Artisan AI vs AiSDR: In-Depth AI SDR Comparison

The first question I'd ask about any AI SDR: what does it cost to reach about 2,500 new prospects a month? I checked all three live pricing pages and their Trustpilot reviews in October 2026 to answer it.

Artisan AI sells Ava, an AI BDR who finds leads, writes emails, and books meetings. AiSDR sells an AI SDR with native LinkedIn steps and Ami, an AI strategist. Agent Frank is Salesforge's AI SDR, and he runs email and LinkedIn on the Forge Stack.

If you've sat through a few AI SDR demos, the pitch is familiar: research, personalized outreach, and booked meetings. Their pricing units are very different, so this comparison starts with price.

AI SDR Comparison at a Glance: Artisan AI vs AiSDR

Prices and limits below come from each vendor's live site in October 2026.

Artisan AI Overview: Ava, the Credit-Based AI BDR

Artisan AI sells Ava, an AI BDR who finds leads, writes outreach, and books meetings for your reps. The company has offices in San Francisco and New York and is backed by Y Combinator and HubSpot Ventures.

Artisan says 6,000+ sales teams use it, and SumUp reports a $52 cost per lead. Here's what Ava does today:

• A database of 250M+ verified B2B contacts, enriched from 22+ data sources.
• Lead ranking by intent signals such as funding rounds and leadership hires.
• Autonomous campaigns that test dozens of message variations at once.
• Autonomous replies and booking, with approval mode, escalation rules, banned phrases, and manual takeover.
• Campaigns beyond cold outbound, like website visitor de-anonymization, CRM reactivation, and upsell (Employee plan and up).
• A human power dialer for reps at $67/seat/mo. Ava queues the calls but never dials herself.
• SOC 2 Type II and GDPR, with SSO and SAML on enterprise plans.

Artisan's pricing page has two tracks. The self-serve track has Free (300 credits), Intern at $280/mo monthly or $250/mo annual, and Employee at $660/mo monthly or $600/mo annual.

Intern buys 10,000 credits, or about 500 leads contacted a month. Employee buys 25,000 credits, or about 1,250 leads. A full campaign uses about 20 credits per person, and mailboxes are billed separately in dollars.

The sales-led track has Team (about 2,500 leads a month), Artisan Scale (about 6,000), and Enterprise. None of the three shows a price.

Artisan fits HubSpot teams that want an AI BDR plus a dialer for reps, and a 30-day free trial before paying. Limitations to weigh:

• Artisan's homepage says "email and social" and never names LinkedIn, and neither does its pricing page. Third-party reports say LinkedIn briefly suspended Artisan's company page over trademark use and scraped data.
• On self-serve plans, Salesforce sync only appears at Enterprise. HubSpot sync starts at Intern.
• Credits can run out mid-month. When they do, new enrollments pause until you buy more.
• Above about 1,250 leads a month, the pricing page shows no price.

What reviewers say about Artisan AI

Artisan holds a 4.1 TrustScore from 42 Trustpilot reviews, and 86% of them are 4 or 5 stars. The six critical ones focus on weak results, the credit model, and LinkedIn.

In a 2-star review from September 22, 2026, Sam Wellalage says 40,000 credits were meant to reach about 2,000 new prospects. Only around 1,200 got contacted, on a plan costing well over £1,000 a month.

That works out to about 33 credits per prospect, not the 20 Artisan estimates. Two 1-star reviews from 2026 call Artisan mostly an email automation tool, and one says it can't do LinkedIn outreach. Two others report zero results or zero meetings booked.

For more detail, see the full Artisan AI review on this blog.

AiSDR Overview: Contact-Based Tiers and Native LinkedIn

AiSDR sells an AI SDR that researches prospects across the web, writes email and LinkedIn messages, and books meetings. It says 250+ companies use it. Its headline feature is Ami, an AI GTM agent that plans and builds campaigns.

• Email sent through Gmail or Outlook mailboxes, plus LinkedIn connection requests, DMs, and InMail.
• Ami AI, which studies your business, suggests GTM ideas, and builds campaigns in one click.
• AI replies within 5-10 minutes, with a co-pilot mode as an option.
• Unlimited AI personas and sequences with unlimited touchpoints.
• Native two-way HubSpot sync on every plan. Salesforce sync starts at AiSDR Scale.
• AI call steps through an Aircall dialer, with call scripts and follow-ups.
• AI videos, LinkedIn voice notes, and website visitor tracking on AiSDR Scale.
• SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and CCPA compliance, listed in its trust center.

