Folk CRM Reviews: Is This Lightweight CRM Worth It?

Folk CRM has been gaining traction as a "next-gen CRM" that promises simplicity over complexity. With a 4.5/5 rating on G2 from over 280 reviews and a clean, spreadsheet-like interface, it's positioned itself as the anti-Salesforce for solopreneurs and small teams.

But here's the thing: simple doesn't always mean better. After digging through hundreds of user reviews and testing the platform, I'll break down exactly what Folk does well, where it falls short, and whether it's the right fit for your business.

What Is Folk CRM?

Folk CRM is a lightweight customer relationship management tool built for relationship-focused professionals-think freelancers, recruiters, agencies, and small sales teams. Unlike traditional CRMs packed with features you'll never use, Folk strips things down to the essentials: contact management, email outreach, and pipeline tracking.

The platform connects with Gmail, Outlook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Instagram. You can import contacts from pretty much anywhere using their Chrome extension (folkX), and the system automatically de-duplicates and enriches profiles. If you've ever tried using Notion or Google Sheets as a makeshift CRM, Folk is essentially the upgrade you've been looking for.

Launched by eFounders studio (the same team behind Aircall and Spendesk), Folk targets professionals who need to manage relationships without the overwhelming complexity of enterprise CRMs. The tool is built around contacts and relationships rather than deals and transactions, which makes it particularly appealing for partnership managers, VCs tracking deal flow, and anyone managing a network rather than a traditional sales funnel.

Folk CRM Pricing Breakdown

Folk offers three pricing tiers with a 14-day free trial:

Annual billing saves you roughly two months (paying for 10 months instead of 12). There's no free plan, just the trial.

Here's the catch most reviews don't mention: The Standard plan lacks deal management and dashboards. If you need those features (and most businesses do), you're looking at $40/user/month minimum. For a team of five, that's $200/month-not exactly "budget CRM" territory.

The pricing model is transparent with no hidden fees for implementation or training. However, usage caps become a real issue. The Standard plan limits you to 500 enrichment credits per month, while Premium gives you 1,000. Magic Fields-those AI-powered data fields-are capped at 2,000 per month on Standard and 5,000 on Premium across your entire organization, not per user. There's no option to purchase additional credits, which means hitting your limit forces an upgrade.

Key Features Breakdown

Contact Management and Organization

At its core, Folk provides a spreadsheet-like interface that feels immediately familiar. You can create custom fields, add tags, and organize contacts into groups for fast segmentation. The platform automatically tracks all interactions-emails, meetings, calls, and notes-in a timeline view on each contact profile, ensuring you never lose context.

The system includes automatic duplicate detection and smart merging capabilities. When you import contacts from multiple sources, Folk identifies potential duplicates and helps you merge them without losing data. This keeps your database clean without manual housekeeping.

Contact Enrichment and Data Sources

Folk's 1-click enrichment is one of its standout features. The platform uses waterfall enrichment, pulling data from multiple providers including People Data Labs, Clearbit, Apollo, Dropcontact, Prospeo, and Datagma. If one source fails to find information, the system automatically tries the next provider.

The enrichment process can add missing details like email addresses, phone numbers, job titles, company information, and social media profiles. You're only charged enrichment credits when data is actually found, and enrichment works around 50-60% of the time depending on what's publicly available online.

Folk also features AI-powered Magic Fields that automatically populate based on custom prompts. For example, you can create a Magic Field that generates company descriptions, writes personalized email openers, or standardizes job seniority levels across your database. This AI functionality pulls from existing CRM data to create contextual outputs without manual research.

Email Outreach and Sequences

Folk includes built-in email functionality that lets you send personalized bulk campaigns and automated sequences directly from the CRM. You can create email templates with variables that pull from contact fields, ensuring each message feels personalized at scale.

Email sequences (available on Premium and Custom plans) allow you to set up multi-step campaigns with up to 10 emails. You can define wait times between messages, set conditions like "stop if replies," and even include multiple senders in a single sequence for team-based outreach. The system automatically stops sequences when contacts reply, preventing awkward follow-ups to people who've already engaged.

