Move from Folk to Attio and stop outgrowing your CRM
Migrate your contacts, companies, and pipelines, then restructure them into a relational model that will still fit in three years. The point of this move is not to switch tools, it is to stop switching tools.
Short answer
A Folk to Attio migration moves contacts, companies, pipelines, groups, and notes over one to two weeks. Folk data is usually clean, so most of the work is designing the relational model rather than moving records. Built-in Folk campaigns do not transfer and get replaced with a connected sending tool.
Why teams outgrow Folk
Teams rarely leave Folk because it is bad. They leave because the business got more complicated than a contact list, and Folk is deliberately built to be a contact list.
The usual triggers:
- You need objects that are not contacts or companies, and groups have become a workaround
- Leadership is asking for numbers a flat list cannot produce
- Automations have outgrown the built-in workflow builder
- You want product, billing, or enrichment data flowing in automatically
- You are hiring, and the current setup will not survive more people using it
Attio is relational from the ground up, so you set it up once and grow into it instead of migrating again in a year.
What we help with
Migration planning
Review your Folk setup: contacts, companies, pipelines, groups, and how your team uses folkX and campaigns. Decide what moves as-is and what gets restructured.
Data cleanup
Fix duplicate contacts, stale groups, and half-finished fields before they carry into Attio. A migration is the best moment to tidy up the relationship data you actually rely on.
Relational restructure
Map Folk's contacts, companies, pipelines, and groups into Attio's relational model with proper custom objects and references, not a flat copy of your old lists.
Import and validation
Run a sample import, check it against your Folk source, then execute the full migration and validate that relationships, notes, and pipeline stages all line up.
Outreach replacement
Folk sends campaigns from inside the CRM and Attio does not. We map your sending volume to the right connected tool and wire the replies back onto Attio records.
Automation and AI setup
Recreate your Folk workflows as Attio automations, wire up Make or n8n where needed, and turn on Ask Attio so AI works across every record from day one.
The process
1. Audit
We review your Folk workspace: contacts, companies, pipelines, groups, notes, and how your team uses folkX, campaigns, and Gmail or Outlook sync.
2. Plan
We design the target structure in Attio, agree on which custom objects and relationships you need, and decide how to handle Folk's built-in email campaigns.
3. Clean
We clean the data before export: duplicate contacts, dead groups, empty fields. Only the relationship data that matters carries forward.
4. Migrate
We run a sample migration first, validate the mapping, then execute the full import of contacts, companies, pipelines, groups, and notes.
5. Rebuild
Pipelines, views, dashboards, automations, and outreach sequences or integrations get built in Attio to replace what lived inside Folk.
6. Launch
Your team gets a walkthrough, written documentation, and a support window after go-live to smooth out anything that surfaces.
The Folk to Attio migration, step by step
If you would rather run the move yourself, this is the same playbook we follow on a paid migration. It is a half-day job for a clean Folk workspace under 10,000 records, and about a week once you have custom objects and integrations to rebuild on top.
What you keep, and what changes shape
A Folk to Attio move is mostly a translation. Almost every concept has a direct equivalent; what changes is the shape.
- The one concept with no clean map: Folk pipelines that hold non-deal data (partners, candidates, investors). Those belong on a list or a dedicated custom object, never on Deals.
| Folk concept | Attio equivalent |
|---|---|
| Contacts | People object |
| Companies | Companies object |
| Pipelines | Lists, or the Deals object with a status attribute |
| Groups | Lists |
| Tags | Multi-select attribute or list membership |
| Custom fields on contacts | Attributes on People |
| Folk automations | Attio Automations |
| Folk AI assistant | AI attributes plus the Research Agent |
| LinkedIn Chrome extension | Attio Chrome extension |
Step 1. Decide the data model before you import
This is the step Folk users skip, because Folk never required it. Half an hour here pays back more than any other step in the migration.
- Which objects do you actually need? Companies, People and Deals are the spine. Every Folk pipeline that was really a different process (Investors, Partners, Candidates, Properties) becomes its own list or object, not a deal stage.
- Which attributes matter? For each object, write the 5 to 10 attributes a view or report will read in the next 30 days. Folk workspaces accumulate one-off custom fields; most should not move.
- Which relationships matter? A Person belongs to a Company; a Deal connects to a Company and one or more People. Write down the less obvious ones too, like "introduced by" or "sourced through partner". Those become linked records.
Step 2. Export, then clean
Folk exports CSV per object and per pipeline from Settings, then Export. Export Contacts and Companies as single files, then each pipeline as its own file with the pipeline name in the filename. Over 10,000 contacts, export in batches by group or created date.
- Standardise stage names across pipelines. Folk lets every pipeline invent its own labels; pick one canonical list and remap.
- Resolve duplicate contacts. Match on email first, then name plus company.
- Normalise phone, email and date formats, one format per column.
- Drop test rows and dead pipelines. The "Q3 outbound test" pipeline does not need to come.
