The services also aim to make things faster for you<\/strong>, streamlining everything from buying new domains to creating mailboxes to setting up authentication protocols.<\/p>\n Even though the services aren\u2019t cheap, per se, most of the time the math works out so they\u2019re cheaper<\/strong>\u00a0than paying for a bunch of Google Workspace or Outlook mailboxes.<\/p>\n And of course, their ultimate goal: Improved deliverability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Executing all<\/em>\u00a0of that is certainly a challenge. And while there\u2019s no infrastructure service that\u2019s head and shoulders above the rest, there are a handful who are on the right path and already have a nice base of users.<\/p>\n These are my picks based on my own hands-on experiences as well as a macro-level assessment of reviews on Reddit, G2, and Capterra.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve already put together a complete guide to cold email infrastructure services<\/a>, and I recommend reading that for a more in-depth analysis of this new business niche and its pros and cons.<\/p>\n So in this article, we\u2019ll just do a super fast review of what these services do<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 and what factors to evaluate for when you\u2019re choosing one.<\/p>\n Here are the things you\u2019ll find at essentially every cold email infrastructure provider.<\/p>\n Some cold email infrastructure platforms may offer other features, like warmup, unified inboxes, and email verification.<\/p>\n But by and large, most will have that same standard set of features.<\/p>\n The deeper you get into the world of cold email infrastructure services, the more you realize these services aren\u2019t all that different from one another<\/strong>.<\/p>\n As you\u2019ll see in my screenshots, many of them even have identical dashboards. Like\u2026 so identical that I started wondering if it\u2019s all just one company running each of these brands and pretending they\u2019re different. Kind of like that one company that owns all the dating apps. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case, but it does speak to just how similar many of these services feel.<\/p>\n So my picks are based on the pretty narrow margins between these services, usually around deliverability and price<\/strong>.<\/p>\n If you try out multiple services, you will probably wind up choosing based on those factors as well.<\/p>\n I tried out 11 different cold email infrastructure services for this article and had the best results with these five.<\/p>\n Maildoso is pretty straightforward in what it does: It registers your domains, sets them up, creates up your inboxes, then sends you off to use those mailboxes with your email sending platform of choice.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing particularly fancy about Maildoso, but that\u2019s a good thing<\/strong>: It makes for a beginner-friendly experience<\/strong>\u00a0where it takes care of business then gets out of your way.<\/p>\n Maildoso uses shared IPs and heavy IP rotation<\/strong>\u00a0rather than dedicated IPs.<\/p>\n There are pros and cons there.<\/p>\n The pros (with the caveat that Maildoso is\u00a0monitoring the IPs as closely as they say they are): Ideally you\u2019d be sending from warm IPs<\/strong>\u00a0with the strongest deliverability in the available pool.<\/p>\n The cons: Your reputation isn\u2019t your own<\/strong>. You\u2019re sharing these IPs with a bunch of other people doing the same thing you\u2019re doing. And we all know there are plenty of bad cold emailers out there \u2014 or worse, spammers.<\/p>\n Still, Maildoso\u2019s deliverability reputation is pretty good \u2014 the best amongst the cold email infrastructure platforms I reviewed. There\u2019s no definitive answer in the dedicated vs. shared and rotating debate, but Maildoso makes a good case for the latter.<\/p>\n Maildoso mainly offers the standard set of features you\u2019ll find with these services, but that\u2019s ok. They handle domain registration, inbox setup, authentication protocols<\/strong>, and then all the behind-the-scenes deliverability work.<\/p>\n And you can use your mailboxes at any email sending platform that allows for SMTP servers.<\/p>\n The only other feature they offer is a unified inbox, which seems unnecessary since all the cold email sending platforms now have their own feature on that \u2014 so why would you leave your sending platform to go back to Maildoso to use theirs?<\/p>\n Maildoso gets dinged quite a bit in reviews over its pricing structure \u2014 because it doesn\u2019t offer a month-to-month plan<\/strong>. (Maildoso says that because of the cost and work associated with domain setup, they only offer either annual or three-month plans.)