Sequences send from your connected email account (Gmail or Outlook), which means they appear in your regular sent folder and maintain high deliverability. However, this also means you should avoid using Folk for high-volume cold email campaigns, as spam complaints could damage your domain reputation.

The platform includes a Custom Sender feature that improves email deliverability by routing messages through properly configured sending domains. Email analytics track opens, clicks, replies, and bounces, though reporting is basic compared to dedicated email marketing platforms.

The folkX Chrome Extension

The folkX browser extension is consistently praised in user reviews as a game-changer for prospecting. With one click, you can capture contacts from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Gmail, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook directly into your CRM.

When you're viewing a LinkedIn profile, the extension automatically pulls name, company, role, and contact details into Folk. You can also bulk import targeted lists from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, saving hours of manual data entry.

The extension works directly in Gmail and LinkedIn, allowing you to access templates, set reminders, create notes, and add people to pipelines without leaving those platforms. This seamless integration reduces context switching and speeds up your workflow.

Pipeline and Deal Management

Pipeline management is available on Premium and Custom plans. You can create customizable pipeline views with drag-and-drop functionality to move deals through stages. Each deal can be linked to contacts and companies, with shared notes and reminders for team collaboration.

Folk provides sales dashboards that visualize team performance, deal progress, and key metrics. However, these dashboards are fairly basic-you won't get the advanced forecasting and analytics found in enterprise CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot.

The platform supports custom objects, allowing you to track entities beyond standard contacts and companies. This flexibility makes Folk adaptable to various use cases like recruitment pipelines, partnership tracking, or investor relations.

AI-Powered Assistants

Folk has introduced several AI assistants that automate routine tasks:

Workflow Assistant: Creates trigger-based workflows inside groups. You can automatically send personalized emails when specific conditions are met (like when a contact's status changes to "Qualified"). The system uses AI to personalize each message based on recent interactions and notes.

Research Assistant: Enriches company data including industry, size, founding date, funding details, and generates research notes with relevant insights powered by Perplexity. You can customize research prompts to consistently gather specific information.

Follow-Up Assistant: Analyzes email and WhatsApp conversations to detect inactive discussions with pending next steps. When identified, you receive notifications with pre-written follow-up suggestions in your tone of voice.

Recap Assistant: Generates instant AI summaries of your relationship with any contact, company, or deal. It scans recent interactions across all channels to produce structured recaps showing who last interacted, what was discussed, and next steps. You can customize formats to match sales methodologies like MEDDIC or BANT.

Integrations and API Capabilities

Folk connects to 6,000+ apps through Zapier, covering most common business tools. Native integrations include Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Calendly, Slack, Docusign, Mailchimp, PandaDoc, Kaspr, Allo, and Salesforge.

The platform offers a RESTful API that allows developers to build custom integrations and programmatically access CRM data. However, full API access is currently restricted to Custom/Enterprise plan customers. The API is rate-limited to 10 requests per second per access token (600 requests per minute), which supports robust enterprise integration needs.

Integration syncing happens in real-time. Emails and meetings from Gmail or Outlook automatically appear in Folk, linked to the correct contact. Calendar events sync bidirectionally, ensuring your schedule stays updated across platforms.

That said, the Zapier connector has notable limitations. There's minimal custom field support, limited trigger functionality, and some field types aren't yet supported. Power users who need complex automations may find these constraints frustrating compared to more mature CRM APIs.

Mobile App Availability

This is where things get controversial. Folk launched native mobile apps for iOS and Android in May of that year, addressing a major complaint from earlier reviews. The apps are available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

However, the mobile experience is still basic compared to the desktop version. You can access contacts, update information, view pipelines, create notes, and manage tasks on the go, but the app lacks some advanced features available on desktop.

Some sources conflict on mobile availability, with recent reviews noting that Folk works through a fully responsive web browser on mobile devices rather than requiring a dedicated app. The reality is that Folk now offers both-a responsive web interface and native apps-though the native app functionality continues to evolve.

