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HelloGrowthCRM vs Follow Up Boss: a cheaper sales engine, without the MLS
See how HelloGrowthCRM bundles dialer, AI scoring, WhatsApp & sequences at one price — compare features, pricing, and fit for your team.
Quick answer
Is HelloGrowthCRM a good Follow Up Boss alternative?
- Built-in dialer with call recording — included with HelloGrowthCRM, an add-on or unavailable on Follow Up Boss
- AI lead scoring — included with HelloGrowthCRM, an add-on or unavailable on Follow Up Boss
- Quote builder and invoicing — included with HelloGrowthCRM, an add-on or unavailable on Follow Up Boss
Which is more affordable?
Follow Up Boss publishes three plans. Grow is $69 per user per month, or $58 on annual billing, with calling sold as a $39 per user add-on, dropping to $33 annually. Pro is $499 a month and includes ten users, with extra users at $49 a month, or $416 and $41 on annual billing, and calling and texting are included. Platform is $1,000 a month and includes thirty users, with extras at $20 a month, or $833 and $17 annually, and adds a dedicated success manager. Annual billing works out to roughly two months free. There is a 14-day trial and no free plan.
HelloGrowthCRM is $12 per user per month billed monthly, or $10 per user per month billed annually, with a free forever plan. The dialer, call recording, AI call summaries, AI lead scoring, email sequences, SMS, WhatsApp, quotes, invoicing, web forms and reporting are all included. There is no calling add-on to buy separately.
For a solo agent: $58 a month on annual Grow before calling, versus $10. For a ten-agent team: $416 a month on annual Pro, versus $100.
But price is not the whole story here, and we are not going to pretend it is. Follow Up Boss is built for real estate. It connects to MLS feeds, Zillow, Realtor.com and IDX website providers, and it routes leads with ponds and round robin. HelloGrowthCRM has none of that. You are trading real estate plumbing for a cheaper, broader sales engine.
Switch from Follow Up Boss
HelloGrowthCRM bundles AI lead scoring, a built-in dialer, WhatsApp, and email sequences in one plan—no separate add-ons for core sales workflows. Use the pricing snapshot and feature table above to compare total cost, then start a free account to move your pipeline without losing momentum.
Teams that switch usually want fewer tools to bill, faster follow-up from one inbox, and clearer forecasting. If that matches your goals, book a demo or migrate on your timeline—we help teams consolidate from Follow Up Boss every week.
Why teams switch to HelloGrowthCRM
The usual reason is cost against actual usage. Plenty of Follow Up Boss accounts are paying Pro or Grow prices while using a fraction of what they bought: calls, texts, action plans and a pipeline. If that describes you, and your leads arrive through your own forms and referrals rather than a portal feed, HelloGrowthCRM covers the same daily work for $10 to $12 a seat, with the dialer, call recording, AI call summaries and lead scoring included rather than added on. The trade is explicit. You lose MLS integration and portal lead ingestion. If those are not load-bearing for you, the maths is straightforward.
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Follow Up Boss in the US real estate CRM market
Follow Up Boss has been one of the default answers for US real estate teams for years. Its reputation is built on one idea: get to the lead fast, then keep contacting them until they answer. The product reflects that. Leads pour in from portals, IDX sites and hundreds of other sources, get routed by rules you set, land in an agent's queue, and then get called and texted from inside the CRM. Action plans keep the follow-up going. Smart lists surface who has gone quiet. It is not the prettiest system and it is not the cheapest, but for teams whose economics depend on speed to lead, it does the specific job it was designed for.
The pricing has three tiers and they suit very different shapes of business. Grow is $69 per user per month, or $58 annually, and it is aimed at individuals and small teams, though calling is a separate add-on at $39 per user, or $33 annually, which surprises people. Pro is $499 a month with ten users included and extra seats at $49, or $416 and $41 annually, and calling and texting come bundled. Platform is $1,000 a month with thirty users included, extras at $20, or $833 and $17 annually, and it adds a dedicated success manager. Annual billing amounts to about two months free across all three. There is a 14-day trial, no free tier, and no contract lock-in advertised.
The ownership question is now part of the decision. Zillow Group acquired Follow Up Boss in December 2023, in a deal widely reported at $400 million in cash plus an earnout of up to $100 million. Follow Up Boss has continued shipping and continued to operate as its own product. Some agents see Zillow's investment as a good thing for the roadmap. Others are uneasy about their client database sitting inside a portal company they also compete with for consumer attention. Neither reaction is unreasonable. If it matters to you, read the current terms and privacy policy rather than relying on what anyone said about them a year ago, and check how contact data is shared between the two products before you load your whole database in.
It is also worth being clear about what Follow Up Boss does not include, because agents often assume otherwise. There is no IDX home search website builder and no lead generation of its own. You bring the leads and the website, and Follow Up Boss works them. HelloGrowthCRM goes further in the other direction: no MLS integration, no listing data, no IDX site, no portal connections. What it does have is the sales machinery at $10 to $12 per user per month with a free forever plan, including the dialer, call recording, AI call summaries, AI lead scoring, sequences, SMS, WhatsApp, quotes and invoicing. For agents living on referrals and their own forms, that trade often works out well.
