Follow Up Boss Alternatives for Solo Agents (Who Don't Buy Leads)
Follow Up Boss is built for agents who buy leads. Solo agents who live on referrals pay $77 to $184 per closed deal for routing they don't use. Cheaper fits run $16 to $62 per deal, and some agents keep FUB for leads and move their sphere elsewhere.
Follow Up Boss is very good at one thing: getting a brand-new internet lead in front of an agent fast, then making sure nobody on the team lets it go cold. If that's your business, keep it.
A lot of solo agents aren't in that business, though. Their deals come from past clients, neighbors, the parents at their kid's school. They pay for lead routing, action plans and a power dialer, and mostly use the contact list. Since November 2025 there's a second reason some of them are looking around: Follow Up Boss belongs to Zillow, and its terms now let Zillow use data on clients who also have a Zillow account.
This guide is for that agent. It covers what actually changed in the terms, what each option costs per closed deal, and how to move your sphere without blowing up the setup you already have.
Fast facts:
Follow Up Boss Grow costs $58 per user per month billed annually, or $69 monthly. Calling is an add-on on Grow.
New Follow Up Boss terms took effect November 15, 2025. They created a "mutual customer" category: contacts who also have their own relationship with Zillow.
Zillow Pro went nationwide on July 9, 2026. A single seat was reported at $138 a month, with a default 12-month term.
For an agent closing 9 sides a year, Follow Up Boss Grow works out to $77 per side. Dex Premium is $16.
Image: Setting keep-in-touch frequencies by group in Dex
What changed in the Follow Up Boss terms, precisely
Zillow bought Follow Up Boss in 2023. For two years the CRM ran under its own 2020 privacy policy. On November 15, 2025, new terms and a new privacy notice took effect, timed to the launch of Zillow Pro.
The key change, as HousingWire reported, is that contacts in your Follow Up Boss account now fall into two groups:
Agent-only customer data: people who don't have a Zillow account and are in your CRM only because you put them there.
Mutual customer data: people who have their own Zillow account and match a record in your CRM.
Follow Up Boss's own terms FAQ says Zillow "will not market to your contacts that we do not have a direct relationship with," and that Follow Up Boss won't share your contacts with other agents. For mutual customers, Zillow can use their data under Zillow's privacy notice. The FAQ also gave agents one way out: cancel before November 15, 2025. There's no per-contact opt-out.
Coaches read the same documents less charitably. Tom Ferry called it one of Zillow's most aggressive moves to date. Jared James pointed to language letting Zillow follow up with your leads itself. Jason Pantana, who works with Ferry, said it gives Zillow rights to use an agent's data to better market to that agent's customers. Several told agents to keep their sphere somewhere else. RISMedia's coverage covers the Zillow Pro side of the update.
Our read: nothing here says Zillow is reading your notes or handing your past clients to another agent. What changed is that a buyer you've known for ten years, who also browses Zillow on Sunday nights, is now a contact Zillow has its own claim to. Whether that bothers you depends on how much of your business those people are.
Zillow Pro and what it costs
Zillow Pro is the product the terms change was built for. Inman reported it went nationwide on July 9, 2026, after an eight-month rollout. It puts Zillow browsing signals for your contacts inside Follow Up Boss, adds a "Likely to List" tag, and bundles Follow Up Boss with calling.
Price: Zillow doesn't publish a nationwide rate, but a single seat was reported at $138 a month when it was announced. The Close's breakdown adds that the default term is 12 months, that early termination costs the remaining months, and that every seat on an account has to be a Zillow Pro seat.
For an agent whose clients search on Zillow, those signals could be worth it. For a referral-based solo agent, it's a year-long commitment at roughly double the Grow price.
The cost per deal, for an agent closing 9 sides a year
Monthly price is a misleading way to compare these. Divide the yearly cost by the deals you close and the gaps get easier to see. Here is the math for a solo agent closing 9 sides a year, using list prices checked in October 2026.
Setup | Yearly cost | Cost per closed side |
|---|---|---|
Zillow Pro, single seat (reported) | $1,656 | $184 |
Follow Up Boss Grow, monthly | $828 | $92 |
Follow Up Boss Grow, billed annually | $696 | $77 |
IXACT Contact, billed annually | $561 | $62 |
Wise Agent, billed annually | $499 | $55 |
Cloze Business Gold, billed annually | $348 | $39 |
Dex Professional, billed annually | $240 | $27 |
RealtyJuggler | $179 | $20 |
Dex Premium, billed annually | $144 | $16 |
The Follow Up Boss rows leave out the calling add-on, which Grow doesn't include. Add a lead CRM to Dex Premium and you're at $840 a year, or $93 per side. That only makes sense if you buy enough leads to need both.
Next to a commission check, none of these numbers is large. But if no leads come in from portals, part of what you pay Follow Up Boss every month goes to routing, lead ponds and a dialer that sit idle.
Follow Up Boss alternatives, by the job you need done
1. Dex: for your sphere and past clients
Full disclosure: Dex is our product. It's a personal CRM, and the real estate setup is built around people you already know rather than leads you're chasing.
You give each group a keep-in-touch frequency: 30 days for your A-list, 90 for past clients, twice a year for the wider sphere. Dex resets the clock when you actually talk. Gmail and Google Calendar sync on every plan, iMessage and call history come in through the Mac desktop app, and WhatsApp sync covers 1:1 chats. Notes and custom fields hold the details that matter in this job: close date, the renovation they mentioned, the dog's name. Set a yearly reminder for the home anniversary.
Dex is not tied to a brokerage or a portal, and you can export everything at any time.
