Folk vs Insightly: Ultimate CRM Showdown in 2025

by | Mar 8, 2025

Winner
folk
4.5
  • Masseges and Sequences
  • Custom Dashboards
  • Team Collaboration
  • Pipeline Management
  • Easy Integration
  • Free trial available
  • Paid Plan Starts at $20
Runner Up
Insightly
3.5
  • Pipeline Management
  • Lead Tracking
  • Workflow Automation
  • Project Management
  • Insightly marketing
  • Free trial available
  • Paid Plan Starts at $29
Folk vs Insightly

You’re looking for a CRM, right?

And you’ve probably seen Folk and Insightly pop up.

Choosing between them?

That’s the tricky part. Both promise to make your life easier, but which one actually delivers?

It’s like choosing between two cool video gamesโ€”you need to know which one is worth your time.

Good news!

We’re breaking down Folk vs Insightly to help you decide. 

Overview

To give you a real picture, we didn’t just read about these CRMs.

We got our hands dirty.

Our team tested both Folk and Insightly, setting up accounts, importing data, and running through daily tasks. 

Folk CRM
4.5out of 5

It excels at managing 10,000 contacts and building relationships. It has powerful automation.

Pricing:ย It has a free trial. The premium plan starts at $20/month.

Key Features:

  • Sales pipelines
  • Advanced reports
  • Android app
Insightly
3.5out of 5

Need a CRM that goes beyond sales with robust project management tools? Insightly’s got you covered.

Pricing:ย It has a free trial. The premium plan starts at $29/month.

Key Features:

  • Project Management
  • Workflow Automation
  • Relationship Linking

What is Folk?

Folk is a modern CRM. It’s built for teams.

It helps you manage contacts.

It’s easy to use. It’s all about collaboration.

Also, explore our favorite Folk alternatives…

Folk CRM homepage

Our Take

Folk CRM

It excels at managing 10,000 contacts and building relationships. It has powerful automation that some businesses need.

Key Benefits

  • Manage 10,000 contacts.
  • Connect five email accounts.
  • No warranty mentioned.

Pricing

All the plans will be billed annually.

  • Standard: $20/member/month.
  • Premium: $40/member/month.
Folk Pricing

Pros

  • User-friendly interface.
  • Excellent contact management.
  • Effective sales pipeline visualization.
  • Seamless email integration.
  • Powerful automation features.

Cons

  • Limited reporting capabilities.
  • The mobile app could be improved.
  • Integrations with some tools might be limited.
  • Customer support can be slow at times.

What is Insightly?

Okay, so what’s Insightly all about? It’s a CRM, but it adds project management.

Think of it as a tool for sales and project tracking.

It helps you manage relationships and deliver projects.

It’s designed for businesses that need both.

Also, explore our favorite Insightly alternatives

What is Insightly

Our Take

Insightly

Insightly is a solid choice for businesses that need a scalable CRM with project management capabilities.

Key Benefits

  • Scalable for growth: Adapt the platform as your business expands.
  • Project management features: Keep your projects organized and on track.
  • Customizable dashboards and reports: Get the insights you need to make informed decisions.
  • Integrations with popular apps: Connect with your favorite business tools.

Pricing

  • Plus: $29/user/month.
  • Professional: $49/user/month.
  • Enterprise: $99/user/month.
Insightly Pricing

Pros

  • Scalable for businesses of all sizes.
  • Includes project management features.
  • Customizable dashboards and reports.
  • Integrates with popular apps.

Cons

  • It can be complex to learn and use.
  • Some features are limited to lower plans.
  • It can be expensive for large teams.

Feature Comparison

This comparison evaluates Folk, a unique tool for customer relationship management that excels at building real relationships through deep social listening.

Insightly CRM, a versatile crm platform loved by sales teams and marketing teams for its strong project and task management capabilities.

This analysis will clarify which crm solution is the better investment for nurturing client relationships versus optimizing internal sales and marketing teams workflows.

1. Core Platform Focus and Goal

  • Folk: The primary goal is deep real relationships and helping users organize contacts efficiently. It is built to build genuine connections and manage the human side of business across diverse use cases.
  • Insightly CRM: The focus is on providing a versatile crm system that integrates sales, marketing (insightly marketing), and project management, making it a modern crm teams love for managing the full lifecycle of customers and companies.

2. Contact Management and Organization

  • Folk: Excels at helping users organize contacts effectively, utilizing its chrome extension to add contacts quickly from external sources. Users can set reminders and manage notes for every same person easily, emphasizing qualitative relationship history.
  • Insightly CRM: Offers robust contact management that links contacts to projects, opportunities, and organizations. The insightly starts by integrating with google workspace to pull in organization data, providing a complete view of the customers and company.

