Coco vs Artisan: which job each does, and how they fit together

Artisan sells Ava, an AI BDR: she finds leads in a database of 250M+ contacts, writes and sends personalized email and social sequences, queues calls for your reps, handles replies and books meetings, autonomous by default. Coco is an approval-first AI co-worker for GTM: it does the research, drafts, meeting prep and CRM work around the pipeline, and every customer-facing action waits for your approval. Ava runs outbound; Coco does the approved work around it.

Facts checked 2026-11-03 against Artisan's site (opens in a new tab), its Ava page (opens in a new tab), its pricing page (opens in a new tab) and its Artisan vs 11x page (opens in a new tab). Vendors change pricing and features often; check their site for current figures.

We make Coco, so read this as a partner's view, not a neutral one. Artisan is one of Coco's integrations, and for a team whose bottleneck is outbound volume, the honest answer is often to run both. This page is for the question buyers ask before that: which job does each one do?

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What Artisan is, in its own framing

Artisan calls Ava "the autonomous AI BDR built for enterprise": she "sources leads, writes personalized emails, handles replies, and books meetings on your reps' calendars." Its homepage (opens in a new tab) says Ava "runs in your stack, alongside your team," and that Artisan is "Trusted by 6,000+ sales teams, from startups to enterprise."

• Leads. The Ava page (opens in a new tab) says she "searches 250M+ verified B2B contacts across 200+ countries," enriches every prospect with intent signals such as hiring and funding, and builds the lists. The homepage says contacts are "enriched from 22+ sources," with website visitors and product data as signals too.
• Campaigns. Ava "ghostwrites hyper-personalized sequences," tests subject lines and send times, and, per the homepage, "runs dozens of message variations per campaign simultaneously." Artisan lists "20+ campaigns" in its library: cold outbound, CRM leads reactivation, closed lost follow-up, event follow-up, upsell and cross-sell.
• Channels. "Ava sends personalized multi-channel outreach across email and social. She queues call steps in the native dialer so your reps can click and dial without leaving the platform." Its FAQ is direct: "Ava cannot legally make calls"; she builds the list your reps dial, with context on each lead.
• Replies and meetings. "Ava reads every reply, handles objections, answers questions, and books qualified meetings directly on your calendar," with escalation rules that decide when a human gets pulled in.
• Who she sends as. The pricing FAQ (opens in a new tab) says "Ava sends in your reps' names, from your own sending domains."

Artisan's homepage also links to a separate product, Artie (opens in a new tab), pitched as "AI employees" you add to Slack. This page compares Coco with Ava, the AI BDR.

Where Artisan is the right call

Honest section. Artisan is the better choice when:

• Outbound volume is the bottleneck. Ava is built to run sequences across many leads on her own, test variations and shift volume toward what works. Coco is built for approved, research-heavy work, not for maximum send volume.
• You want the contact data built in. Ava searches Artisan's own 250M+ contact database. Coco works from your CRM and connected data tools such as Apollo, ZoomInfo and Clay.
• You want a dialer for your reps. Artisan's pricing page lists an "AI dialer add-on, per seat," with "a brief before and a distilled follow-up after" every call. Coco does not place or queue calls.
• You want a team to roll it out with you. Every Artisan plan includes "CSM support and onboarding," Scale adds a dedicated CSM, and Enterprise adds a "Forward-deployed strategist."
• You need a SOC 2 report today. Artisan's pricing page (opens in a new tab) says it is "SOC 2 Type II certified" and supports SSO / SAML and audit logs. Coco expects SOC 2 Type 2 in 2026 H2 and is not certified today.

Where Coco is the right call

An Artisan alternative where the AI drafts outreach and you approve every send is a tool where approval is the floor, not a mode you can switch off. Coco is that for the GTM work around the pipeline: every send waits for you, and the work covers more than outbound.

Approval on every customer-facing action, fixed rather than chosen per campaign. Artisan offers both: "Run a campaign in approval mode or let her send. Both are settings, not stages." Its Ava page (opens in a new tab) FAQ says Ava is "Fully autonomous by default" and that "Most teams start with approvals enabled, then go fully autonomous once they trust Ava's judgment." That is a sound model for a team that wants the agent to run once it trusts it. Coco applies one hard, no-bypass floor: every send, CRM write and Slack post waits for approval in every workflow. Once a workflow has proven itself, you can let it run on its own inside the guardrails you set, with every step logged. See AI with approval gates.

