Outplay Review 2026: Features, Pricing & Alternatives

Outplay positions itself as a complete multichannel sales engagement platform designed specifically for growing SMB sales teams that need enterprise-grade features without enterprise pricing. Founded in 2020, Outplay has rapidly gained traction by offering an intuitive interface, comprehensive channel coverage, and aggressive pricing that undercuts established players like Outreach and Salesloft by 50 to 70 percent.

This comprehensive review examines Outplay's multichannel capabilities, feature set, pricing structure, and how it compares to alternatives like Lemlist, Reply.io, and traditional sales engagement platforms. Whether you're an SMB sales team looking to professionalize outbound operations or an agency managing client campaigns across multiple channels, this guide will help you determine if Outplay delivers the functionality and value your organization needs.

What is Outplay?

Outplay is a multichannel sales engagement platform that enables B2B sales teams to orchestrate prospect outreach across email, phone, LinkedIn, SMS, and chat channels from a single unified interface. Designed specifically for small to mid-sized businesses, Outplay aims to democratize sales engagement technology that was previously accessible only to enterprises with substantial budgets.

The platform's core value proposition centers on three key pillars: multichannel orchestration that allows sales teams to reach prospects wherever they're most responsive, automation that eliminates manual task management and follow-up tracking, and actionable analytics that help optimize campaigns based on actual performance data. Outplay enables SDR and BDR teams to work more efficiently while maintaining personalized, relevant prospect communication.

What distinguishes Outplay from basic cold email tools is its genuinely multichannel approach. Rather than email automation with LinkedIn features bolted on as an afterthought, Outplay treats all channels as first-class citizens in your outreach strategy. You can create sophisticated sequences that alternate between email on Monday, LinkedIn connection request on Wednesday, phone call task on Friday, and SMS follow-up the following week, all triggered automatically based on prospect behavior and engagement signals.

The platform targets fast-growing SMBs, Series A to Series B startups with dedicated sales teams, agencies managing outbound for clients, and mid-market companies that have outgrown basic tools but aren't ready for six-figure enterprise contracts. Outplay is particularly popular in tech-enabled businesses where sales teams are comfortable with modern SaaS tools and value workflow efficiency.

Outplay integrates with major CRM platforms including HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Zoho, ensuring prospect data and interaction history sync seamlessly between systems. The platform also offers native integrations with popular sales tools like Calendly, Zoom, Slack, and data enrichment providers, creating a cohesive sales technology stack rather than isolated point solutions.

The company has built a reputation for responsive customer support, regular feature releases, and listening to customer feedback to guide product development. This customer-centric approach, combined with aggressive pricing and comprehensive feature set, has helped Outplay compete effectively against established competitors with much larger marketing budgets and sales teams.

Key Features

Multichannel Sequences

Outplay's multichannel sequence builder is the platform's cornerstone feature, enabling sales teams to orchestrate complex, multi-touch campaigns across email, LinkedIn, phone, SMS, and chat in coordinated workflows. This unified approach dramatically increases prospect engagement compared to single-channel outreach by meeting buyers on their preferred communication channels.

The visual sequence editor uses a drag-and-drop interface where you build campaigns by adding steps across different channels and defining time delays between touchpoints. For example, a sophisticated multichannel sequence might include Day 1 email, Day 3 LinkedIn profile view, Day 5 second email, Day 7 LinkedIn connection request, Day 10 phone call task for prospects who accepted your connection, Day 13 SMS message, and Day 17 final breakup email.

Channel flexibility allows you to leverage each platform's unique strengths. Email delivers detailed information and valuable content, LinkedIn builds professional credibility and enables warm introductions, phone calls create personal connections and handle objections in real-time, and SMS captures attention for time-sensitive opportunities. By combining channels strategically, you increase total touchpoints while avoiding the fatigue of bombarding prospects through a single channel.

Conditional branching enables dynamic sequences that adapt based on prospect behavior. If a prospect opens your email but doesn't reply, they receive one follow-up path. If they don't open at all, they receive a different approach, perhaps through a different channel. If they click a link showing high interest, they're routed to a high-intent sequence focused on booking meetings. This intelligence ensures messaging relevance throughout the prospect journey.

