CF
ContactForgeCustomer Relationship Platform
Common questions, real answers

Frequently asked questions.

The stuff people email about before they sign up. Click any question to expand. If something is missing, ask us directly.

Getting started

What does ContactForge actually do?

ContactForge is the CRM your team runs out of every day. Contacts and companies for who you sell to, deals and pipelines for what is open, activities and tasks for what to do next, a shared inbox for every reply, plus campaigns, automations and reports. One workspace, one database, no copy-paste between tools.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. Every screen is point-and-click. Power users get an API and a webhooks layer for custom integrations; everyone else never has to open it.

How long does setup take?

Most teams are live in 10–15 minutes: sign up, import contacts from CSV, define your pipeline stages, connect your email inbox. Custom fields and automations can be added as you grow.

Can I import from another CRM?

Yes. CSV import handles contacts, companies and deals out of the box. We also offer white-glove migration from any major CRM — just hand us an export and we'll map the fields for you.

Email & inbox

Which email providers do you support?

Gmail and Microsoft 365 via OAuth, plus any IMAP/SMTP provider for everyone else. Two-way sync, so every reply lands on the contact record automatically.

Does sent mail go through you?

No — sent mail goes through your own provider so deliverability, signatures and threading all stay under your control. We just log a copy on the contact record.

Can multiple reps share an inbox?

Yes. Shared inboxes (sales@, support@, hello@) come standard. Assignment rules, internal notes, 14944mentions and SLA timers are built in.

Do you support calendar booking?

Native calendar booking is on the roadmap. Today, we sync with Google Calendar / Outlook so booked meetings auto-log against the contact and deal.

Pricing & billing

How does the free trial work?

Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial — no credit card required. During the trial you can hold up to 250 contacts so your team can test on real data. Add a card any time to unlock the full plan limits; we email reminders at day 7 and day 13 so you never get caught off guard.

Do you charge per seat?

Seats are bundled into the plan: Pro includes 5 seats, Business includes 25. If your Business team grows past 25, extra seats are /seat/mo — itemised on your invoice, no “contact sales” gate. The price you see on the pricing page is the price you pay until your team genuinely grows past the cap.

Who handles email sending for campaigns?

You do. For bulk campaign sends you connect your own SMTP provider in Settings » Email Provider — pick from SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, or any custom SMTP. That keeps deliverability tied to your domain reputation, bounces on your account, and the per-email cost on your provider bill (usually pennies per thousand). Account emails from us — signup confirmations, password resets, billing receipts — go through our infrastructure with no setup needed.

What if I go over my plan caps?

On Business: overage is automatic and itemised — per 1,000 contacts over 100k, per extra seat over 25, per 1,000 campaign sends over 50k. No surprise upgrades, no calls. On Pro: the system caps you at the plan limits (25k contacts, 5 seats, 5k sends) and prompts you to upgrade to Business. You get a heads-up banner at 80% of any cap so you can plan ahead.

Refund policy?

We issue refunds as account credit applied automatically to your next invoice. Cleaner books, faster than a card refund (which takes 5-10 business days to settle). If you cancel entirely with unused credit, we work out a card refund case-by-case.

Can I switch plans any time?

Yes. Upgrades take effect immediately with proration. Downgrades take effect at the next billing anchor so you keep what you paid for.

Data & trust

Do you own my contacts or my customer list?

No. You retain full ownership of your contacts, companies, deals and message history. You can export everything at any time. If you cancel, you get a 90-day grace period to export before data is purged.

Do you train AI on my data?

No. We do not train models on customer data — not ours, not third-parties. If we ship AI features they run on inference only against the data you point them at.

Where is my data stored?

Your database lives in US-East (Virginia). Files are on Cloudflare R2 with global edge caching. EU residency is in progress for European customers.

What security do you offer?

2FA (TOTP), session-revoke from the Settings page, full audit log of admin actions, granular permission groups, encrypted-at-rest database, TLS 1.3 in transit. SOC 2 Type II audit in progress for 2026.

Support

How fast is support?

Email response: same business day on Pro, with a target of <4 hours during business hours. Business gets priority queueing — first reply usually inside an hour during business hours.

Where are the docs?

Inside the dashboard. Every page has a Help icon in the topbar that opens plain-English how-tos for the surface you are on.

Can I migrate from another CRM?

Yes. We offer white-glove migration on every paid plan — we move contacts, companies, deals, custom fields, notes and open activities. You will be live the same day in most cases.

Question we didn't answer?

Send it to hello\.com — we read everything.

Contact us   Start free trial