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A Clay alternative, now that Clay is Mesh
Clay renamed itself Mesh in March 2026, and it is owned by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. It is polished, and it gathers contacts from nearly everywhere. It is also a cloud service: your network lives on its servers. NexxusCRM keeps it on your Mac instead. Here is how the two compare, including where Mesh is the better choice.
Choose Mesh if
- you want contacts gathered from almost everywhere, with no effort
- you use Windows, or want a web app
- you want job changes and news about people tracked for you
- the free plan, up to 1,000 contacts, is enough
Choose NexxusCRM if
- you would rather your network was not on anyone's server
- you want the text of your messages in a contact's history, not only who you texted
- you want AI that can run entirely on your own Mac
- you run your day from Things 3
| NexxusCRM | Mesh (was Clay) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free during the beta. The launch price is not set yet, and the first 50 never pay more than it. | Free up to 1,000 contacts. Pro is $10 a month (shown at a discount). Team is $40 a seat a month. |
| Platforms | Mac (Apple silicon and Intel), plus an iPhone app. No Windows, Android or web app. | Mac, Windows, web and iPhone. |
| Your data | On your Mac, in a database encrypted with SQLCipher. iPhone sync is end to end encrypted. No account. | On Mesh's servers, encrypted in transit and at rest. End to end encryption covers messaging and social connections only. Data may be processed outside your country. |
| Any IMAP account: iCloud, Gmail (with an app password), Proton, Fastmail and the rest. | Gmail and Outlook. | |
| Calendar | iCloud calendars, read only. Google Calendar is not in the beta. | Calendar sync. |
| Messages | iMessage and WhatsApp history, message text included, read on your Mac. | WhatsApp, and iMessage to see who you text (the message text is not imported). |
| A browser bridge: profiles and messages you open go to the app, without leaving your Mac. | LinkedIn, plus X, Facebook and Instagram. | |
| AI | Optional. Local models through Ollama; cloud models only if you add one, and email stays local by default. | An AI assistant, opt in, running on Mesh's servers and unnamed third party partners. Mesh says your data is not used for training. |
| Tasks | Two way sync with Things 3. | No task app sync listed. |
| Teams | One person. No sharing and no team plan. | A Team plan, up to four members. |
Where NexxusCRM falls short
- It gathers from fewer places. No X, Facebook or Instagram, and no Outlook sign in.
- It does not track job changes or news about your contacts.
- It runs on a Mac, with an iPhone app. No Windows or web app.
- The launch price is not set, and there is no promise of a free plan.
- It is a beta. Mesh has years of use behind it.
Facts about Mesh were checked on 20 October 2026, from: me.sh, Mesh pricing, the Mesh announcement, Mesh security and privacy. Prices change, so check theirs before you decide. Spotted something out of date? Write to hello@nexxuscrm.com and we will fix it.
Try it on your own Mac
The beta is free. The first 50 shape the roadmap and never pay more than the launch price. The full beta details.