Salesforge vs Closely: Outreach Automation Tool Comparison

For a thorough understanding of what each option offers, a simplified comparison table isn't enough to grasp all intricacies that come with each tool, so let's dive deeper into what makes Closely and Salesforge unique.

Salesforge vs Closely: Sales Outreach Platform Key Features

If your outreach relies as much on email as on LinkedIn outreach, Salesforge is pitched as the more complete solution.

• Salesforge markets a broad outbound solution: AI hyper-personalization for messages in bulk, free email warm-up (via Warmforge) and multichannel sequencing (email + LinkedIn).
• Closely emphasizes scaling LinkedIn outreach with a secondary focus on email outreach, as well as AI personalization within multichannel campaigns, but not to the broad extent that Salesforge does.

For teams prioritizing basic, direct and inefficient access to prospects across email and LinkedIn, Closely’s strengths are clear.

Salesforge’s differentiator is its focus on the quality of outreach - thorough deliverability capabilities, unified inbox (Primebox), state-of-the-art personalization and robust integrations.

Pricing Structure & Free Trials

Salesforge provides 2 plans oriented around outreach scale and a 14-day free trial (with 2 free months granted when using annual billing):

• $48/mo for Pro plan (you get: 1000 active contacts in sequence, 5000 messages/mo, 100 email validation credits/mo, 100 personalization credits/mo, unlimited mailboxes, unlimited contact storage, free premium warm up via Warmforge, unlimited workspaces, connect unlimited mailboxes, a unified inbox (Primebox), mailbox rotation, dynamic IPs, live chat support and more)
• $96/mo for Growth plan (you get: 10x the credits from the Pro plan, unlimited senders, unlimited mailboxes, unlimited seats, A/B testing, personal onboarding, API access, 100 social action credits/mo, multi-language sequences, Primebox AI reply crafting, ESP matching, access to a massive knowledge base and more)

Closely provides 3 plans oriented around outreach scale and a 14-day free trial (with 40% off when using annual billing):

• $49/mo for Starter plan (you get: 1 LinkedIn account, 1 sender = 1 LinkedIn account + 1 email inbox, unlimited email accounts, whitelabel)
• $127/mo for Growth plan (you get: 3 LinkedIn accounts, unlimited email accounts, whitelabel, 3,000 credits/mo - equivalent to ~750 emails or 150 phones or 1,500 AI personalizations)
• $205/mo for Essential plan (you get: 5 LinkedIn accounts, unlimited email accounts, whitelabel, 5,000 credits / mo - equivalent to ~1,250 emails or 250 phones or 2,500 AI personalizations)
• Unlimited email account and LinkedIn sender plan starts at $999/mo

LinkedIn Outreach & LinkedIn Automation

Closely was built with LinkedIn outreach at its heart:

• Connection requests
• Profile-driven message personalization
• Sequence building with connection requests + DMs + follow ups
• Smart throttling that mimics human behavior

It offers LinkedIn automation tools, DM/InMail workflows, and built-in safeguards (delays, limits, auto-pauses) to protect accounts while scaling outreach.

• Salesforge takes LinkedIn outreach to the next level by, as well as unlimited mailboxes, shared workspaces and even seats, emphasizing unlimited LinkedIn senders so teams aren’t constrained by any limits.

The platform’s strength is coordinating LinkedIn steps alongside email steps at scale, while leaning on its deliverability-first email backbone.

If your go-to channel is LinkedIn, Closely’s LinkedIn automation is a compelling option.

If you need to combine LinkedIn actions with robust email outreach capabilities, Salesforge’s approach creates an execution model that keeps both channels working together as one sustained campaign.

Email Deliverability & Infrastructure

The technical side of cold outreach is often the difference between messages being seen or being lost.

Salesforge emphasizes email deliverability extensively, with:

• Unlimited free warm-up via Warmforge
• Dynamic IPs
• Rotating mailboxes
• Spam checkers
• Placement tests
• ESP matching
• Mailbox health monitoring
• Deliverability metrics

And more. Building sender reputation gradually while spreading volume across addresses and IPs to avoid single-mailbox throttles or sudden reputation hits is crucial for a scaling business. And that's paired with proprietary infrastructure options:

• Mailforge (shared infra)
• Infraforge (private infra)
• Primeforge (Google/Outlook)

Those infrastructure features reduce the risk of landing in spam and make multi-channel outreach more reliable, especially when you have a leads database and want to integrate email at scale.

• Closely supports multi-channel campaigns that include email steps and checks for verified emails via its enrichment features, but its customer-facing emphasis is more on LinkedIn outreach.

In practice, teams that prize guaranteed direct access to prospects via email (and need to maintain domains, SPF/DKIM/DMARC, warm-up routines and such) will find Salesforge to lower long-term risk and improve sustainable response rates.

Inbox Management & Reply Handling

Handling replies quickly and accurately preserves pipeline momentum.

