Your sales team is drowning in spreadsheets, sending cold emails manually, and losing track of who opened what. Meanwhile, your competitors are running automated email sequences that nurture leads while they sleep. Email sequences software isn't a luxury anymore—it's the difference between booking ten meetings a month and booking one.
The challenge is finding a tool that actually fits your workflow. Too many platforms either do everything badly (hello, bloated enterprise CRMs) or do one thing brilliantly but leave you scrambling for integrations. What you need is clarity: which tools handle email automation well, which ones nail link tracking, and which platforms let you automate the entire outreach funnel without needing a PhD in marketing tech.
Let's walk through the best options worth a look.
# Clkly
Clkly is the simplest way to send automated cold email sequences without losing visibility into what happens next. It combines branching email sequences, link tracking, and a lightweight CRM in one place—no card required to start. Set up in 30 seconds.
- Branching email sequences with conditional logic so replies skip future messages automatically
- Track every link click and email open tied directly to each contact
- Send via Gmail or Outlook OAuth, or use Resend for maximum deliverability
- Branded short links on your own domain plus styled QR codes for print and digital campaigns
- Inbox warmup to gradually ramp sending volume from new mailboxes
- Country-level click analytics, folders, and bulk actions to keep campaigns organised
# HubSpot
HubSpot is a full-stack CRM platform built primarily for inbound marketing and sales teams. It includes email sequences, contact management, pipeline tracking, and reporting across a web of integrations. The free tier covers basic contacts and email campaigns, whilst paid plans unlock advanced automation, sequences with more branching logic, and deeper analytics. Most teams use HubSpot as their central CRM—email automation sits inside a larger sales and marketing suite rather than standing alone. It's heavyweight by design, which works well for mid-market teams with budget and time to learn the system, but smaller outreach-focused squads often find it over-engineered.
# Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that started as a newsletter tool and has gradually expanded into automation and basic CRM features. It's strongest at visual email design and drip campaigns for established audience lists—think newsletters and promotional sequences rather than cold outreach. Mailchimp offers free plans for small lists and paid tiers as you scale. The product feels more aligned with marketing-to-existing-audiences workflows than aggressive cold email or follow-up automation, though it's certainly capable of sending sequences.
# Lemlist
Lemlist is a cold email and outreach platform focused on personalization at scale. It excels at dynamic email templates, AI-powered subject lines, and lead enrichment from Apollo and Hunter. Sequences are linear (step-by-step, not branching), and the platform includes a lightweight CRM, scheduling, and tracking. Pricing is per-seat and starts around the mid-tier. Lemlist appeals to teams that prioritise template customisation and enriched prospect data over deep workflow automation or advanced CRM features.
# Instantly
Instantly is a cold email tool built for volume and deliverability. It focuses on multi-account sending, warm-up automation, and deliverability infrastructure—less on aesthetics or deep personalization. Sequences are straightforward and linear. The platform includes basic CRM functionality and analytics. Pricing is affordable, especially for teams running many parallel campaigns. Instantly is popular with aggressive outbound teams and agencies sending hundreds of sequences simultaneously; it's less of a fit if you need branching logic or deep contact relationship tracking.
# Apollo
Apollo is a lead database, outreach, and CRM platform. You search for prospects directly in Apollo's own database of millions of B2B contacts, then use the built-in email sequences and calling features to reach them. Sequences are linear, and the platform includes basic automation and tracking. Pricing scales with the number of contacts exported and sequences you run. Apollo works well for teams that want prospect data and outreach in one platform—reducing tool sprawl—but the lead database quality and cost per contact varies significantly by use case.
# ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform spanning email, SMS, CRM, and conditional workflows. It's more sophisticated than basic drip campaign tools—you can build complex multi-channel journeys with branching logic, dynamic content, and hundreds of integrations. Pricing is per-user and function-based (email + CRM + automation bundles). ActiveCampaign attracts mid-market teams building sophisticated nurture tracks and post-sale customer journeys; it's less common in pure cold-outreach workflows, though certainly capable of sending sequences.
# Close
Close is a sales CRM and calling platform with built-in email sequences and dialer capabilities. The product emphasizes lead management, task automation, and calling integration—email is present but secondary to the phone workflow. Sequences are available and trackable, though the platform's strength is rapid contact cycling and call logging. Pricing is per-user. Close appeals to sales teams running high-touch, call-focused outreach where email supports phone follow-up rather than driving the campaign.
# Salesloft
Salesloft is an enterprise sales execution platform covering email, dialing, analytics, and deal management. It's built for large sales teams and emphasises engagement analytics, call recording, and multi-touch campaign measurement. Sequences are sophisticated and include branching logic and multi-channel touchpoints. Pricing is enterprise-tier and typically requires a sales conversation. Salesloft is used by established sales organisations with budget for platform consolidation; it's not a fit for solo operators or small scrappy teams.
# Brevo
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is an omnichannel marketing platform covering email, SMS, chat, and CRM. It started as a bulk email tool and has evolved to include automation, landing pages, and basic sales workflows. Sequences exist but feel like an add-on rather than a core focus. Pricing is approachable for small teams, scaling with email volume and contact count. Brevo is commonly used by e-commerce and service businesses running marketing campaigns; it's less common in B2B cold outreach, though the automation and SMS features are competitive for nurture workflows.
---
If you're building a cold outreach engine and need both email sequences and link tracking that actually works, Clkly keeps things focused and fast. No bloat, no admin overhead, no waiting for a sales rep to answer your questions.
Why teams pick Clkly:
- Branching sequences mean smarter automation—replies kill future messages automatically
- Every link click ties back to your contact record, so you see what your outreach actually does
- Branded links and QR codes build trust; click analytics show you which campaigns convert
- Lightweight CRM means you spend time selling, not configuring fields and workflows
- Free tier genuinely works, so you can test before paying