Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
LinkedIn isn’t just a networking platform anymore: It’s the biggest B2B sales battlefield.
Choosing the right CRM can decide whether you dominate your pipeline or get lost in the noise. When it comes to HubSpot vs Zoho, the real question isn’t just about features. It’s about which platform gives you the smartest edge for building relationships, tracking engagement, and turning LinkedIn conversations into closed deals.
HubSpot excels at inbound, Zoho bets on automation — but if you want a CRM built natively for LinkedIn workflows, folk CRM often sets a new benchmark.
Why a CRM for LinkedIn Is Non-Negotiable in 2025
LinkedIn has become the control center of B2B sales. In 2025, nearly every decision-maker you want to reach is already there — sharing insights, engaging with peers, and making buying decisions in real time. If your sales strategy isn’t optimized for LinkedIn, you’re simply leaving opportunities on the table. A CRM built for LinkedIn isn’t just “nice to have” anymore; it’s the backbone of efficient prospecting, relationship-building, and pipeline growth.
What makes it so powerful is the ability to create a multi-touch sales journey. It’s no longer enough to send one cold email and hope for the best. With the right CRM, you can track, manage, and engage prospects seamlessly across channels:
- Start the conversation on LinkedIn. Connect, comment, and build familiarity where your buyers already are.
- Follow up via email or calls. Your CRM keeps the context alive, making each touchpoint personalized.
- Nurture relationships over time. By syncing LinkedIn activity, you know when to engage and when to close.
In 2025, the winners are the teams that meet prospects where they live online. LinkedIn is where business happens. Without a CRM designed to leverage its full potential, every outreach effort becomes slower, less targeted, and harder to scale.
What is Hubspot?
HubSpot is a leading all‑in‑one CRM that brings marketing, sales, and service into a single platform. Its intuitive tools make contact management, pipeline tracking, and automated outreach effortless. Built‑in analytics and seamless integrations help teams optimize performance and scale with ease!
What is Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM is a flexible cloud‑based CRM built for businesses of all sizes. Its customizable modules and AI‑driven assistant help you manage leads, automate workflows, and gain sales insights. With multichannel communication tools and seamless integration across apps, Zoho keeps your team aligned and productive.
Hubspot and Zoho CRM features compared
Linkedin Profile Capture
HubSpot does not offer native LinkedIn profile capture. You can't add a contact from LinkedIn to your CRM in one click, and the HubSpot Chrome extension doesn't interact with LinkedIn at all. The only workaround is using third-party tools like Surfe or Leadjet to push LinkedIn profiles into HubSpot. For users doing outbound prospecting on LinkedIn, this creates an extra step and limits efficiency. HubSpot isn't built to streamline LinkedIn data collection.
Zoho CRM doesn't offer native LinkedIn profile capture. If you're sourcing leads from LinkedIn, you'll need to manually add them into Zoho or use a third-party Chrome extension like Leadjet. There's no one-click button on LinkedIn to pull profile data into your CRM. This slows down prospecting workflows and makes LinkedIn capture highly manual. For sales teams doing daily outbound on LinkedIn, this is a clear limitation.
Linkedin Lead Enrichment
HubSpot doesn't enrich leads using LinkedIn data. Even with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, you can only view LinkedIn profile information inside HubSpot, you can't sync or enrich contact records with it. Any enrichment (email, phone, job title) must come from other HubSpot sources, like email tracking or connected tools. If your primary leads come from LinkedIn, expect to manually update CRM fields or use a third-party enrichment layer.
Zoho CRM doesn't enrich contacts with LinkedIn data. You can connect LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Zoho, but it only displays profile info within the contact view. It doesn't sync or enrich your CRM records. There's no automatic pull of job titles, company info, or LinkedIn URLs. Any LinkedIn-based enrichment must be done manually or through a third-party enrichment tool. If LinkedIn is your top source of leads, Zoho won't enrich them on its own.
Linkedin Message Templates
HubSpot doesn't support message templates for LinkedIn DMs. You can build robust email sequences and templates inside the platform, but none of them are accessible from LinkedIn. Even with the Sales Navigator integration, there's no native way to inject templates into LinkedIn messages. This means reps have to copy-paste their messages manually: A frustrating gap when trying to scale personalized outreach on LinkedIn.
Zoho CRM doesn't support message templates for LinkedIn DMs. While it allows templates for email and phone scripts inside the CRM, none of those can be used directly on LinkedIn. The Sales Navigator integration gives visibility but no action features like message personalization or prefilled templates. This forces reps to manually write or copy-paste their messages every time: A clear blocker when trying to scale outreach efficiently on LinkedIn.
