folk Review
Reviewed by Carlos Gil · Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Updated 5 min readEditorially reviewed
Quick facts
- Starting price
- Standard $24/member/mo billed annually ($30 monthly)
- Free plan
- No
- Best for
- Founders, agencies and small teams managing investors, partners and clients through relationships
- Platforms
- Web app, desktop and mobile apps, Chrome extension
BestStacked Score
Weighted average of 5 categories. Methodology below.
Quick answer
Is folk worth it in 2026?
folk is a lightweight CRM for people who sell through relationships: it captures contacts from LinkedIn and other sites, syncs email, calendar and WhatsApp, runs pipelines and email campaigns, and uses AI assistants to draft follow-ups and research contacts. It's worth it for founders, agencies and small teams who want something quicker to set up than a full sales CRM. Standard costs $24 per member a month billed annually ($30 monthly) and Premium, which adds sequences, custom objects and the API, $48 ($60). There's no free plan, but a 2-week trial needs no card. Prices were checked on folk's pricing page on October 13, 2026.
- Best for
- Founders tracking investors and partners, agencies managing clients and small teams selling through their network.
- Skip it if
- You want a free CRM; HubSpot and Attio both have free plans, and folk doesn't list one.
- Strongest capability
- Fast setup: the folkX extension saves contacts from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and other sites, and email, calendar and WhatsApp sync on every plan.
- Biggest limitation
- Monthly caps and plan gating: sequences, custom objects, dashboards and the API need Premium, and enrichment and AI assistants have monthly limits.
The Verdict
folk is one of the easiest CRMs to adopt for relationship-led work. The folkX browser extension captures people from LinkedIn and other sites, email, calendar and WhatsApp sync on every plan, and AI assistants draft follow-ups, write recaps and research contacts. Standard at $24 a member billed annually covers pipelines, email campaigns and enrichment; Premium at $48 adds sequences, custom objects, dashboards and API access. The trade-offs are monthly limits on enrichment, AI fields and messages, lighter reporting than a full sales CRM, no free plan and non-refundable fees. folk's own pages also disagree on its SOC 2 level, integration count and data location. We score folk 8.3/10.
Best for
Founders, agencies and small teams who sell through relationships and want a CRM running in a day.
Skip if
You need a free plan, a calling-heavy outbound CRM or deep sales reporting.
The Background
What Is folk?
folk is a CRM made by folk, which lists San Francisco and Paris as its locations and was founded in 2020 inside the startup studio eFounders (now Hexa). Its co-founder and CEO is Simo Lemhader. folk describes its customer base differently on different pages: 5,000+ companies on its homepage, 4,000 teams on its integrations page and 3,000+ teams on its company blog; all are its own figures. Since 2025 it has added an API, WhatsApp sync, AI assistants, an MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT, a contacts mobile app and, in October 2026, phone-number enrichment and call recording in beta.
The Product
folk Features: What You Actually Get
Contact capture (folkX)
The folkX Chrome extension saves people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and Google Meet into folk. Every plan also syncs Gmail or Outlook, calendars and WhatsApp, with 1 synced account on Standard and 5 per member on Premium.
A founder saves 40 potential angel investors from LinkedIn into a fundraising pipeline in an afternoon.
Pipelines, campaigns and sequences
Standard includes pipelines and email campaigns with 2,000 messages a month. Premium adds multi-step sequences, custom objects and deals, dashboards and 5,000 messages per member a month. Email scheduling arrived in April 2026.
An agency runs a three-step follow-up sequence to past clients and tracks replies on a deal pipeline.
AI assistants and Magic fields
folk's AI assistants draft follow-ups, write meeting recaps and research contacts. Monthly allowances on Standard and Premium are 200 Research Assistant runs, 2,000 and 5,000 Magic fields (AI-filled columns), and 1,500 and 10,000 Workflow Assistant runs. folk says every AI feature can be turned off.
A partnerships lead asks the Research Assistant to summarise each prospect's company before a conference.
Enrichment
Contact enrichment finds emails (500 a month on Standard, 1,000 on Premium, per workspace) and, since October 2026, phone numbers. Integrations with Dropcontact, Apollo, Wiza, Prospeo and People Data Labs are also listed.
A recruiter enriches a list of candidates saved from LinkedIn with work emails before outreach.
