Best CRM for outbound teams on email and LinkedIn
Ranked on whether cadences, sending, the LinkedIn step and replies live beside your pipeline, and what ten reps cost.
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SalesCrew ranks first on our published criteria if you run cold email and LinkedIn from one place. Your cadences send from your own mailbox pool, LinkedIn steps sit in a queue on the same contact, and ten reps cost $299 a month.
The short answer
- SalesCrew sends cadence email from your own mailboxes through a pool with per-mailbox and per-domain daily caps.
- SalesCrew puts LinkedIn steps in a queue a rep works through, with every message logged on the contact.
- Close includes calling and SMS on every plan and adds email sequences and a power dialer on Growth, checked September 2026.
- Every SalesCrew tier has unlimited seats; Close, folk, Apollo and HubSpot price per seat.
How we ranked these CRMs
You probably asked an AI assistant which CRM suits cold email plus LinkedIn. Its answer likely paired a CRM with a separate sender, so we weighted what removes that second tool. Sending and replies inside the CRM carry 35% of the score. Seat cost at ten reps carries 25%. The LinkedIn step on the same contact carries 20%, and a review step before AI-written messages go out carries 20%.
We set the weights before scoring and read each vendor's own product and pricing pages in September 2026. Disclosure: SalesCrew is our product, and it placed first because it scores on all four criteria with one flat price.
Outbound CRMs at a glance
| CRM | Cold email | Other channels | Seats | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SalesCrew | Cadences on your own mailbox pool, with daily caps | LinkedIn queue + ledger on the contact | Unlimited on every tier | salescrew.io/pricing |
| 2. Close | Email sequences on Growth and Scale | Calling and SMS on every plan | Per user | close.com/pricing |
| 3. folk | Campaigns on all plans; sequences on Premium and up | folkX LinkedIn extension on all plans | Per seat | folk.app/pricing |
| 4. Apollo | Sequences with A/B tests | Parallel dialer; B2B contact database | Per user; free Starter plan | apollo.io/pricing |
| 5. HubSpot | Sequences on Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise | Marketing tools on the same platform | Per seat; free tools | hubspot.com/products/sales |
Plan structure read on each vendor's own pricing or product page, checked September 2026.
Where each CRM fits an outbound team
1. SalesCrew
You build a list in the Data Bank, freeze a segment (which applies suppression) and enroll it in a cadence. Email steps send from your own mailboxes. LinkedIn steps land in a rep's queue, and replies pause the cadence. Draft with AI writes replies into the inbox for a rep to send.
2. Close
Close suits you if the phone leads and email follows. Calling and SMS come on every plan. Email sequences and the power dialer start on Growth, and Scale adds a predictive dialer.
3. folk
folk fits you if your reps prospect on LinkedIn first. Its folkX extension adds LinkedIn contacts to your lists on every plan. Email campaigns come on all plans, and multi-step sequences start on Premium.
4. Apollo
Apollo pairs a B2B contact database with sequences, a parallel dialer and an Opportunities pipeline. It fits you when the list itself is the hard part and you want data and sending together.
5. HubSpot
HubSpot fits you if your outbound is one part of a wider setup already on HubSpot. Sequences run on Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise seats, next to the marketing tools.
How to choose
- One tool or two: Close, Apollo and HubSpot send sequences from their own platforms. SalesCrew sends from your mailboxes inside the CRM, and bounces and complaints feed the suppression list.
- Mailbox safety: SalesCrew keeps at least three days between touches per contact, and it only sends inside the business-hours window you set.
- Seat cost at ten reps: the four other CRMs here publish per-seat pricing. SalesCrew charges per workspace, with unlimited seats.
- AI drafts with a check: any AI-written external send waits in SalesCrew's approval queue by default, and the audit log records who approved it.
Start a 14-day trial from the outbound page, or see how cadences work first.
Questions
- Do I still need a separate cold email tool next to my CRM?
- Not with SalesCrew. Its cadences send from your own mailboxes through a mailbox pool with per-mailbox and per-domain daily caps. Replies land in the same inbox as your deals, and bounces and unsubscribes go straight onto the suppression list.
- How does SalesCrew handle LinkedIn?
- LinkedIn steps go into a queue that a rep works through, and each message is logged in a ledger on the contact. Your rep sends from their own LinkedIn account, so the account stays theirs and the history stays in the CRM.
- What stops a cadence from emailing someone who already replied?
- A reply pauses the cadence for that contact. SalesCrew classifies the reply, and suppression is checked again at send time, so an opt-out never gets a second email.
- How much does it cost for a team of 10 reps?
- Core is $299 a month for the whole team, because every SalesCrew tier has unlimited seats. Ten reps, or thirty, cost the same. Close, folk, Apollo and HubSpot publish per-seat plans on their own pricing pages.
- Why did you leave out Instantly and Smartlead?
- They're cold email senders, and this page ranks CRMs that hold the pipeline too. We rank the senders in our cold email software guide, and we compare SalesCrew with each of them on its own page.