How did we choose these AI SDR tools?
We picked products that are sold as AI SDRs or are widely used as one, that have a public website and pricing information, and that cover different approaches: autonomous agents, copilots for reps, inbound assistants, signal-based platforms and database-first tools. A longer list would mostly repeat the same categories.
We describe each pricing model (published plans, quote-based contracts, per-user plans, free tier) rather than exact prices, because prices and plan names change often. Each pricing link points to the vendor's public page as it stood in October 2026: check it before you decide.
Disclosure: Startories is our product. We describe it with the same standard as the others, including the cases where another tool is the better choice. For a refresher on the category itself, read what an AI SDR is and how it works.
The nine tools at a glance
| Tool | Approach | Best for | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startories | Signal-based outbound by email | Founder-led B2B SaaS, agencies and consultants with a clear niche | Published monthly plans, plus done-for-you options |
| 11x (Alice) | Autonomous outbound digital worker | Sales teams that want an autonomous agent with vendor-led onboarding | Quote-based, through sales |
| Artisan (Ava) | Autonomous AI BDR with built-in data | Teams that want one platform for data, writing and sending | Tiered plans, self-serve entry and sales-led contracts |
| AiSDR | AI SDR for email outreach | Small teams that want published plans and a quick start | Published plans tiered by outreach volume |
| Amplemarket (Duo) | Sales platform with an AI copilot | Teams with reps who want an assistant, not a replacement | Plans listed on its pricing page |
| Reply.io (Jason AI SDR) | Sales engagement platform plus an AI SDR | Teams already running multichannel sequences | Per-user platform plans, AI SDR priced separately |
| Qualified (Piper) | Inbound AI SDR on your website | Companies with steady website traffic and Salesforce | Quote-based |
| Unify | Signal-based warm outbound platform | Teams with RevOps support and first-party signals | Tiered plans on its pricing page |
| Apollo.io | Contact database and sequences with AI features | Budget-conscious teams that run outbound themselves | Free tier and per-user paid plans with credits |
Each tool in detail: what it does, best fit and pricing
Startories: signal-based AI SDR
Startories watches public sources (Reddit, X, Product Hunt, startup and industry directories, and search results for your niche) for buying signals such as a competitor complaint, a request for a tool recommendation, a launch, a hire or a funding round. It matches each signal to a company, scores it against your ideal customer profile with the reasons written out, verifies the decision-maker's business email and writes an email that refers to the event. Sending runs from separate, warmed-up domains, and every reply is classified with a suggested answer.
Best for: founder-led B2B and AI SaaS, marketing and dev agencies, consultants and B2B services with deals worth at least several hundred dollars. Less suited to: teams that need phone or LinkedIn automation, or consumer outreach. Pricing: published monthly plans from $99 (the first Starter project starts with a 3-day full-access trial for $1), plus done-for-you setup and fully managed options. Details on the Startories AI SDR page.
Watch for: lead volume follows your market. If your buyers rarely post, launch, hire or raise money in public, a signal-based tool will surface fewer companies than a database search would. Test one niche before you add more.
11x: autonomous digital workers
11x sells AI "digital workers" for go-to-market teams. Alice is its outbound worker: she researches prospects and writes and runs outreach sequences. 11x also offers a worker for inbound, Julian. The product suits companies that want to hand a large share of outbound to an agent and are ready for a sales-led onboarding.
Best for: mid-size and larger sales teams with a clear profile and budget for a contract. Pricing: quote-based through sales, with terms explained in the 11x pricing overview and on the Alice pricing page. See how it compares in 11x alternatives.
Watch for: the commitment. 11x is bought through a sales process and a contract, so read its billing and contracts FAQ and agree in writing on what a successful pilot looks like before you sign.
Artisan: Ava, the AI BDR
Artisan's AI BDR, Ava, prospects, writes and sends outbound sequences from a platform that includes its own B2B contact data and deliverability tools. With Ava 2.0, Artisan added a self-serve option next to its sales-led plans.
Best for: teams that want one autonomous tool instead of a stack of data, writing and sending products. Pricing: tiered plans on the Artisan pricing page. Read Artisan alternatives and 11x vs Artisan for a closer look.
Watch for: when one vendor supplies the data, the writing and the sending, ask how lead volume is counted, whether sending domains are included, and what you keep (lists, domains, reply history) if you cancel.
AiSDR: published plans and a quick start
AiSDR is an AI SDR focused on personalized email outreach: it researches leads, writes and sends emails and handles replies. Its plans are published, which makes it easy to compare costs before talking to sales.
Best for: small and mid-size teams that want to start quickly with a predictable budget. Pricing: published plans tiered by outreach volume, on the AiSDR pricing page. See AiSDR alternatives.
Watch for: pick the tier from the volume you will really send, not the one you hope to reach, and ask where leads come from when you do not bring your own list.
Amplemarket: a copilot for reps
Amplemarket is an all-in-one sales platform: a contact database, email, LinkedIn and phone steps in the same sequence, and deliverability monitoring, with an AI copilot called Duo. Duo surfaces leads that show signals, drafts outreach and leaves the final decision to the rep.
