Folk CRM Pricing: Complete Cost Breakdown

Folk CRM positions itself as the Notion-style CRM for small teams who are tired of clunky enterprise software. It's clean, it's fast, and it promises to be the "CRM that works for you, not the other way around." But how much does it actually cost, and is it worth the money?

Let's cut through the marketing and look at what you're actually paying for.

Folk CRM Pricing Plans

Folk uses a per-user pricing model with three main tiers. Here's the current breakdown:

Folk offers a 14-day free trial on the Premium plan, so you can test the higher-tier features before committing. Just know that when the trial ends, you'll need to pay for Premium to keep those features-or downgrade to Standard and lose some functionality.

One interesting thing about Folk's trial: you don't need to add a credit card during the free trial period. This removes the risk of surprise charges, and you only add payment details when you decide to upgrade.

What You Get With Each Plan

Standard Plan ($20-25/user/month)

The Standard plan gives you the basics:

• Unlimited contacts (a big plus over many competitors)
• 2,000 messages per month per member
• 500 contact enrichments per month for your whole workspace
• 2,000 magic fields per month
• Chrome extension for importing contacts from LinkedIn, Gmail, and X
• Basic pipeline management
• Team collaboration features
• Email, calendar, and WhatsApp sync
• 5,000+ integrations via Zapier and Make
• 1 account sync per member
• 200 Research Assistant credits per month

Here's the problem: the Standard plan is missing some features you'd expect from a $20/month CRM. No deal management module. No dashboards. No email sequences. If you need any of these, you're looking at doubling your cost.

The message limit means each user can send up to 2,000 emails per month through Folk. If you're running heavy email sequences to cold prospects, this limit might feel restrictive. The enrichment credits are shared across your entire workspace, not per user-so a team of five only gets 500 enrichments total per month, not 2,500.

Premium Plan ($40-50/user/month)

Premium unlocks the good stuff:

• Everything in Standard
• 5,000 messages per month per member
• 1,000 contact enrichments per month for the workspace
• 5,000 magic fields per month
• Deal management and pipelines
• Email sequences
• Custom dashboards
• Advanced roles and permissions
• Full history of interactions
• 5 account syncs per member
• Custom objects (deals, etc.)
• Intelligence features

This is the plan most small businesses will actually need. The Standard tier feels intentionally limited to push you toward Premium.

The Premium plan finally gives you access to dashboards, which let you visualize your sales data and track performance metrics. Email sequences are also only available at this tier, which is crucial if you're doing any type of systematic outbound sales. The advanced roles and permissions become important once you have more than a few team members and need to control who sees what data.

Custom Plan ($80-100+/user/month)

For larger teams, Folk offers custom pricing with:

• Custom limits on messages, enrichments, and magic fields
• API access (not available on lower tiers)
• Priority support
• Custom onboarding
• Dedicated point of contact
• Custom billing options
• Everything from Standard and Premium

You'll need to contact Folk's sales team to get an exact quote for the Custom plan. The big unlock here is API access-if you need to build custom integrations or pull Folk data into other systems, you're forced into this tier.

Note that you can't even trial the Custom plan on your own. While you get a Premium trial when you sign up, testing Custom features requires reaching out to Folk's sales team directly.

Understanding Folk's Credit System

One aspect of Folk's pricing that can catch users off guard is the credit-based system for certain features. Let's break down how these work:

Contact Enrichment Credits

Folk uses waterfall enrichment, pulling data from multiple providers including Apollo.io, People Data Labs, Clearbit, Datagma, Prospeo, and DropContact. The Standard plan gives you 500 enrichment credits per month for your entire workspace, while Premium bumps that to 1,000.

Here's the catch: enrichment only works about 50-60% of the time, depending on what data is available online. You're only charged a credit when enrichment data is successfully found-if the system can't find an email or phone number, you keep your credit. You can process up to 500 enrichments at one time, with each batch taking a few minutes to complete.

For a 5-person team doing moderate prospecting, 500-1,000 enrichments might feel tight. If you're adding 50 new prospects per week and enriching each one, you could hit your limit within the first two weeks of the month. Unfortunately, Folk doesn't offer add-on enrichment packs-you either stay within your limit or upgrade to a higher plan.

