6 best alternatives to Expandi [2025 review]

For those who have just started researching LinkedIn automation tools, SaaS startup Expandi appeared on the market in 2019. They initially created software that focused solely on LinkedIn automation. 

After years of development, many small business sales teams and recruiters started using it for email outreach and LinkedIn lead generation. 

However, since the market has changed and other tools have progressed, one question posed itself. Is Expandi the best email and LinkedIn outreach tool? Or is there a better alternative on the market?

Let’s check that together. We will go over what Expandi offers, its disadvantages, the comparison with other solutions, and the pricing itself. 

Expandi or alternatives?

Expandi is a LinkedIn automation and email outreach tool. This means that it performs the outreach activities on both platforms on autopilot, so you don’t have to.  

It is a cloud-based solution with a dedicated IP address that shields your activity. In addition, your data is stored on the internet, not servers, like in some LinkedIn automation tools.

Unlike Chrome extensions (e.g., Dux-Soup) or desktop apps (e.g., LinkedHelper), a cloud-based solution like Expandi doesn’t require you to keep your PC turned on. Moreover, it doesn’t inject code into LinkedIn and mimics human behavior. These two parameters make this software a safer solution than extension-based tools. This way, you can send connection requests and perform LinkedIn outreach without worrying about getting your LinkedIn account restricted.

Many small businesses and startup teams use Expandi for LinkedIn prospecting and lead generation. These professionals include salespeople, recruiters, and even outbound marketing managers.

You can use Expandi with any LinkedIn account. To clarify, you can create campaigns based on Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or Premium and Basic LinkedIn search URLs. Moreover, you can create an outreach campaign with a CSV file.

Lastly, Expandi can integrate with any other tool via Zapier webhooks or API. 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into the specific features.

Expandi features

Smart Sequences

Smart Sequence is an algorithm that streamlines LinkedIn activities you create in a workflow. That said, it performs each action you set for each lead from the target audience source on autopilot. 

Expandi introduced a Smart Sequence feature almost a year after Skylead did (another LinkedIn automation & cold email software). 

With Expandi, you can automate various activities: 

• Viewing another LinkedIn profile, 
• Sending LinkedIn connection requests, 
• Follow-up messages once connected, 
• Or LinkedIn InMails. 

Expandi also provides non-essential steps for lead generation, such as LinkedIn post liking, skill endorsement, and following companies.  

Email outreach

Expandi added email outreach to their features list so you can add multichannel steps as part of the Smart Sequence workflow. In other words, this feature allows you to expand your LinkedIn lead generation to another channel. By using email as your secondary channel, you can connect with less active leads on LinkedIn. 

What’s more, Expandi offers attractive metrics analysis and A/B testing, so you can test what messaging works best for you and optimize your campaign. You can also choose to use one of their message templates. 

Expandi disadvantages

Expandi lacks some outreach features. 

For example, while it does offer Image & GIF personalization, it actually relies on a third-party tool—Hyperise—to make it happen. 

But what does this mean for you?

Firstly, you need to pay extra each month if you want to use it. Plus, Hyperise has its own limitations based on usage. Namely, the basic $69 plan limits you to 5 templates and 5,000 impressions (counted each time someone sees the image). So, if you plan to personalize at scale, these limits could add up fast.

Secondly, Expandi doesn’t have an email discovery and verification feature. In other words, it can’t find or verify your leads’ business emails.

Sure, Expandi can scrape personal emails from LinkedIn profiles, but only if the person accepts your connection request first. So, if someone doesn’t respond on LinkedIn or ignores your request, you’re out of luck—no way to reach them by email either.

This setup can make it hard to run a true multichannel outreach strategy. Additionally, if you can’t verify emails, you risk high bounce rates that could hurt your domain reputation. To get around this, you’d need to invest in a separate email discovery tool, which would increase your subscription cost.

Another thing that Expandi can’t help you with is email warm-up. Surely, warm-up settings for LinkedIn outreach exist. But when it comes to improving email deliverability and SPAM prevention, Expandi isn’t your ideal solution.

Lastly, if you use Expandi yourself or read reviews, you will notice that most users reported that this tool has become buggy lately. In fact, too buggy to use. Not to mention, their customer support team is not the most responsive, nor are the issues solved promptly.

Pricing

Expandi offers one pricing plan of $99 for one seat a month and a white label LinkedIn lead generation solution. 

However, if you decide to use the Hyperise Image & GIF personalization feature at $69, you end up with a monthly receipt of $168 per 1 seat. 

And if you wish to include email discovery & verification, count at least an additional $50+ per month. 

