Folk CRM Review 2025

Small businesses often struggle to find CRM software that allows them to manage sales opportunities without being overwhelmed with complexity.

Folk CRM tries to solve this problem by being “the sales assistant you never had.” Folk aims to strip away the clutter found in many CRMs, so it can focus on speed and the simplest functionalities.

But when you remove too many features, you risk removing essential ones, too.

We spent several weeks testing Folk CRM against our standard criteria for small business CRMs. Here’s what we discovered about its capabilities, limitations, and whether it delivers value for money.

Overview of Folk CRM for Small Business

Folk is a small business CRM software built for speed. That’s why it comes with a stripped-down feature set and a minimalist interface.

This CRM connects with Clearbit, People Data Labs, Apollo, and other sources. The browser extension auto-captures leads from websites and social media platforms, and certain data fields populate themselves. All of this makes it easy to add new data to the CRM.

This focus on speed over sales features has earned Folk a positive rating on G2. But while users consistently mention the speed and the minimal learning curve, they also talk about the missing features in Folk CRM.

Folk CRM lacks workflow automation entirely, and deal management sits behind a paywall that doubles your monthly cost. And if you need to check your CRM on your phone, you’re out of luck; there’s no mobile app.

Folk has decided that these features aren’t essential. For some businesses, they’re right. For others, not so much.

However, if you’re a fan of Notion but want something more suited to contact management, you might like Folk CRM.

This piece is going to dive into all the details small businesses need to know about Folk CRM before committing.

Folk CRM Pros and Cons

During our testing for Folk CRM, we came across a number of things small businesses might find useful about the tool, and several others that’d likely put them off.

Key CRM Features of Folk CRM

To understand if Folk works for your business, you need to know exactly what you’re getting and what you’re not.

We’ve broken down the features at the Standard plan level ($20 per user/month) since that’s where most small businesses would start.

• Core Features

  • Mobile app
    ❌
  • Contact management
    ✅
  • Follow-up tracking

    

    Though available, follow-ups are limited and cannot be marked as done—only deleted.
    ⚠️ Limited
  • Pipelines
    ✅
  • Duplicate management
    ✅

• Centralization Tools

  • Centralized workspace

    

    A centralized workspace is an essential small business CRM feature that lets you manage your whole business on just one page.
    ❌
  • Dashboard
    ⚠️ Higher plans only
  • Number of integrations
    20+

• Communication Tools

  • Two-way email sync
    ✅
  • Click-to-call options
    ✅
  • Multi-channel inbox
    ❌
  • Meeting scheduling
    ❌

• Simple Automation

  • CRM workflows
    ❌
  • Sales email sequences
    ⚠️ Higher plans only
  • Free web forms
    ❌
  • Browser extension for auto lead capture
    ✅ LinkedIn, Twitter, Gmail, Instagram, Websites

• Customer Support

  • Email support
    ✅
  • Live chat
    ✅
  • Phone support
    ❌

• Pricing

  • Starting price
    $20 per seat/month
  • Free trial
    ✅ 14 days
  • Free plan
    ❌
  • Next paid plan
    ⚠️ Expensive ($40 per seat/month)

Below, we’ll examine the features in detail.

Lead Management

There’s no deals module on Folk’s lowest subscription (Standard). If you’d like to create and or manage deals, you’ll need to upgrade to Premium, which starts from $40.

That said, Folk CRM offers something else to help you handle sales opportunities from the get-go: lead management.

It’s important to note that “leads” in Folk CRM are the same as “contacts” in the general CRM nomenclature.

On your Lead page, you can create new leads, import them into Folk, or migrate them directly from another CRM. Once added to your database, the leads (or contacts) are organized in a list in no particular order.

The leads list features default fields to record relevant data about each lead, such as email, last interaction, channel, value, and status, among others. But if you want, you can create custom fields to better suit your business.

Folk CRM’s lead management module comes with Autofilling features dubbed Smart Fields and Magic Fields:

• Smart Fields are automatically updated by the CRM in real time. For example, the “Last Interaction” field updates itself whenever you engage with a contact.
• Magic Fields are AI-powered data fields that are automatically populated based on prompts of your choosing. For example, if you create a magic field and choose the prompt “generate company description”, the built-in AI will do just that.

