Harp vs AI SDRs
AI SDR platforms such as 11x (Alice), Artisan (Ava) and AiSDR sell an AI sales rep: their agent finds leads, researches them, writes the outreach and handles replies, inside their platform. Harp takes the other approach. You bring the agent, Claude today, and Harp is the harness it runs outbound through.
The short answer
If you want a vendor’s AI to run outbound for you, an AI SDR platform is built for that. If you already use an AI agent and want it to do the work, with your own plan, your own judgment in the loop and no AI credits, Harp is built for that.
Side by side
| Topic | Harp | AI SDR platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Whose AI does the work | Yours: your AI agent (Claude today), on your own plan | The vendor’s agent (for example Alice at 11x, Ava at Artisan) |
| How you pay for the AI | You already do, through your own AI plan; Harp sells no AI credits | Inside the vendor’s pricing, for example per contact or per credit |
| How you steer it | In conversation with your agent, plus qualification questions, playbooks and copy notes that persist | Through the vendor’s settings and controls |
| Where the reasoning shows | Every qualification answer is saved with evidence and source; drafts can wait for review | Depends on the vendor |
| Email sending | Your own Google Workspace mailbox, paced and timed to the recipient | Varies; several vendors provide or manage mailboxes and deliverability |
| Your real Chrome on a Mac, driven at the OS level with limits, warm-up and a right-person check | Varies by vendor; not every platform lists LinkedIn as a channel | |
| Lead data | Your agent finds and researches accounts with the tools you already use | Often bundled, for example Artisan lists a B2B contact database |
| Phone | Not offered | Offered by some, for example 11x lists voice agents and a dialer |
| Buying | Flat subscription after a short call; set up with you | Demo-led at 11x and Artisan; AiSDR lists pay-as-you-go and quoted team plans |
The difference: whose agent is it?
An AI SDR platform is a complete product. The vendor chose the model, wrote the prompts and decides how its agent researches and writes. That is the point: you hand outbound over.
Harp is for teams that already have an agent they trust. Your agent does the thinking with your instructions, your context and your plan. Harp gives it the rest: a record of every account and answer, sequences, sending, reply handling and LinkedIn actions at human pace. When better models arrive, your outbound gets better the same day, because the agent is yours.
No AI credits
AI SDR platforms pay for the AI they run, so it shows up in their pricing, whether per contact, per credit or per plan. Harp runs no model on your outreach. You bring your own AI plan, and Harp is a flat subscription for the harness.
Judgment you can see
In Harp, research is not a black box. Your agent answers your qualification questions per account and saves each answer with its evidence, source and age. Campaigns can hold every email until the rendered draft has been reviewed, and copy rules you save apply to every draft after.
When an AI SDR platform is the better choice
- You do not use an AI agent today and do not want to.
- You want one vendor to provide the lead data, mailboxes and the AI in a single contract.
- You need phone, SMS or WhatsApp in the sequence.
- You need LinkedIn automation on Windows. Harp’s LinkedIn automation needs a Mac.
When Harp is the better choice
- Your team already runs research and writing through Claude.
- You want your own agent, prompts and judgment doing the work, not a vendor’s.
- You do not want to pay for AI twice.
- You want to see the evidence behind every qualification decision.
Questions
Is Harp an AI SDR?
Not in the usual sense. Harp does not ship its own AI rep. It is the MCP harness your own AI agent runs outbound through: records, sequences, sending, reply handling and LinkedIn.
Does Harp include lead data?
Harp does not sell contact data. Your agent finds and researches accounts with the tools you already use, and saves them into Harp.
How much does Harp cost compared with an AI SDR?
Harp is a flat subscription with no AI credits, set up after a short call. There is no public price list. Email sales@harpgtm.com.
See Harp on your own outbound
We set up every customer ourselves. Tell us how your team runs outbound today.
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