Free Personal CRM Compared — 24Houring's Relation Map, Monica, Mesh (Clay), Dex and Remember

By 24Houring · 2026-10-22

If you are looking for a free personal CRM, the Relation tab in 24Houring is one answer. It is a map with you in the middle and the people in your life (family, friends, work and others) placed by how close they are, with a birthday, notes, a history of changing details and a log of meetings for each person. It is free for 40 people and 20 ties, needs no sign-up and shows no ads. It suits people who want to keep in touch with family, friends and old acquaintances rather than manage business cards or sales leads.

What to look for in a personal CRM

• Who it is for: tools built around clients and business cards fit differently from tools built around family and friends.
• How people get in: importing from email, calendar or LinkedIn is fast but means connecting several accounts. Typing people in by hand is slower, but only the people you actually care about end up there.
• How it tells you someone has drifted: some tools send reminders on a schedule, others make it visible on screen.
• How the record grows: when someone changes jobs or moves, does the new value overwrite the old one, or is the old one kept?
• Where it is stored: a contact record is someone else's personal information. Check whether it stays on your device or goes to a server.
• What free means: a limit on how many people, or a trial that ends.

Side-by-side (as of October 2026)

A fair note on each

Monica is an open-source personal CRM. Its official pricing page (October 2026) charges per account rather than per contact: $9 a month or $90 a year for the hosted version, with a 30-day trial that needs no card. Running it on your own server costs nothing for the software, but the server, backups and updates are yours to look after. It is strong at keeping structured activities, journal entries and reminders for each person.

Mesh used to be called Clay; its own site carries a notice that Clay is now Mesh. Once you connect email, calendar and social accounts it gathers your contacts for you, which helps people who meet a lot of others through work. According to its help center (October 2026), the free Personal plan covers up to 1,000 contacts and Pro costs $20 a month or $120 a year.

Dex brings people in from LinkedIn and email and is built around reminders that tell you when to get back in touch. Its Chrome extension adds someone straight from a LinkedIn profile, which suits job seekers and heavy networkers. As of October 2026 it works as a short free trial followed by a subscription rather than a permanent free plan, with Premium from $12 a month.

Remember (리멤버) is the default business-card app for many people in Korea. Take a photo of a card with your phone and its details are filed in your card book; its help center says the personal card book is free with no limit on the number of cards (October 2026). For sorting out people you met through work, few tools are faster. Because everything starts from a business card, though, it is a different fit for family and old friends.

Google Contacts is already on many phones. It is free, holds up to 25,000 contacts according to Google's help pages, and connects straight to calls and messages. It is not designed to show at a glance how close someone is or when you last spoke.

Where 24Houring is strong

• One picture: the group gives a direction, closeness gives a distance. The closest people are drawn larger and nearer the middle, and a subgroup such as university friends clusters inside its group.
• History that is not overwritten: when contact details, home, family, employer or title change, the old value stays with the date it changed. A friend's previous job is not erased by the new one.
• One line per meeting: log meetings, calls and family occasions with a date and a few words (up to 200 per person). On the day you get in touch, one press of "Contacted today" is enough.
• People who fade: 90 days after the last contact a person's circle and name start to fade, and after a year they are as faint as they get. A friend you have not heard from in four months looks pale on the map; log a call and they are sharp again.
• Birthdays: anyone with a birthday in the next 30 days gets a ring, and the "Birthdays this month" filter gathers them. Birthdays also appear in the calendar.
• Ties between two people: not only to you, but between any two people, with a name such as "married" or "colleagues".
• A private note: no accounts but yours, no friend requests, no messages, and nobody is ever notified that they are on your map. No sign-up, stored in your browser, no ads.

Where it is honestly weaker

• It is not a sales CRM. There is no team sharing, no deal stages and no email integration.
• It does not import people for you; you add them one at a time. To move hundreds of work contacts, Mesh, Dex or Remember are much faster.
• The free plan holds 40 people. That is plenty for the people closest to you, but beyond it you need Pro ($0.99 a month). Reaching the limit never removes anything already written.
• Its signals are the fading and the rings you see when you open the map. If you would rather get a reminder on a set day, Monica or Dex, which are built around reminders, may suit you better.
• By default everything is stored in the browser, so clearing site data can lose it. Keep a JSON backup from Export or turn on Pro sync. Photos of people are a Pro feature too.
• It is a record you keep alone; it is not one of the things shared groups edit together.

How to start in 24Houring

1. Open the Relation tab. You are in the middle, with family, friends, work and other groups around you.
2. Add a person: name, relation (for example "university friend"), birthday (year optional) and a note, then choose how close they are and they settle at that distance.
3. Keep their history and meetings. On a day you get in touch, press "Contacted today".
4. If it helps, draw a tie between two people and name it.
5. Use the "Out of touch" and "Birthdays this month" filters and search to find who to call this week.
6. Export the map as a 2160-pixel-wide PNG or back it up as JSON. Names can be masked when you share the picture.

The full feature pages are free personal CRM and relation map. The experience map and bucket list in the same tab is entirely free, and pins on the free travel map can name the people who were there. Birthdays also show on the free calendar. See Pro pricing, and for travel apps, the free travel map comparison.

FAQ

Is there a free personal CRM I can use without signing up?

Yes. 24Houring's Relation tab opens straight in the browser with no account and is free for 40 people and 20 ties. The meeting log, fact history, birthday rings, the out-of-touch filter and image export are all part of the free plan.

If I put someone on my relationship map, will they find out?

No. 24Houring has no accounts but yours, no friend requests and no messages, so nobody on your map is ever notified. Their details are still someone else's personal information, so check what names are in a picture or backup before you share it.

Can I keep business cards in Remember and close friends in 24Houring?

That split works well. Keep the cards you collect at work in Remember, where photographing a card is quick, and keep the family and friends whose birthdays and news you want to follow on the relation map. The two do not overlap.

What happens when I reach 40 people?

Only adding new people stops; everyone and everything already written stays. To go further, Pro ($0.99 a month) removes the limit and adds sync across devices and photos of people.