Magic Fields (AI-Powered Fields)

Magic Fields are AI-powered data fields that automatically populate based on prompts you create. For example, you could create a Magic Field that generates a personalized email intro based on a contact's job title and company, or one that extracts specific information from a prospect's LinkedIn profile.

Standard gives you 2,000 Magic Fields per month for your workspace, while Premium provides 5,000. These are organization-wide limits, not per-user. If you're using AI extensively for personalization, these limits can disappear quickly. Each time a Magic Field processes data for a contact, it counts against your monthly allocation.

Message Limits

Unlike enrichment credits that are shared workspace-wide, message limits are per user. Standard users get 2,000 messages per month each, and Premium users get 5,000. These limits apply to emails sent through Folk's interface or sequences.

If you're doing heavy outbound, 2,000 emails per month translates to roughly 66 emails per business day-which might sound like a lot until you're running multi-step sequences to different prospect lists. Sales reps doing serious cold outreach can easily hit 5,000 emails per month.

What's Good About Folk's Pricing

Unlimited contacts: Unlike many CRMs that cap your contact storage, Folk lets you store as many contacts as you want on any paid plan. This is a genuine advantage if you're managing a large network.

Built-in contact enrichment: Getting 500-1,000 enrichment credits per month is solid value. Finding emails and filling in contact details usually costs extra with other tools. Standalone enrichment tools like Lusha or Apollo charge separately for these features, often at $50-100+ per month for similar credit volumes.

Simple per-user model: No confusing feature bundles or add-on costs. You know exactly what you're paying. Folk uses prorated billing, so when you add or remove team members mid-cycle, you only pay for what you actually use.

No credit card for trial: You can test Folk's Premium features for two weeks without entering payment information. If the trial doesn't work out, your account gets blocked but your data isn't immediately deleted-you can request a one-week extension or upgrade to regain access.

Annual billing discount: Paying annually saves you about 20% compared to monthly billing. On Premium, that's $120 per user per year-not insignificant for a small team.

What's Not So Good

Standard plan feels gutted: At $20/user/month, Folk's entry-level plan costs more than typical starter CRMs but delivers less functionality. Features like deal management and dashboards-which competitors often include in their lowest tiers-require the Premium plan.

Forced upgrade path: The trial gives you Premium features, you build workflows around them, then you face a choice: pay double the entry price or lose functionality you've already integrated. It's a deliberate funnel that pushes users toward the more expensive tier.

No mobile app until recently: Folk launched mobile apps in recent updates, but the mobile experience is still basic compared to desktop. If you need full CRM functionality on mobile, Folk isn't there yet. Other CRMs like Pipedrive and HubSpot have had robust mobile apps for years.

No workflow automation: Unlike CRMs like HubSpot or Pipedrive, Folk doesn't offer workflow automation on any plan. You can use Zapier or Make integrations, but that's an additional cost and complexity. A basic Zapier account starts at $20/month, and you'll likely need a higher tier ($50-70/month) for the task volumes serious automation requires.

API locked to Custom tier: If you want to build custom integrations using Folk's API, you'll need to pay for the Custom plan starting at $80/user/month. The API was only recently released and is fairly basic compared to mature CRMs like HubSpot or Copper.

Workspace-wide credit pools: Enrichment credits and Magic Fields are shared across your entire team, not allocated per user. This can create internal competition for resources and makes it hard to budget for individual team members' needs.

Limited reporting: Even on Premium, Folk's reporting and analytics are basic compared to dedicated sales CRMs. There's no sales forecasting, no revenue attribution, and limited customization of dashboard views.

How Folk's Pricing Compares to Alternatives

Let's see how Folk stacks up against other CRMs in the same weight class:

If you're considering Folk primarily for sales pipeline management, Close CRM might be worth evaluating. It's more expensive but built specifically for sales teams with built-in calling and email sequences. Check out our Close CRM review for a deeper look.

For a broader comparison, see our guide to the best CRM software or CRM options for small businesses.

