Short answer: a freelancer can prospect on LinkedIn for $0 a month by working by hand, or for roughly $15 to $39 a month with a sequencing tool, and up to $105 to $160 a month if Sales Navigator is added. The heaviest item is often time, not the subscription. The prices below come from official pages read on 5 October 2026; they change, so check them before buying.
What are the cost items of LinkedIn prospecting?
Four, only one of which appears on an invoice. You pay for a sending tool (or nothing, and you work by hand), possibly a search tool, sometimes enrichment to find an email address, and above all you pay in time.
| Item | What it covers | Range seen on official pages |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Finding the right profiles | $0 (standard search) to about $120 a month (Sales Navigator Core) |
| Sending | Invitations, messages, follow-ups | $0 by hand; from $15 to well over €80 a month with a tool |
| Enrichment | Finding email or mobile | Often included as monthly credits, or sold separately |
| Time | Targeting, writing, answering | Your hourly rate times your hours |
What do the tools cost in 2026?
Here are the entry prices read on official pages on 5 October 2026. Billing periods differ between vendors, which is why the table spells them out. Prices are shown in each vendor's own currency.
| Tool | Entry plan | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Farmer | Starter | $15 a month ($149 a year); €13 excl. VAT in France | Pricing |
| Kanbox | Starter | €15 a month billed annually, €25 monthly | kanbox.io/fr/prix |
| Waalaxy | Pro | €19 per user per month (period not stated on the page) | waalaxy.com/fr/tarifs |
| lemlist | Multichannel (includes LinkedIn automation) | €87 a month annually, €109 monthly | lemlist.com/pricing |
| Sales Navigator Core | $119.99 a month or $1,079.88 a year |
This table compares prices, not services. Waalaxy's entry plan caps invitations at 300 a month (Waalaxy help center, in French), Kanbox's Starter allows one simultaneous campaign, and lemlist starts from email: its Multichannel plan adds LinkedIn. For detail, our Waalaxy, Kanbox and lemlist pages compare point by point. Sales Farmer's plans are described on the pricing page: Growth, at $39 a month (€35 excl. VAT in France), adds email sending from your own mailboxes, three LinkedIn accounts and 300 enrichment credits a month.
LinkedIn states that its amounts are estimates that may exclude VAT; the other vendors' prices are shown as their pages present them, and we cannot always say whether they exclude tax.
Do you need Sales Navigator?
Rarely to start. Core costs about $90 a month on an annual commitment and $120 monthly, enough to pay for an outreach tool several times over. We detail what it brings and who it suits in Sales Navigator price in 2026, and when it is worth paying. For a freelancer targeting one city or one trade, standard search often gives a good enough list for the first months.
What typical budgets suit a freelancer?
Four levels, from the most frugal to the most equipped. The figures are sums of public prices, not promises of results.
| Budget | Make-up | Indicative monthly cost | What it allows | Its limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero | Standard search, invitations and messages written by hand, a spreadsheet | $0 | Validating a target and a message | All work is manual, follow-up depends on your discipline |
| Equipped | Standard search + Sales Farmer Starter | $15 ($13 excl. VAT in France) | Sequences, follow-ups, stop at reply, statistics | No email from your mailboxes, ICP Spy limited to 10 profiles |
| Complete | Standard search + Sales Farmer Growth | $39 ($35 excl. VAT in France) | LinkedIn and email sequences, enrichment, integrations | More settings to master, a price 2.6 times higher |
| With Sales Navigator | Core (annual) + Starter | about $105 | Advanced filters, job-change alerts | Seven times the cost of the equipped level for a gain that depends on your target |
The zero level has real value: it forces you to write a short message and see what gets replies before buying anything. Our guide to LinkedIn cold outreach describes the method.
What does your time cost?
Just multiply. Prospecting by hand takes search, writing and follow-up time, and that time is not billed to your clients. Here is a calculation to adapt, whose figures are assumptions and not measurements: half an hour per working day is about ten hours a month. If you value your hour at $60, that time "costs" $600, far more than any subscription in the table.
A tool does not remove that time, it moves part of it: you write the sequence once, then spend your time on replies. Do not confuse automation with an absence of work. A badly targeted sequence costs $15 a month and brings in nothing.
How do you decide without getting it wrong?
Start with the lowest level that lets you learn. Move up when a specific bottleneck appears: too many follow-ups to track by hand, too few profiles found, a need to write by email to people who do not answer on LinkedIn.
Measure before paying more: acceptance rate, reply rate, meetings booked. Our article on acceptance and reply rates gives the benchmarks to track, and our LinkedIn invitation generator helps you write the first message without spending a cent.
Keep reading
- Cheaper Waalaxy alternatives
- Waalaxy free plan: what it does and when you have to pay
- How to define your ICP and build a LinkedIn prospect list
- LinkedIn automation limits in 2026
FAQ
Can you prospect on LinkedIn for free?
Yes, by hand, with standard search and a spreadsheet. The cost is your time. Free automation tools are rare: at Waalaxy, the free version automates nothing according to the official help center.
What is the price of a LinkedIn prospecting tool in 2026?
On the official pages read on 5 October 2026, entry plans range from $15 a month (Sales Farmer Starter) to €19 (Waalaxy Pro) and €15 to €25 (Kanbox Starter), up to €87 to €109 for lemlist Multichannel.
How much does Sales Navigator cost?
$119.99 a month or $1,079.88 a year for Core, according to LinkedIn, which states these are estimates that may exclude VAT.
Do you have to pay for email enrichment?
Not always. Some plans include monthly credits: Sales Farmer Growth includes 300 a month. Otherwise credits are bought separately.
What budget should you plan to start?
None to test a target. Plan $15 to $39 a month when you want automatic sequences and follow-ups. Beyond that, justify the spend with a time saving you can put a number on.
Does a tool guarantee clients?
No. The tool sends and organises; targeting, message and follow-up decide the outcome. Sales Farmer offers a money-back guarantee under conditions, detailed on the pricing page.
Run a first test with no commitment
Try Sales Farmer free for 14 days, no credit card needed, with a standard LinkedIn search. In two weeks you will know whether your message gets replies, before committing any budget.