Instantly Review: Which Email Deliverability Tools Stack Better?

Pulling the trigger on a new email deliverability platform is easier said than done. With so many companies offering similar features, how can you tell which one’s better? 

This Folderly vs. Instantly comparison shows you exactly how the two platforms differ when it comes to increasing email deliverability rates, addressing spam triggers, and email infrastructure configuration.

Folderly vs Instantly: Comparison Table

Instantly vs Folderly: Core Features Compared 

Instantly focuses on increasing sender limits for connected inboxes. A sender limit is the maximum number of emails an ESP lets you send from one mailbox per day or hour. 

Newly registered inboxes and domains have lower sender limits to minimize spam. Instantly helps you increase this limit by sending warm-up emails on your behalf. Doing so can temporarily increase the caps, but it doesn’t necessarily translate to higher inbox placement rates (aka having your emails delivered to the main folder). That’s how most email warmup tools work.

But your domain's reputation is just one element of email deliverability. Other pillars include your IP reputation, email delivery infrastructure configuration, and email content. Folderly addresses all aspects of email deliverability, not just mailbox warmup.

Here’s how our email deliverability platform stacks against Instantly. 

Email Deliverability Fix 

Instantly doing only one thing from your inbox—it raises your sender limits. Their approach is simple: All users who're paying for their warm-up enter a joint pool. The tool then automatically exchanges emails between all connected users to increase their sender limits. 

Users can configure:

• Daily campaign limit 

• Minimum wait time between emails 

• Increase per day

• Daily warmup limit

• Reply rate percentage 

Instantly doesn’t cap the total number of emails sent per day or the total number of connected emails for warmup. There are also no recommended or pre-scheduled warm-up scenarios. 

That may seem like an advantage…but that’s somewhat of a Trojan horse.

By sending too many low-quality warmup emails, you can hinder, rather than heal, your sender's reputation. Since Instantly exchanges warmup emails between user addresses (not with premium mailbox accounts with established reputations), the results can be questionable. 

The cheapest Instantly plan ($30/mo) only includes email dispatches at the schedule you’ve programmed. But it doesn’t include any other warmup activities like email opens, reads, spam removal, etc. Again, this reduces the tool’s efficacy.

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Folderly has a more comprehensive approach to email deliverability. We address issues with sender reputation, recipient database, content, and email infrastructure setup.

After connecting your inbox(es), Folderly will automatically generate a deliverability score, based on your current inbox placement rates, email infrastructure setup, and other applied email deliverability best practices. For the latter, our platform provides personalized, contextual tips. Best practices vary from email content fixes to optimal DNS infrastructure configurations. All of these are based on our decades of experience with lead generation and cold outreach at Belkins (our parent company). 

To progressively increase your inbox placement rates, Folderly performs daily inbox upkeep activities. You don’t have to fiddle with configs, everything is in place for you. We tested and fine-tuned all the optimization parameters over the years to ensure organic, effective sender reputation management.

Email Deliverability Analytics 

Instantly analytics dashboard provides stats on active cold email campaigns but does not tell much about email deliverability rates.

You can track the total number of emails sent from your inbox(es), as well as the open and reply rates. You can also track click rates if you have custom tracking enabled. But such scripts can negatively affect deliverability.

Once the warm-up has been active for some time, you'll also get extra stats on inbox placement rates. The problem, however, is that Instantly only shows the number of delivered warmup emails (i.e., such that didn’t bounce). You can’t tell if your emails are landing in spam or promo folders.

Since the company doesn't disclose how its analytics are collected, we wonder how reliable they are.

An Instantly user complained that “the statistics they display on email metrics do not reflect reality (you see 50% of open email just 2 minutes after you start your campaign; on average, it takes 2-3 days to have an idea of how many people open a newsletter...).” 

Instantly doesn’t provide any breakdown by ESP deliverability rates, nor there are any historical charts to monitor how your rates change over time.

In contrast, Folderly provides reliable analytics both on your deliverability rates and inbox health. You can track how many of your emails land in the main inbox vs promo folder or spam for each connected inbox.