From the Lead page, you can enrich leads, merge records, add notes, create reminders, call, or log an interaction with a lead. You can also click on a lead to open its individual page, where you can view and manage all its information.

The full-context view has a “Team interactions” subtab, which houses a history of your interactions with the lead, whether that’s emails, calls, messages, calendar events, and the like. You can even sync conversations from WhatsApp and log chats from LinkedIn.

Follow-Up Tracking

Though limited, Folk CRM does offer follow-up tracking capabilities.

The only type of activity or task you can create is a “Reminder,” and these are only tied to leads. In practice, that means every task in the system is essentially a prompt to reconnect with a contact.

All reminders live on the Notifications page, where they’re neatly arranged by their deadlines.

However, reminders can’t be marked as “done.” Your only option is to delete them. That leaves no historical record of completed follow-ups, which makes it harder to review past activity or understand how a lead has been managed over time.

Pipeline Management

Folk CRM lets you visualize your pipeline in a Kanban board where contacts (or leads, to be precise) are presented as cards and organized according to their sales stages. On each card, you’ll see the lead’s name, company, position, acquisition channel, value, and follow-ups (if any).

From this pipeline view, you can advance leads — individually or in bulk — to the next stage of the sales cycle using drag and drop. You can also send emails, enrich leads, merge contacts, add a new note, create a reminder, open up a calling app, or record an interaction.

Email Sync

Full email integration is available on all of Folk CRM’s subscription plans. Connect your email provider to not only send and receive emails in your CRM, but also keep a record of all past correspondence with a contact.

Email logs aside, Folk CRM also provides you with basic email analytics. The “Messages” tab displays all your emails and lets you know whether they’ve been sent, read, or clicked.

Note: There’s a limit to how much you can use Folk CRM’s email messaging feature. The Standard plan gives you 2,000 emails per user/month, while Premium gives 5,000. If you run out, you’ll need to either wait till next month or upgrade to a higher plan.

Collaboration

You can add an unlimited number of team members and collaborate on the CRM.

Put team members in charge of a lead, leave notes for them (@), and assign them reminders. You can also manage user permissions to grant access to your workspace, tabs, pipelines, and all interactions with leads.

Duplicate Management

Folk CRM has a straightforward duplicate management functionality.

You can manually peruse your database to search for and merge duplicate leads, or instead rely on the duplicates view that compiles all duplicate records in your database and prompts you to consolidate them.

This small business CRM also automatically detects and offers to auto-merge any duplicates detected when you’re importing contacts.

Dashboard and Reporting

With Folk CRM, you can create custom dashboards that provide you with an overview of your business health, sales performance, and other insights.

That said, dashboards are not available on this small business CRM’s lowest subscription plan.

Automations

There are no automated workflows on any of Folk CRM’s plans. And while the CRM does feature sales email sequences, the functionality is not available on the lowest tier; it requires at least a Premium plan.

That being said, the Folk browser extension lets you capture lead data from LinkedIn, Twitter, Gmail, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and other websites.

In addition, the small business CRM offers one-click data enrichment to help you scrape leads’ info from sources such as Clearbit, People Data Labs, Apollo, Dropcontact, Prospeo, and Datagma.

Integrations

Folk CRM’s integration capabilities are very limited.

The small business CRM comes with built-in tools for integrating with Google, Microsoft, and WhatsApp. It also integrates with Clearbit, People Data Labs, Apollo, Dropcontact, Prospeo, and Datagma, and 15 other tools.

The only way to access more business tools is to connect with Zapier or Make. With either, you can integrate with 1,000+ more business apps.

Ease of Use

Folk CRM is one of the most lightweight CRMs we’ve seen. It has a minimal design, non-distracting colors, and very few tabs and subtabs.

It also has a fast loading speed (no more than 3 seconds most times). This is perhaps thanks to the fact that the CRM is lean, which not only makes it quick but also easier to pick up and learn.

To make life easier for users, Folk CRM has Magic Fields and Smart Fields. These are data fields you can populate without lifting a finger (it’s automatic). What’s more, you can manage your pipeline via drag-and-drop.