Best for: teams with SDRs or account executives who want to move faster without handing over control. Pricing: plans on the Amplemarket pricing page. See Amplemarket alternatives.
Watch for: it is designed around reps who work sequences every day. A founder with no sales team may end up paying for multichannel features nobody has time to use.
Reply.io: engagement platform with Jason AI SDR
Reply.io is a sales engagement platform for multichannel sequences (email, LinkedIn and calls). Its Jason AI SDR sits on top: it builds lists, writes sequences, answers replies and books meetings.
Best for: teams that already run sequences in Reply.io or want one tool for both manual and AI-driven outreach. Pricing: per-user platform plans, with the AI SDR priced on its own Jason AI SDR pricing page. See Reply.io alternatives.
Watch for: two price lines. Add the platform seats and the AI SDR together before you compare Reply.io with a tool that bundles both.
Qualified: Piper for inbound
Qualified's Piper is an AI SDR agent for inbound pipeline. It talks with visitors on your website, answers their questions, qualifies them and books meetings, and it is built to work closely with Salesforce.
Best for: companies whose main source of pipeline is website traffic. It does not prospect cold accounts the way outbound tools do. Pricing: quote-based; see Qualified's pricing page.
Watch for: it works the demand you already have. With modest website traffic, or a CRM other than Salesforce, ask early how much of the product applies to your setup.
Unify: warm outbound from signals
Unify is a signal-based outbound platform. It combines signals such as website visits, product usage, job changes, funding and review-site activity with contact data and automated sequences, so reps reach accounts that are already warm.
Best for: B2B teams with RevOps support and meaningful first-party signals (website traffic, product sign-ups). Pricing: tiered plans on the Unify pricing page. See Unify alternatives.
Watch for: its warmest signals come from your own website and product. A young company with little traffic gives it less to work with, and the plays assume someone owns the data and the workflows.
Apollo.io: database first, AI on top
Apollo.io is best known as a large B2B contact database with built-in sequences, a dialer and AI-assisted research and writing. It is not an autonomous AI SDR out of the box: you build the lists and run the campaigns, with AI helping along the way.
Best for: budget-conscious teams that want to run outbound themselves and are comfortable doing the targeting. Pricing: a free tier and per-user paid plans with credits, on the Apollo.io pricing page. Related: Apollo.io alternatives and Clay vs Apollo.
Watch for: usage costs. Exports and enrichment draw on credits (how Apollo credits work), so a low seat price can grow with volume. The targeting logic (who, why now, what to say) remains your job.
Which AI SDR tool fits your situation?
Also think about where your buyers show their needs. If they rarely talk in public, as in some regulated industries, a tool built on public posts will find fewer signals for you, and a database or inbound tool is the safer bet. If they ask peers for recommendations and compare tools in the open, a signal-based tool can catch those moments, which a static list cannot.
| Your situation | Look first at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Founder or small team, no SDR, clear niche | Startories, AiSDR | Low setup effort; Startories adds a reason to reach out, AiSDR publishes simple plans |
| You have reps and want them faster | Amplemarket, Reply.io | Copilot and engagement features keep a person in control |
| Most demand arrives on your website | Qualified | An inbound agent works the traffic you already have |
| You want an autonomous agent with guided onboarding | 11x, Artisan | Sales-led setup and contracts designed for larger teams |
| Strong first-party data and RevOps support | Unify | Combines product and website signals with outbound |
| Tight budget, hands-on team | Apollo.io | Free tier and self-serve tools to build your own process |
Reach companies with a reason to buy this week
Startories finds the buying signal, verifies the decision-maker and runs the outreach until they book a call.
Do you need an AI SDR at all, or can you assemble one?
Some teams skip the category and build the same workflow from parts: a data or enrichment tool, a cold email sender, and AI writing in between. It is a real option, and for technical teams it is sometimes the better one. The tools below are not AI SDRs, but they appear on many shortlists next to them.
- What you gain: control over every step, the freedom to swap any part, and often a lower bill at high volume.
- What you take on: you are the integration. Someone writes the research prompts, maps fields between tools, watches inbox health and repairs the workflow when a provider changes.
- A quick test: if your ideal lead fits a filter (industry, headcount, title) and you have a technical person with time, assembling is reasonable. If the reason to reach out is an event you must catch as it happens, a product built around signals saves you from building and maintaining that monitoring yourself.
| Layer | Common choice | What it does in the stack |
|---|---|---|
| Enrichment and research | Clay | Queries several data providers in turn until one returns an answer (waterfall enrichment) and runs AI research on websites. See Clay alternatives. |
| Contact database | Apollo.io | Search and export contacts, with sequences and a dialer in the same product |
| Cold email sending | Instantly, Smartlead | Connect many mailboxes, warm them up and handle replies from one inbox. Compared in Instantly vs Smartlead. |
| Multichannel sequences | lemlist | Email, LinkedIn and phone steps in one sequence, with AI writing help. See lemlist alternatives. |
How to choose: a two-week evaluation
Write your profile and offer first
Before any demo, write down who you sell to, the problem you solve and the companies you must never email. Our ideal customer profile template takes about an hour.