Automatic step progression eliminates manual task management. When a prospect completes a phone call task or receives an email, the system automatically schedules the next step based on your defined timeline. SDRs no longer maintain complex spreadsheets tracking when to follow up with each prospect; Outplay handles orchestration automatically while surfacing the right tasks at the right time.

The multichannel approach is proven effective through data. Research consistently shows that campaigns using 6 to 8 touchpoints across 3 to 4 channels achieve 3 to 5 times higher response rates compared to single-channel email campaigns. Outplay's architecture makes executing these multichannel strategies operationally feasible for teams of any size.

Email Automation with Smart Scheduling

Outplay's email automation goes beyond basic sending to include intelligent scheduling, personalization, and deliverability optimization that maximize inbox placement and response rates. The platform treats email as a foundational channel while providing sophisticated controls that experienced cold emailers expect.

Smart scheduling analyzes when each prospect is most likely to engage based on their timezone, industry patterns, and historical engagement data. Rather than sending all emails at 9am your time, Outplay distributes sending throughout the day to reach prospects at optimal local times. For prospects in multiple timezones, this intelligent scheduling ensures everyone receives emails during business hours rather than middle-of-night delivery that signals automation.

Personalization capabilities extend beyond basic variable insertion. The platform supports custom fields, dynamic content blocks, and conditional text that changes based on prospect attributes. You can create email variants for different industries, company sizes, or personas, with Outplay automatically selecting the appropriate version for each recipient. This dynamic personalization helps emails feel individually crafted even when sent at scale.

Email tracking provides real-time visibility into prospect engagement. You receive immediate notifications when prospects open emails, click links, or download attachments, allowing timely follow-up when interest is highest. This real-time intelligence helps sales reps prioritize outreach to engaged prospects rather than wasting time on cold contacts.

A/B testing functionality allows systematic optimization of subject lines, email copy, sending times, and calls-to-action. You can split your audience into test groups, measure performance differences, and automatically route more prospects to winning variations. This data-driven approach continuously improves campaign effectiveness based on actual results rather than opinions.

Deliverability features include email validation, spam score testing, sending throttling, and domain rotation when using multiple email accounts. Outplay helps users maintain sender reputation by preventing common mistakes that trigger spam filters. The platform monitors bounce rates and provides alerts when deliverability issues emerge, allowing proactive intervention before reputation damage occurs.

Email templates library provides proven frameworks for various outreach scenarios including cold outreach, follow-ups, meeting requests, content sharing, and breakup emails. These templates accelerate campaign creation while serving as educational resources for teams learning effective cold email techniques.

LinkedIn Automation

Outplay's LinkedIn automation enables sales teams to incorporate professional networking into their outreach sequences without the manual overhead of individually managing connections and messages. This capability is critical for B2B sales where decision-makers are increasingly responsive on LinkedIn compared to email.

Automated LinkedIn actions include profile views, connection requests with personalized notes, direct messages to 1st-degree connections, post engagements including likes and comments, and InMail sending for premium LinkedIn account holders. Each action type can be sequenced alongside email and phone tasks to create cohesive multichannel campaigns.

Safety and compliance are paramount in LinkedIn automation. Outplay operates within LinkedIn's daily activity limits to minimize account restriction risk. Connection request limits are capped at 20 to 30 per day, messages are limited to 50 to 80 daily, and random delays between actions mimic human behavior patterns. The conservative approach prioritizes account safety over maximum volume.

Integration with email sequences creates powerful multichannel workflows. A common pattern starts with a LinkedIn profile view to get on the prospect's radar, followed by an email mentioning you checked out their profile, then a connection request referencing shared interests or mutual connections, then another email to those who accepted, and finally a LinkedIn message with a specific call-to-action. This multi-touch, cross-channel approach dramatically outperforms single-channel LinkedIn outreach.

Message personalization for LinkedIn uses the same custom field system as email, allowing dynamic insertion of prospect-specific information. You can reference recent posts they've shared, mutual connections, their job changes, or company news to make connection requests and messages feel personally researched rather than mass-sent.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration (for users with Sales Navigator subscriptions) enables advanced targeting and lead import directly into Outplay campaigns. You can build sophisticated prospect lists in Sales Navigator based on job title, company, industry, and engagement signals, then export directly to Outplay for multichannel outreach. This integration streamlines the prospecting-to-outreach workflow.

