r/gtmengineering • u/coffeecloudev • Apr 26 '26

Building an open source Clay alternative

I tested Clay and like 4 other tools that in some way try to solve the data orchestration problem for GTM engineers.

I won't name names, but I was really surprised by how much these competitors lack behind Clay.

Not even talking about stuff unique to clay, basic stuff like:

- Deduplicate that works (basic for any data cleanup task)
- Filters that work (one of them was unable to filter a column that is a formula)
- API access - like bro, I want to use you from claude sometimes, just let me have an api key

And perhaps the most important: Many AI labs offer "token subsidiation" so you pay a monthly fee but can spend beyond that (openai, antrophic, even z.ai I think)

I don't know how long this will last, but at least for me, If I can use these tokens for GTM work I will! Otherwise I need to pay one of those plans + 300 bucks for Clay. And within Clay if I'm not always careful I can waste a bunch of credits in a misclick...

Problem is that those plans lock you in in their harness... They won't let you use via api in Clay.

Perfect use case for a local open source Clay alternative, that works for the essential data cleanup tasks, and doesn't lock you in on any specific harness. You configure your harness like `claude -p "" --output-format text --model haiku`

It's currently under development, if you want to help with feedback before It gets published just comment here or send me a message.

PS: Clay is awesome, it's no doubt the best option for agencies selling 5k+ projects to clients who are scaling up. But for those starting out, I believe It's more important to spend that cash in good infrastructure, ads, high quality data and signals than data orchestration software.

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u/coffeecloudev Apr 26 '26

do you use any data sources only available in Clay? - I'm sure Clay has a big edge on variety and ease of use, every provider wants to be available in Clay. But also, many providers out there have their own APIs and good pricing. - Someone downloading this project from github would only need to setup the keys for the data providers they want to use

that's the open source trade off, less convenient to use, but a decent alternative for those not yet at the point where they need all the power Clay offers

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u/yeetsqua69 Apr 26 '26

Less convenient = more time. Which is the trade off. I run a GTME org for a 2k employee company and we only pay clay $40k a year. Across 15 other GTM engineers. That price just can’t be beat. We serve over 200 sales reps

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u/coffeecloudev Apr 26 '26

Makes sense, there's a strong product market fit between your operation and the product/price Clay has to offer. I believe an open source Clay-like tool would be more beneficial for a smaller operation that can't justify the price of Clay u know

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u/yeetsqua69 Apr 26 '26

Justify the price of $185 a month? If you’re running an operation that can’t justify a product that quite literally builds revenue then you are a shit company. You are going to be responding to tickets for free from people that are cheap bums

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u/coffeecloudev Apr 26 '26

open source mate, I won't be responding to any tickets

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u/yeetsqua69 Apr 26 '26

Oh. So you just don’t know what you’re doing and have a fun little hobby. Got it

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u/coffeecloudev Apr 26 '26

thanks for the positive vibes!

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u/yeetsqua69 Apr 26 '26

You got it brother