AiSDR publishes three tiers. Solo is $250/mo, month-to-month, for 200 contacts, 1 user, 3 mailboxes, and 1 LinkedIn account.

Explore is $900/mo for 800 contacts, 6 mailboxes, and 5 LinkedIn accounts. AiSDR Scale is $2,500/mo for 2,500 contacts, 18 mailboxes, and 20 LinkedIn accounts.

Explore and AiSDR Scale run on quarterly contracts paid in advance. Annual billing cuts 20%: $2,400, $8,640, or $24,000 a year. Managed service costs extra, at $149 per campaign on Explore or $2,500/mo on AiSDR Scale.

AiSDR fits founders and small teams that want email and LinkedIn from day one, at 200 to 2,500 contacts a month. Limitations to weigh:

• Hard caps on every plan. Solo stops at 200 contacts, 3 mailboxes, and 1 LinkedIn account.
• No published step between 200 contacts ($250) and 800 contacts ($900).
• AiSDR's own pricing page says multiple inboxes need 30+ days to get ready for full volume.
• Salesforce teams need the $2,500/mo AiSDR Scale plan for native sync.

What reviewers say about AiSDR

When I checked in October 2026, AiSDR had no Trustpilot reviews at all, and Software Advice listed only three. Its critical feedback sits on G2, so I've summarized it in words instead.

Third-party roundups of AiSDR's G2 reviews praise its support, but flag Outlook and deliverability setup issues in early campaigns. Some reviewers also say the AI replies too early in threads where a human should answer. For more, see the AiSDR reviews post on this blog.

Agent Frank Overview: The AI SDR Built on the Forge Stack

Agent Frank is Salesforge's autonomous AI SDR. He finds prospects, enriches their data, writes email and LinkedIn messages, follows up, handles replies, and books meetings on your reps' calendars, 24/7.

He works inside a complimentary Salesforge workspace, so you can see every message he sends.

• Continuous prospecting from the 500M+ contact Leadsforge database, with no CSV exports, or from lists you upload.
• Research before every message: the company, buying signals, timing, likely pain points, and objections.
• Memory that learns from your feedback, so later messages get closer to how you want prospects approached.
• Email and LinkedIn in one sequence, with unlimited email and LinkedIn senders.
• Auto-Pilot for full autonomy, or Co-Pilot when you want to approve messages first.
• AI personalization across 21+ languages, using prospect websites, blog posts, and LinkedIn posts.
• Nine tonalities and a Knowledge Base of your own docs as his source of truth.
• Three meeting goals: drive a click, send your meeting link, or ask for theirs.
• Every reply lands in Primebox™, one inbox for email and LinkedIn.
• A dedicated Account Manager and a shared Slack channel, included.

Frank is the autonomous layer of the Forge Stack. Mailforge, Infraforge, and Primeforge handle infrastructure, and Warmforge handles deliverability. Leadsforge finds leads and Salesforge runs outreach, all under one login, each as its own subscription.

Neither Artisan AI nor AiSDR lists three mailbox types or a standalone warm-up product on its pricing page. You can also run the Forge Stack three ways: your own team, Frank, or a vetted Forge Expert agency.

Frank is priced per active contact, meaning the prospects he is working at any one time. The base tier covers 1,000 active contacts for $599/mo billed quarterly, or $499/mo billed annually.

Salesforge says 1,000 active contacts means 2,000-2,500 new leads and 6,000-7,500 personalized emails a month. At 2,000 active contacts, the price is $1,138/mo quarterly or $948/mo annually.

Mailboxes cost extra. Connect your own, or use Infraforge from $33/mo billed annually for 10 mailboxes. Megaforge starts at $69/mo for 20 mailboxes across Gmail, Outlook, Mailforge, and Infraforge.

Salesforge's human-led plans are separate subscriptions, and Frank isn't included in either. Pro is $48/mo monthly ($40/mo annual), and Growth is $96/mo monthly ($80/mo annual).

Frank fits B2B companies selling at $5K-$100K ACV to startups, SMBs, and mid-market buyers, targeting 3,000+ businesses. He's built to work with your reps, not replace them, so it's worth seeing how AI vs human SDRs compare.

VAI Consulting shows what to expect. It ran Frank on a first ICP for a few months, then tightened its ICP and messaging. Frank booked 3 calls in the first week after that pivot, and the case study lists 62.5% replies.

