Email is the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication: it's where deals progress, follow-ups occur, and relationships strengthen.

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

While HubSpot and Pipedrive both provide built-in email workflows, their depth, usability, and effects on daily sales operations vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity and seeking fast, reliable email execution, folk offers one of the most streamlined and effective email integrations in any CRM, making it easier to send, track, and automate outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Robust email integration elevates a CRM from a mere database to a cohesive communication hub. Instead of toggling between tabs or depending on disparate tools, sales reps can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement all in one place.

• Centralized communication. All emails—both sent and received—sync automatically with the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at the optimal moment without manual effort.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies integrate directly into the CRM to inform next steps.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enrich contact profiles with 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 deal stages or contact activities.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, reps can focus on conversations that drive revenue instead of juggling tools. This distinction sets apart a good CRM from one that genuinely accelerates sales!

What is HubSpot?

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

What is Pipedrive?

Pipedrive is a sales-centric CRM designed around a visual pipeline that aids representatives in tracking deals from initial contact to closure. Its email synchronization integrates with Gmail, Outlook, and other IMAP providers, automatically logging every message to the appropriate contact and deal. With a built-in sales inbox, tracking capabilities, and basic campaign features, teams can manage outreach and pipeline updates seamlessly, avoiding the hassle of juggling multiple tools.

Feature comparison of HubSpot and Pipedrive

Integration Capabilities

HubSpot provides seamless two-way email integration with 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 integrates with Google Calendar or Office 365, creating meeting events with automatic guest invitations and timeline entries for complete visibility.

Pipedrive’s email sync directly connects to Gmail and Outlook, utilizing IMAP for other providers to capture every inbound and outbound message linked to the appropriate contact or deal record. With the Smart Email BCC address option, you can log messages without leaving your email client; simply add the dynamic BCC, and Pipedrive handles the rest. Its native calendar integration for Google and Microsoft calendars ensures all meetings automatically appear on contact timelines, providing a comprehensive view of every customer interaction.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

HubSpot’s email synchronization operates in near real-time with Gmail and Outlook, typically reflecting changes within seconds to a minute. Once your account is connected, HubSpot maintains a constant connection via OAuth, continuously pushing and pulling message data to ensure your CRM timeline is always current. This reliability is enhanced by HubSpot’s global cloud infrastructure, which boasts an impressive 99.99% uptime for its core services.

Pipedrive’s email sync with Gmail and Outlook is set to run every few minutes, striking a balance between immediacy and performance. Outbound and inbound messages are captured and matched to contacts or deals in under five minutes, minimizing the chance of missing or delayed logs. Additionally, the IMAP fallback utilizes standard IMAP IDLE protocols for push notifications, providing near-instant updates for compatible providers.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise provide powerful one-to-one sequences, allowing you to enroll up to 50 contacts simultaneously and send hundreds of personalized emails per user daily. The intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder streamlines template creation, incorporates delays, and detects replies, while Marketing Hub scales to accommodate thousands of recipients, offering segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, since the most advanced campaign features reside in Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users without this add-on encounter limitations on total sends and more basic reporting.

Freshsales comes with native Gmail and Outlook plugins, offering a choice between two-way or one-way email sync at setup, with two-way sync set as the default. This ensures that both incoming and outgoing emails are seamlessly integrated into your mailbox and CRM timeline. Additionally, Freshsales supports bi-directional calendar synchronization with Google Calendar and Office 365, allowing appointments scheduled in either your inbox or the CRM to reflect automatically, keeping your meeting history aligned with email conversations on the same timeline.

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 simultaneously and send hundreds of personalized emails daily per user. The intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, delays, and reply detection, while Marketing Hub expands your reach to thousands of recipients, complete with segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, because the most advanced campaign features reside in Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users who lack this add-on face limits on total sends and basic reporting capabilities.

