Email is the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication, serving as the platform where deals progress, follow-ups take place, and relationships strengthen.

As teams increasingly depend on automated outreach, multi-channel engagement, and precise tracking, CRMs are competing more vigorously based on their native email integrations.

Both Freshsales and HubSpot feature built-in email workflows, yet their depth, usability, and effects on daily sales operations vary significantly. For teams that prioritize simplicity and seek fast, dependable email execution, folk offers one of the cleanest and most robust email integrations available in any CRM, facilitating easy sending, tracking, and automation of outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Effective email integration elevates a CRM from a mere database to a comprehensive communication hub. Instead of toggling between tabs or using separate tools, representatives can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement all from a single platform.

• Centralized communication. All emails—both sent and received—automatically sync to the relevant contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at the right moments without any manual effort.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies are directly integrated into the CRM, guiding subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails immediately enrich contact profiles with context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates ensure consistency and save time for teams.
• Outreach automation. Execute bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stages or contact activities.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, representatives can stop juggling multiple tools and concentrate on conversations that generate revenue. This distinction is what elevates a CRM from simply good to one that genuinely accelerates sales!

What is Freshsales?

Freshsales is Freshworks’ sales CRM tailored for small to mid-sized teams seeking an intuitive interface with robust automation features. Users can easily link their Gmail or Microsoft 365 accounts and opt for either one-way or two-way synchronization to ensure that conversation threads remain consistent between their mailbox and the CRM. With the addition of templates, bulk emailing, and activity timelines, email becomes an integral part of how representatives manage their leads and opportunities.

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM platform that integrates marketing, sales, and customer service around a unified contact database. Its email integration allows representatives to connect their personal Gmail and Outlook inboxes, enabling them to send one-on-one emails, log replies, and initiate sequences directly from either the CRM or their inbox. Features like open and click tracking, templates, and shared timelines enhance visibility of email activities across the entire revenue team.

Feature comparison of Freshsales and HubSpot

Integration Capabilities

Freshsales provides native plugins for Gmail and Outlook that display email threads, scheduling tools, and relevant contact details directly in your inbox. Once connected, Freshsales automatically scans incoming emails for recognized contact addresses and logs conversations, allowing you to choose which folders to sync and minimizing clutter.

HubSpot features seamless two-way email integration for Gmail, Outlook, and any IMAP-compatible provider, enabling you to send one-to-one emails straight from contact records while automatically logging every reply in your CRM timeline. Its built-in scheduler integrates meeting events with Google Calendar or Office 365, complete with automatic guest invitations and timeline entries for enhanced visibility.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Freshsales connects through native plugins that provide an always-on link to your Gmail or Outlook account, ensuring real-time syncing 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. Additionally, calendar events are mirrored immediately, so meetings scheduled in Freshsales seamlessly integrate into your personal calendar without any delay.

HubSpot's email synchronization functions on a near-real-time basis with Gmail and Outlook, typically updating changes within seconds to a minute. After connecting your account, HubSpot maintains a persistent OAuth connection, continuously pushing and pulling message data to keep your CRM timeline current. The reliability of this service is enhanced by HubSpot's global cloud infrastructure, which boasts an impressive 99.99% uptime for its core services.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

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

HubSpot’s CRM seamlessly connects via OAuth to Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP-compatible provider, ensuring genuine two-way email sync. This allows you to send and receive one-on-one emails directly from contact records, with replies logged within seconds to the appropriate timeline event. On the calendar front, HubSpot's native integrations with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar enable bi-directional sync: meetings created in your external calendar appear on contact, company, or deal timelines, while events scheduled in HubSpot automatically update your calendar and send guest invites.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

Freshsales offers a comprehensive Marketing Campaigns module—simply go to Campaigns > Email to create email blasts or automated Journeys based on user behavior. With drag-and-drop templates, dynamic segments, and analytics dashboards that track delivery rates, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes, you'll have all the tools you need. 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.

