Blog·11 min read

7 Best Contactually Alternatives in 2026

Contactually closed on March 31, 2022. The best Contactually alternative depends on what you used it for: Dex or Relatable for bucket-style follow-up reminders, Cloze or Follow Up Boss for real estate lead and pipeline work.

If you're searching for a Contactually alternative in 2026, you probably already know the bad news. Contactually closed for good on March 31, 2022, three years after Compass bought it. Its old homepage still says so, and adds that the final month was free and annual customers got prorated refunds.

The software is gone, but the habit it built is the part people miss. You sorted contacts into buckets, gave each bucket a follow-up frequency, and every morning Contactually told you who was going cold. For a real estate agent working a sphere of influence, that one mechanic was worth the subscription.

Plenty of tools claim to replace it, and only a few rebuild the bucket idea. Below are seven that do the job in 2026, what each costs, and which kind of Contactually user each one suits.

Fast facts:

  • Compass acquired Contactually in February 2019, and TechCrunch reported customers were paying $59 to $399 a month at the time.

  • Contactually shut down on March 31, 2022. Its technology lives on inside Compass's own agent CRM.

  • The Contactually team now builds Relatable, which it describes as the same method rebuilt with modern tech.

  • Contactually's closure page listed the tools former customers moved to, including Follow Up Boss, Pipedrive, and Relatable.

  • Dex is the cheapest Contactually alternative with group-based keep-in-touch reminders, at $12 a month billed annually.

What happened to Contactually

Contactually spent about ten years helping people keep good relationships from going cold. It plugged into your email, logged conversations automatically, and nudged you when someone in an important bucket hadn't heard from you in a while. Real estate agents and brokers became a big share of its customers, which is how it ended up on Compass's radar.

Compass had already been running its own CRM on Contactually's technology, and its acquisition announcement said the Contactually team would help build tools for Compass agents. In practice the deal folded the team into Compass. Existing customers kept their accounts for a while. Then the standalone product was wound down, and the closure notice on contactually.com went up in 2022.

That notice is worth reading if you were a customer, because Compass listed the tools former users had moved to: Follow Up Boss and Pipedrive for lead and sales pipelines, BoomTown, Brivity, LionDesk and Top Producer as all-in-one real estate platforms, and Relatable as "a new, simple, general-purpose CRM." It's an honest list. It's also four years old, so a Contactually alternative picked in 2022 deserves a second look.

What to look for in a Contactually alternative

Contactually did two jobs, and most replacements only do one of them well. Before picking a Contactually alternative, figure out which job you actually hired it for.

The first job was relationship upkeep. Buckets, cadences, follow-up reminders, and a record of your last conversation with each person. If that's what you miss, you want a personal CRM, or a relationship CRM built around the same cadence logic.

The second job was lead management. Some teams used Contactually to work new leads, run drip email, and track deals. If that's you, a dedicated real estate CRM with lead routing will serve you better than any personal tool.

Whichever camp you're in, check four things:

  • Can you set "every 90 days" for a whole group the way you did with a bucket, or only one contact at a time?

  • Which conversations reset the clock? Contactually mostly heard email. In 2026 your clients text, message you on WhatsApp, and change jobs on LinkedIn. A reminder that can't see those will nag you about people you spoke to yesterday.

  • What does it cost for one person? Many real estate CRMs price for teams. A solo agent shouldn't pay for routing they'll never use.

  • Can you get your data in? If you still have an old Contactually export, CSV import matters.

This matters more for agents than for most professionals. According to NAR's 2024 generational trends research, more than a third of home sellers in every age group found their agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative. Your sphere of influence is your pipeline whether or not your software treats it that way.

The 7 best Contactually alternatives in 2026

1. Dex: best Contactually alternative for bucket-style follow-up

Full disclosure: Dex is our product. It's a personal CRM built around the same idea Contactually started with: decide how often you want to hear from someone, and get reminded before the relationship drifts. Its keep-in-touch reminders work on your last interaction in either direction, and you can set a frequency for a whole group at once, which is about as close to a Contactually bucket as you'll find.

Where Dex goes further is in what it can hear. It syncs Gmail and your calendar, plus iMessage, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn sync with job change alerts. So a past client who texted you last week doesn't show up as overdue, and a past client who just took a job in another city does show up, which for an agent is a relocation signal.

Dex doesn't do lead routing, drip campaigns, or transaction checklists. Most agents who use it keep a lead CRM for new business and run their sphere and past clients in Dex. We compare that setup directly in our Dex vs Follow Up Boss comparison.