Side-by-side breakdown
Price transparency
Clear pricing on plans and limits
Support quality
Response workflow and onboarding help
Automation depth
Native workflow + channel orchestration
Feature comparison
| Feature | ✦ HelloGrowthCRM | Follow Up Boss |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $12/user/month monthly, $10/user/month annual | Grow $69/user/month ($58 annual). Pro $499/month for 10 users. Platform $1,000/month for 30 users |
| Free plan or trial | Free forever plan | No free plan. 14-day free trial |
| Ownership | Independent | Owned by Zillow Group, acquired in December 2023 |
| MLS and listing data on contacts | No. HelloGrowthCRM has no MLS integration | Yes, through MLS and lead source integrations |
| IDX home search website builder | No | No built-in site builder, but it pairs with IDX website vendors |
| Real estate portal lead integrations | No native portal connections. Leads arrive via web forms, Zapier or API | Yes, extensive: Zillow, Realtor.com, IDX providers and hundreds more sources |
| Lead routing and distribution | Owner assignment on pipeline records. No round robin or lead ponds | Yes, including lead flow rules, round robin and ponds |
| Built-in dialer with call recording | Yes, included on every paid seat | Yes. Calling is included on Pro and Platform. On Grow the calling add-on is $39/user/month ($33 annual) |
| AI call summaries | Yes | Yes, AI call summaries are available |
| AI lead scoring | Yes, a score on every lead | No single lead score. Agents use smart lists and activity signals instead |
| Email sequences and automated follow-up | Yes, multi-step sequences | Yes, action plans and automations |
| SMS and WhatsApp messaging | Yes, both | SMS yes. No WhatsApp channel |
| Quote builder and invoicing | Yes, both included | No quoting or invoicing |
| Transaction and commission tracking | No | Deal pipeline with commission tracking, plus transaction platform integrations |
| Mobile apps | Native iOS and Android apps | Native iOS and Android apps |
| Cost for a ten-person team | $100 a month on annual billing | $416 a month on annual Pro, or $690 a month on monthly Grow |
Who should choose what?
Agents and small teams whose leads come from referrals, open homes, social media and their own website forms, not portal feeds. Anyone paying Follow Up Boss prices for a fraction of its features, or wanting quoting and invoicing in the same tool.
Start freeTeams that run on portal and IDX lead volume, need MLS listing data on contacts, and depend on lead ponds, round robin routing and speed-to-lead rules. If your business is buying leads at scale, Follow Up Boss earns its price.
Switching guide + migration checklist
Get a practical checklist for moving from Follow Up Boss without losing data quality or team momentum.
Verdict
Follow Up Boss is the better real estate CRM. It connects to the MLS, ingests portal leads, routes them with ponds and round robin, and tracks deals to commission. HelloGrowthCRM has no MLS integration and no IDX site, and we say that plainly. What it has is a full sales engine at $10 to $12 per user with a free plan. Agents who do not live off portal leads often find that is the better trade.
How to evaluate the trade-offs
A useful CRM comparison should go beyond feature checklists. Teams should evaluate total cost of ownership, day-to-day adoption, how quickly data becomes trustworthy, and whether the platform fits the motion they actually run. Some products win on ecosystem breadth or calling depth, while others win on simplicity, bundled capability, and faster operational rollout.
In this comparison, the main trade-off is straightforward: Agents and small teams whose leads come from referrals, open homes, social media and their own website forms, not portal feeds. Anyone paying Follow Up Boss prices for a fraction of its features, or wanting quoting and invoicing in the same tool. On the other side, Teams that run on portal and IDX lead volume, need MLS listing data on contacts, and depend on lead ponds, round robin routing and speed-to-lead rules. If your business is buying leads at scale, Follow Up Boss earns its price. Those differences often matter more than a single feature row because they affect implementation effort, reporting quality, and the amount of operational support your team needs after the software is purchased.
The best way to decide is to test both systems against your real workflow: import sample accounts, run a few stages of your pipeline, inspect reporting, and confirm how easy it is for reps and managers to stay aligned. A CRM should not only look good in a demo. It should make your process cleaner every week after adoption.
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Everything you need to move quickly and trust the system you're switching to.
Security & governance
- SOC 2 Type II report (available under NDA)
- AES-256 at rest · TLS 1.3 in transit
- SSO + 2FA on all plans
- Full audit log on all user actions
- Hosted on AWS (US regions)
- GDPR & DPDPA-aligned data handling
Implementation & support
- Onboarding included on all paid plans
- We handle data migration — not you
- Same-day demo response (business hours)
- Email + chat support on Professional
- Dedicated specialist on Growth Engine+
- 90-day post-onboarding check-in included
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Prefer email? Write to sales@hellogrowthcrm.com