What are the best AI outreach tools?
We’ll start with the bad news. Sales teams are wasting hours each week on repetitive outreach tasks that anyone with the right AI outreach tools can handle in seconds.
The good news?
AI-powered outreach platforms are within your reach. Use them right, and they can empower your reps by keeping them where they belong:
Having actual, human conversations that move deals forward.
The question isn’t whether AI tools can do this, though. It’s which ones fit best with your workflows. That’s why this post is going to look at some of the best outreach products available: Reply, Close, Salesloft, Outreach, and Salesforce.
Yep. That’s us, and a few of our competitors.
Naturally, we’re biased: we think Close is amazing. But that doesn’t mean we think it’s a magic wand that you can wave over any sales team and miraculously solve every single business problem in existence.
It’s not the best fit for everybody. Nor is any tool. So the question we’re about to answer is: what’s the best tool for you?
The “Best” Tool Is The One That Fits Your Team
The best tool for you is simple: it’s the best fit for your team. What that means in practice will vary depending on how you run your team.
For instance, smaller business startups typically benefit from lightweight tools. Enterprises need enterprise-grade tools with scalable, feature-rich systems. But even within these broad categories, there’s room for subtlety. Your needs aren’t going to be the exact same needs as someone else's.
But let’s start winnowing down your options by asking some basic questions. What kind of team are you working with?
- The scrappy prospecting team probably wants a cheap way to blast outbound pitches across multiple channels. Reply.io will probably do the job. The learning curve is short, which is nice, but the platform's functions are also limited. You may need another tool to manage your deals.
- The small team scaling its processes has to deal with growing pains. You’re outgrowing your spreadsheets like a hermit crab in need of a shell upgrade. This may mean adding tools, which has everyone bouncing around. It’s also slow. You need something fast, simple, and centralized, which is what Close does. CRM, email, calling, SMS—all in one place. The learning curve is short, onboarding is almost nonexistent, and you can import leads and connect your email to start selling in hours.
- A high-volume outbound army probably lives inside its cadences and workflows all day. You might go with Salesloft because it offers structured outbound workflows. No, it won’t replace your CRM, so you’ll still need to juggle systems. It’s less plug-and-play, but it will help you refine those workflows until you feel like you’re creating repeatable systems.
- Enterprise organizations with layers of management, something of a lasagna of slow-moving management processes, have pipelines measured in millions of dollars. Outreach or Salesforce might be your speed. The downside? They come with enterprise-level price tags and administrative overhead. The learning curve can be mighty high as well.
That’s the bird’s-eye overview. With that established, let’s get into the specifics of each of these AI outreach tools.
AI Outreach Tools Comparison at a Glance
Before we dive deeper into each platform, here’s a quick comparison of how the top AI-powered outreach tools stack up. This summary highlights who each tool is best suited for, their strengths, and where they might fall short.
Reply.io: Multichannel Outreach with an AI SDR
- G2 rating: 4.6 / 5 (1,400+ reviews)
- Pricing: as low as $89 per user per month
- Best for: Startups in need of fast acceleration, especially those looking to blast multichannel campaigns. Deep CRM needs are on the horizon, but you’re not there yet.
Key Features + Differentiators
- Email, calls, LinkedIn, SMS/WhatsApp in one sequence
- Chrome extension for prospecting and enrichment
- Jason AI SDR automates replies and scheduling
Pros
- Launching new outbound campaigns is a cinch
- Budget-friendly for startups and small teams
- Strong multichannel coverage (email, calls, SMS, LinkedIn, WhatsApp)
Cons
- Not a CRM; you’ll need integrations with another system
- Narrower AI capabilities compared to Outreach/Salesforce
- Limited governance and scalability for larger orgs
👉 Our opinion: Reply.io is a solid option for the scrappy outbound prospector, but it’s not a CRM. You’ll need another tool to manage those incoming deals. Close can save you that hassle by combining outreach and CRM in one platform, especially if you’re not bargain-hunting.
Close: The Sales CRM Built for Engagement
- G2 rating: 4.7 / 5 (1,800+ reviews)
- Pricing: as low as $35 per month per user
- Best for: Founder-led teams that are tired of tracking sales in spreadsheets.
Key Features + Differentiators
- Native email, SMS, and calling
- Easy automation for follow-ups and reminders, ensuring no sale slips through the cracks
- Actionable insights (reporting + coaching)
- Fast, simple, and reliable. It’s built for doers.
Pros
- With easy AI features, your reps can focus on the human side of sales
- Ridiculously fast onboarding, putting your time-to-value for new hires on warp speed
- Affordable, transparent pricing designed for SMBs
Cons
- Not built for large enterprise governance
- Lighter sales forecasting than Outreach/Salesforce
- Some enterprise-only integrations are not natively available
👉 Opinion: Admittedly biased, but c’mon. Close doubles the sales performance of small teams by giving them exactly what they need, zero enterprise bloat. If you want a fast, simple AI-enabled CRM that keeps you focused on selling, Close is your easy choice. Stop reading. Okay, keep reading, but just remember why we like Close.
Salesloft: Guided Engagement with Conductor AI
- G2 rating: 4.5 / 5 (5,400+ reviews)
- Pricing: not publicly listed
- Best for: Mid-size SaaS teams running structured outbound cadences with lots of SDRs.
Key Features + Differentiators
- Conductor AI prioritizes tasks and sequences so you don’t have to
- Generative cadence emails and conversation insights
- AI Insights dashboards are helpful and robust
Pros
- Strong outbound cadencing tools for workflow nerds
- AI insights embedded in workflows
- Well-suited for larger SDR teams
Cons
- Requires CRM integration, which adds a noodly layer of complexity to your sales lasagna
- Moderate-to-high learning curve
- Not cost-friendly for small teams
👉 Opinion: Salesloft is great if you’re engineering a detailed workflow for a huge sales team. It’s not a CRM, so you’ll need to integrate Salesforce or another system. For SMBs, the tools and complexity can mean wasted time, while Close gives you everything in one place. It depends on what your team needs.
Outreach.io: Enterprise Revenue Workflows + AI Agents
- G2 rating: 4.3 / 5 (3,500+ reviews)
- Pricing: not publicly listed.
- Typically higher cost, with add-ons for AI features.
- Best for: Enterprise orgs with complex deal cycles and multiple decision-makers.
Key Features + Differentiators
- AI Agents can help you prospect, research, and forecast
- Kaia conversation intelligence (i.e., real-time coaching support)
- Deep forecasting and deal health tracking help you track your org’s prospects
Pros
- Covers the full revenue workflow from prospecting to forecasting
- Real-time coaching with Kaia conversation intelligence
- Enterprise-ready integrations help ensure forecasting accuracy
Cons
- Expensive with enterprise-level pricing
- Heavy setup and admin overhead
- Overkill for small or scaling teams
👉 Opinion: Outreach is a powerhouse for enterprises. And that’s the problem. What if you have a 5-person sales team? It’s like buying a race car just to drive to the corner store. You’ll spend more time with setup and maintenance than making sales. If you need speed-to-onboard, Close gets you up and running in hours, not months.
Salesforce: Einstein & Copilot for Enterprise CRM
- G2 rating: 4.4 / 5 (10,000+ reviews across Sales Cloud)
- Pricing: High-cost tiers with add-ons for AI.
- Licensing complexity can make pricing opaque.
- Best for: global enterprises with huge admin teams and complex reporting needs.
Key Features + Differentiators
- Einstein GPT makes for intelligent generative messaging
- Copilot AI assistant included
- Lead scoring, forecasting, and advanced dashboards
Pros
- Impressive feature breadth across CRM, sales, and service
- Deep customization and integrations available
- Trusted enterprise governance and security
Cons
- Very high cost, especially with AI add-ons involved
- Steep learning curve, which requires dedicated admins
- Too bloated for small teams, slogging down your adoption speed
👉 Opinion: Making no bones about it, Salesforce is the king of enterprise CRMs. Which means if you’re a small team, it’s a nightmarish labyrinth of slow, expensive, packed-on features you may never use. Close was built specifically for smaller teams who want a faster and simpler alternative to scaling an SMB. Nothing against Salesforce, but not everyone can get what they need out of it.
Questions to Ask of Any AI Outreach Product
Deep breath. By now, you’ve sifted through our list of these AI automation tools and now you’re considering signing on the dotted line. Or, at least, pulling out the company credit card and placing your order.
But if you still feel a twinge of uncertainty, here are some questions that can settle your stomach:
- How big is my team, really? We believe in aspirational goals. But c’mon. If you’re a five-person sales team, do you really need to pay enterprise pricing for Salesforce or Outreach? Or do you need a tool that moves at your speed, getting you up and selling today without hiring a new admin?
- Do I want one tool, or a stack of tools? Salesloft and Reply.io are good at what they do. But they only handle that one “do,” which is engagement. You’ll need another CRM to manage deals. We think that means you should look for a combined tool from the start.
- What’s my time-to-value? In other words, can your team even afford to spend 6 months implementing a massive sales system? Or do you need to start outreach this week? Close is built for speed. You can import leads, connect your email, and voila—you’re up and selling. Maybe as soon as today.
- How much complexity can my team actually handle? More features = more value, right? Not necessarily. If your reps spend more time learning the software than using the dang thing, then the tool’s actually slowing you down. And you’re paying to get slower.
- What’s the real cost? License fees alone don’t tell the whole story. Factor in other variables: integrations, extra tools, admin hires, onboarding, consultants. Is it better just to sign up to the right tool and skip all the costly steps?
- Does this tool fit our sales style? Enterprise CRMs aren’t built for gritty startups. It sounds obvious, but some teams only learn this lesson through experience. If you run high-touch, relationship-driven sales at your small business, get a tool designed for that.
Go with the Tool That Serves Your People
The best tool? Whichever one makes you act like less of a tool. (Thank you; we’ll be here all week.)
Yes, there are entire suites of AI and communications features available in today’s market. No, you don’t need them all. Ideally, the AI products you choose will be the ones that free your salespeople to focus on the fun and engagement of talking to sales leads who want to hear from real humans.
Let’s recap:
- If you just want easy, lightweight outbound: Reply.io
- If you’re a small team that wants to move quickly: Close.
- If you’re mid-market with a big outbound team: Salesloft.
- If you’re an enterprise with enterprise budgets and complexity: Outreach or Salesforce.
What if you’re an aspiring enterprise or mid-market team? Close’s AI tools are perfect for your ambition as a small business:
- AI support that keeps data fresh
- CRM + email + calling + SMS in one platform
- Email automations that keep leads warm
👉 Make your next move, and make it fast:
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