Quick answer: Pick Smartlead if your outbound is cold email at high volume across many mailboxes: plans start at $39 a month, or $32 billed yearly, with unlimited email accounts and warm-up. Pick Buzz if you want LinkedIn, email and calls in one seat for $79 a month, billed monthly, or an AI Employee that runs outbound and books meetings for you. Smartlead prices below were checked on Smartlead's pricing page on October 29, 2026.
Buzz and Smartlead both help B2B teams book meetings with outbound, but they solve different problems. Smartlead is a cold email platform built around sending volume and deliverability, and it is popular with lead generation agencies. Buzz gives you a self-serve seat across three channels, or an AI Employee that does the prospecting, writing, replies and booking. This guide compares them on channels, AI, data and price, using each company's own public pricing.
Buzz vs Smartlead at a glance
Every Smartlead figure comes from smartlead.ai/pricing, checked on October 29, 2026. Buzz figures come from the Buzz pricing page. Where a price is not on a public page, we say "Not published".
| Buzz | Smartlead | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams that want an AI Employee to run outbound and book meetings, or one self-serve seat with LinkedIn, email and calls | Agencies and teams sending high-volume cold email across many mailboxes |
| Channels | Email, LinkedIn and calls (voicemail drops included) | Email, plus calling through the SmartDialer add-on. LinkedIn is not listed on the pricing page |
| Done-for-you option | AI Employee finds prospects, writes messages, handles replies and objections, follows up and books meetings in Calendly | SmartServices: a managed outbound team (GTM engineer, lists, copy, inbox management) for email |
| Contact data | 250M+ contact database with enrichment | Verified prospect emails included each month (2,000 on Base up to 170,000 on Prime); email verification sold as an add-on |
| Sending accounts | Buy sending domains and warmed mailboxes inside Buzz | Unlimited email accounts on every plan; mailboxes sold through SmartSenders from $3.99 a mailbox a month |
| Entry price | Core: $79 per seat per month, billed monthly | Base: $39/mo monthly, or $32/mo billed yearly (2,000 contacts, 6,000 email sends) |
| Higher tiers | Same Core seat; add seats as you grow | Pro $94 ($78 yearly), Unlimited Smart $174 ($144), Unlimited Prime $379 ($315) |
| Done-for-you price | AI Employee: custom (talk to sales) | SmartServices: not published (book a strategy call) |
| White label | $1,000 per month for 20 seats, billed annually | Add-on at $29/mo per client workspace, Pro and up; 3 workspaces included on Prime |
| Free start | Start free | Free trial, no credit card required |
Pricing: what you actually pay
Smartlead prices by sending volume and contacts, not by seat:
- Base: $39 a month (2,000 contacts, 6,000 email sends, 2,000 verified emails a month).
- Pro: $94 a month (30,000 contacts, 90,000 email sends, 30,000 verified emails).
- Unlimited Smart: $174 a month (unlimited contacts, 150,000 email sends, 50,000 verified emails). Smartlead marks this as most popular.
- Unlimited Prime: $379 a month (unlimited contacts, 500,000 email sends, 170,000 verified emails, 3 SmartServers and 3 client workspaces included).
- Yearly billing saves 17%: $32, $78, $144 and $315 a month.
- Add-ons include mailboxes through SmartSenders, inbox placement testing through SmartDelivery from $49 a month, dedicated SmartServers at $39 a server a month, email verification credits, and SmartDialer for calls.
- SmartServices, the done-for-you option, has Growth (50,000 emails a month) and Scale (100,000 emails a month) plans, but no price is published.
Buzz keeps it to three options:
- Core: $79 per seat per month, billed monthly. Includes LinkedIn and email outreach, phone calling, voicemail drops, CRM integrations and AI message drafting.
- AI Employee: custom priced, so you talk to sales.
- White Label: $1,000 a month for 20 seats, billed annually. See Buzz white label.
Bottom line on price: for email-only sending at low volume, Smartlead Base is cheaper than a Buzz seat. Smartlead's Pro plan at $94 a month costs more than Buzz Core at $79, and Buzz Core also covers LinkedIn and calls. Smartlead gets better value the more email you send, so it suits volume senders. For a full cost breakdown of AI outbound, read how much an AI SDR costs.
Channels: email, LinkedIn and calls
Smartlead is an email-first tool. Its pricing page covers mailboxes, warm-up, sender rotation, a master inbox and deliverability testing, plus a SmartDialer add-on for calls. It does not list LinkedIn outreach.
Buzz includes email, LinkedIn and calls from the first paid seat. That matters because email-only outreach tends to stall as inboxes get stricter. Our guide on why email-only AI SDRs stall explains why, and how to build one LinkedIn and email sequence shows how to set it up.
AI and done-for-you outbound
Smartlead's software is something your team runs: you build lists, write sequences and manage replies in its master inbox. If you want it done for you, SmartServices gives you a dedicated GTM team that builds lists, writes AI-personalized copy, sets up pre-warmed mailboxes and manages your inbox, all on email. You book a strategy call to get a price.
Buzz's AI Employee is software that runs outbound for you. It learns your business, finds prospects that match your ideal customer profile, builds campaigns across LinkedIn and email, handles replies and objections, follows up when people go quiet, and books meetings in Calendly. Learn more in what an AI Employee is.
Deliverability and data
Deliverability is Smartlead's core strength. Every plan includes unlimited email accounts, warm-up and automatic rotation across mailboxes, and you can add dedicated servers and inbox placement tests. Each plan also includes a monthly allowance of verified prospect emails.
Buzz has a 250M+ contact database with enrichment, and an AI Email Service that lets you buy sending domains and warmed mailboxes inside Buzz. See how the AI Email Service works and our guide to deliverability at high volume.
For agencies: white label
Smartlead sells white labeling as a $29 a month add-on per client workspace, from Pro up. That brands the email platform for each client. Buzz White Label is $1,000 a month for 20 seats, billed annually, and covers LinkedIn, email and calls under your brand. If LinkedIn is part of your client offer, read LinkedIn automation for agencies.
Who should pick which
- Pick Smartlead if you send large volumes of cold email across many mailboxes and want warm-up, rotation and dedicated servers.
- Pick Buzz Core if you want LinkedIn, email and calls in one seat on monthly billing.
- Pick Buzz AI Employee if you want outbound done for you, from finding prospects to booking meetings.
- Pick Buzz White Label if you are an agency that wants to resell multichannel AI outbound under your own brand.
Still comparing? See our Buzz vs Apollo.io comparison, the 10 best cold email software tools and the best AI SDR tools of 2026.
Ready to try Buzz? Start free, or talk to sales about an AI Employee.
