Cold Emailing
Feb 21, 2026
CEO and co-founder
Cold Email Service Provider Myths vs Facts: Debunking Common Misconceptions
Updated February 9, 2026
TL;DR: Most cold email infrastructure advice is expensive marketing, not operational math. Google Workspace at $7-8 per inbox costs agencies $350-420/month for just 50 inboxes, while flat-rate platforms charge $129/month for unlimited inboxes on dedicated IPs. Shared IP pools expose you to "neighbor risk" where one bad sender tanks everyone's deliverability. Manual DNS setup wastes hours on busywork that takes minutes with automation. The protocols are standard.
Three new clients add $6,000-15,000 in monthly retainer revenue. Before you send a single email, Google Workspace charges an extra $168/month for the 20 inboxes you need. Net margin drops from 18% to 14%.
This is the infrastructure math most agency owners never see until the bill arrives. And it gets worse as you scale.
The cold email infrastructure market is full of claims that sound reasonable but cost you thousands in unnecessary spend. "You need Google to land in primary." "Shared IPs blend in better." "Flat-rate means low quality." Each myth protects someone's margin, and it's not yours.
I'm going to walk through the five most expensive myths in cold email infrastructure and show you the operational reality behind each one. No affiliate links. Just spreadsheets.
Myth #1: Google Workspace is the only safe option for cold email
The myth: You must pay Google $7-8 per user to reach the primary inbox. Anything else is spam infrastructure.
The fact: Email protocols (SMTP, IMAP) are universal standards. A properly authenticated Microsoft inbox delivers just as effectively as a Google one. The difference is pricing structure, not inbox placement rates.
Google Workspace Business Starter costs $7 per user/month on annual billing. Business Standard runs $14 per user. Here's what that looks like at scale:
Inbox Count | Google Starter | Google Standard | Our Flat-Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
50 inboxes | $350/month | $700/month | $129/month |
100 inboxes | $700/month | $1,400/month | $129/month |
200 inboxes | $1,400/month | $2,800/month | $129/month |
At 50 inboxes, you save $221-571/month by switching to flat-rate infrastructure. That's $2,652-6,852 annually on infrastructure alone, before you count domain costs or warmup tools.
"Saved me hundreds of dollars every month in google workspace prices & countless hours in setup times and headaches." - Verified user review of Inframail
The technical reality is that both Google and Microsoft use identical authentication protocols. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC don't care about brand names. They verify that your email actually came from your domain. Our Ultimate Cold Email Infrastructure Guide breaks down exactly how these protocols work across providers.
With Google and Microsoft implementing stricter anti-spam measures, the gap between their deliverability and good SMTP providers has narrowed significantly. Technical setup and proper authentication matter more than your choice of sending infrastructure.
We're built on Microsoft's cloud platform with an enterprise partnership covered by GMass in January 2024. You're paying Google for the brand name, not for better inbox placement.
Myth #2: Shared IPs are safer because you blend in with the crowd
The myth: Using a shared IP pool lets you "hide" among thousands of senders, making your emails look more legitimate.
The fact: Shared IPs work like carpool lanes where you're affected by other drivers. One bad actor spamming gets the whole range flagged, and your deliverability tanks even though you did nothing wrong.
This phenomenon is called the "neighborhood effect" or "neighbor risk." When another sender on your shared IP engages in poor practices, mailbox providers blacklist the entire IP range. Your perfectly written, properly targeted cold emails start bouncing or landing in spam because someone you've never met decided to blast purchased lists.
Shared infrastructure creates three core problems: zero visibility into who shares your IP pool, no control over reputation damage from others' poor practices, and delayed detection when deliverability drops. Our video on dedicated IP vs. shared IP pools shows real examples of deliverability drops caused by neighbor contamination.
Dedicated IPs work like private lanes. Your sending behavior alone determines your reputation. If your emails are relevant and properly warmed, your reputation improves. If you make mistakes, you can fix them without waiting for strangers to clean up their act.
The trade-off: Dedicated IPs require warmup. According to SparkPost's documentation, new IPs need 4-8 weeks of gradual volume increases to establish positive reputation. Even shared pools benefit from reputation building, and gradual ramp-up is still recommended for domain reputation. For agencies building long-term client relationships, the warmup investment pays off in stable, predictable deliverability. Our warmup guide covers the exact process.
"Rock-solid infrastructure, sharp support, genuinely dependable." - Verified user review of Inframail
We provide 1 dedicated US-based IP on the Unlimited Plan and 3 dedicated IPs on the Agency Pack. Your sending reputation stays isolated from other users entirely.
