Kola vs Clay

Choose Clay if

You want it on every device
You are happy with a hosted product
You want it to work on a phone

Choose Kola if

You want the index on your own machine
You want your calls recorded and attached
Your work happens on a Mac

What Clay is for

A similar goal, a different setup.

Clay keeps a memory of the people you know, pulled out of the accounts you connect to it.

That is the job Kola does. The honest difference is where the data sits, and what else Kola reads.

What	Clay	Kola
Made for	Keeping a memory of the people you know	The same job
Reads	The accounts you connect	The accounts you connect, plus the calls you record
You end up with	A page per person, kept current	The same, plus the transcript of the call
Who it suits	People who trade on their network	People who want that on their own machine

One file, on your machine

Everything is kept in one file on your Mac. We run no server that receives it, and nothing here trains a model on your relationships. The features that do send data out are named on the security page.

It answers inside ChatGPT and Claude

The assistant you already use can search your people. It receives the question and the records needed to answer it, the same as any other question you ask it.

It records your calls too

Meetings are recorded and transcribed on the machine, then attached to the people who were on them.

Kola's People table with company, position, relationship strength, last touched, email, phone, location and birthday columns

Filled in from what you already had.

Switching

There is nothing to migrate.

Kola does not import from another tool, and it does not need to. It reads the same accounts you already connected elsewhere and builds its own picture from them.

1

Install Kola.

One download, signed and notarized by Apple. Nothing to export from Clay first.
2

Connect an account.

Start with the mailbox and calendar you live in. Kola reads them in the background and fills itself in.
3

Keep both for a while.

Nothing forces a decision. Run them side by side and keep whichever earns its place.

Questions

Before you switch.

Do I have to import anything?

No. Connect the same accounts and Kola builds the list from them. There is nothing to export first.

Where does my data live?

In one file on your Mac. We run no server that receives it, and nothing here trains a model on your relationships.

Do I have to import anything to get started?

No. Connect the same accounts you already use and Kola builds itself from them. There is nothing to export from anywhere else first.

Which accounts can it read?

Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, Google and Outlook calendars, Google and Apple Contacts, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. Connect only the ones you use.

What does it need to run?

An Apple Silicon Mac. Kola is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click.

Ask an AI to compare them

These open a chat with the question already typed, pointed at this page. It asks for a balanced answer, including where Kola is the wrong choice.

Get started

Never forget who you know.

Install Kola and connect an account. Kola builds your contacts from there.

Download See the other comparisons