Thoughtful vs Clay

Two ways to use AI on relationships.

Clay is a beautifully designed contact-enrichment tool with AI that summarizes who people are. Thoughtful is an AI card writer that helps you send the next message in your voice. Both use AI; the products are different.

How they're different

Clay enriches your contacts, pulling in social profiles, news, and AI summaries about each person. Thoughtful generates the next card. One is about understanding the person; the other is about sending something to them.

Thoughtful is for you if…

You want the act of sending, birthday cards, sympathy notes, just-because messages, to be easier and more frequent. You don't need a daily AI summary of who your friends are.

Clay is for you if…

You want a beautifully designed contact app with AI that pulls in context about each person. You like the dashboard view of your network.

Feature-by-feature

FeatureThoughtfulClay
iOS-native appYesYes
AI card draftingYesSome message suggestions
AI contact enrichment from social profilesNoYes
Pre-event card remindersYesYes
Print-and-mail card flowYesNo
Free tierYesYes
PricingSmall subscriptionFree + paid Pro

Where Thoughtful is better

  • Best if cards are the act you're trying to do more of.
  • Best AI for writing, it learns your voice.
  • Best if you don't want your contacts cross-referenced with social profiles.
  • Best for the print-and-mail experience.

Where Clay is better

  • Best for visualizing your network as a beautiful interface.
  • Best at AI-driven contact enrichment.
  • Best if you like having context surfaced from public profiles.
  • Best if your relationships are more professional than personal.

The bottom line

Clay is the answer if your problem is 'I want a beautiful interface for the people I know.' Thoughtful is the answer if your problem is 'I want to actually send something to them this week.' They're complementary; some people use both.