deliverability tools in the same subscription.
Strength: placement test credits (10 on Starter), blacklist monitors and email verification from $29 a month, with a daily cap per mailbox meant to keep the network clean.
Limit: no campaigns, and the daily volume of a plan is shared by all your mailboxes.
Email warmup service or warm-up included in your sending tool?
Warm-up is sold two ways. Sending tools such as Emelia, Instantly, lemlist, Smartlead, Mailshake, Saleshandy, Woodpecker and Skylead include warm-up in the plan that runs your campaigns. Standalone services (MailReach, lemwarm, TrulyInbox, Warmy and others) only warm: you connect the mailbox that sends from your usual tool. Warmup Inbox sits in between: a warm-up service whose plans also send cold email sequences.
The bill shows the difference. Warming 3 mailboxes costs $75 a month at MailReach or $87 with lemwarm bought alone, and neither sends your campaigns; Warmup Inbox ($54.45) adds email sequences, without LinkedIn. Emelia’s Start plan ($37) warms those 3 mailboxes and sends the campaigns, with a LinkedIn account and the email finder. At 50 mailboxes, the gap widens: $900 at MailReach and $475 at Warmup Inbox, against $97 for Grow.
A standalone service makes sense when…
you are happy with your sending tool and only need to warm a few mailboxes, or you want what sending tools rarely include: placement tests (MailReach, Warmy, Mailivery), engagement on your real emails (InboxAlly) or a deliverability expert (Mailwarm, Folderly).
Included warm-up makes sense when…
you would otherwise pay twice, your number of mailboxes keeps growing, or you want one place to warm, send and follow replies. The cost of warm-up then stops growing with each new mailbox.
Free email warmup: what is really free
Emelia has no free warm-up plan, on purpose: a warm-up network anyone can join for free is hard to keep clean. You can try it for 7 days without a card; after that, warm-up comes with the subscription, for every mailbox your plan connects. Elsewhere, few warm-up tools are free for good:
Permanent free plan: only TrulyInbox, for 1 account and 10 warm-up emails a day.
Free trials: 14 days at Instantly (2 accounts), Smartlead and Woodpecker (1 mailbox); 10 days at InboxAlly; 7 days at Warmup Inbox, Mailivery, Warmy, Saleshandy, Skylead (card asked first) and TrulyInbox’s paid plans; Warmbox mentions one only on its agency page, without a length; Folderly starts with a demo, and some of its pages offer a 7-day trial on request.
Free inside a paid plan only: lemwarm comes with lemlist’s paid plans, not with its 14-day trial; Instantly, Smartlead, Mailshake, Saleshandy and Skylead include warm-up in every paid plan.
No trial: Mailshake collects payment up front, Mailwarm says it doesn’t offer one, and we found none at MailReach.
Free tools that are not warm-up: MailReach’s spam test, Warmup Inbox’s placement test and Folderly’s 2 placement tests a month.
How to choose an email warm-up tool
Four questions settle most choices between these email warming tools.
1. Who is in the warm-up network?
Your mailbox builds its reputation by exchanging emails with the others in the pool, so a shared pool is only as good as its senders. A cheap, unlimited network open to all is hard to keep free of careless high-volume senders, and vendors know it: several grade their own pools.
Instantly moves a whole workspace to its Basic pool when it connects more SMTP accounts than the plan allows (100 on Growth), and sells a Premium pool of high-quality, aged Google and Microsoft accounts from $500 a month. Smartlead ties the pool to the plan and opens its Ultra Premium pool only to accounts that meet criteria such as bounce rate and authentication. Mailivery caps each mailbox’s daily warm-up to protect its network.
Network sizes in vendors’ marketing, from 20,000+ domains to 1,000,000+ accounts, say nothing about who those senders are: ask how the vendor keeps bad senders out.
2. How is it billed?
Inside a sending plan (Emelia, Instantly, lemlist, Smartlead, Saleshandy; per user at Mailshake, per LinkedIn seat at Skylead, a few free slots per tier at Woodpecker), per mailbox (MailReach, Warmup Inbox, lemwarm, Folderly, Warmy), by bundle (Warmbox, Mailwarm) or by daily volume shared across your mailboxes (TrulyInbox, Mailivery). Run the numbers for your own mailbox count: the cheapest tool for one mailbox is rarely the cheapest for twenty.
3. What else do you need?
If you also send campaigns, look for emails or automate LinkedIn, a sending tool with warm-up included saves a subscription: Emelia brings the four together in one plan, with a health score for each mailbox. Placement tests and expert help come with standalone services such as MailReach, Warmy, Mailivery, InboxAlly, Mailwarm and Folderly.
