folk reviews: What do people really think of our CRM and the alternatives?

We get it. You might think we’re biased if we talk about our own CRM. 

After all, we’re the ones that built it. Right? So instead, today we’re going to explore what other people think of our CRM, share some steps we’ve taken based on constructive feedback they had and explore some popular alternatives. 

This way, you can get the real low down on what’s on the market and the options you have. 

Read on for:

• A constructive review of folk,
• Popular alternatives including Monday CRM, Attio and HubSpot,
• And more.

Re-introducing folk: the journey so far

folk has evolved significantly over the past year. With a fresh rebrand and an updated product video, we’ve refined our platform to be more intuitive, customizable, and aligned with what modern teams need. 

Key features that continue to set folk apart include:

• Seamless integrations: Connects with Gmail, Outlook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and more.
• Capture contacts: Import leads from LinkedIn, Instagram, and X using folkX extension
• Sales research: Find emails in 1 click, identify a lead’s strongest connection, and import data from your prospect’s website with AI
• Personal outreach, at scale: Schedule emails and automate sequences
• 6,000+ Integrations: Connect your emails, calendar, social platforms, and thousands of other tools
• AI follow-ups: Know the best leads to follow-up with based on your past conversations using AI

These updates have positioned folk as a strong competitor in the CRM market, especially for small businesses, agencies, and deal flow management teams.

Price and plans of folk

folk offers a straightforward pricing structure with a 14-day free trial, allowing users to explore its features before committing to a plan. The Standard plan, priced at $20 per user, per month, provides essential CRM functionality, making it ideal for small teams looking for streamlined contact management. The Premium plan, at $40 per user, per month, introduces more automation, collaboration, and customization options, catering to growing businesses with more complex workflows. The Custom plan, starting at $80 per user, per month, is designed for larger teams or organizations requiring advanced features, integrations, and dedicated support. 

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.

Compared to alternatives, folk remains competitively priced, particularly for businesses prioritizing a user-friendly CRM that does not have a lengthy implementation time.

What do people actually think of folk?

Customer feedback continues to play a huge role in shaping how we develop folk. Users appreciate the simplicity, ease of use, and integrations. Many highlight that folk is a great alternative to more complex CRMs, offering a no-frills approach that still delivers powerful functionality.

Some areas where users have suggested improvements include:

• More advanced reporting features
• Better visibility of contact statuses at a company level
• Enhanced email tracking capabilities

Some areas where users have praised us include:

• folk being the best CRM and email marketing tool they’ve used, 
• folk being quick to implement - in less than half an hour, 20 minutes in fact.
• folk being one of the best CRM and contact database with integrated email in the market

Thank you, folks! While we do love praise, we also take constructive feedback seriously. Which leads us to the next section.

8 Things we fixed based on previous feedback

Based on real user feedback, we’ve rolled out key improvements, including:

1. Improved contact status tracking: Users can now categorize contacts more effectively within companies, improving visibility and organization.
2. Enhanced email tracking: folk now provides better insights into email opens and engagement.
3. Introduced reporting features: We’ve introduced new reporting features that help users analyze interactions and performance.
4. Refined UI/UX: A cleaner, more intuitive interface makes navigating folk even easier.
5. Improved notes and reminders: A way to set this so you can choose to set them private or leave them as is so your team can see them when the switch is made.
6. Manage and measure deals better: You can filter pipelines and customize dashboards for Deals. Find the deal you’re looking for faster when you filter by Deal name and/or company, a Deal’s custom fields, or a Deal’s native fields (Created at and Created by).
7. Easier emailing with Gmail sender: Before, you could connect and authenticate your custom domain. Now, you can choose to quickly add your Gmail account and get mailing! It’s super easy to setup and allows 2-way syncing so you can see emails sent from folk in your Gmail inbox too. Read more on the Help Center.
8. Capture important info with Metadata: We’re always working to make sure you can get the data that matters to you and display it your way. That’s why — in addition to native fields, smart fields, and custom fields — we’ve added a new field type: metadata.

These changes directly address user concerns and ensure that folk continues to be a CRM that grows with your needs. The good news? We’re always looking for ways to refine our CRM so you can expect more product updates in the future.

Popular alternatives to folk

While folk is a strong contender, it’s always good to explore other options. Here are some of the most talked-about alternatives.

1. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a cloud-based CRM designed for small businesses, offering robust lead management, workflow automation, email integration, and customizable sales pipelines to streamline the sales process. User experience has varied.

Key features of Pipedrive

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage customer data, interactions, and sales pipelines, helping teams act quickly on opportunities.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks, such as lead routing, follow-ups, and email sequences, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights.

Price and plans of Pipedrive

Pipedrive's pricing structure is tiered to accommodate businesses of different sizes and needs. The Essential plan provides basic CRM functionality at an accessible price, making it suitable for startups or small teams. The Advanced and Professional plans introduce more automation, email integration, and workflow enhancements, targeting growing businesses that need scalability. The Power and Enterprise plans offer more robust features, including advanced reporting and security options, making them ideal for larger organizations with complex sales processes.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $49 per user, per month.
• Professional plan: Starts from $69 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

While Pipedrive remains competitively priced, businesses should consider whether the additional features at higher tiers justify the cost, especially when compared to alternatives offering similar automation and customization capabilities.

2. Monday CRM

Monday CRM is a sales-focused customer relationship management platform developed by the team behind Monday.com. It is designed to help sales teams streamline contact management, track sales pipelines, and automate workflows for improved efficiency.

Key features of Monday CRM

• Contact management: Provides a central place to store and organize contact details, track communications, and maintain records of interactions with clients and leads.
• Deal management: Allows users to track the progress of deals across stages, helping teams monitor the sales pipeline and update deal statuses as they progress.
• Task management: Users can create tasks related to deals or contacts, assign them to team members, and track their completion to ensure follow-up actions are taken.
• Lead tracking: Features tools for capturing and managing leads, assigning them to team members, and tracking their progress through different stages of the sales funnel.
• Pipeline customization: Enables users to customize their sales pipelines to align with specific business processes, allowing different stages and workflows based on deal progression.

Price and plans of Monday CRM

Monday CRM offers a tiered pricing structure designed to cater to different business needs.  The Basic plan provides core CRM functionality at an affordable rate, making it a suitable entry point for small teams. The Standard plan, at a moderate increase in price, introduces additional collaboration tools and automation features for growing businesses. The Pro plan is geared towards scaling teams, offering more advanced reporting and sales forecasting capabilities. The Enterprise plan, with undisclosed pricing, likely includes enhanced security, custom integrations, and priority support, catering to larger organizations with complex sales operations. 

• Basic: Starts from $12 per seat, per month.
• Standard: Starts from $17 per seat, per month.
• Pro: Starts from $28 per seat, per month.
• Enterprise: Undisclosed.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for continuing to support our CRM. We believe in continuously improving folk based on real user feedback. Whether it’s refining features, enhancing usability, or expanding integrations, our goal is to build a CRM that genuinely supports your workflow. If you haven’t tried folk yet, now’s the time to see how it stacks up against the competition. Try folk today, free. 

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