Folk vs HubSpot: When to Choose Which

Since HubSpot offers a free CRM tier and is often compared to Folk, it's worth examining when each makes sense.

Choose Folk if: You're a solopreneur or small team (2-5 people) who values simplicity over features. Folk's Notion-like interface is genuinely easier to use than HubSpot's more complex system. The LinkedIn Chrome extension is also superior-you can capture contacts in one click while browsing LinkedIn, which HubSpot doesn't natively support.

Choose HubSpot if: You want a platform that can grow with you. HubSpot's free tier includes many features that Folk charges for (deal management, dashboards, email sequences). While HubSpot gets expensive at scale, the free tier can serve small teams indefinitely. HubSpot also offers significantly better reporting, automation, and integration capabilities.

The key difference: Folk is relationship-focused and built for network management, while HubSpot is transaction-focused and built for sales pipelines. If you're doing traditional B2B sales with clear deal stages, HubSpot's structure makes more sense. If you're managing a large network and nurturing long-term relationships, Folk's approach feels more natural.

Who Should Use Folk CRM?

Folk is a good fit if you:

• Currently manage contacts in spreadsheets, Notion, or Airtable and want a proper CRM
• Value a clean, simple interface over feature overload
• Need strong LinkedIn and social media contact importing
• Are a solopreneur or small team (2-5 people) focused on relationship management
• Want built-in contact enrichment without paying for a separate tool
• Work primarily from desktop and don't need mobile access
• Do partnership management, recruiting, or network-based sales rather than transactional selling
• Have a Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 account you want to integrate
• Prefer manual control over automated workflows

Folk is probably NOT the right choice if you:

• Need workflow automation
• Want advanced sales analytics and reporting
• Have a larger sales team that needs robust pipeline management
• Need API access but don't want to pay $80+/user/month
• Require a polished mobile experience
• Do high-volume cold email outreach (Folk's message limits may constrain you)
• Need features like call recording, SMS, or built-in calling
• Want detailed sales forecasting and revenue tracking
• Plan to scale beyond 10-15 users

Hidden Costs to Watch For

Folk's pricing looks straightforward, but here are some things to consider:

• Enrichment limits: If you're doing heavy prospecting, 500-1,000 enrichments per month might not cut it. You'll either need to upgrade or use an external enrichment tool like RocketReach or Lusha, adding $50-100/month to your costs.
• Message limits: 2,000-5,000 emails per user per month sounds like a lot, but if you're running email sequences to cold prospects, you could hit limits quickly. Tools like Smartlead or Instantly might be better fits for high-volume cold email.
• Zapier/Make costs: Since Folk lacks native automation, you'll likely need a third-party tool. That's another $20-50/month minimum for basic plans, and $50-100/month if you need higher task limits.
• Trial to paid transition: You trial Premium features, build processes around them, then have to decide between paying double or losing functionality you've already integrated.
• Scaling costs: At $40/user/month for Premium, a team of 10 pays $4,800/year. That's entering the price range where more robust platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot Professional start making financial sense.
• Limited integrations: Folk only has native integrations with Google, Microsoft, and WhatsApp. Everything else requires Zapier or Make, which means additional monthly costs and setup time.

Real-World Pricing Scenarios

Let's look at what Folk actually costs for different team sizes and use cases:

Scenario 1: Solo Consultant

You're a freelance consultant managing 200-300 contacts, sending occasional follow-up emails, and doing light prospecting on LinkedIn.

Best plan: Standard at $20/month ($240/year)

Total cost: $240/year

Verdict: Reasonable. You get unlimited contacts, basic features, and 500 enrichments which should cover your needs. The lack of deal management isn't a dealbreaker since you're not running complex sales pipelines.

Scenario 2: 3-Person Startup Sales Team

You have three sales reps doing active outbound, running email sequences, and managing 20-30 deals at a time.

Best plan: Premium at $40/user/month

Total cost: $1,440/year + $600/year for Zapier = $2,040/year

Verdict: Getting expensive. You need Premium for email sequences and deal management. You'll also need Zapier since Folk lacks native automation. At this price point, alternatives like Pipedrive ($504/year) or Close CRM ($1,044/year) offer more value.

