The Free & Open-Source, Self-Hosted Alternative to Explee
AI-driven B2B lead discovery, deep website intelligence, real-time mailbox verification, AI personalization, and multi-inbox cold email dispatching — with zero monthly SaaS subscriptions.
Commercial outbound platforms like Explee, Apollo, and Instantly charge $100 to $300+/month for bundled lead databases and sending pools. Under the hood, these tools simply chain web scrapers, DNS/SMTP checks, LLMs, and email dispatchers.
OpenExplee gives you the entire pipeline completely free and open-source. You keep 100% data ownership, run it on your own machine or a $5 VPS, and only pay direct provider costs (e.g. $9/yr for secondary domains and pennies for API tokens).
| Feature | Explee SaaS | OpenExplee (Self-Hosted) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Subscription | $100 – $300+ / month | $0 / month (MIT Licensed) |
| Lead Discovery & ICP Search | Proprietary database & credit system | Crawl4AI & Organic Web Crawlers |
| Email Verification | Paid credit consumption | Built-in 4-Tier DNS + SMTP Handshake ($0) |
| AI Personalization | Locked to proprietary agents | Gemini, Claude, OpenAI, Groq, or Local Ollama |
| Sending Infrastructure | Shared multi-tenant sending pool | Your Own Lookalike Domains & Inboxes |
| Account Providers | Restricted | Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Hyvor Relay, Custom SMTP |
| Data Ownership | Vendor cloud | 100% Private (Local SQLite / PostgreSQL) |
| Estimated Annual Cost | $1,200 – $3,600+ / yr | ~$15 – $30 / month (only your own mailboxes) |
flowchart TD
subgraph Discovery ["1. ICP & Lead Discovery Engine"]
A["Natural Language ICP Query<br/>('B2B SaaS in US using Stripe')"] --> B["DuckDuckGo / Serper Web Search"]
B --> C["Deep Site Scraper<br/>(Extracts value prop, team, contact emails)"]
end
subgraph Verification ["2. Email Verification Engine"]
C --> D["Permutation Generator<br/>(first.last@, first@, etc.)"]
D --> E["4-Tier Verifier<br/>(Syntax + Disposable Check + DNS MX + SMTP Handshake)"]
end
subgraph Copywriter ["3. AI Personalization Studio"]
E --> F["Multi-LLM Copywriter<br/>(Gemini / Claude / OpenAI / Ollama)"]
F --> G["Drafts Personalized 3-Sentence Pitches & Spintax"]
end
subgraph Sequencer ["4. Multi-Inbox Sequencer"]
G --> H["Round-Robin Inbox Rotation<br/>(Google Workspace / M365 / Hyvor Relay)"]
H --> I["Deliverability Guardrails<br/>(35 sends/day cap, random jitter delays, List-Unsubscribe)"]
end
- Natural Language ICP Discovery: Describe your target customer in plain English. OpenExplee finds matching websites, scrapes their core offerings, and identifies decision-makers.
- 4-Tier Non-Intrusive Email Verifier: 1. RFC 5322 Syntax validation.
2. Disposable burner email domain blocklist.
3. Live DNS MX record lookup and prioritization.
4. Non-intrusive SMTP handshake (
EHLO→MAIL FROM→RCPT TO) to verify mailbox existence without sending mail. - Multi-LLM Personalization: Generate hyper-personalized cold outreach based on live website findings using:
- Google Gemini (Recommended: fast, ultra-cheap)
- OpenAI (
gpt-4o-mini,gpt-4o) - Anthropic (
claude-3-5-sonnet,claude-3-5-haiku) - Groq (
llama-3.3-70b) - Ollama (100% offline and free)
- Domain Firewall & DNS Deliverability Auditor: Built-in SPF, DKIM, and DMARC record checker to ensure secondary domains have 100/100 health before sending.
- Multi-Inbox Rotation & Spintax: Connect multiple Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, orHyvor Relay SMTP inboxes. OpenExplee rotates between them to stay well below spam thresholds.
- Modern Single-Container UI: Clean, responsive dark-mode dashboard with real-time KPI metrics, lead tables, live test tools, and campaign wizards.
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/vikasvardhanv/openexplee.git
cd openexplee
Copy the example environment file and add your preferred LLM key:
cp .env.example .env
Launch OpenExplee:
docker compose up -d
Open your browser at http://localhost:8000 .
Clone and create a virtual environment:
git clone https://github.com/vikasvardhanv/openexplee.git
cd openexplee
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
Install dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt
Start the application:
python -m uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload
Navigate to http://localhost:8000 .
Never use your primary company domain for outbound sales. Follow our detailed guides:
- Secondary Domain Firewall Guide: How to buy $9 lookalike domains (
trycompany.com), point 301 redirects, and configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. - Inbox Setup & Authentication Guide: Step-by-step setup for Google Workspace App Passwords, Microsoft 365 Authenticated SMTP, and Hyvor Relay.
Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit issues or pull requests:
- Fork the repo
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/cool-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add cool feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/cool-feature) - Open a Pull Request
This project is licensed under the MIT License.