Email is the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication, serving as the platform where deals progress, follow-ups are made, and relationships flourish.

As teams increasingly embrace automated outreach, multi-channel engagement, and accurate tracking, CRMs are competing more than ever on the quality of their native email integrations.

While Freshsales and Close CRM both feature built-in email workflows, their effectiveness, usability, and influence on daily sales activities vary significantly. For teams that prioritize simplicity over complexity and demand quick, reliable email processing, folk offers one of the cleanest and most robust email integrations available in any CRM—streamlining the process of sending, tracking, and automating outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Does Email Integration Matter?

Effective email integration elevates a CRM from a mere database to a cohesive communication hub. Rather than toggling between tabs or using disjointed tools, sales reps can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement all from a single platform.

• Centralized communication. All emails—whether sent or received—automatically sync to the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at the optimal time without manual intervention.
• Real-time tracking. Metrics like open rates, clicks, and replies integrate directly into the CRM, informing the next steps.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enrich contact profiles with essential context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates help teams maintain consistency and save time.
• Outreach automation. Send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on the deal stage or contact activity.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, sales reps can set aside juggling multiple tools and concentrate on conversations that drive revenue. This distinction is what elevates a good CRM to one that genuinely accelerates sales!

What is Freshsales?

Freshsales is Freshworks’ sales CRM tailored for small to mid-sized teams seeking a user-friendly interface combined with robust automation features. Users can seamlessly connect their Gmail or Microsoft 365 accounts, choosing between one-way or two-way sync to keep their email threads aligned with the CRM. With the addition of templates, bulk email capabilities, and activity timelines, email becomes an integral part of how representatives engage with their leads and opportunities.

What is Close CRM?

Close CRM is a sales platform designed for high-velocity inside sales teams, featuring integrated calling, SMS, and email. With built-in two-way email synchronization, representatives can send, receive, and track messages directly within Close, ensuring that every conversation is automatically associated with the correct contact and opportunity. The platform's bulk emailing, sequencing, and performance reporting transform email into a structured outreach channel rather than just a standalone inbox.

Feature comparison of Freshsales and Close CRM

Integration Capabilities

Freshsales provides native plugins for Gmail and Outlook, allowing you to view email threads, scheduling tools, and relevant contact information directly within your inbox. After connecting, Freshsales automatically scans incoming emails for known contact addresses and logs conversations, all while minimizing clutter by giving you the option to choose which folders to sync.

Close simplifies email integration: simply connect your Gmail or Outlook account, authenticate through OAuth, and every message from matched contacts will automatically populate Close's timeline. Although Close doesn’t offer native calendar event syncing, you can easily integrate meetings back into the CRM using Zapier or Google Calendar, ensuring your schedule stays in sync with your sales pipeline.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Freshsales utilizes native plugins to create a continuous connection with your Gmail or Outlook account, enabling real-time synchronization of emails and calendar events. Incoming messages from known leads appear within seconds, while outgoing emails logged from the CRM are instantly reflected in your email thread. Calendar events are updated immediately as well, ensuring that meetings scheduled in Freshsales seamlessly integrate into your personal calendar without any delay.

Close offers instant two-way email sync through OAuth-based connections with Gmail and Outlook. When a contact emails you, Close logs it immediately—eliminating the need for polling intervals or manual BCC. Outbound emails sent from Close are reflected in your email provider in real time, and the same applies for incoming messages. For calendar events, you can connect a Google Calendar via Zapier for automatic updates, though these triggers may run every few minutes based on your Zapier plan.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

Freshsales offers a comprehensive Marketing Campaigns module. To create email blasts or automated Journeys based on user behavior, simply navigate to Campaigns > Email. With drag-and-drop templates, dynamic segments, and analytics dashboards, you can track delivery rates, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Additionally, built-in retry logic and ISP throttling enhance deliverability. However, keep in mind that more advanced features, such as heat-map click analysis and AI-driven send-time optimization, require an upgrade to Freshmarketer.

