The Expandi alternative for AI agents that hold real conversations

Expandi is built to run LinkedIn outbound: connection requests, follow-ups and email steps in one sequence, from a cloud seat per LinkedIn account. It now has an MCP server too, but by design your AI only drafts there and a person approves every send. If what you are building is an AI agent that answers the people who already write to a business — on LinkedIn and on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger — you need a different kind of tool. That is what Spaces is.

Every Expandi fact below comes from Expandi's own website and help centre, checked on 11 November 2026. Where Expandi is the better choice, and for cold outbound it usually is, we say so.

Already down to two? See Spaces vs Expandi.

Two different products, one sentence each

• Expandi is a cloud-based LinkedIn outreach platform: if/then campaigns of connection requests, messages, InMails and email follow-ups, run from a dedicated IP per account inside warm-up and daily limits, with a shared inbox, CRM sync and an MCP that lets Claude or ChatGPT build lists, draft campaigns and draft replies, priced per LinkedIn seat. (pricing, llms.txt, Expandi MCP)
• Spaces is messaging infrastructure for AI agents: one REST API and one MCP server that let the agent you already use — Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, Cursor or your own code — read and reply to conversations on the Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Messenger accounts a business already has, inside each platform's limits, priced per connected account. (pricing, llms.txt)

The short version: Expandi runs outbound campaigns on LinkedIn. Spaces lets your agent hold the conversations, on LinkedIn and three other chat apps.

Spaces vs Expandi, head to head

Price assumption: five LinkedIn profiles — say a small sales team or an agency with five client accounts. On Expandi that is five seats on Business (pricing is per LinkedIn account; 10+ seats are an Agency quote). On Spaces that is five connected accounts on Pay as you go. Spaces prices are from spacesos.com/pricing; Expandi prices are from expandi.io/pricing. Both checked 11 November 2026, excluding tax. Your AI model's own costs are not in either figure.

This is not a like-for-like price. Expandi's seats buy an outbound machine — prospect search, campaign builder, sequence analytics, white-label for agencies — that Spaces does not include and will not run. Spaces' price buys five accounts an agent can work across four chat apps, mostly answering people who wrote first. If your goal is to send connection requests to people who have never heard of you, Expandi's price is the price of that.

Where the difference shows up

1. Outbound campaigns vs conversations people started

Expandi is built around campaigns: "10 campaign types", unlimited campaigns, an if/then sequence builder, image and GIF personalisation, campaign prioritisation and step-by-step statistics, with connection requests, messages and email follow-ups "in just one sequence". (pricing)

Spaces is built for the other side of the conversation: answering the people who message a business, booking or confirming things in the chat they started, following up with people who know the business and stopping as soon as they reply, and handing over to a person when needed. Its own guidance says not to use it for "cold outreach at scale, bulk unsolicited messages, or bought or scraped contact lists", and on LinkedIn it "does not send bulk unsolicited messages or build lists of strangers to contact". (llms.txt)

If cold outbound is your goal, that is a real reason to choose Expandi.

2. Both have MCP servers — with different boundaries

Expandi MCP (in beta) connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, n8n, Make or any MCP client at https://api.liaufa.com/mcp, by OAuth sign-in or an access token. It can read leads, build and enrich lists, draft multi-step campaigns, diagnose why a campaign stalled and draft replies. Expandi is explicit about the limits: "It drafts, you approve. There is no tool that lets it send or activate a campaign", and the inbox tools cover "existing threads only. No new outreach, no connection requests". (Expandi MCP, help article)

Spaces' MCP is built for an agent that does the messaging itself: read chats, reply, start a chat where allowed, schedule a message for a local time, and run routines triggered by a new message, a keyword, an accepted connection or no reply after N hours. If you want a person in the loop, turn approvals on or use a draft-only key, and sends wait for approval; one call pauses every send at once. It is on every plan, including Free. (llms.txt, pricing)

Rule of thumb: Expandi's MCP lets an AI prepare your outbound. Spaces' MCP lets an AI answer on the accounts, with approvals if you want them.

3. LinkedIn only vs four chat apps

Expandi covers LinkedIn — connection requests, messages, InMail, endorsements, likes and follows — plus email steps. WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger are not listed as channels on the pages we checked. (FAQ, integrations)

Spaces gives one agent the inboxes on Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Messenger, plus TikTok for posts and comments, through one API and one MCP server (/mcp, or /mcp/whatsapp, /mcp/instagram, /mcp/linkedin, /mcp/messenger). Facebook Pages is coming soon. Email is not a live Spaces channel, so if you need email steps, Expandi covers that and Spaces does not. (llms.txt)

On WhatsApp, Spaces links the number you already use by QR code, the same way you link WhatsApp on a computer, and Spaces says there is no Meta approval, no message templates and no Meta message fees on that connection, and the number keeps working on your phone (Spaces WhatsApp API page). A new WhatsApp chat only goes to someone who has messaged the number before or is marked opted in. (limits)

4. LinkedIn limits, both sides

Expandi gives each account automatic warm-up and daily limit ranges you can set for connections, messages, InMails and event invites, and markets "up to 300+ connection requests weekly". (pricing, LinkedIn outreach)