Pricing: Premium is $12/month billed annually ($20 monthly). Professional is $20/month annually ($34 monthly) and adds mail merge, Outlook, and Zapier. Both have a 7-day free trial; a card is required to start it.

Best for: solo agents, founders, consultants, and anyone who used Contactually mainly for follow-up reminders on a weekly or quarterly rhythm.

2. Relatable: the Contactually team's next act

Relatable, which bills itself as a personal CRM for relationships, earns its spot because of who builds it. Its homepage says the team built Contactually, and its FAQ answers "I used to use Contactually and miss it" with a plain yes: same team, same methodology, modern tech.

Of every Contactually alternative here, Relatable is the most literal remake. The bucket idea is back under a new name. Relatable calls them Spheres, each with its own stay-in-touch rhythm, and the default setup even ships with A through D groups ("People I Love" down to "Don't Know Well"). It syncs Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, iMessage, and WhatsApp, has an AI assistant called Whiz that drafts outreach, and supports small teams with shared Spheres.

Pricing: $44/month, no long-term contract, 10-day free trial

Best for: former Contactually power users who want the original workflow. It's the priciest relationship-focused Contactually alternative here, and also the most familiar.

3. Cloze: best real estate CRM that still logs everything automatically

Cloze shares Contactually's original promise of logging calls and emails without data entry, and it has moved hard into real estate. Its platform plugs into MLS feeds, Zillow Premier Agent, SkySlope, and Dotloop. If your brokerage already pays for Cloze, it's an easy Contactually alternative to adopt.

The catch is tiering. Cloze Pro starts at $17/month billed annually ($19.99 monthly), but text sync and anniversary tracking sit on Business Gold at $29/user/month, and listing matching and campaigns need Business Platinum at $42/user/month. Our Dex vs Cloze comparison breaks down which tier covers which agent task.

Best for: agents and teams who want auto-logging plus real estate integrations in one system.

4. Follow Up Boss: best for lead-heavy teams

Follow Up Boss was the first name on Contactually's own list of replacements, and it's still the default lead CRM for many real estate teams. It pulls in leads from portals and your website, routes them to agents, and runs action plans for new inquiries.

If you used Contactually as a lead pipeline, this is the Contactually alternative Compass pointed to first. It's priced for teams, though. Grow is $58/user/month billed annually ($69 monthly), and Pro is $416/month annually for up to 10 users. There's a 14-day free trial.

Best for: teams that used Contactually as a lead pipeline and now need routing and accountability more than relationship cadences.

5. Wise Agent: best all-in-one real estate CRM on a budget

Wise Agent calls itself an all-in-one real estate CRM for agents, teams, and brokerages, and it covers lead automation, drip campaigns, and transaction management with checklists and a client portal. For an agent who wants one login for leads, follow-up, and closings, it's one of the more affordable options. As a Contactually alternative it swaps bucket cadences for drip campaigns, so you get automated touches rather than follow-up reminders that ask you to reach out personally.

Pricing: $42/month billed annually ($49 monthly), or $59/month annually with its WiseSocial add-on. 14-day free trial, no contract.

Best for: solo agents who want transaction management bundled with their real estate CRM.

6. Nimble: best for small sales teams outside real estate

Nimble had stay-in-touch reminders long before most personal CRM tools existed, and it's a reasonable Contactually alternative for consultants and small B2B teams. It's a sales CRM at heart, with pipelines, email marketing, and web forms. One thing to know: its reminders reset on email and logged activity, not on LinkedIn or WhatsApp messages.

Pricing: $24.90/user/month billed annually ($29.90 monthly), with a 14-day trial.

Best for: small sales teams who want a light pipeline plus contact reminders.

7. folk: best for teams who live in spreadsheets

folk is a collaborative CRM that feels like a smart spreadsheet. It's good at enrichment, pipelines, and email campaigns, and its LinkedIn extension makes it easy to add people from a profile. It's less of a follow-up reminder tool and more of a shared contact base for small teams, which makes it a weaker Contactually alternative for a solo agent.

Pricing: Standard is $24/member/month billed annually ($30 monthly); Premium is $48. Two-week free trial, no card.

Best for: small teams that want a flexible shared contact database more than a daily follow-up list.

If you're a Compass agent

If you're at Compass, check the CRM inside the Compass platform before paying for a Contactually alternative. Contactually's technology was folded into it, and it's included with your brokerage tools. It's only available to Compass agents, so access is tied to your affiliation. That's why some Compass agents keep their personal sphere in a separate tool they own as well.

Contactually alternatives compared: pricing and features

Here's how each Contactually alternative lines up on the things former users ask about most. Prices are the lowest paid tier billed annually, checked in October 2026.

Tool

Type

Starting price

Group follow-up cadences

Text / WhatsApp sync

LinkedIn

Lead routing

Free trial

Dex

Personal CRM

$12/mo

Yes

Yes

Sync plus job change alerts

No

7 days, card required

Relatable

Relationship CRM

$44/mo

Yes (Spheres)

Yes

Yes

No

10 days, no card

Cloze

Real estate CRM

$17/mo

Reach-out reminders

Business Gold ($29)

No

Business Platinum ($42)

14 days, no card

Follow Up Boss

Real estate lead CRM

$58/user/mo

Via action plans

Calling and texting add-on or Pro

No

Yes

14 days

Wise Agent

All-in-one real estate platform

$42/mo

Via drip campaigns

SMS add-on

No

Yes

14 days

Nimble

Small business CRM

$24.90/user/mo

Per contact

No

Limited

No

14 days

folk

Collaborative CRM

$24/member/mo

Manual reminders

No

Chrome extension

No

14 days, no card

A pattern shows up quickly. The tools that rebuild Contactually's bucket mechanic (Dex, Relatable, and to a degree Cloze) are relationship tools. The ones built for real estate lead flow (Follow Up Boss, Wise Agent) trade cadences for automation. Picking a Contactually alternative mostly comes down to which side of that line you were on.

Which Contactually alternative fits how you work

If you used buckets and daily follow-up reminders, start with Dex. It has the group cadence, it hears texts and LinkedIn, and it's the cheapest option here. If you want the exact Contactually workflow from the people who designed it and the price doesn't bother you, try Relatable too.

If you're an agent working past clients and a sphere of influence, pair a lead CRM with a relationship tool that sends follow-up reminders, or use Cloze if you want both in one system and you'll pay for Gold or Platinum. Our guide to building a real estate sphere of influence walks through the cadences that work, and how to follow up with past clients covers what to actually say.

If you ran a team pipeline in Contactually, look at Follow Up Boss or Wise Agent. Neither replaces the bucket habit, but your problem is speed-to-lead, not a quarterly check-in.

Outside real estate, choose between Dex, Nimble, and folk depending on whether you need a personal CRM with follow-up reminders (Dex), a light sales pipeline (Nimble), or a shared team database (folk).

Who Dex isn't for

Dex is a personal CRM for one person's network. If you need lead routing, round-robin assignment, drip campaigns to thousands of leads, or brokerage-level compliance, Dex isn't the right Contactually alternative and we'd rather say so up front. Buy a dedicated lead platform for that and keep your relationships somewhere you own.

FAQ

Is Contactually still available?

No. Contactually permanently closed on March 31, 2022. Compass, which acquired it in 2019, made the final month free and refunded the unused part of annual plans.

What is the closest Contactually alternative?

For the bucket-and-cadence workflow, Dex and Relatable are the closest. Relatable is built by the original Contactually team. Dex offers group keep-in-touch frequencies at a lower price, and adds LinkedIn, iMessage, and WhatsApp to what resets the clock.

What happened to Contactually's technology?

Compass folded it into the CRM it offers its own agents. That CRM is only available to Compass agents.

What's the best Contactually alternative for real estate agents?

It depends on the job. For past clients and your sphere of influence, a personal CRM like Dex works well alongside a lead CRM. For lead routing and team pipelines, Follow Up Boss or Wise Agent. For one system that does a bit of both, Cloze.

Can I import my old Contactually data into a new CRM?

If you exported your contacts before the shutdown, yes. Most tools here, including Dex, import a CSV of names, emails, phone numbers, and notes. Contactually's servers are no longer available, so an old export is the only way to recover that data.

Is there a free Contactually alternative?

None of the seven tools here has a full free plan, though most offer 7 to 14 day trials. Cloze drops to a limited free tier after its trial ends.

The bottom line on Contactually alternatives

Contactually has been gone since 2022, but the habit it taught still works: group the people who matter, pick a cadence for each group, and let software tell you who's drifting.

To recap:

  • If you miss the bucket system, Dex and Relatable rebuild it most faithfully, and Dex is the least expensive.

  • Agents who need lead routing should pick a real estate CRM like Follow Up Boss or Wise Agent rather than a relationship tool.

  • Cloze sits in between, with auto-logging and real estate integrations, but the features agents want cost $29 to $42 per user per month.

  • Whatever you choose, make sure texts and LinkedIn count as touches, not just email.

The right Contactually alternative is the one that matches how you actually stay in touch. If that's mostly reminders, notes, and a short list of people to reach out to each morning, Dex was built for exactly that. Compare plans on the Dex pricing page and start a 7-day trial.

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