Should you buy AI SDR software or pay per held meeting?

What does AI SDR software cost?

SaaStr, which runs five AI SDRs of its own, puts effective AI SDRs at $50,000 to $100,000+ a year per specialized platform: typically $60,000 to $70,000 for the annual subscription and $20,000 to $30,000 for training and onboarding (SaaStr). It also notes that some vendors are launching cheaper self-serve versions, so ask each vendor for its own price.

The bigger cost is time. SaaStr's team spends 15 to 20 hours a week managing its five agents, and it says so plainly: "This is not set-and-forget technology."

Software bills for seats, contacts or credits, and you buy and warm the mailboxes it sends from. You pay in a month with no meetings too.

What does Dylan cost instead?

Dylan is an AI agent too, but you do not run him: you brief him, approve the plan and the first emails, and pay per held meeting, at a price set by who you want to meet:

• Lite: $250 per held meeting. Small companies, founder-led buyers, 1 to 200 employees. Deposit $750.
• Standard: $500 per held meeting. Mid-market, directors and VPs, 201 to 1,000 employees. Deposit $1,500.
• Enterprise: from $900 per held meeting, quoted. VP and C-level, 1,000+ employees. Deposit: three meetings.

The deposit is credit for your first meetings. No meeting in 60 days? Your deposit comes back. The prices are for the beta; the full terms are on the pricing page.

How did the first AI SDRs do?

In a SaaStr reader survey in November 2024, 83% said they had not gotten anything from AI SDRs yet, and 3% said they had generated real revenue. What survived since, and why, is in The AI SDR hype is over.

When is AI SDR software the better choice?

• You have someone with hours a week to run it. In SaaStr's words, "Performance ebbs and flows directly with human attention."
• Your contacts are already yours. SaaStr runs separate agents for cold outbound, lapsed customers, active nurture, inbound qualification and ghosted leads. Software that works your own database and CRM fits that well.
• Your inbound leads wait for an answer. SaaStr says its inbound agent books meetings instantly, where the old handoff could take up to 24 hours. Fix that before you buy outbound from anyone, including us.
• You want every setting in your own hands. Software gives your team the controls. Dylan gives you approvals.

When is Dylan the better choice?

• Nobody on your team has the hours to steer an agent. A person at Belkins reviews your plan and emails it within one business day. After that, your part is approving.
• You want to pay for meetings, not seats. Never billed: meetings outside your definition, no-shows, companies on your do-not-contact list. If no meeting is held in 60 days, the deposit comes back.
• You want your own domain kept out of cold email. Dylan sends from his own warm domains, with a separate slice for each client.
• You want stopping to be a rule, not a setting. The moment a reply is read, every further scheduled email to that person stops, before any AI sees it.

What should you ask any AI SDR vendor?

Before you sign with anyone, including us, ask who approves the first emails, what happens when someone replies "stop", whose domain sends, what you pay if no meetings come, and whether the agent says it is an AI. The five questions, and why each one matters, are at the end of The AI SDR hype is over. How Dylan answers them: how it works and how Dylan writes.