Most teams leaving Instantly are doing it for one of three reasons: they want LinkedIn in the same sequence rather than as a separate tool, the real cost at their mailbox count turned out higher than the headline, or they want infrastructure they own rather than rented accounts.
Whichever it is, the migration itself is the same shape. Here is the plan, and the two Instantly-specific traps.
Trap one: mailboxes bought through Instantly
This is the big one and it decides how your migration goes.
If you connected your own Google, Microsoft or SMTP mailboxes to Instantly, you simply reconnect them elsewhere. Nothing is lost. Domain reputation, sending history, the lot, all attached to the mailbox and domain, not to Instantly.
If Instantly provisioned the accounts for you, they belong to Instantly. Cancelling means losing them, and with them the warmed domains. You are rebuilding infrastructure from scratch, which is three to four weeks of warmup before you are back at volume.
Check this before you plan anything else. The answer changes a 30-day migration into a 60-day one.
If the accounts are theirs, the sensible move is to start a parallel estate now (register your own domains, warm them while your Instantly subscription is still running) rather than discovering the problem on your cancellation date. Buying domains for cold email covers the setup.
Trap two: the unibox does not export
Instantly’s unified inbox holds your reply history. There is no export that gives you threaded conversations in a form another tool will read.
What you can do: if the mailboxes are yours and connect over IMAP, the actual emails are still in the mailboxes. Reconnect them to the new platform and recent threads sync. What does not come across is Instantly’s layer on top, lead status, interest labels, the categorisation your team applied.
Practically: export your leads with their status fields before cancelling, so the labelling survives as data even if the threads do not.
What exports cleanly
| From Instantly | How |
|---|---|
| Leads, with custom variables | CSV export per campaign |
| Unsubscribes and blocklist | CSV export, do this first |
| Campaign analytics | CSV, per campaign |
| Email account list | CSV, for bulk reconnection |
| Sequences | No export. Screenshot or copy the text |
The 30-day plan
Week 1, export, while still subscribed
Pull the blocklist and unsubscribe list first. Then leads per campaign with every custom variable, then analytics per campaign, then your account list.
Copy your sequences into a document. You will not paste them back verbatim, but you want the subject lines and step timing in front of you when you rebuild.
Week 2, stand up in parallel
Create the workspace. Agencies: one per client, from the start.
Load the suppression list before importing a single lead. Instantly’s blocklist and your unsubscribes merge into one global suppression list.
Then bulk-connect your email accounts. Connecting a mailbox to a second platform does not disconnect it from Instantly, both hold a connection, and Instantly keeps sending while you build.
Recreate custom fields to match your Instantly variable names, then import leads mapped to them. Matching the names saves you rewriting every merge field later.
Week 3, rebuild one campaign, run both
Rebuild your best-performing campaign first. Run it at roughly 20% of volume while Instantly carries the rest.
Two things worth doing differently while you rebuild:
Add the LinkedIn steps. If part of why you are leaving is that LinkedIn lived in a second tool, this is the moment the sequence becomes one sequence rather than two co-ordinated ones.
Cut the steps that never worked. Your analytics export tells you which ones. Most teams find their Instantly sequences grew a step or two past where replies stopped coming.
Week 4, shift and close
Ramp the new platform up 30% every few days. Wind Instantly down in step. Confirm the suppression lists match exactly. Export any final analytics.
Then cancel, and not before, because the exports go with the subscription.
Where the numbers land
The usual reason teams run this comparison in the first place is cost at their actual mailbox count, so it is worth doing honestly.
Instantly prices in tiers that bundle sending volume and mailbox slots, with lead credits metered separately. Outboundry’s plans include unlimited email accounts and unlimited campaigns, with LinkedIn seats, email finder credits and campaign email volume setting the tier, Starter $39, Growth $89, Agency $399.
The difference that usually decides it is not the headline. It is that LinkedIn actions are not metered, so a multichannel motion does not need a second subscription, and infrastructure sits in the same product at $0.80 to $2.50 a mailbox rather than being provisioned accounts you rent.
Check your own numbers against the infrastructure cost breakdown before deciding. If you send email only and have no LinkedIn ambitions, the gap narrows considerably and the migration may not be worth the fortnight.
The short version
Find out first whether your mailboxes are yours or Instantly’s. That single answer sets your timeline, 30 days if yours, closer to 60 if theirs, because you are warming a new estate.
Export the blocklist, leads and analytics while the subscription is live. Load suppressions before the first lead. Reconnect accounts without disconnecting them from Instantly, rebuild your best campaign, and run both for a fortnight.
And take the rebuild as a chance to add the LinkedIn steps and cut the ones your own analytics say never earned their place.
Next: the universal migration checklist, or Instantly alternatives compared.
Frequently asked questions
Can you export campaigns from Instantly?
No. Leads, analytics, your blocklist and your account list all export as CSV, but sequences do not. Copy them into a document before cancelling so you have the subject lines and timing when you rebuild.
Do I lose my mailboxes if I leave Instantly?
Only if Instantly provisioned them. Accounts you connected yourself (your own Google, Microsoft or SMTP mailboxes) reconnect elsewhere with their reputation and sending history intact.
Will my deliverability drop after migrating from Instantly?
Not from the move itself. Domain reputation and mailbox history are properties of your infrastructure, not of the tool. The new platform’s internal warmup score starts fresh, which looks worse than it is.
How long does migrating from Instantly take?
About 30 days if you own your mailboxes: a week exporting, a week setting up in parallel, a week rebuilding and testing, a week shifting volume. Closer to 60 if you need to build and warm a new estate.