Limitations to weigh:

• No free trial. Frank is only sold after a demo with the Salesforge team.
• A two-week mailbox warm-up comes before his first send.
• Email infrastructure isn't in his price.
• Salesforge itself says he's a poor fit for Fortune 500 targets, long RFP cycles, or teams without product-market fit.

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Head-to-Head AI SDR Comparison: Artisan AI vs AiSDR

Here's how all three compare across six areas.

Multichannel outreach: email, LinkedIn, and calls

• Agent Frank: Email and LinkedIn run in one sequence, with unlimited senders on both and no per-sender fee. Steps branch on behavior, like falling back to email when a connection request isn't accepted.
• Artisan AI: Ava coordinates "email and social," but Artisan's homepage and pricing page never name LinkedIn. Calls go through a $67/seat power dialer your reps use.
• AiSDR: Email plus LinkedIn connection requests, DMs, and InMail. LinkedIn accounts are capped at 1, 5, or 20 by plan, and calls run through Aircall. AiSDR Scale adds AI voice notes inside LinkedIn messages.

LinkedIn account caps act as seat limits. Each rep whose LinkedIn profile the AI uses needs a slot, so a 5-slot plan covers 5 reps. See this guide to multichannel outreach for the full playbook.

Email deliverability and warm-up

• Agent Frank: Every mailbox warms up free through Warmforge for two weeks before he sends. The pool mixes aged IMAP/SMTP, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 inboxes, and each mailbox gets a Heat Score™.
• Artisan AI: Artisan manages warm-up, rotation, throttling, bounce and complaint tracking, and inbox placement. Mailboxes are bought in-app and billed separately.
• AiSDR: Setup and warm-up are included, with 3, 6, or 18 mailboxes by plan. AiSDR says multiple inboxes need 30+ days to reach full volume.

A fast signup doesn't mean fast meetings, because all three need warmed mailboxes first. Megaforge also spreads Frank's sending across Gmail, Outlook, Mailforge, and Infraforge mailboxes, so one bad provider doesn't stop him.

The same Forge deliverability layer helped UniteSync reach an 85.26% positive reply rate and a $2.86 CAC on Salesforge, Mailforge, and Warmforge. If email warm-up is new to you, start there.

AI research, personalization, and control

• Agent Frank: He researches each company, its buying signals, timing, and likely objections before writing. He pulls from prospect websites, blog posts, and LinkedIn posts, in one of nine tones. He writes in 21+ languages, follows your Knowledge Base, and learns from your feedback.
• Artisan AI: Ava enriches from 22+ sources, ranks leads by intent, and tests dozens of message variations. "Full self-driving Ava" is still marked Soon on the pricing page.
• AiSDR: Ami builds your GTM plan and campaigns. Explore adds LinkedIn signals like post engagement, profile visits, and keyword tracking.

Frank and Artisan both let you approve messages first. Frank calls it Co-Pilot, and Artisan calls it approval mode. AiSDR lists a co-pilot mode for replies but doesn't explain it on its pricing page.

Reply handling and the inbox

• Agent Frank: Replies land in Primebox™, one inbox for email and LinkedIn, with sentiment tags. Frank answers them and books meetings on your calendar, aiming for a click, your meeting link, or theirs.
• Artisan AI: Ava qualifies replies, handles objections, and books on your reps' calendars. She sends in your reps' names from your own domains, and escalation rules decide when a human takes over.
• AiSDR: The AI replies within 5-10 minutes, and a co-pilot mode is available.

With Frank, email and LinkedIn replies land in one Primebox™ inbox inside Salesforge, so your team never switches between LinkedIn and email to follow a thread.

Pricing model and how it scales

• Agent Frank: Priced per active contact. The cost per contact falls with volume, from $0.60 at 1,000 to about $0.48 at 10,000 on quarterly billing.
• Artisan AI: Priced in credits, about 20 per person contacted. Above about 1,250 leads a month, the pricing page shows no price.
• AiSDR: Priced per researched contact, at $1.25 each on Solo and $1.00 on AiSDR Scale, billed monthly. Moving up from Solo also moves you onto a quarterly contract.

Credits are the hardest model to budget. One Artisan reviewer used 40,000 credits on about 1,200 prospects, roughly 33 credits each. Annual billing saves two months on Frank, about 10% on Artisan, and 20% on AiSDR.

