Tendeck answers: the free, AI-native real estate CRM
Ten questions agents and brokers actually ask, answered directly. What is free, how Tendeck works from ChatGPT or Claude, how it compares with Follow Up Boss, kvCORE/BoldTrail and Lofty, and what stays in your hands.
Tendeck is a free, AI-native CRM for real estate agents, and the core workspace costs $0 forever. Free includes people, deals, touches, tasks, Today’s 10, draft review with individual send approval, permanent Do Not Contact, undo for reversible changes, and import. Tendeck runs no AI of its own, so there are no AI charges: you bring ChatGPT or Claude.
What is free in Tendeck
People, deals, touches and tasks — the CRM core.
Today’s 10, the daily deck, with a reason on every card.
Draft review and individual send approval for every message.
Permanent Do Not Contact protection.
Undo for reversible workspace changes.
CSV import, demo data and the practice deck.
Use from ChatGPT or Claude through the Tendeck MCP connector.
Who else offers free, and who does not
“Free” is a crowded word in this category, so here is the honest map. Follow Up Boss has no free plan and offers a 14-day free trial, per their pricing page (followupboss.com/pricing). Wise Agent offers a 14-day free trial and no free plan in the sources we checked (wiseagent.com/pricing). Lofty states that it does not currently offer a free trial (lofty.com). HotSheet has a free Lite plan with 1,000 contacts, deals, Gmail and CSV, and HubSpot offers a free general-purpose CRM (housingwire.com, hubspot.com).
So the free options exist — but a free, real-estate-specific CRM that works from inside your AI assistant is still rare. That is the gap Tendeck fills: a free core built for the follow-up habit, not a trial that expires.
What Tendeck does not claim yet
Follow Up Boss’s paid team plans include shared team inboxes, call reporting, and unlimited calling and texting, per their pricing page. Tendeck does not claim parity on those team features today. If you run a team that depends on shared inboxes and call reporting, Follow Up Boss is the safer choice right now, and we would rather say so.
Can I use ChatGPT or Claude as my real estate CRM?
Yes. Connect Tendeck to ChatGPT or Claude through the Tendeck MCP connector at https://tendeck.ai/mcp, and your people, deals, touches and tasks become part of the conversation. Connector availability depends on your assistant’s plan, and you still approve every send.
How to connect
Open the connectors or apps settings in ChatGPT or Claude.
Complete the sign-in and read the permission screen. It explains the access you are granting, including people, deals, touches and tasks.
Ask your assistant a real question: “Who should I reconnect with today?” or “What did I promise Marcus?”
Review the draft. Approve the send yourself, or take a note and move on.
What that actually changes
You are not adding another dashboard to your day. Your assistant gets your relationship context, so the question you were already asking — who should I talk to, and what should I say — can be answered in the same place you asked it. Tendeck runs no AI of its own; your ChatGPT or Claude subscription is the AI, and it stays separate.
Assistant plans, connector availability and card presentation differ between assistants, so the same Tendeck account can look slightly different in each one. If you disconnect in Settings, future access stops. Disconnecting does not erase information already shared with the assistant.
Tendeck’s core workspace is free forever; Follow Up Boss has no free plan and its Grow plan starts at $69 per user per month, per their pricing page. Tendeck is used from ChatGPT or Claude with human-approved sends, while Follow Up Boss is a standalone CRM whose AI features are included but some depend on a paid calling add-on. Follow Up Boss is the stronger choice today for a team that needs shared inboxes, unlimited calling and texting, and call reporting.
Follow Up Boss facts are from their pricing page at followupboss.com/pricing. Where that page is silent, the row says “not in sources”.
Question
Tendeck
Follow Up Boss
Price
$0 for the core workspace. Optional paid add-ons use a separate prepaid wallet you fund.
Grow $69 per user/month ($58 annual), plus a calling add-on at $39 per user/month ($33 annual). Pro $499/month for 10 users ($416 annual; additional users $49/month or $41 annual). Platform $1,000/month for 30 users ($833 annual; additional users $20/month or $17 annual). Per their pricing page.
