The exact tools i use to run a 530-agency outreach pipeline for $0/mo

people keep asking what tools i use. the answer is embarrassing: basically nothing paid.

here's the full stack:

prospecting:

• python requests + regex to scrape emails from agency websites
• websearch to find "[city] digital marketing agency contact" in each target market
• a 50-line python SEO scanner that checks any site for missing alt text, broken meta, slow load times
• total cost: $0

email sending:

• gmail SMTP with an app password
• python smtplib — about 20 lines of code
• 30-second delay between sends to avoid spam filters
• daily limit: ~80-90 emails before gmail cuts you off
• total cost: $0

monitoring:

• python IMAP to check inbox for replies every 30 minutes via cron
• telegram bot for instant alerts when a reply comes in
• all running on a linux server i already had
• total cost: $0

content/distribution:

• indie hackers for posting and commenting (free account)
• gumroad for the free SEO scanner tool (free until you sell something)
• cloudflare pages for the landing page (free tier)
• total cost: $0

what this stack does NOT have:

• no CRM (i track leads in a json file)
• no email warmup tool (i just send carefully and stay under limits)
• no analytics dashboard (grep through logs)
• no design tool (landing page is raw HTML)
• no AI writing tool for emails (i wrote one template and personalize the first line with scan data)

what would i pay for if i had the budget:

• a second gmail account ($6/mo google workspace) to double daily sending capacity
• a domain for the API ($10/year) so the landing page URL doesn't change
• maybe lemlist or instantly if i needed to send 500+ emails/day

but right now the $0 stack handles 530 agencies across 41 countries. the bottleneck isn't tools — it's gmail's daily sending limit.

the free scanner that powers every pitch: https://vemtraclabs.gumroad.com/l/seo-analyzer

what's your $0/mo stack? curious what others are running outreach on.