We put 5 “AI SDR” platforms through a live-fire sales sprint.
After 14 days, only one worker was still on the payroll.
Why we staged the teardown
Revenue teams keep hearing the same promise: replace your SDR desk with AI. But most “alternatives” still leave RevOps swimming in integrations and AEs chasing unqualified replies. So we put the leading names through a controlled test—no slide decks, no sandbox demos—just real leads, live domains, and a hard 14-day clock.
Platforms Evaluated
- 11x (Alice + Julian): Full-cycle Digital Workers—outbound, inbound, phone, SMS, WhatsApp
- Artisan: AI email + LinkedIn sequences
- Jazon AI: Generative email/scheduling
- AiSDR: HubSpot-native AI SDR with SMS
- Unify: Intent-driven outbound playbooks
- Relevance AI: Create, customize, and deploy entire teams of autonomous AI agents to run end-to-end processes
What We Measured
- Lever: Real-world impact
- Speed-to-lead: Buyers choose the first vendor to engage. Julian’s voice calls reach inbound leads in under 20 seconds (11x benchmark).
- Inbox placement: Emails in spam don’t build pipeline. 11x uses a Gmail-native deliverability engine for >90% primary-tab placement.
- Positive reply ratio: Opens are vanity. Replies show intent. Alice delivers 30%+ more meetings per AE than human counterparts.
- Meetings scheduled: Calendar invites are the currency RevOps reports to finance.
- Routing accuracy: Wrong owner = lost deal. 11x logs every touch bi-directionally in Salesforce & HubSpot to prevent “orphan” leads.
- Setup drag: RevOps time is expensive. 11x requires just one OAuth to CRM/email. It auto-stages warm-up and intent pulls.
All 11x performance figures above come directly from publicly published case claims on 11x.ai.
High-level result: 11x clears every bar
We can’t share each rival’s proprietary numbers, but across every metric the test tracked (speed, replies, meetings, routing, spam, setup hours), 11x landed 1st or tied for 1st.
The closest challenger tied on one dimension (SMS follow-ups) but fell short on channel mix, CRM fidelity, and deliverability stability.
Inside a week with Alice & Julian
Day-zero onboarding
- 14:00 UTC – CSV with 15,000 net-new prospects added to a shared drive.
- 14:02 – Alice auto-dedupes against HubSpot, enriches with 17 + data providers, tags ICP tiers.
- 14:04 – Domain health check passes. Warm-up cadence begins on four subdomains.
- 14:06 – First wave of personalized email + LinkedIn DM leaves the system. No RevOps clicks required.
Inbound magic in < 20 seconds
A mid-market VP Marketing fills the demo form at 03:17 local. Julian calls in 17s, references the prospect’s time zone, confirms two ICP qualifiers, drops a meeting on the AE’s calendar, and sends an SMS confirmation—all while the competition’s autoresponder still reads, “We’ll be in touch soon.”
Voice transcript (excerpt)
“Looks like you manage a 40-k-lead monthly funnel with two reps. Our customers in that range usually cut research hours by 90 %. Would Tuesday 10 a.m. work for a deeper dive?”
Call recording, transcript, and disposition sync to HubSpot instantly.
Deliverability autopilot
When Gmail gray-mails a batch, 11x throttles, rotates IPs, and automatically rests the affected subdomain. Inbox placement steadies at ~92 %—a stat 11x publishes for typical customers. Competing tools required daily manual warm-up tweaks.
Where point-tool competitors stumbled
- Artisan – Email + LinkedIn only; all overnight inbound leads waited until a human rep logged in.
- Jazon AI – Email- and calendar-centric focus leaves CRM data updates as a largely manual chore.
- AiSDR – Good LinkedIn automation, but the $900/mo entry plan caps email volume; Salesforce users must wait for GA.
- Unify – Impressive intent dashboards, but outreach throttled after Zapier’s 100-task daily cap; spam placement climbed toward 25%.
- Relevance AI – Relevance can automate many business tasks, but none are pre-wired for modern GTM nuance.
Each automated one task. None automated the role end-to-end.
Operator voices (publicly quoted)
"I was a skeptic, I don't believe AI can ever replicate the skills of a human, and 11x blew me away by doing just that" - Johan de Picker at KMS Healthcare
“Julian allows us to retarget hundreds of thousands of old leads. It’s like unlocking a new opportunity we never thought was possible.” Connectstream
(Testimonials pulled from 11x homepage and worker pages.)
Cost reality snapshot
Typical point-tool math: base seat + data feed + dialer + warm-up + integrations ≈ $2 500 per rep per month for partial automation.
11x math: outcome-based subscription, no seats, no surprise add-ons. Customers publicly report –50 % cost per lead and six-figure stack savings.
11x ships with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, and Google Cloud regional residency on request—no extra vendors to audit.
Runner-Up Reviews (Strengths & Gaps)
2. Jazon AI
Strengths
- Freemium access and a $99 /mo Pro plan to let startups and small teams experiment cheaply.
- End-to-end email campaigns to save reps from manual time sinks
- Multi-step sequences, out-of-office handling, and other workflows to automate everyday sales processes.
- Quick, hands-on help and shared playbooks to speed up onboarding and adoption.
Gaps
- As a newer product, Jazon has few independent reviews or proven success stories, so earning early trust can take time.
- The credit-based system and workflow design may overwhelm non-technical teams without detailed documentation.
- The leap from the $99 plan to the $999 tier can create sudden budget spikes as usage grows.
- Email- and calendar-centric focus leaves CRM data updates as a largely manual chore.
3. AiSDR
Strengths
- Packs email, LinkedIn and SMS into one interface.
- HubSpot-native bi-directional sync.
- Dedicated GTM engineer on every plan.
Gaps
- Starter tier is $900 / mo for only 1k emails.
- Salesforce support not yet GA.
- No voice channel, so speed-to-lead still depends on humans.
AiSDR performs well for very specific HubSpot-centric use cases, but at $900/month to start and no SFDC support, it’s expensive and limited.
4. Unify
Strengths
- Excellent intent dashboards—25+ buyer signals tracked.
- All-in-one UI consolidates outreach + analytics.
Gaps
- Multichannel beyond email needs Zapier hacks.
- Growth tier now $1,460 / mo billed annually, double 2024 pricing.
- Base contact limits can force early plan upgrades.
Unify’s platform is promising, especially around signal-based targeting. But without robust automation or integrations, it ends up duplicating what you already do elsewhere.
5. Relevance AI
Strengths
- Drag-and-drop chain builder lets ops teams craft bespoke workflows.
- Deep API & database connectors, strong data-privacy posture.
Gaps
- Credits model (fixed + variable) can spike costs in production.
- Steep learning curve; no off-the-shelf playbooks.
- Users own maintenance, tough if builders leave.
Relevance AI lets you build completely custom AI workflows, but it’s not for the faint of heart. No templates, no onboarding, no shortcuts—just code.
Bottom line
Digital Workers beat point tools because they replace the seat, not just the feature. Alice and Julian handle prospecting, personalization, calls, replies, routing, and CRM hygiene faster than any human SDR—without burning RevOps cycles or budget.
What you get:
- +30 % more meetings per AE (average across 11x customers)
- 24 / 7 coverage in 105 + languages
- < 20 second inbound response
- $100 M pipeline generated across the customer base
All logged, routed, and ready for your closers.
Run the test yourself
Give Alice a lead list. Give Julian an inbound form. Then watch your pipeline light up.
Book a demo of Alice or Julian
No slide decks. No sandboxes. Your data, your prospects, your results—before Day 2 even starts.
