The short version
Expandi is a mature, self-serve LinkedIn automation tool whose safety story is infrastructure: cloud-based sending, a dedicated country-based IP per account, gradual auto warm-up and algorithmic daily limits. Nova's safety story is architecture: an action ledger recording everything each account does, a governor that checks every single action against per-account budgets and trust-tier ramps, and a human approval queue in front of everything AI writes. Expandi makes automated sequences look like they come from a normal connection; Nova constrains the whole system so each account behaves like a person — and adds lead discovery, research and content that Expandi doesn't attempt.
What Expandi does well
Credit where due: Expandi takes safety seriously by category standards — dedicated country-based IPs and gradual warm-up were differentiators it pushed before most competitors talked about safety at all. Its sequence builder supports conditional if/then logic, it does multichannel steps (connection requests, messages, email), offers image/GIF and video personalisation add-ons, and its positioning explicitly favours research-backed limits over promised volume — a stance we respect. It is self-serve with a 7-day full trial, at $99/mo per account ($79/mo billed annually) with agency pricing for 10+ seats (as listed in July 2026).
Side by side
| Dimension | Nova | Expandi |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Founders, sales teams, agencies wanting one system | Growth marketers, agencies running LinkedIn sequences |
| Pricing (listed July 2026) | Growth $49/mo · Agency $749/mo · Unlimited $2,499/mo | $99/mo per account ($79/mo annual) · agency pricing 10+ seats |
| Safety approach | Action ledger + governor; per-account budgets and trust-tier ramps; engagement-only days for new accounts | Cloud platform, dedicated country-based IP, auto warm-up, smart daily limits |
| Warm-up of leads | Each lead is engaged (view, react) days before its invite | Profile auto warm-up ramps the account's activity volume |
| Lead discovery | Lead Radar: autonomous daily ICP-scored discovery, human-approved before contact | Imports from LinkedIn/Sales Navigator searches and engagement scraping |
| Per-lead research | Deep research feeds every first-message draft | Personalisation via placeholders + image/video add-ons |
| AI messaging | Drafts from research; human approval queue — nothing auto-sends | Sequences send automatically once launched; conditional logic controls flow |
| Channels | LinkedIn only, by design (incl. voice notes) | LinkedIn + email steps |
| Beyond outreach | Content studio, profile review, unified inbox | Campaign analytics, integrations |
| Access | Invite-only private beta; 14-day money-back | Self-serve, 7-day free trial |
Two meanings of "warm-up"
Worth being precise, because both products use the word. Expandi's warm-up ramps your account's activity volume gradually — real and useful. Nova does that too (trust tiers, engagement-only first week for new accounts) and adds the other warm-up: each lead sees engagement from you days before the invite arrives, so acceptance rates rise — which feeds back into account safety, because accepted invites are the trust signal LinkedIn reads. Infrastructure hides automation; behaviour-shaping reduces the thing detection looks for. We think you eventually need the second.
Choose Expandi if
- You want a tool with years of track record behind it — Nova is newer, and still in beta.
- You need email steps in the same sequence; Nova is deliberately LinkedIn-only.
- You like building conditional if/then sequence logic yourself and don't want AI drafting or an approval workflow.
Choose Nova if
- You want safety enforced as architecture — every action checked against a ledger — rather than configured as limits you could set wrong.
- You want the funnel before the sequence handled too: discovery, ICP scoring, research and per-lead warm-up.
- You want a human approving every AI-drafted send, and content + inbox in the same system spending the same account budget.
See how we document the safety layer on the safety section and what our numbers count — then Start free trial if it fits.
Frequently asked questions
Is Nova safer than Expandi?
Honestly: nobody can prove a comparative ban-rate claim, including us, and you should distrust any tool that quotes one without publishing its methodology. What can be compared is mechanism. Expandi's safety story is infrastructure — cloud sending, a dedicated country-based IP per account, gradual auto warm-up and algorithmic daily limits, which make automated sequences look like normal connections. Nova's is architecture — an action ledger recording everything each account does, a governor checking every single action against per-account budgets and trust-tier ramps, human approval in front of everything AI writes, and per-lead engagement before each invite. Both are serious approaches; they defend against different detection surfaces. Our view, argued in the page above, is that behaviour-shaping eventually matters more than infrastructure — but that is our view, disclosed as such. Whichever way you lean, test the claim identically: ask each vendor what specifically happens at the moment a daily limit is hit.
Does Nova have a free trial like Expandi?
Yes — Nova is self-serve with a 7-day free trial and no card required, which matches Expandi's trial length and full-feature access (as listed in July 2026). One caveat worth setting expectations on, and it applies to any safety-first tool: a warm-up ramp means a new account spends its first days on engagement, not invites, so a week of trial shows you the product and the pipeline being built rather than a finished set of replies. Plan the trial around evaluating the system — ICP quality, research depth, the drafts in your approval queue — not around counting meetings booked. The first payment also carries a 14-day money-back guarantee, so the decision after the trial stays reversible.
Related comparisons
- Nova vs HeyReach — multi-sender scale vs depth per account
- Nova vs Dripify — simple drip sequencer vs the full system
- All comparisons · The account safety guide behind this page's argument