lemlist

What it is

lemlist runs cold outreach campaigns across channels. The Email plan covers sequences with 50,000 emails per month, an email and phone finder, a lead database of over 650 million contacts, the lemAgent assistant and a deliverability hub with warm-up. The Multichannel plan adds LinkedIn automation, SMS, WhatsApp, in-app calling and task management, with unlimited emails and messages.

Warm-up deserves attention, because it is the part people skip. New sending domains and mailboxes get filtered aggressively, and warm-up gradually builds a sending reputation so your campaign reaches inboxes rather than spam folders.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits B2B teams whose pipeline depends on outbound, particularly where a sequence should move between email and LinkedIn rather than repeating the same channel. Having the lead database, the finder and the sending tool in one product removes the export-import loop between three vendors.

It is a weaker fit for businesses selling to consumers, where cold outreach is usually the wrong instrument and often the wrong side of the rules. It is also unnecessary if you send a handful of personal emails a week: a sequencing tool exists to handle volume, and at low volume it adds process without adding results.

Pricing

lemlist is paid, with no free plan. There is a 14-day trial without a credit card, and an extended 30-day trial for new signups. The Email plan is $55 per user per month billed annually, or $69 monthly. Multichannel is $87 per user per month annually, or $109 monthly. Enterprise is custom and adds custom roles, SSO and SAML, a dedicated account manager and priority support.

Per-user pricing is the thing to model. Outbound teams add seats as they scale, so the honest budget is seats times months at the size you are aiming for.

Set it up

Official guide: Complete your technical setup

1. Start the free trial of lemlist, currently 30 days for new signups (otherwise 14). There is no free plan. After the trial the Email plan costs $55/user/mo billed annually ($69 monthly) and includes 50,000 emails/mo. Safe sending only starts after at least 40 days of warm-up, so most of that time falls after the trial. Have ready a Google Workspace address on your own domain, plus logins for Google Admin and for the company where you bought the domain. Your trial account is now ready.
2. In Google Admin, open Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail and click "Authenticate email". Google says to wait 24 to 72 hours after turning on Gmail before this step. Choose your domain, click "Generate New Record", pick 2048 (1024 only if your domain provider cannot handle 2048) and click "Generate". Copy the DKIM value, a digital signature that proves your emails come from you. Do not click "Start authentication" yet. You now see the value to add to your DNS.
3. Open your domain's DNS settings (at the company you bought it from). If an SPF record already exists (TXT starting v=spf1), make sure it contains include:_spf.google.com before ~all, never a second record: a second one can send all your company's email to spam. If none, add TXT host @, value v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all. Add TXT host google._domainkey with your DKIM value. If _dmarc already has a record, add nothing; if not, add TXT host _dmarc, value v=DMARC1; p=none. You now see them listed.
4. Back in Google Admin, open "Authenticate email" again, choose your domain and click "Start authentication". Google says DKIM can take up to 48 hours to start working, and a "You must update the DNS records" message can show for that long even when the record is right. The status now reads "Authenticating email with DKIM".
5. Click your profile picture in the bottom left corner, select "Settings", click "Sending settings" in the left sidebar, expand the email section and click "Connect email address". Choose Gmail and follow the prompts. Then open the lemwarm dashboard, choose a plan and start lemwarm, which exchanges practice emails so email providers learn to trust your address. lemwarm is billed separately. Your address now shows as connected and warming up.
6. Click "Campaigns" in the left menu, then "Create campaign". On the "Sequence" tab (your series of emails) click "Add step", choose an email and write it; pick your address under "Select senders for your campaign". Open the "Lead list" tab, click "Import new leads" and choose "CSV import" (a spreadsheet with an email address and first name per lead). Use at most 25 people who fit, so you can read every reply. You now see your email and your leads in the campaign.
7. Mail only business addresses: in the EU a sole trader counts as a private person and must agree first, and every email needs a line that lets people unsubscribe. Launching sends real emails to real people, so start only after at least 40 days of lemwarm and a Warmup Score of 90 or higher. Then open the "Launch" tab, read the recap and confirm. The "Performance" tab now shows who received each email and who replied.

When this works, Google Admin shows "Authenticating email with DKIM" for your domain, and the "Performance" tab of your first campaign lists who received each email and who replied.

If lemlist blocks sending and asks for a custom tracking domain (your own subdomain for tracked links), go to Settings > Sending settings > Email, click "Settings" next to your address, open "Custom tracking domain", copy the CNAME record lemlist shows and add it where you added the records in step 3.

Strengths and limitations

The strength is the complete outbound stack: find, verify, warm up, send across channels, follow up. Teams that run this with separate tools spend real time moving lists between them.

The limitations are legal and practical. Cold outreach sits under rules that differ by country, and under GDPR a B2B email still needs a lawful basis and a working opt-out. That responsibility is yours, not the tool's. There is no free plan, so testing means a trial with a real domain at risk. And multichannel automation on LinkedIn operates against a platform that restricts automated activity, so treat aggressive settings as a risk to your account. See Instantly vs lemlist for the comparison with the volume-first alternative.