Comparison

Contacts Journal CRM vs CircleBack

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Contacts Journal CRM

This app helps you manage customer relationships by tracking conversations, organizing contacts, and scheduling follow-ups. It allows you to store notes, files, and documents, and offers features like contact mapping and email templates to build stronger connections and never miss opportunities.

Highlights
  • Track last interaction with contacts
  • Manage follow-ups and reminders
  • Organize contacts with tags and filters
  • Store notes, files, and documents
  • Map contacts and plan meetings
  • Create personalized email templates
  • Link contacts to company accounts
Features
Read full description

Stay on top of your relationships with a powerful, easy-to-use CRM. Contacts Journal gives you the tools to track conversations, manage follow-ups, and organize your contacts—so you can build stronger relationships and never miss an opportunity. With Contacts Journal, you can: • Always know your last interaction with each contact, so you’re prepared for any conversation • Stay consistent with timely follow-ups, reminders, and tasks • Organize contacts using tags, groups, and filters • Keep all relevant notes, files, and documents in one place • Plan smarter meetings by seeing who’s nearby and where opportunities are • Maintain a private, secure address book fully under your control • Reach out faster with personalized emails using templates or AI TRUSTED BY PROFESSIONALS WHO MANAGE RELATIONSHIPS: • sales professionals and account managers • small business owners • freelancers, consultants, and independent operators • real estate agents, lawyers, and other client-facing roles • individuals who want to stay intentional about their personal network KEY FEATURES: LOGS, TODOS AND FILES Keep notes for each meeting with Logs; create follow-ups and reminders with ToDos; attach images and documents with Files IMPORT CONTACTS You can easily import your contacts from the Contacts app, or from a CSV file ORGANIZE CONTACTS Categorize and visualize your contacts list with Contact Tags, Favorite Contacts, Groups and Filters COMPANY ACCOUNTS Link multiple contacts to a Company Account, to track interactions at the organization level DUPLICATE DETECTION AND MERGE Detect and merge duplicate contacts CUSTOM FIELDS Extend the app by defining and creating your own custom fields MAP YOUR CONTACTS Turn your contacts into a map of opportunities. See who’s nearby, plan smarter meetings, and spot patterns with color-coded locations BUSINESS CARD SCANNER [requires a Teams plan] Quickly convert business cards into contacts EMAIL TEMPLATES Create email templates with personalization tags, to send prepared emails quickly with a personal touch AVAILABLE ON iOS AND MAC Contacts Journal is available on iOS and Mac App Store, with seamless syncing via iCloud so your data is always up to date across devices. POWERFUL FEATURES • Share Extension to save notes, links, and images from other apps • Siri Shortcuts for faster workflows and automation • Home and Lock Screen widgets for quick access • Group Emails to reach multiple contacts at once • Visual charts to track your relationship activity GREAT FOR PRIVACY No account signup needed. Your data stays fully under your control, and we never have access to it UNLIMITED PERSONAL PLAN: • The app is initially limited to 20 Logs, ToDos, Files, Custom Fields, etc. To add unlimited entries, please purchase the “Unlimited Personal Plan” • The Unlimited Personal Plan is a one-time purchase • You can purchase the "Unlimited Combined Plan" to unlock both iOS and Mac apps together CONTACTS JOURNAL FOR TEAMS: • Share your Contacts Journal data with others using iCloud accounts • Real-time, automatic syncing between multiple users • Create multiple teams to share different information with different users • Includes a Business Card Scanner Contacts Journal For Teams requires a monthly or annual subscription that is purchased through the app. The subscription will automatically renew unless canceled within 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user’s iTunes Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited if you purchase a subscription. Terms of Service: https://contactsjournal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015780571 Privacy Policy: https://contactsjournal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015414291 Please send us your suggestions and feedback at support@zaal-llc.com

About

CircleBack

This app intelligently updates your contacts, finds new ones from email, and cleans duplicates. It also allows scanning business cards and offers unified contact management across devices.

Highlights
  • Automatic contact updates
  • Duplicate contact merging
  • New contact discovery from emails
  • Business card scanning
  • Unified address book
  • Contact sync across devices
Features
Read full description

