Follow Up Boss vs Lofty: Which Is Better in 2026?

At a glance

	Follow Up Boss	Lofty
Best for	Teams that live on fast follow-up	Teams that want CRM, website, and AI in one platform
Starting price	$69 / user / month	Custom quote
Free plan or trial	No free plan; 14-day free trial	No free plan
Deployment	Cloud, with mobile app	Cloud, with mobile app
IDX website	Not included; connects to your existing site	Included
Lead follow-up	Shared inbox, routing rules, automated action plans	AI assistant for early conversations, marketing automation
Integrations	More than 250 real estate apps	Fewer outside tools needed, since website and marketing are built in
Contract terms	No long-term contract	Set in your quote
Ideal company size	Solo agents to large teams	Teams up to brokerages

Follow Up Boss is the better fit for agents and teams that already have lead sources and a website and want the fastest possible follow-up, while Lofty suits teams that want their IDX website, CRM, marketing, and an AI assistant in a single platform. The choice mostly comes down to one question: do you need the CRM to generate leads, or just to work them?

We rate Follow Up Boss 4.7 out of 5 and Lofty 4.5, first and second on our ranked list of the best real estate CRM software. Here is how they compare on the things that decide whether a CRM pays for itself.

Lead management and follow-up

Follow Up Boss was built around one job: getting a new lead to the right agent and into a conversation as fast as possible. Leads from portals, ads, and your website land in a single inbox. Routing rules hand each one to an agent in seconds, and every call, text, and email lands on one screen, so a team leader can see who responded and who did not. Automated action plans handle the follow-up cadence after that first touch.

Lofty approaches follow-up differently. Its AI assistant handles early lead conversations and suggests the next step for each contact, and its marketing automation keeps nurture running in the background. That can take pressure off a team that cannot answer every inquiry in the first five minutes.

Winner: Follow Up Boss. For teams that judge agents on response time and conversion, its routing and accountability tools are the benchmark. Lofty’s AI help is useful, but Follow Up Boss gives managers clearer control over who works each lead.

Website and lead generation

This is where Lofty pulls ahead. It includes an IDX website, so property searches, saved homes, and listing views flow straight into the contact record without any connection to configure. For a team that does not have a lead-producing site, that is a real advantage, and it means one vendor is accountable for the whole funnel from search to signed agreement.

Follow Up Boss does not include an IDX website. It expects you to bring your own site and lead sources and connect them. That is fine if you already pay for a good website or buy leads from vendors such as Ylopo or Real Geeks, but it means a second bill and a second vendor if you are starting from nothing.

Winner: Lofty. If the CRM needs to produce leads as well as manage them, Lofty does both in one login.

Integrations

Follow Up Boss connects to more than 250 real estate apps. That breadth is why it suits teams that mix lead sources: portal leads, paid ads, an existing IDX site, and a transaction platform can all feed the same inbox. Its integrations directory lists a Dotloop connection, powered by API Nation, that creates a deal in Follow Up Boss when a loop goes under contract and keeps contact details in sync both ways. Follow Up Boss is owned by Zillow Group, which also owns Dotloop and runs Zillow Premier Agent.

Lofty needs fewer outside connections because the website and marketing tools are already inside. The flip side is less flexibility: if you later want a different website vendor or lead service, you are working against a platform designed to be the whole stack.

Winner: Follow Up Boss. It fits around the tools you already use instead of replacing them.

Ease of use and setup

Follow Up Boss has a reputation for being easy to adopt, and that matters more than any feature list. A CRM only works if agents open it every day, and agents keep using Follow Up Boss after the first month. A small team can be working leads in it within days.

Lofty covers more ground, so it takes longer to set up and learn. Someone has to configure the website, build the marketing campaigns, and train agents on both the CRM and the AI tools. Teams with an operations manager or a tech-minded team leader handle that well. Teams without one often end up using a fraction of what they pay for.

Winner: Follow Up Boss. Less to configure means faster adoption, especially for smaller teams.

Pricing and total cost

Follow Up Boss publishes its pricing, starting at $69 per user per month, and offers a 14-day free trial with no long-term contract. The per-user model is easy to understand, but it adds up as a team grows, so price it at the headcount you expect in a year. Add any calling or texting extras and the cost of the website and lead sources you connect to it.

Lofty does not publish prices. You get a custom quote based on your team and the features you choose, and there is no free plan. Because the quote can include the website and marketing tools, a fair comparison sets Lofty’s quote against Follow Up Boss plus your current website and any marketing tools you would cancel.

Winner: Follow Up Boss on transparency and on cost for a solo agent or small team. A larger team that would otherwise pay separately for a website and marketing platform may find Lofty’s bundle competitive, but only a quote will tell you.

Fit by team size

Follow Up Boss works for a solo agent who handles a steady flow of online leads, and it scales to large teams through routing rules and reporting. It does not handle transactions or agent splits, so brokerages pair it with a transaction or back-office system.

Lofty scales from individual agents to brokerages, but a solo agent pays for more platform than one person needs. It makes the most sense for a team with enough lead volume and staff to use the website, marketing automation, and AI follow-up together.

Winner: tie. Follow Up Boss for solo agents and lean teams; Lofty for larger teams that want a single platform.

Switching costs and lock-in

Think about the exit before you sign. With Follow Up Boss, the CRM is one piece of your stack. If you change website vendors or drop a lead source, the CRM stays put and your history stays with it. If you leave Follow Up Boss, you export contacts and reconnect your lead sources to the new system, and your website keeps running.

With Lofty, the website, CRM, and marketing live together. That is convenient day to day, but leaving means replacing all three at once and moving the search and activity history your leads built on the site. Before you sign, ask what you can export, whether your domain stays registered to you, and how long your contract runs.

Winner: Follow Up Boss. A focused CRM with no long-term contract is easier to leave, which also keeps the vendor honest.

Which should you choose?

Pick Follow Up Boss if you already have a website or lead vendors, care most about speed to lead, and want published pricing you can test before you commit. Pick Lofty if you are building your lead engine from scratch and would rather have one vendor run the website, CRM, marketing, and AI follow-up together. Either way, run real leads through it before you sign, because how quickly a lead reaches an agent’s phone tells you more than any demo.

Pros and cons

Follow Up Boss

Lofty

Which should you choose?

Frequently asked questions