For teams that need robust mobile CRM access with offline functionality and full feature parity with desktop, Folk still trails behind established players like HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.

What Users Actually Like About Folk

Dead Simple Interface

The most consistent praise across reviews is Folk's ease of use. Users compare it to "if Notion and a CRM had a baby." The spreadsheet-like layout feels familiar if you've managed contacts in Excel or Airtable before. You can edit data inline, bulk update fields, and customize pipeline views without watching tutorials or hiring a consultant.

One G2 reviewer put it well: "I was able to dive right in and start using folk without watching any tutorials." That's rare for CRM software.

Setup is remarkably fast. Folk offers dozens of pre-built templates with suggested pipeline processes that other companies use, giving you a foundation to work from immediately. Most teams can import contacts, connect integrations, and start using the platform within minutes rather than weeks.

LinkedIn Integration That Actually Works

The folkX Chrome extension is a standout feature. One click imports a LinkedIn profile directly into your CRM with all the relevant data-name, company, role, email-automatically populated. For anyone doing outbound prospecting or recruitment, this alone saves hours of manual data entry.

The extension also works on Gmail, Twitter/X, Instagram, and TikTok, though LinkedIn is where it really shines. You can access templates directly in your LinkedIn inbox and personalize them with data from your CRM, streamlining outreach without switching tabs.

Contact Enrichment Built In

Folk's 1-click enrichment pulls in additional data like phone numbers, company details, and social profiles. It integrates with data providers like Clearbit, Apollo, and People Data Labs. Unlike tools where enrichment is a separate add-on cost, Folk includes a generous enrichment allowance in the pricing.

The waterfall approach means higher success rates-if one provider doesn't have an email address, Folk automatically tries the next. You only pay credits when data is actually found, making the feature cost-effective.

Responsive Customer Support

Multiple reviewers highlight Folk's support team as genuinely helpful. One Capterra user noted: "From our initial call with the sales agent to our recent feature requests, everyone at Folk has been incredibly kind and genuinely focused on helping." For a relatively new tool, this level of support is refreshing.

Support is available via live chat, email, help center, and comprehensive FAQ documentation. Custom plan customers get dedicated account managers and VIP support channels. The team is responsive to feature requests and ships regular updates based on user feedback.

Team Collaboration Features

Folk makes it easy for teams to work together. Shared pipelines, customizable roles and permissions, and collaborative deal management ensure everyone stays on the same page. The dashboard layout provides easy access to key features and tools, with organized views that multiple team members can reference.

Shared notes, @mentions, and reminders keep communication flowing. You can assign contacts to specific team members, set up multi-sender email sequences, and track who last interacted with each prospect.

What Users Don't Like About Folk

Missing Features That Feel Essential

Folk's biggest weakness is feature depth. The platform lacks:

As one reviewer noted: "It's not as fully featured for email marketing as some others and doesn't have functionality for things like landing pages, website activity tracking or rich HTML email campaigns."

Folk has made a deliberate design choice to focus on relationship management over comprehensive sales automation. For some businesses this is perfect; for others it's a dealbreaker.

Deal Management Behind a Paywall

This is a frustration I see repeatedly: deal/pipeline management requires the Premium plan ($40/user/month). On the Standard plan, you're essentially getting a glorified contact database. Many competing CRMs include basic deal tracking at their entry-level price point.

The trial period compounds this frustration. You test Premium features for 14 days, build processes around pipeline management and dashboards, then face a choice: double your budget or lose functionality you've integrated into your workflow. This pricing structure feels designed to push users toward higher tiers.

Price Escalation for Teams

While Folk is cheaper than Salesforce or HubSpot's paid tiers, costs add up fast. A five-person team on Premium runs $200/month. Add the Custom tier if you need unlimited contacts, and you're at $400+/month. At that point, you should also consider more full-featured alternatives.

