# lemlist

> Runs cold outreach across email, LinkedIn, phone and SMS as a single sequence, manages the sending mailboxes and their deliverability, and writes replies, opt-outs and booked meetings back onto the contact record.

- Vendor: LEMPIRE SAS, Paris (RCS Paris 823 475 082)
- Canonical URL: https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox/lemlist
- Language version: https://www.convios.com/de/werkzeugkasten/lemlist
- Area: Go-to-market & sales · Cluster: outbound sequences
- Role: Off-the-shelf product · Origin: Established, AI retrofitted
- As of: 2026-07-30 · Reviewed: 2026-07-30 · Author: Dr. Oliver Gausmann, Convios GmbH
- Toolbox: https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox — Markdown: https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox.md

## Verdict

Efficiency only: A sequencing tool makes nobody distinguishable, because competitors use the same category and often the same vendors. But running cold outreach without that layer means losing control over deliverability, opt-outs and reply attribution, and that is where the expensive mistakes happen, because personal data of non-customers is being processed. So it keeps you from falling behind, and it creates no edge.

## Suitability by company size

- Solo: suitable — The entry plan is a flat 69 US dollars a month and does not cap the number of users. One person can send 50,000 emails a month without doing any seat math.
- Mid-market: suitable — As soon as LinkedIn, calling and SMS come into play, the model switches to 109 US dollars per user per month. For a five-person sales team that stays predictable, as long as credit-based enrichment does not turn into a second line item.
- Enterprise: suitable with caveats — Single sign-on with SAML and custom roles only appear in the quoted Enterprise plan from five users up. More serious: the vendor states in writing that it will not sign a customer's own data processing agreement, which routinely halts a corporate vendor review.

## Vendor staying power

Established: The legal entity has been on the Paris commercial register since November 2016 and operates without venture funding. The Claap acquisition in October 2025 was, by the company's own account, an eight-figure deal paid from its own cash, which points to a load-bearing revenue stream.

- Legal entity and registration: LEMPIRE SAS, RCS Paris 823 475 082, registered on 1 November 2016, registered office 128 rue La Boétie, 75008 Paris (source: https://annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr/entreprise/lempire-823475082, as of 2026-07-30)
- Annual recurring revenue: around USD 35 million according to trade press, as of October 2025 (source: https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/sales-engagement-platform-lemlist-acquires-ai-platform-claap/50632/, as of 2026-07-30)
- Funding: no venture capital; the acquisition of Claap in October 2025 was an eight-figure deal funded from its own means (source: https://www.lemlist.com/blog/lemlist-just-spent-over-15m-to-buy-ai-sales-intelligence-platform-claap, as of 2026-07-30)
- Customer count: more than 20,000 companies according to trade press, as of October 2025 (source: https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/sales-engagement-platform-lemlist-acquires-ai-platform-claap/50632/, as of 2026-07-30)
- Audit report: SOC 2 Type 2 listed in the public trust portal, along with 57 documented controls (source: https://trust.lemlist.com, as of 2026-07-30)

## Cost of leaving

Moderate: Contacts and campaign results can be pulled out as CSV and through the API, but only campaign by campaign since the cross-campaign bulk export was removed. What does not come with you is the actual value: the warmed-up sending reputation of the mailboxes, the reply history in the shared inbox, and the sequence logic. Then there is the contract: the terms state that an annual minimum fee is neither cancelable nor refundable, and unused credits expire.

## Regulation and data

| Point | Finding | Evidence | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data processing agreement | own document, signable electronically; customer-supplied agreements are refused — The vendor provides its own Article 28 data processing agreement for electronic signature and states plainly that it will not sign agreements supplied by customers. | evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| Storage location | OVH, France — The terms name OVH, with its address in Roubaix, as the host. The privacy policy states the servers sit exclusively inside the European Union. The help centre narrows this to France and the European Economic Area. | evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| Subprocessors | no public subprocessor list — The terms refer anyone wanting the subprocessor list to a request to the data protection officer. The only processors named publicly are website and marketing services such as Intercom, HubSpot, Segment and Amplitude, not the services behind the application itself. | partially evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| Third-country transfer | unclear — The help centre says no personal data is processed outside the European Economic Area. At the same time the privacy policy keeps standard contractual clauses ready for transfers, and the terms permit the use of Amazon Web Services. Those three statements do not line up, so the question belongs in the contract. | partially evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| Training on customer data | unclear — Neither the terms nor the privacy policy state whether campaign copy, incoming replies or contact data feed model training. Since the product ships AI features for research and copywriting, the question is open and belongs in the contract talks. | not evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| Retention and deletion | up to 3 years after the account is closed — The privacy policy names at most three years after account closure for service data, and the statutory limitation period, typically five years, for evidentiary data. The terms promise deletion of confidential material within thirty days of termination but explicitly carve out backup copies. | partially evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| Certifications | SOC 2 Type 2 — The public trust portal lists a SOC 2 Type 2 report and 57 documented controls. No ISO 27001 certificate of the vendor's own is listed there. The terms mention ISO 27001 merely as an example of industry-standard controls, which is not evidence of certification. | partially evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| EU AI Act, Article 50 | the vendor classifies its own AI feature as a limited-risk system — The terms describe Lead Finder explicitly as a limited-risk AI system. That is precisely the category the Article 50 transparency duties attach to, which take effect from August 2026. How the vendor implements those duties is not stated. | partially evidenced | 2026-07-30 |
| Audit logging | unclear — The trust portal lists internal controls for change and access management. Whether the customer can inspect and export an auditable log of access and changes, and in which plan, is not publicly substantiated. | not evidenced | 2026-07-30 |

