A sales engagement platform is software that helps sales teams manage, automate, and optimize every interaction with prospects and customers across email, phone, SMS, LinkedIn, and other channels. These platforms sit on top of your CRM, coordinate multi-step outreach sequences, and provide analytics to improve conversion rates.

We’ve tested and tracked every major platform in this category. This guide covers the 10 best sales engagement platforms, with current pricing, key features, and guidance on which tool fits each type of team.

Key Terms

Sales Engagement Platform: Software that enables, tracks, coordinates, and optimizes communication between sales teams and their prospects or customers. It integrates with your CRM and consolidates outreach across multiple channels into a single workflow.

Sales Cadence (Sequence): A pre-defined series of touchpoints across channels like email, phone, and LinkedIn that a rep follows to engage a prospect. Most platforms automate the timing and delivery of each step in the cadence.

Multi-Channel Outreach: The practice of reaching prospects through multiple communication channels within a single campaign. Effective platforms coordinate email, phone calls, LinkedIn messages, SMS, and video touches into unified workflows.

Email Sequence: An automated series of emails triggered by a prospect’s actions or on a set schedule. Sequences typically include personalization tokens and stop automatically when a prospect replies.

Conversation Intelligence: AI-powered analysis of recorded sales calls that surfaces coaching opportunities, tracks talk-to-listen ratios, and identifies winning conversation patterns. Platforms like Salesloft and Outreach include this as a core feature.

Deal Intelligence: AI-driven analysis of deal health based on engagement signals, stakeholder activity, and historical win/loss data. It helps managers identify at-risk deals and forecast revenue more accurately.

How We Evaluated These Platforms

We assessed each platform on four criteria: channel coverage (email, phone, social, SMS), automation depth, analytics and reporting, and integration ecosystem. Pricing transparency and free trial availability also factored into our recommendations.

Some of these are “pure” sales engagement platforms. Others sit somewhere on the CRM-to-sales-engagement spectrum. All of them can help your salespeople start and manage better interactions with customers.

Sales Engagement Platforms vs. CRMs

A CRM (customer relationship management platform) is the “single source of truth” for customer information. It tracks prospects, leads, and customers while providing analytics across your pipeline. CRMs serve all customer-facing teams, from support and sales to marketing and billing.

A sales engagement platform is designed exclusively for sales and marketing teams. It integrates with your CRM, sits on top of it, and feeds data into it. The platform enables, automates, and provides insights on the interactions your sales team has with prospects and leads (see our guide to the differences between leads vs. prospects).

You can find CRM platforms robust enough to double as sales engagement tools. You can even find CRMs for Gmail. And some sales engagement platforms track customer information so well that smaller teams don’t need a separate CRM.

The Best Sales Engagement Platforms

1. HubSpot Sales Hub

Quick Summary

HubSpot Sales Hub combines CRM and sales engagement into a single platform with email tracking, sequences, meeting scheduling, pipeline management, and Breeze AI. Its free plan is one of the most generous in the category.

HubSpot Sales Hub is primarily a CRM, but it includes everything you’d want from a sales engagement platform. It’s usable for teams of any size, from solo founders to enterprise organizations. The platform offers email sequences, a built-in dialer, meeting scheduling, and deal pipeline management.

HubSpot’s Breeze AI suite is now integrated across all tiers, providing AI-powered email drafting, call summaries, and lead scoring. For more sales automation software, check out our dedicated guide.

Pricing: Free plan with basic CRM and email tracking. Starter at $20 per seat per month. Professional at $100 per seat per month (annual, plus $1,500 onboarding). Enterprise at $150 per seat per month (annual, plus $3,500 onboarding).

Key Features:

  • Built-in CRM with unlimited contacts and pipeline management across all plans
  • Email sequences with personalization tokens and automated follow-ups (Professional+)
  • Breeze AI for email drafting, call summaries, lead scoring, and forecasting
  • Meeting scheduling, live chat, and conversation routing
  • 1,500+ integrations including Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and Google Workspace

Who Should Choose HubSpot Sales Hub

  • Teams wanting CRM and sales engagement in a single platform without managing multiple tools
  • Growing companies that plan to expand into marketing, service, and content hubs over time
  • Organizations that want a generous free tier to start before committing to paid plans

2. Reply.io

Quick Summary

Reply.io is a multichannel sales engagement platform that automates outreach across email, LinkedIn, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone. Its AI SDR agent, Jason, can autonomously prospect and book meetings.