- Split mixed-content fields. A Folk notes cell usually holds role context, meeting notes and reminders in one blob; decide per item whether it becomes a Note, an attribute, or nothing.
- Add a source_pipeline column so you can rebuild the right list or status after import.
Step 3. Import in the right order
Build the objects and attributes in Attio first, connect Gmail or Outlook, and leave automations switched off until the data has landed. Then import in this order, because reversing it means the relationship columns never find their parent records.
- Companies first.
- People next, linked to Companies by domain or company name.
- Deals after that, linked to both, using source_pipeline to set status or list membership.
- Custom objects (Investors, Partners, Properties) once Deals exist.
- Notes and tasks last, and only for the records where history actually matters.
The five Folk patterns worth un-doing
Every Folk migration surfaces the same workarounds. The fix is almost never to copy the pattern across.
- A pipeline per use case ("Outbound Q1", "Inbound Q1", "Investor outreach"). Outbound and inbound are a stage difference on one Deals object; investor and partner outreach are their own objects.
- Groups standing in for segments ("ICP A", "ICP B", "Cold"). ICP becomes a select attribute on the Company, filled automatically by AI Classify, and the groups become filtered views.
- Tags on contacts holding company-level facts ("Series B", "AI/ML", "US-based"). Those describe the company; move them to the Company record so they apply to every linked person.
- The notes field used as CRM history. Each entry becomes a Note record with its own timestamp and author, searchable across the workspace.
- The LinkedIn extension as the only enrichment. Attio's extension does the same job, and AI Research fills in the firmographics after the contact exists.
Traps that cost people a week
- Migrating every Folk custom field. A clean Attio workspace has fewer attributes than Folk had fields. Prune hard.
- Putting non-deal pipelines on the Deals object.
- Importing People before Companies. The link will not stick.
- Building automations before the import finishes. Imports fire automations, and you will make yourself a mess.
- Cancelling Folk on day one. Keep it read-only for 30 days as a frozen reference.
- Treating Attio AI like Folk AI. Folk's is assistive, Attio's is field-level; the work is in prompt design and field schema, not in switching features on.
How long it takes, and what it costs
For a team of two to five, under 10,000 records and three to five pipelines: an hour on the data model, one to two hours on export and cleanup, an hour to build the workspace, half an hour to an hour on imports, an hour for the first automations, and one to two hours for AI attributes and views. Half a day to a day end to end.
Above 20,000 records, with several custom objects and integrations to wire, plan a week. Most of that week is not the import; it is rebuilding workflows and AI attributes on top.
The migration itself costs nothing. Attio does not charge to import. Ongoing, Attio Free covers up to three users, Plus is $35 per user per month and Pro is $79, billed annually. Folk Standard sits near Plus and Folk Premium near Pro, so the headline price rarely decides this move. The data model and the AI ceiling do.
FAQ
What happens to Folk's email campaigns?
They do not transfer. Attio handles sequences through connected tools rather than sending campaigns itself. We map your campaign volume to the right option during the audit and wire replies back onto Attio records.
Do Folk groups map to anything in Attio?
Usually to Attio lists, sometimes to a custom object when the group is really an entity in disguise. Groups being used to model things that are not lists is the clearest sign a team has outgrown Folk.
Can we keep using folkX?
No, folkX writes into Folk. Attio has native enrichment and a strong API, and most teams replace the extension workflow with an enrichment step. If folkX is central to your prospecting, weigh that before moving.
How long does the migration take?
Typically one to two weeks. Folk data is usually clean and small, so most of the time goes into designing the relational model rather than moving records.
Is it worth migrating if we are only five people?
Only if you are hitting the model ceiling. Team size is not the trigger. Needing objects, relationships, or reporting Folk cannot express is the trigger.
Will Attio feel harder to use?
Only in setup, which is the part we handle. A properly configured Attio workspace is not meaningfully harder for a rep day to day than Folk.
Will my email and meeting history come over?
Not in a form that reimports cleanly. Folk does not export full email and meeting history. The practical move is to connect Gmail or Outlook to Attio so activity flows in from migration day forward; the historical mail is still in your inbox and still searchable there.
Can I run Folk and Attio in parallel for a while?
Yes, and it is the safer move. Freeze new data entry in Folk on import day but keep the workspace readable for 30 days. If something is missing in Attio, the source is still sitting there.
Do I need the API to migrate?
Not for a typical Folk migration. Direct CSV import handles everything Folk exports. The API earns its keep above roughly 50,000 records, with several related custom objects, or when you want Attio wired into a product database.
Will the team actually adopt it?
Two things move the needle: one or two automations that obviously save time in week one, and a single view they open every morning that replaces the old habit of opening Folk. Build those two before anything else.
Not decided yet?
We compared Folk and Attio in full: data model, reporting, pricing, and the cases where Folk is still the right answer.
Ready when you are.
Two ways in. Pick the friction that fits.