How to choose a LinkedIn outreach tool: a buyer's checklist
Ten questions to ask before you pay for a LinkedIn outreach tool, from how it connects to your account to what the bill looks like with a team.
On this page
Most LinkedIn outreach tools look alike on the home page. They all promise more conversations. The differences show up in how they connect to your account, what they stop you from doing, and what you pay once the team grows.
This checklist helps you compare tools on facts you can check. Use it on us too. We answer each question for Mako Reach as we go, including the parts where we are not the right fit.
1. How does the tool connect to LinkedIn?
There are two common designs. A browser extension runs inside your own browser, so it works only while that browser is open. A cloud tool logs in to your account from a server and works on its own schedule.
Ask which one it is, and what you must keep running. Also ask what you hand over to connect an account: a login, a session cookie, or both. Whoever holds that credential can act as you, so find out how it is stored.
Mako Reach runs in the cloud. There is no extension. You connect each account with your own LinkedIn login or cookie, and credentials are encrypted before they reach the database.
2. What does the tool say about LinkedIn's rules?
LinkedIn's terms restrict automated tools. Any tool that automates LinkedIn actions carries that risk, and no vendor can change LinkedIn's rules.
Be wary of any page that promises your account will be safe, invisible to LinkedIn or protected from bans. No tool can promise that, because the decision belongs to LinkedIn. A trustworthy vendor says so plainly and shows what it does to lower the risk.
Mako Reach is not affiliated with LinkedIn and is not endorsed by it. We say the same on our security page.
3. Are the daily limits enforced?
Many tools show a "recommended" number and let you go past it. Ask whether the limit is a setting the engine obeys or a suggestion.
Also ask:
- Is the limit set per account, or one number for the whole workspace?
- Which actions have a limit: invites, messages, profile views, follows, likes?
- What happens to an account you never configured?
In Mako Reach every account has its own daily caps, and the engine stops sending for that account when it reaches one. An account you never configured runs on defaults of 28 invites and 40 messages a day. You can lower them.
4. What can a sequence actually do?
A list of steps is not enough. Look for branches: what happens when the invite is accepted, when it is not, when the lead replies and when they stay silent.
Check the step types too. A useful set covers connection requests, messages, InMails, profile views, follows and post likes, plus waits and conditions. Mako Reach has 10 step types, and a connection request splits into Accepted and Not accepted yet. After launch you can edit message text and delays, but the steps are locked.
Also check where leads come from. Mako Reach can build a list from a plain description of your ideal customer. That feature needs your own Sales Navigator subscription and your own AI key. You can also import a CSV or a Sales Navigator search link.
5. How good is the inbox?
Outreach produces replies, and replies are where the value is. If you run several accounts, ask whether one screen shows all of them. Ask how fast new messages appear, and whether you can tag, filter and assign them.
Be careful with claims of a "live" inbox. Mako Reach is near-real-time: the conversation list refreshes about every 12 to 15 seconds. That is fast enough for sales, but it is not a live push connection.
6. What does the AI do, and who pays for it?
Ask four things about any AI feature:
- Does it send on its own, or does a person approve?
- What does it do when it is unsure?
- Whose AI account does it run on?
- Which parts exist today, and which are plans?
Our AI reply agent has AUTO and MANUAL modes per chat. In MANUAL it only drafts. In AUTO, replies wait briefly in a pending list where you can cancel, edit or send now. It asks you on Telegram when it lacks a fact and hands the chat to a person when a rule you set fires. It runs on your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, added by a workspace admin.
AI-written campaign messages and AI prospect summaries are in testing. They are not available yet, and we list them as plans on the roadmap.
7. Where does your data live?
Ask where the app, the database and the background jobs run, how you export your data and how you erase it.
For Mako Reach, the app, the database and the background workers run in the EU. Admins can export a workspace and erase it, including the LinkedIn accounts it connected. We do not claim that all data stays in the EU, because LinkedIn sessions are handled by a third-party service whose region we do not control.
8. What will the bill be with a real team?
Pricing models differ more than the headline numbers suggest. Some charge per user, some per connected LinkedIn account, and some add fees for extra features.
Write down your own numbers: how many LinkedIn accounts, how many teammates, how many months. Then ask each vendor for the total. Our model is one price per connected LinkedIn account, with teammates free. Use the calculator on the pricing page to try your numbers.
9. Can you try it on realistic data?
A demo with a sales call is not a test. Look for a sandbox you can click through yourself, with sample data and no sign-up.
We have one. It is the real product on sample data. Nothing is sent, and settings and billing are hidden. A short guide lists seven tasks you can try, such as adding a sequence step or setting limits.
10. How do the alternatives compare?
Compare on dated, sourced facts rather than slogans. We keep comparison pages, with the date and source next to each number. Read them with the same checklist, and check the vendor's own site, because pricing pages change.
A checklist to copy
- Cloud or extension, and how are credentials stored?
- What does the vendor say about LinkedIn's terms?
- Per-account limits, and are they enforced?
- Branching sequences, and which step types?
- One inbox for all accounts, and how fresh is it?
- AI: who approves, who pays, what exists today?
- Where do the app and the database run?
- Total cost for your accounts and teammates?
- A sandbox you can try yourself?