The LinkedIn automation requires connecting your personal LinkedIn account through Outplay's Chrome extension. Important considerations include using your real account, accepting that activity is visible to your network, and understanding that any automation carries inherent platform risk despite Outplay's conservative approach. Review LinkedIn's terms of service and your own risk tolerance before enabling automation.

Multi-Channel Dialer and SMS

Outplay includes a built-in power dialer that transforms the calling experience for sales teams, eliminating manual dialing overhead while providing call recording, local presence, and seamless CRM integration. The dialer treats phone outreach as an equal channel alongside email and LinkedIn rather than a separate workflow.

The power dialer automatically queues prospects based on your sequence tasks and calling schedule. When it's time to call prospects in your sequence, Outplay presents their information on-screen and initiates the call with one click. After each call, you log the outcome (connected, voicemail, no answer, wrong number) and move immediately to the next prospect. This streamlined workflow enables SDRs to complete 60 to 100 calls per hour compared to 20 to 30 with manual dialing.

Local presence automatically displays a local area code to prospects based on their location. Research shows that prospects answer calls from local numbers at 2 to 4 times higher rates compared to unknown out-of-state numbers. This feature dramatically improves connection rates without requiring sales reps to maintain phone numbers in every market.

Call recording captures every conversation for training, quality assurance, and compliance purposes. Managers can review rep calls to provide coaching, new hires can learn from top performer conversations, and teams can analyze successful calls to identify winning talk tracks and objection handling approaches.

Voicemail drop allows pre-recording a voicemail message that can be left with one click when reaching prospect voicemail. This saves 30 to 45 seconds per voicemail, allowing reps to move to the next call faster while ensuring consistent, professional messaging. You can create multiple voicemail scripts for different campaigns or buyer personas.

SMS messaging integration enables text message touchpoints within your multichannel sequences. SMS achieves 90+ percent open rates compared to 20 to 30 percent for email, making it valuable for high-priority prospects or time-sensitive opportunities. Use cases include meeting confirmations, brief check-ins, event invitations, and re-engagement of cold prospects who ignore email.

SMS best practices include keeping messages under 160 characters, providing clear opt-out instructions, using text for quick questions or confirmations rather than detailed pitches, and being judicious about frequency to avoid annoying prospects. SMS is powerful but can damage relationships if overused or used inappropriately.

CRM Integration and Data Sync

Outplay offers deep, bi-directional integration with major CRM platforms including Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, and Copper. These native integrations ensure prospect data, interaction history, and task completion sync automatically between systems, eliminating manual data entry and maintaining a single source of truth.

Two-way sync means data flows both directions. Prospect information, custom fields, and pipeline status from your CRM automatically populate Outplay, enabling sophisticated segmentation and targeting without manual exports. Conversely, all activity in Outplay including emails sent, calls made, LinkedIn interactions, and campaign responses sync back to your CRM, giving sales managers and reps complete visibility into prospect engagement history.

Automatic activity logging creates detailed records of every prospect interaction. When an SDR sends an email, makes a call, or sends a LinkedIn message through Outplay, those activities automatically appear as logged activities in the CRM contact record. This comprehensive history ensures sales reps taking over from SDRs have complete context on previous outreach efforts.

Lead and opportunity creation workflows can be automated based on prospect engagement. When a prospect replies positively to a sequence or reaches a certain engagement score, Outplay can automatically create an opportunity in your CRM, assign it to the appropriate rep, and set the initial pipeline stage. This automation ensures hot prospects immediately enter the sales process without manual handoff delays.

Custom field mapping provides flexibility to align Outplay data with your CRM's unique schema. You can map standard fields like email, phone, and company, plus any custom fields your organization uses for tracking prospect attributes, data sources, campaign names, or engagement scores. This flexibility ensures Outplay adapts to your workflow rather than requiring process changes.

Workflow triggers based on CRM status changes allow dynamic sequence management. For example, if an opportunity moves to "closed won" in your CRM, Outplay can automatically pause any ongoing outreach sequences to that contact, preventing embarrassing situations where customers receive cold outreach. Similarly, if a deal moves to "closed lost," you might automatically enroll that contact in a long-term nurture sequence.

The integration quality varies by CRM platform, with Salesforce and HubSpot receiving the deepest integration due to their API capabilities and market dominance. Smaller CRM platforms may have more limited sync capabilities, so verify specific integration features for your CRM before committing to Outplay.

