Mailshake
- Starting price: $29/user/month
- Free plan: 30-day money-back guarantee
- Founded: 2017
- HQ: Austin, TX, USA
Updated
Mailshake vs Smartlead vs Derrick: Which Is Better in 2026?
- Short answer
- Mailshake vs Smartlead vs Derrick: Mailshake is a cold email · dialer · multichannel cadences, 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 Mailshake 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 Mailshake or Smartlead for outreach.
Mailshake lives or dies by sender reputation - warmup pools, IP rotation, inbox health. The side-by-side comparison below weighs Mailshake's deliverability stack and per-seat scaling against Derrick's upstream model: clean Sheets-side enrichment first, send wherever your stack already sends from.
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
Mailshake 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 Mailshake and Smartlead
3 core reasons SDRs and ops teams switch to Derrick. Click to expand each.
01 Built for teams whose pipeline runs in Sheets
The friction with Mailshake and Smartlead isn't the data quality — it's the workflow shape. Export from the platform, import into Sheets, hope the columns line up. Derrick collapses all of that into a single formula call. The enrichment happens where the data already lives, with the team that already owns the sheet.
02 One price for unlimited rows : $10/month total
Mailshake ($29/user/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 Plug Derrick into Claude / ChatGPT via MCP — no glue code
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. Mailshake 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 Mailshake, Smartlead, and Derrick each genuinely win.
What Mailshake does better
- Salesforce integration that actually works under load
- US-based support that knows the product
- Multichannel + dialer in one bundle on Sales Engagement
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.
| Mailshake | Smartlead | Derrick | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price (monthly) | $29/user/month | $39/month | €0 (free) · €9/mo paid |
| Annual cost (base) | ~€348/yr | ~€468/yr | €0/yr free · ~€108/yr paid |
| Free plan? | 30-day money-back guarantee | 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
Mailshake vs Smartlead vs Derrick: full feature comparison
| Mailshake | Derrick App | Smartlead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $29/user/month | $10/mo flat | $39/month |
| Free plan | 30-day money-back guarantee | 14-day full trial | 14-day free trial |
| Best for | Traditional SDR teams on Salesforce | Sheet-native enrichment | AI-first cold email teams |
| Category positioning | Sales engagement | Spreadsheet-native B2B data | Cold email outreach |
| G2 rating | 4.4/5 | — | 4.7/5 |
| Founded | 2017 | 2022 | 2022 |
| Mailbox model | Per-user (1-5 mailboxes/seat) | N/A — data not sender | Unlimited on all paid tiers |
| Built-in warm-up | Basic, no private network | N/A | Automated, no private network |
| AI personalization | Added 2024, less mature | Via LLM integrations | Bundled on Basic |
| Bundled B2B database | Standalone | 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 Sales engagement derrick
best value for money
Results first.
Discover Derrick →
Cold email outreach
Mailshake vs Smartlead vs Derrick pricing breakdown
Sales engagement Mailshake
$29/user/month
Best for: Traditional SDR teams on Salesforce
For traditional sdr teams on salesforce, Mailshake sales engagement starts at $29/user/month. Tier ceilings, credit refresh rules, and per-seat economics are all detailed on the Mailshake pricing page below.
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 starts at $39/month. Cold email outreach, with positioning around ai-first cold email teams. Full tier-by-tier breakdown including credit caps, seat economics, and hidden line items lives on the dedicated Smartlead pricing page.
Migration Guide
How to switch from Mailshake 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 Mailshake, 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 Mailshake if…
- You specifically need traditional sdr teams on salesforce
- Salesforce integration that actually works under load
- US-based support that knows the product
- You're already invested in the Mailshake 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 Mailshake 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
Mailshake vs Smartlead: when does each fit best?
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Mailshake is positioned as sales engagement for traditional sdr teams on salesforce. 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 Mailshake at 4.4/5 and Smartlead at 4.7/5 — both products work, the deciding factor is workflow fit, not product quality.
How do Mailshake and Smartlead pricing actually compare in 2026?
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Mailshake entry-paid tier : Starter at $29/user/month (annual). Next tier up is Email Outreach ($59/user/month (annual)). Mailshake's free tier : 30-day money-back guarantee. 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 Mailshake over Smartlead?
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Salesforce integration that actually works under load. Mailshake's Salesforce sync is bidirectional, real-time, and doesn't break under high-volume scenarios. Newer competitors' integrations are mostly write-only or batch-synced, which causes data inconsistency in CRM-led sales motions. (Source : Mei C., RevOps Director, G2 review (Feb 2026).) If this single capability maps to a real pain in your sales motion, Mailshake is the right pick over Smartlead.
What's the biggest reason to pick Smartlead over Mailshake?
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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 Mailshake.
Can Derrick replace both Mailshake and Smartlead?
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Both Mailshake 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 Mailshake 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 Mailshake and Smartlead, what other tools should I evaluate?
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Four other tools in the same competitive set worth evaluating : Instantly, Saleshandy, Lemlist, Apollo. Each has its own positioning trade-off versus Mailshake and Smartlead — Instantly typically appears as a direct competitor on G2 review pages, with Saleshandy, Lemlist, Apollo 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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