Email is the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication: it facilitates deal progression, enables follow-ups, and fosters deeper relationships.

As teams increasingly depend on automated outreach, multi-channel engagement, and detailed tracking, CRMs are stepping up their game, particularly in the realm of native email integrations.

While both HubSpot and Zoho CRM feature built-in email workflows, their depth, usability, and effects on daily sales activities vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity and seeking efficient email execution, folk offers one of the cleanest and most powerful email integrations within any CRM, simplifying the process of sending, tracking, and automating outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Effective email integration elevates a CRM from a mere database to a cohesive communication hub. By eliminating the need to switch tabs or utilize disconnected 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 with the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at optimal times without manual intervention.
• Real-time tracking. Metrics like open rates, clicks, and replies are integrated directly into the CRM, informing the next steps.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enhance contact profiles with context and conversation histories.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates ensure team consistency and save time.
• Outreach automation. Facilitate bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages according to deal stages or contact activities.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, sales reps no longer juggle multiple tools and can concentrate on conversations that drive revenue. That distinction is what elevates a good CRM to 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 users to connect their personal Gmail and Outlook accounts, enabling representatives to send one-to-one emails, log replies, and initiate sequences directly from the CRM or their inbox. Features like open and click tracking, templates, and shared timelines enhance visibility of email interactions 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 wide-ranging app ecosystem. Its email integration supports Zoho Mail, Gmail, Outlook, and other IMAP services, 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 HubSpot and Zoho CRM

Integration Capabilities

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

Zoho’s Email Insights add-on enables you to directly sync Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP provider with Zoho CRM, automatically logging messages and attachments to the appropriate records. You can select which folders to include, ensuring that irrelevant threads are excluded from your CRM while capturing every opportunity-driven email. Additionally, Zoho Calendar offers two-way syncing 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 functions almost in real time with Gmail and Outlook, usually reflecting changes within seconds to a minute. Once your account is connected, HubSpot maintains a continuous connection via OAuth, ensuring that message data is constantly pushed and pulled, keeping your CRM timeline updated. Its reliability is further enhanced by HubSpot’s global cloud infrastructure, which guarantees an impressive 99.99% uptime for core services.

Similarly, Zoho’s Email Insights add-on establishes a live connection to your mail provider using IMAP IDLE or OAuth, enabling near-instant message synchronization. You can expect emails to appear in the CRM timeline within seconds of receipt, complete with attachments and metadata. The two-way calendar sync is equally prompt for Google Calendar, Office 365, and iCal, with Zoho’s built-in retry logic effectively managing any occasional disruptions.

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 at once and send hundreds of personalized emails per user each day. The intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, manages delays, and detects replies. Meanwhile, Marketing Hub enhances your reach, enabling you to scale to thousands of recipients with advanced 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 who don’t have this add-on may encounter limitations in total sends and experience more basic reporting.

Zoho CRM facilitates email sync through POP/IMAP or OAuth for Outlook, Gmail, and any IMAP provider. Once configured in Settings > Channels > Email, both inbound and outbound messages are automatically linked to the corresponding lead or contact record.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise enable powerful one-to-one sequences, allowing you to enroll up to 50 contacts at once and send hundreds of personalized emails daily per user. Its intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, scheduling delays, and reply detection, while the Marketing Hub accommodates thousands of recipients with advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, since the most potent campaign features reside in Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users lacking this add-on encounter restrictions on total sends and more basic reporting capabilities.

Zoho CRM’s Mass Email tool allows you to send up to 1,000 emails daily per user, featuring customizable templates and merge tags for enhanced personalization. For larger campaigns, Zoho Campaigns integrates seamlessly, offering sophisticated segmentation, a drag-and-drop design interface, and analytics on delivery, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. However, as Zoho Campaigns is a separate product, managing billing and user permissions across two systems may introduce additional administrative challenges.

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 is available only to paid Sales Hub users—free users can track opens exclusively—and you can view the 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; pure Sales Hub users won't have access to enterprise-level click analytics without this add-on.

On the other hand, Zoho CRM’s basic Email Insights automatically track opens when you send emails using Gmail or Outlook connectors, while link-click tracking can be enabled through the ZeptoMail integration for comprehensive click-through data. Without ZeptoMail, CRM users can only see opens; full click analytics necessitate the separate transactional email product, which incurs additional costs and configuration steps.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

With the HubSpot Sales extension installed, you can access and modify HubSpot records—contacts, companies, and deals—directly within Gmail or Outlook. You can enroll contacts in sequences and log emails with just a click. A user-friendly CRM sidebar appears next to your inbox, allowing you to create tasks, send template replies, and view recent interactions without switching apps. It even displays lead scores and deal forecasts inline, ensuring that every email action 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 unavailable behind a paywall.

Zoho’s eWidget serves as a sidebar in Zoho Mail, Gmail, or Outlook, enabling you to add leads, check contact details, and log emails without leaving your inbox. You can view deal stages, tasks, and meeting notes inline, and easily send predefined templates or create new records with a click. However, this sidebar functionality is restricted to those specific email clients—if you use Thunderbird or another service, you’ll miss out on this convenient in-inbox experience.

folk CRM: The Best Email CRM

folk empowers teams with a seamless and connected email workflow they've long desired. 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 emerges as one of the top lightweight CRMs for modern sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and scaling sales teams of 20-50, folk ensures email operations are smooth, not overwhelming.

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. With native email sync for Gmail and Outlook, along with AI-driven analysis, teams can:

• Easily recap past conversations with a single click using folk's Recap assistant, which gathers information from emails and notes to draft a summary, giving you context in seconds.
• Timely follow-up as AI scans conversations to alert you when to reach out to a contact and prepares a reply.

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 variables, and automatically log every interaction. Whether nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging inactive deals, folk provides a powerful yet straightforward sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for additional tools.

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

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

The AI Follow-Up feature in folk guarantees that no conversation slips through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk notifies you when a contact hasn't replied, highlights conversations that have cooled off, and pinpoints the ideal time to re-engage. It functions like an integrated 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 needed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, HubSpot excels with its comprehensive email integration and advanced analytics, making it ideal for larger teams seeking visibility across interactions. Zoho CRM offers versatile customization and a broad app ecosystem, attracting businesses needing flexibility.

For teams that prioritize seamless email integration, automation, and efficient sequencing, folk stands out as the best choice. Its user-friendly interface, AI-driven follow-ups, and centralized communication streamline email operations, empowering teams to focus on driving revenue effortlessly.

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