What it doesn't do: lead routing, drip campaigns, bulk texting or transaction checklists. On Professional, Mail Merge sends a personalized email to up to 200 contacts from your own Gmail or Outlook, and that's as close to a campaign as it gets.
Pricing: Premium $12/month billed annually; Professional $20/month billed annually (adds Mail Merge and Outlook). 7-day free trial, card required.
2. Cloze: for one system that logs everything
Cloze logs email and calls on its own and has gone deep on real estate, with MLS feeds, Zillow Premier Agent, SkySlope and Dotloop integrations. The catch is tiering. Text sync and anniversary tracking start at Business Gold ($29 a month billed annually), and listing matching and lead routing need Platinum ($42). Our Dex vs Cloze comparison maps which tier covers which job.
3. Wise Agent: for an all-in-one on a budget
Wise Agent bundles contacts, lead automation, drip campaigns and transaction checklists for $49 a month, or $499 a year. No contract and a 14-day trial. It's the closest thing to Follow Up Boss plus a transaction tool at a solo price. SMS is an add-on.
4. IXACT Contact: for automated newsletters
IXACT is built around staying in touch by email: a monthly e-newsletter, home anniversary and birthday reminders, and a contact database. List price is $55 a month, or $46.75 a month billed annually. It suits an agent whose sphere strategy is "one good email a month" more than personal check-ins.
5. RealtyJuggler: the cheapest working option
RealtyJuggler looks dated and costs $179 a year, with a 90-day trial. It tracks deals, prospects, open houses and commissions. If all you need is somewhere to keep contacts and closings, nothing on this list is cheaper.
6. Your brokerage's CRM
If your brokerage already pays for BoldTrail, Lofty or Command, use it for leads and transactions before paying for anything. Just know that the data lives in the brokerage's account. When you move brokerages, your sphere may not come with you, which is why many agents keep a personal copy somewhere they own.
The split setup: keep FUB for leads, move the sphere
You don't have to choose one tool. Plenty of agents who still buy some leads run two. Follow Up Boss takes new inquiries (portal leads, website sign-ups, open house sign-ins) and does what it's good at, which is fast first contact. A relationship CRM holds everyone you've already closed with or know personally, and reminds you to stay in touch for years.
The rule that makes it work: closing hands the person over. When a deal closes, the client moves to the sphere tool with their notes, and you stop treating them as a lead. That way you don't keep two stale copies of everyone.
We compare the two tools feature by feature in Dex vs Follow Up Boss.
How to move your sphere from Follow Up Boss to Dex
Export from Follow Up Boss. Go to People, filter to past clients and sphere, select all, and click Export. Tick "All columns" so extra phone numbers and addresses come along. Account owners can export by default (Follow Up Boss export guide).
Clean the file in Google Sheets or Excel. Delete dead portal leads and duplicates. Add a "Group" column: Past Clients, Sphere, Referral Partners, Agent Network.
Save it as CSV UTF-8 so accented names survive.
In Dex, open the Import page and choose Import contacts next to "CSV file for contacts" (CSV import guide).
Check the column matches. Map your Group column to Group/Tags. Columns with no match, like close date or stage, can go into custom fields.
Run Merge & Fix to clean up duplicates.
Set a frequency per group on the Keep-in-Touch page.
Connect Gmail and your calendar so last-contact dates fill in from here.
Exporting doesn't remove anything from Follow Up Boss, so you can run both while you test.
Image: The Import page in Dex, with the CSV file for contacts option
Who should stay on Follow Up Boss
If you buy leads from Zillow, Realtor.com or paid ads, you need routing, instant alerts and action plans, and Follow Up Boss remains one of the best at it. The same goes for teams that need lead ponds, accountability reports and a shared dialer. None of the cheaper options here does that as well, and Dex doesn't try. If Zillow Premier Agent is a big share of your closings, Zillow Pro's signals may even pay for themselves.
This guide is for the other agent: solo, referral-heavy, paying team-grade prices for a contact list.
FAQ
Does Zillow own Follow Up Boss?
Yes. Zillow bought Follow Up Boss in 2023, and since November 15, 2025, Follow Up Boss runs under terms written with Zillow Pro in mind.
What is "mutual customer data" in Follow Up Boss?
It's data on contacts in your Follow Up Boss account who also have their own relationship with Zillow, for example a Zillow account. Zillow can use that data under its own privacy notice. Contacts without a Zillow relationship stay agent-only.
Can Zillow contact my Follow Up Boss clients?
Follow Up Boss says Zillow won't market to contacts it has no direct relationship with and won't share your contacts with other agents. For mutual customers, Zillow can communicate with them under its privacy notice. Coaches including Tom Ferry and Jared James advised agents to keep their sphere elsewhere for that reason.
What is the cheapest Follow Up Boss alternative for a solo agent?
RealtyJuggler at $179 a year is the cheapest full real estate CRM. For a sphere and past clients only, Dex Premium is $144 a year billed annually.
Can I use Follow Up Boss and Dex together?
Yes. Keep new internet leads in Follow Up Boss and move closed clients and your sphere to Dex. Exporting from Follow Up Boss doesn't delete anything.
How do I export my contacts from Follow Up Boss?
Go to People, filter the contacts you want, select all, click Export and tick "All columns." Account owners can export by default and can give that permission to other users.
The bottom line
Follow Up Boss is a lead machine, and if you buy leads it earns its price. If your business runs on people who already know you, you're paying $77 to $184 a deal for machinery you don't use. And since November 2025, the ones with Zillow accounts are contacts Zillow can use too.
Work out what each closing costs you, then pick the tool built for the job you actually do. If that job is staying in touch with past clients and your sphere, start a 7-day Dex trial.
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