Folk Plans: Free vs Paid and Qualifying Tiers

Map must-haves to Folk plan names before you compare starting tiles.

1. Write your day-one must-haves as a list, in outcome language.
2. Beside each one, write the lowest Folk plan that research shows carries it. Plan-gated in research: contact management (Standard, Premium, Enterprise); lead management (Standard, Premium, Enterprise); pipeline management (Standard, Premium, Enterprise); deal management (Premium, Enterprise).
3. Highlight anything unclear and check it on /pricing/folk/ or in the trial.
4. Note add-ons separately.
5. Ask which plan any demo runs on before you use it as evidence.

Worked example: a 12-person B2B advisory team needs contact management and lead management, email sync, and weekly reporting from Folk. Two of those sit on the entry tier in research; the highest-gated one sets the plan, so they stop comparing anything cheaper.

Read these as capability tiers — not good / better / best marketing.

1. Free — Free start for a pilot pod or a solo operator. Research shows it carries a limited capability set. Research shows up to 1 seat. Outgrow it when you need contact management and lead management. Snapshot records a 14-day trial.
2. Standard — Adds contact management, lead management, pipeline management, and email sync in our research on top of Free. Choose it when at least one of those is a day-one must-have — not because it sits comfortably in the middle. Snapshot records a 14-day trial.
3. Premium — Adds deal management, email sequences, reporting, and api access in our research on top of Standard. Choose it when at least one of those is a day-one must-have — not because it sits comfortably in the middle. Snapshot records a 14-day trial.
4. Enterprise — Research shows the same capability list as Premium in our snapshot, so step up only for a reason you can name: seats, scale, governance, or support. Snapshot records a 14-day trial. Confirm what changes on the pricing page.

Worked example: a 12-person B2B advisory team drops Free once must-haves sit higher, and compares only the Folk plans that clear every gate.

1. Do all day-one must-haves sit on Free? If no → paid.
2. Do seats fit? Free: up to 1 seat. A 12-seat team already exceeds Free (up to 1 in research).
3. Will you hit a record/object cap within two quarters? If yes → paid now.
4. Using free to defer a decision? Run a scoped trial with a decide-by date instead.

Worked example: a 12-person B2B advisory team cannot fit 12 people into Free, so free becomes a two-week sandbox — not the plan they run on.

Hand this five-line algorithm to anyone on the buying team.

1. List must-haves (M1…Mn).
2. For each Mi, find the lowest Folk plan that carries it.
3. Take the highest of those — that is the qualifying plan.
4. Check capacity. Researched capacity limits: Free: up to 1 seat. If you do not fit, move up one tier.
5. Count seats honestly (sellers, managers, ops, paid viewers).

Then estimate that plan in the Cost Calculator; add admin / migration / training as categories, not invented totals.

Worked example: a 12-person B2B advisory team lands on a Folk qualifying plan set by their highest-gated must-have, counts 12 seats plus ops, and prices only that combination.

1. Stay on the cheapest qualifying plan when must-haves and seats fit.
2. Step up when one must-have sits higher — buy the tier, skip the forever workaround.
3. Walk when the qualifying Folk plan breaks a written constraint. Research: stronger for Founders and SMB teams running relationship-led sales from LinkedIn/email and Teams that want AI assistants on top of a simple CRM; weaker for Phone-first outbound dialer teams and Buyers needing fully documented free-forever CRM feature matrices.
4. Write plan name, must-have that set it, and re-check date.
5. Use the worth-it guide for fit — not invented payback maths.

Worked example: when the cheap Folk tier missed a must-have, a 12-person B2B advisory team bought the qualifying plan or shortlisted Salesflare and Capsule — they did not pretend the workaround was free.