Email is the foundation of contemporary sales communication, facilitating deal progression, follow-ups, and relationship building.

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

While both HubSpot and Streak provide built-in email workflows, their effectiveness, user-friendliness, and influence on daily sales processes vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity and swift, dependable email execution, folk stands out with one of the most streamlined and robust email integrations available in any CRM, enabling easy outreach, tracking, and automation directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Effective email integration elevates a CRM from a basic database to a cohesive communication hub. Rather than toggling between tabs or using disjointed tools, sales representatives can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement all in one place.

• Centralized communication: All emails—whether sent or received—sync automatically to the corresponding contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups: Automated reminders and sequences allow reps to follow up precisely when needed, eliminating manual effort.
• Real-time tracking: Open rates, clicks, and replies are directly fed into the CRM, informing the next steps.
• Cleaner data: Emails enhance contact profiles in real-time with context and conversation history.
• Email templates: Reusable, personalized templates ensure teams maintain consistency and save time.
• Outreach automation: Send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stages or contact interactions.

When a CRM seamlessly manages email, sales reps can shift their focus from juggling tools to engaging in conversations that drive revenue. This distinction is what separates 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 into a single contact database. With email integration, users can connect their personal Gmail and Outlook accounts, allowing representatives to send individual emails, log replies, and initiate sequences directly from the CRM or their inbox. Features like open and click tracking, templates, and shared timelines ensure that email activity is transparent across the entire revenue team.

What is Streak?

Streak is a lightweight CRM seamlessly integrated within Gmail, transforming your inbox into a collaborative pipeline for sales, support, and account management. Users can manage deals, track stages, and collaborate on threads without switching tabs, all from the familiar Gmail interface. At its core, Streak emphasizes email, providing real-time tracking and pipeline views that enhance your existing Gmail conversations.

Feature comparison of HubSpot and Streak

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 syncs meeting events to Google Calendar or Office 365, complete with automatic guest invites and timeline entries for comprehensive visibility.

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, transforming your inbox into a fully functional CRM without the need for additional windows or applications. Every email you send or receive is automatically recorded in the appropriate pipeline and shared across your team's workspace, ensuring you have an up-to-date timeline for each deal without the hassle of manual bcc’ing.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

HubSpot’s email synchronization operates almost in real time with Gmail and Outlook, typically reflecting changes within seconds to a minute. Once your account is connected, HubSpot establishes a continuous connection via OAuth, constantly pushing and pulling message data, keeping your CRM timeline up to date. Its reliability is further enhanced by HubSpot’s global cloud infrastructure, which offers an impressive 99.99% uptime for core services.

In contrast, Streak’s email sync occurs in real time since it operates within Gmail’s own infrastructure. As soon as you send or receive a message, Streak instantly logs it to the corresponding pipeline, ensuring your team has immediate access to the latest activity. There is virtually no lag or queuing—messages and thread updates show up simultaneously in both your inbox and Streak’s interface. By integrating directly with Gmail, you also gain the advantage of Google’s exceptional uptime and reliability.

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 facilitates template creation, manages delays, and detects replies. Meanwhile, Marketing Hub can scale to thousands of recipients, equipped with features like segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, since the most advanced campaign capabilities are found in Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users lacking this add-on will encounter limitations on total sends and experience more basic reporting.

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, merging your inbox with your CRM seamlessly. Every email you send or receive is automatically logged in real time to the corresponding box, providing instant two-way email synchronization without any additional setup. Regarding calendar functionality, Streak allows a one-way push of tasks into Google Calendar: tasks scheduled or completed in Streak will appear on your calendar instantly, but changes or new entries made in Google Calendar will not sync back to Streak.

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 per user each day. Its intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, manages delays, and detects replies. Meanwhile, Marketing Hub accommodates thousands of recipients with features like segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics for 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 basic reporting.

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is integrated directly into Gmail, enabling you to send personalized mass emails to hundreds of recipients in less than two minutes—eliminating the need for CSV imports or third-party applications. You can seamlessly insert custom variables (such as first names, company details, and deal data) from your pipelines, schedule automatic follow-up sequences within the same thread, and even A/B test subject lines to enhance reply rates. Each sent message and follow-up is effortlessly logged in your Streak timeline, ensuring you maintain visibility on who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, Streak’s campaign features lack advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won't receive detailed reports on unsubscribes or bounce handling without incorporating another tool.

Open and Click Tracking

HubSpot Sales monitors opens and clicks for every one-to-one email sent from contact records or via 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 check 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 have access to enterprise-level click analytics without the add-on.

Streak integrates a small tracking pixel and link tracker directly within Gmail, allowing you to see real-time “eye” icons that indicate each time an email is opened or a link is clicked in a thread. By hovering over the green eye, you can access timestamps, locations, and click data for each link without leaving your inbox. Since it’s built entirely on Gmail’s API, setup is virtually nonexistent, providing instant feedback; however, aggregated campaign dashboards and multi-link heat-mapping are not available beyond individual message views.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

With the HubSpot Sales extension, you can seamlessly 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 just one click. A familiar CRM sidebar appears next to your inbox, enabling you to create tasks, send template replies, and review recent interactions without switching applications. It even displays lead scores and deal forecasts inline, ensuring that every email action contributes to your pipeline. The only downside is that if you lack a paid Sales or Service Hub seat, some in-inbox features—like sequences and call logging—are locked behind a paywall.

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, providing full CRM functionality—pipelines, contact details, and email logging—without requiring you to leave your inbox. The sidebar displays deal stages, custom fields, and shared notes with each thread, keeping context readily available. You can effortlessly drag and drop emails into different pipelines or update statuses on the fly, creating a unified experience between your inbox and CRM. However, since Streak is exclusive to Gmail, this integrated in-inbox experience will not be available if you switch to Outlook or another email client.

folk CRM: The Ultimate Email CRM

folk provides teams with the seamless, connected email workflow they've been lacking. It centralizes communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing, all within a sleek and user-friendly CRM. With a stellar 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the top lightweight CRMs tailored for modern sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and growing sales teams of 20-50 members, folk streamlines email operations, making them smooth rather than overwhelming.

Extract Intel from Emails

One of folk's standout features is its ability to centralize communication, converting 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 gathers information from emails and notes to generate a summary, giving you immediate context.
• Follow up at the right moment as AI analyzes conversations to alert you when it's time to reconnect with a contact and even draft a response.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk's native sequencing engine makes it straightforward to create automated outreach flows right within the CRM. You can design multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and automatically log every interaction. Whether nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging dormant deals, folk provides a powerful yet simple sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to automatically trigger emails, such as when a deal closes or when you gain a new lead.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

With folk’s AI Follow-Up feature, no conversation falls through the cracks. It analyzes your email history to notify you when a contact hasn't responded, brings attention to cooling conversations, and pinpoints the ideal time to re-engage. It functions like a built-in assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—no manual tracking necessary.

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

Conclusion

In conclusion, HubSpot excels with its comprehensive features and robust analytics but can be complex for smaller teams. Streak offers seamless integration within Gmail, making it a go-to for users who prefer simplicity and real-time updates. However, for teams that prioritize effective email integration, automation, and sequencing, folk is the superior choice. Its user-friendly interface, native email capabilities, and AI-driven follow-ups position it as the ultimate CRM for sales teams focused on maximizing their email productivity.

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