Linkedin Engagement Tracking
HubSpot does not track LinkedIn activity natively. If you send an InMail or DM through LinkedIn, it won't appear in the contact timeline unless you log it manually. The Sales Navigator integration gives you visibility on mutual connections and job changes, but not interaction history. This forces teams to operate in silos, with LinkedIn communications invisible to the CRM. A major limitation when LinkedIn is part of your sales motion.
Zoho CRM does not track LinkedIn engagement natively. If you message a lead on LinkedIn, that interaction isn't logged automatically in the CRM. You'd have to create a note or activity manually to keep track of it. Even with Sales Navigator connected, Zoho doesn't fetch messaging history or engagement stats. This means teams can lose visibility into part of the sales conversation unless they're extremely diligent with manual updates.
Chrome Extension for LinkedIn
The HubSpot Chrome extension is designed for Gmail and Outlook, not LinkedIn. It doesn't appear or function when you're browsing LinkedIn profiles. There's no feature to capture LinkedIn contacts, no enrichment, and no messaging support through the extension. If you're looking for a seamless LinkedIn workflow directly inside your browser, HubSpot doesn't offer that experience. You'll need to rely on integrations or external tools.
Zoho's Chrome extension is made for email and Gmail integration, not for LinkedIn. It doesn't appear on LinkedIn profiles and offers no capture or sync features on the platform. To work with LinkedIn, you'll have to use another plugin or switch between tabs. The lack of a LinkedIn-friendly Chrome extension makes Zoho less practical for outbound workflows that rely heavily on social selling.
folk CRM: The best CRM alternative for LinkedIn!
folk is the sales assistant every team has been waiting for. Designed to be simple, integrated and proactive, this CRM takes care of the repetitive work so your reps can focus on what matters most: building real relationships on LinkedIn and beyond. With an impressive 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the most trusted AI-powered CRMs for lean and ambitious teams.
Built specifically for startups, agencies and sales-driven teams, folk makes AI practical, efficient and easy to manage. It helps you turn LinkedIn connections into qualified opportunities faster while keeping your workflow effortless.
1. Instant LinkedIn Prospect Capture with the folkX Extension
Prospecting on LinkedIn takes time, but folk makes it effortless. With the folkX Chrome extension, you can instantly capture leads from LinkedIn or Sales Navigator and add them directly to your CRM in just one click. Whether you are saving a single profile or hundreds from a filtered search, every detail is automatically pulled into your database, including names, job titles, companies, and emails.
No more copy-pasting or juggling multiple spreadsheets. Your entire prospect list is stored in one organized space, fully synced with your workflows, which means your team can move faster and focus on converting connections into opportunities instead of wasting hours on manual data entry!
2. Smart Data Enrichment and Always-Clean Contact Profiles
Reaching out to decision-makers is only effective when you have complete and accurate data. folk eliminates the need for tedious research by automatically enriching your LinkedIn contacts with verified emails, company details, phone numbers, and roles. With one click, you get everything you need to personalize your outreach and start meaningful conversations.
The platform also uses intelligent deduplication to keep your database clean and reliable, even when multiple team members are adding the same contacts. Instead of wasting time managing messy spreadsheets or guessing who owns which lead, folk ensures your data stays organized and up to date, making every LinkedIn outreach relevant and impactful.
3. Personalized LinkedIn Outreach with AI-Generated Message Templates
folk transforms the way you approach prospects on LinkedIn by giving you AI-powered message templates directly inside the LinkedIn inbox. When you open a conversation, you instantly see smart suggestions for connection requests, follow-ups, and outreach messages that are tailored to your prospect’s profile and context.
You can edit them, personalize them, and send them manually to stay fully compliant with LinkedIn’s policies. No risky automation, no copy-pasting between tools. Everything happens where the conversation starts, which makes your outreach faster, more relevant, and much 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 keeping your database clean and accurate through smart deduplication.
- Send smarter LinkedIn messages using AI-powered templates directly inside the LinkedIn inbox, helping you personalize outreach faster without relying on risky automation!
Conclusion
Choosing between HubSpot and Zoho for LinkedIn prospecting depends on the way your team sells. HubSpot is built for inbound strategies, helping content-driven businesses nurture leads effectively. Zoho focuses on advanced automation and customization, giving sales teams more flexibility and control.
For teams that rely heavily on LinkedIn to generate leads and close deals, folk CRM introduces a different approach. It simplifies lead capture, enriches contact data instantly, and offers AI-powered message templates directly inside the LinkedIn inbox. The result is faster prospecting, stronger personalization, and smoother workflows that keep sales conversations moving forward.
Discover folk CRM - Like the sales assistant your team never had