Reply.io’s strength is automation breadth. It can automate email search, LinkedIn outreach, personal emails, SMS, WhatsApp messages, and phone calls from a single platform. The AI SDR feature goes a step further by autonomously finding prospects, crafting personalized messages, and handling responses. It’s also one of our top sales enablement tools.

The platform includes unlimited email warmup on all plans, a B2B contact database with over 1 billion profiles, and built-in deliverability tools. Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Copper keep your CRM data in sync.

Pricing: Free plan with 200 data credits and AI sequence generator. Email Volume at $49 per user per month (annual). Multichannel at $89 per user per month (annual). AI SDR (Jason) from $259 per month. Agency plans available. All paid plans include a 14-day free trial.

Key Features:

  • Multichannel sequences across email, LinkedIn, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone
  • Jason AI SDR agent for autonomous prospecting, messaging, and meeting booking
  • B2B database with 1 billion+ contacts and a Chrome extension for LinkedIn prospecting
  • Unlimited email warmup and anti-spam deliverability suite on all paid plans
  • CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Copper, and Close

Who Should Choose Reply.io

  • SDR teams running high-volume multichannel outreach who want email, LinkedIn, and SMS in one tool
  • Teams interested in AI-powered autonomous prospecting and meeting booking
  • Agencies managing outreach for multiple clients from a single platform

3. Close

Quick Summary

Close is a CRM with built-in calling, SMS, email sequences, and video chat. It’s designed for inside sales teams that want every communication channel inside their CRM without juggling separate tools.

Close combines CRM and sales engagement so tightly that there’s no gap between tracking a deal and contacting a lead. Make calls, send texts, run email sequences, and join video chats without leaving the platform. The Power Dialer and Predictive Dialer features (Growth and Scale plans) are particularly strong for high-volume calling teams.

Close’s workflow automation triggers follow-up actions based on lead behavior, saving reps from manually managing next steps. The platform is built for speed, and the learning curve is minimal compared to heavier enterprise tools.

Pricing: Solo at $9 per user per month (annual, 1 user only). Essentials at $35 per user per month (annual). Growth at $99 per user per month (annual). Scale at $139 per user per month (annual). All plans include a 14-day free trial.

Key Features:

  • Built-in calling with Power Dialer (Growth) and Predictive Dialer (Scale)
  • Email sequences, SMS, and video calling all inside the CRM
  • Workflow automation with rule-based triggers for follow-up tasks
  • AI-powered lead summaries and email writing assistance
  • Integrations with Zapier, Calendly, Zoom, and 100+ other tools

Who Should Choose Close

  • Inside sales teams that rely heavily on phone calls and want a built-in dialer
  • Startups and SMBs that want CRM and engagement in one tool without enterprise complexity
  • Sales teams that value speed and simplicity over feature depth

4. Outreach

Quick Summary

Outreach is an enterprise-grade sales engagement platform with AI-powered sequences, conversation intelligence, deal management, and revenue forecasting. It’s designed for scaling sales organizations.

Outreach is built for remote and hybrid sales teams managing complex, multi-touch sales cycles. It helps with sales team management by coordinating outreach, providing coaching insights, and optimizing the customer lifecycle from first touch to close.

The platform’s AI agents handle account research, content generation, prospecting, and re-engagement of cold leads. Kaia, the conversation intelligence assistant, joins live meetings, takes notes, and suggests next-best actions. Outreach doesn’t publish pricing, requiring a sales demo, but it scales well for organizations with 10+ reps.

Pricing: Custom pricing, not published. Reported starting around $100 per user per month for the Engage plan (annual commitment required). Contact Outreach for a quote. Add-ons for calling, conversation intelligence (Kaia), deal management, and forecasting are priced separately.

Key Features:

  • Multi-step, multi-channel sequences with email, phone, LinkedIn, and SMS
  • Kaia AI conversation intelligence with real-time call assists and post-meeting insights
  • Deal management with pipeline tracking and AI-powered deal health scoring
  • Revenue forecasting with scenario modeling and automated roll-ups
  • Native Salesforce integration with bi-directional data sync

Who Should Choose Outreach

  • Enterprise sales teams with 10+ reps that need a comprehensive revenue platform
  • Organizations using Salesforce that want deep, bi-directional CRM integration
  • Revenue leaders who need deal management, forecasting, and engagement in one system

5. Salesloft

Quick Summary

Salesloft is a revenue orchestration platform for B2B sales teams. It combines sales engagement cadences, conversation intelligence, deal tracking, and AI-driven coaching in a platform suitable for SMBs and enterprises.

Salesloft helps reps execute digital selling tasks, communicate with buyers, and understand what to do next. The Cadence feature automates multi-step outreach, while Conversations records and analyzes calls with AI-powered summaries and coaching insights.

