Comparison
Feb 24, 2026
CEO and co-founder
Cold Email Service Provider Pricing: TCO Comparison at 50, 100, 200 Inbox Scale
Updated February 9, 2025
TL;DR: Per-seat pricing from Google Workspace creates a "success tax" that punishes agencies for growing. At 50 inboxes, you pay $350-420/month just for email hosting. At 200 inboxes, that climbs to $1,400-1,680/month. Inframail's flat-rate model charges $129/month whether you run 50 or 500 inboxes, saving agencies $2,600-18,000+ annually depending on scale. True infrastructure cost includes platform fees, domain costs, warmup tools, and your sending platform. This guide shows exactly where your margins leak and how to plug them.
At 50 inboxes, Google Workspace costs $350-420/month just for email hosting. At 200 inboxes, that number hits $1,680/month. You are paying the equivalent of a junior employee's salary to host email.
The per-seat pricing model creates what I call the "success tax." Every client you add increases your infrastructure spend in lockstep with revenue. You cannot outgrow the cost curve.
For agencies managing 50 to 200 inboxes, this pricing structure breaks your unit economics. This guide breaks down the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of cold email infrastructure, comparing Google Workspace and Inframail across three growth stages to show you exactly where your margins are leaking.
The "success tax": Why per-inbox pricing breaks agency margins
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 were designed for businesses where each employee needs one inbox. They work well for that use case. Cold email agencies are not that use case.
When you run cold outreach, you need multiple domains and multiple inboxes per client to maintain deliverability and protect your primary brand. According to Instantly's cold email strategy guide, best practice recommends limiting email accounts per domain to avoid spam triggers. A 10-client agency can quickly need 50-100+ inboxes just to follow basic deliverability hygiene.
Here is where the economics break down. Google Workspace Business Starter costs $7 per user per month on an annual plan, or $8.40 monthly without commitment. That pricing model creates the success tax. Every client you add increases your infrastructure spend in lockstep with revenue.
Flat-rate infrastructure flips this dynamic. Your platform fee becomes a fixed cost that shrinks as a percentage of revenue with each new client. This is the fundamental difference between scaling an agency and just growing one.
"So affordable that it will make your unit economics work, even for lower ticket b2b businesses like ours" - Verified user review of Inframail (where we have 38 5-star reviews)
At $129/month for unlimited inboxes, our cost as a percentage of billings drops with every client you add. For a video walkthrough of how this works in practice, check out our Ultimate Cold Email Infrastructure Guide for 2025.
The 4 hidden costs in your cold email stack
When agencies compare infrastructure providers, they often look at the sticker price alone. That is like comparing car prices without accounting for insurance, fuel, and maintenance. The true cost of cold email infrastructure has four components:
Platform fees: What you pay to host your inboxes. Per-seat providers charge for each mailbox. According to current Google Workspace pricing, Business Starter runs $7-8.40 per user depending on commitment length. Flat-rate providers like Inframail charge a single monthly fee regardless of inbox count. Our Unlimited Plan costs $129/month with one dedicated US-based IP, while the Agency Pack runs $327/month with three dedicated IPs per GMass's cold email infrastructure review.
Domain costs: You need separate domains for cold email to protect your primary brand. Domain registration typically costs $16.44 per year for .com domains, with renewal prices often higher than first-year promotional rates. For 50 domains, budget approximately $500-750 annually ($42-62/month amortized). According to Shopify's domain pricing guide, you can expect to pay $12-20 per year for standard .com registrations.
Warmup tools: New inboxes have no sending reputation. Without warmup, your emails land in spam immediately. Warmbox starts at $15/month per inbox for 50 daily warmup emails. Lemwarm charges $29/month per inbox for their Essential package. Warmup Inbox runs $19/month per inbox or $15 with annual billing. Here is a critical distinction: Inframail does not include warmup in the platform fee. You need to factor in external warmup costs or use a sending platform with bundled warmup. We keep the infrastructure cost low and let you choose your warmup solution.
Sending platform: The sending tool actually dispatches your campaigns. Instantly starts at $37/month and includes unlimited warmup. Smartlead runs $39-94/month depending on volume. These costs exist regardless of your infrastructure provider.
Cost Component | Per-Seat Model (Google) | Flat-Rate Model (Inframail) |
|---|---|---|
Platform Fee | $7-8.40/inbox/month | $129/month (unlimited) |
Domain Costs | Same | Same |
Warmup Tools | External required | External required |
Sending Platform | Same | Same |
For detailed guidance on warming up inboxes after setup, our help center explains how to warm up your inboxes after migrating to Inframail.
