How Breakcold + ColdRelay Work Together
ColdRelay (Infrastructure)
ColdRelay provides the mailboxes Breakcold sends from. Each mailbox is a Microsoft 365 account on a dedicated, isolated Azure tenant with its own dedicated IP, fully-automated DNS (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and a 95% inbox-placement guarantee. ColdRelay's pricing is per-mailbox: $1 (1-199), $0.85 (200-999), $0.70 (1K-4,999), $0.55 (5K+). Setup completes in 60 minutes, no warmup wait.
Breakcold (Sending Platform)
Breakcold is a sales CRM and multichannel engagement platform — it combines email sequences with LinkedIn engagement, social selling, and AI-powered prospect research in one workspace. Breakcold's pitch is the CRM-first angle: your pipeline, prospect profiles, and social signals live alongside the outbound itself. Breakcold supports custom SMTP/IMAP mailboxes for sequences but does NOT provide the underlying email infrastructure — you bring your own mailboxes and Breakcold orchestrates the sends.
Why use them together
Breakcold is the social-aware brain (sequences, LinkedIn engagement, CRM pipeline, prospect intelligence). ColdRelay is the body (mailboxes, IPs, DNS). The combination is especially strong for teams running multichannel outbound — Breakcold handles the social-selling layer that pure-email tools skip, while ColdRelay handles the infrastructure quality that CRMs don't bake in. Switching either side later is straightforward because the SMTP/IMAP boundary keeps them loosely coupled.
Connect Breakcold to ColdRelay (Step-by-Step)
- 1
Order ColdRelay mailboxes
Sign up at coldrelay.com/sign-up, pick a domain (ColdRelay handles registration for $14), and order your mailbox count. The minimum is 50 mailboxes ($50/month at the base tier). ColdRelay's automation provisions the dedicated mail server, registers the domain, and creates all mailboxes inside an isolated Azure tenant.
Note: Provisioning takes 60 minutes end-to-end. You'll receive a CSV with every mailbox's SMTP host, port, username, and password once it's complete.
- 2
Wait for DNS propagation
ColdRelay configures SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records automatically on the new domain. DNS propagation usually completes in under an hour but can take up to 24. You can verify with the Email Deliverability Test at coldrelay.com/tools/email-deliverability-test — when SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX all show as configured, you're ready.
Note: Don't start sending before all four records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX) verify correctly. Sending before authentication is in place causes immediate spam-folder placement.
- 3
Connect mailboxes to Breakcold
In Breakcold, go to Settings → Email Accounts → Add Email Account → Custom SMTP/IMAP. For each ColdRelay mailbox, paste its SMTP host (box.YOURDOMAIN.com), SMTP port (587), SMTP username (the full email address), and the password from the ColdRelay CSV. Repeat for IMAP using port 993 with TLS. Breakcold tests the connection and marks the mailbox as Connected once both SMTP and IMAP validate.
Note: Breakcold validates both directions in one shot — if the test fails, the error message usually points at IMAP (port 993, TLS required). SMTP and IMAP credentials are identical for ColdRelay mailboxes, so a single typo causes both to fail.
- 4
Set daily limits per mailbox
In each Breakcold mailbox's settings, set the daily send limit to 2 outbound emails per day. This matches ColdRelay's per-mailbox cap (designed for optimal deliverability, not maximum volume). With 50 mailboxes you can send 100 outbound emails/day; 200 mailboxes = 400/day; 1,000 mailboxes = 2,000/day.
Note: Going higher than 2/day/mailbox is the single fastest way to degrade deliverability. ColdRelay's pricing model assumes 2/day — if you need 5,000+ emails/day, add more mailboxes, don't push existing ones harder.
- 5
Enable warmup
Breakcold ships with a built-in warmup tool that exchanges emails with its own warmup network. Turn it on for each connected mailbox with a daily warmup limit of 2 emails, gradual ramp, and a reply rate around 40%. Warmup runs alongside your real campaigns and builds the mailbox's reputation with major inbox providers.
Note: ColdRelay mailboxes ship reputation-ready (the Azure tenant + dedicated IP isolation gives you a clean start) but warmup is still recommended for the first 2 weeks of active sending. Some teams keep warmup running indefinitely at low volume — it doesn't hurt.
- 6
Configure your first sequence
In Breakcold, create a campaign, paste your prospect list (or pull from the Breakcold CRM), and build the sequence — email steps interleaved with LinkedIn engagement steps if you're running multichannel. Assign your ColdRelay mailboxes as the sending accounts. Breakcold distributes sends across all assigned mailboxes respecting each one's daily cap.