<\/p>\n It also doesn\u2019t offer a free trial. You can book a demo, but otherwise, you\u2019re jumping in blind for at least three months.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s the cheapest option of all the recommended cold email infrastructure providers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Their plans start at $99 for three months (so $33\/month) which includes three domains and 12 email accounts.<\/p>\n Prices go up from there to a package that\u2019s $299\/3 months, one that\u2019s $999\/3 months, and then the big one for $2,199\/3 months. On their biggest plan, you get 100 domains and 400 email accounts.<\/p>\n Note: You can\u2019t bring over your own domains; you need to have Maildoso register all of them. The domains are included in the pricing, so you won\u2019t get hit with an extra fee.<\/p>\n Cost for 50 inboxes on Maildoso (estimated, since they only show pricing for 40): $299\/3 months, includes 40 email accounts + 10 domains, then we\u2019ll estimate 10 more accounts and 3 more domains at that same rate so ~<\/em>$125\/month total<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n If you are ok with shared IPs\u2026 you\u2019re ok with not<\/em>\u00a0having unlimited inboxes\u2026 and you\u2019re looking to keep your solution as low-cost as possible while working with a service with a good deliverability reputation, Maildoso is the pick.<\/p>\n Personally, I really like Maildoso as a no-frills cold email infrastructure solution. There\u2019s no real technical learning curve here and the price is the easiest to swallow.<\/p>\n Check out <\/em>Maildoso<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/ we estimate you\u2019ll spend $125\/month getting started<\/em><\/p>\n Mailscale is just over a year old and has a solid reputation in cold email circles.<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t say anything about it jumps out in a positive way or<\/em>\u00a0a negative way \u2014 it\u2019s right in the middle of the road<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Mailscale\u2019s differentiator is they actually offer a deliverability guarantee<\/strong>, though there\u2019s a pretty big asterisk.<\/p>\n They say that if you aren\u2019t hitting 95% to 100% inboxes during<\/em>\u00a0your first two weeks of warmup, they\u2019ll give you a refund. But after that \u201cwe can\u2019t guarantee [deliverability] as your behavior has an impact on it.\u201d<\/p>\n They also say they\u2019ll set you up for a one-on-one meeting with a deliverability consultant if you\u2019re having issues.<\/p>\n Mailscale uses a pool of shared IPs and does not offer dedicated IPs<\/strong>, so your reputation will hinge at least somewhat on what the other users on the platform are doing.<\/p>\n The reviews around Mailscale\u2019s deliverability are a mix of positive and negative<\/strong>, though I\u2019d say they lean slightly positive.<\/p>\n Then again, as Mailscale inadvertently recognizes in the language of their guarantee, the quest for provider deliverability can be something of a fool\u2019s errand as so much comes down to the individual senders.<\/p>\n Mailscale handles everything from its dashboard<\/strong>\u00a0(domain registration and mailbox setup) and automates the DNS record process.<\/p>\n You can use the mailboxes you create at any email sending platform that accepts SMTP-based accounts.<\/p>\n There are no other notable features here; it\u2019s the basic set you find at all of these services with the identical dashboard as many others.<\/p>\n Mailscale does not offer a free trial, so you\u2019re going in with a leap of faith. (Good thing they have the money-back guarantee offer.)<\/p>\n Mailscale has plans that cost:<\/p>\n You also need to purchase domain names from<\/em>\u00a0Mailscale. They charge $9 to $13 per domain \u2014 but the $9 is only for .biz domains which you\u2019ll probably want to avoid.<\/p>\n Cost for 50 inboxes on Mailscale: $325 for domains (~$27\/month amortized) + $119\/month for inboxes: <\/em>$146\/month total<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n While Mailscale doesn\u2019t offer any features that others don\u2019t, they have one of the better deliverability reputations \u2014 and they\u2019ll refund you if you can\u2019t quickly warm up your accounts<\/strong>\u00a0to a high inboxing rate.<\/p>\n That guarantee is important reassurance because there\u2019s no trial available for the service and no demos.<\/p>\n Check out <\/em>Mailscale<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/ we estimate you\u2019ll spend $146\/month getting started<\/em><\/p>\n Mailforge and Infraforge are both cold email infrastructure services created by Salesforge. They really<\/em>\u00a0like the suffix \u201cforge.