The Swarm vs. Affinity
Affinity combines private-capital CRM with relationship intelligence. The Swarm maps your extended network and helps you turn potential connections into warm introductions, across your CRM, Slack and AI tools.
A CRM for deal teams
vs. your combined, extended network
Choose Affinity when your priority is a private-capital CRM with automatic activity capture and deal management. Choose The Swarm when you want to discover and activate relationships around your team, investors, advisors and partners — while continuing to use the systems you already run.
Reviewed October 29, 2026. Capabilities and plan availability change. Both platforms offer relationship intelligence, inferred connections, APIs and MCP.
Start before everyone connects an inbox
Deep Mapper starts with your company and target buyers, using public relationship signals to surface potential introduction paths. Selected stakeholders can opt in later to add private connections. You can test the value before asking your whole organization to adopt a new tool.
Explore Deep Mapper →
Make introductions part of the workflow
Look up warm paths in Slack, ask your AI assistant who can help, or bring relationship data into your CRM through integrations and APIs. Deep Mapper’s forward-deployed team helps your sales and operations teams validate connectors and put an introduction process into practice.
See the Slack beta →
Evaluate useful paths, not just more contacts
A shared employer or investor is a clue, not proof of a close relationship. Start with a focused target list. Check the connector, the reason for the connection and their willingness to help. Track introductions made and qualified meetings separately from the number of paths discovered.
Check freshness where it matters
The Swarm offers daily dataset updates, job-change signals and on-demand live enrichment. Use timestamps and a sample of your own records to evaluate coverage and freshness. Dataset updates do not mean every record is refreshed every day.
Explore the data API →Find your best intros on The Swarm.
Find warm paths as you browse
See connection context in The Swarm’s Chrome extension and identify who could help with an introduction.
Bring your network into AI tools
Use The Swarm MCP to search profiles and map relationships from your AI assistant.
Questions to ask before you choose
Can I use The Swarm alongside Affinity?
Yes. You can keep Affinity for deal management and use The Swarm separately for network discovery and activation. If you need data to move between them, confirm the integration scope with our team; do not assume a native, two-way sync.
Is The Swarm a replacement for my CRM?
The Swarm focuses on people, companies and relationships. It can complement your CRM. If you need investment pipeline management, activity capture and reporting in one system, evaluate those requirements separately.
Does Affinity only map email relationships?
No. Affinity also offers inferred connections, including work and investment history. Compare the paths each platform finds for your actual targets, the context behind them and how easily your team can act.
How should we compare cost?
Compare the number of active users and connectors, required integrations, API usage and any implementation support. Check each provider’s current pricing and confirm what is included for your use case.
