Commissions Inc vs Follow Up Boss: Which CRM Fits in 2027

Commissions Inc vs Follow Up Boss: the short answer

Commissions Inc vs Follow Up Boss is a choice between a lead-generation platform and a standalone CRM, not between two similar contact databases. Commissions Inc was renamed CINC; the rebrand release is datelined March 4, 2019, and the same page says Fidelity National Financial acquired the company in 2016 and still owns it, according to CINC (2019). The old name suggests commission accounting, but neither company's pricing page lists commission accounting or a transaction ledger.

Our read: choose Follow Up Boss if you already have lead sources and want a CRM with published per-user pricing and no contract. Choose CINC if you want lead generation, a consumer website and a CRM under one agreement and can accept quote-based base pricing. Ask CINC in writing what it bills beyond the tier you are quoted before you compare totals.

TL;DR: Follow Up Boss publishes its prices, while CINC is the bundled lead-generation option whose base tiers require a quote.

A lead-generation platform bundles paid ad leads, a consumer website and a CRM, while a standalone CRM stores and automates the contacts a team already has. That distinction matters more than any single feature checkbox.

Key Takeaways

• Commissions Inc is now CINC, so buyers should search for and ask for the CINC name.

• Follow Up Boss publishes its tiers and rates; CINC's base tiers show Request Pricing.

• Neither pricing page lists commission accounting or a transaction ledger, so commission tracking needs a separate tool.

• At 10 users with calling on every seat, Follow Up Boss's Grow plan costs more than its Pro plan, while at 3 users Grow is cheaper.

• Zillow Group owns Follow Up Boss, and Fidelity National Financial owns CINC.

• Integration scope is the deciding question, and it should be confirmed in writing before either purchase.

Who this is for

Follow Up Boss suits a team that already buys leads or generates them through its own website, referrals and ads, and wants a CRM with published rates. CINC suits an agent or team that wants lead generation, a consumer website and a CRM from one vendor and is willing to request a quote. Our read is that the two serve different buying moments: one is a CRM you connect to your existing sources, the other is a lead engine with a CRM attached.

Red flags: you need commission accounting or a transaction ledger, since neither pricing page lists one. You need a fixed monthly price before any sales call, which CINC's base tiers do not give. You have no one to own duplicate checks and sync rules after launch.

How we evaluated these two products

This is an informed buyer's guide built from public pages. We did not log into either product. The weights in the table below are our judgment about what a small real estate business decides on; they are not vendor data or survey results. Each factor is scored on what the vendor publishes, and where a page is silent, the cell says so.

CRM tools are common enough that the choice matters. CRM: 46% in NAR's 2026 most-used tools list according to NAR (2026). In NAR's 2025 survey, 23% of agents named CRM as a lead-generation tool they use, behind social media, according to NAR (2025).

Feature matrix: what each vendor publishes

The matrix lists only what each vendor's pricing page or documentation shows. Where a page is silent, the cell says "Not on the pricing page" instead of "no."

Our read: the split is clear. CINC lists the lead and website products that Follow Up Boss's pricing page does not, and Follow Up Boss publishes a dollar figure for every tier, which CINC does not do for its base tiers. Neither page lists commission accounting.

Vendor profiles: where each one fits

CINC: best fit, limits and setup

CINC fits a team that wants Google and Facebook lead generation, a consumer website and a CRM under one agreement, and that expects to negotiate the base price. Its pricing page groups users into four tiers from Solo to Select and names a consumer website with an IDX feed.

The limits are pricing and mapping. The base tiers show no dollar figure, and the page does not map each feature to a specific tier in a way we could read reliably, so ask which tier includes each feature you need. Lead spend is a separate question, and you should ask in writing what is billed beyond the tier.

For implementation, confirm the scope of CRM Connect. CINC's pricing page lists it among its system integrations, along with Google, Zapier, MOJO and BombBomb. If you plan to keep Follow Up Boss for pipeline work, get the sync rules, field mapping and duplicate handling in writing before you sign.

Follow Up Boss: best fit, limits and setup

Follow Up Boss fits a team that already has lead sources and wants a CRM with published prices and no long contract. Grow is priced per user, while Pro and Platform are flat monthly fees that include 10 and 30 users.

The limits are scope and add-ons. Its pricing page does not list a lead-purchase product, a consumer website or transaction management, so verify any of those with the vendor before you assume them. Calling costs extra on Grow, and the page says some AI features rely on that add-on.

For implementation, the public API documentation describes a people resource that includes duplicate-check and unclaimed-lead routes, and it says a system must register before it serves a Follow Up Boss customer. Zapier also publishes a Follow Up Boss app with triggers such as new contacts and stage changes, and actions such as creating contacts, applying action plans and creating deals.

Pricing: what the published numbers add up to

Follow Up Boss publishes every tier, adds Pro users at $49 a month each ($41 on annual billing), and offers a 14-day free trial with no contracts, according to Follow Up Boss (2026).

Pricing checked November 13, 2026. Quote-based means the vendor publishes no dollar figure for that item.

CINC's AI add-on starts at $200 a month according to CINC (2026). CINC's base tiers show Request Pricing rather than a dollar figure, and its dialer add-on covers three lines for $75 a month on the same page.

