Email continues to be the foundation of modern sales communication, serving as the platform 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 fiercely based on the effectiveness of their native email integrations.

While Streak and Freshsales both provide built-in email workflows, their depth, usability, and influence on daily sales operations vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity and seeking fast, reliable email execution, folk offers one of the cleanest and most robust email integrations available in 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. This eliminates the need to switch tabs or rely on disparate tools, allowing reps to send messages, automate follow-ups, and track engagement all from a single platform.

• 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 the optimal time without manual intervention.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies are directly integrated into the CRM, guiding subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enrich contact profiles with valuable context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates ensure teams maintain consistency while saving time.
• Outreach automation. Send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stage or contact activity.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, reps can stop juggling various tools and concentrate on conversations that generate revenue. That's the key distinction between a good CRM and one that genuinely accelerates sales!

What is Streak?

Streak is a streamlined CRM integrated directly into Gmail, transforming your inbox into a collaborative pipeline for sales, support, and account management. Users can manage deals, track stages, and collaborate on threads without the need to switch tabs, all from the familiar Gmail interface. With email at its core, Streak offers real-time tracking and pipeline views that enhance your existing Gmail conversations.

What is Freshsales?

Freshsales is Freshworks’ sales CRM tailored for small to mid-sized teams seeking an intuitive interface paired with robust automation features. Users can easily connect either Gmail or Microsoft 365 and choose between one-way or two-way sync to ensure seamless alignment between their mailbox and CRM. With the addition of templates, bulk emails, and activity timelines, email becomes central to how representatives engage with leads and opportunities.

Feature comparison of Streak and Freshsales

Integration Capabilities

Streak fully integrates with Gmail, transforming your inbox into a complete CRM without the need for additional windows or applications. Every email you send or receive is automatically logged into the appropriate pipeline and shared across your team's workspace, ensuring you have a real-time timeline of each deal without the hassle of manual bcc’ing.

Freshsales provides native plugins for both Gmail and Outlook, displaying email threads, scheduling tools, and relevant contact information directly within your inbox. Once connected, Freshsales automatically scans incoming emails for known contact addresses and logs conversations, helping to minimize clutter by allowing you to select which folders to sync.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Streak offers real-time email synchronization directly within Gmail’s infrastructure. As soon as you send or receive a message, Streak instantly logs it to the appropriate pipeline, allowing your team to view the latest activity without any delay. With virtually no lag or queuing, messages and thread updates appear immediately in both your inbox and Streak’s interface. Leveraging a direct connection to Gmail, you enjoy the benefit of Google’s exceptional uptime and reliability.

Freshsales, on the other hand, connects through native plugins that provide a constant link to your Gmail or Outlook account, synchronizing email and calendar events in real time. Incoming messages from known leads appear within seconds, and any outgoing emails logged from the CRM are instantly reflected in your email thread. Additionally, calendar events update immediately, ensuring that meetings scheduled in Freshsales are seamlessly integrated into your personal calendar without any delay.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is integrated directly into Gmail, enabling you to send personalized mass emails to hundreds of recipients in under two minutes—no need for CSV imports or third-party applications. You can easily insert custom variables (like first name, company, and deal data) from your pipelines, schedule automatic follow-up sequences on the same thread, and even conduct A/B testing on subject lines to enhance reply rates. Each sent message and follow-up is automatically logged in your Streak timeline, allowing you to track who has opened, clicked, or replied without losing any visibility. However, it’s worth noting that Streak’s campaign features lack advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won't receive detailed reports on unsubscribes or bounce handling unless you incorporate an additional tool.

Freshsales, on the other hand, provides native plugins for both Gmail and Outlook, offering a choice of two-way or one-way email sync during setup—two-way is the default, ensuring that both incoming and outgoing emails are instantly reflected in your mailbox and CRM timeline. For calendar management, Freshsales supports bi-directional sync with Google Calendar and Office 365, allowing appointments scheduled in your inbox or CRM to seamlessly mirror each other, so your meeting history is always aligned with your email conversations.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is integrated directly within Gmail, allowing you to send personalized mass emails to hundreds of recipients in under two minutes—no need for CSV imports or third-party applications. You can easily insert custom variables (such as first name, company, or deal data) from your pipelines, schedule automatic follow-up sequences within the same thread, and even A/B test subject lines to enhance reply rates. Every sent message and follow-up is logged seamlessly in your Streak timeline, ensuring you never lose track of who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, it's worth noting that Streak's campaign features do not include advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won't receive detailed reports on unsubscribes or bounce handling without integrating another tool.

