Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
A good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes.
Good ones help you manage all your contacts in one place. Clever ones go a step further and can help you manage your customer interactions, streamline sales processes, and increase revenue.
With multiple CRMs to choose from, we've put together a handy comparison guide on a few of the top CRM platforms out there.
Two of the most popular CRMs in the market today are Infusionsoft and Hubspot. In this blog post, we will compare these two systems side by side to help you decide which one is the right fit for your business. We will also introduce a new CRM system, folk, and show you why it is the best option out there.
Presentation of Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft rebranded as Keap in January 2019 following the launch of the Keap CRM which helped them launch in a new market.
Keap is designed for small businesses to help them automate repetitive sales and client-relate tasks such as scheduling appointments, following up on leads and collecting payments. It offers a 14 day free price plan and has premium plans with prices that change according to the number of your contacts.
Presentation of Hubspot
HubSpot is a popular CRM solution with products designed for marketing, sales, customer service, operations, commerce and CMS. It's well known for its marketing automation software and live chat feature. However, the main drawback is setup time for new users, who have been known to complain about how complicated it is to use. Expect to block out time to get to know the platform. Hubspot's pricing plans can be costly for small businesses, and it can be challenging to upgrade and downgrade between plans. It offers a monthly or annual payment option starting at $20 per month or $18 when paying annually for the sales, marketing and customer service hub. The CRM suite starts from $50 per month.
Presentation of folk
folk is the new kid on the block and is already a firm favourite thanks to its all-in-one CRM software. It's easy to use and designed to help you build relationships across your sales, recruiting, fundraising, partnerships and investing efforts.
Users get an all-in-one messaging tool that helps boost marketing efforts through AI integration called 'Magic Field' and access to analytics. Its contact management system is simple and user-friendly, allowing you to store, organize, and manage customer data effortlessly so you can start using folk from day one.
It also comes packed with powerful integrations such as Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, and Chrome extensions for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and X (formerly known as Twitter) so you can build contact lists using your favourite tools. folk offers affordable price plans starting at $18 per month and $29 per month per member. There's also a generous free trial for individuals starting out.
Now that you've got an idea of what these CRMs offer, let's take a look at the key features and see how they compare.
Hubspot vs Infusionsoft comparison
Contact Management
Contact management is an integral aspect of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that involves organizing and tracking all your interactions with your customers and prospects. It's not just about maintaining a contact list. It also includes monitoring the communication history, tracking activities related to each contact, and using this data to enhance customer relationships. An effective contact management system enables you to cultivate a deep understanding of your customer's needs and preferences, ensuring that you can offer personalized interactions and ultimately drive customer loyalty and engagement. Let's look into HubSpot and Keap first, before we introduce folk.
HubSpot Contact Management
HubSpot offers contact management software that allows users to create contact records, log sales activities and look at previous interactions. It also has automation features which update contact records automatically.
Infusionsoft Contact Management
Keap offers contact management software in a form specifically for lead and client management across the sales and marketing functions of small businesses. It comes with features like sales and marketing automation software that converts leads with automated follow-ups.
folk Contact Management
Impressed by HubSpot and Keap? folk offers all of the above features – and more. With folk, you can stay organized by grouping individuals in your contact list into different categories effortlessly. If you don't have time to do that, you can simply get folk to automatically detect contacts that can be grouped together, then suggest a group for them. If you find that you're missing certain contact details, you can simply use the contact enrichment feature to fill in the blank in moments. You can also import new contacts from any website with its handy Chrome extension which we'll go into more detail below.
Integrations
No matter what business function you're in, chances are you might be using multiple platforms. If that's the case, you'll have a lot of data and contacts everywhere. Integrations are third-party applications that can help you them all under one platform.
Let's check out what integrations these CRMs have to offer and the tools you need to look out for.
Hubspot Integration
HubSpot's CRM lets users integrate with 1000s of popular third-party tools. While many of these integrations are native, some of them require someone to develop an API integration that can only be accessed via HubSpot's CRM consultants. Making the process expensive time-consuming, and inaccessible to small businesses.
Infusionsoft Integration
Keap users have access to a wide range of integrations via Zapier. They also offers advanced features such as access to a Keap Certified Developer Partner that you can hire to create custom integratoins. Or, the option to choose from specialized apps created by Keap-certified experts through a marketplace. But once again, the process can be expensive and time-consuming.
folk Integration
While HubSpot and Keap work hard, folk works smart. folk keeps it simple and accessible by giving users access to integrations by their favourite tools so that they can easily sync and import their contacts in moments.
Pipeline Management
A good pipeline management feature in a CRM should empower a sales team by allowing them to see where each person is in the sales cycle effortlessly.
HubSpot Pipeline Management
Although HubSpot is a marketing automation platform, its sales hub has what they call lead management software. This allows sales teams to view leads on a kanban board and automates lead management by automatically moving them through the pipeline. However, it is only accessible through a steep premium plan.
