Both keep your network warm. They know different things about it.
Dex is a polished personal CRM with reminders you set for each person. YouSpot reads your Gmail and calendar, works out who's gone quiet, and reads the message itself when you ask.
Free to start. No credit card.
- YouSpot
- Works out who's gone quiet from your mail, no schedule to set
- Dex
- Reminders on a schedule you set, with apps on every device
Dex is a mature personal CRM with phone and desktop apps and more channels than YouSpot. YouSpot reads your Gmail and calendar, finds who's gone quiet without a schedule, and reads the whole email when you ask it something.
Dex's assistant sees the subject line. YouSpot's reads the email.
Dex's own docs say its assistant sees the sender, subject, date and a snippet, not the full message. YouSpot reads the email itself, live from Gmail, when you ask, and doesn't copy your mail in.
| The decision | YouSpot | Dex |
|---|---|---|
| What the assistant reads | The whole message, read live from Gmail when you ask a question. | The sender, subject, date and a short snippet of each email, per Dex's docs. |
| Knowing who's gone quiet | Works it out from when you last emailed each person. Ask "who haven't I talked to in six months?" and get names, with the last thread. | Reminders start once you set how often to hear from each person, plus a few suggestions a day it picks for you. |
| What it holds | Your people, plus your Obsidian notes, a Notion export and pages you save as you browse. | Your people, each with notes, tags, groups, custom fields and a timeline. |
| Taking it with you | Export your whole second brain as Markdown files, whenever you like. | Three separate CSV files: contacts, timeline and network updates. |
| Price | Start on Free, no credit card needed. Pro is $10 a month. | Premium is $12 a month billed yearly, or $20 month to month. No free plan, and the 7-day trial needs a card. |
Compared on 25 September 2026. Dex and the other product names on this page are trademarks of their owners.
What you'd see
An example of one question, answered from sent mail and a calendar.
Free to start. No credit card.
Where Dex is the better pick
Said plainly, so the rest of the page is easier to believe.
You live on your phone.
Dex has apps for iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows, and keeps your phone's address book in step both ways. YouSpot runs in the browser, with a Chrome extension. If you add people from your phone at events, Dex is ahead.
Your clients text more than they email.
Dex brings in WhatsApp and iMessage, and works with Outlook on its Professional plan. YouSpot reads Gmail and doesn't see WhatsApp, iMessage or Outlook, so if the conversation happens there, Dex sees more of it.
You want birthdays and catch-ups with friends.
Dex has refined keep-in-touch reminders since 2019: a schedule per person, snooze, birthdays and a weekly digest. For friends and family it's the better fit. YouSpot is built around clients and the people who send you work.
Switching from Dex
Nothing gets left behind, because nothing gets taken away.
- 01
Connect Gmail and Google Calendar.
About a minute. Everyone you've ever emailed becomes the list of people you know.
- 02
Bring your Dex contacts.
Export Contacts from Dex (Settings, Workflow, Import / Export) and upload the CSV once. YouSpot proposes how the columns map and saves nothing until you've reviewed it. People already there are matched by email, only empty fields fill in, and columns that don't match are kept as a note.
- 03
Ask who's gone quiet.
Names, the last thread with each, and a draft to reconnect when you want one. You send it.
Questions
- Is YouSpot a Dex alternative?
- For one person keeping past clients and referrers warm, it can be. Both do the same job. YouSpot reads your mail to find who's gone quiet; Dex runs on reminders you set, with apps on every device.
- Do I have to set a reminder for every person?
- No. YouSpot works out who's gone quiet from when you last emailed each person. In Dex, keep-in-touch reminders start once you set how often you want to hear from someone, and it also suggests a few people a day.
- Does YouSpot have a phone app?
- No. YouSpot runs in the browser, and you can text the assistant over SMS or iMessage once you've verified your number. Dex has apps for iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows.
- Can I use both?
- Yes. You could keep Dex for birthdays and friends, and use YouSpot for clients and referrers. Both connect to Claude and ChatGPT, so you can ask either from there.
- What does it cost?
- Start on Free, no credit card needed. Pro is $10 a month, and you can cancel anytime. Dex has no free plan: Premium is $12 a month billed yearly, and its 7-day trial needs a card.
What you can count on.
Gmail is read-only.
YouSpot can read your mail. It can't send, change or delete any of it.
Your mail stays in Gmail.
A message is read when you ask a question. It isn't copied into YouSpot.
Nothing goes out on its own.
Drafts wait for you. Nothing reaches another person until you send it.
Everything comes with you.
Export your whole second brain as Markdown files whenever you like.
Leaving is one step.
Disconnect Gmail and YouSpot's access ends right away. Delete your account and your data goes with it.
See who's gone quiet, without setting a reminder.
Connect Gmail, and a minute later you'll see who you haven't heard from.
Free to start. No credit card needed.