Analytics and Reporting

Outplay provides comprehensive analytics dashboards that track campaign performance across all channels, individual rep productivity, and sequence effectiveness. These insights enable data-driven optimization and provide visibility into what's actually working versus what's consuming time without results.

Campaign-level analytics show metrics for each sequence including emails sent, delivered, opened, clicked, and replied, plus LinkedIn connection acceptance rates, calls made, calls connected, and SMS delivery and response rates. This multichannel view helps identify which channels drive the highest engagement for different prospect segments.

Sequence step analysis reveals exactly where prospects engage or drop off in your campaigns. You might discover that your initial email achieves strong open rates but low replies, your second email generates the most responses, and your LinkedIn touchpoint has minimal impact. These insights guide optimization efforts, helping you double down on effective steps and eliminate or reimagine underperforming ones.

Individual rep performance tracking enables sales managers to monitor SDR productivity and identify coaching opportunities. Dashboards show activities completed, emails sent, calls made, meetings booked, and response rates by rep. This visibility helps identify top performers who can mentor others and struggling reps who need additional training or support.

A/B test results are presented with statistical significance indicators, helping you understand when you have enough data to make confident decisions versus needing to run tests longer. The platform tracks test performance automatically and can route traffic to winning variations once significance is achieved.

Deliverability reporting tracks email bounce rates, spam complaints, and inbox placement estimates to help maintain sender reputation. Outplay alerts you when metrics exceed healthy thresholds, prompting proactive investigation and correction before deliverability degradation impacts campaign performance.

Export functionality allows downloading campaign data, prospect lists, and interaction history for deeper analysis in Excel or BI tools. This data portability is important for organizations with specific reporting requirements or executives who prefer analyzing data in familiar tools.

Custom report building enables creating dashboards tailored to your organization's specific KPIs and metrics. You can filter by campaign, date range, rep, industry, or any custom field, creating reports that answer your specific business questions rather than relying only on pre-built dashboards.

Pricing and Plans

Outplay offers straightforward, per-user pricing with all features included in a single plan tier. This simplicity eliminates confusion about which features require which plan and makes budgeting predictable as teams grow.

Outplay Plan: $79/month per user

Outplay's single-plan approach includes all features with no hidden tiers or feature gates:

Included Features:

• Unlimited email accounts and sending
• Multichannel sequences across email, LinkedIn, phone, SMS, and chat
• Power dialer with local presence and call recording
• LinkedIn automation including connection requests and messaging
• SMS messaging capability (credits purchased separately)
• Native CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Copper
• Email verification and deliverability tools
• A/B testing and campaign analytics
• Team collaboration and inbox management
• API access for custom integrations
• Zapier and Make.com integrations
• Email and chat support
• Onboarding and training resources

Best For: Growing B2B sales teams with 2 to 50 SDRs/BDRs, agencies managing multichannel campaigns for clients, SMBs professionalizing outbound operations, startups with dedicated sales development functions.

Pricing Structure:

• Monthly billing: $79 per user per month
• Annual billing: $69 per user per month (approximately 13 percent savings)
• Volume discounts available for teams of 10+ users (contact sales for custom pricing)

Additional Costs to Consider

SMS Credits: SMS messaging requires purchasing credit packages separately. Pricing varies by country, with US SMS typically costing $0.01 to $0.02 per message. Credit packages start at $50 for 2,500+ messages. Most teams use SMS sparingly for high-value touchpoints, so costs remain modest.

Phone Credits (if needed): The power dialer includes free calling to US and Canada. International calling requires purchasing credits, with per-minute rates varying by country. Most US-focused sales teams incur no additional calling costs.

Email Accounts: While Outplay supports unlimited email account connections, you must provide the actual email addresses via Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or SMTP providers. These external email hosting costs range from $6 to $12 per account monthly.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator (optional): While not required, LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscriptions ($80 to $100 per month) significantly enhance prospecting capabilities and integrate with Outplay for lead import. Many users find the combination highly effective.

Free Trial

Outplay offers a 14-day free trial with full feature access and no credit card required. The trial includes all multichannel capabilities, integrations, and support, allowing teams to thoroughly evaluate the platform with real campaigns before purchasing.

Who Should Use Outplay?