3. Sales Pipeline and Deal Management

  • Folk: Offers a visual sales pipeline built to help users close winning deals. Its strength lies in using personalized communication history and set reminders (including logging phone calls) to drive the sales process efficiently across diverse use cases.
  • Insightly CRM: Provides a flexible sales pipeline and opportunities dashboard to track deals. It enables sales teams to assign tasks, manage sales opportunities, and automate stages via workflow automation.

4. Project Management and Collaboration

  • Folk: Offers light project management tools, mostly focused on tracking relationship follow-ups. Collaboration relies on shared notes and the ability to add contacts to groups for internal organization.
  • Insightly CRM: A key differentiator is its native project management capability, allowing sales teams to seamlessly hand off a winning deal to the service team member. It is one of the other crms lauded by PC Magazine for this feature.

5. Automation and Workflow

  • Folk: Provides simple email automation and tools to set reminders. Automation is designed to support personalized relationship nurturing across different use cases, often relying on other tools for complex tasks.
  • Insightly CRM: Offers comprehensive workflow automation, allowing users to set complex rules to assign tasks, update records, or schedule email templates based on trigger events, enhancing team productivity.

6. Ecosystem and Integrations

  • Folk: Excels as a central relationship hub that integrates with other tools. Its chrome extension acts as the key connector, allowing users to add contacts and utilize email automation externally.
  • Insightly CRM: Known for its deep google workspace integration. Insightly products often feature stronger native links to external services than other crms, making the system highly versatile.

7. Marketing Features

  • Folk: Supports nurturing with email automation and reminders, focusing on personalized communication. It is not designed for mass campaigns like dedicated marketing teams require.
  • Insightly CRM: Includes insightly marketing, a separate but integrated product that offers features like campaign management and email templates to support marketing teams and sales teams alignment.

8. User Experience and Learning Curve

  • Folk CRM: Features a minimal user interface designed for speed and clarity. It has a very low learning curve, making it easy for any team member to add contacts and begin tracking immediately.
  • Insightly CRM: Offers a robust user interface but has a slightly higher learning curve due to the depth of its integrated sales, marketing, and project management modules. Its new version has improved usability.

9. Pricing and Value

  • Folk: Priced per user and based on contact limits. Its value lies in its specialized focus on genuine connections, making it an affordable alternative to other crms for small teams.
  • Insightly CRM: Insightly starts with a free plan and scales through tiered pricing, often billed annually. Its value lies in providing a modern crm teams love with advanced capabilities for all phases of contact management and project execution.

What to Look For in a CRM Software?

  • Scalability: Can it grow with your business?
  • Customization: Does it fit your unique workflows?
  • Mobile Access: Is it accessible on the go?
  • Support: Does it offer reliable customer support?
  • Data Security: How well does it protect your data?
  • Reporting: Does it provide meaningful insights?
  • Industry-Specific Features: Does it cater to your particular industry needs?
  • Training and Onboarding: Does the vendor provide adequate training resources?
  • Automation: Can it automate repetitive tasks to save time?
  • Collaboration: Does it facilitate team collaboration and communication?
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Does the pricing align with your budget and ROI?
  • Reviews and Testimonials: What are other users saying about their experience?
  • Future Updates: How often does the vendor release updates and new features?

Final Verdict

So, which one wins?

It depends on what you need. 

If you want something simple and easy, Folk is great. It’s like a smart contact list for small teams.

But, if you need a strong CRM with lots of tools, Insightly is better.

It can handle big projects and sales.

We tested both, remember? We saw how they work.

We think Insightly is the better choice for most businesses.

It has more features and can grow with you.

But, if you just need the basics, Folk is okay.

More of Folk

Hereโ€™s a brief comparison of Folk with these software solutions:

  • Folk vs GoHighLevel: Folk emphasizes collaborative contact organization and ease of use, while GoHighLevel is a comprehensive sales and marketing platform with robust automation and lead generation.
  • Folk vs Pipedrive: Folk focuses on user-friendly contact management and customization, whereas Pipedrive excels in visual sales pipeline management for sales-focused teams.
  • Folk vs Keap: Folk offers a simple, collaborative interface for contact management, while Keap provides powerful sales and marketing automation with extensive customization.
  • Folk vs ActiveCampaign: Folk provides a user-friendly, collaborative contact management system, while ActiveCampaign boasts robust marketing automation, segmentation, and detailed analytics.
  • Folk vs Clickfunnels: Folk is a contact management CRM, while ClickFunnels is a sales funnel builder designed for creating landing pages and automating sales processes.
  • Folk vs Instantly: Folk focuses on contact management and enrichment; Instantly specializes in automated cold email campaigns and high-volume outbound sales outreach.
  • Folk vs ClickUp: Folk is a specialized contact relationship management tool, while ClickUp is an all-in-one workspace that combines project management, task tracking, and CRM features.
  • Folk vs Monday: Folk offers a simple, collaborative contact system, while Monday CRM provides highly customizable visual workflows and robust team collaboration.
  • Folk vs Capsule: Folk is a modern, customizable CRM for managing contacts; Capsule CRM is a simplified contact manager primarily focused on tracking sales opportunities.
  • Folk vs Insightly: Folk is a straightforward collaborative contact management solution; Insightly provides a more robust CRM with advanced sales pipeline and project management features.
  • Folk vs Freshsales CRM: Folk focuses on intuitive relationship management and visual pipelines; Freshsales offers a comprehensive CRM with advanced automation and in-depth reporting for sales.
  • Folk vs Salesforce: Folk provides a user-friendly CRM for simple relationship management, while Salesforce is a highly customizable, scalable, and complex enterprise-level CRM with extensive features.
  • Folk vs Zendesk: Folk prioritizes simple, collaborative contact management for smaller teams, while Zendesk is a comprehensive customer service platform focused on ticketing and support.

More of Insightly

Hereโ€™s a brief comparison of Insightly with these software solutions:

  • Insightly vs Pipedrive: Insightly focuses on CRM with integrated project management; Pipedrive specializes in visual sales pipeline management, often preferred by sales-centric teams.
  • Insightly vs GoHighLevel: Insightly is great for combining CRM with project management. It helps track sales and projects together. GoHighLevel is an all-in-one platform for marketing agency needs. It offers strong marketing and sales automation tools and can manage multiple clients.
  • Insightly vs Keap: Insightly offers a robust CRM with project tracking; Keap provides powerful marketing automation, email campaigns, and comprehensive sales features.
  • Insightly vs ActiveCampaign: Insightly merges CRM with project management capabilities; ActiveCampaign excels in advanced marketing automation, email sequencing, and lead scoring.
  • Insightly vs HubSpot: Insightly offers a strong CRM with project management, while HubSpot provides a vast all-in-one platform for marketing, sales, and customer service.
  • Insightly vs Clickfunnels: Insightly is a CRM with project management; ClickFunnels is primarily a sales funnel builder for creating landing pages and automating sales processes.
  • Insightly vs Folk: Insightly is a comprehensive CRM with project management capabilities; Folk is a more streamlined, collaborative contact management tool.
  • Insightly vs Instantly: Insightly offers a robust CRM and project management solution; Instantly focuses on automated cold email outreach and lead generation.
  • Insightly vs ClickUp: Insightly integrates CRM and project management; ClickUp is a versatile work management platform that can be configured for CRM tasks.
  • Insightly vs Monday: Insightly combines CRM with project management; Monday CRM is a highly customizable work operating system, adaptable for various CRM needs.
  • Insightly vs Capsule CRM: Insightly is a more feature-rich CRM with project management, while Capsule CRM is a simpler, straightforward contact and sales opportunity tracker.
  • Insightly vs Freshsales: Insightly offers a robust CRM with project management; Freshsales CRM provides advanced sales automation, AI insights, and multichannel communication.
  • Insightly vs Salesforce: Insightly is a comprehensive CRM with integrated project management; Salesforce is an enterprise-grade, highly customizable, and expansive CRM solution.
  • Insightly vs Zendesk: Insightly is a CRM with project management features; Zendesk primarily focuses on customer support and service ticketing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Folk better for small teams?

Yes, Folk is generally better for small teams or individuals who need a simple contact management solution. Its intuitive interface and focus on collaboration make it easy to use for smaller groups.

Does Insightly offer more features than Folk?

Yes, Insightly offers a more comprehensive suite of features, including advanced sales pipeline management, email marketing tools, and detailed reporting. It’s designed for businesses with more complex needs.

Which CRM is easier to customize?

Insightly is significantly more customizable than Folk. It allows for custom fields, layouts, and workflows, enabling businesses to tailor the platform to their specific requirements.

Can I integrate email marketing with both CRMs?

While Folk integrates with existing email tools, Insightly offers built-in email marketing features, allowing you to create and send campaigns directly from the platform.

Which CRM offers a free trial?

Both Folk and Insightly offer free trials, but the extent and features available during the trial period may vary. Check their websites for the most current details.