folk and JRNY are both lightweight CRMs for small teams that find standard CRMs too heavy. folk is built around the contacts and relationships you already have, with pipelines on top. JRNY is smaller and starts from a spreadsheet: you import it, keep notes, and use AI to draft the emails you send from your own Gmail account.

Transparency note: JRNY is built by BetterQA, a software testing company in Cluj-Napoca. We will say where folk is the better pick, and today that is most cases.

The core difference

folk is a place to keep the people you know and the deals you are working. Its pitch is relationship tracking with AI assistance on top, and it is the more established product for general contact and deal management.

JRNY is a plainer tool. You bring an .xlsx file of companies and contacts, and JRNY imports it, handles duplicates and tracks each company through the statuses Pre, Hot, Cold, Signed and Closed. After a meeting you paste your notes and JRNY extracts the contact, timeline, budget, urgency and a fit score.

What JRNY does today

You connect a Gmail account and send from JRNY, so the sent message sits on the company record. AI can draft an email, a reply or a follow-up, and you edit it before it goes. The AI features run on your own OpenRouter API key, and you pay OpenRouter directly for that usage.

Email campaigns exist with a manual approval mode, where a person approves each message before it is sent. They turn on when you connect Gmail, not before. A JRNY workspace is one team's shared space, and teammates can be invited to it.

What JRNY does not do

JRNY does not offer LinkedIn outreach, calling or contact enrichment in a standard workspace, and WhatsApp is not in JRNY campaigns. If you want those inside your CRM, folk is the closer fit. folk is also the better choice if you want a LinkedIn browser extension, a large integration list, or custom objects, deals and dashboards.

Where each one is stronger

folk is better when your work is relationship-led and the contacts already exist: partners, investors, clients, a warm network. It is better when several people need to share and edit the same contacts every day.

JRNY is better when your data starts in a spreadsheet, you want it cleaned and organised without a long setup, and you want AI-drafted follow-ups that a person always reviews.

Pricing

folk charges per member per month on tiered plans. The numbers change, so check folk's pricing page for your team size. folk also offers a 2-week free trial with no credit card.

JRNY is free for the first year, on one plan, with no credit card. AI features run on your own OpenRouter API key, and you pay OpenRouter directly for that usage.

"Free for the first year" is not the same as free forever, and the OpenRouter usage is a real cost. Compare it against a per-seat price for your team size, not against zero.

Frequently asked questions

Is JRNY better than folk?

It depends on where your contacts come from. JRNY is better for a team that starts from spreadsheets and wants simple records, notes and AI-drafted email. folk is better for relationship-led work, for teams that want WhatsApp or a LinkedIn extension, and for custom objects and dashboards.

Can I use both?

Yes. Some teams clean and import a list in JRNY and keep long-running relationships in folk, moving contacts between the two by export and import.

Does JRNY need an AI key?

Yes. The AI features run on your own OpenRouter API key, and you pay OpenRouter directly for that usage.

Try JRNY on a real spreadsheet

Start free for the first year, import an Excel file and see how it handles duplicates.