Close vs folk
 Close |  folk | |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment | ||
| Score | 63/100 | 41/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 | #4 |
| Rated comments | 25 | 8 |
| Best for | Small sales teams and solo sellers doing high-volume cold calling; Teams that want calling, email, SMS and workflows inside the CRM; Founders who want a CRM they can pick up without a consultant | Solo founders and small teams that want a simple, fast-to-set-up CRM; Users who want to connect their own AI assistant to the CRM |
| Skip it if | Teams that need marketing automation in the same tool; Teams that need flexible automation or deep lead-level reporting; Sellers who rely on three-way or conference calling | Teams that need advanced automation, website tracking or ad integrations; Anyone who needs full data export, including custom fields; Teams that need a mobile app |
| Starting price | $9/user/mo | $24/member/mo |
| Pricing (vendor-stated) | Per user per month: Solo $9 annual / $19 monthly (1 user, 10k leads, no workflows), Essentials $35 / $49, Growth $99 / $109, Scale $139 / $149; custom plans via sales. Calling and SMS billed at cost. 14-day free trial with no credit card; no free plan; 30-day money-back guarantee. | Standard $24/member/mo billed annually ($30 monthly); Premium $48 annually ($60 monthly); Enterprise from $80/member/mo annually. 2-week free trial with premium features, no credit card; no priced free plan listed. |
Independent users mostly rate Close as a simple, fast, sales-first CRM that suits small outbound teams and solo sellers who live on the phone, with calling, email, SMS and workflows in one place. The trade-off is depth outside the calling workflow: users call it rigid, report automation flaws and missing calling features such as three-way calls, and say it is weak for marketing and lead-level reporting. About a third of the comments mentioning it were promotional, including roughly ten near-identical comments that name-drop Close while plugging a Reddit-monitoring tool, referral links, and agency or rival-CRM pitches, so those were set aside.
Users like
- Easy to pick up: users describe it as light, simple and fast, easier to onboard than HubSpot, with decent automation that does not overwhelm[1][2][3][4][5]
- Built for phone-heavy outbound: users cite the power dialer and smart views, cold callers hitting 250 to 350 dials a day, and running a BDR team's outbound from inside it[1][2][3][4]
- Calling, email, SMS and workflows sit in one place, which users say keeps reps productive and organized[1][2]
- Users call it good value for small teams and solo operators, saying a low-tier plan covers most of what they need[1][2][3]
Users complain about
- Rigid, with automation flaws: one team of about ten calls it very rigid but good enough, and a solo user flags its automation weaknesses[1][2][3]
- Calling has gaps: one user found no three-way calling, another hit quirks with calling and stayed on Apollo[1][2]
- Reporting centres on caller activity and revenue rather than deeper lead analysis[1]
- Not strong on the marketing side, according to a user who otherwise rates it highly[1]
Independent discussion is thin: only eight non-promotional comments carry a real opinion. Those users like folk as a simple, quick-to-set-up CRM for solo founders and small teams, and one returned to it because it works with their own AI through MCP. The trade-offs they report are limited data export, a lack of advanced features that pushed one user to Pipedrive, and no mobile app. Promotion is heavy: about 40% of the comments that remained after filtering read as seeded or marketing, several repeating the same 'clean, simple, great for relationships' talking points, and many more were removed earlier as repeat promoters.
Users like
- Easy to use and quick to set up, described as much less complicated than other CRMs[1][2][3][4]
- Works with your own AI through MCP, which one user preferred over CRMs that charge for AI usage[1]
- Cheaper than Attio for a plan with email sequences, according to a user comparing the two ($40 vs $69 per user per month on annual billing)[1]