Attio vs Folk: Which CRM Should You Choose in 2025?
You’re building your GTM stack. Should you use Attio or Folk?
Both are modern alternatives to bloated CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce. But the similarities stop there.
Folk is great for simple use cases and fast adoption.
Attio is designed for scale — with API access, AI capabilities, and custom workflows.
Here’s how they compare:
A New Generation of CRMs
Folk and Attio represent a new wave of CRMs. They're not trying to be everything at once — they're focused, opinionated, and modular.
Where legacy tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive or Zoho try to bundle CRM, marketing automation, reporting, forms, CMS, and more into one monolith, these two products aim to integrate seamlessly into your GTM stack — not replace it.
In that sense, they are CRMs as they should be: the system of record for relationships, enriched by APIs and deeply connected to the rest of your tools.
They don’t try to cannibalize tools like Customer.io, PostHog, Notion, Segment, or even email platforms. Instead, they give you the freedom to build around them.
Two Tools, Two Philosophies
Folk is built for simplicity. It’s perfect if you’re just centralizing a contact list and sending some emails.
Attio is a real CRM platform — modular, API-first, and built to automate and scale your go-to-market system.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
If you want:
A flexible data model
Scalable automations
Full API access
Built-in and extensible AI
Then Attio is clearly built for more than just managing contacts — it’s a system for GTM architecture.
It can:
Auto-tag leads based on behavior
Trigger AI-generated summaries or scores
Sync live data between tools (Slack, Notion, Segment, etc.)
Scale with multiple pipelines, objects, and permissions
Which Should You Choose?
Let’s break it down by company profile — because the right CRM isn’t universal.
Comparative Table by Company Type
Insights by Profile
1. Solo founder or small team (1–3 people)
Folk offers a smooth UX, contact enrichment, email sequences, and WhatsApp sync.
Attio provides a free playground for testing automations, lists, and real-time syncing — plus native AI attributes, even on free plans.
2. Growing startup (3–10 users)
Folk brings sequences, multiple domains, early API — but still no built-in AI.
Attio unlocks open API, structured GTM logic, scalable workflows, and AI-enriched fields (like lead scoring or auto-summaries).
3. Scale-up or RevOps-heavy org (10+ users)
Folk Custom expands volume and support, but lacks deeper AI or automation capabilities.
Attio Pro delivers AI-native fields, custom objects, Slack sync, full automation workflows, and system-level control.
Each tool shines depending on where you are — and what kind of GTM system you’re trying to build.
Folk and Attio are built with different goals in mind — and that’s a good thing.
Folk is fast to deploy, easy to use, and has some really clever features like native WhatsApp integration. If you’re early-stage or simply managing a network of people without deep automation needs, it’s a great fit.
Attio, on the other hand, gives you building blocks. It’s for those who want to structure their CRM like a product — API-connected, automation-ready, AI-powered. If you're planning to scale operations or build repeatable GTM motion, it gives you the surface area to do that.
That said, all of this is true today. Both products are shipping fast, and what’s true now could look very different six months from now. Folk might open its API. Attio might simplify some UX friction. Who knows — maybe they’ll start overlapping more.
So don’t think of this as a forever decision. Think of it as: what kind of system do I need right now — and what kind of company do I want to become?
Need Help Deciding or Migrating?
I run novlini®, a boutique GTM and CRM studio. We genuinely love both Folk and Attio — they’re part of this new generation of focused, product-led CRMs that rethink what a system of record should look like in a modern GTM stack.
That said, today at Novlini we primarily work with Attio.
Why? Because most of our clients are scale-ups or ambitious startups that need:
A modular CRM that grows with them
Full API access to connect with the rest of their tools
Automation, AI enrichment, and structured data modeling
Attio offers the flexibility and scalability required to build a durable, evolving GTM system.
Explore our case studies, services, and GTM resources at novlini.io
Let’s design your ideal GTM stack — without the bloat.