Email serves as the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication; it’s where deals progress, follow-ups are initiated, and relationships are nurtured.

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

While both Pipedrive and Freshsales feature built-in email workflows, their depth, usability, and influence on daily sales operations vary significantly. For teams that prioritize simplicity and desire quick, dependable email functionality, folk offers one of the cleanest and most robust email integrations in any CRM, facilitating seamless sending, tracking, and automation of outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Effective email integration transforms a CRM from a basic database into a comprehensive communication hub. Instead of toggling between tabs or using disconnected tools, sales reps can send messages, automate follow-ups, and track engagement all in one place.

• Centralized communication. All emails—both sent and received—automatically sync to the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at optimal moments without manual input.
• Real-time tracking. Metrics like open rates, clicks, and replies are directly fed into the CRM, guiding subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enhance contact profiles with relevant 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 interactions.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, reps can abandon tool juggling and concentrate on the conversations that drive revenue. This distinction is what elevates a good CRM to one that genuinely accelerates sales!

What is Pipedrive?

Pipedrive is a sales-driven CRM designed around a visual pipeline that enables representatives to track deals from initial contact to closure. Its email synchronization feature connects seamlessly with Gmail, Outlook, and other IMAP providers, ensuring that every message is automatically logged to the appropriate contact and deal. With an integrated sales inbox, tracking capabilities, and essential campaign features, teams can manage outreach and pipeline updates in one centralized location, eliminating the need for multiple tools.

What is Freshsales?

Freshsales is Freshworks’ CRM tailored for small to mid-sized teams seeking a user-friendly interface with effective automation. Users can easily connect their Gmail or Microsoft 365 accounts and opt for either one-way or two-way synchronization, ensuring email threads remain in sync with the CRM. Paired with templates, bulk emailing capabilities, and activity timelines, email becomes central to how representatives manage their leads and opportunities.

Feature comparison of Pipedrive and Freshsales

Integration Capabilities

Pipedrive seamlessly integrates with Gmail and Outlook, using IMAP as a fallback for other providers to capture every inbound and outbound message associated with the appropriate contact or deal record. With the Smart Email BCC address feature, you can log messages directly from your email client—just add the dynamic BCC, and Pipedrive takes care of the rest. Additionally, the native calendar integration for Google and Microsoft calendars ensures that all your meetings automatically populate on contact timelines, providing a comprehensive view of every customer interaction.

Freshsales boasts native plugins for Gmail and Outlook that display email threads, scheduling tools, and related contact details right next to your inbox. Upon connecting, Freshsales scans incoming emails for recognized contact addresses and automatically logs conversations, allowing you to minimize clutter by selecting which folders to sync.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Pipedrive’s email synchronization with Gmail and Outlook operates every few minutes, striking a balance between promptness and system efficiency. Both outbound and inbound messages are captured and matched to contacts or deals in under five minutes, minimizing the chances of missing or delayed logs. The IMAP fallback adheres to standard IMAP IDLE protocols for push notifications, providing near-instant updates for compatible providers.

Freshsales utilizes native plugins to maintain a constant connection with your Gmail or Outlook account, syncing email and calendar events in real time. Incoming messages from known leads appear within seconds, and outgoing emails logged in the CRM instantly reflect in your email thread. Calendar events also update immediately, ensuring that meetings scheduled in Freshsales are promptly visible on your personal calendar.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

On Advanced plans and higher, Pipedrive’s Group Emailing feature allows you to select up to 100 contacts from any list to send bulk messages with merge tags and reply tracking. Additionally, the Pipedrive Campaigns add-on provides a dedicated module for crafting email journeys, segmenting audiences, and analyzing open and click rates. All replies are automatically linked to the appropriate deal or contact. However, it's worth noting that the Campaigns add-on comes with an extra cost and offers more limited reporting compared to independent email marketing platforms.

