Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
LinkedIn has evolved beyond a mere networking site: It has become the largest battlefield for B2B sales.
Choosing the right CRM can determine whether you command your pipeline or get lost amid the noise. In the debate of Hubspot vs Pipedrive, the critical question extends beyond features. It's about which platform provides you with the smartest advantage for cultivating relationships, tracking engagement, and converting LinkedIn discussions into closed deals.
While both Hubspot and Pipedrive have their merits, if you seek a CRM tailored specifically for LinkedIn workflows, folk CRM frequently sets a new standard.
Why a CRM for LinkedIn Is Essential in 2025
LinkedIn has emerged as the epicenter of B2B sales. By 2025, nearly every key decision-maker you wish to connect with will be active there—sharing insights, interacting with peers, and making real-time purchasing decisions. If your sales strategy isn't fine-tuned for LinkedIn, you're undoubtedly missing out on valuable opportunities. A CRM designed for LinkedIn is no longer merely beneficial; it has become the foundation for effective prospecting, relationship-building, and pipeline expansion.
The true power lies in its capacity to facilitate a multi-touch sales journey. Sending a single cold email and hoping for the best is no longer sufficient. With the right CRM, you can effortlessly track, manage, and engage prospects across various channels:
- Initiate conversations on LinkedIn. Connect, comment, and foster familiarity in the space where your buyers already engage.
- Follow up through email or calls. Your CRM preserves context, ensuring each interaction feels personal.
- Cultivate relationships over time. By syncing LinkedIn activities, you'll know the optimal moments to engage and close.
In 2025, the teams that succeed will be those that meet prospects in their online habitats. LinkedIn is where business transpires. Without a CRM designed to harness its full potential, every outreach effort risks becoming slower, less focused, and increasingly difficult to scale.
What is Hubspot?
HubSpot is a premier all-in-one CRM that unifies marketing, sales, and service on a single platform. With its user-friendly tools, managing contacts, tracking pipelines, and automating outreach is a breeze. Integrated analytics and seamless connections with other tools empower teams to enhance performance and grow effortlessly.
What is Pipedrive?
Pipedrive is a sales-oriented CRM that emphasizes visual pipelines and user-friendliness. Its straightforward interface simplifies deal tracking and activity scheduling. Furthermore, automated workflows and intelligent contact data integrations ensure your sales process remains efficient.
Feature comparison of Hubspot and Pipedrive
AI Follow-ups
HubSpot lacks native LinkedIn profile capture, which means you can't add a LinkedIn contact to your CRM with just one click, and its Chrome extension doesn't integrate with LinkedIn at all. The only solution is to use third-party tools like Surfe or Leadjet to import LinkedIn profiles into HubSpot. This creates an additional step for users engaged in outbound prospecting on LinkedIn, hindering efficiency, as HubSpot isn't designed to facilitate seamless LinkedIn data collection.
On the other hand, Pipedrive also doesn't provide native LinkedIn profile capture; however, it does support third-party tools and extensions that can extract essential details like name, company, job title, and profile URL into the contact record. Although this feature isn't built-in, the integration is smooth and serves as an effective workaround for teams conducting high-volume outreach on LinkedIn.
Automated Contact Enrichment
HubSpot does not automatically enrich leads using LinkedIn data. Although the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration allows you to view LinkedIn profile information within HubSpot, it does not enable syncing or enrichment of contact records. Any enrichment, such as email, phone number, or job title, must come from other HubSpot sources, like email tracking or integrated tools. Therefore, if your primary leads are sourced from LinkedIn, be prepared to manually update CRM fields or rely on a third-party enrichment solution.
Pipedrive also does not automatically enrich contacts with LinkedIn data. The Sales Navigator add-on permits you to view details like job title and company, but it does not sync this information into your CRM fields. To enrich records with email addresses, phone numbers, or company details, you'll need to utilize a separate enrichment tool like Lusha or Kaspr. This creates a manual gap in the lead qualification process, especially for pipelines heavily reliant on LinkedIn.
Smart Fields
HubSpot lacks native tracking for LinkedIn activity. Therefore, any InMail or DM sent through LinkedIn won't show up in the contact timeline unless you manually log it. While the Sales Navigator integration provides insights into mutual connections and job changes, it fails to capture interaction history. This creates silos within teams, leaving LinkedIn communications out of the CRM—a significant drawback when LinkedIn is integral to your sales strategy.
Similarly, Pipedrive does not support message templates for LinkedIn. You can craft templates for emails and campaigns within the CRM, but these templates are not available for LinkedIn DMs. The Sales Navigator add-on also does not enable message automation or prefilled outreach, requiring reps to manually copy their messages each time, which is far from ideal for teams looking to streamline and scale their LinkedIn prospecting efforts.