4. Can you drive it from your stack?
An API lets you switch warm-up on for new mailboxes and pull their status automatically. Emelia’s API does both; Instantly opens its API from Hypergrowth, TrulyInbox from Starter, and Mailivery, Warmy and InboxAlly offer REST APIs.
Where Emelia fits
Emelia includes warm-up in every plan, for every mailbox the plan connects: 3 on Start ($37 a month), 50 on Grow ($97), unlimited on Scale ($297, fair use up to 1,000). The same plan sends your cold email and LinkedIn campaigns, finds and verifies emails, and gives each mailbox a health score. Emelia’s warm-up has its own page.
It is also a network with rules, on purpose: after the trial you pay to warm, each plan caps the mailboxes it connects, and a mailbox leaves the network when its subscription ends.
What sets it apart:
warm-up included for every mailbox the plan connects, with no add-on to pay;
cheaper than per-mailbox warm-up at 3 mailboxes: $75 at MailReach and $87 with lemwarm bought alone, against $37 for Start, which warms 3 and sends your campaigns;
a network for subscribers only: no free warm-up plan, a number of mailboxes set by plan, warm-up that stops with the subscription;
everything in one tool: cold email, LinkedIn and the email finder in the same plan.
Email warm-up tools: frequently asked questions
What is the best email warm-up tool?
The one that warms your mailboxes where your campaigns go out, in a network that stays clean. Emelia warms every mailbox of its plan at no extra cost, 3 from Start ($37 a month), in a network for subscribers only, and the same plan sends your email and LinkedIn campaigns and finds emails. Instantly, Smartlead, lemlist, Mailshake and Saleshandy also include warm-up, without LinkedIn in the same plan (lemlist bills it per user).
Is there a free email warm-up tool?
Emelia has no free warm-up plan, by choice: a network open to everyone is hard to keep clean. It has a 7-day trial without a card, then warm-up comes with every subscription. In this comparison, only TrulyInbox has a permanent free plan (1 account, 10 warm-up emails a day); the others offer a trial or include warm-up in a paid plan.
Does email warm-up actually work?
It helps a new or quiet mailbox build a sending history before cold campaigns, but it does not replace the basics: SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, clean lists and reasonable daily volumes. A high warm-up score is no promise of inbox placement; the open and reply rates of your campaigns remain the real test.
How long should I warm up a new email account?
Plan two to three weeks before the first campaign, ten to fifteen days at the very least, and keep warm-up running while your campaigns go out. Our warm-up guide explains the ramp-up step by step.
What are the alternatives to Instantly’s email warm-up?
Emelia includes warm-up for every mailbox of its plan, with campaign sending, LinkedIn and the email finder: enough to replace Instantly without a separate warm-up subscription. lemlist, Smartlead, Mailshake and Saleshandy also include warm-up in their sending plans.
Is warm-up included in Emelia’s price?
Yes, there is no warm-up add-on: every plan warms all the mailboxes it connects, starting at $37 a month for 3. Emelia’s pricing details each plan.
Do email warm-up tools send cold emails?
Emelia, Instantly, lemlist, Smartlead, Mailshake, Saleshandy and Skylead are sending tools first, with warm-up included. Most standalone services don’t send: MailReach, lemwarm, TrulyInbox, Mailivery, Warmy, Warmbox, Mailwarm and Folderly warm or test. Warmup Inbox is the exception: its plans also send cold email sequences from the mailboxes it warms.
At Findcustomer.io, we aim to democratize growth marketing and make it available to all businesses at a low cost. Emelia is a highly effective cold mailing tool at an unbeatable price.
Julien GalloCEO
A simple and affordable solution for setting up cold emailing to these prospects.
Anne ChénéCEO
As the head of multiple businesses, using Emelia's cold mailing tool allows me to confidently manage my campaigns by combining performance and simplicity.
Xavier DelahayeCEO
At Findcustomer.io, we aim to democratize growth marketing and make it available to all businesses at a low cost. Emelia is a highly effective cold mailing tool at an unbeatable price.
Julien GalloCEO
A simple and affordable solution for setting up cold emailing to these prospects.
Anne ChénéCEO
As the head of multiple businesses, using Emelia's cold mailing tool allows me to confidently manage my campaigns by combining performance and simplicity.
Xavier DelahayeCEO
At Findcustomer.io, we aim to democratize growth marketing and make it available to all businesses at a low cost. Emelia is a highly effective cold mailing tool at an unbeatable price.
Julien GalloCEO
A simple and affordable solution for setting up cold emailing to these prospects.