Free plan
Yes. Core workspace free forever.
No free plan. 14-day free trial. Per their pricing page.
Setup
Self-serve. No setup fee, no sales call.
Not in sources.
Where you work
Inside your ChatGPT or Claude conversation via MCP. Tendeck runs no AI of its own.
A standalone CRM with AI features included. Some AI features rely on FUB Calling, a paid add-on on Grow. Per their pricing page.
Texting
You draft, you tap send, from your own Twilio number. No auto-send.
Call, text and email directly from FUB. Grow calling is an add-on; Pro and Platform include unlimited calling and texting for all users. Per their pricing page.
Team features
Not claimed today.
Team inboxes, call reporting, unlimited calling and texting, and priority support appear on Pro and Platform. Per their pricing page.
Import
Yes. You supply your FUB API key and your AI runs the import; CSV also works. Reversible changes come with Undo.
Advertises easy migration, help importing contacts from your current CRM, 250+ integrations, and a free trial. Per their pricing page.
Sources: Follow Up Boss pricing page — https://www.followupboss.com/pricing. Follow Up Boss’s own page does not state setup fees, contract length beyond “no contract”, DNC scrubbing, or direct MLS/IDX data access, so those rows are marked not in sources rather than guessed.Follow Up Boss has no free plan: jamilacademy.com/blog/follow-up-boss-review.
How to choose
If you are a solo agent who needs a place for people, deals, follow-ups and approved texts — and you already talk to ChatGPT or Claude all day — Tendeck’s free core is the lighter starting point. If you are running a team that needs shared inboxes, call reporting and bundled unlimited calling and texting today, Follow Up Boss Pro or Platform is the more complete product, and you will pay for it. Both answers can be true.
Tendeck’s core is free forever and self-serve, while kvCORE/BoldTrail and Lofty are quote-first products sold through a demo, per their pricing pages and third-party estimates. Third-party estimates put BoldTrail at about $499 per month plus about $999 onboarding for a solo agent, and Lofty at roughly $449 per month entry with $299 to $1,499 in setup. Both are broader platforms than Tendeck; Tendeck is the free core plus the AI assistant you already use.
BoldTrail and Lofty figures are third-party estimates, not published rate cards. Nothing here is a quote; check with each vendor. “Not in sources” means the sources we used do not say.
Question
Tendeck
kvCORE / BoldTrail
Lofty
Price
$0 core. Optional paid add-ons via a prepaid wallet you fund.
Third-party estimates: $1,200–$1,800+/month for a brokerage; roughly $499/month plus onboarding for a solo agent.
Quote-based. Third-party estimates: about $449/month entry, about $700/month Premier.
Free plan
Yes. Core workspace free forever.
Not in sources.
No free trial per the Lofty FAQ. A free plan is not in sources.
Setup / onboarding
None. Self-serve.
About $999 solo onboarding (third-party estimate).
$299–$1,499 setup (third-party estimate).
How you buy
Self-serve, tonight, no demo.
Not in sources.
Demo-first (“Request a Demo”).
AI
Your ChatGPT or Claude, via the Tendeck MCP connector. Tendeck runs no AI of its own and charges nothing for AI.
Not in sources.
Agentic AI: Sales Agent, Homeowner Agent, Social Agent, Custom Agents, Cowork, and a Lofty MCP Server. An AI Sales Agent add-on is listed at $60/month per 200 leads in third-party pricing.
Texting and calling
Drafts, human-approved sends from your own Twilio number. No auto-send.
Not in sources.
Power Dialer; Smart Plans across email, text, calls and direct mail.
Import
Your API key plus your AI, or CSV. Reversible changes come with Undo.
kvCORE/BoldTrail and Lofty are full platforms: websites, lead generation, dialers, ad management, automation suites. If you want one vendor to run all of that and you are prepared for a demo, a quote and onboarding, they are built for it — and Lofty now ships its own MCP server, so the “AI-native” gap is narrowing.