Therefore, the total monthly pricing for 1 Expandi account with all the features is $218 minimum. 

That said, some Expandi alternatives possess the same, better, or similar features at different prices. 

So, let’s check them out.

6 best Explandi alternatives

Whether you’ve found out about Expandi recently or are unsatisfied with this tool and are looking for a change, here is the list of Expandi alternatives. 

Expandi alternative #1: Skylead

The first Expandi alternative is Skylead. 

Yes, that is us! 🙂 Hello! 

Skylead is your one-stop-shop tool that helps agencies, sales teams, recruiters, marketers, and others streamline their outreach efforts.

It is the best LinkedIn automation tool & cold email software with all the outreach features you could ever need. Hence, it is a perfectly rounded tool that helps you save 11+ hours a week on manual outreach tasks.

As opposed to Chrome extensions like Dux-Soup or desktop apps like LinkedHelper, Skylead is a cloud-based solution. In other words, each user gets a dedicated IP address that shields their activity. In addition, it mimics human behavior and performs a different number of actions in real time each day. These features make Skylead the safest software out there.

However, being a cloud-based software comes with additional perks. 

For example, Skylead offers a Smart inbox that gathers all messages in one place and an option to operate with multiple LinkedIn accounts and email accounts.

Like Expandi, you can use it with any LinkedIn account type, including all Sales Navigator and Recruiter subscription plans.

Thanks to these integrations, you can create campaigns that target audiences from:

• LinkedIn search results; 
• Sales Navigator search results;
• Recruiter search results;
• Event attendees;
• Recruiter Talent Pool or Pipeline URL;
• CSV file with native or custom variables to increase response rate;
• People who reacted to the specific LinkedIn post;
• Sales Navigator Lead Lists;

Moreover, Skylead supports integration with your CRM or any other tool via Zapier webhooks or API.

Lastly, with Skylead, you can scrape publicly available data on LinkedIn, such as email and phone numbers. Or, you can create an outreach campaign to reach your leads through LinkedIn, email, or both.

Now that we've covered the basics let's jump to more features that Skylead offers.

Skylead features

Smart Sequences

Skylead was the first tool on the market to launch Smart Sequences. And thus, it changed how the entire market performs its outreach. 

As previously mentioned, this groundbreaking algorithm executes steps in the order you set and according to your leads’ behavior. 

The if/else conditions make the Smart Sequences special. Thanks to them, Skylead executes steps, checks conditions, and monitors lead behavior according to them. Based on what a lead does (or doesn’t do), Skylead moves them through the workflow to the next relevant action.

You can create a sequence from any outreach action you imagine. These include sending emails, free and paid LinkedIn InMails, as well as connection requests. You can create custom conditions as well. 

Fear not, though. If you do not wish to create the sequence from scratch, you can always use one of our pre-tested Smart Sequence templates and its message templates. 

So, as you can see, Smart sequences help you make the most out of every touchpoint, resulting in outreach that feels timely and relevant.

Email outreach 

Multichannel outreach gives your LinkedIn prospects a well-rounded lead-generation experience. But, more importantly, it shows that you wish to help them resolve their problems.

That’s why, apart from LinkedIn, Skylead has an integrated email outreach feature that you can combine with LinkedIn outreach in one outreach sequence. 

In addition, Skylead offers various personalization variables to help you write your most converting messages and follow-up emails after no response. 

Now, as opposed to Expandi or any other tool from this list, Skylead allows you to connect unlimited email accounts at no additional cost. The tool auto-rotates between them while sending emails. As a result, it enables you to send tens of thousands of emails a month without damaging your domain.

Lastly, unlike Expandi, with Skylead, you can use email outreach to its full potential. 

And here’s how!

Email discovery & verification

Skylead recognized how mandatory email discovery & verification steps are in multichannel outreach. Thus, we decided to add both to our tool. 

Using our email discovery & verification feature, you can find and double-verify your leads’ business emails. As a result, you can:

• Maximize touchpoints with leads,
• Lower your bounce rate,
• Save your domain authority.

And guess what? Unlike Expandi, which can only scrape leads' public emails after you’ve connected, Skylead doesn’t require you to connect with leads to find and verify their emails.

What’s more, email discovery & verification functionality is native to our tool, meaning it’s integrated into the platform. You can add it as a step in a Smart Sequence, and Skylead will find and verify emails without breaking your outreach flow.

Lastly, Skylead is the only solution on the market that lets you use this feature with no limitations. You get unlimited email discovery & verification credits at no extra cost, making your outreach truly unstoppable.

Infinite email warm-up

Speaking of unlimited email outreach, we’ve got another surprise in store: Infinite email warm-up powered by InboxFlare.

