Personal CRM for networking Keep track of everyone you meet, in one list.

“Personal CRM” sounds like software, but it is a habit first. The habit is the one in our follow-up guide: capture five facts about each person at the event, send one message within two days, and come back on the date they gave you. The list is what lets the last part happen months later.

So judge every option on four questions. Do their details get in without retyping? Does the note sit beside the name? Does something tell you on the day? Can you use it one-handed at the event? Most tools are strong on two and weak on the others, and which two matters depends on how you meet people.

Read the last column with the obvious caveat: it is ours. The row where we lose is the second one. We do not import your existing address book, sync your email or LinkedIn, or connect to another CRM, and a personal CRM app does all of those.

Your phone’s contacts win on one thing nothing else matches: they are already there, on every phone, and your mail and messaging apps already read them. Every contact has a notes field. The weaknesses are that the note is buried a scroll down inside the contact, there is no “due this week” view, and nothing reminds you. Pair it with a calendar event on the date you mean to write, and it is a working system for a few dozen people.

A spreadsheet adds what contacts lack: one row per person, a “next date” column you can sort by, and a “done” column. It is the best free option for seeing everyone at once, and it exports anywhere. It is the worst at the event itself, where nobody is editing a spreadsheet one-handed, so it works best when fed from somewhere else: typed up from notes that evening, or filled from a CSV export.

Three we checked, each read off its own pricing page on 23 September 2026 and quoted in the vendor’s own currency. We have not tested their apps in depth, so this is what they say they do, not a review.

• Dex. Premium is $12 a month billed annually ($144 a year), $16 a month billed quarterly, or $20 month to month, with LinkedIn sync for up to 2,500 connections, WhatsApp and messaging sync, email and calendar integrations, and keep-in-touch reminders. Professional is $20 a month billed annually. The page lists a 7-day free trial, which needs a card, and no free plan.
• Mesh. The personal CRM that used to be Clay: clay.earth now redirects to me.sh. A free Personal plan for up to 1,000 contacts includes imports from email, calendar, X, LinkedIn, Facebook and iMessage, search, groups and reconnect reminders. Pro is $10 a month billed monthly, with a discount for paying annually.
• Covve. Its plans are built around scanning: Essential is $12 a month or $119 a year per seat, with unlimited business card and QR scanning, notes and groups, export, and Outlook, Google Contacts and Zapier integrations. Pro, at $20 a month or $199 a year, adds event badge scanning and team features. The page lists a 14-day trial and no free plan.

Where these win is breadth. If most of your relationships already exist in your inbox, calendar and LinkedIn, an app that pulls them in and reminds you who has gone quiet does something a business card app is not built to do. Where they are weaker is the start of a relationship: a person you met ten minutes ago is not in your inbox yet, and someone still has to type them in or scan a paper card.

When someone scans your Cardr Wallet card they land on your page, save you to their contacts, and can send their details back. Those details arrive in your list without either of you typing them twice. You can also add someone by hand. Then:

• Free, for good: every exchange saved, notes, tags and search, Meeting Memory (one dictated sentence filed into who, where, what they need and when, with the date worked out from your words), a “Mark followed up” button, and export to CSV or vCard whenever you like. The pricing page has the full list.
• Pro, £12 a month or £9 billed annually (£108 a year): a reminder email on the date in your note, or day 3 after you met if there is none, and AI-drafted follow-ups written from your note.
• Not there: importing your existing contacts, syncing email, calendar or LinkedIn, deal stages, team sharing, and integrations with any other system. If you need those, use a personal CRM app, or export from Cardr into one.

That split is deliberate. What you own, your contacts and your notes, is never paywalled, and the export means Cardr can feed a spreadsheet or another CRM rather than trap you in it.

Whichever you choose, the list only works if the note goes in within five minutes of the conversation and the date goes in as a date. The timing guide covers what that date should be.