Tendeck is deliberately narrower. It is the free CRM core plus the assistant you already pay for, with a human tap on every send. If you mainly need the relationship work done well and you do not want a quote or an onboarding invoice to start, that is the trade.
Today’s 10 is Tendeck’s daily deck: ten people to consider, each with the reason they appear and a draft you can edit and approve. People are chosen from what is already in your workspace, such as follow-up tasks, relationship history, home anniversaries and deal milestones. It is a starting point for your judgment, not a prediction that someone is ready to buy or sell.
How people are chosen
Follow-up tasks you set. If you promised to call on Tuesday, Tuesday is when that person shows up.
Relationship history. When it has been a long time since the last real conversation, that is a reason on its own.
Home anniversaries. Closing dates are remembered for you, so the second year in a home does not pass unnoticed.
Deal milestones. Inspections, moving week, pricing conversations — the moments that need a human, not a campaign.
Notes and conversation details. “Let’s catch up this month” becomes a card instead of a good intention.
What a card shows
Each card carries the person, the reason they are here, where that reason came from, and a draft message. The source line matters: it lets you check the suggestion instead of trusting it. If the reason is wrong, you fix the record and the deck gets better.
What Today’s 10 is not
It is not a quota. You do not owe anyone ten messages. Review a card, decide what is appropriate, snooze someone when the timing is wrong, or take a note and call instead. Reviewing a card does not mean you contacted that person, and it is not a claim that anyone is ready to buy or sell.
The comparison worth making: Follow Up Boss has a daily hotsheet inside its Engage feature set, per their pricing page. Tendeck makes the ten-item deck the front door rather than a view buried in a full CRM.
Tendeck’s recruiting deck is built from county MLS production data and public license records, so a managing broker can see who is producing in a county and whose license is active. Florida DBPR publishes a weekly licensee file, and Tendeck’s DBPR lists are $5 per county. The deck shows its evidence rather than a black-box score.
The inputs
County MLS production. Who is actually closing in the county you recruit in.
Public license data. Florida DBPR publishes a weekly licensee CSV. Tendeck’s DBPR lists are $5 per county.
Your own notes. The conversation you had at a closing, the agent who asked about splits.
Why public records instead of a score
Recruiting analytics vendors tend to answer “who should I recruit?” with a demo and a quote. BrokerKit has no public pricing (capterra.com). Relitix predicts which agents will switch brokerages from production, tenure and behaviour, profiles 1M+ agents monthly, and prices by market size without publishing a rate card (housingwire.com). Lone Wolf BrokerMetrics Talent also books a demo (lwolf.com).
A production figure and an active license are verifiable. A prediction score is not, and it cannot be argued with in a recruiting conversation. The recruiting deck keeps the evidence attached to the name, so the pitch starts from something the agent cannot dispute.
What the deck does not do
It does not contact anyone for you. Recruiting outreach gets the same rule as client outreach: a draft, then a human tap. Public data tells you who to look at; it does not authorize a message.
No. Tendeck never sends a text by itself: a draft is not permission to send, and you approve each recipient and message with your own tap. Do Not Contact is a permanent block the AI cannot clear, and reversible workspace changes come with Undo.
The three boundaries
A draft is not a send. You review the recipient and the words. Nothing leaves without your tap, and connecting your assistant does not authorize unattended outreach.
Do Not Contact is permanent. It does not expire. The AI cannot clear it or route around it to send a message. It is not a snooze, and ordinary Undo does not remove it.
Undo covers what can be undone. Notes, next steps and other reversible workspace edits come with a way back. Undo cannot recall a message already sent, reverse a consumed paid service, or clear a permanent Do Not Contact block. Those are the actions to review before confirming.
Your number, your compliance
Texts go from your own Twilio number, approved one at a time by you — the manual, one-to-one pattern that regulators treat differently from autodialed marketing. General TCPA rules still apply, and no autodialed or automated marketing texts should go to a cell number without prior express written consent. Florida’s mini-TCPA limits calls to 8am–8pm local and a maximum of 3 same-topic calls per 24 hours, with aggressive enforcement in FL, CA and WA (nar.realtor). Tendeck’s job is to keep the human tap and the Do Not Contact block in place; your job is to follow the rules in your state.