Anne ChénéCEO
As the head of multiple businesses, using Emelia's cold mailing tool allows me to confidently manage my campaigns by combining performance and simplicity.
Xavier DelahayeCEO
At Findcustomer.io, we aim to democratize growth marketing and make it available to all businesses at a low cost. Emelia is a highly effective cold mailing tool at an unbeatable price.
Julien GalloCEO
A simple and affordable solution for setting up cold emailing to these prospects.
Anne ChénéCEO
As the head of multiple businesses, using Emelia's cold mailing tool allows me to confidently manage my campaigns by combining performance and simplicity.
Xavier DelahayeCEO
At Findcustomer.io, we aim to democratize growth marketing and make it available to all businesses at a low cost. Emelia is a highly effective cold mailing tool at an unbeatable price.
Julien GalloCEO
A simple and affordable solution for setting up cold emailing to these prospects.
Anne ChénéCEO
As the head of multiple businesses, using Emelia's cold mailing tool allows me to confidently manage my campaigns by combining performance and simplicity.
Xavier DelahayeCEO
At Findcustomer.io, we aim to democratize growth marketing and make it available to all businesses at a low cost. Emelia is a highly effective cold mailing tool at an unbeatable price.
Julien GalloCEO
A simple and affordable solution for setting up cold emailing to these prospects.
Anne ChénéCEO
As the head of multiple businesses, using Emelia's cold mailing tool allows me to confidently manage my campaigns by combining performance and simplicity.
Xavier DelahayeCEO
It's not my profession - I'm a web developer and technical SEO specialist. I needed a simple and effective tool at a reasonable price. Look no further: Emelia meets all of these criteria.
Emile MoureauCo-founder
I was looking for a simple and effective tool to conduct my prospecting campaigns. Emelia is the perfect cold mailing tool!
Estelle KaraouniBusiness Development Manager
The tool is comprehensive, easy to use, and reasonably priced. No frills, just what I need to perform well on my cold mailing campaigns.
Thomas LucyGrowth Manager
It's not my profession - I'm a web developer and technical SEO specialist. I needed a simple and effective tool at a reasonable price. Look no further: Emelia meets all of these criteria.
Emile MoureauCo-founder
I was looking for a simple and effective tool to conduct my prospecting campaigns. Emelia is the perfect cold mailing tool!
Estelle KaraouniBusiness Development Manager
The tool is comprehensive, easy to use, and reasonably priced. No frills, just what I need to perform well on my cold mailing campaigns.
Thomas LucyGrowth Manager
It's not my profession - I'm a web developer and technical SEO specialist. I needed a simple and effective tool at a reasonable price. Look no further: Emelia meets all of these criteria.
Emile MoureauCo-founder
I was looking for a simple and effective tool to conduct my prospecting campaigns. Emelia is the perfect cold mailing tool!
Estelle KaraouniBusiness Development Manager
The tool is comprehensive, easy to use, and reasonably priced. No frills, just what I need to perform well on my cold mailing campaigns.
Thomas LucyGrowth Manager
It's not my profession - I'm a web developer and technical SEO specialist. I needed a simple and effective tool at a reasonable price. Look no further: Emelia meets all of these criteria.
Emile MoureauCo-founder
I was looking for a simple and effective tool to conduct my prospecting campaigns. Emelia is the perfect cold mailing tool!
Estelle KaraouniBusiness Development Manager
The tool is comprehensive, easy to use, and reasonably priced. No frills, just what I need to perform well on my cold mailing campaigns.
Thomas LucyGrowth Manager
It's not my profession - I'm a web developer and technical SEO specialist. I needed a simple and effective tool at a reasonable price. Look no further: Emelia meets all of these criteria.
Emile MoureauCo-founder
I was looking for a simple and effective tool to conduct my prospecting campaigns. Emelia is the perfect cold mailing tool!
Estelle KaraouniBusiness Development Manager
The tool is comprehensive, easy to use, and reasonably priced. No frills, just what I need to perform well on my cold mailing campaigns.
Thomas LucyGrowth Manager
It's not my profession - I'm a web developer and technical SEO specialist. I needed a simple and effective tool at a reasonable price. Look no further: Emelia meets all of these criteria.
Emile MoureauCo-founder
I was looking for a simple and effective tool to conduct my prospecting campaigns. Emelia is the perfect cold mailing tool!
Estelle KaraouniBusiness Development Manager
The tool is comprehensive, easy to use, and reasonably priced. No frills, just what I need to perform well on my cold mailing campaigns.
Thomas LucyGrowth Manager
Warm your mailboxes where your campaigns go out
Warm-up for every connected mailbox, cold email and LinkedIn in one plan, from $37 a month.