Note: Use spintax variations on subject lines to avoid mailbox fingerprinting. The Spintax Generator at coldrelay.com/tools/spintax-generator generates the syntax. Breakcold's AI prospect-research features can pre-populate personalization variables in your sequence.
- 7
Wire up the CRM pipeline
Breakcold's CRM-first design is the differentiator — connect reply detection to pipeline stage changes. When a prospect replies positively, auto-move them to a 'Conversation' stage; when they book, auto-move to 'Demo Scheduled'. This stays inside Breakcold rather than syncing to an external CRM, which is the main reason teams pick Breakcold over a pure-sender like Instantly or Smartlead.
Note: If you already use HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive, Breakcold can sync reply events out via webhooks or its native integrations. The ColdRelay mailbox side stays the same — only Breakcold's CRM behavior changes.
- 8
Monitor deliverability ongoing
Run the Email Deliverability Test weekly to verify SPF/DKIM/DMARC stay passing. Check Google Postmaster Tools for spam-folder rates and IP reputation. ColdRelay automatically monitors blocklists — you'll get an alert if any of your dedicated IPs hit a major blocklist (Spamhaus, Barracuda, SORBS, SpamCop).
Note: ColdRelay's 95% inbox-placement guarantee is contingent on following the 2/day/mailbox cap. Exceeding the cap voids the guarantee. Breakcold's per-mailbox analytics make it easy to spot a mailbox drifting out of compliance.
Key Considerations for Breakcold + ColdRelay
Daily send limits per mailbox
Set Breakcold's per-mailbox daily limit to 2 outbound + 2 warmup = 4 total/day MAX. This is ColdRelay's optimal-deliverability cap. Going higher is the single biggest cause of mailbox burnout we see. Scale total volume by adding more mailboxes, not by pushing existing ones harder.
Dedicated IPs end shared-IP risk
Each ColdRelay mailbox is on a dedicated IP within your isolated Azure tenant. Other Breakcold users sending from shared infrastructure are sharing IP reputation with random other senders — bad actors on the same IP damage everyone's deliverability. With ColdRelay your IP reputation is entirely your own.
Multichannel is where Breakcold earns its place
If you're only doing email, a pure-sender (Instantly, Smartlead) is leaner and cheaper. Breakcold pays off when you weave LinkedIn engagement, social signals, and email into one sequence — that's where the CRM-first design actually compounds. ColdRelay's role doesn't change either way; it's still the email-infrastructure layer underneath.
Reply handling stays inside Breakcold
Breakcold polls IMAP on port 993 with TLS and surfaces replies inside the unified CRM view, attached to the prospect record. Unlike pure-senders, replies trigger pipeline-stage automations directly. No external CRM sync needed for the common cases, though Breakcold integrates with HubSpot/Salesforce/Pipedrive if you need it.
Switching cost is low
If you decide Breakcold isn't right and want to switch to Smartlead, Instantly, EmailBison, or another sender later, your ColdRelay mailboxes work with any platform that supports custom SMTP/IMAP. You don't lose the infrastructure investment — only the CRM data inside Breakcold would need migrating.
Domain-rotation strategy
ColdRelay caps each domain at 100-150 mailboxes for deliverability reasons. If you need 500+ mailboxes, you'll order multiple domains. Breakcold handles multi-domain campaigns natively — assign mailboxes from each domain to different sequence tracks to spread risk across the sending footprint.
Pricing Snapshot
ColdRelay
ColdRelay's per-mailbox cost ranges from $1.00 (1-199 mailboxes) down to $0.55 (5,000+). Domain registration is $14/year, one-time. For 200 mailboxes: 200 × $0.85 = $170/month + $14 annual domain cost.
Breakcold
Breakcold's pricing is per-user, ranging roughly $29-$79/user/month depending on tier (CRM Pro, Sales Pro, Sales Expert). Higher tiers unlock LinkedIn automation depth, AI features, and team seats. Pricing scales with users on the team, not with mailbox count or email volume. Current pricing lives at breakcold.com/pricing.
Total monthly
A typical 200-mailbox cold email operation run by a 3-person team: ColdRelay infrastructure at ~$170/month + Breakcold at ~$150-$240/month (depending on tier) = ~$320-$410/month total. Compare against Google Workspace at $6+/mailbox/month: 200 GW mailboxes alone would be $1,200/month before Breakcold's seat cost.
Common Issues + Fixes
⚠ Mailbox fails to connect — Breakcold reports SMTP or IMAP error
Double-check the host format: ColdRelay's SMTP/IMAP host is box.YOURDOMAIN.com (lowercase, no https://). SMTP port is 587 with STARTTLS, IMAP is 993 with SSL/TLS. The username is the full email address. If the test still fails, copy the password directly from the ColdRelay CSV — manual typing introduces invisible character issues. Re-test from Breakcold's account settings.
