Instantly
- Starting price: $47/mo (Growth — was $37 Light Speed pre-2026 restructure ; annual $37.60)
- Free plan: Free 14-day trial
- Founded: 2021
- HQ: Wyoming, USA
Updated
Instantly vs Smartlead vs Derrick: Which Is Better in 2026?
- Short answer
- Instantly vs Smartlead vs Derrick: Instantly is a unlimited warm-up · 160m b2b database · agency-friendly, Smartlead is a ai personalization · unlimited mailboxes · master inbox. Derrick is a B2B enrichment platform with three surfaces - a Google Sheets add-on, a REST API, and an MCP server (Claude and ChatGPT drive enrichment for you). Hit rates are noticeably higher (more emails + phone numbers returned per query than Instantly or Smartlead) and pricing is lower - free forever with 100 credits/month, paid plans from €9/month. Most teams pair Derrick for the data layer with Instantly or Smartlead for outreach.
Where Instantly optimises the send + measure loop, Derrick owns the lead-list quality that determines whether Instantly's send loop ever lands in inbox. The side-by-side comparison below covers Instantly's pricing tiers, deliverability features and contact-source ecosystem against Derrick's 10-source waterfall enrichment.
Free plan Yes - 100 credits/mo
Starts at €9/mo
Setup time 30 seconds
Where it lives Google Sheets
✓ Free forever · ✓ No credit card · ✓ Cancel anytime · ✓ Your data stays in your Sheet
Trusted by 27 000+ users worldwide.
CURSOR Quick Facts
Instantly vs Smartlead vs Derrick at a glance
Smartlead
- Starting price: $39/month
- Free plan: 14-day free trial
- Founded: 2022
- HQ: Sydney, Australia
Derrick
★ Recommended- Starting price: Free · Paid from €9/mo
- Free plan: Yes - 100 credits/mo permanent
- Founded: 2023
- HQ: Marseille, FR
Why Derrick wins 01
02
03
Why teams pick Derrick over Instantly and Smartlead
3 core reasons SDRs and ops teams switch to Derrick. Click to expand each.
01 Skip the dashboard — enrich straight from formulas
If your B2B data ends up in Google Sheets anyway (most teams' do), running it through Instantly or Smartlead first means two unnecessary hops : platform → CSV → Sheets. Derrick removes both hops. One add-on, one formula, results in the next column. The unit-of-work shrinks from "run the export" to "drag the formula down".
02 Transparent $10/mo : no credit caps, no seat fees
Instantly ($37/month) and Smartlead ($39/month) follow the SaaS-standard model : tier the features, cap the credits, upsell when you outgrow it. Derrick is the opposite — one tier, $10/month, no caps, no seats. Predictable spend for teams that hate budgeting around credit-pool refills.
03 MCP-ready for AI workflows in 2026
Derrick exposes its enrichment API via MCP (Model Context Protocol) — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and other LLM agents can call Derrick directly from your sheet without writing integration code. Instantly and Smartlead require Zapier, Make, or custom API wiring to do the same.
Honest Comparison 
derrick
What each tool does better
We're upfront - every tool has strengths. Here's where Instantly, Smartlead, and Derrick each genuinely win.
What Instantly does better
- Private warm-up network is genuinely differentiated
- Unified inbox handles 50+ mailboxes without losing your mind
- Bundled 160M B2B database removes a real stack-cost line
What Smartlead does better
- AI features bundled at $39 Basic tier
- Master inbox with AI reply classification
- Unlimited mailboxes + bundled warm-up + bundled lead finder
What Derrick does better
- Free forever - €0/mo with 100 credits permanent in Google Sheets
- 100+ data points per lead - verified emails, phones, LinkedIn, tech stack, SIRET
- Zero LinkedIn ban risk + real-time email verification built in
- Pair with any sequencer - LaGrowthMachine, Smartlead, Lemlist, HeyReach
Real Annual Cost
True cost over 12 months
Headline pricing rarely tells the whole story. Here's the real cost of running each tool for a year.
| Instantly | Smartlead | Derrick | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price (monthly) | $47/mo (Growth — was $37 Light Speed pre-2026 restructure ; annual $37.60) | $39/month | €0 (free) · €9/mo paid |
| Annual cost (base) | ~€564/yr | ~€468/yr | €0/yr free · ~€108/yr paid |
| Free plan? | Free 14-day trial | 14-day free trial | ✓ Forever - 100 credits/mo |
| Setup cost | Hours to days | Hours to days | 30 seconds via Marketplace |
| Switching cost | CSV export + retraining | CSV export + retraining | Zero - works alongside any stack |
💡 Most teams pay 2-5x more on add-ons (extra seats, phone credits, integrations) than on the headline base price. Derrick keeps everything in one transparent tier.
