11x or Artisan: the short answer
11x and Artisan are two of the best-known names among AI SDRs, and both promise software that prospects the way a sales development rep does. They package it differently. 11x sells 'digital workers': Alice for outbound prospecting and Julian for qualifying inbound leads in real time, including by phone. Artisan sells Ava, an AI BDR inside the Artisan platform, which bundles B2B lead data, email writing and sending; with Ava 2.0, Artisan made it self-serve.
Both companies ship quickly, so treat any feature list, including ours, as a snapshot and confirm the current scope on the vendor pages linked below. If the category itself is new to you, our explainer on what an AI SDR does is a quicker start.
- Choose 11x if inbound speed matters as much as outbound: demo requests wait hours for an answer, or the phone is part of how you qualify buyers.
- Choose Artisan if you mainly need outbound, want to start without a long sales process, and like having lead data, writing and sending in one product.
- Look elsewhere if your whole market is a few dozen named accounts, or your deals are worth less than a few hundred dollars. An AI SDR adds volume and speed, which helps little when the list is tiny or the price cannot carry outbound costs.
- Pilot either one on a defined segment, over a fixed period, with success measured in qualified meetings rather than emails sent.
11x vs Artisan at a glance
| 11x | Artisan | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI 'digital workers' for outbound and inbound sales | AI BDR (Ava) inside an outbound sales platform |
| Outbound | Alice researches prospects and runs outreach | Ava finds leads, researches them, writes and sends sequences |
| Inbound | Julian answers and qualifies inbound leads in real time, including by phone | Built around outbound prospecting |
| Lead data | Ask which sources Alice prospects from and how emails are verified | B2B lead data included, plus other data sets listed on its site |
| Deliverability | Ask how domains, inboxes and warmup are set up, and who owns them | Deliverability tooling is part of the platform; ask for specifics |
| Getting started | Ask for terms; 11x documents its model in a pricing overview | Self-serve since Ava 2.0 |
| Pricing model | Confirm term length and what counts as usage | Plans on Artisan's pricing page; check how lead volume is counted |
| Funding background | $50M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz (2024) | $25M Series A (2025) |
| Best for | Teams that want AI on outbound and inbound, including phone | Teams that want an all-in-one AI BDR with data included |
What is each company actually building?
11x: a team of digital workers
11x describes its products as digital workers, each with a role. Alice handles outbound: finding prospects, researching them and running outreach. Julian handles inbound: responding to and qualifying new leads in real time, including over the phone, so a demo request at 9 pm does not sit until morning. The 11x documentation treats speed to lead as a core use case for Julian. The pitch is breadth: one vendor for the top of the funnel, whichever direction a lead comes from. The company raised a $50M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2024 (TechCrunch).
Artisan: an AI BDR on an all-in-one platform
Artisan built Ava as an AI business development rep that works inside its own platform, with lead data, personalization, email sequences and deliverability tools in the same place. The Ava 2.0 launch made the product self-serve, which lowers the barrier for smaller teams. Beyond standard B2B contacts, Artisan lists other data sets on its site, such as local data, worth checking if your buyers are local or non-tech businesses. The pitch is consolidation: one product instead of a database, a sequencer and a BDR's routine work. Artisan raised a $25M Series A in 2025 (TechCrunch).
What the 'worker' framing means for your week
Both companies market their agents as workers rather than software. 11x calls them digital workers, and Artisan became widely known for billboards that read 'Stop Hiring Humans' (Artisan's post on the campaign). The framing helps as a budget comparison, since you are weighing the agent against a salary. It is a poor guide to your week. Someone still has to define the target market, approve messaging early on, take the calls the agent books and decide what to change when a segment stalls. We suggest budgeting two to four hours a week of a person's time for either tool in the first months; AI SDR vs human SDR shows how the work splits.
Which one fits your situation?