Ideal Customer Profile

Perfect Fit:

• B2B sales teams with 5 to 50 SDRs running consistent outbound prospecting
• SMBs and mid-market companies needing enterprise engagement features at SMB pricing
• Agencies managing multichannel campaigns for multiple B2B clients
• SaaS companies with product-led sales models requiring scalable outbound motion
• Sales organizations comfortable with modern sales technology and automation
• Companies using multichannel strategies across email, phone, LinkedIn, and SMS
• Teams with connected CRM systems and established sales processes

Company Stage:

• Series A to Series C startups building dedicated sales teams
• Growth-stage SMBs expanding from founder-led sales to professional SDR teams
• Mid-market companies (50 to 500 employees) with maturing sales operations
• Agencies with 10 to 100 employees offering outbound as a service

Use Case Examples:

• B2B SaaS company running account-based outreach to decision-makers across email, phone, and LinkedIn
• Growth agency managing simultaneous campaigns for 5 to 15 clients across multiple industries
• Sales team coordinating SDR cold outreach with AE follow-up through shared CRM visibility
• Mid-market company replacing multiple point solutions with single unified engagement platform
• Startup scaling from 3 SDRs to 15+ and needing professional tooling to maintain quality

Technical Comfort Level:

• Teams with sales operations resources for initial setup and integration configuration
• Users comfortable with modern SaaS platforms and learning new tools
• Organizations with IT or technical teams to assist with email authentication and integrations
• Sales leaders who value data and analytics for campaign optimization

When NOT to Use Outplay

Poor Fit:

• Very early-stage companies (pre-Series A) with founders doing ad-hoc outreach may find Outplay overkill for sporadic activity
• Enterprise sales organizations (1000+ employees) requiring advanced features like conversation intelligence, revenue analytics, or custom workflows should evaluate Outreach or Salesloft
• Teams needing creative personalization through images or videos should consider Lemlist
• Organizations doing exclusively email outreach without phone or LinkedIn may find multichannel capabilities unnecessary
• Companies with extreme budget constraints seeking lowest absolute cost should evaluate Instantly or Smartlead
• B2C or consumer sales teams (Outplay is purpose-built for B2B professional sales)

Alternative Solutions:

• For enterprise-grade features and budget: Outreach or Salesloft
• For creative email personalization: Lemlist
• For lowest-cost email-only automation: Instantly or Smartlead
• For all-in-one prospecting plus engagement: Apollo or Reply.io
• For LinkedIn-focused outreach: Expandi or Dripify
• For simple, basic email automation: Mailshake or GMass

Pros and Cons

Pros

True Multichannel Orchestration: Outplay genuinely treats all channels as first-class citizens rather than email-focused with bolted-on features. The ability to seamlessly coordinate email, LinkedIn, phone, and SMS in unified sequences creates genuinely multichannel campaigns that dramatically outperform single-channel efforts. This architecture reflects how modern B2B buying actually happens across multiple touchpoints and channels.

Exceptional Value Proposition: At $79 per user monthly with all features included, Outplay delivers 50 to 70 percent cost savings compared to enterprise platforms like Outreach or Salesloft while providing comparable core functionality. For growing SMBs, this pricing makes professional sales engagement technology accessible at stages where six-figure annual contracts are impossible to justify.

Intuitive User Experience: The interface is modern, visually clean, and logically organized, enabling faster team adoption and reducing training time compared to more complex alternatives. New SDRs can become productive within days rather than weeks, and the workflow feels natural rather than forcing users to adapt to unintuitive processes.

Built-In Power Dialer: Including a full-featured power dialer with local presence, call recording, and CRM integration eliminates the need for separate calling tools like PhoneBurner or Aircall. This consolidation reduces tool sprawl, simplifies workflows, and saves additional subscription costs that quickly add up.

Flexible CRM Integration: The bi-directional sync with major CRM platforms works reliably and comprehensively, ensuring prospect data and activity history remain synchronized. This integration quality is often better than more expensive competitors and eliminates manual data entry that consumes SDR time and introduces errors.

Responsive Customer Support: Users consistently praise Outplay's support team for being helpful, knowledgeable, and quick to respond. Support quality is often the deciding factor when tools fail or confusion arises, and Outplay's team earns high marks for actually solving problems rather than providing generic responses.