The platform offers custom roles for salespeople, team leaders, managers, marketers, and executives. Like Outreach, Salesloft doesn’t publish pricing publicly, but its two main tiers (Advanced and Premier) are structured around sales engagement and revenue forecasting, respectively.

Pricing: Custom pricing, not published. Reported starting around $125 to $165 per user per month for the Advanced plan (annual commitment). Premier adds revenue forecasting at a higher price. Dialer and chatbot are add-ons. Contact Salesloft for a quote.

Key Features:

  • Cadence automation for multi-step email, phone, and LinkedIn outreach sequences
  • Conversations for AI-powered call recording, analysis, and coaching
  • Deals for pipeline tracking, opportunity management, and deal inspection
  • Revenue forecasting with AI-driven predictions and trend analysis (Premier)
  • CRM integration with Salesforce and HubSpot for seamless data sync

Who Should Choose Salesloft

  • Mid-market B2B sales teams that want engagement, coaching, and deal management in one platform
  • Sales managers who need conversation intelligence for rep coaching and call analysis
  • Revenue leaders who want forecasting capabilities alongside sales engagement

6. Yesware

Quick Summary

Yesware is an email-focused sales toolkit that adds tracking, templates, campaigns, and meeting scheduling directly inside Gmail and Outlook. It’s one of the most affordable options for email-centric sales teams.

Yesware lives inside your inbox. Add it to Outlook or Gmail, then start tracking email opens, link clicks, and attachment views in real time. The platform includes email templates, multi-touch campaigns, and a meeting scheduler.

Yesware is lighter than enterprise platforms like Outreach or Salesloft, but that’s its appeal. It gets reps productive fast without a steep learning curve. Recommended prospect campaigns and follow-up templates help reps send better messages. Check out our list of the top appointment scheduling apps for more scheduling options.

Pricing: Free Forever plan with basic email tracking and 10 campaign recipients per month. Pro at $15 per seat per month (annual). Premium at $35 per seat per month with team analytics and Salesforce integration. Enterprise at $65 per seat per month. Custom plans available.

Key Features:

  • Real-time email open, link click, and attachment tracking with engagement alerts
  • Multi-touch campaigns with automated follow-up sequences
  • Customizable email templates with performance analytics
  • Meeting Scheduler with custom availability and calendar sync
  • Salesforce integration with automatic activity syncing (Premium+)

Who Should Choose Yesware

  • Individual reps or small teams that want email tracking and sequencing without enterprise complexity
  • Sales teams on a tight budget looking for effective outreach tools under $35 per user per month
  • Gmail or Outlook users who want sales features embedded directly in their inbox

7. Apollo.io

Quick Summary

Apollo.io is a data-driven sales engagement platform that combines a B2B contact database with email sequences, a dialer, and LinkedIn automation. It’s one of the best values for teams that need both prospecting data and outreach tools.

Apollo.io gives you access to a database of over 270 million contacts with verified emails and phone numbers. From there, you can build targeted prospect lists, launch multichannel sequences, and track engagement. The Chrome extension enables prospecting directly on LinkedIn.

The platform includes a built-in dialer, email sequencing, LinkedIn automation, and AI-powered email personalization. Its credit-based system governs how many contacts you can enrich, export, or call per month, so it’s important to match your plan to your outreach volume.

Pricing: Free plan with 60 mobile credits per year and basic sequencing. Basic at $49 per user per month (annual). Professional at $79 per user per month with advanced reports, AI email writing, and 120 mobile credits per month. Organization at $149 per user per month with 200 mobile credits per month and intent data. All plans include a free trial.

Key Features:

  • B2B database with 270+ million contacts and company data for prospecting
  • Multichannel sequences across email, phone, and LinkedIn with automated steps
  • AI email writing and personalization for higher response rates
  • Chrome extension for prospecting directly on LinkedIn
  • CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other platforms via native sync

Who Should Choose Apollo.io

  • Teams that need prospecting data and outreach tools in a single, affordable platform
  • SDRs running outbound campaigns who want to find and engage leads from one dashboard
  • Startups and SMBs looking for the best price-to-feature ratio in sales engagement

8. Mixmax

Quick Summary

Mixmax is a Gmail-native sales engagement platform that adds sequences, email tracking, polls, meeting scheduling, and workflow automation directly inside Gmail. It calls itself “email for closers.”

Mixmax transforms Gmail into a full sales engagement platform. Share your calendar in-email so prospects can book meetings with one click. Embed polls and surveys to boost reply rates. Track opens and clicks with real-time Slack notifications. Set up automated drip campaigns and rule-based workflows.