Request sample leads with reasons
Ask each shortlisted vendor for 25 leads in your niche with the reason each was chosen. Count how many you would actually want to talk to.
Grade ten draft emails
Check every fact, the tone and the ask. Flag any email you would be uncomfortable seeing forwarded to your own team.
Inspect sending and compliance
Confirm separate sending domains, per-inbox limits, stop on reply, bounce handling, an opt-out in every email and suppression across campaigns.
Compare on cost per meeting
Estimate the full monthly cost, including your review time, and divide by the meetings you expect. Our guide to what an SDR costs shows the formula with a human benchmark.
Start small and keep an exit
Prefer a pilot on one segment and a contract you can leave if it does not produce held meetings.
How do you score your shortlist side by side?
The two-week evaluation gives you material: sample leads, draft emails, answers about sending and terms. A weighted scorecard turns that material into a decision and keeps the most polished demo from winning by default. The weights below suit a founder-led team; shift them toward whatever would hurt you most.
| Criterion | Weight | Scores 5 when | Scores 1 when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead fit | 30% | You would gladly talk to 20 of the 25 sample leads | Most sample leads sit outside your profile or come with no reason |
| Accuracy of drafts | 25% | Every fact in ten drafts checks out | Any draft invents a detail about the prospect or your product |
| Sending safety | 15% | Separate domains, per-inbox caps, stop on reply, automatic pause on bounces | Sends from your main domain or cannot explain its limits |
| Control | 10% | Approval per campaign, exclusion lists, pausing one campaign at a time | All or nothing |
| Reporting | 10% | Replies by type and meetings held, per segment | Sends and opens only |
| Terms and total cost | 10% | Monthly or pilot terms, data and inboxes included, a clear exit | Long minimum term, extras billed separately, unclear data ownership |
What should you ask every AI SDR vendor?
- Where do the leads come from, and can I see why each one was picked?
- Who owns the sending domains and inboxes, and what happens to them if I cancel?
- How many emails does each inbox send per day, and what pauses sending?
- Can I approve emails and replies before they go out, campaign by campaign?
- Which facts may the AI state about my product, and how do I restrict them?
- How are unsubscribes, bounces and deletion requests handled across all campaigns?
- What do you report: sends and opens, or replies, meetings booked and meetings held?
- What is the minimum contract term, and how is usage counted?
Where Startories fits, and how to start
Startories is a good fit when your buyers leave public traces of need (posts, launches, hiring, funding, tool changes) and you want each email to start from that event. It is a weaker fit if you need calls or LinkedIn automation, if most of your pipeline comes from website visitors, or if you are rolling out across a large sales floor. In those cases, the inbound or copilot tools above deserve a closer look. Two more cases where we would point you elsewhere: deals worth less than a few hundred dollars, where the cost of an outbound meeting is hard to recover, and consumer outreach, which Startories is not built for.
To try it, start with one funnel and one profile on the Starter plan, approve the first emails yourself, and judge it on meetings. The first project starts with a 3-day full-access trial for $1, then plans start at $99 a month: see pricing. If you would rather hand off the whole process, there is also a done-for-you outbound service.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI SDR tool for a startup?
For a founder-led startup without an SDR, pick a tool with low setup effort, clear pricing and approval controls. If your buyers discuss their needs in public, a signal-based tool such as Startories fits; if you want to run campaigns yourself on a budget, Apollo.io is a common starting point.
Are AI SDR tools worth the money?
They are worth it when your offer already converts in conversations and the bottleneck is finding and reaching the right people. Measure them on cost per held meeting against your real alternative, whether that is founder time, a hire or an agency.
Do AI SDR tools include contact data?
Many do: Artisan, Amplemarket, Apollo.io and Startories include data and email verification. Others expect you to bring lists or connect a data provider. Ask before you buy, because a separate data subscription can add a lot to the real cost.
Can an AI SDR send from my company domain?
It can, but it should not. Cold outreach from your main domain puts the reputation of all your company email at risk. Use separate, warmed-up sending domains with capped daily volumes, which serious tools either set up for you or support.
Do I have to sign an annual contract?
It depends on the vendor. Some publish monthly plans you can start on your own, others sell quote-based contracts through sales. Read the minimum term and the cancellation terms before you commit, and prefer a pilot when one is offered.
Sources
- 11x: Alice pricing
- 11x: Pricing overview
- 11x: Billing and contracts FAQ
- Artisan: Plans and pricing
- Artisan: Ava 2.0 self-serve launch
- AiSDR: Pricing
- Amplemarket: Duo Copilot
- Amplemarket: Pricing
- Reply.io: Jason AI SDR
- Reply.io: Jason AI SDR pricing
- Qualified: Piper the AI SDR Agent
- Qualified: Pricing
- Unify: Pricing
- Apollo.io: Pricing
- Apollo.io: How credits work
- Clay: Waterfall enrichment
- Instantly
- Smartlead