Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
Streak and ActiveCampaign are two CRM options that cater to different business needs. Streak, built directly within Gmail, is ideal for users seeking a simple, integrated tool for managing pipelines, emails, and contacts within their inbox. ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, combines CRM functionalities with powerful marketing automation and outreach tools, offering a more robust solution for businesses focused on customer engagement and multi-channel communication. This comparison will explore their key features, helping you decide which platform better suits your approach to customer relationship management. We'll also introduce folk, a popular alternative thanks to its flexibility and ease-of-use.
What is Streak?
Streak is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that integrates directly with Gmail, allowing users to manage their sales pipeline and customer interactions from within their email inbox. Designed to simplify CRM tasks, Streak offers features such as email tracking, mail merge, task management, and pipeline visualization, all seamlessly embedded in Gmail’s interface.
Key features of Streak
- Email tracking: Streak’s email tracking feature allows users to see when and if their emails are opened, providing basic insights into recipient engagement.
- Snippets: The snippets feature enables users to create reusable templates for frequently used email content, which helps to streamline communication.
- Link tracking: Streak's link tracking monitors whether recipients click on links within emails, offering data on engagement with specific content.
- Contacts: Streak's contact management feature organizes and tracks communications with individual contacts, directly within Gmail.
- Google Workspace integration: Streak is integrated with Google Workspace, allowing users to manage emails, tasks, and pipelines within the Gmail interface.
- External integrations: Streak supports integrations with various third-party tools, allowing users to extend its functionality beyond Gmail and Google Workspace.
What is ActiveCampaign?
Active Campaign is a marketing automation platform designed to help businesses of all sizes manage customer interactions and drive growth through personalized and automated communication.
Key features of ActiveCampaign
- Email marketing: Create personalized email campaigns with drag-and-drop templates, advanced segmentation, and automated sequences to engage your audience effectively.
- Marketing automation: Automate workflows for email, SMS, and site messages, based on user behavior and custom triggers, enhancing customer engagement and retention.
- Sales automation: Integrates a CRM with automation tools to streamline the sales process, track leads, manage deals, and automate follow-ups.
- CRM feature: Sales focused CRM to track and manage processes using automation.
Streak vs. ActiveCampaign: Feature Comparison
Let's break down the key features of two CRM software solutions and take a closer look at their sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management.
1. Sales pipeline management
Streak CRM's pipeline management feature is deeply integrated with Gmail, allowing users to track, organize, and manage sales processes directly from their inbox. The system uses a visual layout, similar to a spreadsheet with automation features. This integration makes it easy for users who rely heavily on Gmail for communication, providing a seamless experience without switching platforms.
On the other hand, ActiveCampaign's sales pipeline management feature is integrated with its CRM, enabling businesses to streamline their sales processes. It allows users to visually manage deals through customizable pipelines, automate tasks like follow-ups, and track every stage of the sales journey. ActiveCampaign offers a more robust set of automation tools, making it ideal for businesses looking to enhance their sales workflow efficiency. Both platforms provide visual pipeline management, but while Streak focuses on simplicity and Gmail integration, ActiveCampaign offers greater flexibility and automation capabilities, catering to diverse business needs.
2. Ease of use
Streak CRM is embedded within Gmail, offering a familiar interface that makes it easy for users to adapt and manage customer relationships seamlessly. ActiveCampaign, while intuitive, requires users to navigate a separate platform, which may involve a steeper learning curve for those unfamiliar with standalone CRM systems.
3. Contact enrichment
Streak CRM's contact enrichment feature automatically enhances contact records by extracting relevant information from email interactions. The system can populate fields with details like company logos, profile pictures, and social media links. ActiveCampaign does not appear to have a contact enrichment feature.
4. Outreach
Streak CRM's outreach solution is designed around email communication directly within Gmail, leveraging its integration to manage sales and customer engagement. It allows users to send personalized mass emails, track email opens and replies, and set automated follow-up sequences. ActiveCampaign offers multi-channel communication, including email and SMS, with automation for follow-ups, though its SMS functionality is basic.
5. Automation
Streak CRM, integrated directly within Gmail, offers automation features that streamline workflow by automating tasks such as email tracking, follow-ups, and pipeline updates. ActiveCampaign's automation features allow users to create workflows using a visual drag-and-drop builder, supporting a range of triggers like contact behavior or form submissions.
6. Integration
Streak CRM integrates with various third-party applications to extend its functionality, particularly through its deep integration with Google Workspace, including Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar. It also connects with tools like Zapier to provide access to more applications. ActiveCampaign offers a wide range of integrations with over 900 third-party applications, allowing users to connect the platform with tools like Shopify, WordPress, Salesforce, and Google Analytics.
7. Artificial Intelligence
Streak CRM has limited native AI integrations, focusing on essential features within Gmail rather than advanced AI-driven functionalities. ActiveCampaign integrates AI features to enhance its platform, offering tools like predictive sending and content optimization to improve email marketing and automation efforts.
Price and plans comparison
Let's take a closer look at the price and plans of both Streak and ActiveCampaign.
Streak prices
Streak offers a monthly and annual subscription plan. The following is a high level overview of their annual subscription.
- Pro: Starts from $49 per user, per month.
- Pro +: Starts from $69 per user, per month.
- Enterprise: Starts from $129 per user, per month.
ActiveCampaign prices
ActiveCampaign's price plans are based on the number of contacts you have. The following plan is based on a database of 1,000 contacts.
- Starter: Starting from $15/month.
- Plus: Starting from $49/month.
- Pro: Starting from $79/month.
- Enterprise: Starting from $145/month.
Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to Streak and ActiveCampaign
Looking for an affordable alternative? We recommend folk. A multiple award-winning CRM platform loved for its easy-to-use, plug-and-play CRM system.
Key features
- Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that you can use it across your sales cycle and pipeline management – and other business functions such as recruitment, marketing, and more.
- Social media integration: Import people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk’s Google Chrome extension.
- Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
- Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so you can fill in missing data points with 1-click.
- Email sequences: Send email sequences with reminders if your leads don’t reply to your first emails. It includes an AI integration allowing you to personalize email at scale.
- Notes and reminders: Attach notes directly to a contact's profile in folk, and access them on the go. And assign reminders so you know exactly when to follow-up.
Price and plans
folk has a 14-day free trial. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual subscription plan is as follows.
- Standard: $20 per user, per month.
- Premium: $40 per user, per month.
- Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.
Streak vs. ActiveCampaign: What's the verdict?
Between Streak and ActiveCampaign, it's clear that both platforms offer robust CRM solutions with unique strengths. Streak excels in seamless Gmail integration and user-friendly features, while ActiveCampaign shines with its powerful automation capabilities. However, for companies that need a more personalized approach to relationship management, folk provides a flexible alternative to these traditional CRM options, blending ease of use with customization. Try folk today, free.
Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses