AI SDR alternatives: 11x, Artisan, Regie.ai and Amplemarket compared
The AI SDR alternatives that keep a human in the loop are the ones where approval before sending is a setting you control, not a promise in a sales call. Of the four compared here, Regie.ai and Amplemarket put a rep's review in the default flow, Artisan lets you choose approval mode per campaign, and 11x lets you set approval thresholds in its built-to-spec setup.
Facts checked 2026-11-03 against each vendor's own site: 11x (opens in a new tab), Amplemarket (opens in a new tab), Artisan (opens in a new tab) and Regie.ai (opens in a new tab). Vendors change pricing and features often; check their site for current figures.
This page compares the four on what decides the purchase: who approves a send, how they price, what the contract says, and which channels they run. The four are listed alphabetically, which is not a ranking. Regie.ai calls RegieGO an AI prospecting platform and Amplemarket calls itself an all-in-one sales platform with AI agents; we group them with 11x and Artisan because buyers compare them for the same job. Coco is written up separately at the end, because this page is written by Coco and Coco is not an AI SDR.
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What an AI SDR does
An AI SDR is an agent that runs the sales development job: it finds and enriches leads, writes personalized outreach, sends sequences, handles replies and books meetings for your reps. The four vendors here split that loop differently between the agent and your reps: how much a person sits inside it, and on whether email, phone, social or SMS carries the outreach. If you are still deciding between this category and a broader agent, our AI SDR vs AI co-worker explainer covers the definitions. This page is for the next step: picking a vendor.
Where buyers get burned
These are the three places an AI SDR purchase most often goes wrong, each tied to a source you can check.
- Domain reputation. An AI SDR that sends from your domains puts their reputation on the line. Artisan's pricing FAQ (opens in a new tab) says Ava "sends in your reps' names, from your own sending domains", and 11x's outbound page (opens in a new tab) lists deliverability and mailbox health as part of its product. Google's sender guidelines (opens in a new tab) require senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%, and say following them helps prevent Gmail from limiting sending rates, blocking messages or marking them as spam. If your reps send from the same domain, their mail shares that reputation.
- Annual contracts. Only two of the four publish terms. Amplemarket's pricing page (opens in a new tab) lists its Startup plan on an annual term. Regie.ai's pricing page (opens in a new tab) says Pro and Team are self-serve with no contract. Artisan scopes plans with sales and 11x asks you to book a demo; neither publishes a minimum term. Ask for the term, the renewal notice period and the exit clause in writing.
- Unsupervised sends. Several vendors let the agent send on its own, which is the point for some teams. Artisan's pricing FAQ (opens in a new tab) describes Ava as "Autonomous by default, adjustable by design", and its Ava page (opens in a new tab) says most teams start with approvals enabled, then go fully autonomous. If your team wants to approve every message during the first weeks, check that approval mode is available on the plan you are quoted and that it covers replies as well as first touches.
Five questions to ask any AI SDR
- Who approves a send, and is that the default? Approval you have to remember to switch on behaves differently from approval that is on until you switch it off.
- Does approval cover replies and follow-ups, or only the first touch? The agent often writes most of its mail after a prospect answers.
- What are you paying for? Seats, credits, contacts or leads contacted per month. Our credits vs seats explainer covers how each model scales.
- What is the minimum term, and how do you leave? Get it in writing before the pilot, not after.
- Whose domains and mailboxes send, and who watches them? If the answer is "yours", ask what deliverability tooling is included and who acts when the spam rate climbs.
The four AI SDRs, alphabetically
11x
11x (opens in a new tab) sells "agents that drive revenue" for outbound, inbound and expansion; its site names the outbound agent Alice and the inbound agent Julian. Its homepage lists voice, chat, email, social, SMS and WhatsApp, plus a human dialer. On control, the 11x platform page (opens in a new tab) offers three set-ups: managed by 11x, built to your spec ("You set the tone, approval thresholds, escalation rules, and send windows", which it says is where most customers land), or fully self-configured. It also previews real research and messages for sample leads before anything is sent. Deliverability is covered with auto-cycling mailboxes and automatic warm-up. 11x does not publish prices or contract terms; its site asks you to book a demo. Its homepage lists HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive among its integrations.
Best for: teams that want one vendor across outbound, inbound and expansion, on voice as well as email. Works with Coco: 11x runs the outbound volume and Coco handles the research before, the CRM hygiene around and the follow-through after. See Coco + 11x.