InboxFlare is one of the best email warm-up tools exclusively available to their partners. And thanks to Skylead’s partnership with them, you gain infinite email warm-up capability at no extra cost.

This means you can warm up unlimited email accounts to keep your emails out of the SPAM folder—forever!

Don’t believe us? 

Just look at the value InboxFlare adds to Skylead!

• Custom warm-up strategy: InboxFlare’s AI creates a warm-up strategy specific to your domain’s needs, improving your sender reputation with minimal oversight. It’s compatible with all major email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Zoho, etc.) and custom SMTP, enabling you to warm up any account with ease.
• Hyper-authentic messaging: The tool lets you choose your own email topics. It then creates relevant and personalized warm-up emails to mimic real engagement and improve deliverability.
• Warm-up in 30+ languages: Reach global audiences easily with warm-up emails available in over 30 languages.
• Ongoing domain and health monitoring: InboxFlare checks blacklists, domain settings, and inbox configurations to keep your email health optimal. You can also run deliverability tests to see where your emails land and adjust as needed for peak performance.

So, with Skylead and InboxFlare working together, you’re set for safe, effective, and totally limitless outreach.

⚠️ Disclaimer: The infinite email warm-up feature operates under a Fair Use Policy, with a 100-email slot limit per team. For additional slots, please contact InboxFlare support.

Native image & GIF hyper-personalization

To maximize your response rate, Skylead introduced a native image & GIF hyper-personalization feature. Thanks to it, you can send LinkedIn InMails, messages, emails, or follow-ups in a more personalized and unique way to catch your prospects’ attention.

Skylead personalizes your chosen images and GIFs on autopilot by pulling the information from your and your leads’ LinkedIn profiles. These include:

• Profile pictures
• Company logos

Moreover, you can insert any text you like, complete with variables, to enrich the visuals further.

As you can see, you don’t have to worry about personalizing countless versions of the same image. Instead, Skylead will do it for you at scale!

To top it off, we’ve had incredible success using image & GIF personalization in our own outreach. We even managed to get a whopping 76% response rate! And so can you!

Report and analytics

Skylead offers 3 levels of detailed insights on the dedicated Report page:

• Graph metrics - perfect for visual representations of the ratio between the actions;
• Table view - best for spotting trends that happen during specific days;
• Sequence steps - if you wish to examine steps in detail, this interactive report is for you.

Therefore, you can analyze the metrics of every aspect of your campaigns. 

Additionally, with Skylead, you can A/B test your messaging, subject lines, or connection requests to see what works best and optimize your efforts. 

Pricing

Skylead is a complete one-stop-shop tool for your outreach, and it costs only $100 per 1 seat per month.

Unlike other LinkedIn automation and lead generation tools, such as Expandi or Zopto, Skylead doesn’t limit the features by the number of uses. All of our features are truly unlimited! 

Not to mention, Skylead has a very dedicated customer support team that is ready to help you any time. They even offer a 1-on-1 onboarding call to introduce you to the software and all it can do for you!

And if you’d like to make Skylead your own, you can, in a way. We offer a white-labeling solution, like Expandi, so you can offer additional services with the amazing tool and brand name, logo, and colors.

Expandi vs. Skylead

To recap, we’ve created a comparison table between Expandi and Skylead. Features are listed in order of importance to make it easier to decide between the two. 

Expandi alternative #2: Zopto

LinkedIn automation tool, Zopto, is another cloud-based multichannel solution and Expandi.io alternative. 

It is compatible with Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Premium, and Recruiter accounts. 

What distinguishes Zopto from Expandi is that, in addition to email automation, Zopto offers an email enrichment feature. This means it can find and verify business emails like Skylead. However, the downside is that Zopto limits how many leads you can enrich with the email, depending on the pricing plan. 

As opposed to other mutual features, like A/B testing, Zopto offers a LinkedIn post-scheduling feature. So, yes, you can create and schedule posts on LinkedIn using this software. 

Moreover, Zopto has recently added Smart Sequences to its list of features. This feature lets you set up dynamic outreach flows with a mix of LinkedIn and email actions, all triggered by different conditions. Besides the usual LinkedIn actions like:

• Profile views,
• Follows,
• And invites to connect

…you can also add steps like likes, endorsements, and even birthday or anniversary greetings to your sequences.

Zopto has also expanded its automation capabilities to another platform: X (formerly Twitter). Currently, though, it only automates post likes there.

Then there’s Zhoo, Zopto’s AI assistant. Zhoo sounds impressive, but it's really a ChatGPT-4 integration designed to help generate email and LinkedIn messages. So, if you’re already using ChatGPT for sales outreach, it may be a bit redundant.

