Realty SoftwareThis comparison gets asked more than almost any other in real estate tech. And the answer almost always surprises people: it depends on whether you want one vendor or the best CRM.
Here's what we mean.
The fundamental difference
Lofty (formerly Chime, rebranded by Inside Real Estate in 2024) is an all-in-one platform. You get a CRM, an IDX-enabled website, marketing automation, SMS/email campaigns, and an AI assistant — all from one vendor, one subscription, one support team.
Follow Up Boss is a CRM. That's it. No website, no marketing automation, no AI chat — just the best-in-category real estate CRM that integrates with 250+ tools you bring yourself.
If you want the full stack from a single vendor, Lofty wins by default. If you want the best tool in each category stitched together, Follow Up Boss is your CRM layer.
Pricing
- Lofty: $499/month for a team plan (pricing scales up from there).
- Follow Up Boss: $69 per user per month.
These aren't directly comparable because the Lofty price includes the IDX website, marketing tools, and AI features. A Follow Up Boss equivalent setup — say, FUB + a basic IDX site + a marketing automation platform — could easily run $400-700/month for a small team, putting the two platforms close on total spend.
Where Lofty shines
- Single vendor, single bill
- Built-in IDX website with lead capture forms already wired to the CRM
- AI assistant (Raiya) for initial lead qualification
- Strong team and brokerage-level controls and reporting
- Easier onboarding for non-technical team leads
The consolidation argument is real. Managing 5-7 tools is genuinely harder than managing one, and for a small team without a dedicated ops person, Lofty's "one throat to choke" pitch holds up.
Where Follow Up Boss shines
- Best-in-class email and SMS deliverability (this matters more than people realize)
- Powerful Action Plans — the automation builder is genuinely better than what Lofty offers
- 250+ direct integrations with lead sources and tools
- Accountability dashboards that team leads love
- Support team that's consistently ranked among the best in the industry
If lead conversion is your bottleneck — not your website, not your marketing — Follow Up Boss's CRM ergonomics will move the needle more than Lofty's bundling.
Who picks Lofty
- Teams that don't already have an IDX website they love
- Teams without a full-time marketing person
- Brokerages that want tech decisions centralized
- Teams where "simpler is better" is a real company value
Who picks Follow Up Boss
- Teams already running Ylopo, Zurple, or another managed-ads service
- Teams with strong opinions about website design (they want AgentFire or Luxury Presence, not Lofty's templates)
- High-volume teams where a few percentage points of email deliverability = real dollars
- Teams with a tech/ops person who can stitch integrations together
A third option worth flagging
If you're reading this comparison, you should also know about BoldTrail (formerly kvCORE). It's Lofty's direct competitor in the all-in-one space — same pitch, different vendor (Inside Real Estate). For teams weighing Lofty vs Follow Up Boss, the real three-way comparison is often Lofty vs BoldTrail vs Follow Up Boss.
Our take
Neither platform is wrong. The question is what problem you're optimizing for.
- If your problem is "we can't keep all our tools in sync" → Lofty.
- If your problem is "our lead conversion rate is too low" → Follow Up Boss.
For the full side-by-side feature matrix, check out Follow Up Boss vs Chime (Lofty). Or take our quiz and we'll recommend three tools for your exact situation.