Myth #3: Setting up authentication records takes days of manual work
The myth: You must manually log into Namecheap, GoDaddy, or Cloudflare to create SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for every domain. DNS propagation takes 24-48 hours. Budget significant weekly hours for infrastructure maintenance.
The fact: This is 2006-era busywork that APIs automated years ago. The only reason agencies still do it manually is because nobody told them they could stop.
Manual DNS setup means logging into each registrar, copying record values, waiting for propagation, and testing before launch. For agencies managing 50+ domains across multiple clients, this administrative burden compounds quickly.
We automate this entire workflow. Buy or transfer a domain, let auto-configuration handle SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records instantly, provision unlimited inboxes under your dedicated IP, export CSV credentials with IMAP/SMTP ready for your sending platform, then import to Instantly, Smartlead, or your preferred tool. Our 2-minute setup tutorial shows the actual elapsed time for 10+ inboxes.
"I personally have over 1,000 email accounts with Inframail for one flat price. Adding all those records would have probably taken dozens of hours. Instead all records were added within 10 minutes." - Verified user review of Inframail
For a step-by-step walkthrough, the InfraMail Setup Tutorial from Shivam Gupta covers the exact process with real screen recordings.
Time reclaimed: If you manage 50 domains and automation saves even 10 hours monthly on DNS configuration, that's 120 hours annually. At a conservative $50/hour opportunity cost (client-facing work), that's $6,000 in recovered capacity for sales calls and strategy sessions.
Myth #4: Flat-rate pricing means poor deliverability
The myth: "You get what you pay for." Cheap infrastructure equals spammy infrastructure. Premium pricing signals premium quality.
The fact: Cloud infrastructure makes flat-rate pricing viable without cutting corners. The marginal cost of spinning up a virtual inbox is near zero once the infrastructure exists. You're paying for platform access, automation, and support, not per-inbox server load.
This myth persists because some budget providers do use bad IPs. But the pricing model isn't the problem. Infrastructure quality is.
Quality Indicator | Good Infrastructure | Problematic Infrastructure |
|---|---|---|
IP Type | Dedicated (isolated reputation) | Shared pool (neighbor risk) |
Authentication | Automated SPF/DKIM/DMARC | Manual or partial setup |
Monitoring | Real-time blacklist tracking | No visibility |
Support | Responsive human help | Ticket queues or none |
We're built on Microsoft's cloud platform. The infrastructure delivers 9.5/10 on Mail-Tester and 88% inbox rates via GMass testing.
"Outstanding deliverability backed by personable, professional support. 1 on 1 with co-founder was extremely helpful to learning more about deliverability and proper infrastructure set up." - Verified user review of Inframail
The key differentiator is what you're paying for. Google charges per-seat because that's their enterprise licensing model. Flat-rate providers charge for platform access because the marginal cost of additional inboxes approaches zero.
"Best in class customer support... So affordable that it will make your unit economics work, even for lower ticket b2b businesses like ours." - Verified user review of Inframail
Our guide on telling if campaign emails are going to spam explains the actual metrics that determine inbox placement, none of which correlate with how much you pay per inbox.
Myth #5: Your infrastructure provider needs AI writing and warmup tools
The myth: Choose an ESP based on bundled features like AI writers, warmup networks, and sequence builders. More features equal better value.
The fact: Infrastructure should be boring and specialized. Sending platforms handle campaign logic, AI, and warmup. Infrastructure handles the plumbing.
Bundling features often means compromising on core infrastructure quality. A provider trying to build AI copywriting, warmup networks, lead databases, and inbox management simultaneously has divided engineering focus. The result is mediocre performance across all features instead of excellence in one.
The optimal stack separates infrastructure providers (domains, IPs, DNS), sending platforms (campaigns, analytics), warmup tools (reputation), and data providers (contacts). Each tool does one thing well. You pay for what you need. When providers bundle warmup into infrastructure pricing, you often pay for capacity you don't use or get warmup that underperforms dedicated tools.
"The setup is ridiculously fast. SPF, DKIM, DMARC, forwarding - all handled in literally seconds without me having to dig through docs or guess what records to add." - Verified user review of Inframail
We focus on infrastructure automation and integrate cleanly with any sending platform. Export your CSV credentials and import to Instantly, Smartlead, or your preferred tool. We don't try to replace your sending software.
For warmup specifically, our domain warmup guide covers how to use dedicated warmup tools alongside infrastructure setup.
