Cloze vs. Contacts Journal CRM
Cloze is published by Cloze, Inc. and has been on the App Store since 2013-02-19. Contacts Journal CRM is published by zaal LLC and has been available since 2009-09-14. Both are free to download with paid upgrades, and both are relationship CRMs rather than sales pipelines. What separates them is where the record comes from — Cloze pulls it from your email, calls and meetings, and Contacts Journal is what you write down yourself. This comparison is built from what each developer publishes — App Store listings and Cloze’s own pricing page — with every claim sourced and anything unverifiable listed as such.
Everything below comes from published sources, checked on 2026-08-12 and linked in each section. Where the sources don’t answer a question, it’s listed under What we couldn’t verify rather than guessed at.
Cloze
A relationship CRM that builds its own record by pulling from your email, calls, meetings and messages, with AI prompts and team features, sold by subscription.
Contacts Journal CRM
A manual relationship log — you write the notes, set the follow-ups and attach the files — with tags, custom fields and company accounts, sold as an in-app upgrade.
The question is whether you want the record kept for you or kept by you. Cloze watches your email and calls and assembles the history automatically, which means giving it that access and paying a monthly fee. Contacts Journal asks you to log what happened, which is more work and less to hand over.
At a glance
| Field | Cloze | Contacts Journal CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Cloze, Inc. | Zaal |
| Price | Free to download; Pro $17/month billed annually or $19.99 month-to-month, Business Silver $21/user/month billed annually or $24.99 month-to-month, per Cloze’s pricing page on 2026-08-12 | Free to download with in-app purchases; no price is published on the developer’s site |
| App Store rating | 4.65 from 2,799 ratings | 4.73 from 2,409 ratings |
| Current version | 2026.5, updated 2026-05-18 | 7.0.6, updated 2026-08-30 |
| First released | 2013-02-19 | 2009-09-14 |
| Install size | 169.2 MB | 75.8 MB |
| Minimum iOS | 16.0 | 17.0 |
| iPad support | Yes | Yes |
Pulled from the App Store on 2026-09-04. Prices, versions, ratings, install sizes and OS requirements change — check the current App Store listing before relying on any of these values.
Feature comparison
| Field | Cloze | Contacts Journal CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Differs: How the record is built | Automatically, from email, phone calls, meetings, notes, files and messages pulled from connected apps, per its App Store description | Manually — logs you write per meeting, ToDos you create, and files you attach, per its App Store description |
| Differs: Pricing | Pro $17/month billed annually or $19.99 month-to-month, with a 14-day trial and no card required, per Cloze’s pricing page | In-app purchases exist but no price is published on the developer’s site |
| Differs: Team features | Shared templates, assigned responsibility, team analytics, lead routing and sub-team hierarchies on Business plans | Not stated in its App Store description |
| Differs: Data sources | Connects to your apps to unify contacts, email, calls, meetings and messages | Imports from the iOS Contacts app or a CSV file |
| AI features | Understands action items from email text, prompts you when to reach out, updates contacts from email signatures, and includes built-in ChatGPT for newsletters and campaigns | Personalised emails using templates or AI, per its App Store description |
| Organising contacts | Unified contact management kept up to date automatically | Tags, favourites, groups, filters, company accounts linking multiple contacts, custom fields, and duplicate detection and merge |
| Email features | Open and click tracking, reply reminders, templates, mail merge, scheduled send and do-not-contact support | Not stated beyond templated and AI-assisted emails |
| Location features | Not stated in its App Store description | Maps contacts to see who is nearby and plan meetings around them |
| Languages | 4 languages | English only |
Sources for this section: Cloze App Store listing, Cloze pricing page, and Contacts Journal CRM App Store listing. All three were checked on 2026-08-12. Published feature lists change — check the current pages before relying on any row above. A heavier amber rule marks a row where the two apps meaningfully differ.
Where each one fits
Cloze is the automatic option, assembling a history from email, calls and meetings without data entry, and it adds email tracking, team features and 4 languages on top. Against that, it costs $17 to $19.99 a month for one person before any team plan, and building that record means connecting your email and messages to it.
Contacts Journal CRM is the one where everything is entered by you, which means nothing is connected and nothing is watched, with tags, custom fields, company accounts and contact mapping on top. Against that, its developer publishes no price for the in-app upgrade, it offers no team features, and it is English only with a higher iOS floor at 17.0 against Cloze’s 16.0. Contacts Journal CRM is also set against Referra in Referra vs. Contacts Journal CRM, and what happens when a developer publishes nothing covers the missing figure.
What we couldn’t verify
These are questions the published sources do not answer. They are listed here unresolved rather than guessed at.
- What Contacts Journal CRM’s in-app purchase costs; its developer’s site publishes no pricing
- What Cloze’s free tier includes, since its pricing page presents Pro as the entry plan and its listing describes the app as free to download
- Which email and calendar providers Cloze connects to, which its listing does not enumerate
- Whether Contacts Journal syncs between devices, which its listing does not state
- How accurately Cloze’s automatic capture reflects a real inbox in practice, which no published source establishes
Ownership disclosure
AppMatchup is operated by Fogarty Holdings LLC, which publishes its own iOS apps.
Neither app on this page is one of them. Cloze and Contacts Journal CRM are published by Cloze, Inc. and zaal LLC respectively, and Fogarty Holdings LLC has no stake in either.
Where a comparison on this site does include an app published by Fogarty Holdings LLC, that fact is labeled on that comparison page itself, next to the app it concerns.