The old headline has expired
For years this comparison wrote itself. Dux-Soup was the browser extension and Linked Helper was the desktop program. In 2026 Dux-Soup deprecated its extensions and relaunched as STACKED, a desktop app with an optional hosted version. Linked Helper stayed where it was: software you install on your own computer, or on a server you rent. The architecture argument is over. What separates them now is price, depth and whether you want someone else to host the thing.
Linked Helper is the pick for people who like control and a low bill. It costs less at every term length, includes a built-in CRM and a detailed campaign builder, and keeps your LinkedIn session entirely on a machine you control. Dux-Soup, as STACKED, is the pick for people who want less to manage: a refreshed interface, a hosted version that runs without your computer, team campaigns and a short list of native CRM integrations. Tinkerers lean one way. Delegators lean the other.
The shared ground is wide. Both are installed software from companies with a long history. Both automate visits, invites and message chains, connect to the main CRMs, support teams and use AI to help write messages. Both are sold for a recurring fee, with no lifetime license. The table shows where they part.
The Dux-Soup column describes the STACKED app that replaced the extensions in 2026.
| Point of comparison | Dux-Soup | Linked Helper |
|---|---|---|
| Form in 2026 | Desktop app (STACKED); extensions deprecated | Desktop app |
| Hosted option from the vendor | Yes, STACKED cloud | No. Your computer or your own server |
| Needs a machine left on | Local: yes. Cloud: no | Yes, yours or a rented server |
| How it is sold | Subscription per seat | License per LinkedIn account, for a term of 1 to 12 months |
| Lifetime license | No | No (older articles are out of date) |
| Relative price | Higher | Lower |
| Campaign builder | Simplified at relaunch | Deep, many action types |
| Built-in CRM | Lead and contact management | Yes, with tags, notes and enrichment |
| Native CRM integrations | Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot | HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho |
| Likes and comments as a campaign step | Post likes listed; no comment step | Yes, including AI-written comments |
| Team use | Multi-seat, shared campaigns | Workspaces with roles |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days, full features, no card |
| Temperament | Wants less to manage | Wants every dial |
Drawn from what each vendor publishes about its own product. Plans, limits and tiers move often, so confirm anything that matters to your decision on the vendor’s site.
Both companies have been at this for years and both products work. The strengths below are about fit, not quality.
A LinkedIn automation pioneer from 2015, now sold as the STACKED desktop and cloud app.
Suits: Sellers and small teams who want a simple, current interface and the option of hosted running.
STACKED cloud runs your campaigns on Dux-Soup’s infrastructure, so they continue when your laptop is shut. Linked Helper can run around the clock too, but you would rent and manage a virtual server yourself.
The 2026 relaunch came with a refreshed interface and simplified campaign building. Someone new to automation will find fewer settings to understand than in Linked Helper before the first campaign goes out.
Both STACKED versions are sold with multi-seat options, and shared team campaigns become available from two seats. Pricing for several seats was simplified at the relaunch.
The plan page lists Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot, Slack and Microsoft Teams among native integrations, with Zapier and Make for anything else. STACKED also arrived with an MCP integration for AI assistants.
Dux-Soup has operated since 2015. The team has seen LinkedIn change its interface and its enforcement many times, and that experience went into the new app.
Desktop software with a deep campaign builder, a built-in CRM and a low price.
Suits: Hands-on operators who want every setting exposed and their LinkedIn session kept on their own hardware.
In the standard version that keeps data on your own device, both Linked Helper plans cost less per month than STACKED local at the time of writing, and committing to six or twelve months cuts the price substantially. For a budget-minded operator this is the cheapest serious tool in the pair.
Campaigns are assembled from a long list of actions: visits, invites, message chains, group and event messaging, likes, comments and more. Reply detection pauses a lead when they answer. If you can describe a funnel, you can usually build it.
Contacts, tags and notes live in Linked Helper itself, and a data enricher can add email addresses and other fields. It also connects to HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho and others, with webhooks and Zapier available.
Linked Helper runs on your computer or your own server and states that your LinkedIn session never reaches its servers. It works with a proxy per account and with Basic, Premium, Sales Navigator and Recruiter accounts.
Credit where due: Linked Helper can like a lead’s post and leave an AI-written comment as a step before the invite. It is a single touch inside a funnel that ends in a message, and it goes a step past Dux-Soup, whose plan page lists a post like but no comment.
The trial opens every Pro feature for two weeks without a card, and nothing renews by itself afterward.
Both tools are paid for by the term now. Linked Helper sells Standard and Pro for terms of one, three, six or twelve months, and the discount grows steeply as the term lengthens. One license covers one LinkedIn account and can be moved between workspaces. You may have read that Linked Helper offers a lifetime license. Its current pricing page lists fixed-term licenses only. Dux-Soup’s STACKED is priced per seat in two versions. Local costs more per month than either Linked Helper plan in its standard local-storage version at the time of writing. Cloud costs more again, and that extra covers the hosting a Linked Helper user would otherwise provide by leaving a computer on or renting a small server. If price decides it, Linked Helper wins. If you count your own time spent keeping a machine and a proxy running, the hosted STACKED version narrows the gap.
