Kola vs Dex

Choose Dex if

You want to be prompted on a schedule
You like keeping a curated list
You want it on your phone

Choose Kola if

You would rather not keep a list
You want last contact measured, not set
You want to ask instead of be reminded

What Dex is for

Building the list is the hard part.

Dex is a relationship manager. You keep a list of people and it prompts you to stay in touch with them.

Kola starts at the other end. The list is the part it does for you.

What	Dex	Kola
Made for	Reminding you to keep in touch	Remembering the people you meet
Reads	The accounts you connect and the list you keep	Email, calendar, messengers, recorded calls and your notes
You end up with	A nudge on a schedule	An answer whenever you ask, with names
Who it suits	People who work a contact list	People who would rather not keep one

The list builds itself

People arrive from mail, calendar, messengers and calls, and Kola works out when two of them are the same person.

It knows who has gone quiet

Last contact is worked out from the messages and meetings you actually had, not from a reminder you had to set up.

Ask rather than be reminded

Ask "who have I not spoken to in three months" and get an answer with names, whenever you want it.

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

Last touched comes from the messages and meetings you actually 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 Dex 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.

Does Kola remind me to follow up?

It does not nudge you on a schedule. You can ask who has gone quiet whenever you want, or write a workflow that checks weekly and tells you what it found.

Do I have to add people by hand?

No. They arrive from the accounts you connect. You can still add and edit anyone yourself.

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