A folk alternative run from your AI, one workspace per business

What is folk good at?

Light relationship management. As of 2026-10-18, folk's headline was "Your entire sales motion. One platform.", and it is strongest as a lightweight relationship CRM with LinkedIn import. It sells to small teams, agencies, founders and networkers.

Its AI comes as assistants for follow-up, recap and research, plus magic fields and email finding. On folk's pricing page that day, Standard cost $24 per seat a month billed annually, or $30 monthly, with monthly quotas of 2,000 magic fields, 200 research runs and 500 email finds. There was no free plan, and there was a 2-week trial.

If you add people from LinkedIn all day and want an app built around relationships, those are good reasons to stay with folk.

Does folk work with Claude and ChatGPT?

It has MCP. As of 2026-10-18, folk includes MCP on all plans; a ChatGPT path was not checked. Reaching your CRM from an AI client is possible with either product.

The difference is where the work happens. folk is an app with MCP on every plan. Sashimi is the MCP server itself: there is no app to work in by default, and its 140 tools were written for a model to call.

• Lists in one request. create_leads, create_companies and create_deals take up to 100 rows per call. Leads are matched on email and companies on domain or name, so a list with repeats does not double your leads or companies.
• Retries that stay single. Every write tool accepts an idempotencyKey. If a call times out and your AI tries again with the same key, nothing is written twice.
• A log you can ask about. list_mcp_activity lists each AI call, with the person, the tool and the result. Members see their own calls; admins see everyone's.
• The web's rules, in the chat. A connection belongs to one workspace and carries its member's permissions. The AI cannot do what that member could not do on the web.

When does Sashimi fit instead of folk?

When you run more than one business and want each kept apart, or when you would rather ask your AI than open an app. If you mostly collect contacts from LinkedIn, folk fits better.

Take a consultant who also runs a small product business. The two have different buyers, stages and email sequences, and neither should see the other's deals. In Sashimi each one is a workspace with its own leads, companies, deals, custom fields, sequences and members. One login reaches both, and each has its own connector in your AI, so a request made in one cannot touch the other. The page on Sashimi for consultants shows that setup.

Day to day, you ask:

• "Log a call with Marta at Northwind: she wants a proposal next week. Create a task for Monday."
• "Set the Budget field to 12,000 on the Northwind deal."
• "Build a sequence: intro email on day 0, follow-up on day 3, call task on day 7."

Creating a sequence sends nothing. Emails are scheduled only when you enrol a lead, company or deal with launch_sequence. Members can do all of the above; creating a new custom field needs an admin.

For new contacts, Sashimi can use Apollo as a data provider with your own Apollo key. Searching spends no credits. Importing and enriching spend Apollo's data credits on your key, and integrations_status estimates the cost first.

What do I give up with Sashimi?

folk's relationship app and its built-in contact capture. Sashimi is a young prospecting CRM, and you should weigh these limits:

• folk's LinkedIn import and email finding. In Sashimi your AI creates records from the lists and files you give it, and new contact data comes from your own Apollo key.
• An app to work in. There is none by default. On-demand screens are coming soon, in beta. A web app remains for sign-in, settings, integration keys and Gmail.
• Built-in assistants. Sashimi's own agents are switched off during the beta; your Claude or ChatGPT does the reasoning.
• Gmail sending is beta. Sequence emails go out through your own Gmail, in beta while Google reviews Sashimi's access.
• Calling, meeting capture and an integrations marketplace. Sashimi does not offer them.
• Open access. Sashimi is a private beta, invitation only, and free during the beta. Nothing can be bought today. At launch it is priced per account with seats included, starting with Solo at $15 a month for 3 workspaces and 1 seat, after a 14-day trial with no card.

How do I move from folk to Sashimi?

Bring a CSV or spreadsheet you already have and ask your AI to create the records. You need a Claude plan with custom connectors (the free plan allows one; on Team and Enterprise an owner adds it) or ChatGPT with developer mode on the web. The Claude page, the ChatGPT page and how Sashimi connects have the details.

1. Connect your AI with the connection guide. Your AI app sends you to Sashimi, you choose the workspace and approve.
2. Attach the file and ask: "Create these people as leads, with their companies, and skip anyone already here." Your AI calls create_leads and create_companies, and create_deals for open deals, up to 100 rows per call.
3. Bulk create dedupes leads by email and companies by domain or name. Deals are never deduped, so load them once.
4. Ask for find_duplicates to catch near matches; an admin then merges them with merge_leads or merge_companies.

Only deletions can be undone. Deleted records stay in the trash for 30 days, and deleting records from your AI needs an admin. Load a few rows before the whole file.

To see why a CRM built for the AI behaves differently, read what an AI-native CRM is. Other comparisons are on the CRM alternatives page.