Closely handles your LinkedIn and email outreach so you don't have to sit there clicking buttons all day. It sends connection requests, writes personalized follow-ups, finds email addresses, and keeps your campaigns running in the background. Closely is made for sales teams, recruiters, and agencies who need to scale outreach without losing their minds doing it manually.

Here's the deal: you set up a campaign targeting, say, product managers at tech startups. Closely shoots out personalized connection requests, follows up if they accept, grabs their email if you need it, and can even hop over to email if LinkedIn doesn't work. All from one dashboard that runs whether you're at your desk or not.

You can juggle multiple LinkedIn accounts without drowning in browser tabs. The pricing works on credits, which is kind of nice because you only burn through what you actually use—emails sent, phone numbers pulled, AI messages written, that kind of thing.

The entire configuration is based on dedicated IPs, and behaves like a human being would, so the bots at LinkedIn don’t freak out. And because it’s cloud-based, your things keep running even if you’ve closed your laptop or gone on vacation.

Pros of Closely:

• Automates LinkedIn + Email Outreach: Users praise that Closely “turns LinkedIn outreaches into a seamless, automated process,” removing much manual work. Campaigns can combine LinkedIn actions with email follow-ups automatically, saving hours of prospecting time.

• AI-Powered Personalization: Closely includes AI “sales agents” that pull company/lead context and generate 100%-human-sounding messages tailored to each prospect. This aligns with the broader industry shift toward using specialized AI sales agents that can handle research and drafting autonomously. This makes it easier to scale meaningful personalized outreach (on LinkedIn DMs, InMails, and email) for larger lists.

• Lead Finder and Enrichment: With Closely you can extract the leads you need directly from LinkedIn (Search, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, posts, groups… as well as CSV imports and more). It then enriches those leads with verified business emails, phone numbers and 30+ data points to reduce bounce rates and expedite prospecting.

• Detailed Analytics: The tool includes detailed reports (connection acceptance, reply rates, meetings booked etc.) across all campaigns and teams. You can compare performance by template or rep, run A/B tests on messaging, and sync results back to your CRM for clear attribution.

Cons of Closely:

• Cost and Complexity: Closely’s advanced feature set comes at a premium. Many reviewers note that pricing can be a barrier. Its interface and campaign options have a learning curve, which may overwhelm new users. There are multiple plans and settings to master, unlike simpler one-click tools.

• LinkedIn Account Risk: Despite safety features, LinkedIn automation always carries a ban risk. Some users report experiencing account restrictions when using Closely. Since automation is prohibited on LinkedIn, Closely’s proxies and delays can never make you completely safe. Users should be careful and watch their accounts.

• Email Campaign Limitations: A few reviewers mention shortcomings in the email features. For example, you cannot customize the fixed “unsubscribe” footer on emails, and once an email campaign is paused you can’t modify it. Closely’s built-in email sender works, but some users end up using additional tools for more advanced email needs.

• Support and Reliability Issues: Some users report problems with customer support. One user noted that support was “super active” before payment, but “disappears” afterward. Others mention encountering bugs (e.g. occasional sequence builder glitches) and having to wait for fixes. These inconsistencies in support and early-stage features (e.g. the email builder) are common pain points.

Core Features of Closely

1. Cloud-Based Automation Engine: Closely runs entirely in the cloud using dedicated residential proxies per account. This lets campaigns execute 24/7 (even if your computer is off), with human-like daily caps and randomized delays. The system’s proxies and warm-up mode protect your accounts by gradually increasing activity.

2. LinkedIn Outreach Sequences: Automate every step of LinkedIn outreach: profile views, connection requests, InMails, follow-up messages, post likes, etc. Closely’s sequencer takes care of multistep drip campaigns, so you can set up dozens of queued follow-ups to be sent to contacts until they respond, or you close the loop. This hands-off outreach helps drive consistent engagement over time.

3. AI-Powered Personalization: The platform includes AI “sales agents” that research leads and generate personalized messaging. For example, Closely handles automatic research of a lead's company and scrapes relevant insight (think recent news) to deliver 100% human sounding connection requests and follow-ups. Those dynamic, contextual messages can be A/B tested at scale, allowing you to send more relevant, higher-response outreach.

