Every sales call, the question is the same

Should we buy Google mailboxes, Microsoft 365, shared IPs or dedicated IPs?

I ask one thing back.

How many cold emails are you sending per month?

That answer decides the setup.

Under 10k a month

Start with Google or Microsoft.

Use real Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailboxes. No EDU tricks. No recycled accounts.

At this volume, real mailboxes are still the cleanest setup because you are sending from the same mailbox layer your prospects already use every day.

Keep each mailbox around 20 to 30 cold emails a day.

Yes, the official limits are higher. Ignore those for cold email.

Sending more?

Shared IPs are the affordable way up.

You can add more domains and mailboxes without doing the DNS work manually. It is fast, cheaper per mailbox, and works well when the provider keeps the pool clean.

The downside is the shared pool.

You are sharing IPs with other senders. If the provider lets bad senders stay in the pool, your deliverability can drop because of someone else’s spam.

So do not judge shared infra by price alone.

Ask how the provider handles bad senders. That is what protects your inbox placement.

Past 50k a month?

Dedicated IPs start making sense.

You get your own IP and your own reputation. No other sender can touch it.

But dedicated IPs need steady volume. If you buy one at 2k sends a month, the IP does not have enough traffic to build trust.

Dedicated IPs make sense when you send serious monthly volume, or when you are an agency and need to keep each client separate.

What smart teams actually run

Use a mix of infrastructure to protect deliverability.

Start with Google and Microsoft as your main layer. Add shared infra when you need more volume. Move to dedicated IPs when the volume is steady enough.

And do not forget to warm up every new mailbox before sending cold email.