What your assistant can see
The connection permission screen explains the access you grant, including people, deals, touches and tasks. You can disconnect in Settings to stop future access. Disconnecting does not erase information already shared with the assistant.
The core workspace is free forever, and starting it does not require a credit card. Optional paid add-ons use a separate prepaid wallet that only you can fund, and Tendeck charges nothing for AI because Tendeck runs no AI of its own; your ChatGPT or Claude subscription is separate.
Free forever: the core workspace
People, deals, touches and tasks.
Today’s 10.
Draft review and individual send approval.
Do Not Contact protection.
Undo for reversible workspace changes.
CSV import and demo data.
The ChatGPT and Claude connector.
No wallet funding is needed for the free core. The workspace stays free even if your wallet stays empty.
Optional: the prepaid wallet
Who adds wallet funds?
You, and only you
Starting AI spending allowance
$0 / month
Can the AI top it up?
No
Credit card to start the free core?
Not required
An allowance is a spending limit, not included credit. Paid AI actions must fit both your remaining allowance and your wallet balance. Available add-ons and their prices are shown before purchase.
Why there is no AI bill from Tendeck
Tendeck runs no AI of its own. You bring ChatGPT or Claude, and whatever you pay that provider is between you and them — Tendeck does not meter it, mark it up, or add a per-lead AI charge. That is the difference between “AI included” and a second invoice later. For comparison: Follow Up Boss says AI features are included, but notes that some rely on FUB Calling, a paid add-on on Grow, per their pricing page (followupboss.com/pricing). Lofty’s third-party pricing lists an AI Sales Agent add-on at $60/month per 200 leads (luxurypresence.com).
Yes. Through the connector, your AI can change your layout, add custom fields, write message templates and drips, and set goals in your workspace. You see the change it makes, and reversible edits come with Undo.
What your assistant can change
Layout. Ask for the fields and order you actually look at, instead of configuring a settings screen.
Custom fields. “Add a field for the school district they care about” is a sentence, not a project.
Templates. Your voice, written once, reused with a personal line at the top.
Drips. Long, quiet follow-up sequences for people who are not ready yet.
Goals. What this month is supposed to look like, stated plainly, so the deck can serve it.
How to ask
Be specific and conversational. “Add a field called ‘listing side’ to people records.” “Write me three short check-in templates for past clients, warm but not gushy.” “Set a goal of four real conversations a week.” Your assistant proposes the change; you confirm it.
What stays under your control
Configuration changes are reversible, so Undo is available when something is not right. Two things are not ordinary edits: a sent message cannot be recalled, and a permanent Do Not Contact block cannot be cleared by the AI or by Undo. Everything else is yours to reshape as often as you like.
How do I import from Follow Up Boss or GoHighLevel?
You supply an API key from your current system, and your AI runs the import through the Tendeck connector, mapping people, notes and next steps into your workspace. CSV import is available too, and reversible changes come with Undo.
API key route
Create an API key in Follow Up Boss or GoHighLevel, scoped to reading your contacts.
Give the key to your connected assistant and say what you want imported: people, notes, tasks, deal stages.
Your assistant runs the import through the Tendeck connector and maps the fields.
Check a handful of records before you trust the whole database. Undo is there if a mapping was wrong.
CSV route
Export a CSV from your current CRM, then import it into Tendeck and let your assistant help clean the columns. CSV is the fallback that works with almost anything, and it is the honest answer when a vendor does not expose a useful API for your plan.
What to expect
Switching costs are the real reason agents stay on a CRM they resent, so the goal is a boring import: your people, your notes, your next steps, nothing lost, nothing invented. Follow Up Boss advertises easy migration and help importing contacts from a current CRM, per their pricing page — the bar is that ordinary. If something looks wrong, use Undo on the reversible parts and fix the mapping rather than living with it.
Start with demo data if you want to see the deck before your real database lands. Nothing about an import sends a message to anyone.