The work beyond outbound. Coco ships about twelve GTM workflows: research accounts, enrich contacts, draft cold outreach, automate follow-ups, prep sales meetings, clean CRM data, reactivate stalled deals, route leads and more. You describe the goal in chat, Coco proposes a plan with a credit estimate, and you approve it. Ava books the meeting; the brief before it, the follow-up after it and cleanup across the whole CRM are the work Coco takes on, each step approved. See AI SDR vs AI co-worker.

Published, small-team pricing. Coco's Founder plan is $40 a month with 5,000 credits, and the Hobby plan is free with your own API keys once your beta application is approved.

Your own domains, at the pace you review. Ava sends from your sending domains, as does Coco: it drafts into your Gmail and sends only what you approve. With Coco, volume never runs ahead of what someone has read.

How Artisan and Coco work together

Ava runs the sequences and books the meetings; Coco does the approved work around them. They meet in your shared CRM. Artisan's pricing FAQ (opens in a new tab) says "Salesforce and HubSpot sync bi-directionally, custom webhooks bring in your own data, and Slack keeps your team on top of performance," and its homepage says Ava "Respects your account owners."

A typical split:

The Coco + Artisan integration page covers the connection and the approval gate on each action.

Artisan and Coco side by side

Pricing: Artisan vs Coco

As of 2026-11-03, Artisan's pricing page (opens in a new tab) lists three plans: Team (about 2,500 leads contacted a month) and Scale (about 6,000), each marked "Pricing scoped on your plan," and Enterprise, marked "Custom," all with a "Talk to sales" button. Its FAQ says "Plans are sized to your lead volume, mailboxes, and dialer seats." The Ava page (opens in a new tab) says "Ava is free to start," and the Artisan vs 11x page (opens in a new tab) says "Free trial, no credit card, live in ~10 minutes. Plans from $250/mo, monthly, cancel anytime." Ask for the quote at your volume, and confirm the term, in writing.

Coco's pricing: Hobby $0 a month, free with your own API keys once your beta application is approved; Founder $40 a month with 5,000 credits plus top-ups; Team custom with pooled credits and admin audit. Typical costs are about 1-2 credits per record enriched, 4-6 credits per outreach draft and about 8 credits per pre-meeting brief. See Coco's pricing →.

If you run both, Coco's cost sits on top of Artisan's. Price it against the hours the work around Ava takes today: briefs, follow-ups and CRM cleanup.

Artisan, 11x and a human-in-the-loop option

Buyers often ask for Artisan and 11x together, and for a third option that keeps a person in the loop. Artisan's Ava (opens in a new tab) runs email and social sequences with calls queued for your reps, and covers CRM reactivation and upsell campaigns. 11x (opens in a new tab) also runs inbound and voice agents; see Coco vs 11x. A human-in-the-loop option is any tool where review before sending is the default. Our AI SDR alternatives page compares Artisan, 11x, Regie.ai and Amplemarket on who approves a send, pricing, contract terms and channels, each sourced to the vendor's own site. Coco is not an AI SDR, and it is listed there separately.

When to pick which

Pick Artisan if:

• Outbound volume is your constraint and you want an agent to find the leads and run the sequences.
• You want a contact database, sequencing, reply handling and a dialer for your reps in one platform.
• You want a CSM to roll it out with you, and you need a SOC 2 report today.

Pick Coco if:

• Your constraint is follow-through: research, drafts, meeting prep, CRM hygiene.
• You want every customer-facing action approved by default, in every workflow.
• You are a founder or small team that wants published pricing: $0 with your own API keys or $40 a month.

Run both if:

• Ava is already booking meetings and the work around them keeps slipping. Let Ava run the sequences and Coco handle the approved work around them: account briefs before, CRM hygiene around and follow-through after.

Get started

If you run Artisan today, hand Coco one job around it: the briefs for this week's meetings Ava booked, or a cleanup of the contacts she touched last month. Approve the plan and judge the output.

Apply for the beta → · Private beta · free with your own API keys, or a paid plan

Or see the Coco + Artisan integration →, or book a walkthrough call → (opens in a new tab).