TCO showdown: Google Workspace vs. Inframail at scale
Let me show you the actual math across three scale tiers. These calculations assume annual domain costs of $16.44/domain, amortized monthly.
50 inboxes: The $200/month tipping point
At 50 inboxes, the gap between pricing models becomes significant. Here is the breakdown:
Cost Component | Google Workspace | Inframail |
|---|---|---|
Platform Fee | $350-420/month | $129/month |
Domain Costs (50 domains) | $68.50/month amortized | $68.50/month amortized |
External Warmup | Varies by tool | Varies by tool |
Infrastructure Subtotal | $418.50-488.50/month | $197.50/month |
The monthly savings with Inframail versus Google: $221-291/month, or $2,652-3,492 annually.
"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
100 inboxes: Where margins start to bleed
At 100 inboxes, the divergence accelerates:
Cost Component | Google Workspace | Inframail |
|---|---|---|
Platform Fee | $700-840/month | $129/month |
Domain Costs (100 domains) | $137/month amortized | $137/month amortized |
Infrastructure Subtotal | $837-977/month | $266/month |
Google's cost doubled from the 50-inbox tier. Inframail's platform fee stayed flat. That is the entire point. The monthly delta: $571-711 versus Google.
For agencies billing $2,500/month per client across 10 clients ($25,000 total), Google Workspace infrastructure at 100 inboxes represents 3.2-3.8% of billings. Inframail drops that to under 1%.
200 inboxes: The $15,000/year savings opportunity
At 200 inboxes, the numbers become stark:
Cost Component | Google Workspace | Inframail |
|---|---|---|
Platform Fee | $1,400-1,680/month | $129/month |
Domain Costs (200 domains) | $274/month amortized | $274/month amortized |
Infrastructure Subtotal | $1,674-1,954/month | $403/month |
The annual difference between Google and Inframail at 200 inboxes: $15,252-18,612. That is meaningful capital for hiring, marketing, or simply taking home as profit.
For a video demonstration of setting up infrastructure at scale, watch our tutorial on Cold Email Setup: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC showing 2-minute setup for 10+ inboxes.
The "time tax": Quantifying the cost of manual DNS setup
Money is only half the equation. Your time has a cost too.
Setting up a single cold email domain manually requires creating SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. According to DMARCLY's deployment guide, you can achieve basic setup in about an hour of active configuration work. DNS propagation then takes 15 to 80 minutes to verify the records, though full propagation can take up to 24 hours.
For 50 domains, the math looks like this:
Manual setup time: 15-20 minutes of active work per domain
Total time for 50 domains: 12.5-16.5 hours
Founder's hourly value: $100-150/hour conservatively
Opportunity cost: $1,250-2,475 per setup cycle
And you repeat this every time you add clients or rotate domains for deliverability maintenance.
Inframail automates SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration entirely. According to Infraforge's automation analysis, automated platforms cut DNS configuration time from hours to just minutes for multiple domains.
For a complete walkthrough, watch the InfraMail Setup Tutorial for Cold Email by Shivam Gupta showing the step-by-step process.
The time savings compound. Hours not spent in DNS panels can go toward sales calls, client strategy, or building systems that scale without adding headcount. Our help center details how to change sender names and download CSV files for quick export to your sending platform.
Dedicated IPs vs. shared pools: The deliverability cost
Deliverability is not a line item on your invoice, but poor inbox rates cost you clients. Understanding the IP infrastructure behind your email matters.
How shared IP pools work
According to Litmus's email IP comparison, with a shared IP, you send email from one of many IPs that your provider maintains. All companies using that provider cycle through the same addresses.
The problem: on a shared IP, you are only as good as the weakest sender in the pool. If another user sends spam or triggers complaints, that reputation damage affects everyone.
"If other senders on the shared IP are reckless (spammy lists, high complaint rates), it can drag down the IP reputation and affect your inbox placement" - Instantly's IP comparison guide
Google Workspace uses shared infrastructure. As noted in our Dedicated IP vs Shared IP analysis, Google does not provide dedicated IPs for sending emails. Your sending reputation depends partly on other users' behavior.
How dedicated IPs work
With a dedicated IP, your email always sends from the same static address, and your company is the only user at that address. Only your sending behavior determines your reputation with inbox providers.
