Close vs lemlist
Side-by-side comparison — pricing, features, ratings, use cases. Find which Marketing fits you best.
🔍 Independently researched ·
📊 Data-driven
· ⭐ Ratings from G2 (real user reviews)
76/100
Free tier
Close is best for SMB sales teams that rely on high-volume phone outreach and need a simple, all-in-one CRM with built-i
★ Best
💰 Pricing
🆓 Free tier available
🔧 Features
✓ Automation✓ Crm
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Native calling and power dialer: Close integrates a full phone system directly into the CRM. Reps can make calls with one click, and the power dialer automatically loads the next number from a saved list, significantly increasing call volume. The built-in caller ID, call recording, and voicemail dropdown (with pre-recorded messages) streamline the entire process. This is a huge time-saver for outbound teams that live on the phone.
- Custom automation builder: The visual workflow automation lets you create multi-step sequences without coding. For example, you can set up a rule that triggers an email and SMS follow-up when a lead status changes to 'contacted'. It also supports conditionals and delays. This reduces repetitive manual tasks and ensures consistent follow-up, which is crucial for lead conversion.
- Coaching and training features: Close allows managers to listen to live calls, review recordings, and leave time-stamped comments directly on the conversation timeline. The 'coaching moments' feature tracks these interactions, helping managers monitor rep improvement over time. This is a powerful tool for sales enablement, and it's rarely found at this price point.
- Custom reporting and funnels: You can build tailored reports with custom widgets, such as call volume, conversion rates, and revenue by source. Funnel reports visualize the stages of your pipeline, helping identify bottlenecks. This gives managers actionable insights without needing a separate BI tool.
- Email and SMS tracking with templates: All email and SMS communications are logged automatically, with open and click tracking. You can create reusable templates for email and SMS, and even use the ' email sequence' feature to drip campaigns. This ensures that team communication is transparent and consistent.
⚠ Watch out for
- Learning curve: The interface packs a lot of functionality, and it might take new users a week or more to become productive. Especially if you're coming from a simpler tool, the sheer number of options in the UI can be overwhelming. The automation builder also requires a bit of logic-thinking.
- Limited reporting customization for advanced analytics: While custom reports are available, they don't match the depth of tools like Tableau or even built-in analytics in Salesforces. For instance, you can't create fully custom calculated fields or query the database directly. Teams with very complex reporting needs might outgrow it.
- Email integration is limited: Close works with Gmail and Outlook but has limited native integration with other email providers. Also, the email sync is two-way but can occasionally lag or miss a message. For teams that use a different email client, this can be a hassle.
- No free tier for larger teams: The free plan only supports up to 2 users, and it's quite limited (only basic features). For a growing SMB, the cost can add up quickly, especially when you add on SMS credits and additional users. Each user starts at $49/month (annual billing), which is pricier than some competitors like Pipedrive.
- Mobile app is weaker: The mobile app is functional for viewing and making calls, but it lacks some of the features of the desktop version, such as advanced automation and report building. For teams that need to operate heavily on mobile, this might be a drawback.
🎯 Best for
Close is best for SMB sales teams that rely on high-volume phone outreach and need a simple, all-in-one CRM with built-in calling and automation.
🚫 Who should skip
Skip Close if you're looking for a free CRM, an enterprise-level reporting solution, or a primarily email-only sales workflow without heavy phone usage.
📚 Learning curve
Moderate. Setup is straightforward for calling and pipelines, but configuring workflows, custom fields, and the power dialer takes time and practice.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Close is an excellent choice for SMB sales teams that rely on phone calls and want to streamline outbound processes with integrated communication, automation, and coaching. It's not for those seeking a simple contact manager or for teams that primarily use email-only workflows. If you're serious abo
46/100
Free tier
Small to mid-sized sales teams and agencies that focus on highly personalized cold email outreach and need an all-in-one
💰 Pricing
🆓 Free tier available
🔧 Features
✓ Ai Powered✓ Email
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- lemlist’s personalization capabilities are its biggest strength. Beyond basic merge tags, you can create dynamic custom images and videos with the prospect's name or company logos. This feature, called Personalized Images, lets you generate a visual that stands out in a crowded inbox. Combined with the ability to insert personalized GIFs from Giphy, email open rates often see a significant boost. For sales reps, this means higher reply rates because the emails appear handcrafted.
- The integration of Lemwarm directly into the platform removes the hassle of buying a separate warm-up service. Lemwarm automatically sends and responds to emails from your sending account to simulate human-like interactions, improving your sender reputation. You can monitor your domain’s health directly in the lemlist dashboard. This proactive approach to deliverability is a major plus, as many users face spam folder issues with cold email. Having it bundled (even though some plans include it) saves money and time.
- The visual campaign editor is intuitive. You can drag and drop steps (email, LinkedIn, call) onto a timeline and easily set delays and conditions. This makes it simple to create complex sequences with branching logic. For example, you can send a different follow-up if a prospect replies or clicks a link. This is crucial for automating the lead nurture process without coding, and it pairs well with the A/B testing feature, allowing you to test different subject lines or bodies to optimize performance.
- lemlist offers a two-way CRM integration with popular tools like HubSpot and Salesforce. This is essential for teams that rely on a CRM to track opportunities. The integration is bidirectional, meaning that when a prospect replies in lemlist, it logs the activity in your CRM, and you can also pull leads from CRM segments into lemlist campaigns. This connectivity streamlines the workflow, though it’s not always real-time, which can be a minor drawback.
