Remember people better.
Most people you meet don't belong in Contacts. But you still want to remember their name, where you met, and a few things about them. betterpal is a simple, private personal CRM for iPhone and Mac: write it down, lock it in, and build stronger connections over time. Why we built it →
betterpal in action
Met someone? Type their name and a few details. That's it. The act of writing it down helps lock the memory in.
Tag people by where you met, link them to others, add birthdays. Build a picture of your network over time.
Next time you see someone, you'll remember. Conversations pick up where they left off.
A few of the things betterpal does once you've written a few people down.
Capture someone in one sentence and sort it out later from your Pals list.
Timestamped notes, @mentions, and reminders that betterpal can detect as you type.
Group people by event, place, or project, and color-code your whole network.
Link people with relationship types and let Smart Connections fill in the rest.
A node-based map of your people, with a family-tree and org-chart mode.
See the people you know plotted by where they live and by your tag locations.
Test yourself on names and details, multiple choice or free recall.
Advance alerts and per-note reminders that surface in the Upcoming tab.
A swipeable recap of your week: who you added, your notes, and what's ahead.
No servers. No accounts. No tracking. Everything you write lives only on your iPhone. We literally can't see your notes or the people in them, because there's nowhere for them to go.
Everything lives on your iPhone. We don't have servers, we don't collect data, we can't see anything you write.
Optional iCloud sync if you want it, but nothing leaves your device by default. Your relationships are yours.
Your data is yours. Export it, back it up, delete it. No accounts, no tracking, no analytics.
The full guide. Why names are uniquely hard, the four steps that work, with citations to peer-reviewed research.
What to actually write down about close friends and family: gifts, sizes, allergies, addresses, partner and kids' names.
What the research actually says: the Holt-Lunstad meta-analysis, Harvard's 80-year study, and the 2023 Surgeon General advisory.
The Baker/baker paradox and the next-in-line effect. The two cognitive findings that explain almost all of it.
A capture-and-tag system that survives Monday. Before, during, and the morning after a conference or wedding.
An honest comparison of betterpal, Dex, Mesh (formerly Clay), Monica, Covve and folk: platforms, pricing, and which to pick.
betterpal is a simple iPhone app for remembering the people you meet - their name, where you met, and the small details that matter. You jot things down in a sentence, and betterpal helps you hold onto them so the people in your life feel remembered.
It's a personal CRM for friends, not a sales pipeline. It sits alongside your iPhone Contacts: most people you meet don't belong in Contacts, but you still want to remember their name and a few things about them. That's the gap betterpal fills. There are no lead stages or deal tracking, just the people in your life.
Yes. Your data is stored locally on your device. If you use the Mac app, the two sync through a file in your own iCloud Drive. There are no accounts, no tracking, and no analytics. Your notes about people never touch our servers, because there are none.
betterpal is free to download, and the free tier includes the core features for a limited number of pals. betterpal Pro removes the limit: $2.99 a month, $19.99 a year, or $39.99 once for a lifetime license. The Mac app is a free download.
Those apps are built around syncing your email, calendar, or LinkedIn to a cloud account, or, for Monica, a web app you can host yourself. betterpal is built around the moment you meet someone: quick capture on iPhone and Mac, no account, and your data on your own devices. It's also one of the few personal CRMs with a one-time lifetime license. If automatic LinkedIn or email sync matters most, those apps will do more for you. Compare them in the best personal CRM apps or the best personal CRM for iPhone, or see our Clay, Dex, and Monica comparisons.
Names, where you met, and any notes you want. You can tag people by event or place, link people to each other and see your network as an interactive map, and set birthday and per-note reminders so nothing slips.
iPhone and Mac. The iPhone app is on the App Store, and the Mac app is a free download from this site that syncs with your iPhone through your own iCloud Drive. Android is coming soon.
We built betterpal for ourselves and use it every day. Give it a try.
Free to start. Pro is $2.99/month, $19.99/year, or $39.99 once, yours for life.