Integrations, support, and compliance

• Agent Frank: Salesforge, where Frank works, connects natively to HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, and more, plus Zapier, Make, and webhooks. Its MCP server and CLI, on the Growth plan, let tools like Claude run campaigns. A dedicated Account Manager and a shared Slack channel come with Frank.
• Artisan AI: HubSpot from Intern, webhooks from Employee, and Salesforce at Enterprise on self-serve plans. Sales-led tiers add CSM onboarding and a shared Slack channel. SOC 2 Type II and GDPR, plus SSO, SAML, and audit logs on Enterprise.
• AiSDR: Native two-way HubSpot sync on every plan, and Salesforce sync on AiSDR Scale. Explore adds a dedicated GTM engineer and 24/7 Slack support. SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and CCPA.

Salesforge is SOC 2 compliant too, so security won't decide this one. Data reach differs more: Frank searches 500M+ contacts through Leadsforge, Artisan cites 250M+, and AiSDR researches prospects live across the web.

Onboarding speed differs as well. AiSDR says 90% of clients launch within 15 minutes, while Frank starts with a demo and a few hours of setup.

Agent Frank vs Artisan AI vs AiSDR Pricing Comparison

All prices below come from each vendor's live pricing page in October 2026.

The units differ, so read the volume line before the price line. Frank counts prospects in progress at any moment, Artisan counts credits, and AiSDR counts new contacts researched each month.

On annual billing, $499 for about 2,000 new leads works out to about $0.25 per contact, matching Salesforge's pricing card. On the same basis, Artisan's self-serve plans work out to about $0.48-$0.50 per lead, and AiSDR to $0.80-$1.00 per contact.

Cost scenario: about 2,500 new prospects a month

• Agent Frank: Tier 1 is sized for 2,000-2,500 new leads a month, at $599/mo quarterly or $499/mo annually. If Megaforge's $69/mo base plan (20 mailboxes, about 300 emails a day) is enough, you're at about $568-$668/mo all-in.
• Artisan AI: This volume is the Team tier, which has no public price. On self-serve credits it would take about 50,000 credits a month, double Employee's allowance.
• AiSDR: AiSDR Scale covers 2,500 contacts for $2,500/mo on a quarterly contract, or $2,000/mo billed annually.

At this volume, Frank costs roughly a quarter of AiSDR's list price. The 2,000-2,500 figure is Salesforge's own estimate, so test it against your sequence length.

At about 500 prospects a month, the cheapest option changes. Artisan's Intern plan, at $250/mo annual, wins there. Up to 200 contacts a month, AiSDR Solo is cheapest at $250/mo, or $200/mo billed annually.

To weigh Frank against a human SDR's cost, try the AI Agent ROI calculator.

Agent Frank, Artisan AI, or AiSDR: Which AI SDR Fits Your Team?

If you're weighing other tools too, the comparison library has one-on-one breakdowns, including Frank vs Artisan AI and Frank vs AiSDR. The sales tools directory lists 700+ more.

You might consider Artisan AI if:

• You want a 30-day free trial with 10,000 credits before you pay anything.
• Your reps want a power dialer next to the AI BDR, at $67/seat/mo.
• About 500 prospects a month is your real ceiling. At that volume, Intern at $250/mo annual is the cheapest of the three.

You might consider AiSDR if:

• You're a solo founder who wants email plus one LinkedIn account, month-to-month, with no sales call. Solo is the cheapest paid plan of the three.
• You want LinkedIn steps and HubSpot sync on a $250 entry plan.
• You want AI video in messages and AI voice notes on LinkedIn, and can commit to AiSDR Scale's quarterly contract.

Choose Agent Frank if:

• You sell B2B at $5K-$100K ACV to startups, SMBs, or mid-market buyers, and target 3,000+ businesses.
• You want email and LinkedIn in one sequence with unlimited senders, not 1, 5, or 20 LinkedIn accounts.
• You need 2,000-2,500 new prospects a month for $599/mo quarterly or $499/mo annual, not $2,500/mo.
• You want free Warmforge warm-up and a choice of your own, Infraforge, or Megaforge mailboxes.
• You want a dedicated Account Manager and a shared Slack channel from day one.

Final Verdict: Agent Frank vs Artisan AI vs AiSDR

Artisan AI is a capable AI BDR with a dialer and a generous free trial. It meters work in credits, doesn't list LinkedIn on its pricing page, and shows no public price above about 1,250 leads a month.