Spaces sets LinkedIn limits for you, by plan: up to 100 messages a day at least 20 seconds apart (replies to people who wrote in have no daily limit), 100 new chats a day, and connection requests at 100 a day and 150 a week on a free LinkedIn account, or 100 a day and 200 a week on Premium, Sales Navigator or Recruiter. For up to 24 hours after a WhatsApp account connects, reconnects, or is disconnected and connected again, Spaces does not start new chats or outreach. Replies in chats that already exist still go out. Other channels have no reply-only window: the warm-up limits apply from the first day, and replies to people who wrote in go out immediately. This lowers the risk of a platform restricting an account; it does not remove it. (llms.txt, LinkedIn API, safety)

5. Pricing: per seat or per account

Expandi Business is $99 a month, or $79 a month billed annually ("2 months free"), per LinkedIn account, with a 7-day free trial that includes all features. Teams of 10+ seats or white-label agencies get a custom Agency quote. (pricing, llms.txt)

Spaces has a Free plan — $0, no card, 1 connected account and 50 actions a day (sending stops until midnight at the limit; reading keeps working; no sequences or webhooks). Pay as you go is $9 per connected account a month, prorated, with 1,000 actions per account pooled across the workspace, then $5 per 1,000 ($4 above 100,000 extra, $3 above 1,000,000). Reading is always free, and you can set a monthly usage cap ($25 suggested). An action is a send, reply, new chat, post, comment, like, follow, invitation or profile lookup. (pricing)

Choose Spaces if

• You are building or running an AI agent that answers people itself, not just drafts for a person.
• Your conversations happen on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger as well as LinkedIn.
• Most of your messages are replies and follow-ups to people who know you: inbound leads, candidates who applied, customers, post commenters.
• You want limits, pacing, warm-up, approvals and a pause switch handled for every account, and a Free plan to start.
• You would rather pay per connected account and per action than per seat.

Stay with Expandi if

• Your business runs on sequenced cold outreach on LinkedIn — connection requests, follow-ups and email steps to people who have not heard of you. Expandi is built for that; Spaces is not.
• You need prospect search, audience scraping, campaign types and step analytics in one place.
• You want your AI to prepare campaigns and replies while a person approves everything that goes out — that is exactly how Expandi MCP is designed.
• You are an agency that needs white-label and client reporting.

Some teams will use both: Expandi for outbound prospecting, Spaces for an agent that answers the replies, inbound messages and chats on the other apps.

Other alternatives to consider

• HeyReach — LinkedIn outbound across many sender accounts, with a unified inbox, API, webhooks and an MCP server: Growth $79 a sender a month for 1–9 senders ($59 from 10), less when paid quarterly or yearly; Agency $999 a month for 25 senders. (heyreach.io/pricing, checked 11 Nov 2026) · Spaces vs HeyReach
• Waalaxy — beginner-friendly LinkedIn prospecting with cold email on its top plan: Pro €19, Advanced €49, Business €69 a user a month billed monthly, 14-day free trial; its MCP server is on Advanced and Business. (waalaxy.com/pricing, MCP docs, checked 11 Nov 2026) · Spaces vs Waalaxy
• Unipile — a unified developer API for LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email, billed per linked account: €49 / $55 a month minimum for up to 10 accounts. It is a raw API you build on, without Spaces' limits and agent tools. (unipile.com/pricing-api, checked 11 Nov 2026)

FAQ

What is the best Expandi alternative for an AI agent?
If your agent should answer and follow up with people on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, Spaces is the closest fit: one API and one MCP server, priced per account. If you want another LinkedIn outbound campaign tool, HeyReach and Waalaxy are the nearer swaps.

Does Expandi have an MCP server?
Yes. Expandi MCP (beta) is at https://api.liaufa.com/mcp and works with Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP clients. It drafts lists, campaigns and replies; it cannot activate a campaign or send without your approval. (Expandi MCP)

Can Spaces replace Expandi for cold LinkedIn outreach?
No, and it is not trying to. Spaces refuses the same cold text sent to many people and does not build lists of strangers to contact. It can send connection requests with a note and follow up with people who know you, inside LinkedIn's limits. (llms.txt)

How much does Expandi cost?
Business is $99 a month, or $79 a month billed annually, per LinkedIn account, with a 7-day free trial. Agency plans for 10+ seats are quoted. (pricing)

How much does Spaces cost?
Free for 1 account and 50 actions a day, with no card. Then $9 per connected account a month, with 1,000 actions per account pooled, and $5 per 1,000 extra actions. Five accounts within included actions are $45 a month. (pricing)

Does Expandi do WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is not listed as an Expandi channel on the pages we checked; Expandi covers LinkedIn and email. Spaces links your existing WhatsApp number by QR code. (Spaces WhatsApp API)

Will connecting an AI agent get my LinkedIn account restricted?
Every platform has its own rules. Spaces keeps each account inside daily limits, paces activity and warms new accounts up over four weeks. That lowers the risk but cannot remove it. See sending limits and account safety.

Facts about Expandi, HeyReach, Waalaxy and Unipile come from their own websites, checked on 11 November 2026. Prices and features change; their sites have the current version. Product names are trademarks of their owners.

Sources

Facts on this page were checked on 11 November 2026 from the official product pages linked in the text, and from Spaces pricing.