How to choose a cold email agency
Updated October 7, 2026. Agency facts read October 7, 2026, October 6, 2026 and September 24, 2026.
Choose a cold email agency on seven checks you can make before a sales call: price, setup fee, contract length, who builds the list, who answers replies, how replies are counted and launch time. Of ten other agencies, five publish a starting price and two say anything about a setup fee. Sales.co is our own service, so read this page with that in mind.
What this page adds: a count of what ten agencies publish on each check, and one check that changes how every reply number reads. In Sales.co's own data, 9,589 contacts replied to a first email in any way, but only 2,818 (29%) wrote the reply themselves. The rest were auto-responders, out-of-office notices and bounces (Sales.co's conversion benchmarks, 336,257 contacts, 20 campaigns, October 2026).
The seven checks
| Check | Sales.co | What the other ten agencies publish |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Price | $2,000 a month for up to 10,000 emails; $2,500 for 15,000; $3,000 for 20,000 | Five publish a starting price ($2,400 to $7,499). Five quote on a call or say nothing. |
| 2. Setup fee | None | SalesHive states $0 and CIENCE states $5,000 one-time. The other eight do not say. |
| 3. Contract | Month-to-month | Five state month-to-month. Hypergen asks six months, LevelUp Leads three, Martal Group a three or four-month pilot. Belkins and OutreachBloom do not say. |
| 4. Who builds the list | Sales.co builds and validates it in house; the data cost is in the fee | OutreachBloom builds it. Belkins states 1,500 leads a month at its starter price. CIENCE includes 75,000 monthly platform credits. The rest do not say. |
| 5. Who answers replies | Sales.co answers positive replies in under 10 minutes | OutreachBloom says it manages replies. SalesBread monitors your inbox and emails you leads. The rest do not say. |
| 6. How replies are counted | Published with definitions: any reply, in-person reply, positive reply, per contact and per email | Published reply rates run from 0.45% (Belkins) to 3.7% (Saleshandy) because the higher figures count automatic replies. |
| 7. Launch time | Sending within 7 days | CIENCE: a 5-day setup sprint and a full engine in 14 days. SalesBread: a 3 to 5 week wait list. Hypergen: under a month. The rest do not say. |
"Do not say" means the agency's own pages that we read do not say. A sales call may. Ask for the answer in writing.
Check 6 decides most disputes
An agency that reports a reply rate should tell you the denominator and what counts as a reply. Three questions settle it. Is the rate per email or per contact? Do automatic replies count? Is a positive reply someone who showed interest, or any reply that was not a refusal? In Sales.co's data the same campaigns produce 2.85% (any reply), 0.84% (written by a person) and 0.29% (positive), per contact. The median of the 15 campaigns with 5,000+ contacts was 0.11% positive. Ask which of those numbers you are being quoted, and compare it with the median, not the pooled figure.
Where to go next
Each page below answers one question you will have after this one.
- How much does a cold email agency cost? Published prices side by side.
- Is a cold email agency worth it? The cost per positive reply and the customer value that pays it back.
- Agency or SDR? Flat monthly fee against a per-person price.
- Which agencies state their terms? Eleven agencies on four criteria.
- Best cold email agencies for small B2B companies and for B2B.
- Month-to-month, no setup fee and live in 7 days: what each means in practice.
- Who builds the list, who warms the domains and who answers replies.
- What results to expect and how many replies a campaign gets.
- Head-to-head tables and alternatives to each agency.
Sources
- Sales.co: sales.co/pricing and Sales.co's conversion benchmarks, read October 7, 2026.
- OutreachBloom outreachbloom.com/pricing, SalesBread salesbread.com and CIENCE cience.com/pricing, read October 7, 2026.
- Belkins, Hypergen, SalesHive and Cleverly: each vendor's own site, read October 6, 2026; the source link is on each Sales.co comparison and alternatives page.
- LevelUp Leads, Martal Group and Leadium: each vendor's own site, read September 24, 2026.
FAQ
How much does a cold email agency cost per month?
Among the ten other agencies in our tables, five publish a starting price: OutreachBloom from $2,400, Belkins and LevelUp Leads from $5,000, Hypergen from $6,500 and CIENCE $7,499 for the first month. Sales.co is $2,000 for up to 10,000 emails. The rest quote on a call. More on cold email agency cost.
Should I accept a long minimum contract?
Three of the ten other agencies ask for a commitment: Hypergen six months, LevelUp Leads three months, Martal Group a three or four-month pilot. Six agencies, Sales.co included, state month-to-month. A longer term fits a sales cycle that is itself long; ask what you get if you stop early.
How long until a cold email campaign books meetings?
In Sales.co's own campaign the median time from first email to booked call was 9 days, 46% of bookings came within 7 days, 66% within 30 days and 34% arrived after the first month (143 bookings). See Sales.co's conversion benchmarks.
What reply rate should I expect from an agency?
Ask how replies are counted first. In Sales.co's data 2.85% of contacts replied in any way but only 0.84% replied in person and 0.29% replied positively (336,257 contacts, 20 campaigns). Published figures range from 0.45% to 3.7% because some include automatic replies. See cold email response rates.
Do cold email agencies guarantee results?
Few do. Belkins states 100+ guaranteed appointments a year at its starter price and SalesBread states 20+ qualified leads a month or your money back. Sales.co states no guarantee of replies or meetings.
Is an agency better than doing cold email with tools?
It depends on whether you have someone to own list building, domains, warmup, copy and replies every week. See cold email tools vs a managed service.