It integrates with Salesforce, Pipedrive, Slack, Google Calendar, and dozens of other tools. Beyond sales, it’s useful for recruiting, marketing, and customer success teams.

Pricing: Free plan with basic email tracking. SMB at $29 per user per month (annual). Growth at $49 per user per month. Growth + CRM at $69 per user per month with Salesforce integration. Enterprise pricing available on request.

Key Features:

  • Gmail-native interface with sequences, templates, and email enhancements
  • One-click meeting scheduling embedded directly inside emails
  • In-email polls, surveys, and CTAs to boost engagement and response rates
  • Rule-based workflow automation for CRM updates, task creation, and hand-offs
  • Real-time tracking with engagement alerts via email, text, or Slack

Who Should Choose Mixmax

  • Gmail-first sales teams that want engagement tools without leaving their inbox
  • AEs and CSMs who rely on meeting scheduling and personalized email follow-ups
  • Teams that value in-email interactivity like polls, CTAs, and calendar widgets

9. Groove (Now Groove by Clari)

Quick Summary

Groove was acquired by Clari in August 2023 and now operates as Groove by Clari. It remains a leading Salesforce-native sales engagement platform, now enhanced with Clari’s AI-powered conversation intelligence and revenue forecasting.

Groove’s core differentiator has always been its native Salesforce integration. Unlike competitors that sync data between separate databases, Groove records all activities directly in Salesforce in real time. This eliminates sync delays and ensures forecasting accuracy.

Under Clari, Groove now includes Clari Copilot for conversation intelligence, RevAI for automated call summaries and next-best-action recommendations, and integration with Clari’s revenue forecasting engine. It serves enterprise customers including Google, ADP, Capital One, Adobe, and Cisco.

Pricing: Custom pricing through Clari’s sales team. Groove is sold as part of the Clari Revenue Platform. Contact Clari for a quote.

Key Features:

  • Salesforce-native architecture with real-time activity capture and reporting
  • Multi-channel Flows for automated email, call, and LinkedIn outreach sequences
  • Clari Copilot conversation intelligence with AI call summaries and coaching
  • Omnibar Chrome extension for Gmail and Outlook workflow automation
  • Integration with Clari’s revenue platform for forecasting and deal management

Who Should Choose Groove by Clari

  • Enterprise sales teams deeply invested in Salesforce that need native, real-time data capture
  • Revenue leaders who want engagement, conversation intelligence, and forecasting in one platform
  • Organizations in regulated industries that require strict data governance and compliance

10. Klenty

Quick Summary

Klenty is a multichannel sales engagement platform with email, phone, LinkedIn, SMS, and WhatsApp outreach. Its AI-driven SDRx feature provides account intelligence from 10-K filings, LinkedIn, and tech stack data.

Klenty coordinates outreach across five channels and offers a built-in dialer with voicemail drop, call recording, and coaching features. The platform’s intent-based sequencing adjusts outreach based on prospect engagement signals, ensuring reps always execute the right next step.

SDRx, Klenty’s AI engine, analyzes prospect data from 10-K filings, LinkedIn profiles, financial updates, and tech stacks to surface personalized talking points. It’s a strong choice for teams that want data-driven cold calling alongside email automation.

Pricing: Startup at $60 per user per month (annual). Growth at $85 per user per month. Pro at $110 per user per month. Enterprise pricing available on request. All plans include free customer support and onboarding.

Key Features:

  • Multichannel sequences across email, phone, LinkedIn, SMS, and WhatsApp
  • Built-in dialer with voicemail drop, call recording, and rep coaching
  • SDRx AI for account intelligence from 10-K filings, LinkedIn, and financial data
  • Intent-based sequencing that adapts outreach to prospect engagement signals
  • CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zoho

Who Should Choose Klenty

  • Sales teams where cold calling is a primary channel and who need a built-in dialer with coaching
  • Growing teams that want multichannel outreach across 5+ channels at a mid-range price
  • B2B organizations that want AI-driven account intelligence to personalize outreach