\u201d<\/p>\n The difference between the two services: Mailforge uses shared and rotating IPs, and Intraforge uses dedicated IPs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Though the services have different names, you can operate them from the same dashboard.<\/p>\n You can also operate Salesforge from that dashboard\u2026 so I suspect these infrastructure setups are, in large part, a play to get cold emailers to use Salesforge as their email sending platform. However, you can use the sending infrastructure and email addresses with a different platform if you want.<\/p>\n Though they claim \u201clookalike or better deliverability vs Google and Outlook\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0in their FAQ (highlighted above), the reviews and actual experiences are decidedly mixed.<\/p>\n The company recommends using Mailforge\u2019s shared IPs as you\u2019re getting started \u2014 essentially benefitting off the reputation of those established IPs. Of course, that reputation comes from other cold emailers, so it\u2019s not rock solid \u2014 but this should reduce your warmup time.<\/p>\n Mailforge and Intraforge both have all of the table stakes features: Domain setup, mailbox setup, DNS records for authentication, integration with other sending platforms<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Infraforge also offers API access, which could be useful if you\u2019re setting up integrations around the software.<\/p>\n The costs are not advertised on these sites, but here\u2019s what I found after I signed up for an account.<\/p>\n Plus side: They have a calculator to figure out what you\u2019ll need and what you\u2019ll spend.<\/p>\n For Mailforge:<\/p>\n For Intraforge:<\/p>\n Note: All billing in both services is annual<\/strong>, so you\u2019re looking at a major upfront cost.<\/p>\n Cost for 50 inboxes on Mailforge: $3 fee + $325 for domains (~$27\/month amortized) + $125\/month for inboxes: <\/em>$155\/month total<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Cost for 50 inboxes on Infraforge: $4 fee + 325 for domains (~$27\/month amortized) + $167\/month for inboxes: <\/em>$198\/month total<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n These prices are average, even a little above average, in the space; that\u2019s surprising because this seems like a potential loss leader for Salesforge to get more users on their platform.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using Salesforge, these services are<\/em>\u00a0useful because they share the same dashboard and billing account.<\/p>\n But even if you\u2019re not, it\u2019s nice to be able to jump from the shared IP service to the dedicated IP service as you grow<\/strong>\u00a0your cold email operation.<\/p>\n While deliverability reports are somewhat mixed, you\u2019ll have the flexibility here to experiment with IPs to try to improve your lot.<\/p>\n Check out <\/em>Mailforge<\/a><\/em>\u00a0or <\/em>Infraforge<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/ we estimate you\u2019ll spend between $155 and $198\/month to get started<\/em><\/p>\n Mission Inbox has the most flexibility of these services so if you\u2019re looking for something less prescriptive<\/strong>\u00a0than the others, Mission Inbox could be the way to go.<\/p>\n To its credit, it looks way different and offers different options than the other services on this list. Mission Inbox doesn\u2019t feel like it was software genetically engineered by SaaS veterans to feel just like every other SaaS product. It feels like it was made by real people solving their own needs who are now putting it out into the world to, you know, see what happens.<\/p>\n The problem is it\u2019s not priced competitively\u2026 it\u2019s really<\/em>\u00a0expensive.<\/p>\n Part of Mission Inbox\u2019s flexibility is giving you more control over where your IPs come from<\/strong>. You can use their dedicated IP addresses (at a price) or bring your own from Sendgrid or Mailgun \u2014 or use a combo.<\/p>\n They say they allocate dedicated servers and IPs to each customer, though they don\u2019t say how many they\u2019re allocating. There\u2019s no documentation on the process, but I gathered they are doing some light IP rotation for you behind the scenes.<\/p>\n The reviews on the deliverability from Mission Inbox are mixed<\/strong>\u00a0(just like they are for pretty much all of these services).<\/p>\n On their own site, they say \u2014 this is verbatim, grammar and all \u2014 \u201call of our clients are over the 53% open rates.\u201d So take that for what it\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n However, they do incorporate deliverability warnings and alerts into their inbox to try to help you fix issues quickly.<\/p>\n The flexibility with Mission Inbox comes from everything they offer.