The verdict
For most lean B2B founders, Folk is the more natural fit. The day-to-day of early-stage B2B is relationship work — warm intros, LinkedIn threads, replying to the right person at the right time — and Folk is built exactly around that, with fast setup and contact sync that means the CRM populates itself rather than demanding manual data entry. It starts at 24 USD per user per month on annual billing.
Close earns its place the moment your growth depends on outbound call volume. If you or a small team are dialling dozens of prospects a day, having the phone, SMS and email sequences native to the CRM — rather than glued together from three tools — is a genuine edge, and the activity logs itself. It starts lower on paper at 19 USD per user per month for the single-seat Solo tier, but calling and SMS usage is billed separately on top.
Put plainly: Close is the better machine for high-volume selling; Folk is the better home for relationships. Choose by the shape of your week, not the headline price.
Side by side
| 9 points compared | ||
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $9/mo | €22/mo |
| Free plan | No | |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in calling | Yes | No |
| Contact enrichment | Yes | Yes |
| Custom objects | Yes | Yes |
| Email sequences | Yes | Yes |
| Workflow automation | Yes | Yes |
| Links |
Plans and pricing
Close
- Solo$19/mo/seat
- Essentials$49/mo/seat
- Growth$109/mo/seat
- Scale$149/mo/seat
Folk
- Standard€27/mo/seat
- Premium€54/mo/seat
- Enterprise€83/mo/seat
Who each is for
Choose Close if…
Pick Close if outbound calling is the core of how you win. It's built for inside-sales teams and SMBs running high-volume dialling: calling and SMS are native, email sequences ship in the box, and the higher Scale tier adds predictive dialling and custom objects for when the motion gets sophisticated. If your honest answer to "how do deals close here?" is "we get them on the phone", Close removes the friction of stitching a dialler onto a CRM. Just budget for calling and SMS usage as a separate line, and for the per-seat cost climbing as you move from Solo to Essentials, Growth or Scale.
Choose Folk if…
Pick Folk if your pipeline is relationship-led and you want a CRM that gets out of your way. It's aimed squarely at lean B2B founders, small sales teams and agencies who'd rather track relationships than administer software. The contact sync from Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn and WhatsApp means your network flows in automatically, setup is genuinely fast, and the flexible workspace bends to how you actually work rather than forcing a rigid sales process. You still get email sequences, custom objects, enrichment and workflow automation — it's lightweight, not toothless. Skip it only if you need native phone and SMS, which Folk doesn't do.
Other options worth a look
Manages contacts, leads, opportunities and pipelines with deep customisation and automation for B2B sales teams.
Manages contacts, deals and pipelines for B2B sales teams with built-in phone and AI lead scoring.
Combines CRM, marketing, sales and customer service around a shared contact database with a free tier.
Dedicated customer relationship management platform for sales teams managing leads, deals and pipelines.
Manage your sales pipeline visually with drag-and-drop deals, contact management and workflow automation.