folk CRM x Hubspot: Which CRM is the best for LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has evolved beyond a simple networking platform: It has become the largest B2B sales battlefield.

Choosing the right CRM can determine whether you excel in your pipeline or get lost amid the competition. When comparing folk CRM to Hubspot, the crucial consideration goes beyond just features; it's about which platform provides the smartest advantage for nurturing relationships, tracking engagement, and converting LinkedIn conversations into closed deals.

While both folk CRM and Hubspot offer valuable tools, if you’re seeking a CRM specifically designed for LinkedIn workflows, folk CRM frequently sets a new standard.

Why a CRM for LinkedIn Is Essential in 2025

LinkedIn has become the nerve center of B2B sales. By 2025, nearly every decision-maker you need to reach will be active there—sharing insights, interacting with peers, and making real-time buying decisions. If your sales strategy isn’t optimized for LinkedIn, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities. A CRM tailored for LinkedIn is no longer just a luxury; it’s essential for effective prospecting, relationship-building, and pipeline expansion.

The strength of such a CRM lies in its ability to facilitate a multi-touch sales journey. Simply sending one cold email and hoping for the best is outdated. With the right CRM, you can effortlessly track, manage, and engage prospects across various channels:

• Initiate conversations on LinkedIn. Connect, comment, and foster familiarity where your buyers are already active.
• Follow up through email or calls. Your CRM preserves context, ensuring each interaction is personalized.
• Nurture relationships over time. By syncing LinkedIn activities, you’ll know the optimal moments to engage or close.

In 2025, the teams that succeed will be those who engage prospects where they spend their time online. LinkedIn is where business transactions take place. Without a CRM designed to harness its full potential, every outreach effort becomes slower, less targeted, and increasingly difficult to scale.

What is folk CRM?

folk CRM serves as the sales assistant your team has always needed, seamlessly integrating one-click LinkedIn capture, contact enrichment, and messaging alongside automated email and WhatsApp workflows. With folkX, you can engage with your contacts directly on LinkedIn without leaving your browser, while built-in automations take care of data entry and follow-up reminders. It's simple, proactive, and fully integrated, allowing you to concentrate on nurturing genuine relationships.

What is Hubspot?

HubSpot is a premier all-in-one CRM that unifies marketing, sales, and service in a single platform. Its user-friendly tools simplify contact management, pipeline tracking, and automated outreach, while built-in analytics and smooth integrations empower teams to optimize their performance and scale effortlessly.

Feature comparison of folk CRM and Hubspot

AI Follow-ups

folk CRM simplifies the process of capturing LinkedIn profiles with just one click through its Chrome extension, folkX. While browsing LinkedIn, a button appears on each profile, enabling you to instantly import the contact into your CRM, including their name, job title, company, and profile URL. This feature works effortlessly for both individual and bulk captures, eliminating the tedious task of copy-pasting and enhancing the efficiency of LinkedIn prospecting.

In contrast, HubSpot lacks native LinkedIn profile capture functionality. Adding a contact from LinkedIn to your CRM in a single click isn't possible, and the HubSpot Chrome extension doesn’t interact with LinkedIn at all. The only alternative is to utilize third-party tools like Surfe or Leadjet to transfer LinkedIn profiles into HubSpot. This adds an extra step for users engaged in outbound prospecting on LinkedIn, ultimately hindering efficiency, as HubSpot is not designed to optimize LinkedIn data collection.

Automated Contact Enrichment

folk CRM automatically enriches LinkedIn leads as soon as they are added! This tool gathers public data such as role, company, LinkedIn profile link, and even the company domain. Furthermore, by integrating enrichment tools or APIs, you can seamlessly add missing emails or phone numbers directly into the contact record. This built-in enrichment significantly accelerates the lead qualification process, eliminating the need for manual work or reliance on external tools.

In contrast, HubSpot does not enrich leads with LinkedIn data. Even with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, you can only view LinkedIn profile information within HubSpot; syncing or enriching contact records is not possible. Any enrichment—such as email, phone number, or job title—must come from other HubSpot sources like email tracking or connected tools. Therefore, if your primary leads originate from LinkedIn, be prepared to manually update CRM fields or implement a third-party enrichment layer.

Smart Fields

While HubSpot allows you to create comprehensive email sequences and templates, it unfortunately does not support message templates for LinkedIn DMs. Even with the Sales Navigator integration, there's no straightforward way to incorporate templates into LinkedIn messages. Consequently, sales representatives must resort to manually copying and pasting their messages, creating a frustrating obstacle when attempting to scale personalized outreach on LinkedIn.

AI-Powered Message & Sequence Generation

HubSpot lacks native tracking for LinkedIn activity. Consequently, any InMail or DM sent via LinkedIn won't show up in the contact timeline unless you log it manually. While the Sales Navigator integration provides insights into mutual connections and job changes, it does not capture interaction history. This limitation can lead to teams working in silos, leaving LinkedIn communications unseen by the CRM—a significant drawback when LinkedIn is integral to your sales process.

Next Best Action

folkX, the Chrome extension tailored for folk CRM, seamlessly integrates with LinkedIn, allowing you to capture leads, enrich contact information, review past interactions, and send messages — all without leaving the LinkedIn platform. Specifically designed for relationship-driven workflows, it transforms your browser into a powerful prospecting tool for anyone serious about LinkedIn outreach.

In contrast, the HubSpot Chrome extension is intended for Gmail and Outlook, not LinkedIn, and does not operate when you're browsing LinkedIn profiles. It lacks features to capture LinkedIn contacts, enrich data, or support messaging through the extension. If you're seeking a streamlined LinkedIn experience directly within your browser, HubSpot falls short, requiring you to depend on integrations or external tools instead.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CRM for LinkedIn prospecting is essential for success. HubSpot excels in providing an all-in-one solution for marketing and sales, but it lacks native LinkedIn integration, making lead capture cumbersome. In contrast, folk CRM is specifically designed for LinkedIn workflows, offering one-click profile capture, automated contact enrichment, and seamless messaging. For teams looking to thrive in the B2B sales landscape, folk CRM is the optimal alternative, streamlining engagement and enhancing relationship-building on LinkedIn.

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