Folk CRM Review: A Solid Pick for Small Teams, But Not Without Limits

Folk CRM has carved out a niche as the "anti-Salesforce" – a lightweight, spreadsheet-like CRM built for people who hate complicated software. After digging through user reviews and testing the platform, here's what you actually need to know before signing up.

The short version: Folk works great if you're a solopreneur, small agency, or team of 2-5 people who've been managing contacts in Notion or Google Sheets. It's not the right choice if you need robust sales automation, detailed reporting, or a proper mobile app.

Folk CRM Pricing: What You'll Actually Pay

Folk offers three pricing tiers, all billed per user per month:

You get a 14-day free trial with Premium features. No credit card required upfront. If you don't upgrade after the trial, your account gets blocked (but data isn't deleted immediately).

The pricing catch: That $20 Standard plan is missing features most people expect from a CRM. No deal management, no dashboards, no email sequences. You'll likely need the $40 Premium plan to actually run a sales process. For a 5-person team, that's $200/month.

For comparison, check out our best CRM software roundup or our guide to free CRM options if budget is tight.

What Folk Does Well

Dead-Simple Interface

Folk looks and feels like a spreadsheet. If you've used Notion or Airtable, you'll feel right at home. You can edit data inline, bulk update fields, and drag-and-drop contacts between pipeline stages. There's virtually no learning curve – users report diving in without watching tutorials.

LinkedIn Integration is Excellent

The FolkX Chrome extension lets you grab contacts from LinkedIn, Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok with one click. Data gets automatically categorized into the right fields. For anyone doing LinkedIn-heavy prospecting, this is a genuine time-saver.

One-Click Contact Enrichment

Folk connects to Clearbit, Apollo, People Data Labs, and other enrichment sources. Click a button, and it fills in email addresses, phone numbers, and company data. No switching to external tools.

Clean Email Campaigns

The built-in mail merge lets you send personalized bulk emails without leaving the platform. You can use dynamic fields (first name, company, role) and save reusable templates. It's not as powerful as dedicated email tools, but it handles basic outreach well.

Smart Duplicate Detection

When importing contacts, Folk identifies potential duplicates and lets you merge them intelligently – choosing which data to keep from each record rather than just smashing everything together.

Where Folk Falls Short

Missing Core Features on the Basic Plan

The Standard plan lacks deal management, dashboards, and email sequences. These aren't nice-to-haves – they're table stakes for a CRM. Competitors like Pipedrive include these from their lowest tier.

No Mobile App

Folk has a Windows desktop app but no mobile app for iOS or Android. If you need to check your pipeline or log a call from your phone, you're out of luck.

Limited Workflow Automation

Folk doesn't offer workflow automation on any plan. You can connect to Zapier or Make for external automation, but there's no native way to trigger actions based on deal stages or contact activity.

Email Tracking Gaps

Users report limited visibility into email opens and clicks within sequences. There's also no ability to automate follow-up emails based on engagement – a feature most sales-focused CRMs include.

Customer Support is Hit or Miss

Support is email and live chat only. To get a dedicated customer success manager, you need to be on the Premium plan or higher. Some users praise the team's responsiveness; others find it underwhelming.

API is Still Early-Stage

Folk released a REST API, but it's fairly basic compared to mature CRMs. The Zapier connector has limitations with certain field types. Technical users building custom integrations may find the capabilities lacking.

Who Should Use Folk CRM?

Folk is a good fit if you:

Look elsewhere if you:

Folk vs. Other CRMs

If Folk isn't quite right, consider these alternatives:

Close CRM – Better for teams doing high-volume outbound with calling, SMS, and email built in. Try Close CRM if you need power dialer and proper sales automation. Read our Close CRM review for the full breakdown.

Monday CRM – Similar spreadsheet-like feel but with better automation and mobile apps. Starts at $9/user/month. Check our Monday.com review and pricing breakdown.

HubSpot CRM – Free tier available, but costs escalate quickly. Better for teams that want marketing hub integration. See our CRM for small business guide for more options.

Pipedrive – More traditional sales CRM with visual pipelines, mobile app, and automation. Starts at $12.50/user/month. Solid if you want deal management from day one.

Real User Feedback

Folk has over 300 reviews on G2 with generally positive sentiment. Common themes:

What users love:

What users complain about:

The Bottom Line

Folk CRM delivers exactly what it promises: a simple, fast CRM for people who hate CRMs. The spreadsheet-like interface and LinkedIn integration genuinely shine for solopreneurs and tiny teams.

But "simple" has trade-offs. You're paying $40/user/month to get features that competitors include at half the price. The lack of workflow automation, mobile app, and proper email tracking makes Folk feel incomplete for any serious sales operation.

My recommendation: Try Folk's 14-day trial if you're currently managing contacts in Notion or spreadsheets. It's a meaningful step up. But if you're evaluating proper CRMs and need scalability, Close CRM or Monday CRM will serve you better as you grow.

For more CRM comparisons, check out our CRM software comparison and best CRM tools guides.