$0 vs $200/Month: How 4 CRMs Price AI Lead Follow-Up

What Does CRM AI Actually Cost? The 30-Second Answer

Follow Up Boss: $0 extra. Lofty: $60+/month. CINC: $200/month. Sierra Interactive: $199/month. Four platforms, four completely different price tags for features that do roughly the same job. Each one promises to score leads, auto-respond to inquiries, and keep your pipeline moving without manual follow-up. The difference is whether the vendor treats AI as included infrastructure or as a billable add-on. Below is every fee, every limitation, and the team-cost math at three different sizes. All pricing data below comes from vendor pricing pages and third-party audit sites including Bounti's 2026 CRM pricing database and BitsReview's Lofty analysis, cross-checked against each platform's published plans.

Follow Up Boss: AI Baked Into the $69/User Plan

Follow Up Boss rolled out its AI stack through 2025 and 2026, and as of August 2026, every feature ships at no extra charge on the base Grow plan ($69/user/month). Smart Summaries auto-digest phone calls into bullet points so you skip the replay. Smart Messages draft text and email replies from conversation context. Suggested Tasks flag the next logical follow-up step. Predictive Lead Prioritization ranks your pipeline by engagement signals and conversion likelihood, so the lead most likely to book gets your attention first. These aren't buried beta features. They're live on every FUB account right now.

The newest addition, Smart Actions (beta, launched August 2026), reviews calls made through a Follow Up Boss phone number and can auto-update a lead's stage, suggest appointments, and change timeframes without you touching the CRM. It turns a five-minute post-call admin task into zero minutes. There's a catch: Smart Actions and Smart Summaries need the Calling add-on, which costs $39/user/month on the Grow plan. If your team already uses FUB's dialer, the AI is genuinely free. If you're on an external phone system, you'll need the add-on to access call-based features.

Total for a 3-agent team on the Grow plan with calling: $69 x 3 + $39 x 3 = $324/month. That gets you CRM, AI lead scoring, AI call summaries, AI auto-stage updates, and a built-in dialer. No separate AI line item on your invoice.

Lofty: $60/Month for a 200-Lead AI Agent (That Burns Down)

Lofty (formerly Chime) takes a different approach. The base subscription starts around $449/month for the Core plan according to third-party pricing reconstructions, since Lofty's pricing page says "Request Pricing" on every tier. AI is a separate add-on called the AI Sales Agent, priced at $60/month for a running quota of 200 leads. That quota does not reset monthly. It's a consumable, not a subscription. Once 200 leads have been processed, you buy more at $30/month per additional 100 leads.

For a team generating 500 inbound leads per month, the AI add-on alone costs $60 base + $90 for the extra 300 leads = $150/month. Layer that on top of the $449+ base subscription and the 15-20% ad management fee Lofty charges on managed campaigns, and a 3-agent team running $1,500/month in ad spend easily hits $750-$900/month before the AI Sales Agent does anything. One third-party review noted that "the subscription line is the smallest number in that stack for most teams running paid leads." The AI Sales Agent handles initial text outreach and lead qualification, routing warm responses to your inbox. But the consumable model means your AI costs scale directly with your lead volume, which is the opposite of FUB's flat-rate approach.

CINC: $200/Month on Top of an $899+ Base

CINC bundles lead generation with its CRM, which is why the base platform starts at $899/month for solo agents and $1,300-$1,500/month for teams of up to four. Leads are included in every CINC plan. You can't buy the CRM without the lead gen. CINC AI, the platform's auto-follow-up and AI texting layer, is a separate $200/month add-on. The dialer is another $75/month for three lines. Add all of it together for a four-agent team: $1,500 platform + $200 AI + $75 dialer = $1,775/month minimum, plus whatever separate ad budget you're running. Third-party estimates put the realistic total above $2,000/month for most metro-area teams.

What does $200/month buy? CINC AI handles automated lead nurture sequences, AI-powered text follow-up, and lead re-engagement campaigns. It doesn't score leads the way FUB's predictive prioritization does. It's more of a set-it-and-forget-it outbound engine. For teams that need both a lead source and a CRM in one platform, CINC's all-in-one model makes the $200 AI add-on a smaller percentage of total spend. But for teams that already have a lead source and just need AI follow-up, the $200 sits on top of an $899 base you can't unbundle.