CircleBack is the only address book manager that updates your contacts intelligently, discovers new contacts in your Google and Microsoft inboxes, cleans up duplicates, and allows you to scan business cards and save them as contacts. Packed with everything you need to stay organized while building and maintaining productive professional relationships, CircleBack makes it easier than ever to keep connections alive and get stuff done. CIRCLEBACK FEATURES • Contact updates when people in your network change jobs, roles & more • Intelligent merging / management of duplicate contacts • “New Contact” discovery from email signatures in Outlook, Gmail & the entire Microsoft account suite (Outlook.com, Hotmail, MSN, etc.) • Contact grouping by favorite, old/archived, or business card scans • A single, unified address book that imports from Outlook/Exchange , Gmail (Google Apps), Microsoft account suite, Facebook & more • Contact sync across multiple devices and platforms • Export contacts to Salesforce & ACT! • Best-in-class OCR business card scanning • Deleted contact recovery for the moments you make a mistake WHAT THE MEDIA IS SAYING • “CircleBack lets you sit back as it does the real-time contact updates and management for you.”— iphoneappsreviewonline.com • “Every once in a while I have this fever dream that I’d have a smartphone contact book that would be up-to-date and completely filled out, but that’s all it is—just a dream. But with CircleBack, I have a fighting chance.” — Gizmodo • “CircleBack uses artificial intelligence and crowd-based intelligence technology to automate contact updating and management. A useful tool to activate your contact list.” — Computerworld • “The modern world is busy and engaged, and your professional and personal contacts merge. But how can you keep up with what they’re doing? CircleBack uses artificial intelligence and crowd-based intelligence technology to automate contact updating and management.” — TechCrunch • “CircleBack knows your contacts better than you do. By automatically cleaning, completing, and updating your contacts, as well as removing duplicates, CircleBack keeps your address book organized and up-to-date.” — abduzeedo • “CircleBack is helpful app that makes sure that you address book is up-to-date. But, the app also consolidates all of your contacts by removing duplicate entries and repairing errors like typos. It can also locate missing contact information or updated information from outdated contacts.” — Forbes REVIEWS LEFT ON THE APP STORE • “Continuously improving” • “Simple, Powerful, intuitive” • “Very Useful Complement To Apple's Contacts App” • “Great & Simple App” MORE ABOUT CIRCLEBACK CircleBack’s unique answer to contact management is a single tool that ensures your address book is up-to-date, unified & accessible on all your devices. CircleBack handles the time-consuming organization of your digital address book while you do what you do best: crush it daily. DATA USAGE Crowdsourcing powers CircleBack’s core, allowing you (and everyone else) to anonymously contribute to the intelligence of our database. Your contributions are matched with billions of other data points from millions of other users to provide the best, most up-to-date info for anyone that’s outdated or duplicated in your address book. We love hearing from you! Keep the comments coming by emailing us anytime at support@circleback.com.

Screenshots

Contacts Journal CRM4 screens
CircleBack4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: CircleBack at none against Contacts Journal CRM's 10. Contacts Journal CRM's advantage is review sentiment (91% vs 61%) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Contacts Journal CRM sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. CircleBack asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Contacts Journal CRM holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.5K and 2.5K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of Contacts Journal CRM's written reviews are positive against 61% of CircleBack's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Contacts Journal CRM ships an update weekly, CircleBack every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Contacts Journal CRM versus CircleBack: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterContacts Journal CRMCircleBack
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.5K ratings) — better4.5 (2.5K ratings)
Positive reviews90.9% of reviews — better60.8% of reviews
Number of ratings2.5K2.5K — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB118 MB
Age rating4+17+
Developerzaal LLCCircleBack, Inc.

Customer experience

Contacts Journal CRM

All ratings2,469 ratings
Positive94.6%
Neutral2.1%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews650 reviews
Positive90.9%
Neutral3.4%
Negative5.7%

CircleBack

All ratings2,543 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral5.1%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews130 reviews
Positive60.8%
Neutral8.5%
Negative30.8%

User reviews

Contacts Journal CRM

From 2.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient contact management
  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 💡 Customizable fields and tags
  • 🗓️ Seamless calendar integration
  • 📸 Ability to attach files and photos

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Syncing issues with iCloud
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality
  • 🗓️ Inflexible scheduling and repeat options
  • 🎨 Outdated visual design
  • 🔀 Difficulty managing duplicate contacts

CircleBack

From 2.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 📚 Helpful for managing contacts
  • 💾 Keeps contacts synced
  • 🔍 Useful for finding updated contact info
  • 🧹 Helps clean up duplicate contacts

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes or freezes
  • 🔁 Duplicates keep reappearing
  • 🔒 Google login issues
  • 🤯 Messes up or deletes contacts
  • 🕰️ Slow performance

Bugs and requests

Contacts Journal CRM

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes after recent updates
  • Issues with deleting or restoring contacts
  • Inconsistent behavior across devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Group messaging and email capabilities
  • Advanced reporting and analytics
  • Deeper integration with other productivity apps
  • More flexible scheduling and repeat options
  • Ability to customize the visual appearance

CircleBack

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Fails to update contacts on devices
  • Incorrectly merges unrelated contacts
  • Loses contact notes and other data
  • Unreliable sync between app and phone contacts

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add ability to remove contacts from groups
  • Improve search functionality
  • Allow starting with a fresh contact list
  • Provide better backup/restore options

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Contacts Journal CRM

Subscriptions6
  • 1 User14 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • 5 Users14 Days trial$24.991 Month
  • 20 Users14 Days trial$49.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • 1 User14 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • 5 Users14 Days trial$249.991 Year
  • 20 Users14 Days trial$399.991 Year
One-time4
  • Unlimited Plan - Legacy UserFree
  • Unlimited Plan - iOS Add-On$19.99
  • Unlimited Personal Plan$24.99
Show 1 more
  • Unlimited Plan - iOS + Mac$69.99
None

CircleBack

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Contacts Journal CRM free?
Contacts Journal CRM is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is CircleBack free?
CircleBack is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Contacts Journal CRM or CircleBack?
Contacts Journal CRM is rated higher. Contacts Journal CRM averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2.5K ratings, while CircleBack averages 4.5 from 2.5K ratings.
Do Contacts Journal CRM or CircleBack have ads?
Neither Contacts Journal CRM nor CircleBack shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Contacts Journal CRM or CircleBack?
Contacts Journal CRM ships an update weekly, and CircleBack every 2 months. Most recently, Contacts Journal CRM was updated on November 9, 2026 and CircleBack on November 6, 2026.

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