Feature-by-Feature
Instantly vs Smartlead vs Derrick: full feature comparison
| Instantly | Derrick App | Smartlead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $37/month | $10/mo flat | $39/month |
| Free plan | Free 14-day trial | 14-day full trial | 14-day free trial |
| Best for | Agencies + cold-email-at-scale | Sheet-native enrichment | AI-first cold email teams |
| Category positioning | Cold email outreach | Spreadsheet-native B2B data | Cold email outreach |
| G2 rating | 4.8/5 | — | 4.7/5 |
| Founded | 2021 | 2022 | 2022 |
| Mailbox model | Unlimited on all paid tiers | N/A — data not sender | Unlimited on all paid tiers |
| Built-in warm-up | 1.5M+ mailbox private network | N/A | Automated, no private network |
| AI personalization | Gates to Hypergrowth ($97) | Via LLM integrations | Bundled on Basic |
| Bundled B2B database | 160M contacts (Lead Finder) | Derrick search + enrich | 200M contacts (Pro+) |
| Works natively in Google Sheets | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Per-row pricing (no credit caps) | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| MCP-ready for AI / LLM agents | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Pricing in a nutshell Cold email outreach derrick
best value for money
Results first.
Discover Derrick →
Cold email outreach
Instantly vs Smartlead vs Derrick pricing breakdown
Cold email outreach Instantly
$47/mo (Growth — was $37 Light Speed pre-2026 restructure ; annual $37.60)
Best for: Agencies + cold-email-at-scale
Instantly starts at $37/month. Cold email outreach, with positioning around agencies + cold-email-at-scale. Full tier-by-tier breakdown including credit caps, seat economics, and hidden line items lives on the dedicated Instantly pricing page.
Results first.
Complexity removed.
Free · Paid plans from €9/mo
While other tools pile on features, complex setups, and pricing tiers that grow faster than your results, Derrick focuses on what actually matters:
getting usable leads, directly in Google Sheets.
No heavy workflows, No endless configuration. No learning curve.
Cold email outreach Smartlead
$39/month
Best for: AI-first cold email teams
Smartlead pricing entry sits at $39/month (cold email outreach). Sized for ai-first cold email teams. The detailed Smartlead pricing breakdown (tier-by-tier feature matrix + true TCO) is on the dedicated pricing page.
Migration Guide
How to switch from Instantly to Derrick in 3 steps
Derrick is a Google Workspace app - no formulas to learn, no pipelines to migrate, no engineering work. Add it to Google Sheets and you're enriching in under a minute.
1
~30 sec Install Derrick from Google Workspace Marketplace
Click the install button on our Marketplace listing and grant Google Sheets access. No credit card required - you start with 100 free credits per month.
2
~30 sec Open any Google Sheet → Extensions → Derrick
Open a Sheet with your prospect list (paste a CSV from Instantly, scrape from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or import from your CRM). Click Extensions → Derrick and the sidebar opens with all enrichment features ready to use.
3
~1 min Enrich your list with one click
Select the column with names, LinkedIn URLs, or company domains. Pick what you want - emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn data, company info, tech stack - and click "Enrich". Derrick fills the columns directly in your Sheet. No exports, no pipelines, no waiting.
Install Derrick free →
100 free credits / month · No credit card · Cancel anytime
Decision in 60 seconds
Which one is right for you?
Pick Instantly if…
- You specifically need agencies + cold-email-at-scale
- Private warm-up network is genuinely differentiated
- Unified inbox handles 50+ mailboxes without losing your mind
- You're already invested in the Instantly ecosystem
Pick Smartlead if…
- You specifically need ai-first cold email teams
- AI features bundled at $39 Basic tier
- Master inbox with AI reply classification
- You're already invested in the Smartlead ecosystem
Pick Derrick if…
- You want B2B enrichment directly in Google Sheets
- You need a usable free plan (100 credits/mo, no card)
- You don't want long contracts, lock-in, or sales calls
- You need 100+ data points per lead in one tool
What teams say after switching from Instantly vs Smartlead
See what our customers say about Derrick.
"This app saved me so much time and effort. Great for anyone looking to build a contact list or network at scale quickly. As a start-up it's been invaluable."
Alex Clark
Director | SaaS GTM Leader
"Working pretty nifty compared to Snov.Io. Price wise it does give a fair shake, and IMO better interface since it's google sheets."
