Needle vs Woodpecker
Needle and Woodpecker are both sales engagement & outbound tools. Needle is aimed at agencies and small businesses, while Woodpecker is aimed at small businesses and agencies. Woodpecker costs less, from $35/mo versus $69/mo for Needle. Both have a free plan.
Outbound engine you run from Claude, ChatGPT or Slack via MCP
Cold email automation priced by contacted prospects, not seats
| Pricing | Paid · $69 | Paid · $35 |
| Starting price | $69/mo | $35/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days |
| Built for | Agencies, Small businesses, Freelancers | Small businesses, Agencies, Freelancers |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | DE | PL · 2015 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Needle if
Founders, small sales teams and agencies that want to run multichannel outbound by prompting the AI assistant they already use.
- No lead credits or per-lead charges
- Works from the AI assistant your team already uses
- Human approval step before messages go out
Look elsewhere if: Teams that need a large verified B2B contact database or mature email deliverability tooling (Apollo, lemlist, Instantly).
Choose Woodpecker if
B2B teams and agencies that send moderate volumes of cold email and want deliverability safeguards built in.
- Unlimited mailboxes and team members on every tier
- Strong deliverability tooling included at no extra cost
- Annual billing saves about a third of the monthly price
Look elsewhere if: High-volume senders who want flat unlimited-contact plans (Instantly, Smartlead) or a full sales intelligence suite (Apollo).
Needle vs Woodpecker pricing
Needle
- Free Trial$07 days, 1 connected account, no card required
- Pro$69/account/mo1 to 10 accounts; unlimited campaigns, inbox and API
- Agency$34/account/moFor accounts 11 to 50; first 10 at $69; white-label
- EnterpriseCustom51+ accounts, custom rates, dedicated deployment
Woodpecker
- Free trial$014 days or 100 cold emails, all features, no card
- 500 prospects$35/mo$280/yr billed annually; 8,000 emails/mo, 2 warm-ups
- 2,000 prospects$67/mo$536/yr billed annually; 32,000 emails/mo, 6 warm-ups
- 10,000 prospects$188/mo$1,504/yr billed annually; 160,000 emails/mo, 20 warm-ups
- LinkedIn add-on$29/account/moInvites, profile visits, DMs and InMails in email sequences
Needle · Key features
- MCP server that runs outbound from Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or Cursor
- Lead lists from LinkedIn, Instagram and Places business listings
- Finds people engaging with competitors' posts
- Multichannel sequences across LinkedIn, Instagram and email with branching
- Per-account daily limits, human-like pacing and sender warm-up
- Suppression of customers, open deals and recently contacted leads
Cons
- WhatsApp and SMS channels are not live yet
- No named CRM integrations on the website
- LinkedIn and Instagram automation can risk account restrictions
Woodpecker · Key features
- Condition-based sequences that branch on opens, clicks and replies
- Free warm-up, inbox rotation and adaptive sending limits
- Unlimited email verification including catch-all addresses
- Deliverability Monitor and domain audit for SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Lead Finder database with 100 free credits on every plan
- Unified inbox for replies across all connected mailboxes
Cons
- Contacted-prospect pricing gets expensive at high volume
- CRM integrations and API sit behind a $20/month add-on
- LinkedIn automation costs $29 per connected account
Needle vs Woodpecker: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Needle or Woodpecker?
Woodpecker starts at $35/mo and Needle at $69/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Needle and Woodpecker have a free plan?
Yes, both Needle and Woodpecker have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.