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

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

While both HubSpot and Close CRM provide built-in email workflows, their usability, depth, and daily sales operation impacts vary significantly. For teams that prioritize simplicity over complexity and seek swift, reliable email execution, folk offers one of the most streamlined and powerful email integrations available in any CRM, enabling seamless sending, tracking, and automation of outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Does Email Integration Matter?

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

• Centralized communication. All emails—whether sent or received—sync automatically with the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences empower representatives to follow up at the optimal time without manual intervention.
• Real-time tracking. Metrics such as open rates, clicks, and replies feed directly into the CRM, informing the next steps.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enrich contact profiles with relevant context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates ensure consistency and save time for teams.
• Outreach automation. Effortlessly send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stages or contact activities.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, representatives can shift their focus from juggling tools to engaging in conversations that drive revenue. This distinction sets apart a good CRM from one that genuinely accelerates sales!

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM platform that consolidates marketing, sales, and customer service into a single contact database. Its email integration allows representatives to connect personal Gmail and Outlook inboxes, enabling them to send individual emails, log responses, and initiate sequences directly from the CRM or their inboxes. Features like open and click tracking, templates, and shared timelines provide transparency for email activities across the entire revenue team.

What is Close CRM?

Close CRM is a sales platform designed for high-velocity inside sales teams, integrating calling, SMS, and email. With a built-in two-way email sync, representatives can send, receive, and track messages directly within Close, ensuring every conversation is automatically associated with the relevant contact and opportunity. Features such as bulk emails, sequences, and performance reporting transform email into a structured outreach channel rather than a standalone inbox.

Feature comparison of HubSpot and Close CRM

Integration Capabilities

HubSpot provides smooth two-way email integration for Gmail, Outlook, and any IMAP-compatible provider, allowing you to send one-to-one emails directly from contact records while automatically logging every reply in your CRM timeline. Its native scheduler effortlessly writes meeting events back to Google Calendar or Office 365, complete with automatic guest invitations and timeline entries for comprehensive visibility.

Close’s email integration is incredibly simple: just connect your Gmail or Outlook account, authenticate via OAuth, and every message associated with a matched contact will automatically appear in Close’s timeline. Although Close doesn’t natively sync calendar events, you can easily bridge meetings into the CRM using Zapier or Google Calendar integration, ensuring your schedule is in sync with your sales pipeline.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

HubSpot’s email synchronization is nearly real-time with Gmail and Outlook, typically updating within seconds to a minute. After connecting your account, HubSpot establishes a continuous connection through OAuth, ensuring that message data is regularly pushed and pulled, so your CRM timeline remains current. This reliability is further enhanced by HubSpot’s global cloud infrastructure, which offers an impressive 99.99% uptime for its core services.

Close’s email integration provides immediate two-way sync by utilizing OAuth connections to Gmail and Outlook. When you receive an email from a contact, Close logs it instantly—eliminating the need for polling intervals or manual BCCs. Outbound emails sent from Close are reflected in your email provider in real time, and the same applies in reverse. For calendar events, you can automatically link your Google Calendar via Zapier, although updates occur every few minutes based on your Zapier plan.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise offer 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 streamlines template creation, manages delays, and detects replies, while Marketing Hub elevates your outreach to thousands of recipients with advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, Sales Hub users without the Marketing Hub add-on encounter limitations on total sends and more basic reporting, as the most robust campaign features reside in Marketing Hub.

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

Mail Merge and Campaigns

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise offer powerful one-to-one sequences, allowing you to enroll up to 50 contacts at once and send hundreds of personalized emails per user each day. Its intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, manages delays, and detects replies, while the Marketing Hub can scale to thousands of recipients with features like segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, since the most advanced campaign features are exclusive to the Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users without this add-on face limitations on total sends and basic reporting.

Close doesn't provide a conventional mail merge interface, but it allows you to create multi-step drip campaigns using its Workflows engine, integrating email, calls, and SMS into a single sequence. You can enroll leads, customize messages with templates, and let Close automatically send steps at your preferred cadence, tracking every interaction in its unified Inbox. However, Close lacks a visual campaign builder and detailed email analytics, meaning you won't have access to open-rate trends or A/B testing insights in the user interface.

Open and Click Tracking

HubSpot Sales monitors opens and clicks for every one-to-one email dispatched from contact records or through the Sales extension, providing real-time desktop notifications and logging each interaction on the timeline. Note that click tracking is available only with a paid Sales Hub seat—free users can only see opens—and you can check total clicks per link directly in the email activity feed. Advanced attribution features, such as multi-variant link analysis across campaigns, are part of Marketing Hub; thus, pure Sales Hub users won't have access to enterprise-level click analytics without the additional add-on.

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

In-Inbox CRM Experience

With the HubSpot Sales extension installed, you can easily view and edit HubSpot records—such as contacts, companies, and deals—right within Gmail or Outlook. You can enroll contacts in sequences and log emails with a single click. A familiar CRM sidebar appears next to your inbox, allowing you to create tasks, send template replies, and view recent interactions without needing to switch applications. Additionally, it displays lead scores and deal forecasts inline, ensuring that every action you take in your email contributes directly to your pipeline. However, keep in mind that if you don’t have a paid Sales or Service Hub seat, some features like sequences and call logging will be locked behind a paywall.

Close does not offer a native sidebar for Gmail or Outlook, but you can integrate it with Missive to manage contacts, leads, and opportunities directly from your inbox. Emails sent or received in your mail client will automatically appear in Close’s unified activity stream without the need for manual BCCs, maintaining context. However, you’ll still need 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 the seamless, interconnected email workflow they need. It consolidates communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing within a clean, user-friendly CRM. With a remarkable 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the top lightweight CRMs for contemporary sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and growing sales teams of 20-50, folk streamlines email operations without overwhelming users.

Extract Insights from Emails

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

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

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s native sequencing engine simplifies the creation of automated outreach flows right within the CRM. You can design multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and ensure every interaction is automatically logged. Whether nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging dormant deals, folk provides a robust yet straightforward sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to automatically send emails 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 will slip through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk notifies you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights cold conversations, and pinpoints the ideal times to re-engage. It functions like a built-in assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without the need for 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 required.

Conclusion

In summary, HubSpot excels with its comprehensive feature set and robust email tracking, making it ideal for larger teams seeking integration across marketing and sales. Close CRM offers a seamless email and communication experience, tailored for high-velocity sales environments. However, for teams prioritizing email integration, automation, and sequencing without unnecessary complexity, folk stands out as the best alternative. Its user-friendly design, powerful automation capabilities, and AI-driven insights make it the ultimate choice for email-centric sales teams.

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