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Endearist vs folk
A fair, specific comparison — written so you'd be comfortable if a folk engineer read it.
Fairness pledge
folk is the cleanest pipeline + relationship CRM for agencies, freelancers, and small business owners — its LinkedIn one-click capture, Notion-feeling table UI, AI message drafting, and pipeline view make it the best "boutique CRM" in the category. If you run a consulting practice, a recruiting shop, or a small agency and your relationships are also your revenue, folk is a strong choice and we say so. It is, however, designed around deals and clients — not the people you sit next to at family dinners. Endearist sits on the personal side of that line. (folk also charges €25/month extra for AI — Endearist bundles it.)
Where your data lives
folk: cloud-hosted on EU/US infrastructure with GDPR-compliant data processing — your contacts, deals, and pipelines live in folk's database. Endearist: your device first — sync optional via your own cloud or Endearist Cloud (EU-hosted).
How AI is accessed
folk's AI (message drafting, enrichment, summarisation) is an add-on at €25/month on top of the base plan, processed on folk's servers via third-party LLM APIs. Endearist's AI features are opt-in and bundled — Pro Cloud Light (~250 EU-routed actions/mo) at €4.99/mo or Pro Cloud (~600 actions/mo + voice transcription) at €9.99/mo. You can also bring your own key and keep everything on-device.
3-year total cost
folk Standard: €24/month + €25/month AI = ~€49/month → ~€1,760 over 3 years. folk Premium: ~€64/month with AI → ~€2,300 over 3 years. Endearist Pro Cloud (with bundled AI): €9.99/month → ~€360 over 3 years. Endearist Pro Lifetime (with BYOK AI): €69 once.
What we don't do
We don't have folk's deal pipelines, sales-stage automations, Gmail/Outlook two-way sync, or LinkedIn one-click capture extension. folk is built for billable work where each contact is potentially a client. Endearist is built for the opposite: contacts where no transaction is ever planned.
Feature matrix
Side-by-side.
| Feature | Endearist | folk |
|---|---|---|
| Local-first data storage | Yes — your device is the primary store. | No — cloud-only on folk's servers. |
| End-to-end encrypted sync | Yes — AES-256-GCM, you hold the key. | Server-side encryption; folk holds the keys. |
| Mobile native apps (iOS / Android) | iOS, Android (native Flutter). | iOS app; Android via PWA / web. |
| Desktop native apps | macOS, Windows, Linux (native). | Web app + macOS/Windows wrapper; no Linux. |
| AI features | Opt-in: bring your own key (on-device) or Pro Cloud Light (~250 EU-routed actions/mo) or Pro Cloud (~600 actions/mo + voice). | Paid €25/mo add-on — message drafting, enrichment, summaries on folk's servers. |
| Self-host option | Not currently — the desktop app is the local store. | No — SaaS only. |
| Pricing | Free up to 25 contacts. Pro Lifetime €69 once, Pro Cloud Light €4.99/mo, or Pro Cloud €9.99/mo. | Standard €24/mo, Premium €39/mo, +€25/mo for AI add-on. |
| Open source code | Source-release pledge on shutdown/acquisition. | No — proprietary. |
| Plain-Markdown export | Yes — readable without any app. | CSV export of contacts and pipelines; no Markdown export. |
| Voice-note transcription | Yes — on Pro Cloud (60 min/mo) or your own key. | No. |
| Family / multi-vault share | Family share on Pro Cloud (2 seats). Multi-vault on the roadmap. | Team workspaces for agencies; not a household / family construct. |
| Journal / reflection | Built-in journal + weekly ritual + appreciation prompts. | No — folk is a pipeline tool, not a journal. |
| Relationship depth (how-we-met, pets) | How-we-met, pets, custom pronouns, life events, debts, attachments. | Custom fields possible, but defaults are deal-stage, company, role — not personal-life depth. |
| Calendar / messenger integrations | Read-only calendar (Google/Apple/Outlook); manual share-sheet capture for messenger context. | Strong — Gmail/Outlook two-way email sync, calendar sync, LinkedIn one-click capture via extension. |
When to pick folk
When folk is the better fit.
If you run a small agency, freelancing practice, or consulting shop where every relationship has a deal attached, folk is the most modern, least-CRM-feeling CRM available. The LinkedIn one-click capture is genuinely best-in-class for sales-adjacent work. Pick folk when "relationship" means "client" and you can absorb €49-64/month as a business expense. We're not trying to be a CRM for billable work — we're trying to be where you remember why your friend's daughter likes blue.
Switching
Coming from folk?
If you've been using folk to track personal relationships alongside work pipelines: export your contacts as CSV from folk (Settings → Export), then import into Endearist via Settings → Import → CSV. Notes attached to contacts come across as journal entries; deal-stage fields are dropped (Endearist has no pipeline concept). Many users keep folk for client work and add Endearist for personal life — the two have no overlap.
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Prices and positioning verified 2026-05-20.
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