STACKED local and STACKED cloud, both per seat, with a discount for yearly billing. Cloud costs more and needs no machine left on.
Two plans, Standard and Pro, sold as fixed-term licenses of 1, 3, 6 or 12 months. Longer terms carry much larger discounts. One license per LinkedIn account. 14-day full trial without a card.
Ask whether you enjoy configuring software or would rather it stayed out of your way.
You want campaigns to run without your own computer and without managing a server. You prefer a clean, recent interface with fewer settings. Your team needs shared campaigns, and your CRM is on the list of native integrations. You already hold a Dux-Soup subscription and can move to STACKED within it.
You watch every dollar and are willing to commit to a longer term for a lower rate. You like building detailed funnels and tuning limits yourself. You want contacts and notes in a CRM inside the tool. It matters to you that the LinkedIn session never leaves a machine you control.
You do not want to build funnels at all. You have a list of people worth knowing and you want them to recognize your name. Icebreakly has no messaging features. It keeps commenting on those people’s new posts in your voice, week after week, and counts the touches.
Linked Helper can already put a like and an AI comment in front of an invite. That is a real warm-up step, and it is fair to say so. It is also one touch, fired inside a funnel that ends in a message.
Icebreakly rests on the view that one touch does little and a dozen change things. There is no funnel. You add leads by profile URL and it keeps watching them for as long as they stay on the list. Each new post gets a drafted comment in your Voice, trained on your tone, length, sample comments and guardrails, and labeled with its touch number. Stages run from Stranger to Familiar at about five touches, Trusted at about twelve and Warm past twenty. It runs in cloud browser sessions, so nothing is installed.
What you give up is everything a sequencer does. Icebreakly will not visit profiles in bulk, send connection requests, message anyone, export contacts or sync to a CRM. Dux-Soup and Linked Helper do those jobs. People who use both keep the desktop tool for sending and let Icebreakly handle the slow part: being seen, repeatedly, by the right hundred people.
| Does it… | Icebreakly |
|---|---|
| Visits, invites or message chains | No |
| Contact export or built-in CRM | No |
| Install or machine to keep on | None. Cloud browser sessions |
| Ongoing comments on each new post | Yes, while the lead is monitored |
| Voice trained on your samples and guardrails | Yes |
| Touch number on every draft | Yes |
| Stages | Stranger, Familiar (~5), Trusted (~12), Warm (20+) |
A desktop app. In 2026 Dux-Soup replaced its Chrome extensions with an application called STACKED, which runs either locally on your Mac or Windows computer or in the cloud. The company describes the earlier Pro, Turbo and Cloud extensions as deprecated. Linked Helper has been desktop software for years.
Not according to its current pricing page, which lists licenses for terms of 1, 3, 6 or 12 months on two plans, Standard and Pro. A term can renew as a subscription or be bought once, and either way it expires. Longer terms carry larger discounts. One license covers one LinkedIn account. Articles that mention a lifetime license describe older pricing.
Linked Helper. In its standard local-storage version, both of its plans cost less per month than STACKED local at the time of writing, and STACKED cloud costs more than local. The hosted STACKED version does include running your campaigns on Dux-Soup’s servers, which with Linked Helper would mean leaving your own computer on or paying for a virtual server.
With STACKED cloud, yes. With STACKED local, no: the computer must stay on and awake while activity is scheduled. Linked Helper runs on your own machine, so it needs that machine on, or you can install it on a virtual server you control and let it run there continuously.
Linked Helper is the deeper of the two. It offers a long list of action types, including group and event messaging, likes and AI-written comments, with reply detection and many adjustable limits. STACKED was deliberately simplified at its relaunch and is quicker to learn.
Both cover the common ones. STACKED lists native integrations with Salesforce, Pipedrive and HubSpot, plus Zapier and Make. Linked Helper lists HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign and Zoho, plus webhooks and Zapier, and also has a CRM built into the app.
Nobody outside LinkedIn can prove it either way. A desktop app keeps the session on your own device and network, which Linked Helper presents as a safety advantage. A hosted tool keeps a consistent session without relying on your laptop. Automation of any kind is against LinkedIn’s terms, and sensible daily volumes matter more than the architecture.
Both do. STACKED is sold with multi-seat options for teams and agencies and adds shared team campaigns from two seats. Linked Helper uses workspaces with role-based access, and a license can be moved from one workspace to another. In each case every LinkedIn account needs its own seat or license.
Yes, both. STACKED includes AI-powered campaign and message personalization. Linked Helper has added AI-written messages based on the lead’s profile, an AI check of whether a lead fits your ideal customer profile, and AI comments on posts. Linked Helper meters these with credits that vary by plan, so look at what your plan includes.
Linked Helper’s commenting is a step inside a campaign: it can like a post and leave an AI-written comment before sending an invite or message. A dedicated comment tool such as Icebreakly does only the commenting and keeps doing it. It monitors the leads you choose, drafts a comment in your trained voice on every new post, lets you approve each one, and tracks how many touches each lead has had. Icebreakly sends no invites or messages, so the two are different tools that can be used together.
Icebreakly has no install, no machine to leave on and no campaign funnel to build. Add leads, set your Voice, pick Approval or Autopilot. The free trial covers ten leads for seven days.
