How much does the complete outbound sales stack cost per month?

Up to $500 per month. If you skip a CRM, you can squeeze in under $350. However, when building a sales funnel, you'll want to follow up, create reminders, and track potential deals. If you're thinking long-term, don't skip the CRM. Most sales aren't accomplished through the first outreach - you'll be following up with the same contacts multiple times throughout a year until you land them.

How long does it take to set up the full sales stack from scratch?

With experience, it can be set up in under 5-6 hours. For most people who haven't worked with these platforms, a safe bet is under 2 working days. Take it easy, don't rush things, and do it properly so you won't have to redo everything.

Do I need technical skills to set up these tools?

No, all the tools are fairly easy to use. It's pretty much like setting up your laptop or phone for the first time. It's really not rocket science.

Can I start with just a few tools and add more later?

Yes, start with Reply.io + Clay OR Apollo. This gives you a tool to outreach with plus contacts to work with. You'll need to buy a domain for outbound, but you'll be limited by the volume of emails you can send initially.

How many demos per month can I realistically expect to book?

This really depends on market, messaging, and targeting. It can be as low as 5, it can be as high as hundreds a month. From experience in a market where you have some competition and you add 40-50 new contacts monthly, 15 to 20 demos is a healthy target.

How long before I see results from outbound?

You'll see open rates the same day, reply rates within a few days. Realistically, within the first week, if you haven't gotten answers and your open rate is lower than 40%, work on the messaging - you probably have issues there.

What's a good reply rate for cold emails?

3-5% is a good benchmark for cold email reply rates.

Should I hire an SDR or build this myself?

Always recommend starting yourself first. Calculate how much an SDR costs locally. A good rule of thumb is if an SDR costs $2,000/month, they need to bring enough opportunities to generate $6,000 of revenue monthly - essentially a 3:1 ratio.

What's the #1 mistake founders make with outbound sales?

Writing emails that read like a marketing campaign. Your goal is to message like a friend and say 'Hey, I see you're having issues with this, I have a solution, worth a chat?' Less is more.

Do I need a big email list to get started?

It's subjective and depends on what verticals you're targeting. Generally, we're speaking about thousands of contacts you can get from Clay, Apollo, or Lusha, so practically this isn't an area of concern.

Mixmax Review 2025: A Once-Great Tool That's Now Stuck in 2019

Last updated: December 2025

My experience: Used 2019-2024, stopped using ~6 months ago

2.5/5

Overpriced, email-only, and significantly behind the competition in 2025

The Honest Take

I'll be transparent upfront: I haven't touched Mixmax in about six months. During that time, they've apparently rolled out more AI features. But here's the thing - those AI features (objection handling, AI-assisted sequence writing) are table stakes now. Every serious player in the market has them.

Mixmax was a fantastic tool five years ago. Back in 2019-2020, it had top-tier email tracking, reliable analytics, and was genuinely ahead of the curve. Today? It's overpriced, email-only, and significantly behind tools like Reply.io, Lemlist, and Instantly.

The only reason they still claim 60,000+ users is enterprise inertia. Teams adopted it years ago when it was legitimately good, and now they're too deep in to migrate easily. That's not a reason for you to start with it in 2025.

What Mixmax Actually Does Well

Let me give credit where it's due:

Best deliverability I've personally tested

I've seen the lowest bounce rates coming from Mixmax campaigns compared to other platforms. This is interesting because Mixmax doesn't even have native warm-up - you need a separate tool like Mailreach or Warmbox. Yet somehow, the deliverability is consistently excellent. I can't tell you exactly why (could be infrastructure, conservative sending limits, or just cleaner sender reputation), but it's real.

Solid Gmail integration

The Chrome extension works well. You can access templates and sequences directly from Gmail, which is genuinely useful if you live in your inbox. The problem? That "inbox-native" advantage dies the moment you're working with a proper CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot, because you'll still be adding contacts to sequences via the Mixmax panel or directly from Salesforce anyway.

Reliable Salesforce logging

The integration with Salesforce is good - emails, meetings, and tasks sync properly. But let's be real: every other tool has extensive enough capabilities to create all the reporting you need in Salesforce too. This isn't the differentiator Mixmax marketing makes it out to be.

Good tracking and analytics

Task tracking and reporting are potentially among the best in the market. Five years ago, this was a killer feature. Today, it's just expected functionality.

Why You Shouldn't Use Mixmax in 2025

❌It's email-only in a multichannel world

The biggest limitation is that Mixmax only does email. No native LinkedIn automation, no SMS, no integrated calling beyond basic Twilio integration (which everyone uses anyway - Reply.io, Aircall, and most providers run on Twilio).

I personally moved away from Mixmax because I wanted to get more aggressive with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is currently the least saturated channel - you get better reply rates and conversion rates simply because fewer people are pounding it as hard as email. Mixmax didn't have native LinkedIn automation, and trying to bolt on a separate LinkedIn tool created a mess.

❌The UI is clunky for daily operations

You can get used to it, but adding prospects to sequences is probably one of my least favorite experiences across all sales tools. It's not that it's too many clicks - it's that the UI isn't clear if you're not tech-savvy. I've onboarded countless SDRs, and they always have the same issue: buttons are scattered all over the screen, and you constantly miss something in the process of adding a lead to a sequence.

