Close vs monday : Which CRM for agencies wins?

Agencies don’t struggle with “finding tools.” They struggle with keeping pipeline execution consistent while delivery stays on track. In a world where lead context often resides in various inboxes, calendars, and spreadsheets, important follow-ups can easily slip through the cracks, handoffs can break down, and forecasting turns into a guessing game. A CRM for agencies must keep new business momentum swift while ensuring there's enough historical context to support renewals, upsells, and referrals.

Close and monday.com are two robust CRM options that approach these challenges from unique perspectives. Close is designed specifically for outbound sales execution, integrating calls, emails, SMS, and task management into streamlined workflows. On the other hand, monday.com stands out with its highly customizable board system, enabling agencies to model their sales processes in a way that aligns perfectly with their existing operations.

The best choice hinges on the agency's individual workflow requirements, degree of customization needed, and the level of ongoing management they are prepared to invest in maintaining the system.

Why Agencies Need a CRM in 2026?

Agencies don’t lose revenue because of a lack of demand. Revenue leaks when lead context gets scattered across inboxes, calendars, Slack threads, and spreadsheets, and when follow-ups depend on memory instead of a system. A CRM creates a single source of truth for prospects, clients, partners, and renewals, so next steps stay visible and ownership is clear.

✔️ Pipeline visibility and forecasting without spreadsheets

✔️ Centralized prospect and client context across email, calls, and meetings

✔️ Standardized follow-ups, handoffs, and next steps across the team

✔️ Clear ownership on every lead, deal, and account to avoid drops

✔️ Performance tracking by source, service line, and stage conversion

In 2026, agencies run more channels, shorter decision cycles, and more stakeholders per deal, with clients expecting faster response times and tighter coordination. Without a CRM, proposals stall, warm leads go cold, renewals happen late, and referrals are handled inconsistently because the team can’t see the full history and the current plan in one place.

What is Close?

Close is a sales CRM tailored for outbound execution, seamlessly integrating calling, email, SMS, and task management into everyday workflows. It's ideal for agencies focused on high-volume prospecting, appointment setting, or sales development. With pipelines and opportunity statuses that track progress and a comprehensive communication history linked to each lead, Close provides essential tools for repeatable outreach and follow-up through sequences and automations. This system thrives on the need for consistent outbound activity and rapid iteration for agency success.

What is monday?

monday CRM is a highly configurable platform built on monday.com boards, utilizing customizable columns and views to model sales and account workflows. It's a perfect fit for agencies already using monday.com for service delivery and seeking to integrate sales, onboarding, and client operations into a unified workspace. With pipeline views and dashboards for enhanced visibility, along with automations that facilitate handoffs and reminders based on status changes, monday CRM connects seamlessly with marketing, forms, and communication tools as per the tech stack. This option is typically favored when flexibility and workflow modeling take precedence over traditional CRM practices.

Feature comparison of Close and monday

Multi-pipeline and Custom Stages

In Close, you can create multiple pipelines, allowing different teams or processes to utilize their own configurations. Each pipeline can have a unique name and a distinct set of opportunity statuses that define its stage structure. This capability enables the separation of activities like new business, renewals, or service delivery tracking into individual pipelines, each with tailored statuses. You can modify the pipeline structure simply by adjusting the opportunity statuses for the corresponding pipeline.

Typically, pipeline setup in monday CRM occurs on the Deals board, where deals are tracked through a clearly defined set of stages. These stages can be customized to align with an agency's sales process, while the pipeline view effectively visualizes progression through each stage. Depending on account organization, various workflows can be modeled by separating boards and stage structures, with stage logic remaining closely tied to the board's configuration and its columns.

Client and Deal Activity Tracking

Close integrates calls, emails, SMS, and tasks directly into the CRM, linking them to the relevant leads and opportunities. Communication occurs seamlessly within the platform, with activity histories readily available on records, allowing teams to easily review interactions and plan next steps. This approach facilitates effective sales tracking by logging outreach efforts and follow-ups alongside lead and deal records. Depending on configuration, meetings and other touchpoints can also be managed within the same workspace.

In monday CRM, activity tracking is streamlined through Emails and Activities, enabling integration with Gmail or Outlook to log communications and display them on a timeline. This feature supports email logging and tracking, as well as various activity types, including meeting notes, call summaries, and more. Agencies can add custom activities to ensure the activity log accurately reflects their client interaction documentation. Consequently, the timeline serves as a comprehensive overview of past events and upcoming plans.