⚠ Emails landing in spam at Gmail
Run the Email Deliverability Test against the domain. If SPF, DKIM, or DMARC fails, the records may not have propagated yet — wait 24 hours. If they all pass, check Google Postmaster Tools for the domain. The most common cause of post-authentication spam placement is exceeding the 2/day/mailbox cap in Breakcold.
⚠ Inbox-placement test (Mail-Tester, GlockApps) shows missing DKIM
ColdRelay's DKIM is on the domain's _dkim.YOURDOMAIN.com selector. If a test reports missing DKIM, it usually means the test ran before DNS propagation completed. Wait 24 hours from provisioning and re-test. If still missing, contact ColdRelay support — there's a deliverability consultant included at higher mailbox volumes.
⚠ Breakcold's unified inbox shows no replies even though prospects are replying
Breakcold polls IMAP on port 993 with TLS. Verify the IMAP credentials match the ColdRelay CSV. Most commonly: the IMAP password is the same as the SMTP password but it can drift if a mailbox was reset. Re-test in Breakcold's email account settings (Test Connection button). Also confirm the mailbox status is Connected, not Reconnecting.
⚠ LinkedIn steps in a multichannel sequence are not firing
LinkedIn automation is independent of the email mailbox — it runs through Breakcold's own LinkedIn integration on the user's Breakcold seat. If LinkedIn steps don't fire but email steps do, the issue is on the Breakcold side (LinkedIn session expired, rate limits, or tier limits), not the ColdRelay mailbox. Re-authenticate LinkedIn inside Breakcold and confirm the seat has LinkedIn automation enabled at the current pricing tier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need ColdRelay if I already have Breakcold?
Breakcold is a CRM and multichannel engagement platform — it doesn't provide mailboxes or DNS. You need an infrastructure provider (ColdRelay, Google Workspace, etc.) underneath it. Most Breakcold users start with Google Workspace mailboxes ($6+/mailbox/month) and switch to ColdRelay because the infrastructure is purpose-built for cold email at a fraction of the cost ($0.55-$1.00/mailbox).
Is ColdRelay better than Google Workspace for use with Breakcold?
For cold email at any scale beyond a handful of mailboxes: yes. Google Workspace charges $6+/mailbox/month and shares some risk across all GW senders. ColdRelay charges $0.55-$1.00/mailbox/month, gives each customer a dedicated Azure tenant with dedicated IPs, and bakes SPF/DKIM/DMARC automation into provisioning. The infrastructure quality is closer to enterprise-grade at indie-tool prices.
How many mailboxes do I need to scale to my target send volume?
ColdRelay's per-mailbox cap is 2 outbound emails/day for optimal deliverability. So if you want to send 1,000 emails/day, you need 500 mailboxes. The Mailbox Calculator at coldrelay.com/tools/mailbox-calculator lets you input your target volume and gives you the exact mailbox count + pricing tier.
Why pick Breakcold over Instantly or Smartlead?
Breakcold's edge is the CRM-first, multichannel-first design — if your outbound motion mixes LinkedIn engagement and social selling with email, Breakcold keeps that in one workspace with the pipeline attached. Pure-senders like Instantly and Smartlead are leaner for email-only operations. ColdRelay works equally well underneath any of them, so the choice is about workflow fit, not infrastructure.
Will my Breakcold sequences break if I switch to ColdRelay from another provider?
No. Switching infrastructure providers mid-campaign requires reconnecting each mailbox in Breakcold (new SMTP/IMAP credentials), but sequence logic, CRM pipeline data, LinkedIn integration, and prospect lists stay intact. The transition takes a few minutes per mailbox. We recommend pausing active sequences during the swap to avoid any deliverability blips.
Does Breakcold's LinkedIn automation work with ColdRelay mailboxes?
Yes, but they're independent layers. LinkedIn automation runs through Breakcold's own LinkedIn integration tied to your user seat — it has nothing to do with the email mailbox. ColdRelay mailboxes handle the email steps of a multichannel sequence; Breakcold handles the LinkedIn steps. The CRM ties them together in one prospect view.
What if Breakcold's deliverability is bad with my ColdRelay mailboxes?
That's almost always a campaign-content issue (subject lines triggering spam filters, link density too high, sender names looking off) rather than an infrastructure issue. ColdRelay's 95% inbox guarantee means the infrastructure is doing its job. Use the CAN-SPAM Checker at coldrelay.com/tools/can-spam-checker and the Subject Line Generator to validate campaign content. ColdRelay's deliverability consultant (included at higher volumes) can help diagnose.