## Cost

- Entry: The Email plan is a flat 69 US dollars a month, 55 on annual billing, and includes unlimited users plus 50,000 emails a month. The Multichannel plan costs 109 US dollars per user per month, 87 on annual billing. (as of 2026-07-30)
- Where it gets expensive: In three places. First on channels: LinkedIn, calling and SMS only start at Multichannel, and there every user counts separately. Second on credits: one credit costs 0.01 US dollars, a verified email address costs five credits, a phone number twenty, an intent signal between twenty and four hundred. Enriching 5,000 phone numbers adds 1,000 US dollars. Third on the contract: the terms make the annual minimum fee non-cancelable and non-refundable, and unused credits expire without compensation.

## Three routes compared

### Sequences inside the CRM you already have

Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive ship their own sequence features. The advantage is that contact, history and revenue stay in one system, and no second store of personal data appears. The price is a weaker delivery layer: mailbox rotation, warm-up and reply detection are side features there, not the core job.

### Research agent plus a separate sending layer

Tools like Clay or a self-built agent research each contact and write the copy, while sending then runs through a specialised service. This lifts the hit rate noticeably, but it does not replace the delivery layer, it presupposes it. Buying both from one vendor saves a seam. Splitting them buys replaceability.

### Your own sending over a mail API

Technically this is not a big build: Amazon SES, Postmark or Resend do the sending, and your own store holds contacts, steps and replies. What makes it expensive is not the sending but everything beside it: opt-out logic, bounce handling, mailbox rotation, reply detection, and the record of who objected and when. Worth it only when outbound is part of the product itself.

Recommendation by size:

- Solo: Buy the entry plan, do not build.
- Mid-market: Buy, but model the credit spend before signing an annual deal.
- Enterprise: Settle the refused customer DPA with legal first, then decide.

## Context

- Implements method: [Predictable Revenue / Cold Calling 2.0](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/predictable-revenue) — The separate qualifying role only becomes plannable once sequences, sending mailboxes and replies come together in one place, and that is the layer lemlist provides.
- Implements method: [The Core Four](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/core-four) — In the method's checklist logic lemlist occupies outreach to strangers and makes it countable, so it becomes visible whether that route is really staffed or merely claimed.
- Implements method: [Inbound-Led Warm Outbound (95/5 Map)](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/inbound-led-warm-outbound) — The method wants outreach to start from a signal, and lemlist is where that signal turns into a sequence and the reply lands back on the contact.
- Displaces: Mail merge out of a personal inbox, A spreadsheet as the follow-up reminder, Separate tools for email, LinkedIn and calling

## Evidence

- Plan prices, sending limits, credit costs and Enterprise minimum size — https://www.lemlist.com/pricing (as of 2026-07-30)
- Legal entity, OVH as host, retention, non-cancelable annual minimum fee, classification of Lead Finder as a limited-risk AI system — https://www.lemlist.com/legal/terms (as of 2026-07-30)
- Server location in the European Union, retention periods, standard contractual clauses for transfers — https://www.lemlist.com/legal/privacy-policy (as of 2026-07-30)
- Storage exclusively within the European Economic Area on servers in France at OVH — https://help.lemlist.com/en/articles/10213761-how-lemlist-handles-gdpr-compliance (as of 2026-07-30)
- Own data processing agreement for signature, customer agreements are refused — https://www.lemlist.com/legal/dpa (as of 2026-07-30)
- SOC 2 Type 2 report and 57 documented controls in the public trust portal — https://trust.lemlist.com (as of 2026-07-30)