The math: Comparing TCO across 50, 100, and 200 inboxes
Here's the total cost of ownership breakdown for running cold email infrastructure at agency scale. This includes platform fees, domain costs at $10-16/year average, and warmup tools.
Cost Component | Google Workspace | Maildoso (Shared IP) | Inframail (Dedicated IP) |
|---|---|---|---|
50 Inboxes | |||
Platform | $350/month | ~$95-155/month | $129/month |
Domains (amortized) | ~$68/month | ~$68/month | ~$68/month |
Warmup tools | ~$75-150/month | ~$160/month add-on | ~$75-150/month |
Total | $493-568 | $323-383 | $272-347 |
100 Inboxes | |||
Platform | $700/month | ~$190-310/month | $129/month |
Domains (amortized) | ~$137/month | ~$137/month | ~$137/month |
Warmup tools | ~$150-300/month | ~$320/month add-on | ~$150-300/month |
Total | $987-1,137 | $647-767 | $416-566 |
200 Inboxes | |||
Platform | $1,400/month | ~$380-620/month | $129/month |
Domains (amortized) | ~$274/month | ~$274/month | ~$274/month |
Warmup tools | ~$300-600/month | ~$640/month add-on | ~$300-600/month |
Total | $1,974-2,274 | $1,294-1,534 | $703-1,003 |
Warmup costs based on pricing for 50-200 inbox capacity across Warmbox, Folderly, and Lemwarm. Per-inbox costs from *Maildoso pricing breakdown.*
At 200 inboxes, our infrastructure saves approximately $1,271/month versus Google Workspace and over $591/month versus per-inbox competitors. That's over $15,000 annually in infrastructure savings that drops directly to your net margin.
For detailed ROI calculations, the cold email infrastructure ROI calculator lets you plug in your specific numbers.
What agency owners should do next
Cost: Per-inbox pricing works against you as you scale. Google Workspace at 200 inboxes costs $1,400/month in platform fees alone. Flat-rate infrastructure keeps your cost at $129/month whether you have 50 or 500 inboxes.
Control: Shared IPs expose you to neighbor risk where strangers' bad sending behavior tanks your deliverability. Dedicated IPs require 4-8 weeks of warmup but give you complete control over your sending reputation.
Automation: Manual DNS configuration is billable hours you're burning on busywork. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup can happen in seconds with API automation. The cold email delivery video shows exactly how authentication affects inbox placement.
Action steps:
Calculate your current cost-per-inbox across all clients
Test dedicated IPs on a 10-20 domain pilot before full migration
Stop manual DNS entry immediately and use automated platforms
Frequently asked questions
Do dedicated IPs require longer warmup times than shared pools?
Yes. Dedicated IPs need 4-8 weeks to establish positive reputation. The long-term stability and control over your reputation makes this investment worthwhile for agencies running ongoing campaigns.
Can I use Inframail with Instantly or Smartlead?
Yes. Export your inbox credentials to CSV, then import to any compatible sending platform. The process takes minutes.
What happens if my dedicated IP gets blacklisted?
Our deliverability monitoring dashboard tracks blacklist status in real-time. We auto-submit delisting requests when domains are flagged.
Is flat-rate pricing really unlimited?
Yes. $129/month covers the platform fee for unlimited inboxes. You pay separately for domains ($5-16/year each) and your chosen warmup and sending tools. The FAQ covers plan details.
How fast can I actually set up 50 domains?
Customer testimonials consistently report 10-15 minute setup times for dozens of accounts. The setup video shows real elapsed time with no editing, matching the workflow described in Myth #3.
Key terms glossary
SPF (Sender Policy Framework): A DNS record that lists all IP addresses authorized to send email from your domain. Think of it like a publicly available employee directory that confirms whether a sender actually works for the organization.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): A cryptographic signature that verifies your email hasn't been modified in transit. DKIM acts like certified mail, providing additional trust beyond just the return address.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): A policy telling receiving servers what to do when SPF or DKIM verification fails. DMARC specifies whether failed emails get marked as spam, delivered anyway, or rejected entirely.
Dedicated IP: An IP address used exclusively by one sender. Your sending behavior alone determines your reputation.
Neighbor risk: The danger of sharing an IP with other senders whose poor practices can tank your deliverability through blacklisting.
TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): The complete cost of running infrastructure including platform fees, domain costs, warmup tools, and sending platform subscriptions.
Ready to cut your infrastructure costs and reclaim hours spent on DNS configuration? Sign up to Inframail and get started today.