On Advanced plans and higher, Pipedrive’s Group Emailing enables you to select up to 100 contacts from any list to send bulk messages, complete with merge tags and reply tracking. The Pipedrive Campaigns add-on offers a dedicated module for creating email journeys, segmenting audiences, and analyzing open and click rates, with all replies automatically linked back to the corresponding deal or contact. The drawback? The Campaigns add-on comes with an additional cost, and its reporting features are more limited compared to dedicated email marketing platforms.

Open and Click Tracking

HubSpot Sales monitors 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, as free users can only see opens. You can view total clicks per link directly in the email activity feed. Advanced attribution features, such as multi-variant link analysis across campaigns, are available only in Marketing Hub; thus, Sales Hub users will not access enterprise-level click analytics without the add-on.

Pipedrive offers “Track email opening” and “Track link opening” toggles, allowing every sent message to capture both opens and clicks, complete with counts and timestamps in the Mail tab. You can enable or disable tracking for individual emails and see exactly who clicked which link right in the deal view. However, Pipedrive's reporting is limited to basic open and click rates, lacking built-in funnel visualization or heat-map insights unless data is exported to a BI tool.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

With the HubSpot Sales extension installed, you can effortlessly view and edit HubSpot records—contacts, companies, and deals—directly within Gmail or Outlook. You can enroll contacts in sequences and log emails with just one click. A user-friendly CRM sidebar appears next to your inbox, allowing you to create tasks, send template replies, and review recent interactions without the need to switch apps. It even displays lead scores and deal forecasts inline, ensuring that every action you take in your email contributes directly to your pipeline. However, it's important to note that if you lack a paid Sales or Service Hub seat, some of these in-inbox features, such as sequences and call logging, remain locked behind a paywall.

Pipedrive’s Gmail Add-on introduces a side panel in your inbox that lets you access contact and deal information, update stages, and add new activities without leaving Gmail. You gain instant access to Smart Email BCC, templates, and tracking options, making it easy to create new leads or deals with a single click. It effectively transforms your mailbox into a Pipedrive cockpit. Nonetheless, this impressive in-inbox functionality requires either Chrome or Edge, as there is no equivalent add-on available for desktop Outlook.

folk CRM: The Best Email CRM

folk provides teams with the seamless, interconnected email workflow they've been longing for. 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, ideal for modern sales and partnerships teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and sales teams scaling from 20 to 50 members, folk transforms email operations into a straightforward, manageable process.

Extract Intel from Emails

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

• Quickly recap past conversations with a single click using folk's Recap assistant, which gathers information from emails and notes to create a summary, giving you context in seconds.
• Receive timely follow-up reminders, as AI scans conversations to alert you when to reconnect with a contact and even drafts a response for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s integrated sequencing engine allows you to effortlessly create automated outreach flows within the CRM. You can design multi-step email sequences, personalize your messages using CRM fields, and automatically log every interaction. Whether you're nurturing leads, conducting outbound campaigns, or re-engaging inactive deals, folk provides a robust yet user-friendly sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to automatically send emails whenever specific actions occur, such as closing a deal or acquiring a new lead.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

With folk’s AI Follow-Up feature, no conversation slips through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk notifies you when a contact hasn't replied, highlights conversations that may have cooled off, and suggests optimal times for re-engagement. It functions like an internal assistant that keeps your inbox organized and your sales pipeline active—without the hassle of manual tracking.

folk starts at $20 per user per month, includes native email integration and sequences, and offers a 14-day free trial—no credit card needed.

Conclusion

In summary, HubSpot excels with its comprehensive integration and real-time sync, making it ideal for larger teams seeking extensive email capabilities. Pipedrive offers a visually intuitive pipeline with solid email features, perfect for sales-centric environments. However, for teams focused on email integration, automation, and seamless sequencing, folk stands out as the best alternative. Its streamlined interface, AI-powered follow-ups, and effortless email workflows make it the ultimate choice for teams that rely heavily on email communication in their sales processes.

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