Cons

LinkedIn Automation Risk: Like all LinkedIn automation tools, Outplay's LinkedIn features technically violate platform terms of service and carry inherent account restriction risk. While Outplay uses conservative limits and safe practices, some users have reported LinkedIn warnings. Teams must carefully weigh the productivity benefits against potential consequences, and consider whether manual LinkedIn outreach is safer for their specific situation.

SMS Requires Separate Credits: Unlike email which is unlimited, SMS messaging requires purchasing credit packages separately. While not expensive for occasional use, high-volume SMS campaigns can add meaningful costs. The per-message pricing makes it difficult to predict monthly expenses if SMS is a significant part of your strategy.

Limited Advanced Analytics: While core reporting is solid, Outplay lacks some advanced analytics found in enterprise platforms like revenue attribution, conversation intelligence, pipeline contribution analysis, and predictive features. Teams requiring sophisticated analytics may need supplementary BI tools or should evaluate more analytics-focused platforms.

No Native Prospect Database: Outplay doesn't include a built-in contact database like Apollo or ZoomInfo, requiring you to source prospect lists externally. This adds workflow steps and potentially additional costs for data subscriptions. For teams wanting turnkey prospecting within their engagement platform, this is a notable gap.

Newer Platform with Evolving Features: Launched in 2020, Outplay is significantly younger than established competitors. While the core platform is stable, some features are less mature, and you may encounter occasional bugs or limitations that more established platforms have long since addressed. The rapid feature development is positive but also means some capabilities are still maturing.

Email Personalization Less Advanced: Compared to specialized tools like Lemlist, Outplay's email personalization capabilities are more basic. There are no dynamic images, personalized videos, or custom landing pages. For teams where creative personalization is critical to standing out, Outplay's text-based personalization may be insufficient.

Outplay vs Alternatives

Outplay vs Lemlist

Lemlist focuses on creative email personalization while Outplay emphasizes multichannel breadth:

Personalization:

• Lemlist: Personalized images, videos, landing pages, AI writing
• Outplay: Text variables and dynamic content blocks
• Winner: Lemlist for creative differentiation

Multichannel:

• Lemlist: Email, LinkedIn, phone tasks
• Outplay: Email, LinkedIn, phone dialer, SMS, chat
• Winner: Outplay for true multichannel breadth and built-in dialer

Ease of Use:

• Lemlist: Clean interface with some complexity in advanced features
• Outplay: Highly intuitive, modern UX with gentle learning curve
• Winner: Outplay for user experience and team adoption

Pricing:

• Lemlist: $39 to $99/month per user (tiered)
• Outplay: $79/month per user (single tier, all features)
• Winner: Depends on needs; Outplay better value if you need multichannel features

Verdict: Choose Lemlist if creative email personalization is central to your strategy and you're comfortable with slightly higher complexity. Choose Outplay for comprehensive multichannel capabilities, built-in dialer, and simpler all-in-one pricing.

Outplay vs Reply.io

Reply.io and Outplay compete directly for the SMB sales engagement market:

Features:

• Reply.io: Native database with 140M+ contacts, AI SDR agents, extensive integrations
• Outplay: Strong multichannel, excellent dialer, cleaner UX
• Winner: Reply.io for breadth, Outplay for focused execution

Data Integration:

• Reply.io: Built-in prospect database included
• Outplay: No native database, requires external sources
• Winner: Reply.io for convenience and all-in-one workflow

User Experience:

• Reply.io: Feature-rich but steeper learning curve
• Outplay: Simpler, more intuitive interface
• Winner: Outplay for ease of use and faster adoption

Pricing:

• Reply.io: $60 to $120/month per user (tiered)
• Outplay: $79/month per user (single tier)
• Winner: Depends on needed features; similar value at mid-tier

Verdict: Choose Reply.io if you want built-in prospect data and AI-powered features in an all-in-one platform. Choose Outplay if you prioritize user experience, multichannel execution quality, and simpler pricing.

