Your set-up.
Or ours.
Lindy vs LeanLoop: teach your own assistant, or have one set up and run for you
Lindy is a well-known name in AI assistants for work. If you've found it, you're probably asking the question every first call with us starts from: can software take some of this work off us? Lindy and LeanLoop both say yes. This isn't a full Lindy review. It's about the difference that matters most when you're choosing: who does the setting up, and who keeps an eye on it once it's running.
Lindy or LeanLoop: the short answer
- Lindy fits a team that works in Slack and is happy to teach it processes, for lots of different jobs.
- LeanLoop fits a business that wants to hand a job over. We find the job worth doing first, set up an assistant for it, test it on your own examples and run it every month.
What Lindy does: a quick look
Lindy describes itself as a teammate that plugs into your tools and takes work off your plate. It works inside Slack: an admin installs it, and your team asks it for help in Slack threads and messages. New Slack installs need a paid Slack plan. You teach Lindy a job by describing the process once, and you can set up a routine in a sentence. It connects to Gmail, Outlook, HubSpot, Notion, Google Drive and many other apps, and it can make phone calls from its own number.
Lindy lets you decide what it may do on its own. For each connected app, you can let it go ahead, make it ask for approval first, or not allow it at all. Approvals appear as buttons in the Slack thread. Its docs say these settings apply in shared Slack threads.
You pay per person, per month, in US dollars, with a monthly allowance of credits for the work Lindy does. You can try it with free credits for 7 days. The current plans are on Lindy's pricing page. Its Team plan includes live onboarding, and larger customers get dedicated support.
Teaching your own assistant vs handing over the job
Lindy is built to be taught by you. That's quick if you know exactly how a job should be done and can write it down: the prices, the rules, the exceptions, the customers who always get a phone call.
In a lot of small businesses, nobody has written that down. It lives in one person's head. Getting it out is most of the work, and it's what our time audit is for. Over about a week, we look at how the job runs today, count the hours it takes, and write down what the assistant should handle and what must always come to you. The audit is a fixed price, agreed before we start. You end up with a written plan, a fixed price and a date for each job worth doing, and an honest note on any that aren't.
A done-for-you AI assistant for UK small businesses
LeanLoop is a small crew in Leeds. We set up an assistant for one job your team repeats, connected to the inbox or system the job lives in, and test it on 20 real examples from your business before it touches anything live. It puts its work in your to-approve list, and you say yes, change it or bin it. Then we keep it running as a monthly service. See how repeat jobs work.
Lindy vs LeanLoop, side by side
| Lindy | LeanLoop | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A self-serve assistant that works in Slack and connects to your apps | An assistant set up for one job you repeat, run by us |
| Who sets it up | You do, by describing your processes. The Team plan includes live onboarding | We do, after the time audit |
| Where your team uses it | In Slack. New installs need a paid Slack plan | In the inbox or system the job lives in, with your to-approve list |
| Approval | You set it for each app: go ahead, ask first, or not allowed | Its work goes out once you've said yes, unless you agree otherwise with us |
| When your business changes | You update it | We update it |
| How you pay | Per person per month, in US dollars, with a monthly credit allowance | In pounds: a fixed price for the time audit, a fixed price to set up each job, then a monthly service |
When Lindy is the better fit
- Your team already works in Slack all day, and you want help right there.
- You want one helper for lots of different jobs, and you're happy to teach it each one.
- You like setting things up, and someone on the team has time to keep an eye on it.
- You want to start today. You can sign up and try it straight away.
When a done-for-you assistant makes more sense
- Your business runs on an inbox and a booking system, not Slack.
- You don't have time to write down how the job is done, test it and keep checking it.
- You want someone to notice when it goes wrong, and fix it.
Self-serve isn't free time
Self-serve tools are quick to start and cheap to try. The hours go elsewhere: writing down the process, testing it, checking its work and changing it when something in your business changes. If you have those hours, a tool like Lindy makes sense. If those hours are exactly what you're trying to get back, hand the job over.
Weighing up a general tool too? See ChatGPT vs LeanLoop.
