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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. AI credits are bundled into every plan, so there is no separate AI surcharge to hold against it.
Where does my data live with folk versus Endearist?
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 does each tool access AI?
folk's AI (message drafting, enrichment, summarisation) is bundled into every plan as a monthly credit allowance — Standard includes ~500 email enrichments and ~2,000 magic fields per month, Premium roughly double that. It is processed on folk's servers via third-party LLM APIs. Endearist's AI features are opt-in and bundled too — 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.
What do folk and Endearist cost over three years?
folk Standard: $30/member/month month-to-month, or $24/member/month billed annually ($288/year) — about €247/year, so roughly €741 over 3 years. folk Premium: $60 month-to-month, $48 billed annually ($576/year) — about €1,482 over 3 years. AI is included in both. Endearist Pro Cloud (with bundled AI): €9.99/month → ~€360 over 3 years. Endearist Pro Lifetime (with your own AI key): €69 once. Converted at the ECB reference rate of 2026-08-25 (1 USD = €0.857); the vendor prices in dollars, so your euro cost moves with the rate.
What doesn't Endearist 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 — the data lives on your device, not on anyone's servers. | No — cloud-only on folk's servers. |
| End-to-end encrypted sync | Yes — AES-256-GCM with a key only you hold. | Server-side encryption; folk holds the keys. |
| Mobile native apps (iOS / Android) | Native on both iOS and Android (Flutter). | iOS app; Android via PWA / web. |
| Desktop native apps | True native apps for macOS, Windows, and Linux. | Web app + macOS/Windows wrapper; no Linux. |
| AI features | No add-on needed — opt in via your own key (on-device), Pro Cloud Light (~250 EU-routed actions/mo), or Pro Cloud (~600 actions/mo + voice). | Bundled into every plan as a monthly credit allowance — message drafting, enrichment and summaries on folk's servers. |
| Self-host option | Not yet — the desktop app itself is your local store. | No — SaaS only. |
| Pricing | Free for up to 25 contacts; then €69 once (Pro Lifetime), €4.99/mo (Pro Cloud Light), or €9.99/mo (Pro Cloud). | Per member, in USD: Standard $30/mo ($24 billed annually), Premium $60/mo ($48 billed annually). AI included. |
| Open source code | Pledged source release if we ever shut down or get acquired. | No — proprietary. |
| Plain-Markdown export | Yes — Markdown you can read without any app. | CSV export of contacts and pipelines; no Markdown export. |
| Voice-note transcription | Yes — via Pro Cloud (60 min/mo) or your own key. | No. |
| Family / multi-vault share | Built for households: family share on Pro Cloud (2 seats), multi-vault on the roadmap. | Team workspaces for agencies; not a household / family construct. |
| Journal / reflection | Journaling is core: built in, with a weekly ritual and appreciation prompts. | No — folk is a pipeline tool, not a journal. |
| Relationship depth (how-we-met, pets) | Personal-life defaults: 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 | Deliberately light: read-only calendar (Google/Apple/Outlook) plus 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 is folk the better choice?
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 roughly €21–51 per member per 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
How do I switch from folk to Endearist?
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 2026-08-26.
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