❌Mixmax has been behind the curve on innovation

The "Outbox" feature (where you can manage which day and what volume of emails get sent) is cool in theory, but maybe 10% of users will actually utilize it efficiently. The recent AI additions are basic stuff everyone already has. There's no vision here - just feature parity catch-up.

❌No native warm-up

You need a separate tool to warm up your sending domains. Reply.io, Lemlist (with lemwarm), and Instantly all have this built in or bundled. With Mixmax, it's another tool to manage and pay for.

The Pricing Problem

Here's where it gets painful.

To get Salesforce or HubSpot integration - the features that actually make Mixmax useful - you need the Growth + CRM plan at $89/user/month.

Tool	Price/User/Month	What You Get
Mixmax Growth + CRM	$89	Email sequences, Salesforce sync, tracking, analytics
Reply.io	$60-70	Email + LinkedIn + calls + SMS in unified sequences
Lemlist	$69-99	Multichannel + lemwarm (native warm-up) + aggressive LinkedIn personalization
Instantly	Flat rate	Unlimited inboxes for high-volume email campaigns

You're paying 30% more for 20% of the functionality.

Who Should Actually Use Mixmax in 2025

Nobody starting fresh.

If you're building a new sales team, developing new outbound strategies, or just getting serious about sales engagement, do not choose Mixmax. The ROI ratio of what you're spending to what you're getting is terrible compared to what else is available.

The one exception: Your sales ops manager is a micromanager who needs real-time tracking of every email open, click, and breath your reps take. Mixmax's inbox-native tracking + Salesforce logging gives management the surveillance visibility they want.

If You're Currently Using Mixmax: When and How to Migrate

If you're already on Mixmax and it's working "well enough," the migration pain might not be worth it right this second - especially if you're doing low-volume, email-only outreach (under 100-200 emails per week).

But when your contract comes up for renewal, seriously consider switching. Here's where to go based on your use case:

Switch to Reply.io if you want multi-channel

Best for: Teams that need email + LinkedIn + calls + SMS in unified sequences

Price: $60-70/user/month

Why: This is the standard for growth-stage B2B companies doing serious outbound. You get four channels coordinated in one platform for less than Mixmax email-only.

Read full Reply.io review →

Switch to Lemlist if you want to be aggressive on LinkedIn + email

Best for: Teams focused on highly personalized, LinkedIn-heavy outbound

Price: $69-99/user/month

Why: Lemlist has the best LinkedIn personalization features, includes lemwarm for deliverability, and the multichannel sequencing is solid. If LinkedIn is a primary channel, this is your tool.

Switch to Instantly if you want to go crazy on email volume

Best for: Agencies, lead gen shops, high-volume cold email campaigns

Price: Flat rate with unlimited inboxes

Why: If you're sending thousands of emails per day across multiple domains/inboxes, Instantly's pricing model makes way more sense than per-seat pricing. Pure email focus, built for scale.

Compare Reply.io vs Instantly →

Why Mixmax Still Has 60,000+ Users

Inertia.

Enterprise teams adopted Mixmax in 2018-2020 when it was legitimately a top-tier tool. They've got it integrated into Salesforce, reps are trained on it, and "it works well enough" for what they're doing.

But that installed base isn't growth - it's momentum from five years ago slowly decaying. According to their website, they have 60,000+ users. I believe that number. I also believe a significant chunk of those are dormant enterprise seats on multi-year contracts, not active users running aggressive campaigns.

The Bottom Line

Mixmax is a relic of the 2019 sales engagement landscape. It does email sequences reliably with excellent deliverability, but so does everyone else - plus LinkedIn, SMS, and calls.

The user experience hasn't meaningfully improved in five years. The feature set is stagnant. The pricing doesn't make sense when compared to what Reply.io, Lemlist, and Instantly offer for the same or less money.

✗If you're starting fresh: Don't even consider Mixmax. Start with Reply.io (multichannel), Lemlist (LinkedIn-heavy), or Instantly (email volume).
!If you're currently using Mixmax: Migrate when your contract renews. You're paying too much for too little, and the opportunity cost of staying email-only is real.

Quick Decision Framework

Choose Reply.io if:

• You need multichannel (email + LinkedIn + calls + SMS)
• You're a growth-stage team doing 500+ emails/week per rep
• You want the "safe," standard choice that works

Choose Lemlist if:

• LinkedIn is a primary channel for you
• You value personalization and creative outreach
• You want strong native warm-up (lemwarm)

Choose Instantly if:

• You're doing high-volume cold email (agencies, lead gen)
• You need multiple sending inboxes under one flat rate
• Email-only focus is fine for your use case

Choose Mixmax if:

• You're already locked in and migration isn't worth the pain right now
• Your ops team is weirdly attached to it
• You're doing very low-volume email (<100/week) and just need basic tracking

Questions? Think I'm wrong about something?

I've implemented these tools across 50+ companies, and I'm always happy to talk through specific use cases.

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