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise deliver powerful one-to-one sequences, allowing you to enroll up to 50 contacts simultaneously and send hundreds of personalized emails per user each day. Its intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, incorporates delays, and detects replies. Meanwhile, Marketing Hub supports campaigns for thousands of recipients with features like segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. Nevertheless, Sales Hub users without the Marketing Hub add-on may encounter limitations on total sends and basic reporting, as its most advanced campaign features reside within Marketing Hub.

Open and Click Tracking

Freshsales allows you to activate the “Track opens and clicks” feature in Settings > Email Settings, ensuring that every email sent through the native plugin logs open events and link clicks in the contact timeline. You can find delivery, open, and click metrics displayed in both the Deal dashboard and the Campaigns module. Keep in mind that open tracking relies on image-based pixels; if a recipient blocks images or views links in preview panes, the stats may be underreported.

HubSpot Sales tracks opens and clicks for every one-to-one email sent from contact records or through the Sales extension, providing real-time desktop notifications and logging each event on the timeline. Note that click tracking requires a paid Sales Hub seat—free users can only see opens—and you can view total clicks per link directly in the email activity feed. For advanced attribution, such as multi-variant link analysis across campaigns, you'll need Marketing Hub, as pure Sales Hub users won't access enterprise-level click analytics without the add-on.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Freshsales offers native Gmail and Outlook plugins that integrate your CRM sidebar directly within your inbox, allowing you to access lead profiles, deal values, and previous email threads while composing or reading messages. You can easily log emails, schedule meetings, and initiate sequences with a simple one-click sync back to Freshsales. Additionally, by incorporating calendar events into the same view, you achieve a seamless combination of messages and appointments. However, if you prefer another mail client, you’ll need to opt for IMAP sync rather than the full plugin experience.

With the HubSpot Sales extension active, you can effortlessly view and edit HubSpot records—such as contacts, companies, and deals—right in Gmail or Outlook. This integration also enables you to enroll contacts in sequences and log emails with a single click. A familiar CRM sidebar appears beside your inbox, allowing you to create tasks, send template replies, and review recent interactions without needing to switch applications. Lead scores and deal forecasts are conveniently displayed inline, ensuring that every email action contributes to your pipeline. The only limitation is that if you lack a paid Sales or Service Hub seat, certain in-inbox features (like sequences and call logging) remain restricted by a paywall.

folk CRM: The Best Email CRM

folk provides teams with the streamlined, connected email workflow they’ve been longing for. By centralizing communication, automating follow-ups, and simplifying sequencing, all within a clean and intuitive CRM, folk makes the process effortless. With a remarkable 4.5/5 rating on G2, it stands out as one of the top-rated lightweight CRMs designed for modern sales and partnership teams.

Specifically designed for startups, agencies, and growing sales teams of 20-50, folk ensures that email operations remain seamless rather than overwhelming.

Extract Intel from Emails

One of folk’s standout features is its ability to centralize communication, transforming every email and call into actionable insights. With native email synchronization for Gmail and Outlook, along with AI-driven analysis, teams can:

• Quickly recap past conversations with a click using folk's Recap assistant, which extracts information from emails and notes to create a summary, giving you context in seconds.
• Follow up at the opportune moment, as the AI scans conversations to notify you when it's time to reach out to a contact and even drafts a reply.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s integrated sequencing engine simplifies the creation of automated outreach flows directly within the CRM. You can set up multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and automatically log every interaction. Whether nurturing leads, conducting outbound campaigns, or re-engaging dormant deals, folk offers a powerful yet straightforward sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for separate tools.

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

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

folk’s AI Follow-Up feature ensures that no conversation slips through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk alerts you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights cold conversations, and pinpoints the ideal time to re-engage. It serves as an integrated assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without any manual tracking.

folk is available starting at $20 per user per month, featuring native email integration and sequences, along with a 14-day free trial—no credit card needed.

Conclusion

Freshsales excels with intuitive automation and seamless plugin integrations, making it a great fit for smaller teams. HubSpot offers a comprehensive suite perfect for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution but may come with complexities.

However, for teams prioritizing email integration, automation, and streamlined sequencing, folk stands out as the best choice. With its clean interface, AI follow-ups, and robust email synchronization, folk turns your inbox into a powerful CRM, optimizing the sales process effortlessly.

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