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Clarify vs folk
Short answer: Clarify is the better CRM for an early-stage startup that sells through meetings and wants the records to fill themselves in, because its call recorder, enrichment, and unlimited seats are on the free plan. folk is the better pick for a founder or small team whose work is finding people, mostly on LinkedIn, and reaching them by email, at a fixed $24 per member per month on annual billing with no AI meter to watch.
The two products charge for different things. Clarify does not price by seat at all: every plan has unlimited seats, and the bill is the AI work, counted in credits (1,000 a month free, then a Starter ladder from $40 a month on annual billing). folk charges per member and gives each plan fixed monthly allowances for email lookups, AI fields, and assistants. We checked both pricing pages on November 12, 2026, and every figure below comes from them. This page lives on ahoy.ai, and Ahoy competes with both products, so we have kept to what each vendor publishes and said where each one is the stronger choice.
Who should pick which?
Choose Clarify if…
- Your deals are won on calls, and you want each one recorded, summarized, and written back to the deal without anyone typing
- You want the whole company in the CRM without paying per head: seats are unlimited on every Clarify plan, Free included
- You are pre-seed or seed and want to start at $0: Free includes 1,000 AI credits a month, 20,000 records, and the call recorder
- Nobody wants to own CRM admin, and background enrichment that never touches the credit balance appeals
Choose folk if…
- You prospect on LinkedIn and want profiles, emails, and phone numbers captured in one click with the folkX extension
- You want a price that only moves when headcount does: Standard is $24 and Premium $48 per member per month on annual billing
- You want email sequences in the CRM: they come with Premium, and email campaigns are on every plan
- You want to try the paid product first: a 14-day trial with Premium features and no credit card
How do Clarify and folk compare on features?
| Clarify | folk | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Autonomous capture: meetings, email, and calendar update deals in the background | Relationships: contacts, companies, and groups you organize, with AI assistants on top |
| Automatic capture | Email, calendar, and meetings, with records updated from that activity | Email, calendar, and WhatsApp sync: 1 account per member on Standard, 5 on Premium |
| Call recording | Call recorder and notetaker on every plan, Free included; recording never uses credits | Phone call recording on every plan, marked new; we could not find a video meeting recorder on folk's pricing page |
| AI and how it is metered | Credits: 1,000 a month on Free, 5,000 to 40,000 on Starter; 30 credits per meeting summary, 1 per campaign email | Fixed monthly allowances: 2,000 AI fields on Standard and 5,000 on Premium; Workflow Assistant 1,500 and 10,000; Research Assistant 200 on both |
| Enrichment | Background enrichment on every plan, never billed; advanced enrichment from Starter | Email finding: 500 lookups a month on Standard, 1,000 on Premium, custom on Enterprise |
| Outreach | Campaigns: 1 active on Free, 5 on Starter, 20 on Growth; Lead Finder on every plan | Email campaigns on every plan; sequences on Premium; 2,000 or 5,000 messages per member a month |
| Data model | 3 objects on Free, 5 on Starter, 10 on Growth, unlimited on Enterprise | People, companies, and groups; custom objects and deals on Premium |
| Integrations and API | Google, Microsoft, HubSpot, LinkedIn, and Zapier on every plan; two-way HubSpot and Salesforce sync marked coming soon on its integrations page | MCP, Zapier, and Make apps on every plan; REST API on Premium |
| Security and SSO | Advanced permissions on Growth; SAML or OIDC SSO, SCIM, and role-based access on Enterprise | SOC 2 and GDPR shown on its pricing page, no HIPAA listed; Google SSO on every plan; workspace roles on Premium |
| Trial and free plan | Free plan with unlimited seats; we could not find a separate trial | 14-day trial with Premium features, no credit card |
How do pricing and packaging compare?