Usage caps create additional pressure. Hit your monthly limit on enrichment credits, Magic Fields, or email sends, and you can't purchase add-ons-you must upgrade to the next tier. For growing teams, this creates unpredictable scaling costs.

Limited API and Integrations

Folk connects to 6,000+ apps through Zapier, but native integrations are limited. The REST API exists but is fairly basic compared to mature CRMs. Power users who want to build complex automations may find the platform constraining.

The Zapier connector has significant limitations including no trigger functionality, minimal custom field support, and certain field types not yet supported. Until Folk expands its API capabilities, technical teams may struggle to integrate Folk deeply into their tech stack.

Mobile Experience Still Evolving

While Folk now offers mobile apps for iOS and Android, the mobile experience remains basic. You can perform essential tasks like viewing contacts and updating pipelines, but advanced features are desktop-only. Teams that rely heavily on mobile CRM access may find Folk insufficient.

The fact that Folk launched without mobile apps initially and only added them in response to user feedback suggests mobile isn't the team's primary focus. This continues to be a weak point compared to competitors with mature mobile experiences.

Folk CRM Security and Compliance

For businesses handling customer data, security is critical. Folk takes data protection seriously with several measures in place:

Data Hosting: All data is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the US-East-1 region, a secure and reliable cloud infrastructure provider.

GDPR Compliance: Folk enrichment follows GDPR standards. The platform provides Data Processing Agreements (DPA) to ensure transparency and compliance for all enrichment processes. Users maintain control over how personal information is stored and shared.

Security Audits: Folk undergoes rigorous security audits, including those conducted by Google, to bolster platform security measures. The team continuously monitors systems and conducts regular security assessments.

However, Folk's security documentation is less comprehensive than enterprise CRMs. If your organization requires SOC 2 compliance, detailed audit logs, or advanced access controls, you'll need to verify these capabilities with Folk's team directly or consider more enterprise-focused alternatives.

Who Folk CRM Is Actually For

Based on my research, Folk works best for:

Folk particularly shines for organizations with 20-50 people who need advanced collaboration features without enterprise complexity. It's ideal when your priority is managing personal connections-clients, partners, prospects-over managing traditional deal pipelines.

Folk is NOT the right choice if you:

Folk CRM vs. Alternatives

If you're comparing options, here's how Folk stacks up:

Folk vs. HubSpot

HubSpot's free CRM includes features Folk charges extra for (deal management, basic automation). But HubSpot's learning curve is steeper, and paid tiers get expensive fast. Folk wins on simplicity; HubSpot wins on features.

HubSpot is better suited for teams that want an all-in-one platform with marketing, sales, and service tools. If you need landing pages, email marketing, and website tracking in addition to CRM, HubSpot makes more sense. But if you primarily need clean contact management with LinkedIn integration, Folk's streamlined approach is more appealing.

Folk vs. Pipedrive

Pipedrive scores higher on opportunity and pipeline management (8.8 vs. 8.4 on G2). However, Folk edges out Pipedrive on ease of use (9.0 vs. 8.9) and quality of support (9.1 vs. 8.4). If sales pipeline is your priority, lean toward Pipedrive. For contact relationship management, Folk holds its own.

Pipedrive is built specifically for sales teams with a strong focus on deal progression and forecasting. Folk takes a broader approach, making it more versatile for non-sales use cases like recruiting, partnerships, or investor relations.

Folk vs. Close CRM

For sales-focused teams doing serious outbound, Close CRM offers more robust calling, email sequences, and sales automation. Folk is better for relationship nurturing; Close is built for closing deals. Check out our Close CRM pricing breakdown if you need a sales-first tool.

Close includes built-in VoIP, power dialer functionality, and advanced calling features. If your sales process involves high-volume phone outreach, Close is the better choice. Folk is superior for teams that rely primarily on email and LinkedIn outreach with occasional phone calls.

Folk vs. Monday CRM

Monday's CRM is more customizable with workflow automations that Folk lacks. But Monday can become overwhelming with options. If you want a no-frills contact manager, Folk wins. For project-CRM hybrid needs, explore Monday.com instead.