Infusionsoft Pipeline Management
Through what they call marketing and sales automation, Keap has sales and marketing automation tools heavily linked to their lead management capabilities. It can automate follow-ups as leads move through the sales pipeline and has a friendly drag-and-drop feature.
folk Pipeline Management
folk offers an intuitive pipeline management system that allows users to track people and companies and collaborate with team members. It is easy to customize and can be adapted to different types of relationships. You can also set reminders against each contact and tag them to a team member so they know exactly when to follow up with someone. If you're fed up of having all your notes in different places, in folk you can keep them all in one place and give your team access so they can build on it with their own notes.
Email marketing
When it comes to email marketing, you want a feature that has the right marketing software to boost your marketing strategy and efforts.
HubSpot Email Marketing
HubSpot's email marketing tool allows users to create and design email campaigns directly on the HubSpot platform. You can also do A/B tests to see what subject lines get you the most opens and click through rates. Their AI tool is currently in beta mode.
Infusionsoft Email Marketing
Keap's email marketing feature is similar to HubSpot's. It allows users to automate emails through segmentation, and also offers A/B testing, email templates and analytics.
folk Email Marketing
folk's email marketing feature is packed with some powerful tools. You get an all-in-one messaging solution that comes with analytics and can help you send ultra personalized emails to multiple recipients. With their gamechanging AI feature 'Magic Field' you can create custom prompts that tell the AI what data to pull out from your database so that you can save time.
User Experience (UX)
One of the most important aspects of UX is ease of use. An intuitive, user-friendly interface is key to ensuring all team members can seamlessly navigate through the platform. Without a user-friendly design, users may face hurdles in data entry or retrieval, which can lead to decreased productivity and frustration. Moreover, easy access to customer information, streamlined workflows, and efficient data organization all contribute to enhancing the user experience.
HubSpot User Experience
While HubSpot's CRM is clean and uncluttered it is known to be complicated for new users to navigate. New users face a steep learning curve which can last up to a month but many suggest it pays off in the long run.
Infusionsoft User Experience
Keap's user experience is built heavily on the 'When/Then' rule due to its reliance on automation. So you'll need a lot of time to it set up. The UX is reminiscent to that of an email journey builder.
folk User Experience
If you love using Notion, you'll enjoy folk's user experience. folk is simple to use and intuitive so you don't need to worry about having a steep learning curve to get set up.
Customer Support
When you face a pressing issue with your CRM, the support team can make a lot of difference to it becoming a positive or negative experience.
HubSpot Customer Support
HubSpot offers a variety of free options when it comes to customer support. This includes local user groups, learning resources through their dedicated blog and certified solutions partners.
There are also support options based on your product plan. Free users get community support, but access to their email support and live chat start from the starter plan, and only professional and enterprise customers get access to their hotline.
Infusionsoft Customer Support
Keap also provides a few options for customer support. You can choose to use their chat support, ask the community, go through their online log of known issues or official Facebook user group. Unlike HubSpot, you can also call them - they have hotline numbers catering different corners of the world including the UK, US and Australia.
folk Customer Support
folk goes above and beyond in providing customer support. They have a help centre full of useful technical step by step guides as well as a resource centre loaded with how-to video guides to suit different learning styles. On top of that, premium plan users get access to a dedicated migration service, priority support and a dedicated customer support manager. Beyond Limit plan users get access to personalized support through a dedicated Slack channel and dedicated point of contact to help with onboarding, data migration, and any issues.
Pricing
HubSpot Pricing
HubSpot's price plan is the most expensive. There is a price plan for the CRM solution. There are separate price plans for their marketing automation software, sales support features like lead management, customer service, CMS, operations, or commerce products.
For their CRM suite, HubSpot offers a choice of either a Professional plan or Enterprise plan which are $19201 or $60000 on an annual basis. Both come with marketing, sales, customer service, CMS, and operations software.
A monthly payment plan is available starting from $1781 a month for the Professional plan, and goes up to $5000 a month for the Enterprise. Both also come with the above software.
Infusionsoft Pricing
Keap offers price plans dependent on the number of contacts you want to use their CRM for. Annual price plans start from $1908 per year for their Pro package that includes 1500 contacts for 2 users. Alternatively there is a Max package which starts from $2748 per year that includes 2500 contacts for 3 users. Each additional user on both plans incur a charge of $29 each.
A monthly payment plan is available at $199 per month for the Pro plan or $289 per month for the Max plan. This includes the same number of contacts and user above.
folk Pricing
folk provides multiple plans that cater to businesses of all sizes, making it a more accessible option for small businesses and startups.
Annual price plans start from $18 a month per user for access to unlimited contacts, bulk emailing, AI integration and more. This goes up to $29 a month per user for more advanced features such as migration services, priority support, and ability to send emails from multiple domains.
There are monthly payment options that start from $24 a month per user and $39 a month per user respectively.
folk also the option of a tailored price plan for customers who are after more advanced features such as a dedicated point of contact.
Conclusion
Infusionsoft and HubSpot are both fantastic CRM platforms in their own right. However, they are both expensive and can be challenging to navigate for new users.
By contrast, folk offers a simple and intuitive user interface, affordable pricing plans, and reliable customer support. Its integrations are robust and straightforward, and its mail merge system is efficient. Overall, folk is the best CRM for small businesses looking to manage their customer interactions efficiently.
