folk
Light CRM for freelancers and small teams: pipeline, email campaigns, contact enrichment, LinkedIn extension, email, calendar and WhatsApp sync. No free plan, two-week trial. Standard at €22 per member per month billed annually (€27 monthly), Premium at €43 billed annually.
A contact book with lists, a pipeline and reminders is quick to build, and it is what a small business actually uses. Heavier: syncing with email, calendar and WhatsApp, the extension that captures a LinkedIn profile, and automatic enrichment. If you add few contacts a week, typing them in by hand is bearable; otherwise those automations are what you are paying for.
What you lose
- Email, calendar and WhatsApp sync.
- The extension that captures LinkedIn profiles.
- Automatic contact enrichment.
- Email campaigns and AI assistants.
Existing alternatives to folk
- TwentyOpen source
Modern CRM with custom objects, views and mailbox sync; younger than Pipedrive on mobile, reporting and integrations.
- EspoCRMOpen source
Classic CRM whose data model you can adapt; less sales-focused and less polished than Pipedrive.
What a home-built tool costs once it exists
- Hosting and database: a server cost, and automatic backups you actually test.
- Security and GDPR: dependency updates, an HTTPS certificate, protection of your customers’ data.
- Upkeep time: who fixes the tool on a Saturday night in the middle of service if the server goes down?
The prompt to build it yourself
Build a contact book with a pipeline and reminders, replacing a light CRM subscription. Context: I am a freelancer managing my prospects and partners, about 300 contacts. To do: - Contact records with email, phone, company, tags and notes. - Dynamic lists (by tag, by status, by last-contact date). - A pipeline in columns with amount and follow-up date. - A daily email reminder of the day's follow-ups. - CSV import and export, deduplication on import. Out of scope: email and WhatsApp sync, browser extension, enrichment. Stack: web app, SQLite, reminders through SMTP (credentials in .env). README: how to run, backup, deleting a contact on request (GDPR).
Frequently asked questions
- How much does folk cost, and what do you really pay for?
- Listed price: from €22/month/user. What the subscription covers and is hard to maintain yourself: Email, calendar and WhatsApp sync.; The extension that captures LinkedIn profiles.; Automatic contact enrichment.; Email campaigns and AI assistants..
- What free or open-source alternatives to folk exist?
- Twenty (open source), EspoCRM (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
- Where do you start to build an equivalent of folk?
- Copy this page’s prompt into Claude, Codex or Cursor to get a first prototype. Then plan for hosting, data backups and GDPR compliance: that is what costs the most to maintain over time.
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