Clay alternative · checked on Clay’s own pages
SoloRiff vs Clay
Clay gives you the parts of an outbound machine. SoloRiff is the machine, already running.
Clay is infrastructure for go-to-market teams: a marketplace of data vendors, enrichment waterfalls, AI research columns and a sequencer you assemble into your own workflows. SoloRiff is the finished workflow: from your website it picks the people, verifies them, writes every email, sends it and follows up. Build your own with Clay; switch SoloRiff on.
No signup to try it. $30 in free credits when you create an account.
Feature by feature
A Clay alternative for outbound
Clay can be made to do a great deal; the question is who does the making. Clay’s column is read from Clay’s own pricing, product and documentation pages.
| What you need | SoloRiff | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the people and writing to them | ||
| Who decides who to contact | SoloRiffYes: SoloRiff. It reads your website, proposes buyer personas and finds the people for each one. | ClayPartly: You search and filter; an AI co-pilot builds tables from a prompt. |
| Who writes each email | SoloRiffYes: The AI writes every email for its recipient, in the language of their market. Never a template with blanks. | ClayPartly: Your sequence template, with AI-written snippets per lead. |
| Contacts, and checking the addresses | SoloRiffYes: Its own lead base plus maps, registries, search and directories. Every address verified before anything is sent. | ClayYes: People and company data plus a marketplace of vendors, with email validation. |
| Sending and the replies | ||
| Sending from your own mailboxes, with warm-up | SoloRiffYes: Gmail, Microsoft 365 or SMTP/IMAP. A new mailbox warms up from 20 to 250 emails a day over 14 sending days. | ClayYes: Connect Google, Microsoft or SMTP mailboxes; warm-up built in. |
| Follow-ups that stop on a reply, replies sorted | SoloRiffYes: Follow-ups in the same thread stop the moment someone answers. Replies are sorted; interested ones arrive with a drafted answer. | ClayYes: Sequences stop on a reply, and replies are categorised. |
| Inbox, CRM and Pipeline included | SoloRiffYes: Included: one conversation per person, and a Pipeline that moves with the replies. No second bill. | ClayPartly: A replies tab in the sequencer; no CRM or pipeline among its plan features. It syncs to yours. |
| LinkedIn and phone | SoloRiffNo: Email only. No LinkedIn automation and no dialer. | ClayPartly: LinkedIn and other channels through tools it exports to. |
| The agent | ||
| An agent that runs all of it from a chat | SoloRiffYes: SoloRiff Agent does anything the Studio does. It asks first or acts on its own, and a daily check fixes what it can. | ClayPartly: GTM agents in beta: chat to run plays across search, workflows and campaigns. |
| The same agent from ChatGPT or Claude | SoloRiffYes: Through the MCP connector: add it, sign in with your account, no keys to copy. | ClayYes: An official MCP connector for Claude, ChatGPT and others. |
| Beyond cold email | ||
| Influencer and creator outreach | SoloRiffYes: Creators on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, an AI shortlist for your brief and a personal first letter. $1 per creator written to. | ClayPartly: Creator contact lookups through a marketplace integration. |
| Chat, voice and demo agents on your website | SoloRiffYes: Chat, voice and guided product demos on your site. Warm visitors land in the Pipeline. | ClayNo: Identifies visiting companies; no chat or demo agent among its plan features. |
| PR · SEO · AEO listings | SoloRiffYes: Your brand on directories, catalogs and review sites. Placed by people, every result verified automatically. | ClayNo: Not among its plan features. |
| Trying it and paying for it | ||
| Try it on your own site without an account | SoloRiffYes: Enter your site at /start: your market researched, real decision makers, one email written. About a minute. | ClayNo: A free plan or a trial, after you sign up. |
| No subscription, no seats | SoloRiffYes: Pay as you go per lead worked end to end, from $0.16. $30 in free credits to start. | ClayPartly: Unlimited seats, but monthly or annual plans plus usage credits. |
The rest of the stack
To get what SoloRiff does with Clay, you’d also need…
Clay plus three more kinds of tool — each one a row above that Clay’s own pages do not list. In SoloRiff they are one account.
With Clay
- A CRM with a pipelineIn the table: Inbox, CRM and Pipeline included
- A website chat or interactive-demo toolIn the table: Chat, voice and demo agents on your website
- A listing or PR placement serviceIn the table: PR · SEO · AEO listings
With SoloRiff
One account. One wallet.
All of it is in SoloRiff already — the outreach, the Inbox and Pipeline, creators, website agents and placements — paid from the same pay-as-you-go credits, run by one agent you can just write to.