Lastly, being a cloud-based solution, Zopto has a combined Inbox, as well as CRM and Hubspot integration through Zapier webhooks and API.

Pricing

Zopto’s pricing includes 4 plans. Each plan comes with an assigned customer success manager.

Basic	$197/mo for 1 account
Pro	$297/mo for 1 account
Agency & Enterprise Basic	Starting at $156/mo per user *2 users minimum
Agency & Enterprise Pro	Starting at $237/mo per user *2 users minimum

Expandi vs. Zopto

Having in mind all the other features mentioned above, here is a total comparison between Skylead, Expandi, and Zopto.

Expandi alternative #3: MeetAlfred

This is another SaaS startup that developed an outreach solution for small businesses, salespeople, and agencies. 

MeetAlfred primarily automates social media activities, including scheduling Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts. 

But the catch is that multichannel support is only available to their Pro & Team subscribers. That said, Basic users can only automate emails and LinkedIn actions, like:

• Profile views
• Connection requests
• Messages
• Free inMails

MeetAlfred comes with an internal CRM, which allows you to access and manage your leads easily. Moreover, like Expandi and Skylead, it has an integrated inbox, albeit limited, since it only shows LinkedIn messages. 

Much like other tools on the list, MeetAlfred supports integrations via Zapier.

One major downside, though, is the lack of Smart Sequences, so you’re stuck with a simple drip campaign setup. Still, you can add more steps than you can in Zopto.

Furthermore, MeetAlfred doesn’t have an email discovery & verification nor an image & GIF personalization feature. However, they have a Hyperise integration, like Expand.io, that increases your monthly cost.

Pricing

MeetAlfred has 3 pricing plans: 

Basic	$59/mo per user
Pro	$99/mo per user
Team	$79/mo per user *3 users minimum

And if you want to add Hyperise’s image & GIF personalization feature, count on paying an extra $69 a month.

Expandi vs. MeetAlfred 

MeetAlfred tries hard to follow the number of features Expandi, Skylead, and Zopto introduced. However, they balance this lack in pricing.

Expandi alternative #4: LinkedFusion

Another great LinkedIn automation and email outreach software like Expandi is LinkedFusion. It is a cloud-based solution that offers an integrated inbox. 

With LinkedFusion, you can reach out to your target audience using any LinkedIn account or CSV file. While at it, you can use their pre-made message templates, which they claim to be tested and conversion-driven.

LinkedFusion connects with other apps via Zapier webhooks. Moreover, it natively integrates with HubSpot and Google Sheets, which is a nice bonus that Expandi doesn’t offer. 

Should you need any help, LinkedFusion also has a technical customer support team at your disposal 24/7.

Its major disadvantage is that it doesn’t have Smart Sequences functionality, so you cannot fully control your outreach. 

Lastly, this tool offers image personalization. However, you can only use it through Hyperise integration. 

Pricing

LinkedInFusion has 3 subscription plans. They all depend on the number of connection requests and messages you can send per day.

Professional	$65,95/mo per user *Up to 40 invites & 120 messages a day
Grow	$95.95/mo per user *Up to 70 invites & 210 messages a day
Ultimate	$135.95/mo per user *Up to 100 invites & 300 messages a day

Expandi vs. LinkedFusion

One of the best things about Expandi and Skylead is the Smart Sequence function. 

However, if this is not something you’re interested in, look at other features found in LinkedFusion.

Expandi alternative #5: LinkedHelper 2

LinkedHelper 2 is another LinkedIn automation tool. 

However, unlike Expandi, it is a desktop app, meaning it doesn't have a dedicated IP address and the functionality to run multiple accounts. What’s more, your PC needs to be kept on for LinkedHelper to run. 

On the brighter side, LinkedHelper offers Recruiter-based campaigns, unlike LinkedFusion and MeetAlfred. Furthermore, you have your internal CRM to monitor the contacts' history and integrated inbox to keep track of messages.

Sadly, LinkedHelper doesn't have Image & GIF personalization in any form, so you cannot hyper-personalize your messaging. Neither does it have a multichannel outreach infrastructure.

Finally, the tool doesn't support post-engagement campaign type, Smart Sequences, or A/B testing.

Pricing

What it lacks in functionality, LinkedHelper 2 makes up for in pricing. 

However, they limit pricing plans based on the number of messages and connection requests you can send per day.

Standard	$15/mo per account *limited to 20 messages and 20 connection requests
Pro	$45/mo per account

Expandi vs. LinkedHelper 2

Apart from the difference in basic functionality type (cloud-based and desktop app), here is the list of other differences between Skylead, Expandi, and LinkedHelper. 