In fact, Folk CRM has an average rating of 4.5/5 on G2, from over 280 customers. Many users say that this CRM is lean and has a responsive interface.

However, managing sales in this CRM requires quite a few clicks. Moreover, Folk CRM features a number of customization options, which can make it more taxing and time-consuming to learn.

Customer Support

Customer support on Folk CRM is not very impressive. The only modes of support are email and live chat, no matter what subscription plan you opt for.

That said, you can get more quality assistance with a dedicated customer success manager. The catch is that you need to be on at least the Premium plan.

Folk CRM Pricing Structure

Folk CRM offers three pricing tiers with no free plan available.

The Standard plan starts at $20 per user monthly. Premium doubles that at $40 per user monthly. The Custom plan begins at $80 per user monthly, quadrupling the base price.

Each tier unlocks different feature sets, though certain capabilities remain absent across all plans.

How Much Does Folk CRM Cost?

With a price of $20 per member/month, Folk CRM’s lowest plan (Standard) is slightly more expensive than the average small business CRM ($10 – $15).

The problem is, this plan doesn’t cover a few handy tools you might be looking for in a CRM for small businesses, especially within this price range:

• Deal management
• Sales email sequences
• Dashboards
• Phone support
• Workflow automations
• Mobile apps

To access the first 3 items on the list, you’ll need to bump your subscription to Premium. However, the cost for Premium is steep ($40 per user/mo), and it still doesn’t solve your workflow automation and mobile app problem. Neither does upgrading to the Custom plan at a minimum of $80 per month.

Folk CRM offers a 14-day free trial. But no matter which plan you click “try for free” for on Folk CRM’s pricing page, you’re going to get a trial for the Premium plan. This means, if you want to try out the Custom plan (the most expensive one offered by Folk), for instance, you need to contact their sales team directly.

Is Folk CRM Pricing Affordable for Small Businesses?

At $20 per user/month, Folk CRM’s Standard plan costs more than typical entry-level CRMs, yet delivers less functionality.

A solo entrepreneur might manage to shell out $20 monthly, but businesses rarely stay solo. Add four team members and you’re paying $100 monthly for software that lacks deal management, dashboards, and email sequences.

Consider what happens when you need any one of these functionalities. Each one requires doubling your investment to $40 per user. That’s a lot of money for features that competitors often include in their lowest subscriptions.

The trial period compounds this issue. You test Premium features for 14 days, build processes around them, and then you’re suddenly faced with a choice: pay double or lose functionality you’ve already integrated into your process.

On top of that, access to the emailing, data enrichment, and Magic Fields functionalities is capped according to what plan you’re on. And since there’s no add-on to purchase more, you might be forced to opt for a higher plan when you reach your usage limit.

It gets worse when you realize that mobile apps and workflow automations aren’t available even in the Premium or Custom tiers.

So, no. Folk CRM is not a very affordable CRM for small businesses.

Final Verdict: Is Folk the Best CRM for Small Businesses?

Folk CRM is in an unusual position. It’s too expensive, yet too lean for small businesses. Because of this, it works only for a narrow segment of businesses.

If you exclusively work from a desktop, primarily manage leads (not deals), and value data enrichment and automatic data entry above all else, Folk might be right for you.

But that’s a very specific scenario that excludes a lot of small businesses.

Most small businesses need mobile apps to handle sales management on the go. They want workflow automations to handle repetitive tasks. They also expect to have deal management and sales email sequencing capabilities from the start. If this sounds like you, then Folk CRM is not the way.

According to our evaluation criteria (Value, Impact, and Speed), Folk CRM’s fit for small businesses is Moderate.

Best Alternative for Folk CRM

If Folk is too stripped-down and overly pricey for your small business, OnePageCRM offers a better option.

Value: High
Impact: High
Speed: High
Pricing starts from: $9.95

OnePageCRM starts at half Folk’s price yet includes features Folk either charges double for or doesn’t even support at all.

To be precise, dashboards and deal management — features that cost double the entry price on Folk CRM — are available on OnePageCRM from the lowest tier. And unlike Folk, OnePageCRM includes a workflow automation tool, as well as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.