• Closely offers a unified LinkedIn + email inbox where LinkedIn messages and email replies appear together, with assignment, tags, and templates - good for teams focused on LinkedIn-first conversations and CRM syncs.

Salesforge’s Primebox, on the other hand, is arguably vastly superior.

• The Primebox is presented as a consolidated reply management tool that captures replies from any address, even including replies to different emails, applies AI analysis, and centralizes responses across email and LinkedIn.

The Primebox is included with every Salesforge subscription and is the perfect way to never lose a prospect in the noise while enabling faster, more accurate replies.

The practical difference:

• Closely’s inbox is fairly run-of-the-mill and emphasizes LinkedIn-native workflows.
• Salesforge’s Primebox sells itself on reducing leakage when replies come from unexpected addresses and on AI assistance to triage and act.

For teams who care most about capturing every reply regardless of source and automating triage, Primebox is a core selling point.

Analytics & Reporting

Both platforms provide analytics and campaign reporting, but they frame insights differently.

• Closely promises LinkedIn outreach analytics across campaigns and teams - connection acceptance, DM/InMail reply rates, meetings, pipeline sourced, A/B testing, and per-rep comparisons - which is great for teams optimizing LinkedIn sequences and tracking connection request outcomes.
• Salesforge highlights funnel-level visibility, deliverability metrics, and pipeline attribution across channels all at once.
• Salesforge has several case studies which emphasize improved inbox placement and reply rates.
• Salesforge surfaces deliverability and inbox placement health that is critical when interpreting open/click metrics.

If you depend on LinkedIn-centric metrics, Closely supplies basic, immediately relevant dashboards.

If your optimization includes combining deliverability signals with open/reply attribution across both email outreach and LinkedIn, Salesforge’s integrated approach better ties delivery health to campaign outcomes.

Integrations

Both tools offer strong native integrations, with Closely highlighting HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive as natively available CRMs. Closely also offers automatic syncing of DMs, connection events, and replies for clean attribution.

Salesforge takes native integrations to the next level though, with one important distinction being the proprietary Forge Stack, which keeps prospect data, campaign history, and inbox conversations aligned so that when a lead moves to opportunity stage the handover is seamless. Notable Salesforge integrations include:

• Major CRMs
• SMTP
• API
• Webhooks
• Slack
• Zapier
• Clay
• Whitelabel
• The Forge Stack (Salesforge + Mailforge, Infraforge, Primeforge, Warmforge, Leadsforge)

And many more. If you desire enterprise-scale integrations at smaller-sized sales team pricing, Salesforge will be preferable.

Sequence Building & Multi-Channel Orchestration

Salesforge and Closely both offer multi-step, multi-channel sequence builders, but they target different trade-offs:

Closely’s sequence tooling shines when you want LinkedIn to be the lead channel.

• Its builder combines basic LinkedIn actions and adds AI-driven personalization based on profiles - great for reps who run highly contextual, human-feeling LinkedIn cadences.

Salesforge approaches sequences with scale and inbox health as first principles.

• Its sequence builder supports conditional multi-channel flows while being tightly integrated with Warmforge (continuous inbox warm-up, deliverability monitoring) and the Primebox (centralized reply capture and AI triage).

That means follow-ups, mailbox rotation, ESP matching and dynamic IP controls are part of the campaign plumbing - so when you ramp dozens of senders or campaigns, the platform actively protects domain reputation and keeps sequences delivering.

User Friendliness

• Closely markets a simple interface designed so non-technical users can launch campaigns quickly - templates, playbooks, and an inbox with tagging and assignments are built to reduce the ramp.
• Salesforge manages to pair ease of use and an intuitive user interface with more infrastructure configuration for teams that need custom sending setups (domains, DKIM/SPF/DMARC, warm-up flows).

In short: if you want a basic interface that gets reps running LinkedIn outreach as fast as possible, with little regard for the quality of outreach results, Closely is a fine option.

If you want an intuitive interface that also lets you dig into deliverability controls and easily set up unlimited mailboxes and senders, Salesforge provides what you're looking for.

Customer Support

Closely provides onboarding materials, playbooks, and help-center resources oriented around LinkedIn best practices, message personalization, and CRM syncs.

Salesforge complements 24/7 email and live chat support with:

• The Salesforge Academy
• A large Slack community
• Extensive documentation
• Youtube tutorials

And a general customer-success focus on helping teams optimize warming, domain configuration, and sequence performance.

For teams that need hands-on help as soon as possible, Salesforge’s combination of resources and support is guaranteed to maintain your workflow as efficiently as possible.

Final Verdict: Which LinkedIn & Email Outreach Tool To Pick?

If your specific needs center on LinkedIn-first contact discovery and outreach, Closely is a compelling platform.

If your priority is sustainable email and LinkedIn outreach at scale, high inbox placement, unlimited mailboxes and LinkedIn senders, consolidated reply handling, state-of-the-art AI personalization, and the ability to combine infrastructure-level warm-up with multi-channel sequences - Salesforge is the perfect fit.

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