<\/p>\n You can use their sending IP addresses or integrate your own from various SMTP service providers.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to register domains through them; you can even integrate your entire GoDaddy or Cloudflare account.<\/p>\n You can set up as many mailboxes as you want to pay for and monitor their health from the dashboard.<\/p>\n One note: This service requires a bit more technical work<\/strong>\u00a0than the others.<\/p>\n Mission Inbox isn\u2019t cheap \u2014 in fact, it\u2019s the most expensive of the bunch<\/strong>. They charge you a flat monthly fee of $250, and then also charge for mailboxes and an optional fee for \u201chealth checks.\u201d<\/p>\n If you want dedicated IPs, that\u2019s another $80\/month. So yeah, the meter is really<\/em>\u00a0running up here.<\/p>\n Then, if you want 50 mailboxes sending 30 emails a day, that\u2019s $150. So added to the subscription price, you\u2019re at $400. Then if you want dedicated IPs, you\u2019re up to $480.<\/p>\n And that doesn\u2019t include the price of domains, which you\u2019ll need to bring in on your own.<\/p>\n Cost for 50 mailboxes: $250 subscription + $225 for domains purchased elsewhere (~$18.75\/month amortized) + $150 for mailboxes = <\/em>$418.75\/month<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n That would make it significantly more expensive than just buying Google Workspace accounts<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 and it\u2019s the only of these services where I can say that.<\/p>\n So this is really just a case where you want more control over your entire sending infrastructure and you\u2019re not in it for the cost savings.<\/p>\n Mission Inbox offers a lot of flexibility and has coveted features like multiple dedicated IPs per customer.<\/p>\n However, the service is really expensive \u2014 so if you try it out and you aren\u2019t happy with your deliverability, I\u2019m guessing you\u2019ll bail pretty quick.<\/p>\n Check out <\/em>Mission Inbox<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/ we estimate you\u2019ll spend more than $400\/month getting started<\/em><\/p>\n Inframail was the first of the private cold email infrastructure companies. I mean, they registered the domain all the way back in November 2022<\/em>, which is like a lifetime ago for this software niche.<\/p>\n With Inframail you get a dedicated IP address<\/strong>\u00a0(or three dedicated IPs on their top tier plan) and unlimited inboxes<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 though you have to pay for your own domains. They also handle setting up the authentication protocols for your domains.<\/p>\n Their pitch largely centers around speed: Getting mailboxes set up as fast as possible and as hands-off as possible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Deliverability was my most questionable aspect of Inframail, which is what knocked it down on my list.<\/p>\n You\u2019re on a dedicated IP which, as I\u2019ve covered earlier in this article, has both deliverability pros and cons.<\/p>\n Reviews are pretty split on Inframail\u2019s deliverability<\/strong>, with lots of glowing reviews on their website but some shakier reviews on Reddit. Even the founder of Inframail admitted<\/a>\u00a0on Reddit that \u201cpeople say we are 10-15% less deliverability than Google or Outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n Then again, they say on their website they used GMass\u2019s deliverability testing tool and scored 88% inbox rate. And I sure do trust GMass.<\/p>\n I like Inframail\u2019s dedicated IPs and fast done-for-you domain setup. And Inframail offering unlimited inboxes is a big differentiator<\/strong>.<\/p>\n However, they don\u2019t offer IP rotation, meaning you\u2019re always going to be relying on the same IPs for every send. Also, they have daily domain setup limits (five or 15 per day, depending on your plan) \u2014 which do put a cap and speed limit on your unlimited inbox setup.<\/p>\n Inframail is $99\/month for the Unlimited Plan, which includes 1 dedicated IP and 5 daily domain setups. (That means you can buy five domains per day.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s $249\/month for the Agency Pack, which has 3 dedicated IPs and 15 daily domain setups.<\/p>\n On annual plans, you\u2019ll pay 20% less and they throw in access to an unidentified B2B prospecting database.<\/p>\n Their domains are expensive: You\u2019ll pay $16.44 per domain. Or, if you want to bring over a domain you registered elsewhere, they charge $5 per domain.<\/p>\n Cost for 50 inboxes on Inframail: $411 for domains (~$34.25\/month amortized) + $99\/month for the service: <\/em>$133.25\/month total<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The value really comes as you spin up more inboxes and add more domains.