Feature tables flatten real differences. The example situations below show where each product's design pays off. They are illustrations we built for this page, not customer stories.
| Example situation | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A 30-person SaaS company gets about 150 demo requests a month, and many wait until the next business day for an answer | 11x, for Julian | The problem is response time on leads you already have. An outbound agent does not fix it; an inbound one that answers and qualifies right away does. |
| Two founders with no sales team want their first outbound pipeline this quarter | Artisan | A self-serve start, lead data included, and no inbound volume that would justify an inbound agent. |
| A company that sells to clinics, contractors or shops in a few cities | Artisan, after a data test | General B2B databases may cover these businesses less well, so check Artisan's data in your cities before you commit. |
| A sales team that already calls every inbound lead within minutes | Compare on outbound only | Julian's main advantage matters less when your response time is already good; judge both on outbound lead quality. |
| A mid-market team that already pays for a data provider and a sequencer | Pilot both against your current stack | Ask whether you can bring your own lists and exclusions, so you pay for the agent's work rather than data you already own. |
Reach companies with a reason to buy this week
Startories finds the buying signal, verifies the decision-maker and runs the outreach until they book a call.
What should you check about data and deliverability?
An AI SDR sends at a volume no single rep would, from domains that carry your name. If the data is stale or the sending setup is careless, the damage lands on your brand, not the vendor's. Gmail asks bulk senders to authenticate their mail, keep spam rates low and offer one-click unsubscribe (Google's sender guidelines), and any agent you hire has to work within those rules. Use these questions in the demo and keep the answers in writing.
Questions about the data
- Where do contacts come from, and how often are they refreshed?
- How is each email verified before sending, and what happens to addresses that fail?
- Can you upload exclusion lists: current customers, open deals, partners, competitors?
- Can you see why each lead was picked, or only that it matched a filter?
Questions about sending
- Does mail go out from separate domains, never your main one? Who buys them, and who keeps them if you leave?
- How long are new inboxes warmed up, and what is the daily cap per inbox?
- Does sending pause on its own when bounces rise?
- Are unsubscribes and bounces suppressed across every campaign, not only the current one?
Warning signs in the first two weeks
- Emails going out from your main company domain.
- Replies that say 'wrong person' or 'we already work with you'.
- Opening lines that follow the same pattern across dozens of prospects.
- A bounce rate that climbs while sending continues at the same pace.
How do you run a fair pilot of 11x and Artisan?
AI SDR demos look alike: a prospect appears, a research panel fills up, a fluent email is written. The real differences show up in week three, with your market, your domains and your replies. Run the same pilot rules for whichever vendor you test, and score both on the same sheet.
Fix one segment
Choose a single slice of your market, for example 'US B2B SaaS, 20 to 100 employees, hiring their first SDR'. A narrow segment keeps results readable. Our ideal customer profile template helps you write it down.
Review the first 50 leads by hand
Before anything is sent, check whether each company fits and whether the contact is the person who owns the problem. If you would not have picked half of them yourself, better copy will not save the campaign.
Read 20 emails as the buyer
Ask whether each opening line refers to something true and specific about the prospect, or could have gone to anyone in the industry.
Check the sending setup
Hold the vendor to the data and sending answers from the previous section before the first email goes out.
Measure meetings, not activity
Agree up front that success means qualified meetings or replies from the right people within a fixed period, and ask what happens to the contract if the pilot falls short.
| Criterion | Weight | How to score it |
|---|---|---|
| Lead fit | 30% | Share of the first 50 leads you would have chosen yourself |
| Qualified meetings | 30% | Meetings with the right person and a real problem, per 1,000 contacts reached |
| Message quality | 20% | Share of 20 sampled emails with a true, specific first line |
| Deliverability | 10% | Bounce rate, spam complaints, and whether sending paused when it should have |
| Your time | 10% | Hours a week you spent fixing leads, copy or replies |
What a strong AI-written first line looks like
The sample of 20 emails is where most pilots are decided. Here are the patterns to look for, with lines we wrote as examples. More are in our cold email templates.
- Weak: 'I came across your company and was impressed by your growth in the fintech space.' It could go to any fintech company and tells the reader nothing new.
- Strong: 'Saw you posted two RevOps roles last week, both mentioning a Salesforce cleanup.' It is true, recent and tied to a problem you can help with. Hiring signals explains why this works.
- Weak: 'Hope this finds you well! Quick question about your sales process.' Fluent, polite and empty.
- Strong: 'Your post on X asking for a lighter CRM got a lot of replies, and most named the same two tools.' It proves someone read the thread. See how software recommendation requests turn into leads.