Outplay vs Outreach/Salesloft

Comparing Outplay to enterprise sales engagement platforms:

Features:

• Outreach/Salesloft: Conversation intelligence, revenue analytics, advanced workflows, extensive integrations
• Outplay: Core engagement features, multichannel orchestration, essential integrations
• Winner: Enterprise platforms for advanced features, Outplay for focused core functionality

Pricing:

• Outreach/Salesloft: $100 to $200+ per user monthly
• Outplay: $79 per user monthly
• Winner: Outplay (50-70% cost savings)

Complexity:

• Outreach/Salesloft: Steeper learning curve, require sales ops resources
• Outplay: Simpler, faster implementation and adoption
• Winner: Outplay for lean teams without dedicated sales ops

Scale:

• Outreach/Salesloft: Built for enterprise scale and complexity
• Outplay: Optimized for SMB to mid-market
• Winner: Depends on company size and requirements

Verdict: Choose Outreach or Salesloft if you're a large enterprise requiring advanced features, have sales ops resources, and can justify the investment. Choose Outplay if you're an SMB to mid-market company needing professional engagement capabilities at accessible pricing.

Getting Started Guide

Week 1: Foundation Setup

Day 1-2: Account Creation and Core Configuration

Sign up for Outplay's 14-day free trial at outplayhq.com, selecting your primary use case (cold email, multichannel, phone) to customize initial setup. Complete account creation including company information, team size, and timezone configuration.

Connect your email account using OAuth for Gmail/Google Workspace or SMTP credentials for Microsoft 365 or custom domains. Configure DNS authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) following Outplay's step-by-step guides. Verify your email configuration is working by sending test emails.

Integrate your CRM platform (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, or Copper) through the Integrations section. Authorize access and configure initial field mapping for essential fields like email, phone, name, company, and title. Set up basic sync rules for bi-directional data flow.

Day 3-4: Multichannel Setup

If using LinkedIn automation, install the Outplay Chrome extension and connect your LinkedIn account. Review LinkedIn safety settings and set conservative daily limits (20 connection requests, 50 messages maximum) to minimize account risk.

Configure the power dialer by setting your calling schedule (times when you're available to make calls), selecting local presence options, and testing call recording functionality. Create 1 to 2 voicemail drop scripts for common scenarios.

If using SMS, purchase an initial credit package based on expected volume (start with $50 to $100 for 2,500 to 5,000 messages). Test SMS delivery by sending messages to your own phone.

Day 5-7: First Campaign Creation

Import your first prospect list via CSV, ensuring data includes email, first name, last name, company name, and phone number for multichannel campaigns. Use Outplay's email verification to validate addresses and remove invalid contacts.

Create a simple multichannel sequence with 6 to 8 touchpoints across 3 channels: Day 1 email, Day 3 LinkedIn view, Day 5 second email, Day 7 LinkedIn connection request, Day 10 phone call task, Day 13 third email, Day 17 SMS for high-priority prospects. Keep initial emails short (under 150 words) and focused on prospect value.

Launch your campaign to a small test group of 25 to 50 prospects. Monitor closely for the first 48 hours, verifying that emails are delivering, LinkedIn actions are executing, and personalization is rendering correctly.

Week 2: Optimization and Scaling

Multichannel Workflow Mastery

Complete phone call tasks promptly as they surface in your daily to-do list. Log call outcomes immediately after each conversation to ensure accurate sequence progression. Use voicemail drops for efficiency when reaching voicemail.

Respond to prospect replies within 2 to 4 hours when possible. Outplay automatically pauses sequences when prospects reply, but timely human response is critical for conversion. Set up email notifications or Slack alerts for high-priority replies.

Review analytics daily for the first week to identify potential issues early. Healthy benchmarks include 40 to 60 percent email open rates, 1 to 5 percent reply rates, 20 to 30 percent LinkedIn connection acceptance rates, and 15 to 25 percent phone connection rates.

A/B Testing and Iteration

Create A/B tests for subject lines, email copy, or LinkedIn connection note variations. Run tests until reaching statistical significance (typically 100+ prospects per variation) before declaring winners. Implement winning variations in future campaigns.

Analyze which sequence steps generate the most engagement. You may discover that your second email generates more replies than your first, or that LinkedIn messages after connection acceptance are highly effective. Use these insights to refine your sequence structure.

Team Collaboration Setup

Add additional team members to your Outplay workspace if working with a team. Assign appropriate permissions based on roles (SDR, manager, admin). Create shared sequence templates that the team can use for consistency.

Set up team-level dashboards showing individual rep performance metrics. Conduct weekly reviews of campaign analytics to identify coaching opportunities and share best practices across the team.

Scale Gradually

Once your test campaign performs well, gradually increase prospect volume. Move from 50 prospects weekly in week 1 to 100 to 150 in week 2, scaling to your target volume by week 4 to 6. This gradual ramp allows you to refine processes before operating at full scale.

