Decision guide · Lofty (formerly Chime)Based on publicly available information as of September 2026 — we don’t see their roadmap.
Lofty (Chime) does a lot. Here’s when it’s the right call — and what it doesn’t include.
Lofty (formerly Chime) has one of the broadest AI feature sets in real-estate CRM. Espo builds and runs an owned, AI-readable real-estate growth engine on your own accounts, and turns every listing into reusable proof for the next one — live in about 21 days.
Same product as Chime — rebranded November 2023. Same login, same pricing, same support line.
Credit where it is due
What Lofty does well.
Lofty has the deepest AI roadmap in real-estate CRM. Genuinely.
Lofty AOS and Homeowner Agent push further into agentic AI than any direct competitor.
All-in-one breadth: CRM + IDX websites + 33+ lead-gen channels + Social Studio + dialer + transaction management.
70,000+ real-estate professionals on the product, including teams that publicly cite a 42% business-generation lift (Lofty’s published claim).
If your team wants the widest AI surface area in a single login and you’re happy to pay request-quote pricing plus a 20% ad-management fee, Lofty is the most ambitious option in the category.
Capability by capability
The working comparison.
Based on public information. Partial stays partial; a missing row is not turned into a win.
| Capability | Lofty | Espo |
|---|---|---|
| Real-estate-exclusive | Yes | Yes |
| Full CRM — pipelines, sequences, lead routing | Yes | Yes |
| IDX website included | Yes | Yes |
| AI-ready site on a domain you own (server-rendered, schema, llms.txt) | — | Yes |
| AI assistant that operates inside the CRM | Yes | Yes |
| Per-agent recorded + transcribed phone lines | Yes | Yes |
| AI coaching score on every call | Partial | Yes |
| Managed Meta ads with no percentage-of-spend markup | Partial | Yes |
| Ads run on your own ad account (you keep the data) | Partial | Yes |
| Source-to-deal reporting when required inputs are connected | Partial | Yes |
| Per-listing landing page + AI listing video | Partial | Yes |
| Ready-to-publish listing social assets | Partial | Yes |
| QR open-house sign-in straight into the CRM | Partial | Yes |
| Founder strategy sessions when it matters | — | Yes |
| A human operator included, not a 20% add-on | Partial | Yes |
| Live in about 21 days | — | Yes |
The boundary
Where Lofty stops.
All-in-one isn’t the same as done-for-you. Three concrete gaps a team feels in the first 90 days:
The 20% ad markup
Lofty’s pricing page (as published, September 2026) documents a 20% management fee on every dollar of buyer/seller ad spend (15% on branding). $3,000/mo of ads becomes ~$600/mo in management fees on top of the base subscription.
Ad-account ownership isn’t documented
Lofty’s materials don’t publish whether managed ads run on your Meta account or theirs. If they run on theirs, every dollar of pixel learning and lookalike-audience data stays with Lofty when you leave.
You still have to drive it
Capterra’s Lofty listing (127 reviews, updated August 26, 2026) scores customer service 3.5 of 5. Recurring 2026 reviews describe tickets that drag for weeks, and a January 2026 Software Advice review called it “not plug-and-play” — powerful if you invest the setup time. An IDX site is included; reviewers still report building Smart Plans and the site themselves.
Request-only pricing across all four tiers, a 20% ad-management fee, and no published deployment window — the all-in-one starts to feel like a stack you still have to drive.
The difference
What Espo adds around it.
Espo doesn’t hand you another login. We run the engine for you, on your own accounts:
Managed Meta campaigns through your ad account — you own the pixel, the lookalike audiences, and every dollar of conversion learning.
No 20% markup on ad spend. The Espo operator is part of the Growth Partner subscription, not an add-on.
A $285 Listing Essentials launch includes an own-domain landing page, AI listing video, remarks copy, QR open-house sign-in, and ready-to-publish social assets — no subscription required. Messaging, managed ads, and publishing are separate. One matched window as public proof: 129 recorded leads on $505.95 recorded spend (Amoruso Ranch · one matched window · April 13–26, 2026, verified).
Websites built AI-ready on your own domain — three callers told one agent (Ben O’Lena) that ChatGPT recommended him; separate Gemini results reported by Darla’s team and the BBRG team (team-reported observations, 2026; observations, not guaranteed rankings).
Source-to-deal reporting when campaign source, pipeline stage, and deal-value inputs are connected; Espo does not infer revenue where those inputs are missing.
Founder strategy sessions when there is a real bottleneck to solve, and a build that goes live in about 21 days.
You don’t log in to a wider feature surface. You log in to see which listings are winning the next ones — and the ad data you’ve been building stays yours.
