Email is the cornerstone of modern sales communication; it's 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 on the quality of their native email integrations.

While both HubSpot and Zoho CRM provide built-in email workflows, their depth, usability, and effects on daily sales operations vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity and desiring fast, reliable email functionality, folk offers one of the most streamlined and powerful email integrations within any CRM—facilitating seamless sending, tracking, and automation of outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Does Email Integration Matter?

Robust email integration elevates a CRM from a mere database to a cohesive communication hub. Rather than toggling between tabs or depending on disjointed tools, representatives can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement all in one location.

• Centralized communication. All emails—whether sent or received—sync automatically to the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at the ideal moment without manual intervention.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies are directly fed into the CRM to inform next steps.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enrich contact profiles with context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates ensure team 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, representatives can shift focus from juggling tools to engaging in conversations that drive revenue—this distinction sets apart a good CRM from one that truly accelerates sales!

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 users to connect their personal Gmail and Outlook inboxes, enabling representatives to send one-to-one emails, log replies, and initiate sequences directly from the CRM or their inbox. With features like open and click tracking, templates, and shared timelines, email activity is transparent across the entire revenue team.

What is Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM is a versatile, all-in-one CRM designed for businesses seeking extensive customization and a rich ecosystem of business applications. Its email integration accommodates Zoho Mail, Gmail, Outlook, and other IMAP providers, allowing teams to send, receive, and archive messages seamlessly within the CRM. With shared inbox views, basic tracking, and automation, email interactions become integral to a broader omnichannel engagement strategy.

Feature comparison of HubSpot and Zoho CRM

Integration Capabilities

HubSpot provides seamless 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 all replies in your CRM timeline. Its native scheduler efficiently records meeting events back into Google Calendar or Office 365, complete with automatic guest invites and timeline entries for comprehensive visibility.

On the other hand, Zoho’s Email Insights add-on enables you to sync Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP provider directly with Zoho CRM, automatically logging messages and attachments to the appropriate records. You have the flexibility to select which folders to include, ensuring that irrelevant threads are excluded from your CRM while capturing every email that could drive opportunities. Additionally, Zoho Calendar syncs in both directions with Google, Office 365, or iCal, ensuring that meeting invites and updates are reflected in both your personal calendar and CRM timeline.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

HubSpot’s email synchronization operates in near real-time with Gmail and Outlook, reflecting changes typically within seconds to a minute. After connecting your account, HubSpot keeps a constant connection through OAuth, continuously pushing and pulling message data to ensure your CRM timeline is always up to date. Its reliability is further enhanced by HubSpot’s global cloud infrastructure, which boasts an impressive 99.99% uptime for core services.

Similarly, Zoho’s Email Insights add-on maintains a live connection to your email provider using IMAP IDLE or OAuth, allowing for near real-time message syncing. You can expect emails to show up in the CRM timeline within seconds of receipt, 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 managing any intermittent failures.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise offer powerful one-to-one sequences, enabling 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 enhances capabilities, allowing you to reach thousands of recipients through segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, Sales Hub users without this add-on may encounter restrictions on total sends and basic reporting, as the most advanced campaign features are housed within Marketing Hub.

Zoho CRM facilitates email synchronization using POP/IMAP or OAuth with Outlook, Gmail, and any IMAP provider. Once set up in Settings > Channels > Email, both inbound and outbound messages automatically link to the corresponding lead or contact record.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise offer powerful one-to-one sequences, enabling users to enroll up to 50 contacts at once and send hundreds of personalized emails daily. Its intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder streamlines template creation, sets delays, and detects replies, while the Marketing Hub accommodates thousands of recipients with features like segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, Sales Hub users without the Marketing Hub add-on encounter restrictions on total sends and receive more basic reporting due to the advanced capabilities being exclusive to Marketing Hub.

Zoho CRM’s Mass Email tool allows users to send up to 1,000 emails daily, complete with customizable templates and merge tags for added personalization. For larger campaigns, Zoho Campaigns integrates effortlessly, providing advanced segmentation, a drag-and-drop design interface, and detailed analytics on delivery rates, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Yet, since Zoho Campaigns operates as a separate product, managing billing and user permissions across two platforms can create extra administrative work.

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. While click tracking necessitates a paid Sales Hub seat—free users can only track opens—you can easily view total clicks per link directly in the email activity feed. For advanced attribution features like multi-variant link analysis across campaigns, you'll need to leverage the Marketing Hub, as pure Sales Hub users won't have access to enterprise-level click analytics without the add-on.

Zoho CRM offers basic Email Insights that automatically track opens when you send emails via Gmail or Outlook connectors, and you can activate link-click tracking through the ZeptoMail integration to access comprehensive click-through data. Without ZeptoMail, CRM users can only view opens; to obtain full click analytics, you’ll need the separate transactional email product, which incurs additional costs and configuration steps.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

With the HubSpot Sales extension installed, 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 convenient CRM sidebar appears next to your inbox, enabling you to create tasks, send template replies, and view recent interactions without needing to switch between 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, be aware that if you don’t have a paid Sales or Service Hub seat, some in-inbox features (like sequences and call logging) remain inaccessible behind a paywall.

Zoho’s eWidget integrates as a sidebar in Zoho Mail, Gmail, or Outlook, allowing you to add leads, access contact details, and log emails without exiting your mailbox. You can view deal stages, tasks, and meeting notes inline, as well as send predefined templates or create new records with a simple click. It's important to note, though, that this sidebar functionality is limited to those specific email clients; using Thunderbird or other services means you’ll miss out on this in-inbox convenience.

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 clean and user-friendly CRM. With a 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 members, folk streamlines email operations without overwhelming users.

Extract Intelligence from Emails

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

• Easily recap past conversations in just one click using folk's Recap assistant, which compiles information from emails and notes to create a summary, providing context in seconds.
• Follow up at optimal times, as AI scans conversations to notify you when it’s time to reach out to a contact and even drafts replies for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s built-in sequencing engine enables you to create automated outreach flows directly within the CRM. You can design multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM variables, and ensure every interaction is automatically logged. Whether you're nurturing leads, conducting outbound campaigns, or re-engaging inactive 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 send emails, such as when a deal is closed or when a new lead is acquired.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

folk’s AI Follow-Up feature guarantees that no conversation slips through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk alerts you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights conversations that have gone cold, and identifies the ideal times to reconnect. It functions like an in-house assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without any 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 required.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while HubSpot excels in robust integrations and comprehensive tracking features, and Zoho CRM offers extensive customization and multi-channel capabilities, folk stands out as the best choice for teams focused on email integration, automation, and sequencing. With its seamless email workflows, AI-driven follow-up reminders, and user-friendly interface, folk transforms emails into actionable insights, making it the ultimate CRM for sales teams that prioritize effective communication without the clutter. Choose folk for a CRM that truly enhances your email-driven sales process.

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