- The platform includes a free plan that allows you to send up to 300 emails per month, which is perfect for testing the waters. It gives you access to most core features, including personalization and campaign creation. Paid plans start at $59/month for 500 email addresses and 2,000 email sends per month, with higher tiers offering more volume and automation. This pricing is competitive for small teams, though the free plan’s limit is low. The learning curve is moderate: the interface is clean, and tutorials are available, but you’ll need to experiment to master the personalization features.
⚠ Watch out for
- The free plan is quite limited: only 300 emails per month and limited integrations (no HubSpot/Salesforce). For any serious testing, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan, which requires a credit card. Additionally, even the lowest paid plan caps email sends at 2,000 per month, which is low for active sales teams; you’ll need to purchase extra credits, which can be costly.
- lemlist’s analytics are basic. You get open, click, and reply rates, but the dashboard doesn’t provide deep insights like click maps or real-time notifications with advanced filtering. Also, there’s no A/B test for entire sequences, only for individual emails. For data-driven users, this could be frustrating; you might need to integrate with third-party tools like databox for more advanced reporting.
- The platform is primarily email-centric. Its LinkedIn automation is a relatively new feature and is still limited compared to dedicated LinkedIn tools like Expandi or LiProspecting. The automation requires the LinkedIn Chrome extension, which can be buggy—often getting logged out or failing to detect the right profile. If you’re looking for a solid multi-channel outreach tool, lemlist’s LinkedIn offering may feel incomplete.
- Deliverability is not guaranteed, despite Lemwarm. Cold email is inherently risky, and lemlist can’t solve poor list quality. Many users report that their emails still land in spam if the domain is not properly set up or if the content is too promotional. The platform also lacks built-in spam testing, forcing you to rely on external tools like Mail-Tester. This can be a steep learning curve for beginners who don’t understand email authentication protocols.
- While lemlist supports integrations, the two-way CRM sync is often not real-time. There can be delays of up to a few minutes, which is usually acceptable, but if you’re running high-volume campaigns and need instant updates, this might be a drawback. Also, the integration with Salesforce is not as granular as enterprise tools—for example, you can’t update multiple custom objects easily—so it’s best for basic lead logging.
🎯 Best for
Small to mid-sized sales teams and agencies that focus on highly personalized cold email outreach and need an all-in-one tool for warming, sending, and scheduling.
🚫 Who should skip
Large enterprises needing a full sales engagement platform (with voice, dialer, and advanced analytics) or businesses looking for a cheap mass-mailing tool for thousands of emails per day.
📚 Learning curve
Moderate
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Lemlist is an excellent choice for sales teams and agencies that heavily rely on personalization to stand out in cold outreach. If you need a platform that offers advanced personalization features and includes warm-up, it’s worth considering. However, if you require deep CRM capabilities, extensive
📊 Use Case Suitability
Higher score = better fit. Scores from editorial review.
Use CaseCloselemlist
High-volume cold calling for SMB sales teams95—
Close's power dialer and native calling are purpose-built for reps making dozens
Managing multi-stage B2B sales pipelines88—
Customizable pipelines, drag-and-drop deal stages, and activity tracking give sa
Automated email and SMS follow-up sequences82—
Workflow automation can trigger personalized follow-ups based on call outcomes,
Sales coaching and performance monitoring75—
Call recording, call coaching tools, and activity dashboards let managers review
Affiliate/partner program management via PartnerStack55—
Close integrates with PartnerStack, but it is not an affiliate platform itself.
Cold Email Outreach—95
Lemlist is purpose-built for cold email with personalization, follow-ups, and de
Agency Client Campaigns—92
Agencies can manage multiple sub-accounts, white-label reports, and scale person
Sales Prospecting—90
The automation and CRM integrations help sales teams convert prospect lists into
🧭 Which One Should You Pick?
Choose Close if...
- You are: Close is best for SMB sales teams that rely on high-volume phone outreach and need a simple, all-in-one CRM with built-i
- 👍 Native calling with power dialer directly in the CRM, so no third-party telephony setup is needed.
- 👍 Strong activity logging: emails, calls, and SMS are automatically tracked against the contact or lea
- 👍 Flexible workflows for automating repetitive tasks like follow-up reminders and data enrichment.
- 💰 Free tier available
- ⚠ Trade-off: No permanent free tier; the trial period is only 14 days, which can be short for
Choose lemlist if...
- You are: Small to mid-sized sales teams and agencies that focus on highly personalized cold email outreach and need an all-in-one
- 👍 Unique personalization features like custom images, screenshots, and videos embedded directly in ema
- 👍 Built-in email warm-up (Lemwarm) and scheduling (Lemcal) eliminate the need for third-party tools.
- 👍 Easy-to-use visual automation builder for setting up multi-step sequences with follow-ups and A/B te
- 💰 Free tier available
- ⚠ Trade-off: Pricing can be higher than competitors for large sending volumes, especially whe
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Is Close really free?
No. Close does not offer a permanent free plan; the listed 'Free' refers to a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start after the trial, with pricing based on features and team size.
Can I migrate data from another CRM into Close?
Yes, Close provides built-in CSV import and offers migration assistance from popular CRMs like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Some historical data (like email threading) may need cleanup depending on the source.
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