Compare options
A tool stack, SDR hires, an outbound agency or an agent. Each one is the right call for some teams. This page shows what each asks of your week, where each falls short, and when to pick a different option than ours.
Illustrations, not product screenshots.
The four options
For each option: who it suits, what you actually do each week, and what it is bad at.
Side by side
Qualitative on purpose. On a phone, scroll the table sideways: the first column stays in place.
| Criteria | A stack of tools | Hire SDRs | An outbound agency | Agentic Outreach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to first campaign | Set up each tool, then wire them together before the first send. | Hiring and ramp time before the first send. | Onboarding and a strategy phase before the first send. | About 10 minutes with your agent. Nothing sends until you approve Day 1. |
| Who researches each prospect | You, across five or more tabs. | Your reps, usually from the same few sources. | The agency team, from the brief you give them. | The agent. Funding, hiring, tech stack, recent LinkedIn posts, plus a 0 to 100 fit score with reasons. |
| Who writes each message | You, or a template you fill in per row. | Each rep, in their own words. | The agency copywriter, reviewed by you. | The agent writes each message from that prospect's own signals, in your voice. You can edit it before launch. |
| Email, LinkedIn and InMail in one timeline | No. Usually not. Each tool keeps its own log. | Depends on the CRM and the discipline of the rep. | Depends on the agency's tooling, and you rarely see it. | Yes. Yes. A LinkedIn accept stops the cold email, and any reply stops everything. |
| Replies handled and meetings booked | You read every reply and book the call by hand. | Reps handle replies and book on their calendars. | The agency handles replies in its own process and reports back. | Every reply is classified, a draft answer is written in context, and meetings are booked through Google Calendar. |
| Does it get better with use | Only as well as you remember what worked. | Yes, as reps learn your market. That knowledge leaves with them. | Between reviews, and the learning stays with the agency. | Yes. It runs experiments on openers, channels and timing, and promotes the winners. It measures replies, accepts and meetings, not opens. |
| Control and visibility | Total, and all of the watching is yours. | Good, through your manager's reports and call reviews. | Limited to what the agency chooses to report. | Every decision shows its inputs. You approve the launch, and the guardrails stay on. |
| How you pay | A subscription per tool and per seat. | Salary plus management time. | Monthly retainer. | Per prospect worked, plans from $99/month. |
| Best when | You have operators who want fine control of every step. | Your outbound is mostly calls and complex relationship selling. | You want the strategy and creative done for you, with no hands on your side. | You want the outbound motion to run itself, with you approving rather than building. |
What you stop doing
A lot of outbound time goes to moving data between tools and watching for replies. Here is the same week, before and after.
When another option is the better call
Three cases where another option fits better. If one of them describes you, go with it.
When the job is mostly phone work and complex relationship selling, with a senior person who needs to be in the room.
When you want strategy and creative done for you, and you have no time to review drafts or touch the tools.
When you already have operators who want fine control of every step, and enjoy running the machinery.
Agentic Outreach is the better call when you want the outbound motion to run itself, with you approving rather than building.
Switching in practice
You do not start from zero. Your accounts, your lists and your voice move across. The one habit that changes is that you review drafts before launch instead of writing every message yourself.
Connect the mailboxes you already use. Email sends through Gmail, Zoho Mail or your own SMTP and IMAP, and LinkedIn works from your own account.
Upload Excel or CSV. The AI maps the columns, and you confirm the mapping before anything is enrolled.
Save how you write and what you never say once, as messaging guidance. Every message follows it.
Connect Claude, ChatGPT or another MCP client by URL, with OAuth. Your assistant can plan, research and draft. It has no send tool.
Questions
No. Agentic Outreach runs the outbound motion: research, writing, sending, replies and meeting booking. You still take the calls and run the deals that need a person. If your outbound is mostly phone work, an SDR is the better call.
Yes. Upload an Excel or CSV file. The AI maps the columns, you confirm the mapping, and the rows are enriched and enrolled. Rows dropped by dedupe or safety guards are not charged.
Yes. Email sends from your own mailboxes through Gmail, Zoho Mail or custom SMTP and IMAP. LinkedIn invites and messages go out from your own account. Mailboxes rotate at 20 sends a day each, inside platform limits.
You approve the launch, and Day 1 always needs a person. Copilot mode waits for your approval on each message. Autopilot, on Growth and above, sends inside your guardrails. Paid sourcing waits for your OK, and you can pause a campaign or revoke the agent's access in one click.
You pay per prospect worked. One credit is one prospect enrolled into a campaign and run through the full sequence. Scraping, re-enrolling an existing prospect, and rows dropped by dedupe or guards are free. Plans start at $99 a month with 200 credits. Billing is not live yet during private beta, so pricing is shown for transparency.
It is in private beta, so access is by waitlist. CRM sync starts on the Scale plan. There is no phone dialer, so calls stay with you. We have not completed a SOC 2 audit.
Private beta. Bring your ideal customer profile and your lead list. Nothing sends until you approve Day 1.