Comparison Table: Sales Engagement Platforms at a Glance

Platform Starting Price Free Plan Key Strength Best For
HubSpot Sales Hub $20/seat/mo Yes CRM + engagement in one platform Teams wanting an all-in-one solution
Reply.io $49/user/mo Yes AI-powered multichannel automation SDR teams running high-volume outreach
Close $35/user/mo No (14-day trial) Built-in calling, SMS, and video Inside sales teams focused on phone
Outreach ~$100/user/mo No Enterprise revenue platform with AI Large sales orgs on Salesforce
Salesloft ~$125/user/mo No Cadences + conversation intelligence Mid-market to enterprise B2B teams
Yesware $15/seat/mo Yes Email tracking inside Gmail/Outlook Budget-conscious email-focused teams
Apollo.io $49/user/mo Yes B2B database + outreach tools Teams needing data and engagement
Mixmax $29/user/mo Yes Gmail-native engagement tools Gmail-first sales and CS teams
Groove by Clari Custom No Salesforce-native data capture Enterprise Salesforce users
Klenty $60/user/mo No Cold calling + multichannel sequences Teams prioritizing phone outreach

Key Insight

For most SMB sales teams, the strongest starting stack is Apollo.io or HubSpot Sales Hub (for combined prospecting and CRM), plus EmailAnalytics for email visibility. Enterprise teams typically choose Outreach or Salesloft for engagement, paired with Salesforce as their CRM. The right choice depends on your team size, primary outreach channels, and whether you need a standalone CRM.

Start Here: Choosing Your Sales Engagement Platform

  1. Audit your outreach channels. Identify whether your team relies primarily on email, phone, LinkedIn, or a combination. Email-focused teams can start with Yesware or Mixmax. Phone-heavy teams need Close or Klenty. Multichannel teams should evaluate Reply.io or Apollo.io.
  2. Decide if you need a separate CRM. HubSpot Sales Hub, Close, and Apollo.io include CRM functionality. If you already use Salesforce, focus on platforms with native integration like Outreach, Salesloft, or Groove by Clari.
  3. Match the platform to your team size. Solo reps and small teams should start with free plans from HubSpot or Apollo. Mid-market teams (5 to 50 reps) get the most value from Reply.io, Close, or Klenty. Enterprise organizations with 50+ reps should evaluate Outreach or Salesloft.
  4. Run free trials before committing. Most platforms offer 14-day trials. Test your top two or three choices with real outreach before signing an annual contract.
  5. Add email analytics to your stack. Your sales engagement platform tracks outreach sequences, but it doesn’t give you full visibility into your team’s overall email habits. Connect EmailAnalytics to see average response times, email volume by rep, and workload distribution across your team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a sales engagement platform?

A sales engagement platform is software that helps sales teams manage, automate, and optimize interactions with prospects across channels like email, phone, LinkedIn, and SMS. It sits on top of your CRM, coordinates outreach sequences, tracks engagement, and provides analytics to improve sales performance.

What is the difference between a sales engagement platform and a CRM?

A CRM stores customer data and serves as the single source of truth for contact information and deal stages. A sales engagement platform sits on top of the CRM and focuses on executing outreach activities like email sequences, call campaigns, and social touches. Some platforms like HubSpot Sales Hub and Close combine both functions.

What is the best free sales engagement platform?

HubSpot Sales Hub offers the most comprehensive free plan, including contact management, email tracking, and meeting scheduling. Apollo.io’s free plan provides B2B database access with basic email sequencing. Yesware’s free plan includes basic email tracking and 10 campaign recipients per month.

How much do sales engagement platforms cost?

Entry-level plans range from $15 to $60 per user per month. Mid-tier plans with multichannel features cost $60 to $100 per user per month. Enterprise platforms like Outreach and Salesloft start around $100 to $165 per user per month with annual commitments. Most tools discount 15 to 35 percent for annual billing.

Which sales engagement platform is best for small teams?

Apollo.io offers the best combination of prospecting data and outreach tools starting at $49 per user per month. Close CRM is ideal for inside sales teams that want built-in calling and SMS starting at $35 per user per month. HubSpot Sales Hub Starter at $20 per seat per month works well for teams already on HubSpot’s free CRM.

What happened to Groove sales engagement?

Groove was acquired by Clari in August 2023 and now operates as Groove by Clari. It’s the sales engagement module within Clari’s broader revenue platform. Existing Groove customers retain access, now enhanced with Clari’s conversation intelligence and revenue forecasting.

Can a sales engagement platform replace my CRM?

Some platforms combine both functions. HubSpot Sales Hub, Close, and Apollo.io include built-in CRM features that may be sufficient for smaller teams. However, most enterprise sales teams use a dedicated CRM like Salesforce alongside a sales engagement platform like Outreach or Salesloft.

Sales engagement platforms handle your outreach sequences, but the foundation of sales communication is still email. You’ll want a solid email analytics strategy to make sure your team communicates effectively.

With EmailAnalytics, you’ll learn details about your email activity and daily habits, from the number of emails you send to your average email response time. Sign up for a free trial today, and learn more than you ever thought you needed to know about your email habits.