Sales outreach · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Smartlead?

KINDA· weekend project

The sender itself is a modest program: import leads, send a few timed steps from your own mailboxes, thread the follow-ups, stop on reply or bounce, and honour opt-outs. An agent writes that in an evening on SMTP and IMAP. The weekend goes on what keeps mail out of spam: per-mailbox caps with random gaps, bounce parsing, SPF, DKIM and DMARC for every sending domain, and a reply inbox you can trust. Smartlead's warm-up pool, placement tests and lead credits are services built on other people's mailboxes and data, so they stay out of a personal build.

$39/moprice

$468you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyAdvanced · Real infrastructure or OAuth work.

TimeA weekend; DNS records and mailbox reputation take longer than the code

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
Mailboxes with SMTP and IMAPApp passwords for Google or Microsoft accounts, or any provider that allows SMTP.
A sending domain with DNS accessSPF, DKIM and DMARC records are required before the first send.
A public HTTPS addressRecipients must be able to open the unsubscribe link.

Before you buildSmartlead has no free plan, only a trial. Run the trial on a real list before you build, so you know which parts you use.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a self-hosted cold-email sender to replace Smartlead for one small list. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify server with server-rendered pages (Eta) and htmx. `npm start`
serves http://localhost:4900 behind one admin password from .env (signed cookie).
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/outreach.db: mailboxes, leads (email, name, company, custom
fields as JSON), campaigns, sequence steps (delay in days, subject, body), sends, replies,
bounces and a global suppression list.
- Mailboxes: any number of SMTP and IMAP accounts added in the UI, passwords encrypted with
APP_SECRET from .env (AES-256-GCM). Each has a daily cap, a sending window and a minimum gap
in seconds plus random jitter. A "send test" button mails me from the chosen mailbox.
- Import: CSV upload with column mapping; reject malformed addresses with `validator`, skip
anything on the suppression list, dedupe on the lowercase address.
- Sending: a worker (`croner`, every minute) picks the next due step per lead, rotates across the
campaign's mailboxes within their caps, fills {{first_name|there}} and {a|b} spintax, adds
List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers, and keeps follow-ups in one thread with
In-Reply-To and References.
- Replies: poll IMAP with `imapflow` every 2 minutes and match on References. Stop the sequence
on a reply, on a bounce (parse the DSN with `mailparser`) or on an unsubscribe click at /u/<token>.
- Inbox and reports: one list of replies, labelled by hand as interested, not interested or out
of office, answered from the mailbox that sent the original; sent, replied, bounced and
unsubscribed per campaign and mailbox; pause a mailbox when its bounce rate passes 3% over
its last 100 sends.
- Single user. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first. Outbound calls: your SMTP and IMAP servers.
- Out of scope: warm-up networks, lead databases, email verification, LinkedIn steps, open and
click tracking pixels, client workspaces.
- README: SPF, DKIM and DMARC per sending domain, a reminder that many countries require a
postal address and a working unsubscribe in commercial email (CAN-SPAM, GDPR and PECR), and
a warning that Gmail and Outlook can throttle a new mailbox whatever this code does.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Smartlead.

Add a ramp-up schedule to the cold-email sender in this folder. Requirements:

- Each mailbox gets a start date and a ramp plan: a daily cap that grows by a fixed step every
  few days (default 5 on day 1, +3 every 3 days) up to its configured maximum.
- The worker uses min(ramp cap, configured cap) and shows today's cap and a progress bar on the
  mailbox page.
- If bounces exceed 3% over the last 50 sends, hold the cap where it is for 7 days and show a
  warning in the dashboard.
- Add tests for the cap calculation across the first 30 days.
- Update the README with how ramping works and what it cannot guarantee.

Add address checking to the cold-email sender in this folder. Requirements:

- Before a lead's first send, check syntax, then MX records with node:dns, and drop role
  addresses (info@, sales@) unless the lead is marked "keep".
- If REACHER_URL is set in .env, call a Reacher backend for the mailbox check and store the
  result (safe, risky, invalid, unknown) with a timestamp; otherwise skip that step.
- Skip invalid leads, hold risky and unknown ones in a review list, and cache results for 30 days.
- Show a per-list summary of how many addresses fell in each bucket.
- Update the README with the note that SMTP checks need outbound port 25, which many hosts block.

Add reply classification to the cold-email sender in this folder. Requirements:

- When a reply arrives, send its text (not the quoted thread) to an OpenAI-compatible endpoint
  from .env and ask for one label: interested, not interested, out of office, wrong person or
  unsubscribe request, plus a one-line reason.
- Show the label as a suggestion next to the reply; I confirm it with one click. Never act on
  a suggestion automatically, except that an "unsubscribe request" label adds the sender to the
  suppression list only after I confirm.
- Store label, reason and the model name; keep the prompt in a file I can edit.
- Update the README with what text leaves the machine when this is enabled.