AiSDR runs email and LinkedIn with clear prices. But every plan is capped, and Explore and AiSDR Scale run on quarterly contracts.

For B2B teams that want email and LinkedIn outbound at real volume, Agent Frank is the stronger choice. His base tier covers 1,000 active contacts, about 2,000-2,500 new leads a month, for $599/mo billed quarterly or $499/mo annually. At that volume, AiSDR lists $2,500/mo, and Artisan doesn't publish a price.

One falsifiable benchmark: after an ICP pivot, VAI Consulting booked 3 calls with Frank in the first week. Its public case study lists 62.5% replies and says positive reply rates jumped significantly.

And one honest limit: if you sell to Fortune 500 accounts or don't have product-market fit yet, don't hire Frank. Salesforge says so on his own page.

FAQs About Agent Frank, Artisan AI, and AiSDR

Is Agent Frank better than Artisan AI and AiSDR?

For multichannel B2B outbound at volume, yes. Agent Frank runs email and LinkedIn with unlimited senders.

He works 1,000 active contacts, about 2,000-2,500 new leads a month, for $599/mo billed quarterly or $499/mo annually. AiSDR charges $2,500/mo for 2,500 contacts, and Artisan AI publishes no price for that volume. Artisan wins on free trials, and AiSDR Solo is the cheapest paid entry.

What's the main difference between Agent Frank, Artisan AI, and AiSDR?

The pricing unit and the channels. Agent Frank is priced per active contact and runs email and LinkedIn on the Forge Stack, with free Warmforge warm-up.

Artisan AI bills Ava's work in credits, about 20 per person contacted, and lists email plus a rep dialer. AiSDR bills per researched contact, from 200 to 2,500 a month, with LinkedIn built in.

Which is cheapest: Agent Frank, Artisan AI, or AiSDR?

Each one is cheapest at a different volume. AiSDR Solo wins up to 200 contacts a month, at $250/mo or $200/mo billed annually. Artisan AI's Intern plan wins near 500 prospects a month, at $280/mo or $250/mo billed annually.

Above that, Agent Frank has the lowest list price. His base tier covers about 2,000-2,500 new leads a month for $599/mo billed quarterly or $499/mo annually, versus $2,500/mo for AiSDR Scale. Frank's mailboxes cost extra, from $69/mo for 20 through Megaforge.

Does Artisan AI support LinkedIn outreach?

Artisan AI doesn't list LinkedIn on its pricing page. Its homepage says Ava coordinates email and social, and its plans name no LinkedIn accounts or actions. A September 2026 Trustpilot reviewer says it can't do LinkedIn outreach.

Some third-party reviews describe LinkedIn steps, so confirm them in a demo. Agent Frank runs LinkedIn natively with unlimited senders, and AiSDR includes 1 to 20 LinkedIn accounts by plan.

Can I switch from Artisan AI or AiSDR to Agent Frank?

Yes, and the main wait is two weeks of warm-up. After a demo, a dedicated Account Manager helps you set up your complimentary Salesforge workspace and Knowledge Base.

You can connect existing mailboxes or buy Infraforge or Megaforge ones, and Warmforge warms them at no extra cost. Check your current contract first, since AiSDR Explore and AiSDR Scale run on quarterly terms.

Which tool has better email deliverability?

Agent Frank, because Warmforge warm-up comes built in at no extra cost. Warmforge warms every mailbox in a premium pool of aged IMAP/SMTP, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 inboxes. It also tracks a Heat Score™ for each one.

Megaforge spreads sending across Gmail, Outlook, Mailforge, and Infraforge mailboxes for fallback. Artisan AI and AiSDR manage warm-up too, but neither describes its warm-up pool or a per-mailbox score on its pricing page.

Does Agent Frank offer a free trial?

No. Agent Frank is sold after a demo, and he needs a two-week mailbox warm-up before his first send.

Salesforge itself has a 14-day free trial for human-led outreach, with plans from $48/mo monthly ($40/mo annual). Agent Frank is a separate subscription from $599/mo billed quarterly or $499/mo billed annually.

Who are Artisan AI and AiSDR best for?

Artisan AI fits HubSpot teams that want an AI BDR plus a power dialer for reps, and a 30-day free trial before paying.

AiSDR fits founders and small teams that want email and LinkedIn from day one at 200 to 2,500 contacts a month. Teams above that volume, or with many LinkedIn senders, get more from Agent Frank.