HeyLead vs Expandi

Last updated 25 September 2026

Expandi and HeyLead (heylead.dev) both run LinkedIn outreach from the cloud, from your own account. Expandi is a tool you build campaigns in: connection requests, messages and email follow-ups in one sequence, $99 a month per seat or $79 billed annually[1]. HeyLead is an AI agent you brief in a sentence: it finds the people, writes each message, follows up and answers replies. Free is $0; Pro is $29 per connected LinkedIn account per month.

HeyLead is an AI agent for LinkedIn outreach: it finds the right people, writes to them in the voice of your own LinkedIn posts, follows up, and handles replies. It runs from Claude Code, Cursor, any MCP client or a web dashboard.

Side by side

	HeyLead	Expandi
What it is	An AI agent that runs LinkedIn outreach: people, invitations, messages, follow-ups, replies.	Cloud-based outreach software: connection requests, messages and email follow-ups in one sequence[1].
Price	Free: $0, one LinkedIn seat, no card. Pro: $29 per connected LinkedIn account per month, monthly, cancel any time.	$99 a month per seat, or $79 a month billed annually. Agency plan: custom price, from 10 seats[1]. One seat is one LinkedIn account[2].
Where it runs	In the cloud, with your laptop closed. Not a browser extension. The MIT-licensed client can also run on your own machine.	Cloud-based, with a dedicated country-based IP address[1].
Setting up a campaign	Describe the campaign in a sentence, in Claude Code, Cursor, any MCP client or the web dashboard. HeyLead saves it as a draft; nothing is sent until you press Launch.	You build it from Expandi's campaign types, such as Connector, Messenger and Builder campaigns[5].
Channels	LinkedIn invitations, messages and InMail. Email to people whose record carries an address, once you connect a Gmail or Outlook mailbox. No voice messages.	LinkedIn connection requests and messages, email follow-ups in the same sequence[1]. Open InMail, paid InMail, group messages and event invites[5].
Several accounts	Pro: more than one LinkedIn account in one workspace, each billed and capped on its own. One workspace per client, with editor and viewer roles. No white-label.	Workspaces with teammates or customers at no extra cost and 100+ permission settings[4]. A global inbox across accounts[6]. White-label on the Agency plan[1].
Invitations	20 invitations a day and 100 a week on a free LinkedIn account; 168 and 320 on Premium or Sales Navigator (measured 16 September 2026). Monday to Friday 08:00 to 22:00 in your time zone.	"Send up to 300+ connection requests weekly", by Expandi's own pricing page[1].
Integrations	HubSpot is the only CRM sync, from the local client. Meetings book on Google Calendar.	Native HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive; Zapier, webhooks and API credentials. An MCP connection for Claude or ChatGPT was in beta, launching 30 September[3].
Trial	A free plan instead of a trial, with no card.	A 7-day free trial[1].

Checked on 25 September 2026 on Expandi's own pages (expandi.io and help.expandi.io). Each [n] links to the page the fact comes from; the list is under Sources. Prices and plans change, so check the linked page before you decide. HeyLead wrote this page. If a fact here is wrong, write to [email protected] and we correct it.

What Expandi does better

CRM integrations: native HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive, plus Zapier and webhooks[3]. HeyLead syncs with HubSpot only.
More kinds of campaign: group messages, event invites, Open InMail and paid InMail campaigns[5].
Agency tooling: white-label on the Agency plan[1], custom roles with 100+ permission settings[4], and a global inbox for your clients' messages[6]. HeyLead has no white-label.
Email as a step in the same sequence[1]. HeyLead emails only as a fallback, to people whose record carries an address.
You design every step yourself. HeyLead has no visual sequence editor.

What HeyLead does differently

You brief it in a sentence, from Claude Code, Cursor, any MCP client or the web dashboard. It saves a draft campaign and sends nothing until you press Launch.
Each message is written for the person, in the voice of your own LinkedIn posts. The agents plan each person's next step as accepts and replies land; every decision is readable with inspect or on the campaign page.
Replies are answered from your campaign's facts. Anything ambiguous is held for you, and "not now" gets a check-in in 30 days.
Free is $0 with one LinkedIn seat and cloud sending, no card.

A campaign has one of six goals, and the ICP, the fit check and the messages follow it: Sell a product or service, Find a job, Hire people, Find partners or investors, Find a vendor and Research interviews. Hire people, Find partners or investors and Research interviews run on a custom brief until their message sets exist.

HeyLead sends from your own LinkedIn account at a human pace: at most 20 invitations a day and 100 a week on a free LinkedIn account (more on Premium or Sales Navigator), Monday to Friday 08:00 to 22:00 in your time zone, minutes apart. It backs off when LinkedIn pushes back and resumes on its own. You can pause any campaign at any time.

Choose Expandi if

You want to design each step of the sequence yourself.
You need CRM sync with Salesforce or Pipedrive[3], or white-label for your clients[1].
You want email as a planned step in every sequence[1].

When HeyLead is the wrong choice

You want a visual sequence editor. HeyLead has none; the agents choose each person's next step.
You need white-label, or a CRM other than HubSpot.
You want email in every sequence. HeyLead emails a person only when their record carries an address, 14 days after an invitation with no answer, once you connect a Gmail or Outlook mailbox.
You want more invitations a week than HeyLead's ceilings: it stops at 100 a week on a free LinkedIn account and 320 on Premium or Sales Navigator.

Choose HeyLead if

You would rather describe a campaign in a sentence than build it step by step.
You work in Claude Code, Cursor or another MCP client, and want outreach from the same chat.
You want each message written for the person, in the voice of your own LinkedIn posts, and replies answered from your campaign's facts.
You want to start at $0 with no card.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between HeyLead and Expandi?

Expandi is cloud-based outreach software where you build the sequence: connection requests, messages and email follow-ups, step by step. HeyLead is an AI agent: you describe the campaign in a sentence, and it finds the people, writes each message in the voice of your own LinkedIn posts, follows up and answers replies. Both send from your own LinkedIn account from the cloud.

How much do Expandi and HeyLead cost?

On 25 September 2026 Expandi's pricing page listed $99 a month per seat, or $79 a month billed annually, a custom Agency plan from 10 seats, and a 7-day free trial. HeyLead Free is $0 with one LinkedIn seat and no card; Pro is $29 per connected LinkedIn account per month.

Is HeyLead a browser extension?

No. HeyLead reaches LinkedIn through Unipile's API and runs from the cloud with your laptop closed. Nothing is installed in your browser, and your LinkedIn password never touches HeyLead.

Can I bring my list from Expandi?

If you have your list as a CSV or Excel file, yes: import_prospects reads it into a draft campaign from the local client with HEYLEAD_TOOLS=all. The hosted server and the dashboard have no import yet. The steps are on the page Switching from a sequence builder.

Sources

Checked on 25 September 2026. Expandi's pages disagree with each other in places (for example the help centre caps active campaigns at 15 while the pricing page sets no cap on campaigns); this page uses the pricing page for plans and the help centre for how seats work.

HeyLead is not affiliated with LinkedIn. It reaches LinkedIn through Unipile, which is also not affiliated. LinkedIn's own rules are in the Terms. HeyLead is not affiliated with Expandi; the name belongs to its owner.

Start free, no card