David Sire
Mortgage Broker at Zero Point Mortgage
"Derrick is a very simple and user-friendly app to enrich your contacts database. Best thing: you can test it for free. And then the price is so low, it's a no brainer."
Etienne Grange
CEO Form'actions
"Super easy to enrich linkedin urls using this tool. Both personal and company url data can be easily enriched with a click of a button."
Zaid Bilal
RevOps Professional
"Amazing Tool, I would like to advocate this to my colleagues. So that you can get more users. Keep it Up. 5 Stars!"
Asif Hanzala
Lead Generation Specialist at IdeaPeel
"This app is fantastic. Brilliantly created to help small and mid sized businesses."
Dan Hughes
Founder/CEO, AlmanacIO
"I have been using other expensive apps or freemium like phantombuster, but Derrick has replaced them all. I love the simplicity of the Google sheet add-in, but what is best is the efficiency it delivers."
Julien Walon Cohen
CEO & Co-founder @ Diffly | B2B Sales Advisor
"The LinkedIn scraping and email finder combo is incredibly powerful. I can build a complete prospect list with contact info in under an hour. Absolute must-have for outbound."
Michael Kim
SDR Team Lead at CloudScale
"Have tested over 10+ LI scraper apps, Derrick beats them all. Simple to use, accurate data, and affordable price."
AJ Alexander
Opportunity Prospector
Frequently Asked Questions
Instantly vs Smartlead: when does each fit best?
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Instantly is positioned as cold email outreach for agencies + cold-email-at-scale. Smartlead is positioned as cold email outreach for ai-first cold email teams. Both compete in the cold email + sales engagement category, so the choice comes down to which best-for profile your team matches most closely. G2 reviewers rate Instantly at 4.8/5 and Smartlead at 4.7/5 — both products work, the deciding factor is workflow fit, not product quality.
How do Instantly and Smartlead pricing actually compare in 2026?
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Instantly entry-paid tier : Light Speed at $37/month. Next tier up is Growth ($47/month). Instantly's free tier : Free 14-day trial. Smartlead entry-paid tier : Basic at $39/month ($32.5 annual). Next tier up is Pro ($94/month ($78.3 annual)). Smartlead's free tier : 14-day free trial. As a cross-reference : Derrick App's $10/month flat fee covers unlimited Sheet rows — useful for teams that hate budgeting around credit refills.
What's the biggest reason to pick Instantly over Smartlead?
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Private warm-up network is genuinely differentiated. 1.5M+ mailboxes inboxing each other across the network create real reputation signal that Gmail and Microsoft trust. Reviewers consistently report 5-15% higher inbox-placement rates after migrating to Instantly versus Smartlead, Saleshandy, or Lemlist warm-up alone. (Source : Andrei P., Cold Email Agency Operator, G2 review (Feb 2026).) If this single capability maps to a real pain in your sales motion, Instantly is the right pick over Smartlead.
What's the biggest reason to pick Smartlead over Instantly?
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AI features bundled at $39 Basic tier. Auto-icebreaker generation, AI subject-line testing, and AI-suggested follow-ups are all included on the Basic tier — no upgrade path required. Instantly gates the same features to Hypergrowth ($97). For AI-curious cold-emailers on a budget, this is the deciding factor. (Source : Daniel K., Solo Founder, G2 review (Feb 2026).) If this is the differentiator that matters most for your stack, Smartlead is the right pick over Instantly.
Can Derrick replace both Instantly and Smartlead?
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Both Instantly and Smartlead compete in the cold email + sales engagement category. Derrick is data-and-Sheets-native — it doesn't replace a full cold email + sales engagement platform feature-for-feature, but it eliminates the data + spreadsheet layer that teams typically use alongside Instantly or Smartlead. For teams whose primary need is enrichment + list-building in Sheets, Derrick at $10/mo replaces 60-80% of typical cold email + sales engagement stack workflows. For teams running heavy cold email + sales engagement feature surface (sequencer, dialer, AI agents), Derrick complements rather than replaces.
Beyond Instantly and Smartlead, what other tools should I evaluate?
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Four other tools in the same competitive set worth evaluating : Saleshandy, Lemlist, Apollo, Mailshake. Each has its own positioning trade-off versus Instantly and Smartlead — Saleshandy typically appears as a direct competitor on G2 review pages, with Lemlist, Apollo, Mailshake as adjacent picks for different team sizes or use cases. Cross-reference each tool's standalone review for the trade-off detail that matters to your team's specific stack.
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