Worked example (illustrative, not a customer): a 10-person team that wants calling on every seat would pay 10 × ($69 + $39) = $1,080 a month on Grow with monthly billing, per the Follow Up Boss (2026) rates, or 10 × ($58 + $33) = $910 a month on annual billing, since the calling add-on is $39 per user monthly and $33 on annual billing. Pro covers the same 10 users with unlimited calling and texting for $499 a month, or $416 on annual billing, so the monthly gap is $581 ($1,080 minus $499) and the annual gap is $494 ($910 minus $416). This compares price only, not feature sets. If the team also wants new leads created automatically, the build runs through https://api.followupboss.com/v1/people, and that integration work is a separate cost that neither price includes.

Our read: this table is our arithmetic on Follow Up Boss's listed rates, not a quote. Grow with calling costs less than Pro up to four users on monthly billing, and at five users Pro is lower ($540 against $499). CINC is not in the table because it does not publish base rates.

Who owns them and what the reviews say

Zillow agreed to buy Follow Up Boss on November 1, 2023 according to Inman (2023). Inman reported that Follow Up Boss will remain an independent brand and will not become part of ShowingTime+.

The closing was announced December 8, 2023, and customer data entered into Follow Up Boss belongs to the agent and cannot be used by Zillow without permission, according to Real Estate News (2023). CINC's ownership is covered in the opening section, where its rebrand page says Fidelity National Financial has owned it since 2016.

Users who would recommend Follow Up Boss: 90% according to SelectHub (2026 listing), across 179 reviews from three review sites. SelectHub's CINC listing counts 42 reviews from one review site, with 73% of users recommending the product, according to SelectHub (2026 listing).

Our read: review counts are small and come from aggregator pages, so treat them as a signal, not a ranking. We did not find an independent head-to-head review of these two products.

Build it yourself, or connect the two?

The realistic alternative for many small teams is stitching the two together in Zapier, Make or n8n, or writing a script in-house. Those tools can keep run histories, retries, error branches and audit evidence when they are configured that way. The buyer still designs and owns observability, idempotency (so a retried lead does not create a second contact), escalation paths, access controls and maintenance after either product changes its API.

A proposed, configurable design for a team that keeps Follow Up Boss as its system of record would run like this. The trigger is a new lead notification email from the source the team already uses. The action is a duplicate check against existing contacts before any record is created, using the people resource in Follow Up Boss's API documentation. The output is either a new contact with a source tag and a note, or a flagged match sent to an agent's review queue. Prerequisites are API access that requires registering your system, a named owner for field mapping, and a test run against a copy of the data before go-live. Human review points are every duplicate match, every reassignment of a lead, and any outbound text, which should wait for consent confirmation. US Tech Automations would write these steps into a design you approve; nothing in it is a live integration until your team signs off.

A second proposed design fits a CINC-first team that adds Follow Up Boss for pipeline work. The trigger is activity that CINC's integration surfaces, such as a stage change or a saved-search update. The action is a short activity summary and a source tag written into Follow Up Boss, with the lead's assignment left unchanged unless a person moves it. The output is a daily digest that an agent reviews in Follow Up Boss before any call or text. Prerequisites are a written statement from CINC on what its CRM Connect integration syncs, API or export permissions in both systems, and a mapping between CINC stage names and Follow Up Boss stages. Human review points are assignment changes, possible duplicate contacts and any message to a consumer. US Tech Automations would document that mapping and the review steps, and your team would sign off on each rule before it runs.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations: a configured design adds cost and upkeep, so a simpler existing tool wins in three cases. If you need only a CRM and Follow Up Boss's own calling, texting and action plans already cover your follow-up, a custom integration is extra work. If you are buying CINC for its bundled lead generation and will not connect another CRM, CINC's own tools already cover the path from ad to contact. If you need a one-time import, the CRM's import tool and a spreadsheet are simpler to run.

Decision checklist and common mistakes

Before you sign:

• Do you already have lead sources? If yes, Follow Up Boss's published pricing is the simpler comparison.

• Do you need a consumer website or bought leads in the same contract? If yes, get CINC's quote in writing.

• Which tier and user count will you buy at launch, and what will you add within a year?

• Which system owns each contact record, CINC, Follow Up Boss or both?

• Who owns duplicate checks and field mapping after launch?

• Do you need commission accounting? If yes, buy that separately.

Common mistakes:

• Comparing Grow's per-user price with Pro's flat fee without adding the calling add-on.

• Assuming "Commissions Inc" is a commission tool because of its name.

• Treating a CINC quote as the full cost before asking what lead spend is billed beyond the tier.

• Setting up a sync before deciding which system owns the contact record.

Questions buyers ask

Is Commissions Inc still the company's name?

No. The company is now CINC, and the rename is covered in the opening section, so use the CINC name when you request a quote.

Does Follow Up Boss sell leads?

Not according to its pricing page. Its plans are CRM tiers with an optional calling add-on, so any lead spend has to be budgeted separately.

Is CINC's pricing published?

Not for its base tiers, which show Request Pricing. The dollar figures on its pricing page are for add-ons.

Who owns Follow Up Boss?

Zillow Group owns it. Zillow agreed to buy it in November 2023, and the closing was announced in December 2023.

Does either product handle commission accounting?

Neither pricing page lists commission accounting or a transaction ledger, so a team that needs commission tracking needs a separate tool.

Can a team run both?

Possibly. CINC's pricing page lists CRM Connect among its system integrations, but confirm exactly what it syncs and how duplicates are handled before you run both.

Where this leaves a small team

Pick Follow Up Boss when you already own your lead sources and want published tiers you can budget against. Pick CINC when lead generation, a consumer website and a CRM under one agreement matter more to you than a published base price, and get the quote and sync scope in writing before you compare. In either case, the integration review is where most of the risk sits. If you want that review designed and documented before a purchase, see how US Tech Automations configures this for a proposed design.