How do 11x and Artisan price their AI SDRs?
AI SDR pricing tends to follow capacity, meaning how many contacts or leads the agent works in a period, rather than the per-seat model of classic sales tools. 11x explains its model in its pricing overview; Artisan lists its plans on the Artisan pricing page. Check each for the current model and term.
Whatever the quote, turn it into a cost per qualified meeting. The grid below uses placeholder annual costs, not either vendor's price, so you can see how quickly the answer moves with volume.
Then compare the result with what a meeting is worth to you. If one qualified meeting in five becomes a customer (an assumption) and a customer brings $15,000 in first-year revenue, each qualified meeting is worth about $3,000 before costs. A cost per meeting well below that leaves room; one close to it does not. Add your own time and any inboxes or domains billed separately before you divide.
- What counts toward the volume: contacts added, contacts emailed, or something else?
- Are lead data, sending inboxes and domains included, or billed on top?
- Can you pause or reduce volume if a segment does not work?
- Who owns the sending domains, the lead lists and the reply history if you leave?
- What is the minimum term, and is there an exit if the pilot misses the target you agreed on?
| Annual cost of the AI SDR | 24 meetings a year | 60 meetings a year | 120 meetings a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $417 | $167 | $83 |
| $30,000 | $1,250 | $500 | $250 |
| $60,000 | $2,500 | $1,000 | $500 |
Where does Startories fit next to 11x and Artisan?
Startories is also an AI SDR, with one deliberate difference: it only reaches out when there is a public, recent reason to. It watches Reddit, X, Product Hunt, directories and search results for your niche, picks up signals such as a request for a tool recommendation, a complaint about a competitor or a new funding round, and matches each one to a company that fits your ICP. You see the score and the reasons behind every lead; the decision-maker is verified, and the email refers to the event itself.
Data, verification, sending from warmed-up inboxes on separate domains and reply classification are included, with plans priced per month from $99 and a first Starter project at $1 for a 3-day full-access trial. Startories does not make phone calls or handle inbound leads, so if voice or inbound qualification is your priority, 11x covers ground we do not.
To compare it fairly with 11x or Artisan, run it on the same segment during the same weeks and use the same scorecard. Start with one ICP and one signal, approve emails yourself at first, and judge it on qualified meetings. Read how signal-based outbound works and how the Startories AI SDR runs it, browse 11x alternatives and Artisan alternatives, or go to pricing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between 11x and Artisan?
11x splits the work into digital workers: Alice for outbound and Julian for inbound qualification, including phone. Artisan centers on Ava, an AI BDR inside one platform that includes lead data and email outreach, with a self-serve way to start.
Is 11x or Artisan better for a startup?
Startups usually need a quick, low-commitment start and outbound more than inbound, which matches Artisan's self-serve option. If inbound leads already arrive and go cold before anyone answers, 11x's inbound worker addresses a different and very real problem.
Do AI SDRs like 11x and Artisan replace human SDRs?
They take over research, first touches, follow-ups and reply sorting. People still handle discovery calls, complex accounts and judgment calls. Most teams use them to extend a small team rather than replace it entirely.
How long should an AI SDR pilot last?
Long enough for sequences to finish and replies to arrive: plan several weeks on one segment, with new inboxes warmed up before day one. Judge it on qualified meetings and on the quality of the leads, not on the number of emails sent.
Can I switch from 11x or Artisan to another AI SDR later?
Yes, if you keep control of your assets. Before signing, ask who owns the sending domains and inboxes, whether you can export contacts, sequences and reply history, and how much notice the contract requires to cancel or not renew.
How is Startories different from 11x and Artisan?
Startories starts from public buying signals instead of a database search, shows why each company was picked and writes about that event. It focuses on email outbound and does not place calls or qualify inbound leads.
Sources
- 11x: Alice overview
- 11x: Julian overview
- 11x: Speed to lead
- 11x: Pricing overview
- TechCrunch: 11x raises $50M Series B led by a16z
- Artisan: Ava, AI sales agent
- Artisan: Ava 2.0 launch
- Artisan: Local data
- Artisan: Stop Hiring Humans
- Artisan: Pricing
- TechCrunch: Artisan raises $25M
- Google: Email sender guidelines
- FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business