No automatic answer
Which fits the job now?
Choose Espo if…
- Want done-for-you ads on your own account, with all pixel and audience data staying with you — and no percentage-of-spend fee.
- Want the listing flywheel — per-listing campaigns, AI video, open-house QR, and source-to-deal reporting when the inputs are connected — live in about 21 days.
- Want a real person running it, not a wider dashboard to drive yourself, and founders you can reach when something matters.
- Want your own AI-ready site on a domain you own, with your data out within 48 hours if you ever leave.
- Run a team of up to 10 agents and want one decision to give every included agent the full stack.
Choose Lofty if…
- Want the widest AI feature surface in a single login, and have the in-house bandwidth to drive it yourself.
- Are fine paying a 20% management fee on managed ads, and don’t need ad-account or pixel-data ownership in writing.
- Want 33+ lead-gen channels and transaction management inside the same tool.
- Prefer request-quote pricing and a large vendor over a small team you talk to directly.
Straight answers
Questions about Lofty.
Is Lofty the same as Chime?
Yes. Chime Technologies rebranded to Lofty, Inc. on November 7, 2023. Same product, same pricing, same support phone number (855-981-7557), same login. The chime.me domain redirects to lofty.com. Reviews dated before the rebrand on G2 / Capterra / Software Advice now sit on the renamed "Lofty (formerly Chime)" listing. If you are shopping "Chime CRM" in 2026, you are shopping Lofty.
Is Lofty cheaper than Espo at 5 seats?
Hard to say without a quote — Lofty is request-only across all four tiers (Agent, Team, Broker, Enterprise) as of September 2026. What is published: a 20% management fee on buyer/seller ad spend and 15% on branding ads. A team running $2,000/mo in Meta ads would pay ~$400/mo in Lofty management fees on top of whatever the CRM quote is. Espo Growth Partner is $2,500/mo for up to 10 agents, with managed Meta campaigns, founder strategy sessions when needed, and no ad-spend markup. Larger rosters are priced on a call.
Whose ad account do my ads run through?
On Espo, every ad campaign runs through your own Meta ad account. You own the pixel, the lookalike audiences, and every dollar of conversion learning. If you ever leave, you take all of it with you. This matters more than it sounds: most managed-ad services (and most local agencies) run campaigns through their own accounts, which means when the relationship ends, the years of audience data go with the vendor. Lofty does not publish how its 20% managed-ad service handles ad-account ownership in its pricing materials — ask before signing.
Does Lofty include managed Meta ads in the subscription?
No. Lofty offers managed PPC, Facebook, LSA, and direct-mail campaigns as a paid add-on layered on top of the base subscription. Per Lofty's own pricing page (September 2026), that's a 20% management fee on buyer/seller lead spend and a 15% management fee on branding/sphere campaigns. If you spend $3,000/mo on ads, that's ~$600/mo in management fees on top of the CRM cost. Espo includes managed Meta campaigns in Growth Partner with no markup.
What about Lofty's customer support reviews?
Customer support is the most consistent complaint on Lofty's independent review listings. Capterra (127 reviews, updated August 26, 2026) scores customer service 3.5 of 5 against a 3.9 overall. Recurring 2026 reviews describe tickets that drag for weeks; a January 2026 Software Advice review called Lofty "not plug-and-play." G2's Lofty page is higher (4.3 from 406 reviews) and includes many vendor-invited reviews, so we don't treat that score as an independent census. Some users praise training classes. Espo is two founders you can reach, strategy sessions when it matters, and a build that goes live in about 21 days.
Can I migrate from Lofty to Espo?
Yes. Migration is part of onboarding inside the build (about 21 days): we export your contacts, deals, sequences, and pipeline state from Lofty and rebuild them in Espo. The setup fee covers white-glove migration — no CSV files for you to wrangle. Nothing switches off until the new thing is running.
Is Lofty's AI more capable than Espo's?
Lofty has built a broad AI surface across its real-estate CRM. Espo embeds an assistant inside its CRM and builds server-rendered, structured websites for AI discoverability. Three callers told one agent (Ben O’Lena) that ChatGPT recommended him; separate Gemini results reported by Darla’s team and the BBRG team — team-reported observations, not guaranteed outcomes. Different bets: Lofty emphasizes a wide AI feature set; Espo emphasizes AI inside a managed real-estate engine.
Longer notes
If you want the research behind this page.
Longer notes on Lofty (Chime)
Bring what you have
Keep the useful parts
If Lofty is already doing its job, the answer may be to keep it.
Name the missing job
Owned site, listings, campaigns, CRM adoption, and team routing are different problems.
Compare the real stack
Bring the vendors, accounts, prices, ownership, and work your team manages today.