Amplemarket
Amplemarket (opens in a new tab) leads with "Agents build your pipeline. Your team closes it." Its Duo layer prepares the outreach and, in its own words, "Your reps review, refine, and start conversations across email, calls, and social." The Duo page (opens in a new tab) calls it "Human in the loop by design", says Duo "never sends or changes things without visibility", and leaves the rep to decide whether to hit send or dismiss a prepared sequence. Its homepage says reps review replies drafted by Duo Inbox before sending. Deliverability tooling (mailbox warm-up, a domain health center, a spam checker) is part of the platform. The pricing page (opens in a new tab) lists Startup at $600 a month on an annual term with two users, Growth and Elite as custom, and a free trial on all plans.
Best for: sales teams that want a full outbound platform with data, sequences and a rep reviewing prepared outreach before it starts.
Artisan
Artisan (opens in a new tab) sells Ava, "the autonomous AI BDR", which finds leads, writes and sends personalized multi-channel sequences, handles replies and books meetings. Its Ava page (opens in a new tab) says you can "Run a campaign in approval mode or let her send", chosen per campaign, with controls to lock tone, CTAs and length, set budget caps and approve targeting changes. Campaigns run on email and social, with calls queued to your dialer, and Ava syncs with Salesforce and HubSpot. Artisan says Ava is free to start. The pricing page (opens in a new tab) sizes paid plans to lead volume, mailboxes and dialer seats with sales: Team at about 2,500 leads contacted a month, Scale at about 6,000, and custom Enterprise, with no paid-plan prices or contract terms published.
Best for: teams that want an agent to run outbound end to end and are ready to let it send once they trust it. Works with Coco: Ava runs the sequences and Coco covers the GTM work around them. See Coco + Artisan.
Regie.ai
Regie.ai (opens in a new tab) now sells RegieGO, "The fastest path from ICP to pipeline": agents find contacts, research reasons to reach out and prepare emails and call scripts in your voice. Its homepage says "Nothing sends or dials unless you tell it to", and mail goes from your own Gmail or Outlook. Channels are email and phone, with a built-in parallel dialer and a free built-in CRM (or HubSpot and Salesforce). The pricing page (opens in a new tab) lists Free (250 one-time credits per person), Pro at $49 a month or $41 a month billed annually, Team at $150 per seat a month or $125 per seat billed annually with a two-seat minimum, and custom Enterprise. Pro and Team are "self-serve with no contract."
Best for: founders and small teams that want month-to-month pricing and a person approving every send. Our Coco vs Regie.ai page compares it with Coco in detail.
At a glance
| AI SDR | Approval model, per the vendor | Pricing model | Contract terms published | Channels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11x | Approval thresholds you set (built-to-spec setup); sample-message preview before launch | Not published; book a demo | Not published | Voice, chat, email, social, SMS, WhatsApp |
| Amplemarket | Reps review prepared outreach and decide to send; Duo Inbox replies reviewed before sending | Plans by users and contacts; Startup $600/mo | Startup on an annual term; free trial | Email, calls, social, plus WhatsApp and SMS |
| Artisan | Approval mode or autonomous, per campaign; autonomous by default | Free to start; paid plans scoped with sales by lead volume, mailboxes, dialer seats | Not published | Email, social, calls queued to a dialer |
| Regie.ai | Nothing sends or dials until you say so | Free; Pro $49/mo ($41 annual); Team $150/seat/mo ($125 annual), 2-seat minimum | Pro and Team: no contract | Email, phone |
Where Coco fits (our product, not ranked)
Coco is not an AI SDR, and it is not on the list above for that reason. It is an AI co-worker for GTM teams: it researches accounts, drafts outreach and follow-ups, preps meetings, segments lists and keeps the CRM clean, as multi-step strategies you can author, version and roll back.
- Approval-first by design. Coco asks before risky steps, and customer-facing actions such as sending a sequence sit behind a hard approval floor that cannot be bypassed. Once you approve a workflow, it can run on its own inside the guardrails you set. See AI with approval gates.
- Works alongside an AI SDR. Coco integrates with 11x and Artisan: the AI SDR runs the outbound volume, and Coco handles the research before it, the CRM hygiene around it and the follow-through after a meeting is booked.
- Priced by the work, not the seat. Coco is in private beta. After approval it is free with your own API keys, or a paid plan: Founder is $40 a month for 5,000 credits and Team is custom. See pricing.
Consider Coco if you want one agent for the GTM work around outbound, with your approval on anything that reaches a customer. Pick an AI SDR instead if outbound volume is the bottleneck and you want an agent built for that one job. Coco is pre-launch, so there are no customer case studies to cite.
The short version
If you are replacing an AI SDR because it sent things you would not have, pick one where approval is the default (Regie.ai, Amplemarket) turn on Artisan's per-campaign approval mode, or ask 11x how its approval thresholds apply before a message goes out. If the problem was the contract, Regie.ai is the only one of the four that publishes month-to-month terms. If the problem was that pipeline was never the only job, look at an AI co-worker alongside or instead.
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