Monday offers powerful visual project management alongside CRM capabilities, making it ideal for teams that need to track both client relationships and project deliverables. Folk focuses purely on relationship management without project tracking features.

Folk vs. Copper CRM

Copper is tightly integrated with Google Workspace and offers more robust automation and sales features than Folk. If your team lives in Gmail and Google Calendar and needs deeper sales functionality, Copper is worth considering. Folk is simpler and more affordable but less powerful for complex sales processes.

Folk vs. Capsule CRM

Capsule offers a free plan with essential CRM features including mobile apps for iOS and Android. Folk doesn't have a free plan, only a 14-day trial. Capsule covers a broader range of business needs including project delivery and marketing, while Folk focuses primarily on outbound prospecting and contact enrichment. For teams on tight budgets who need basic CRM functionality, Capsule's free tier is compelling.

Real User Reviews: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Positive User Feedback

"Folk supports my needs for a lightweight CRM for a small boutique consultancy. It's easy to implement (there's no implementation actually)." - G2 Reviewer

"I like Folk CRM is not complicated. It's seamless, provides integrations and custom features that make day-to-day operations easy." - G2 Reviewer

"When I ran into problems with the data migration from Notion, I contacted the support team and they quickly and effectively helped me solve that problem-they actually did the work for me instead of giving me a to-do list." - Capterra Reviewer

Critical User Feedback

"Double profiles. When we use folk on Sales Navigator for example, it takes all the leads even though some leads are already in the system. And we have to check for every lead if it's a duplicate or not manually." - Capterra Reviewer

"When emails are sent through Folk CRM, it does not automatically show as sent in email account such as Outlook. Also, the plugin is GREAT, but would be beneficial if the LinkedIn extension was integrated more in an iOS feature." - G2 Reviewer

"There are a few things like the Gmail integration that does not work for us just yet, but overall we love folk and it has made our processes easier!" - Capterra Reviewer

Common Themes from Reviews

Across 280+ G2 reviews and dozens of Capterra reviews, several patterns emerge:

Ease of Use (121 mentions): This is Folk's strongest attribute. Users consistently praise how quickly they can get started without training.

LinkedIn Integration (51 mentions): The folkX extension is frequently cited as a game-changing feature for prospecting and recruitment.

Missing Features (59 mentions): The most common complaint is features users expect from a CRM that Folk doesn't offer-particularly advanced reporting and robust automation.

Limited Features (28 mentions): Users appreciate the simplicity but sometimes feel constrained by what Folk can't do, especially as their needs grow.

Integration Issues (22 mentions): While Folk connects to many tools via Zapier, some users experience friction with integrations not working as smoothly as expected.

Best Practices for Using Folk CRM

If you decide to move forward with Folk, here are strategies to maximize your investment:

Set Up Enrichment Rules Early

Create custom enrichment rules that prioritize specific data sources and automatically flag incomplete records. This ensures your team works only with trusted, GDPR-compliant information.

Leverage Magic Fields for Scale

Don't waste Magic Fields on simple tasks. Use them for high-value automation like generating personalized email openers, standardizing data across records, or creating custom lead scoring fields.

Organize with Groups and Tags

Take advantage of Folk's flexible grouping system. Create segments for different customer types, deal stages, or engagement levels. Use tags to create multi-dimensional organization that supports various workflows.

Template Your Email Sequences

Build a library of tested email sequences for different use cases (cold outreach, event invites, onboarding, etc.). Include A/B testing variations and track which messaging leads to the best outcomes.

Integrate Early

Connect Gmail or Outlook, sync your calendar, and set up key Zapier workflows during onboarding. The more data flows automatically into Folk, the less manual data entry you'll do later.

Schedule Regular Data Hygiene

B2B contact data decays at roughly 30% per year. Schedule monthly or quarterly enrichment runs on your entire database to keep information current. Use Folk's duplicate detection regularly to keep your database clean.

