Folk CRM Alternatives in 2026: Picks by Team Size and Budget

folk (the CRM at folk.app, which styles its name in lowercase) has grown from a tidy shared contact list into a sales tool with sequences, call recording and AI agents. That suits plenty of teams. It also means some people searching for an alternative are paying for a sales motion they don't run, while others want more structure than folk offers. Below: what folk is good at, the numbers that usually start the search, and four alternatives matched to those reasons, all checked against each company's own pages.

Where folk is strong

folk calls itself "the AI CRM for your entire sales motion" on its homepage, aimed at sales teams, agencies, startups, partnership teams and people who sell on social media. Its center of gravity is the relationship, not the deal: contacts and companies come first, and pipelines sit on top of them.

• Capture from where you already talk. Gmail and Google Calendar sync in real time, and the first connection pulls in the last three years of emails and events, according to folk's Google import guide. Microsoft accounts work the same way, per the Outlook guide. The Standard plan adds WhatsApp sync and a LinkedIn extension, per the pricing page.
• Outreach without another tool. Every plan includes email campaigns; Premium adds sequences. The homepage describes multichannel sequences across email and LinkedIn, and recording phone calls on your own number.
• AI that does chores. The homepage lists relation summaries, lead scoring against your ideal customer profile, and agents that react to a new email by updating sentiment, creating a task or drafting a follow-up.
• Room to grow. The hard limits page lists unlimited contacts per workspace, up to 100,000 contacts per group and up to 100 members.
• Apps beyond the browser. The homepage links a desktop app and the folkX Chrome extension, and the mobile guide says Contacts by folk is available on Android and iOS.

If a small team shares one network and sells from it, folk is a strong fit, and the alternatives below each give something up to get cheaper or simpler.

What folk costs a small team

folk charges per member, per month, with no free plan among the three listed on its pricing page. Standard is $24 a member per month billed annually ($288 a year) or $30 month to month. Premium is $48 billed annually ($576 a year) or $60 monthly. Enterprise starts at $80 billed annually or $100 monthly.

Run it for a team of three. Standard on annual billing comes to $864 a year; Premium comes to $1,728. The gap matters because several features growing teams ask for sit on Premium: sequences, custom objects and deals, dashboards, API access and workspace roles. Standard also syncs one email account per member and shares only the last 30 interactions with teammates, where Premium syncs five and shares the full history.

The trial is generous but final. New workspaces get two weeks with every Premium feature and no card, and the pricing FAQ says the account is blocked at the end if you don't upgrade (you can ask for a one-week extension). folk takes credit cards only.

Why teams start looking elsewhere

The reasons tend to fall into four groups, and each points to a different tool:

• The bill. Per-member pricing with no free tier adds up for a team of founders, interns or occasional users.
• Needing more structure. Deals and custom objects start on Premium. Teams that want to model their own data, report on it or plug it into other systems via API may want a CRM built around that.
• Living in Gmail. Some teams would rather track deals from the inbox they already have open all day than in a separate app.
• There's no team. A solo founder, investor or consultant may want help keeping up with people, not campaigns, sequences and seats.

Four alternatives, matched to those reasons

Attio, for a team that wants a free start and its own data model

Attio has a free plan for up to three seats, with up to three objects and 50,000 records, per its pricing page. Plus is $35 a user per month billed annually or $44 monthly, for up to 10 seats and 250,000 records. Pro is $79 annually or $99 monthly, with unlimited seats and Attio's call intelligence and sequences listed among its features. There's a 14-day trial of Pro, and the page says no credit card is required to start.

The draw for folk users is flexibility: you define the objects (people, companies, deals, or your own), and reports, workflows, an API and an MCP server (for connecting AI assistants) are on the pricing grid. Attio lists Gmail and Outlook apps, a Chrome extension and iOS and Android apps. It's the better choice when your team cares about how the data is shaped and reported.

Choose Attio if a team of three or fewer wants a real shared CRM at $0, or a larger team wants custom objects without jumping to folk's Premium.

HubSpot's free CRM, for two people who need the basics at no cost

HubSpot's CRM pricing page lists the free CRM at $0 a month with no credit card and no time limit, for up to two users and 1,000 contacts. It connects to Gmail, Google Workspace and many versions of Outlook, and the free column includes up to 15 pipelines and 2,000 marketing emails a month with HubSpot branding.

folk's own HubSpot comparison argues that HubSpot is organized around deals while folk is organized around people. That's a fair way to see it. HubSpot also sells paid Starter seats and a large set of marketing, service and website tools, so it's the route for a team that expects to grow into those.

Choose HubSpot's free CRM if two of you need contacts and a pipeline today, stay under 1,000 contacts, and want room to add paid tools later.

Streak, for a team that would rather never leave Gmail

Streak says it is "built directly into Gmail" on its pricing page, set up in a desktop browser, with iOS, iPad and Android apps on paid plans. Pipelines, shared contacts and mail merge sit beside your inbox instead of in a separate tab.

It isn't the cheaper option. Pro is $49 a user per month billed annually or $59 monthly; Pro+ is $69 annually or $89 monthly and adds advanced reports, automations and integrations. The free plan covers email and link tracking and 50 mail merge sends a day but no CRM pipelines. Pro+ has a 14-day trial.

Choose Streak if your whole team uses Gmail and the separate app is the reason folk isn't sticking.

Merlin, for one person keeping up with people

Merlin runs on a Mac and builds its list of people from your Google mail, calendar and contacts rather than from a team workspace. Where folk gives you a shared table, Merlin's People card gives you a short to-do list about people: a person who emailed you (not a list or a company) and has waited between two and 30 days for an answer, a birthday coming up within two weeks, a reminder you set that has come due, and contacts you used to write to regularly (three or more emails, two to twelve months back) with no mail in either direction for the last two months.

Click a name and a drawer opens with Merlin's take on where things stand, your shared history (emails, meetings, notes) and an About section for how you met, family and anything worth remembering. Mention a lunch or a new detail in chat and Merlin adds it to that person's record. Asking for a note to someone gets you a draft you can change; Merlin sends it only after you approve it.

Merlin gives up a lot that folk has. It's Mac only, works with Google accounts (two on Free, five on paid plans) and not Outlook, and reads relationships from email only, so it doesn't see LinkedIn or WhatsApp. Nothing in People is shared with a team, and there are no deal stages, campaigns or custom fields. There's also no way to delete a person yet. The free plan includes 5,000 credits a month, which Merlin spends as it works, with no card; on Merlin's pricing page, Pro costs $29 monthly, with 20% off on annual billing.

Choose Merlin if you're the only person who'd ever log in, your relationships live in Gmail, and the follow-up is what slips.

Side by side

Prices are per user per month in US dollars, as each company publishes them.

Choosing by situation

Start from the team, then the budget.

• Three people or fewer, no budget yet: Attio's free plan. Two people under 1,000 contacts can also start on HubSpot's free CRM.
• A sales team that uses sequences, LinkedIn and calls every week: stay on folk, probably on Premium, where email and LinkedIn sequences, call recording and a shared pipeline sit in one place.
• You need custom objects and reporting: Attio Plus, at $35 annually against folk Premium's $48.
• Everyone lives in Gmail and won't open another app: Streak, accepting a higher per-seat price.
• It's only you, on a Mac: Merlin's free plan, or folk Standard if you also want LinkedIn and WhatsApp in one contact list.

If you're moving from one personal CRM to another rather than from a team tool, our pages on Dex and Mesh cover those options.