folk vs Salesforce
 folk |  Salesforce | |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment | ||
| Score | 41/100 | 21/100 |
| Rank in category | #4 | #7 |
| Rated comments | 8 | 24 |
| Best for | 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 | Larger sales orgs with an in-house admin to own the system; Companies with complex custom objects, permissions and integrations; Teams that want the CRM with the widest consultant and integration ecosystem |
| Skip it if | 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 | Small teams of under about 20 users without a dedicated admin; Buyers who want to change fields and workflows themselves without consultants; Budget-sensitive teams that need API access or heavier automation on lower tiers |
| Starting price | $24/member/mo | $25/user/mo |
| Pricing (vendor-stated) | 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. | Free Suite at $0; Starter Suite $25/user/mo (billed monthly or annually); Pro Suite $100, Core $195 and Advanced $395/user/mo billed annually; Max $550/user/mo through sales. Free trials on Starter through Advanced. |
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]
Independent users treat Salesforce as the most capable and customizable CRM but rarely as the right choice for small teams: of 24 non-promotional comments with an opinion, most describe it as overkill, expensive at the tiers that unlock automation and API access, and dependent on paid admins or consultants for routine changes. Its defenders are mostly people who have administered or implemented it alongside Dynamics or Zoho and found it easier or more complete, and several warn that leaving a heavily customized org is slow and costly. The corpus is heavily seeded: 39 of 100 comments were promotional, mostly agencies, freelance admins and rival CRM or custom-build vendors pitching in r/CRM threads from teams trying to leave Salesforce.
Users like
- Users and implementers describe it as able to model almost any process, with more depth than Zoho or HubSpot when heavily customized[1][2][3][4][5]
- People who have administered or implemented both Salesforce and Dynamics 365 say Salesforce is easier and more intuitive to work in[1][2]
- Seen as the mature, industry-standard choice, and a team that moved to Zoho says Zoho does most of the same things less smoothly[1][2][3]
- One user reports Salesforce still gives sizeable discounts and that admin work can now be done through the CLI with AI coding tools, cutting consultant hours[1]
Users complain about
- Widely called overkill for small teams, with admin overhead that forces the business to wrap itself around the tool[1][2][3][4][5]
- Expensive, and the price climbs steeply when a small team needs a higher edition; one 18-person team cut CRM spend from about $90k to under $25k a year by leaving[1][2][3][4][5]
- Routine changes often require a paid consultant; one team reports $200 per hour and three-week turnarounds for small edits[1][2]
- Leaving is slow: users report months-long migrations, painful exports of attachments and email history, and custom flows that must be rebuilt rather than copied[1][2][3]