| Clarify | folk | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per workspace, by credits: Free $0; Starter $50 a month for 5,000 credits, rising in 5,000-credit steps to 40,000, 20% off annually (from $40); Growth from $1,000 a month, billed annually, 100,000+ credits; Enterprise custom | Per member: Standard $24, Premium $48, Enterprise from $80 a month on annual billing ($30, $60, and from $100 monthly) |
| Adding people | Free: seats are unlimited on every plan | Each member is billed; members are unlimited on every plan |
| Example: 3 people | $0 on Free, or $40 to $320 a month on Starter with annual billing, depending on credits | $72 a month on Standard or $144 on Premium, annual ($90 or $180 monthly) |
| Example: 10 people | The same as 3 people: the price follows credits, not headcount. Clarify pitches Starter at teams of up to 3, and Growth starts at $1,000 a month | $240 a month on Standard or $480 on Premium, annual ($300 or $600 monthly) |
| Running out | Free pauses the AI at 1,000 credits; paid plans can turn on on-demand credits at a per-credit rate it does not publish, with an optional spend cap | Plan limits are fixed per month; Enterprise sets custom limits |
Clarify and folk prices are from clarify.ai/pricing and folk.app/pricing, checked November 12, 2026, and match what we recorded on November 6. The 3-person and 10-person rows are our arithmetic on list prices, before any discount. Clarify's Starter cost depends on how many credits a team uses, not how many people it has. Check both sites for current pricing.
Where Ahoy fits
Clarify meters the AI and leaves the seats free. folk meters the seats and caps the AI by plan. Ahoy, which we make, prices per seat with the AI included and never credit-metered: Starter is $79 per seat per month billed annually ($99 monthly), Pro is $165 per seat per month billed annually, Growth is custom, and there is no seat minimum on Starter or Pro. It records and analyzes calls from Starter, keeps records current from email, calendar, and meetings, and holds every customer-facing action for one-tap approval. It costs more than either for a small team: three people on Starter run $237 a month on annual billing.
What Ahoy adds to this matchup…
- Call recording, transcripts, and analysis on Starter
- Agent actions included in the seat, with no credit meter
- Custom objects and granular roles and permissions on Pro
- SOC 2 Type I and Type II and HIPAA compliance, with a BAA on Pro and Growth
Clarify vs Ahoy · folk vs Ahoy · Attio vs Clarify · Attio vs folk · Clarify alternatives · Clarify pricing, with a changelog · What an AI CRM is · All comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Is Clarify or folk the better CRM for an early-stage startup?
It depends on where your deals come from. If they close on calls, Clarify does more for a startup on day one: the recorder, enrichment, and unlimited seats are free, and Free includes 1,000 AI credits a month. If the work is sourcing and reaching people, folk is the better fit, with LinkedIn capture, email lookups, and campaigns from $24 per member per month on annual billing. folk's 14-day trial needs no card and Clarify's free plan has no time limit, so you can test both on real deals.
Clarify vs folk: which CRM is better?
Neither wins outright. Clarify is stronger at automatic capture: it records meetings, enriches contacts in the background, and updates deals from that activity. folk is stronger at prospecting and outreach, with the folkX extension, 500 to 1,000 email lookups a month, and sequences on Premium. Pick the one that removes the work your team spends the most hours on.
Which is cheaper, Clarify or folk?
For a team that uses little AI, Clarify, because seats are free and the Free plan costs nothing. Once you pay, the comparison turns on headcount: three people on folk Standard cost $72 a month on annual billing, while Clarify Starter costs $40 to $320 a month on annual billing whatever the headcount. A team that records 40 meetings a month uses about 1,200 credits on summaries alone (40 x 30), which is already past Clarify's free allowance.
How does AI usage work on Clarify and folk?
Clarify meters AI in credits: its pricing page lists 30 credits per meeting summary and 1 per campaign email, while meeting recording and background enrichment never use credits. folk sets monthly limits per plan instead, for example 2,000 AI fields on Standard and 5,000 on Premium, and 1,500 or 10,000 Workflow Assistant runs. On Clarify Free the AI pauses when credits run out; paid Clarify plans can buy on-demand credits.
What about Attio vs folk vs Clarify?
Attio is the third option most startups shortlist, and it sits between these two: a workspace you configure yourself, priced at $40 or $100 a month on annual billing with one user included, plus $35 or $79 for each added user, with a free plan for up to 3 users as of November 12, 2026. We compare it with each of them in Attio vs Clarify and Attio vs folk.
Can either replace a separate call recorder or enrichment tool?
Clarify comes closer on recording: its call recorder and notetaker are on every plan, including Free. folk lists phone call recording on every plan, and its Recap Assistant summarizes meetings and messages on request, but we could not find a video meeting recorder on its pricing page. On enrichment, folk gives a fixed 500 or 1,000 email lookups a month, while Clarify enriches in the background without counting it against credits.
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Alternatives: HubSpot alternatives · Salesforce alternatives · Attio alternatives · Clarify alternatives