Close delivers seamless two-way email integration via IMAP/SMTP. After authenticating your Gmail, Google Apps, or Microsoft account, Close automatically logs every sent and received email, linking threads to the appropriate contact without the need for manual BCCs. Although Close doesn’t natively sync calendar events, its 'Emailing' setup indicates that you can synchronize both your work email and calendar.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

Freshsales offers a comprehensive Marketing Campaigns module—simply go to Campaigns > Email to create email blasts or set up automated Journeys based on user behaviors. With drag-and-drop templates, dynamic segments, and analytics dashboards, you can easily track delivery rates, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Enhanced deliverability is achieved through built-in retry logic and ISP throttling. However, keep in mind that advanced features such as heat-map click analysis and AI-driven send-time optimization are available only with an upgrade to Freshmarketer.

Close doesn't provide a traditional mail merge interface but allows you to create multi-step drip campaigns using its Workflows engine. This enables you to combine emails, calls, and SMS in a single sequence. You can enroll leads, personalize messages with templates, and let Close automatically send each step at your preferred cadence, all while logging interactions in its unified Inbox. That said, Close lacks a visual campaign builder and detailed email-campaign analytics, meaning you won’t have access to open-rate trends or A/B testing insights within the UI.

Open and Click Tracking

With Freshsales, you can easily enable the “Track opens and clicks” feature in Settings > Email Settings. This allows every email sent through the native plugin to log open events and link clicks in the contact timeline. You'll find delivery, open, and click metrics displayed in both the Deal dashboard and Campaigns module. Keep in mind that open rates depend on image-based pixels; therefore, if a recipient has images blocked or views links in preview panes, the statistics may be underreported.

In contrast, Close automatically tracks opens for any email sent from its unified Inbox, providing open counts and timestamps for each message.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Freshsales offers native plugins for Gmail and Outlook that seamlessly integrate your CRM sidebar into your inbox, allowing you to view lead profiles, deal values, and past email threads while composing or reading messages. You can easily log emails, schedule meetings, and initiate sequences with a convenient one-click sync back to Freshsales. Additionally, the plugin incorporates calendar events into the same interface, providing a unified view of your messages and appointments. However, if you prefer a different email client, you will need to use IMAP sync instead of enjoying the full plugin functionality.

On the other hand, Close does not feature a native sidebar within Gmail or Outlook, but you can utilize the Missive integration to manage contacts, leads, and opportunities directly from your inbox. Emails sent or received in your mail client automatically appear in Close’s unified activity stream, eliminating the need for manual BCCs and maintaining context. However, you'll still have to switch tabs to view pipeline overviews or dashboards, meaning it’s not a fully in-inbox CRM—just a well-synced companion.

folk CRM: The Ultimate Email CRM

folk provides teams with a seamless, connected email workflow they’ve long desired. It centralizes communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing—all within a clean, intuitive CRM interface. With a 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the top-rated lightweight CRMs tailored for modern sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and scaling sales teams of 20-50 members, folk makes email operations easy and manageable.

Extract Insight from Emails

One of folk’s standout features is its ability to consolidate communication and convert every email and call into actionable insights, thanks to native email synchronization with Gmail and Outlook, along with AI-driven analysis. Teams can:

• Quickly access conversation recaps with a click using folk's Recap assistant, which gathers information from emails and notes to create a summary, delivering context in seconds.
• Follow up at optimal times, as AI scans conversations to notify you when to reach out and even drafts responses for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s built-in sequencing engine allows you to effortlessly create automated outreach flows right within the CRM. Craft multi-step email sequences, personalize your messages using CRM fields, and ensure every interaction is automatically logged. Whether nurturing leads, running outbound campaigns, or re-engaging dormant deals, folk offers a robust yet straightforward sequencing workflow without the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to automatically send emails, such as when a deal is closed or when you acquire a new lead.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Alerts

folk’s AI Follow-Up feature guarantees that no conversation slips through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk notifies you when a contact hasn’t replied, highlights cold conversations, and pinpoints the ideal time to re-engage. It functions like an inbuilt assistant that keeps your inbox organized and your pipeline advancing—without the hassle of manual tracking.

folk starts at $20 per user per month and includes native email integration and sequencing, along with a 14-day free trial—no credit card required.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Freshsales excels with user-friendly automation and comprehensive campaign tools, making it ideal for small to mid-sized teams. Close CRM shines with its fast, two-way email sync and a focus on high-velocity sales, yet lacks some advanced features. However, for teams that prioritize email integration, automation, and sequencing, folk stands out as the ultimate choice. With its seamless workflows, AI-driven follow-ups, and intuitive interface, folk transforms email into a powerful revenue driver, ensuring no conversation is ever missed.

Start your 14-day free trial or book a demo today.