- Yes: Inbox, CRM and Pipeline included
- Yes: Chat, voice and demo agents on your website
- Yes: PR · SEO · AEO listings
When Clay is the better choice
- You want many data vendors under one contract, with waterfall enrichment across them
- You build custom enrichment and research workflows against any HTTP API, your CRM or your data warehouse
- You run signal-based plays — job changes, web intent, ad audiences — and have someone to own them
When SoloRiff is
- You want outbound running this week, not a workflow to build and maintain
- Nobody on the team wants to own tables, credits and waterfalls
- You want the replies, the Inbox and the Pipeline in the same place as the sending
- You would rather pay per lead worked than manage two kinds of credits
Sources · checked on
Everything said about Clay on this page was read from Clay’s own pages on that date. Their pricing changes without notice and depends on plan and seats, so we describe its shape and link the page rather than quoting a figure that would go stale:
- Clay homepage
- Clay pricing and plan features
- Clay docs: finding companies and people
- Clay docs: Sculptor
- Clay GTM agents
- Clay Sculpt 2026 recap
- Clay docs: email sequencer
- Clay docs: connect your own email accounts
- Clay docs: email warm-up
- Clay University: email waterfalls
- Clay docs: using Clay in Claude
- Clay docs: connect to Clay MCP
- Clay docs: Influencer Club integration
- Clay docs: web intent
- Clay outbound use case
An independent comparison published by SoloRiff. Clay is a trademark of its owner, named here only to identify their product; we are not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.
SoloRiff Agent
You just write.
SoloRiff Agent does it, checks it and tells you what to change — in the app, or from ChatGPT or Claude.
“Here is our site. Build the personas, find and verify the people, and write to each one.”
SoloRiff vs Clay: questions
What is the difference between SoloRiff and Clay?
Clay is infrastructure for go-to-market teams: a marketplace of data vendors, enrichment waterfalls, AI research columns and a sequencer you assemble into your own workflows. SoloRiff is the finished workflow: from your website it picks the people, verifies them, writes every email, sends it and follows up. Build your own with Clay; switch SoloRiff on.
Is SoloRiff a good Clay alternative?
Yes, for outbound you want running rather than built. Clay is a workbench — tables, credits, waterfalls and prompts you design and maintain. SoloRiff makes those decisions itself: personas from your website, contacts from its own lead base and public channels, every address verified, every email written per person, replies in an Inbox and a Pipeline. If you enjoy engineering the pipeline, Clay goes further.
When is Clay the better choice?
Choose Clay when you want many data vendors under one contract, with waterfall enrichment across them; when you build custom enrichment and research workflows against any HTTP API, your CRM or your data warehouse; when you run signal-based plays — job changes, web intent, ad audiences — and have someone to own them. Choose SoloRiff when you want outbound running this week, not a workflow to build and maintain; when nobody on the team wants to own tables, credits and waterfalls; when you want the replies, the Inbox and the Pipeline in the same place as the sending; when you would rather pay per lead worked than manage two kinds of credits.
How does Clay’s pricing compare with SoloRiff’s?
Clay has a free plan and paid plans billed monthly or annually, with unlimited seats and usage measured in actions and data credits — their pricing page has the current figures. SoloRiff is pay as you go: from $0.16 per lead worked end to end, up to $0.60 when a frontier model writes every email, with no subscription and no seats. New accounts get $30 in free credits.
Can I try SoloRiff before switching from Clay?
Yes. Enter your website at soloriff.com/start — no account, no card. In about a minute you watch it research your company and competitors, design the campaign, find target companies and decision makers, and write one complete email to one of them.
More comparisons
- GTM platformSoloRiff vs ApolloApollo equips a sales team. SoloRiff is the SDR.
- Sales engagementSoloRiff vs InstantlyInstantly sells outreach, leads and a CRM as separate plans. SoloRiff is one account, paid per lead.
- Multichannel sequencerSoloRiff vs lemlistlemlist personalises the sequence you build. SoloRiff writes each email whole, for each person.
- Cold email infrastructureSoloRiff vs SmartleadSmartlead is built for sending at volume. SoloRiff is built for writing each one.
- AI BDRSoloRiff vs ArtisanArtisan gives you Ava, an AI BDR, on its mailboxes. SoloRiff writes from yours, and runs the rest of growth too.
- AI digital workersSoloRiff vs 11x11x sells digital workers on annual contracts. SoloRiff starts on your website today, pay as you go.
- AI outreach agentSoloRiff vs ExpleeExplee writes to your buyers from its own inboxes. SoloRiff writes from yours, then runs the rest of growth too.
- Influencer platformSoloRiff vs ModashModash shows you creators and the emails in their bios. SoloRiff writes to them for you, $1 a creator.
Every feature
- AI SDR autopilotFinds your buyers, verifies every address, writes to each one and follows up.
- Custom CampaignsYour letters as written, or with AI lines per person — from a whole team of senders.
- Influencer outreachCreators on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, an AI shortlist for your brief, a personal first letter each.
- Website agentsChat, voice and guided demos on your site — leads land in your Pipeline.
- PR · SEO · AEOGet listed where buyers check and AI assistants look — done by people, verified automatically.
- SoloRiff AgentJust write. It does the work, checks it and tells you what to change — in the app, ChatGPT or Claude.
The quickest comparison is your own site.
One minute, no signup: your market researched, real decision makers found and one email written to one of them. $30 in free credits when you create an account.