OpenExplee – Free, self-hosted alternative to Explee, Apollo and Instantly

OpenExplee has launched as a free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted alternative to commercial outbound platforms Explee, Apollo and Instantly, which the project says charge $100 to $300+ per month. OpenExplee bundles natural-language ICP lead discovery via Crawl4AI and DuckDuckGo/Serper search, a 4-tier email verifier (RFC 5322 syntax, disposable-domain blocklist, DNS MX lookup and SMTP handshake), multi-LLM personalization through Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq or local Ollama, and multi-inbox rotation across Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Hyvor Relay with a 35-sends-per-day cap. The project claims users pay $0 per month in subscriptions versus an estimated $1,200 to $3,600+ per year for SaaS equivalents, running on their own machine or a $5 VPS with data stored locally in SQLite or PostgreSQL.

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, or Hyvor Relay https://github.com/hyvor/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. 1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/vikasvardhanv/openexplee.git cd openexplee 2. Copy the example environment file and add your preferred LLM key: cp .env.example .env Edit .env and set GEMINI API KEY=your key or OPENAI API KEY=your key 3. Launch OpenExplee: docker compose up -d 4. Open your browser at http://localhost:8000 . 1. Clone and create a virtual environment: git clone https://github.com/vikasvardhanv/openexplee.git cd openexplee python3 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate 2. Install dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt 3. Start the application: python -m uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload 4. Navigate to http://localhost:8000 . Never use your primary company domain for outbound sales. Follow our detailed guides: 1. Secondary Domain Firewall Guide https://github.com/vikasvardhanv/openexplee/blob/main/docs/DOMAIN FIREWALL GUIDE.md : How to buy $9 lookalike domains trycompany.com , point 301 redirects, and configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. 2. Inbox Setup & Authentication Guide https://github.com/vikasvardhanv/openexplee/blob/main/docs/INBOX SETUP GUIDE.md : 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 https://github.com/vikasvardhanv/openexplee/blob/main/LICENSE .