Expandi alternative #6: Phantombuster

Last but not least, we have Phantombuster - an extension-based tool like Dux-Soup. 

Although it isn’t an automation tool like Expandi, it contributes to lead generation since its algorithm focuses on data extraction. In other words, Phantombuster automates data scraping from any social media platform, including LinkedIn. 

This tool is an excellent addition to your outreach, saving time scraping the data for your CSV-based campaigns. Moreover, Phantombuster has an email discovery feature but cannot verify them. 

Phantombuster offers some automated actions on LinkedIn. For example, it can send connection requests and messages on autopilot, as well as like your leads’ posts. 

However, it doesn’t have Smart Sequence functionality, nor is it safe to use as it injects the code into LinkedIn. Therefore, it works best as a social media scraper that you can combine with other LinkedIn automation tools like Expandi or Skylead. 

Lastly, Phantombuster offers Hubspot & Pipedrive CRM enrichment via integration through API key.

Pricing

PhantomBuster has 3 pricing plans depending on the number of automated actions and the time it runs during 1 month:

Starter	69€/mo *20 hours of execution time
Pro	159€/mo *80 hours of execution time
Team	439€/mo *300 hours of execution time

Expandi vs. Phantombuster

Feature-wise, Phantombuster may be different from other LinkedIn automation tools. 

However, you can consider it if you plan to create a CSV-based campaign using another tool.

How to cancel Expandi?

If you are unsatisfied with Expandi and want to try out other tools from our list, here is how to cancel your Expandi subscription.

First, log into your account and click the LinkedIn Settings button in the sidebar menu. Then, navigate to the Subscription plan section.

Next, click the Remove button. 

Expandi will ask you to state the reason why you wish to cancel. You cannot proceed unless you do. 

Once you cancel your subscription, you’ll immediately lose access to Expandi features. So, we advise you to do it at or near the end of your billing cycle.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What does expandi.io do?

Expandi.io is a LinkedIn automation and email outreach tool designed to help individuals connect with leads on autopilot. It lets users automate LinkedIn actions, like sending connection requests and follow-ups, as well as email outreach, all through a cloud-based platform. This way, Expandi handles the outreach while you focus on managing the leads it generates.

Is expandi.io safe?

Yes, Expandi.io is considered safer than some LinkedIn automation tools. Because it’s cloud-based, you don’t have to keep your computer on, and it doesn’t inject code into LinkedIn—2 factors that lower the risk of account restrictions. Expandi also uses dedicated IP addresses, which helps shield your activity and make it appear more natural to LinkedIn.

Is Expandi io free?

No, Expandi.io isn’t free. However, it does offer a 7-day free trial that lets you test out its functionalities.

How much does Expandi cost?

Expandi’s base cost is $99 per month for one user (or “seat”). If you want to add image and GIF personalization with Hyperise, it costs an extra $69 per month. Email discovery and verification can add at least $50 per month, possibly more. So, if you want all the features, you’re looking at a monthly minimum of around $218 per seat.

How do these alternative tools compare in terms of overall cost-efficiency, particularly for small businesses or individual entrepreneurs?

The overall cost-efficiency of alternative tools varies, with some offering more advanced features at a higher price point. For small businesses or solo entrepreneurs, choosing a tool that balances functionality with affordability is key to maximizing ROI.

What specific advantages do these alternatives offer over Expandi in terms of features like A/B testing, integration capabilities, and customer support responsiveness?

Compared to Expandi, these alternatives, such as Skylead, may offer unique features such as more robust A/B testing capabilities, seamless integrations with other tools, and superior customer support, providing a tailored approach to LinkedIn automation and cold emailing strategies.

How user-friendly are these alternatives for someone with minimal experience in LinkedIn automation or cold emailing strategies?

The user-friendliness of these alternatives ranges widely, with some prioritizing a straightforward interface and guided setup processes to accommodate users new to LinkedIn automation, while others may offer advanced customization options suited for experienced marketers.

Ready to try Expandi alternatives?

Now that you are aware of Expandi alternatives and their main features, it’s time to choose the best LinkedIn automation tool for you.

But before you do, analyze what you personally need for your outreach and the budget you have.

To recap, let's review all features of Expandi alternatives side-by-side.

As you can see, one in particular stands out from the crowd—Skylead!

Would you like to give it a try? 🙂

Then sign up for our 7-day free trial. Or, if you have any questions, drop by and say ‘’hi’’ via chat on our website. We will be happy to meet you!