API, MCP and call recording
folk's API, launched in August 2025, covers people, companies, deals, notes, interactions and reminders and is listed on Premium. Its MCP server, launched in July 2026, lets Claude and ChatGPT read and write folk data with the user's own permissions; folk doesn't state a plan requirement. Call recording entered beta in October 2026.
A founder asks Claude, through folk's MCP server, which investors haven't heard from them in a month.
Feature recap
- folkX extension for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and social sites
- Email, calendar and WhatsApp sync on every plan
- Pipelines and email campaigns; sequences on Premium
- AI assistants and Magic fields with monthly limits
- Email and phone enrichment
- API on Premium; MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT
- Unlimited contacts on Standard and Premium
The Numbers
folk Pricing: Every Plan Explained
folk prices per member and saves 20% on annual billing. Prices below are from folk's pricing page in USD (it also shows euros), checked October 13, 2026.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Included Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $30/member | $24/member/mo | Pipelines, email campaigns, enrichment (500 emails found a month), AI assistants, 2,000 Magic fields, 2,000 messages, LinkedIn extension, email, calendar and WhatsApp sync (1 account) | Founders and small teams |
| PremiumBest value | $60/member | $48/member/mo | Everything in Standard plus sequences, custom objects and deals, dashboards, workspace roles, API access, 1,000 emails found, 5,000 Magic fields and 5,000 messages per member | Teams that need sequences or the API |
| Enterprise | From $100/member | From $80/member/mo | Custom limits, internal and sensitive interaction controls, group permissions, dedicated account manager, custom integrations, priority support | Larger teams with security needs |
folk has no free plan on its pricing page, though its FAQ tells you to cancel by downgrading to "the free plan"; we couldn't confirm a usable free tier. The 2-week trial includes Premium features and needs no card; if you don't upgrade, the account is blocked but not deleted straight away. A three-person team on Premium billed annually pays $144 a month, or $1,728 a year (our arithmetic). Member changes are prorated on the next bill and only credit cards are accepted. folk's terms say subscriptions renew automatically, cancellation takes effect at the end of the term, and all fees are non-refundable, including unused services; they also say fees are displayed in euros, while the pricing page defaults to dollars.
Read before you buy
Where folk's own pages differ
SOC 2: folk's help center (updated June 29, 2026) says it is SOC 2 Type 1 certified and working toward Type 2, while a folk article updated July 22, 2026 calls it SOC 2 Type II compliant.
Data location: the same help article says data is hosted on AWS in us-east-1 (North Virginia), while a September 24, 2026 changelog entry says hosting is moving to Europe, with no timeline.
Integrations: the pricing page claims 5,000+ integrations, the homepage 30+, and the integrations page 1,000+ apps through Zapier and Make.
Enterprise price and roles: the pricing page shows Enterprise from $80 a member billed annually, while the help center says Enterprise is priced by quote. Workspace roles are listed as a Premium feature in the plan bullets but ticked for every plan in the feature table.
The Tradeoffs
folk Pros and Cons
What we love
- Quick to set up for relationship-led selling
- LinkedIn and social capture through folkX
- WhatsApp, email and calendar sync on every plan
- AI assistants for follow-ups, recaps and research
- MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT
- 2-week trial with Premium features and no card
What could be better
- No free plan on the pricing page
- Sequences, custom objects, dashboards and the API need Premium
- Monthly caps on enrichment, AI fields and messages
- Lighter reporting than full sales CRMs
- Fees are non-refundable
- Its own pages disagree on SOC 2 level, data location and integrations
The Audience
Who Should Use folk?
Best for: founders raising money
A founder can save investors from LinkedIn, track them in a fundraising pipeline and have AI draft follow-ups, without configuring a sales CRM.
Best for: agencies and consultants
Client and partner relationships live in email and WhatsApp; folk syncs both on every plan and keeps the history on each contact.
Skip if: you run a high-volume sales team
Teams that need calling, forecasting and deep pipeline reporting are better served by Pipedrive, Close or HubSpot.
The Methodology
How We Reviewed folk
This is an editorial review, not a documented hands-on test. We didn't use a folk workspace for this review. It's based on folk's pricing page, homepage, integrations page, company pages, changelog entries, help-center articles on plans, trials, security and MCP, and its terms of use, all checked on October 13, 2026. Where folk's pages differ, we report both statements. No sales or productivity results are claimed.
Our editorial evaluation considers product information, official documentation, pricing, features and professional experience. It is not a claim of documented hands-on testing.