<\/p>\n Inframail is a good option if you want scalability \u2014 and you\u2019re ok with some deliverability questions<\/strong>\u00a0because you know you can just keep pumping out email addresses and domains.<\/p>\n Check out <\/em>Inframail<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/ we estimate you\u2019ll spend $133\/month to get started<\/em><\/p>\n As you\u2019re evaluating which of the best cold email infrastructure providers, you\u2019ll notice what I noticed: There\u2019s not much difference between them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Ultimately, a lot of your choice will come down to what\u2019s most important to you.<\/p>\n Is it the best deliverability reputation? The price? Dedicated IPs? Speed of getting mailboxes set up? Unlimited mailboxes?<\/p>\n That\u2019s where there\u2019s some daylight between these services<\/strong>, and what should ultimately guide your pick.<\/p>\n Of course\u2026 there is<\/em>\u00a0an alternative approach if you don\u2019t want the extra cost and\/or adding another tool to your stack.<\/p>\n Here at GMass, we\u2019ve figured out our own ways to maximize deliverability<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 without<\/em>\u00a0you having to bail on Gmail and without charging you as much as all the other big cold email platforms charge you.<\/p>\n There are tens of thousands of cold emailers using GMass \u2014 and 99% report the best deliverability they\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n How do we do it?<\/p>\n We are approved by Google to send through the Gmail API<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 most of the other cold email providers do not have that green light and send through IMAP. That means we have better deliverability \u2014 and aren\u2019t leaving clues like the other providers that you\u2019re sending through a cold email platform.<\/p>\n GMass has inbox rotation<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that\u2019s way<\/em>\u00a0faster to set up than anywhere else.<\/p>\n And if you want to rotate your sending server<\/strong>, akin to a cold email infrastructure service, you can connect multiple SMTP servers<\/a>\u00a0to GMass to rotate between them.<\/p>\nBest Cold Email Infrastructure Providers: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n
A Very Quick Review of What Cold Email Infrastructure Providers Do and What to Look For<\/h2>\n
What cold email infrastructure providers do<\/h3>\n
\n
The most important factors to consider when you\u2019re evaluating your options<\/h3>\n
The 5 Best Cold Email Infrastructure Services<\/h2>\n
1. Maildoso – best overall, thanks to deliverability and low prices<\/h3>\n
![\"Maildoso's](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-maildoso-home.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nDeliverability<\/h4>\n
Features<\/h4>\n
![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-maildoso-createdomains.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nCost<\/h4>\n
Overall<\/h4>\n
2. Mailscale – the service with a deliverability guarantee<\/h3>\n
![\"Mailscale](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-mailscale-home.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nDeliverability<\/h4>\n
Features<\/h4>\n
![\"Buying](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-mailscale-domains.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nCost<\/h4>\n
\n
Overall<\/h4>\n
3. Mailforge and Infraforge – best IP address options<\/h3>\n
![\"Infraforge](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-mailforge-home.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nDeliverability<\/h4>\n
![\"Mailforge's](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-mailforge-deliv.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nFeatures<\/h4>\n
Cost<\/h4>\n
![\"Mailbox](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-mailforge-calc.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n
\n
Overall<\/h4>\n
4. Mission Inbox – most flexibility<\/h3>\n
![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-missioninbox-home.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nDeliverability<\/h4>\n
Features<\/h4>\n
![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-missioninbox-mailboxes.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nCost<\/h4>\n
Overall<\/h4>\n
5. Inframail – unlimited inboxes for scalability<\/h3>\n
![\"Inframail's](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bestinfra-inframail-home.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nDeliverability<\/h4>\n
Features<\/h4>\n
Cost<\/h4>\n
Overall<\/h4>\n
So Which of the Best Cold Email Infrastructure Providers Should You Choose \u2014 If Any?<\/h2>\n