In contrast, Freshsales offers a comprehensive Marketing Campaigns module—simply navigate to Campaigns > Email to create email blasts or automated Journeys based on user behaviors. With user-friendly drag-and-drop templates, dynamic segments, and analytics dashboards, you can easily monitor delivery rates, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Built-in retry logic and ISP throttling also enhance deliverability. However, more sophisticated features like heat-map click analysis or AI-driven send-time optimization will require an upgrade to Freshmarketer.

Open and Click Tracking

Streak integrates a small tracking pixel and link tracker directly into Gmail, providing you with real-time “eye” icons that indicate when an email is opened or a link is clicked within a thread. Simply hover over the green eye to view timestamps, locations, and specific click data for each link, all without leaving your inbox. Since it utilizes Gmail’s API, setup is virtually nonexistent and feedback is immediate; however, keep in mind that you won’t have access to aggregated campaign dashboards or multi-link heat mapping beyond individual message views.

Freshsales allows you to enable “Track opens and clicks” by navigating to Settings > Email Settings, ensuring that every email sent through the native plugin logs open events and link clicks in the contact timeline. You can view delivery, open, and click metrics in both the Deal dashboard and the Campaigns module. Just remember, open rates depend on image-based pixels; if a recipient blocks images or views links in preview panes, your statistics may be underreported.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, offering comprehensive CRM features—such as pipelines, contact information, and email logging—without needing to step outside your inbox. The sidebar displays deal stages, custom fields, and shared notes alongside each thread, ensuring you have context readily available. You can effortlessly drag and drop emails into various pipelines or adjust statuses on the go, creating a unified feel between your inbox and CRM. However, since Streak is exclusive to Gmail, this integrated experience won't carry over if you switch to Outlook or another email client.

Freshsales enhances your workflow with native plugins for both Gmail and Outlook, embedding the CRM sidebar directly in your inbox. This feature showcases lead profiles, deal values, and past email threads while you compose or read messages. You can log emails, schedule meetings, and initiate sequences with ease, all synchronized back to Freshsales with a single click. Additionally, as the plugin incorporates calendar events into the same interface, it creates a smooth integration of messages and appointments. However, if you opt for a different email client, you'll need to rely on IMAP sync rather than enjoying the full plugin functionality.

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 remarkable 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the top-rated lightweight CRMs for modern sales and partnerships teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and growing sales teams of 20-50 members, folk streamlines email operations, making them efficient rather than overwhelming.

Extract Intel from Emails

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

• Quickly recap past conversations with just one click using folk's Recap assistant. It gathers intel from emails and notes to create a summary, providing context in seconds.
• Follow up at the ideal time, as AI scans conversations to alert you when to reach out to a contact and even drafts responses for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s built-in sequencing engine allows you to easily create automated outreach flows directly within the CRM. Design multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM data, and automatically log every interaction. Whether you're nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging dormant deals, folk provides a powerful yet straightforward sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for additional 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 added.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

folk’s AI Follow-Up feature guarantees that no conversation falls through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk notifies you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights cold conversations, and pinpoints the perfect moment to re-engage. It functions like a built-in assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without any manual tracking.

folk starts at just $20 per user per month, offering native email integration and sequencing, along with a 14-day free trial—no credit card needed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Streak excels in Gmail integration, providing a seamless inbox experience but lacks advanced analytics. Freshsales offers a versatile interface with robust automation, suitable for small to mid-sized teams. However, for those teams relying heavily on email, folk stands out as the best alternative. With its streamlined email workflows, powerful automation features, and AI-driven follow-ups, folk transforms email into a proactive sales tool, making it the ideal choice for modern sales teams looking to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

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