Our review methodology →What changed
- : First published. Editorial review based on folk's pricing page, homepage, integrations and company pages, changelog, help-center articles and terms of use, all checked October 13, 2026. Sub-scores are provisional pending editorial approval.
The Field
folk vs The Competition
folk competes with flexible CRMs such as Attio and with simpler sales CRMs on price per seat. Prices below were checked on each vendor's pricing page on October 13, 2026.
| Tool | Starting Price | Free plan | Best Feature | BS Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| folk | Standard $24/member/mo billed annually ($30 monthly) | No | Contact capture (folkX) | 8.3/10 |
| Attio | Free (up to 3 seats); Plus $35/seat/mo billed annually ($44 monthly) | Yes | Flexible data model with a free plan | 8.7/10 |
| HubSpot | Free (2 users); Starter from $20/seat/mo list | Yes | Free CRM that grows into marketing and service | 9.1/10 |
| Pipedrive | Lite $14/seat/mo billed annually; Growth $39 | No | Visual sales pipeline | 9/10 |
| Copper | Basic $23/seat/mo billed annually ($29 monthly) | No | CRM built into Google Workspace | Not yet reviewed |
Attio: Attio has a free plan for up to 3 seats, a deeper data model and more reporting, but sequences need its $79 Pro plan. folk is quicker to adopt and syncs WhatsApp.Read our Attio review →
HubSpot: HubSpot's free CRM is a stronger start if you want no cost and a path to marketing tools. folk is lighter and built for relationship pipelines.Read our HubSpot review →
Pipedrive: Pipedrive is built for deal-driven sales with automations and sequences on Growth. folk suits networks of investors, partners and clients more than a sales funnel.Read our Pipedrive review →
Copper: Copper also targets relationship selling, with a deep Gmail integration and a free trial. BestStacked hasn't reviewed Copper.
In The Wild
How People Actually Use folk
A founder raising a seed round
Standard ($24 billed annually) covers a fundraising pipeline, LinkedIn capture, email and calendar sync and AI follow-ups. Move to Premium only if you want automated sequences.
A five-person agency
Premium ($48 a member billed annually, $2,880 a year for five) adds sequences, dashboards and workspace roles. Check the monthly message and enrichment caps against your volume.
A team that works in Claude or ChatGPT
Connect folk's MCP server so an AI assistant can look up and update contacts with your own permissions; confirm with folk which plans include it.
The Ecosystem
folk Integrations
folk integrates with email, messaging, enrichment and automation tools, and offers an API and MCP server.
- →Gmail, Outlook, Google Contacts and Google Calendar
- →WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business
- →Zapier and Make
- →Dropcontact, Apollo, Wiza, Prospeo and People Data Labs (enrichment)
- →tl;dv and Fireflies (meeting notes)
- →Quo and KrispCall (phone)
- →API (Premium) and MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT
Lemlist and La Growth Machine integrations need an emailed access request. folk doesn't list a native HubSpot or Salesforce sync.
Common Questions
folk FAQ
The Final Word
Should You Use folk?
folk does what it sets out to do: give founders, agencies and small teams a CRM they can start using the same day, built around capturing and following up with people. Standard covers most relationship work; Premium is needed for sequences, custom objects and the API. Watch the monthly caps, remember there's no free plan or refund, and check the security details directly with folk, since its pages disagree on SOC 2 level and data location. We score folk 8.3/10.
Yes, if
You sell or raise money through relationships and want a CRM that's quick to set up, with LinkedIn capture and WhatsApp sync.
No, if
You need a free plan, built-in calling or deep sales reporting.
About the reviewer
Carlos Gil
Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Carlos Gil is the bestselling author of The End of Marketing, a LinkedIn Top Voice, and founder of The Best Network. He brings 15+ years in marketing to practical reviews of AI, SaaS, email marketing, creator, and ecommerce software.
Keep reading
Related to folk
Category
Best CRM for Startups
See how folk ranks against the rest of the category.
Review
Pipedrive review
The visual sales CRM built by salespeople
Review
HubSpot review
Free CRM to Starter and Pro: What Startups Actually Pay
Review
Salesforce Sales Cloud review
The Enterprise CRM, With a Free Suite and a $25 Starter Plan for Small Teams
Get the best of BestStacked
The AI tools worth knowing. None of the noise.
- New AI tool and software reviews as they publish
- Head-to-head comparisons and stack breakdowns
- The occasional recommendation worth knowing
No fake urgency. No made-up weekly cadence. Unsubscribe anytime.