What you lose

The warm-up pool that trades mail between mailboxes owned by other customers
Inbox placement tests and sender scoring through SmartDelivery
Verified lead credits and the SmartProspect database
Client workspaces, white-labelling and dedicated sending servers
AI labelling of replies, a team master inbox and the API

Why people still pay

Cold email lives or dies on deliverability, and Smartlead sells one price for unlimited mailboxes, a rotation engine and a warm-up pool, so growing from two inboxes to twenty does not raise the bill. Agencies add client workspaces and white-labelling. Public threads are mixed: some users praise the reply labelling, others report deliverability swings, a warm-up pool they cannot control and add-ons that make the bill climb.

Moatinfrastructure scale network effects execution polish

Do the math

Smartlead or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Smartlead, 1 yr$468

Your own copy, 1 yr$218running + build session

You keep$251pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · Mailboxes and sending domains are the real cost and you pay them with Smartlead too: its own list prices a Google or Outlook mailbox at about $4.50 a month and a domain at about $13 a year. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Smartlead

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Smartlead

1Leads: open the campaign, go to the Lead list, set a Filter (email status or lead category) and choose Download as CSV.
2Replies and activity: open the campaign Inbox, filter by sequence step or by a status such as Replied, Bounced or Unsubscribed, and download the CSV. It holds name, email, step, sent, opened and replied times, the reply text and open and click counts.
3For every lead in a campaign at once, the API's campaign leads-export endpoint returns a CSV with engagement metrics and custom fields. It needs an API key, and the price list puts API and webhooks on Pro and above.
4Sequences and templates: we found no export, so copy the text of each step by hand.

2 · Cancel Smartlead

1Click your profile picture, open Settings, scroll to Subscription, click Cancel and follow the prompts.
2The plan stays active until the end of the current billing cycle.
3Mailboxes bought through SmartSenders are cancelled with the plan; each is deleted a day before its next renewal, and a reminder shows before you confirm.
4On a custom plan, or one downgraded from a custom plan, ask support in chat or by email to cancel for you.

Your data is kept for two weeks after you unsubscribe, then the account enters a deletion phase that support cannot extend. Export first.
Refunds: a new subscription within 7 days of payment, a renewal only within 3 days and not for dissatisfaction with results. SmartSenders, SmartDelivery, verification and the dialer are never refunded.
Plans renew automatically, so cancel before the renewal date.
Export the unsubscribed and bounced addresses and import them into whatever sends next, so nobody who opted out gets mail again.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Smartlead's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

WarmblyOpen sourceApache-2.0 cold email and warm-up platform: multi-step sequences, unified inbox, a warm-up pool, CRM and a REST API.★ 460 · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗MauticOpen sourceGPL-3.0 marketing automation with email campaigns and segments; built for opt-in lists, not cold outreach.★ 11k · active Oct 2026 · self-host, real ops
WebVisit ↗lightreachOpen sourceYoung MIT project: SMTP mailboxes, CSV leads, sequences, send windows and a reply inbox; no warm-up network.★ 19 · active Jul 2026 · self-host, real ops
WebVisit ↗

The numbers

Smartlead pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Base	$39	$32.50	2,000 contacts and 6,000 sends a month, unlimited connected mailboxes, the Foundation tier of the warm-up pool; no CRM access, API or webhooks.
Pro	$94	$78.30	30,000 contacts and 90,000 sends a month, CRM access, API and webhooks, the Growth tier of the warm-up pool; client workspaces and dedicated servers as paid add-ons.
Unlimited Smart	$174	$144.50	Unlimited contact storage, 150,000 sends and 50,000 verified prospect emails a month, the Premium warm-up pool, CSM call access.
Unlimited Prime	$379	$314.60	Unlimited contacts, 500,000 sends and 170,000 verified prospect emails a month, 3 SmartServers, 3 or more client workspaces, a dedicated manager and a private Slack channel.
SmartServices (managed)	custom	—	Done-for-you outbound at 50,000 or 100,000 emails a month: list building, copy, pre-warmed mailboxes and a GTM engineer.

Free tier: No free plan, only the trial.
Billing: Monthly or yearly, priced per account rather than per seat or mailbox. Yearly saves 17%: the page shows $32, $78, $144 and $315 a month, and the vendor's agent-readable price list gives $32.50, $78.30, $144.50 and $314.60. A banner offers 50% off the first month. Plans renew automatically.
Hidden costs: Verified prospect emails cost $59 a month extra on Base and Pro. Client workspaces are $29 a month each, SmartServers with a dedicated IP $39 a month each, SmartDelivery placement tests $49 to $599 a month, and the dialer starts at $9 a month in credits. Mailboxes bought through SmartSenders run about $4.50 each a month plus about $13 a year per domain. SmartSenders, SmartDelivery, verification and the dialer are never refunded.
Source: www.smartlead.ai

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Questions

Smartlead, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

No free plan: every plan starts with a free trial and no card, but the pricing page does not say how long it lasts.

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: The warm-up pool that trades mail between mailboxes owned by other customers, Inbox placement tests and sender scoring through SmartDelivery.

About $39 a month on the Base plan, $468 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

The warm-up pool that trades mail between mailboxes owned by other customers; Inbox placement tests and sender scoring through SmartDelivery; Verified lead credits and the SmartProspect database; Client workspaces, white-labelling and dedicated sending servers; AI labelling of replies, a team master inbox and the API. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.