We provide 1 dedicated US-based IP on the Unlimited Plan ($129/month) and 3 dedicated IPs on the Agency Pack ($327/month). Watch our Dedicated IP vs Shared IP Pools video for a detailed breakdown.
Think of it like lanes on a highway. You share carpool lanes with other drivers where one reckless person affects everyone's commute. Dedicated IPs give you a private lane where only your driving behavior matters.
The trade-off: dedicated IPs require a warmup period of 3-4 weeks before reaching optimal deliverability. You cannot piggyback on existing pool reputation. But once warmed, your results depend entirely on your own practices.
"Pretty solid deliverability compared to other platforms I've used in the past." - Verified user review of Inframail
For guidance on monitoring your campaign performance, read our help article on how to tell if your campaign emails are going to spam.
Verdict: Which infrastructure model fits your agency?
After running the numbers across three scale tiers, the decision criteria become clear.
Stay with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 if:
Low inbox count: At under 20 inboxes, the per-seat cost is manageable and may not justify switching costs or the learning curve.
Full productivity suite needed: Google Workspace includes Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and 30 GB pooled storage per person.
Mixed use cases: Your team uses Google accounts for business email, not just cold outreach. Mixing use cases makes dedicated infrastructure less practical.
Switch to Inframail if:
You manage 50+ inboxes and want to protect margins. According to our dedicated IP analysis, switch to dedicated infrastructure once you pass 20-30 inboxes to protect margins and eliminate shared pool risk. The savings exceed $2,600/year at 50 inboxes and scale from there.
You spend 10+ hours monthly on DNS configuration. Automated setup reclaims that time for revenue-generating activities.
You want dedicated IPs to control your sending reputation. Shared pools introduce variables outside your control.
You need to add clients without proportionally increasing infrastructure costs. Flat-rate pricing decouples growth from overhead.
"Inframail has been absolute gold in terms of delivering a great customer experience, and allowing me to spin up cold email infrastructure at scale for my clients as easily and fast as possible" - Verified user review of Inframail
"One of the best mailbox infra vendors I have ever used super easy and quick setup and support is practically 24/7 with at max a 2min wait to get a question answered." - Verified user review of Inframail
For additional perspective on building cost-effective infrastructure, watch I Built the Cheapest Cold Email Infrastructure by Beinn Yule or How to Send Millions of Cold Emails a Month for ⅓ the Cost by Ryan Redmond.
"We spent months hunting for a reliable cold-emailing stack. After repeated failures with another provider, we trialled two options—Inframail and a competitor. We chose the competitor. A month later, we switched back to Inframail. Zero issues since. Rock-solid infrastructure, sharp support, genuinely dependable." - Verified user review of Inframail
Sign up to Inframail and get started today.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest cold email infrastructure provider for agencies?
At 50+ inboxes, flat-rate providers like Inframail ($129/month unlimited) cost less than per-seat options like Google Workspace ($350-420/month for 50 users).
How does TCO apply to cold email infrastructure?
TCO includes four components: platform fees, domain costs ($16.44/year each), warmup tools ($15-29/inbox/month), and sending platforms ($37-94/month). Calculate all four to compare providers accurately.
Do I need a dedicated IP for cold email?
Dedicated IPs give you full control over sender reputation but require 3-4 weeks of warmup. For agencies running 50+ inboxes, dedicated IPs provide more predictable long-term results than shared pools.
What platforms work with Inframail inboxes?
We export IMAP/SMTP credentials via CSV that import directly into Instantly, Smartlead, and other major sending platforms. Our help docs cover what email platforms work with Inframail.
How do I calculate my email sending capacity?
Our help center provides detailed guidance on how to calculate your email sending capacity and choose the right plan.
Key terminology
Cost-per-inbox: Your total infrastructure spend divided by active inbox count. A critical metric for measuring efficiency as you scale.
DNS propagation: The time required for DNS record changes (like SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to spread across global servers. Typically takes 15-80 minutes for verification but can extend to 24 hours for full propagation.
Dedicated IP: A static IP address used exclusively by your organization for sending email. Your sending behavior alone determines reputation.
SPF/DKIM/DMARC: Email authentication protocols that verify sender identity and improve deliverability. SPF specifies authorized sending servers. DKIM adds cryptographic signatures. DMARC sets policies for handling authentication failures.
Shared IP pool: Multiple senders share the same IP addresses. Reputation depends on collective behavior of all users in the pool.