Sierra Interactive: $199/Month for Lead Engage

Sierra Interactive publishes its pricing, which is a refreshing change. The Starter plan costs $299.95/month on annual billing (one user, one IDX site, one MLS feed). The Essential plan is $399.95/month for three users. The Growth plan is $599.95/month for five. Monthly billing adds roughly 20% and a $500 setup fee. Sierra's AI layer is called Lead Engage, and it costs $199/month with unlimited leads. That's the most transparent AI pricing in this comparison. Lead Engage handles AI text follow-up, automatic lead nurture, and re-engagement for cold leads.

A solo agent on the Starter annual plan with Lead Engage pays $299.95 + $199 = $499/month. A 3-agent team on Essential pays $399.95 + $199 = $599/month. That's roughly double FUB's cost at the solo level but competitive at the team level because Sierra includes an IDX website, lead capture pages, and MLS integration in the base price. Sierra's pricing tiers are published and verifiable, which alone sets it apart from Lofty and CINC. Read our full Sierra pricing breakdown for the hidden costs that aren't on the sticker.

The Full Comparison: Cost Per Agent Per Month

The gap between $324/month and $1,775/month is $1,451/month, or $17,412 per year. That's not a rounding error. It's three agent salaries, a year of ad spend, or the cost of 58 expired leads at $300 each. The table above strips each platform to its core: base subscription plus AI plus calling. It doesn't include ad management fees, premium website add-ons, or optional features that push totals higher.

Which Setup Makes Sense for Your Team?

Solo agents who already have a lead source: Follow Up Boss at $69/month with free AI is the cheapest path to automated lead scoring and follow-up. Add the $39 calling add-on if you want call-based AI features. Total: $108/month. Nothing else in the market comes close at that price point for AI-included CRM functionality.

Teams of 3-5 who need leads and a CRM: This is where the bundled platforms (CINC, Lofty) start to make an argument. CINC generates your leads for you. Lofty runs your ad campaigns. You're paying for lead gen and CRM in one check. If your alternative is FUB at $324/month plus $1,000/month in self-managed ad spend plus a landing page tool at $100/month, the bundled platforms look less expensive than the sticker shock suggests. But run the per-closed-deal math. CRM choice affects more than just monthly cost. It affects how leads get routed, how fast they get touched, and whether warm leads slip through cracks.

The question that matters most: Are you paying for AI or for lead generation? FUB sells a CRM with AI included. CINC and Lofty sell lead generation programs with a CRM and AI attached. Sierra sits in the middle with transparent pricing and an AI add-on that's simple to evaluate. If you already have leads from referrals, sphere, or your own AI response platform, paying $200/month extra for CINC's AI on top of a $899 base you can't unbundle doesn't make sense. If you need the entire stack from scratch, compare total cost per closed deal, not monthly subscription stickers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Follow Up Boss AI really free?

Yes, the core AI features (smart summaries, smart messages, suggested tasks, predictive lead prioritization, Smart Actions beta) are included in the base $69/user/month Grow plan. Call-based features like Smart Actions require the Calling add-on at $39/user/month, which you may already be using if FUB is your dialer.

Why does Lofty's AI Sales Agent use a consumable quota?

Lofty's AI Sales Agent processes a set number of leads (200 in the base $60/month tier) rather than offering unlimited usage. Once the quota is consumed, you buy additional capacity at $30 per 100 leads. This model ties your AI cost directly to lead volume, which benefits low-volume agents but penalizes high-volume teams.

Can I use CINC's CRM without buying their leads?

No. CINC bundles lead generation with its CRM on every plan. You cannot purchase the CRM software separately. The $899+ base price includes done-for-you lead generation, which is why the entry cost is significantly higher than standalone CRMs like Follow Up Boss or Sierra Interactive.

How does Sierra Interactive's Lead Engage compare to CINC AI?

Both handle AI text follow-up and lead nurture. Lead Engage costs $199/month with unlimited leads on a transparent published price. CINC AI costs $200/month but sits on top of a much higher base platform cost. Sierra's total cost for a solo agent with AI ($499/month) is roughly half of CINC's ($1,099/month), though CINC includes lead generation that Sierra does not.

Which CRM AI is best for a team of 10+ agents?

Follow Up Boss Pro ($499/month for 10 users included, AI free) gives you the lowest per-agent AI cost at scale. Smart Actions and predictive scoring work across the full team without per-agent AI fees. For teams that need bundled lead gen, CINC's Pro plan (up to 49 users) becomes more cost-competitive at scale because the AI add-on is a flat $200/month regardless of team size.