Freshsales, on the other hand, includes native Gmail and Outlook plugins, offering the option of two-way or one-way email sync upon setup, with two-way being the default. This ensures that both incoming and outgoing emails are seamlessly integrated into your CRM timeline. For calendar management, Freshsales supports bi-directional sync with Google Calendar and Office 365, meaning that appointments created in either your inbox or the CRM are reflected across both platforms, keeping meeting history alongside email conversations in a unified timeline.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

For users on Advanced plans or higher, Pipedrive’s Group Emailing feature allows you to choose up to 100 contacts from any list and send bulk messages with merge tags and reply tracking included. The Pipedrive Campaigns add-on offers a dedicated module for designing email journeys, segmenting audiences, and analyzing open and click rates, ensuring all replies are automatically linked to the correct deal or contact. However, it's worth noting that the Campaigns add-on comes with an additional cost and provides more limited reporting compared to dedicated email marketing platforms.

Freshsales, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive Marketing Campaigns module. By navigating to Campaigns > Email, you can easily create email blasts or automated Journeys based on user behaviors. With drag-and-drop templates, dynamic segments, and analytics dashboards, you can track delivery rates, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Built-in retry logic and ISP throttling enhance deliverability. Keep in mind that more advanced features like heat-map click analysis and AI-driven send-time optimization require an upgrade to Freshmarketer.

Open and Click Tracking

Pipedrive offers “Track email opening” and “Track link opening” toggles, ensuring that every sent message logs opens and clicks, complete with counts and timestamps in the Mail tab. You can easily enable or disable tracking for individual emails and view who clicked on which link right from the deal view. However, keep in mind that Pipedrive’s reporting is limited to basic open and click rates, lacking built-in funnel visualization or heat-map insights, which means you'll need to export data to a BI tool for more detailed analysis.

In Freshsales, you can activate “Track opens and clicks” in Settings > Email Settings, allowing every email sent via the native plugin to record open events and link clicks in the contact timeline. Delivery, open, and click metrics are displayed in both the Deal dashboard and the Campaigns module. Just be aware that open tracking relies on image-based pixels; if a recipient blocks images or views links in preview panes, you might encounter underreported statistics.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Pipedrive’s Gmail Add-on adds a side panel to your inbox, allowing you to view contact and deal details, update stages, and add new activities directly from Gmail. With instant access to Smart Email BCC, templates, and tracking toggles without leaving your inbox, you can create new leads or deals with just one click. It effectively transforms your mailbox into a Pipedrive cockpit. However, this functionality is limited to Chrome or Edge, as there is no equivalent add-on for desktop Outlook.

Freshsales’ native plugins for Gmail and Outlook seamlessly integrate your CRM sidebar into your inbox, displaying lead profiles, deal values, and previous email threads while you compose or read messages. You can log emails, schedule meetings, and initiate sequences, all with one-click synchronization back to Freshsales. Additionally, since the plugin includes calendar events in the same view, you enjoy a smooth combination of messages and appointments. However, if you prefer another mail client, you'll need to utilize IMAP sync instead of the complete plugin experience.

folk CRM: The Ultimate Email CRM

folk provides teams with the connected email workflow they've been missing. It centralizes communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing—all within a clean and intuitive CRM interface. With a 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk has established itself as one of the highest-rated lightweight CRMs tailored for modern sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and growing sales teams of 20-50, folk streamlines email operations without being overwhelming.

Extract Insights 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, along with AI-driven analysis. Teams can:

• Quickly recap past conversations with a click using folk's Recap assistant, which extracts information from emails and notes to draft a summary, giving you instant context.
• Follow up at the optimal time, as AI scans conversations to alert you when follow-ups are due, even drafting replies for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s built-in sequencing engine simplifies the creation of automated outreach flows right within the CRM. You can design multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and effortlessly log every interaction. Whether nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging dormant deals, folk provides a straightforward yet powerful sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to automate email sending, such as when a deal is closed or when a new lead comes in.

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 notifies you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights conversations that have cooled off, and pinpoints the ideal time to re-engage. It acts like a personal assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without any manual effort required.

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

Conclusion

In summary, Pipedrive excels with its visual pipeline and seamless integration with Gmail and Outlook, making it a solid choice for teams focused on deal tracking. Freshsales offers an intuitive interface and effective automation, ideal for small to mid-sized teams. However, for teams that prioritize email integration, automation, and sequencing, folk stands out as the best alternative. Its robust email workflows, AI-driven follow-ups, and seamless sequencing make it the ultimate CRM for optimizing email-driven sales strategies.

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