Scenario 3: 10-Person Agency

You have 10 team members managing client relationships, partnerships, and some sales. Heavy LinkedIn usage, need dashboards and reporting.

Best plan: Premium at $40/user/month

Total cost: $4,800/year + $600/year for Zapier = $5,400/year

Verdict: Expensive for what you get. At this scale, you're paying more than HubSpot Professional ($6,000/year for 10 users) while getting significantly fewer features. The workspace-wide enrichment limits (1,000/month) also become a bottleneck for a team this size.

How to Maximize Value on Folk CRM

If you've decided Folk is right for you, here's how to get the most out of your subscription:

Start with Standard if possible: Test whether you can live without deal management, sequences, and dashboards. Many relationship-focused users find Standard sufficient.

Use enrichment strategically: Don't auto-enrich every contact. Save enrichment credits for high-priority prospects where you need complete data.

Batch your enrichment: You can enrich up to 500 contacts at once. Queue up your enrichment needs and run them in batches rather than one-by-one throughout the month.

Leverage the Chrome extension: The folkX extension for LinkedIn is one of Folk's best features. Use it to capture contacts directly from LinkedIn profiles, Sales Navigator, and other platforms-this saves time and reduces manual data entry.

Master Magic Fields: These AI-powered fields are incredibly powerful for personalization. Set up Magic Fields to auto-generate custom email intros, pull company information, or categorize contacts automatically.

Connect your email and calendar: Full email and calendar sync is available on all plans. Make sure you connect these to automatically track interactions and avoid manual logging.

Set up Zapier automations: Since Folk lacks native workflow automation, invest time in setting up Zapier or Make workflows for repetitive tasks. Common workflows include auto-adding contacts from form submissions or syncing data to Google Sheets.

Frequently Asked Questions About Folk Pricing

Does Folk offer a free plan?
No, Folk doesn't have a permanently free plan. You get a 14-day free trial of the Premium plan, but after that, you need to select a paid tier.

What payment methods does Folk accept?
Folk only accepts credit cards. You can update your payment details anytime from the Billing section in Settings. If your payment fails, you have 7 days to update your information before your account is temporarily blocked.

Can I switch plans mid-cycle?
Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade at any time. Folk uses prorated billing, so you only pay for the time you use each plan.

What happens if I cancel?
You can cancel anytime by downgrading to the free plan in your settings. Your account will be blocked at the end of your billing cycle, but your data won't be immediately deleted.

Are there educational or nonprofit discounts?
Folk doesn't publicly advertise discounts for nonprofits or educational institutions, but it's worth reaching out to their sales team to inquire.

Do I pay for inactive users?
You only pay for active members in your workspace. If you remove a team member, Folk prorates the cost and adjusts your next bill accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Folk CRM is a solid choice for individuals and small teams who want a clean, modern CRM without the complexity of enterprise tools. If you're coming from spreadsheets or Notion and just need a better way to manage contacts and relationships, Folk delivers.

But here's the reality: at $20-40/user/month, you're paying similar prices to CRMs that offer more features. Folk's simplicity is a feature, not a bug-but only if that simplicity aligns with what you actually need.

For most small businesses serious about sales, you'll want the Premium plan at $40/user/month. That gets you deal management, sequences, and the features you'd expect from a "real" CRM. The Standard plan is too limited for anything beyond basic contact storage.

The sweet spot for Folk is solopreneurs and 2-5 person teams doing relationship-driven work: consultants, recruiters, partnership managers, early-stage founders. If you're doing transactional sales with a larger team, Folk's limitations become frustrating quickly.

If Folk's pricing feels steep for what you get, consider looking at our free CRM software guide for alternatives that won't cost you a dime, or our cheapest CRM software roundup for budget-friendly options that pack more punch. For teams doing heavy outbound sales, check out Close CRM or Smartlead for more specialized tools.

Folk offers a 14-day free trial, so take it for a spin and see if the interface clicks for you. Just go in with realistic expectations about what you're getting at each price point.