Email is the cornerstone of modern sales communication; it's the platform where deals progress, follow-ups are initiated, and relationships are nurtured.

As teams increasingly depend on automated outreach, multi-channel interaction, and precise tracking, CRMs are vying for attention based on the robustness of their native email integrations.

Freshsales and Zoho CRM both feature built-in email workflows, but their usability, depth, and influence on daily sales activities vary significantly. For teams that prioritize simplicity and seek swift, dependable email execution, folk stands out with one of the cleanest and most effective email integrations available in any CRM—streamlining the process of sending, tracking, and automating outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Robust email integration elevates a CRM from a mere database to a comprehensive communication hub. Rather than toggling between tabs or relying on disparate tools, representatives can send messages, automate follow-ups, and track engagement all from a single interface.

• Centralized communication. All emails—both sent and received—automatically sync to the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at optimal times without manual effort.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies seamlessly feed into the CRM to inform subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantaneously enrich contact profiles with context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates ensure team consistency while saving time.
• Outreach automation. Send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stages or contact activities.

When a CRM manages email effectively, representatives can shift their focus from juggling tools to engaging in conversations that drive revenue. This difference distinguishes a good CRM from 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 paired with robust automation features. Users can easily integrate their Gmail or Microsoft 365 accounts, opting for either one-way or two-way sync to ensure alignment between their mailbox and the CRM. With the addition of templates, bulk emails, and activity timelines, email communication becomes an integral part of how representatives manage leads and opportunities.

What is Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM is a versatile, all-in-one CRM solution ideal for businesses seeking extensive customization and a comprehensive suite of business applications. Its email integration supports Zoho Mail, Gmail, Outlook, and various IMAP providers, allowing teams to send, receive, and archive messages directly within the CRM. With features like shared inbox views, basic tracking, and automation, email activities seamlessly integrate into a broader omnichannel engagement strategy.

Feature comparison of Freshsales and Zoho CRM

Integration Capabilities

Freshsales provides native plugins for Gmail and Outlook, displaying email threads, scheduling tools, and relevant contact details right in your inbox. Once connected, Freshsales automatically scans incoming emails for recognized contact addresses and logs conversations, allowing you to keep clutter at bay by selecting which folders to sync.

Zoho’s Email Insights add-on enables seamless syncing of Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP provider directly into Zoho CRM, automatically logging messages and attachments to the appropriate records. You can choose which folders to include, ensuring that only pertinent emails drive opportunities while irrelevant threads remain excluded from your CRM. Additionally, Zoho Calendar offers two-way syncing with Google, Office 365, or iCal, allowing meeting invites and updates to integrate smoothly into both your personal calendar and CRM timeline.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Freshsales establishes a persistent connection through native plugins to 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 in the CRM are instantly reflected in your email thread. Calendar events are updated immediately as well, so meetings scheduled in Freshsales seamlessly integrate into your personal calendar without delay.

Zoho’s Email Insights add-on ensures a continuous connection to your mail provider through IMAP IDLE or OAuth, facilitating near real-time message synchronization. You can anticipate that emails will show up in the CRM timeline just seconds after being received, complete with attachments and metadata. Additionally, two-way calendar synchronization occurs instantly for Google Calendar, Office 365, and iCal, with Zoho’s retry logic effectively addressing any intermittent issues.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

Freshsales features a comprehensive Marketing Campaigns module—simply go to Campaigns > Email to create email blasts or automated Journeys based on user behaviors. 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. Keep in mind that more advanced functionalities, such as heat-map click analysis or AI-driven send-time optimization, necessitate an upgrade to Freshmarketer.

Zoho CRM facilitates email synchronization via POP/IMAP or OAuth for Outlook, Gmail, and any IMAP provider—once set up in Settings > Channels > Email, both inbound and outbound messages are automatically linked to the corresponding lead or contact record.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

Freshsales features a comprehensive Marketing Campaigns module—simply go to Campaigns > Email to launch email blasts or set up automated Journeys based on user behaviors. With drag-and-drop templates, dynamic segments, and detailed analytics dashboards, you can track delivery rates, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Enhanced deliverability is supported by built-in retry logic and ISP throttling. However, keep in mind that advanced functionalities like heat-map click analysis and AI-driven send-time optimization require an upgrade to Freshmarketer.

Zoho CRM’s Mass Email tool allows users to send up to 1,000 emails daily, using customizable templates and merge tags for a personalized touch. For larger campaigns, Zoho Campaigns integrates smoothly, providing advanced segmentation, an intuitive drag-and-drop design, and analytics on delivery, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Be aware that since Zoho Campaigns operates as a separate product, managing billing and user permissions across both systems may introduce additional administrative complexity.

Open and Click Tracking

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

In contrast, Zoho CRM’s basic Email Insights automatically track opens when you send emails via Gmail or Outlook connectors. You can activate link-click tracking through the ZeptoMail integration to obtain complete click-through data. Without ZeptoMail, CRM users will only see open metrics; accessing full click analytics necessitates utilizing the separate transactional email product, which involves additional costs and configuration steps.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Freshsales offers native plugins for Gmail and Outlook that seamlessly integrate your CRM sidebar into your inbox, providing access to lead profiles, deal values, and past email threads while you compose or read messages. You can log emails, schedule meetings, and initiate sequences with a single click, all while keeping everything synced back to Freshsales. With calendar events also included in this view, you enjoy a fluid combination of messages and appointments. However, if you prefer a different email client, you'll need to rely on IMAP sync rather than the full plugin functionality.

Zoho’s eWidget serves as a sidebar in Zoho Mail, Gmail, or Outlook, allowing you to add leads, view contact details, and log emails without stepping outside your mailbox. It displays deal stages, tasks, and meeting notes directly in your inbox, and you can easily send predefined templates or create new records with just a click. Keep in mind that this sidebar is limited to those specific mail clients—if you're using Thunderbird or another service, you'll miss out on the convenience of in-inbox functionality.

folk CRM: The Ultimate Email CRM

folk provides teams with a seamless, connected email workflow that enhances productivity. It centralizes communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing, all within a user-friendly CRM interface. With an impressive 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the top-rated lightweight CRMs for modern sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and scaling sales teams of 20-50, folk streamlines email operations to avoid overwhelming users.

Extract Intelligence from Emails

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

• Quickly recap past conversations with a click using folk's Recap assistant, which gathers information from emails and notes to create a summary, giving you context in seconds.
• Follow up at the optimal time; AI scans conversations and alerts you when it’s time to reconnect with a contact or even drafts a response for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s built-in sequencing engine simplifies the creation of automated outreach flows directly within the CRM. You can design multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and automatically log every interaction. Whether you're nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging inactive deals, folk provides a robust yet uncomplicated sequencing process that eliminates the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM data to trigger automatic emails, such as when a deal is closed or a new lead is acquired.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

With folk’s AI Follow-Up feature, no conversation goes unnoticed. By analyzing your email history, folk notifies you when a contact hasn't responded, highlights cold conversations, and pinpoints the ideal moment to re-engage. It's like having a built-in assistant that keeps your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without the hassle of manual tracking.

folk is available starting at $20 per user per month, includes native email integration and sequencing, and offers a 14-day free trial—no credit card required.

Conclusion

In summary, Freshsales excels with its user-friendly interface and real-time email sync, while Zoho CRM offers extensive customization for broader business needs. However, for teams that prioritize seamless email integration, automation, and effective sequencing, folk emerges as the top choice. With its intuitive design, AI-powered follow-up reminders, and streamlined workflows, folk transforms email into a powerful revenue-driving tool—making it the best alternative for teams that rely heavily on email for communication and outreach.

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