Instantly is a big, capable platform. Dispatch is the smaller, simpler thing for people who already have leads and copy.
Below is what each one does, side by side. Instantly cells are limited to claims we could confirm on their public site. If something's out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
Your own mailboxes over SMTP/IMAP. Connect Hostinger, Google Workspace, Zoho or any SMTP/IMAP mailbox with an email and password (Google Workspace needs an app password). Microsoft 365 password login isn't supported.
Connect existing accounts from Google (OAuth, or app password for personal Gmail), Microsoft (OAuth) or any other provider over IMAP/SMTP, one at a time or by CSV import. Instantly requires both IMAP and SMTP. Plans list unlimited email accounts. (Instantly help center: “How to Connect Your Email Accounts to Instantly”; pricing page.)
Daily limits and ramp-up
A daily limit per mailbox, plus a ramp-up schedule so new mailboxes start slow.
A per-account daily campaign limit (Instantly recommends 30). An optional “Campaign Slow Ramp” starts at 2 campaign emails on day 1 and adds 2 per day up to the limit; it is off by default. (Help center: “Account and Campaign Limits”, “Campaign Slow Ramp System”.)
Send pacing
Random gaps between sends, rotated across the mailboxes you pick for a campaign.
A minimum gap between sends (default 9 minutes) plus a random extra delay (default 5 minutes). Sending rotates automatically across the accounts assigned to a campaign. (Help center: “Campaign Options”, “Inbox Rotation”.)
Send windows
Per-campaign days and hours, evaluated in each lead’s timezone so sends land in their business day.
Campaign Schedule sets days, start/end times and timezone; Instantly’s setup guide shows Mon–Fri windows in the lead’s timezone. Follow-ups only send inside the active schedule. (Help center: “How to Create a Campaign — Complete Setup Guide”.)
Follow-ups and replies
Follow-ups
Multi-step sequences. Each step replies in the same thread or starts a fresh subject. Delays count business days, not calendar days.
Multi-step sequences with a wait between steps set in days, hours or minutes; days are counted as calendar days. A follow-up stays in the same thread when its subject is blank or matches the previous step. (Help center: “Time to Wait Between Steps”, “Keep Email Sequences in the Same Thread”.)
Stop conditions
Stop on reply is built in. Auto-replies can be ignored so a sequence keeps going after an out-of-office.
Campaign options include stop on reply (default), stop on auto-reply, and stop all leads at a company on reply (auto-replies excluded). With stop-on-auto-reply off and auto-tagging on, AI Smart Pause & Resume can hold for OOO. (Help center: “Campaign Options”.)
Reply inbox
One inbox for replies from every mailbox. AI suggests a label (interested, out of office, wrong person) and you confirm it with one click.
Unibox is a unified inbox across all sending accounts. An optional setting uses AI to apply labels such as Interested, Not interested and Out of Office to incoming replies automatically (custom labels need the Hyper Growth or Light Speed plan). A separate AI Reply Agent can draft and send replies. (Instantly Outreach page; help center: “Automatically Tag Leads Based on Replies”; AI Reply Agent page.)
Lead history
A full timeline per lead — imported, scheduled, sent, opened, clicked, replied — with times in PKT and their local timezone.
Each lead has an Activities tab (sent, opened, clicked, reply, auto-reply, bounces, and more). Campaign activity can be exported to CSV with timestamps and step numbers. (Help center: “Lead Activity”.)
Tracking and deliverability
Open and click tracking
Optional, per domain, on a tracking host you control. Off by default. Opens that look machine-made are shown grey with the reason.
Per-campaign open and link tracking, plus an optional custom tracking domain (CNAME to Instantly’s tracker). Text-only delivery settings can disable tracking pixels. Public docs do not describe bot-open filtering. (Help center: “Custom Tracking Domain (CTD)”.)
SPF, DKIM, DMARC
DNS checks for every sending domain, with the exact record to paste when something’s missing.
Instantly’s email-accounts materials state SPF, DKIM and DMARC are required for reliable deliverability; Domains For You Google accounts are provisioned with MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC. (Instantly Email Accounts page.)
Warmup network
Not included, on purpose. No swapping automated emails with strangers' inboxes.
Built-in warmup that exchanges emails between your accounts and Instantly’s deliverability pool, which it states has over 1,000,000 real email accounts. Plans list unlimited warmup. (Instantly email warmup page; pricing page.)
AI
Doc to campaign
Upload a doc, CSV, Excel sheet or pasted text of drafted emails. AI pulls out every email, recipient, subject, send day and follow-up rule, and flags what's missing instead of guessing.
Copilot and the AI Sequence Writer generate lead lists and sequence copy from prompts. Leads can be imported from CSV, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Pipedrive or SuperSearch. (Instantly home page; help center: “AI Sequence Writer”, Campaigns articles.)
AI setup
Built in. No API keys to bring. AI drafts stay marked until you approve them.
AI features run on Instantly Credits; plans include a monthly credit allowance (for example, the AI Reply Agent uses 5 credits per reply). The pricing page also lists “Use your own LLM API key” among the features of its Instantly Credits plans. (Pricing page; AI Reply Agent page.)
Scope
Lead database
Not included. Bring your own list as a CSV, a sheet or the doc itself.
Yes: a B2B lead database it describes as 450M+ contacts, searchable with filters (SuperSearch) and exportable to campaigns. (Instantly Lead Database page.)
CRM pipeline
Not included. Leads get labels and a full timeline, not a deal pipeline.
Yes: an AI CRM with a master inbox for email, calls, SMS and tasks, and campaign analytics covering Opportunities, Pipeline, Conversions and Revenue. (Instantly CRM page and home page.)
Teams
Invite teammates into a workspace with a link. Everyone sees the same campaigns, leads and replies.
The pricing page lists “Invite team members” as a plan feature, and the CRM page says you can invite your whole team at no extra charge. (Pricing page; Instantly CRM page.)
Instantly details above come from its public pages (instantly.ai and help.instantly.ai) as read on 2026-10-03. We left pricing and anything we couldn't confirm out on purpose. Plans and feature pages change, so check both sites for current plans.
Who should pick which
Pick the one that fits the job.
Neither is "better". They're built for different starting points.
Pick Instantly if…
You want one big platform for everything.
You still need to find leads, and want a lead database inside the same tool you send from.
You want a warmup network as part of your setup.
You want CRM-style pipeline / opportunities next to outreach.
You send at a volume where unlimited sending accounts and a large warmup pool are worth the setup.
Pick Dispatch if…
You already have the leads and the emails.
Your campaign already exists in a doc or spreadsheet, and you just need it sent.
You want to send from your own mailboxes, slowly, inside each recipient's business hours.
You want follow-ups that thread and stop the moment someone replies.
You want AI that does real work without bringing an API key, and you'd rather skip settings you'll never touch.