AI-Powered Message & Sequence Generation
HubSpot lacks native tracking for LinkedIn activity. Consequently, any InMail or DM sent through LinkedIn won't be reflected in the contact timeline unless logged manually. Although the Sales Navigator integration provides insights into mutual connections and job changes, it does not track interaction history. This limitation forces teams to work in silos, rendering LinkedIn communications invisible within the CRM, which is a significant drawback when LinkedIn plays a role in your sales strategy.
Similarly, Pipedrive does not automatically track LinkedIn conversations. If a representative sends a DM or InMail, it will remain unrecorded in the CRM unless someone logs it manually. Even with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, the platform only displays the contact's profile information and fails to retrieve messaging history. Sales managers seeking comprehensive visibility into outreach efforts will find LinkedIn activity in Pipedrive lacking.
Next Best Action
The HubSpot Chrome extension is tailored for Gmail and Outlook, not for LinkedIn, meaning it won't display or function while you're viewing LinkedIn profiles. It lacks features for capturing LinkedIn contacts, enriching data, or sending messages via the extension. If you desire a smooth LinkedIn workflow directly in your browser, HubSpot unfortunately does not provide that capability; you'll need to depend on integrations or third-party tools.
Pipedrive's official Chrome extension is also designed for Gmail and does not interact with LinkedIn. There’s no overlay for LinkedIn browsing, no capture button, and no messaging support. Yet, the Surfe Chrome extension addresses this issue by enabling reps to capture and sync LinkedIn data into Pipedrive. While it’s not a built-in feature, it’s the only solution to integrate LinkedIn functionality directly into your browser with this CRM.
folk CRM: The Best CRM Alternative for LinkedIn!
folk is the sales assistant every team has been longing for. Crafted to be simple, integrated, and proactive, this CRM handles the repetitive tasks so your reps can concentrate on what truly matters: fostering genuine relationships on LinkedIn and beyond. With an impressive 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the most reliable AI-powered CRMs for lean and ambitious teams.
Tailored specifically for startups, agencies, and sales-driven teams, folk makes AI practical, efficient, and easy to manage. It accelerates the transformation of LinkedIn connections into qualified opportunities while ensuring a seamless workflow.
1. Instant LinkedIn Prospect Capture with the folkX Extension
Prospecting on LinkedIn can be time-consuming, but folk simplifies the process. With the folkX Chrome extension, you can effortlessly capture leads from LinkedIn or Sales Navigator and add them directly to your CRM with just one click. Whether saving a single profile or hundreds from a filtered search, every detail—including names, job titles, companies, and emails—is automatically imported into your database.
Say goodbye to copy-pasting and juggling multiple spreadsheets. Your entire prospect list is neatly organized in one location, fully synced with your workflows, allowing your team to move swiftly and focus on converting connections into opportunities instead of wasting hours on manual data entry!
2. Smart Data Enrichment and Always-Clean Contact Profiles
Connecting with decision-makers is only effective when you have complete and accurate data. folk removes the hassle of tedious research by automatically enriching your LinkedIn contacts with verified emails, company details, phone numbers, and roles. With a single click, you can access everything needed to personalize your outreach and initiate meaningful conversations.
The platform employs intelligent deduplication to maintain a clean and reliable database, even when multiple team members are adding the same contacts. Instead of wasting time managing chaotic spreadsheets or guessing who owns which lead, folk keeps your data organized and current, ensuring every LinkedIn outreach is relevant and impactful.
3. Personalized LinkedIn Outreach with AI-Generated Message Templates
folk revolutionizes your approach to prospects on LinkedIn by providing AI-powered message templates directly within the LinkedIn inbox. When you start a conversation, you instantly receive smart suggestions for connection requests, follow-ups, and outreach messages tailored to your prospect’s profile and context.
You can edit, personalize, and send them manually, ensuring full compliance with LinkedIn’s policies. There’s no risky automation or tedious copy-pasting between tools—everything occurs right where the conversation begins, making your outreach faster, more relevant, and far more natural.
Summary: folk CRM's LinkedIn Features
- Capture leads instantly with the folkX Chrome extension, importing LinkedIn and Sales Navigator profiles in one click, with every detail automatically organized in your CRM.
- Enrich contact data effortlessly by retrieving verified emails, company details, and roles, while maintaining a clean and accurate database through smart deduplication.
- Send smarter LinkedIn messages using AI-powered templates directly within the LinkedIn inbox, allowing you to personalize outreach quickly without resorting to risky automation!
Conclusion
In the HubSpot vs. Pipedrive debate, HubSpot excels in all-in-one capabilities, while Pipedrive is favored for its visual pipeline and user-friendly interface. However, for teams focused on LinkedIn, folk CRM stands out as a superior alternative. It offers seamless lead capture, automatic data enrichment, and AI-generated messaging templates, all designed for LinkedIn. This ensures faster prospecting and better engagement, empowering teams to convert connections into valuable relationships.
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