Create campaign variations for different buyer personas, industries, or value propositions. Test these variations simultaneously to identify which messaging and channel combinations work best for different audience segments.

FAQ

Does Outplay include a prospect database?

No, Outplay does not include a native contact database. You must source prospect lists from external providers like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism, or other lead generation tools. This separation allows flexibility to choose your preferred data sources but adds a workflow step compared to all-in-one platforms like Apollo or Reply.io that include integrated databases. Most users leverage LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting, then export leads to Outplay for multichannel engagement. The lack of native data is a deliberate product decision allowing Outplay to focus on engagement excellence rather than building database infrastructure.

Is Outplay's LinkedIn automation safe?

Outplay's LinkedIn automation uses conservative limits and human-like behavior patterns to minimize account restriction risk, but all LinkedIn automation technically violates platform terms of service. To maximize safety, set daily limits to fewer than 25 connection requests and 75 messages, use your real LinkedIn account (not fake profiles), personalize connection requests rather than using generic messages, and monitor account health regularly. Many users operate without issues for years, while others receive LinkedIn warnings despite following guidelines. The safest approach is manual LinkedIn outreach, but Outplay's automation is among more responsible options if you choose to automate. Consider your risk tolerance and whether the productivity benefits justify potential account consequences.

Can multiple team members work in the same account?

Yes, Outplay is designed for team collaboration. Multiple users can access the same workspace, each with their own login credentials and permission levels. Admins can assign prospects and campaigns to specific team members, create shared templates and playbooks, and monitor individual performance through team dashboards. The collaborative features work well for SDR teams with managers, agencies managing client campaigns with multiple contributors, or sales and marketing alignment initiatives. Each user's activities sync to the CRM under their individual identity, maintaining accountability and accurate attribution. Additional user seats are $79 per month each.

What CRM platforms does Outplay integrate with?

Outplay offers native, bi-directional integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, and Copper. These integrations are deep and reliable, syncing prospect data, custom fields, activity history, and pipeline updates automatically between systems. Integration quality is strongest with Salesforce and HubSpot due to their robust APIs and market share. Outplay also supports custom integrations via API and connections to thousands of other tools through Zapier and Make.com. If your CRM isn't on the native integration list, evaluate whether Zapier or API connections meet your sync requirements, or consider whether switching to a natively supported CRM makes sense for your organization.

Verdict

Outplay occupies a compelling position in the sales engagement market as a comprehensive, multichannel platform optimized for SMB and mid-market sales teams that need enterprise-caliber features at accessible pricing. The platform's greatest strength is delivering genuine multichannel orchestration across email, LinkedIn, phone, and SMS without the complexity or cost of traditional enterprise platforms.

Choose Outplay if:

• You're a growing B2B sales team (5 to 50+ SDRs) needing professional engagement infrastructure
• Multichannel outreach across email, phone, LinkedIn, and SMS is central to your strategy
• You want a built-in power dialer eliminating need for separate calling tools
• Your budget allows $79 per user monthly but not $150+ for enterprise platforms
• You value intuitive user experience and fast team adoption
• Your CRM is Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, or Copper
• You need flexible, responsive vendor support

Look elsewhere if:

• You need built-in prospect database (consider Apollo or Reply.io)
• Creative email personalization through images/videos is critical (consider Lemlist)
• You're seeking absolute lowest cost email automation (consider Instantly)
• You require enterprise features like conversation intelligence or revenue attribution (consider Outreach or Salesloft)
• You do exclusively email outreach without phone or LinkedIn (multichannel features unnecessary)
• You're uncomfortable with any LinkedIn automation risk

For SMB and mid-market B2B sales teams ready to professionalize outbound operations with multichannel strategies, Outplay delivers exceptional value. The combination of comprehensive channel coverage, excellent user experience, strong CRM integration, and aggressive pricing makes it a compelling choice for organizations that have outgrown basic email tools but aren't ready for enterprise platform complexity and cost.

Outplay's customer-centric approach, regular feature development, and responsive support suggest the platform will continue improving and competing effectively against larger, better-funded competitors. For teams in the sweet spot of 5 to 100 SDRs running multichannel B2B outbound, Outplay warrants serious evaluation and likely delivers better ROI than alternatives at either end of the pricing spectrum.