Folk CRM Roadmap and Future Development

Folk is actively developing new features based on user feedback. Recent additions include:

The team appears responsive to feature requests and ships updates regularly. However, some fundamental limitations-like the lack of advanced workflow automation and basic reporting-suggest Folk will remain focused on simplicity over comprehensiveness.

For users hoping Folk will evolve into a full-featured sales automation platform, temper expectations. The product philosophy centers on being a lightweight, relationship-focused CRM rather than competing directly with enterprise solutions.

The Verdict: Should You Use Folk CRM?

Folk CRM is excellent at what it's designed to do: simple contact management for individuals and small teams. The interface is genuinely pleasant, LinkedIn integration saves real time, enrichment works reliably, and support is responsive.

But "simple" comes with trade-offs. Limited mobile functionality. Basic reporting. Key features locked behind higher tiers. No advanced workflow automation. If your business needs are straightforward-track contacts, send emails, manage a basic pipeline-Folk delivers. If you need serious sales automation, advanced analytics, or plan to scale beyond 50 users, you'll outgrow it.

My recommendation: Take the 14-day trial. Import your contacts, test the LinkedIn extension, build a pipeline, and set up email sequences. You'll know within a week if it fits your workflow. Just be aware that the trial gives you Premium features-make sure what you need is actually included in the plan you'd pay for.

Folk is ideal if you're currently using Notion, Airtable, or Google Sheets as a CRM and want a proper tool without overwhelming complexity. It's perfect for solopreneurs, recruiters, and small teams managing relationships rather than high-volume sales pipelines.

Skip Folk if you need a mobile-first CRM, require advanced sales forecasting, want sophisticated marketing automation, or plan to scale to a large sales team. In those cases, you're better served by Close CRM, HubSpot, or Pipedrive.

Looking for more robust options? Check out our best CRM software roundup or explore CRM options specifically for small businesses. If budget is tight, we also cover free CRM software that might fit your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Folk CRM have a free plan?

No, Folk CRM does not offer a free plan. The platform provides a 14-day free trial where you can test all Premium features, but after the trial ends, you'll need to select a paid plan starting at $20/user/month.

Can I use Folk CRM on my phone?

Yes, Folk now offers native mobile apps for both iOS and Android, launched in May. The apps cover essential CRM functionality including viewing contacts, updating information, managing pipelines, and creating notes. However, the mobile experience is still more basic than the desktop version, with some advanced features only available on desktop.

How does Folk CRM enrichment work?

Folk uses waterfall enrichment that pulls data from six providers: People Data Labs, Clearbit, Apollo, Dropcontact, Prospeo, and Datagma. When you enrich a contact, Folk tries each provider in sequence until it finds the information you need. You're only charged enrichment credits when data is successfully found. Enrichment works around 50-60% of the time depending on public data availability.

Does Folk CRM integrate with Salesforce?

Folk doesn't have a native integration with Salesforce, but you can connect the two platforms using Zapier or Make. However, this requires technical setup and may have limitations compared to native integrations. For teams heavily invested in the Salesforce ecosystem, Folk may not be the best fit.

Can I send cold emails from Folk CRM?

While Folk includes email sequences and bulk sending capabilities, it's not designed for high-volume cold email campaigns. Emails send from your connected Gmail or Outlook account, which means spam complaints could damage your domain reputation. For serious cold email outreach at scale, consider dedicated tools like Smartlead or Instantly instead.

How many contacts can I have in Folk CRM?

The Standard plan allows 2,000 contacts. Premium and Custom plans offer unlimited contacts. However, you're also limited by monthly email sends (500 on Standard, 5,000 on Premium) and enrichment credits (500 on Standard, 1,000 on Premium).

Does Folk CRM work offline?

No, Folk CRM requires an internet connection to function. Unlike some enterprise CRMs that offer robust offline modes, Folk is primarily a cloud-based tool that needs connectivity to sync data and access features.

Can I export my data from Folk CRM?

Yes, Folk allows data export so you can extract your contacts and information if you decide to switch CRMs. This prevents vendor lock-in and ensures you always own your data.