Automation and Workflows

With Close, sales reporting features dashboards and reports that emphasize pipeline health, activity tracking, lead conversion, and overall sales performance. You can filter reports by date ranges and other criteria, while dashboards can be tailored to visualize specific metrics. The reporting system leverages CRM data as its foundation, meaning that activity and pipeline reports rely on logged information and the way opportunities are organized. Forecasting and pipeline monitoring are effectively facilitated through the reporting capabilities detailed in Close’s documentation.

In monday CRM, automation rules utilize trigger-action recipes that respond to changes such as status updates, due dates, item creation, and item movement across boards. These automations can send notifications, assign owners, update fields, and create new items based on established conditions. This functionality is particularly useful for standardizing handoffs when a deal progresses through stages or for generating follow-up tasks as important dates approach. The specific actions taken depend on the chosen recipe and the setup of the columns involved.

Reporting and Analytics

Close offers sales reporting that features dashboards and reports centered on pipeline health, activity tracking, lead conversion, and sales performance. Users can filter reports by date ranges and other criteria, while dashboards can be customized to display chosen metrics. The reporting leverages CRM data as its foundation, meaning that activity and pipeline insights rely on logged information and the organization of opportunities. Forecasting and pipeline monitoring are facilitated through the reporting layer highlighted in Close’s documentation.

In monday CRM, reporting is typically constructed using dashboards that aggregate data from one or several boards, presenting it through widgets like charts and tables. These dashboards allow for real-time monitoring, whereas reports provide more in-depth analyses generated on demand based on the workflow. The visibility of the pipeline is influenced by the structure of the Deals board and the metrics displayed on the dashboard. Access and sharing capabilities are governed by account permissions and dashboard configurations.

Integrations and Data Hygiene

Close enables integrations via API and event-based webhooks, with documentation highlighting connections to external applications through tools like Zapier or Make, using OAuth or API keys. For data hygiene, Close offers features such as duplicate detection during new lead creation, options to prevent duplicates during imports, and the capacity to merge leads when duplicates are found. Import workflows include checks for duplicates against both the import file and existing leads, with merge actions consolidating records into a single destination lead. These functionalities are thoroughly documented in Close’s help resources and product update notes.

In monday CRM, integrations can be established through native connectors and external automation platforms like Zapier, facilitating the synchronization of items and the triggering of workflows across various applications. The documentation emphasizes that CRM integration involves syncing customer data across different business tools to minimize manual data entry. For maintaining data hygiene, monday.com features a 'Manage duplicates' tool that helps identify and resolve duplicate items on boards, which is crucial when leads are imported or integrated. The cleanliness of data ultimately relies on the design of the board structure and the setup of incoming flows.

folk: The Best CRM for Agencies in 2026!

folk is an AI-driven CRM that centralizes contacts, conversations, and deal contexts without complicating the setup process. It is designed for agency teams where multiple members engage with the same account throughout prospecting, onboarding, delivery, and renewals. The system maintains a visible history of relationships, ensuring that handoffs rely on documented information rather than memory or scattered notes.

• Multi-pipeline and customizable stages tailored for various agency operations
• Contact and deal timelines that consolidate interaction histories in one location
• Email and calendar synchronization to link conversations to the appropriate records
• Task management, reminders, and follow-up tracking to standardize next steps
• Contact enrichment features to populate missing company and contact information
• Deduplication tools to merge duplicate entries and maintain a clean database
• Simplified pipeline reporting to track stage health and deal advancement
• Integrations and automation connectors to minimize manual updates

For agencies, the primary benefit is enhanced operational clarity across simultaneous relationships. Pipelines can represent various revenue streams, such as retainers, projects, partnerships, and referrals, while tasks and reminders ensure consistent follow-ups among team members. Data hygiene capabilities like enrichment and deduplication mitigate the presence of duplicate records and incomplete fields, preserving the usefulness of pipeline reporting over time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Close excels in outbound sales with its robust integration of calls and communications, ideal for high-volume prospecting. monday.com shines with its customizable boards that fit existing workflows, promoting flexibility. However, for agencies prioritizing email integration, automation, and seamless sequencing, folk stands out as the superior choice. Its AI-driven platform centralizes contact histories while simplifying tasks, ensuring consistent follow-ups and data hygiene. For teams needing clarity and speed in relationship management, folk is the ultimate CRM solution.

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