4. Automated Lead Sourcing & Enrichment: With Closely you can pull in the leads you target on LinkedIn Search, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, Group Members or lists of profiles from an uploaded CSV file with a single click. You can filter by industry, role, location and more to quickly assemble an educated list. As the contacts are added, Closely enriches their profiles (title, company size, tech stack etc.) with 30+ data points and validates their email/phones in real-time. This integration between prospecting and enrichment speeds up pipeline creation.

Closely Pricing Structure

Closely uses a tiered pricing model with monthly and annual options. As of 2025, the main plans are:

• Starter Plan – $49/mo (monthly): Includes 1 LinkedIn account (1 sender = 1 LinkedIn + 1 email inbox), unlimited email accounts, and basic features. (White-label branding is included.)

• Growth Plan – $127/mo: 3 LinkedIn accounts (and 3 senders), plus a monthly bonus of 3,000 credit units (e.g. roughly 750 emails or 1,500 AI personalizations) for data/lead finding. Unlimited campaigns and whitelabeling are included.

• Essential Plan – $205/mo: 5 LinkedIn accounts (5 senders) with 5,000 monthly credits (e.g. ~1,250 emails or 2,500 AI agents’ messages). Includes all Growth features and priority support.

• Annual Billing (40% off): If you prepay annually, prices drop ~40%. For example, Starter becomes ~$29/mo ($348/yr), Growth ~$87/mo, and Essential ~$145/mo. (All features remain the same; the discount is simply for commitment.)

• Enterprise / Custom ($999/mo fixed): For agencies and large teams, Closely advertises an agency plan at a flat $999/month regardless of seats. In this unlimited plan, you can add as many LinkedIn accounts as needed without additional per-seat fees. Closely highlights that this model can be very cost-effective at scale.

Free Trial: Closely offers a 7-day free trial for new users (credit card required). It also mentions having a free/freemium version available on some platforms, though details can change – it’s best to check the official pricing page for the latest trial offers.

All plans include unlimited outbound campaigns, AI personalization features, a built-in lead database, and customization like white-label domains. Overall, pricing is transparent on Closely’s site, but it skews higher than entry-level LinkedIn tools due to its breadth of features.

Alternatives to Closely

Closely faces competition from many other LinkedIn/email outreach tools. Notable alternatives include:

Instantly.ai – A multichannel lead generation platform with AI-CRM and email focus. It’s often cited as a top Closely alternative.

• Linked Helper – A popular Chrome extension for LinkedIn automation. It offers robust LinkedIn-only features (visits, invites, messages) at a lower price point.

• Expandi – A cloud-based LinkedIn automation platform. Expandi excels at simple LinkedIn sequences and personalization, though it is LinkedIn-only. It’s often compared as a high-end LinkedIn tool.

• Bearconnect – A unified outreach tool that automates LinkedIn and email (similar to Closely). It offers features like multi-account management and content scheduling at a different pricing model. (For example, Bearconnect charges $67 per LinkedIn account with unlimited use, versus Closely’s per-account tiers.)

Each alternative has its own strengths. For example, Instantly.ai has built-in email deliverability networks, whereas you can get Linked Helper at a more affordable price but no cloud hosting service is available. It is also worth checking a comprehensive SalesRobot review to see how other cloud-based tools compare in terms of safety and multichannel features.

Some of the elements you should be considering when picking one over another is pricing, channel support, ease of use and CRM integration (if at all relevant). It is thus recommendable to compare user reviews and demos to find who suits you the best.

Final Verdict:

Closely does LinkedIn and email automation well, and the AI personalization actually writes decent messages. Being cloud-based means your campaigns run all the time without you babysitting them, and the credit system lets you control costs. At $49–$225+ per account monthly, you're getting multichannel automation, data enrichment, AI messaging, and decent support. The white-label stuff and multi-account management are especially good if you're an agency.

But it's still pretty new, without a ton of reviews or deep integrations like older competitors have. The credit system needs attention, or you'll run out at a bad time, and heavy users will see their bills climb fast. If you need a full CRM or want something with years of proven stability, more established tools might be better bets.

Try the trial. Give the AI a shot, craft a campaign, assess whether the credit thing is justifiable regarding your scope, and ascertain whether the unified inbox indeed save your time. If it works with your workflow and pricing, you have a good platform for increasing LinkedIn outreach. But at least you didn't pay for an annual plan up front.