A.R.O vs Dex
Dex is the LinkedIn-first personal CRM. A.R.O is the calendar-and-contacts-first one.
Dex has been around longer and is built around your LinkedIn graph: it syncs your connections, watches for job changes, and nudges you to reconnect. A.R.O starts from the accounts you already live in (Google, Apple, Microsoft contacts and calendars), links your meetings to the people in them, and preps you before you walk in. Both set keep-in-touch cadences. The difference is where your network lives and what you want the tool to do with it.
Prices and limits checked on Dex's own site in October 2026. Check Dex for anything that has changed since.
Side by side
| A.R.O | Dex | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free forever for up to 50 contacts, no card | No free plan; 7-day trial with a card |
| Entry price | $4.99/mo (your own AI key) or $14.99/mo with AI included | $12/mo billed annually, $20 month-to-month |
| Import your LinkedIn data export (CSV), matched and deduped against existing contacts | Live LinkedIn sync, up to 2,500 connections on Premium and 9,000 on Professional | |
| Contacts & calendar sync | Two-way with Google, Apple iCloud and Microsoft 365, several accounts each | Email and calendar integrations, two-way contact sync |
| Meeting prep | Today's meetings with who you're seeing, how long it's been, last touchpoints and open loops | Reminders and notes on the contact record |
| Reminders out | Push to Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do and Apple Reminders | In-app and email reminders |
| AI | Bring your own key (Claude, OpenAI or Grok) or included on Pro | Research credits by plan: 10, 20 or 50 a month |
| Mobile | Installable web app (home screen, push, share-to-app) | Native mobile apps, browser extension, desktop |
| Data enrichment | No automatic enrichment | Research credits and job-change tracking |
Where Dex is the better choice
- If your network lives on LinkedIn, their live sync is the real thing and A.R.O does not have it. A.R.O imports the export file instead, which is a manual refresh.
- Native iOS and Android apps. A.R.O is an installable web app, which is close on a phone but is not the App Store experience.
- Automatic research and job-change alerts come with the plan. A.R.O only tells you about a job change when a synced contact's title or company actually changes.
If one of those is the reason you are looking, go use Dex. A tool you actually open beats a cheaper one you abandon.
Where A.R.O is different
- A free tier that is not a countdown: 50 contacts, forever, no card. Most people find out whether a personal CRM fits their life in month two, not week one.
- Meeting prep built in. The dashboard opens with today's meetings, who you're seeing, how long it's been, what you talked about last time and what you still owe them.
- Reminders leave the app. Keep-in-touch nudges land in Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do or Apple Reminders, so you see them where you already look.
- Your own AI key is an option at $4.99, which is the cheapest way to run an AI-assisted CRM if you already pay for an API key.
- An MCP connector, so you can ask Claude about your own network without leaving the chat window.
Pricing, plainly
- Free for up to 50 contacts, no card, no clock
- $4.99/month with your own AI key
- $14.99/month with AI included
- 7-day trial on the paid plans
- Premium: $12/month billed annually ($144/year), or $20 month-to-month
- Professional: $20/month billed annually, or $34 month-to-month
- Team: $40 per user/month
- 7-day free trial, card required up front
Questions people actually ask
Yes. Export your contacts from Dex as CSV and import the file into A.R.O. Every import is review-before-apply, and duplicates are merged against contacts you already have from Google, Apple or Microsoft.
Not live. A.R.O imports the connections file from LinkedIn's own data export and matches it to your existing contacts; re-importing later updates them. If continuous LinkedIn sync is the whole reason you want a personal CRM, Dex does that and A.R.O does not.
A.R.O. Free covers 50 contacts with no card, and paid is $4.99 a month on your own AI key or $14.99 with AI included. Dex starts at $12 a month billed annually, or $20 month-to-month, after a 7-day trial.
Try it on 50 people first
Free plan, no card. Connect a Google, Apple or Microsoft account and see who you have been drifting from.