For each inbox, you also get real-time alerts about potential spam triggers, affecting your score (e.g., some wonky HTML in your email template) or non-configured BIMI.

You can also monitor historical deliverability trends, going up to 30 days back, for all connected inboxes. Segment the data by ESP or by outreach template to identify potential problems faster.

Infrastructure Setup Tools

Proper DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) are must-dos for high email deliverability.

Folderly provides free tools for DNS settings configuration. Or our team can set up everything for you on request, with a separate service.

Our tool also runs automatic email deliverability monitoring, covering IP address and domain blocklists, spam trap boxes (feedback loops) from major ESPs, and the said email configuration protocols.

Instalty doesn’t provide any email infrastructure setup tools or alerts about authentication protocol configuration. The official help guide directs you towards using third-party tools. (You can always use Folderly's free DMARC record generator 😉)

What Makes Folderly a Better Alternative to Instantly 

Instantly has a great core product—cold email automation software. Email deliverability was added later as a bolt-on feature, focused on increasing your sender limits.

In contrast, Folderly was purpose-built as an email deliverability platform from the get-go. We stay in one lane and excel in it by offering all the features you need to identify, fix, and prevent email deliverability issues. 🚀

Spam Trigger Fix 

Instantly doesn’t address any content or email design mishaps. In fact, some of these tool’s configurations can make things worse.

In the Campaign Management tab, Instantly users can select between “Open Tracking” and “Delivery Optimization”. 

Open tracking is enabled by default. But tracking email open rates negatively affects deliverability because you’re including extra scripts in your emails.

Although “Delivery Optimization” is highlighted as recommended, it’s not selected by default (unlike Open Tracking). New users can easily miss this configuration and unknowingly undermine their efforts.

Folderly doesn’t add new spam triggers to your campaigns; we fix them. Apart from handling domain, IP, and infrastructure configuration settings, our tool also helps you improve your email templates.

You can choose between two email template types: HTML-based and plain text. In each case, we ensure that everything is formatted correctly.

With Folderly, you can also create better email copy using our in-built editor. It automatically detects spam words and suggests better alternatives to help you reach even more inboxes! 

Sustainable, Long-Term Results

Folderly doesn’t temporarily raise your account's sending limits. We constantly monitor your inbox health and reputation to ensure that no changes in ESP policies, high user complaint rates, or poor wording in email templates tank your deliverability rates.

Take it from our clients, like Select Partnerships. The media representation agency was getting a meager 5% reply rate to its emails due to low email deliverability. After implementing all Folderly recommendations, the reply rate tripped to 25%, while open rates increased to 60%, and the company’s revenue grew by 3X within several months.

And that’s not a “lucky chance”. Other Folderly users like Slash, TalentEdge, and BeforeHello also reached 100% deliverability and saw at least 2X increases in open and reply rates.

Instantly’s value prop is more of a one-time “boost” of a brand new email address with no reputation. The tool's long-term efficacy is questionable as it addresses only one aspect of email deliverability and has somewhat conflicting settings.

As one user admits:

Proactive Support 

Fact: Email deliverability is a complex subject. If you’re not an expert (yet), it’s easy to mess things up.   

Folderly’s product is more intuitive, with many actions set on auto-pilot. We also provide each user with personalized tips, auto-generated based on your inbox performance.

Need extra help? Our Customer Success team is one message away. 📧 Or you can reach out to our consulting team if you need in-depth advice and hands-on support with infrastructure setup.

Instantly only provides support through an email ticket desk (the reply times can sometimes be long) and self-help resources. If you struggle to configure DNS or figure out what else may trigger high spam scores, you’ll have to seek help elsewhere. 

Final Thoughts 

There are a lot of email warmup tools out there, but far fewer email deliverability platforms.

With Folderly, you get a full suite of intuitive tools and personalized best practices to maintain a stellar sender reputation and high inbox placement rates for the long term. 

With Instantly, you're only getting a temporary increase in your sender limits, but yeah, the plans cost less.

You’ll never go back to basic warmup tools after trying our Folderly platform. 😉