Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
Looking for a CRM that lives inside Gmail?
Streak CRM helps you manage pipelines, track emails, and send mail merges—without ever leaving your inbox. It’s fast, simple, and built for email-first teams. But as your business scales, missing features and limited integrations can slow you down. Here's what you need to know before relying on it long-term.
What Is Streak CRM?
Streak CRM is a customer relationship management tool designed to operate entirely within Gmail. It transforms your inbox into a CRM workspace, allowing you to manage sales pipelines, support tickets, hiring processes, and more without leaving your email.
With features like email tracking, mail merge, and pipeline management, Streak aims to streamline workflows directly from your inbox.
Who Is Streak CRM For?
Streak CRM is built for individuals and small teams who live in their inbox. Its biggest strength? Simplicity!
Everything happens inside Gmail—no need to learn a new platform or juggle multiple tools.
Streak CRM is ideal for:
✔️ Freelancers who manage client work via email and want to track deals or projects without switching tools.
👉 Example: A freelance designer can use pipelines to follow client requests, revisions, and payments—all from Gmail.
✔️ Solopreneurs juggling multiple conversations and tasks, who need lightweight organization.
👉 Example: A coach managing discovery calls, contracts, and follow-ups can centralize everything through labeled threads.
✔️ Small teams who collaborate over email and need a shared view of their pipeline.
👉 Example: A recruitment agency can track candidate progress from first contact to contract signing.
Its intuitive setup is perfect for users unfamiliar with traditional CRMs. No onboarding needed—if you use Gmail, you already know how to use Streak.
Streak CRM is not ideal for:
❌ Sales teams that operate across multiple channels like LinkedIn, WhatsApp, or cold calling.
❌ Customer support teams that need ticketing systems, SLAs, or automation workflows.
❌ Agencies managing many clients, projects, or collaborators in parallel.
❌ Startups planning to scale rapidly and needing advanced features, integrations, or team-wide visibility.
❌ Operations-heavy businesses requiring custom dashboards, in-depth reporting, or workflow automation.
Main Features of Streak CRM
Streak keeps things simple—but it still packs a solid set of features for managing relationships directly from Gmail.
Fully integrated with Gmail
- Streak lives entirely inside Gmail. You don’t need to open a separate app or tab—it blends into your inbox. All your pipelines, tasks, and contact details appear right where you work every day.
Visual pipelines
- You can build custom pipelines to track sales, hiring, fundraising, or any process. Each pipeline shows stages, contacts, status, and key fields in one simple view. You can filter, sort, and update without leaving Gmail.
Email tracking
- Streak tells you when someone opens your email. You get real-time notifications so you know exactly who’s engaged. It also shows open history, device type, and location.
"Now you can easily track emails and send attachments via streak. Best part of streak being you can integrate it with gmail and easily classify them. The eye icon is exciting and turns green when a person has opened his or her email. I like the fact you can categoris data." (Capterra)
Mail merge
- Send hundreds of personalized emails at once. Just write your message, insert variables (like name or company), and let Streak handle the rest. Ideal for outreach or follow-ups.
Snippets (email templates)
- Save your most-used emails and insert them in one click. Snippets keep your communication fast, clear, and consistent—without rewriting the same messages every time.
Email scheduling
- Write your emails when it suits you, then schedule them to send later. Perfect for reaching contacts in other time zones or hitting inboxes at the right moment.
Task and reminder system
- You can attach tasks and reminders to any email or pipeline stage. Streak keeps everything in context so you never forget a follow-up or deadline.
Thread splitter
- When an email thread drifts off-topic, you can split it into a new thread. That keeps conversations clean and focused—especially in long chains.
AI summaries and suggestions
- Streak’s AI helps you catch up quickly. It can summarize long threads, suggest next steps, and even assist with drafting replies.
Google Workspace integrations
- Streak works smoothly with Calendar, Drive, and other Google tools. You can attach documents, schedule meetings, and access everything from your inbox.
Weaknesses of Streak CRM
Streak works well if you live inside Gmail—but that’s also its biggest limitation. As your needs grow, the tool can feel a bit too basic or rigid.
Limited automation
Streak supports basic workflow rules, but it lacks true automation. You won’t find features like auto-tagging based on behavior, advanced if/then logic, or automated multi-step sequences. Most actions still need to be done manually.
Basic reporting
Analytics in Streak are minimal. You can view pipeline progress and some metrics, but there’s no custom dashboard builder, forecasting model, or advanced segmentation. If you're data-driven, this can be a real blocker.
Few native integrations
Outside of Google Workspace, Streak doesn’t offer much. There's no native support for tools like Slack, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, or Zapier without using third-party connectors. That makes it hard to build a connected sales stack.
Gmail-only
Streak only works with Gmail accounts—personal or Google Workspace. If your team uses Outlook or other platforms, it’s simply not an option.
"I couldn't attach files to mass emails. Some things are limited, like their mobile app on the android - or at least that's what I found. If you don't use gmail -this probably isn't the CRM right for you" (Capterra)
Scalability issues
Streak isn’t built for large teams or complex workflows. There’s no role-based permissions, no global activity feed, and limited customization. Collaboration becomes messy fast as the team grows.
7 Best Alternatives to Streak CRM
Here’s a look at the top Streak CRM alternatives, each one compared for features, pricing, and use cases to help you make the right choice.
F.A.Q.
What’s the best alternative to Streak CRM?
folk CRM is a top choice. It offers more integrations—including Outlook, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn—plus advanced features like contact enrichment, shared pipelines, and AI-powered fields. It’s also more scalable and delivers better value for the price.
Can I use Streak CRM for free?
Yes. There’s a free plan with basic features—like limited pipelines and email tracking. But core tools like mail merge, advanced permissions, and priority support are locked behind paid plans.
Does Streak work outside of Gmail?
No. Streak only works with Gmail accounts. If your team uses Outlook or other email providers, it won’t be compatible.
Can I automate workflows in Streak?
Only to a small extent. You can create simple rules like auto-assigning contacts or moving deals to a stage. But there’s no real automation engine with conditions, triggers, or sequences.
What integrations are available with Streak?
Streak connects natively with Google Workspace tools like Calendar and Drive. Beyond that, integrations are limited. You’ll need tools like Zapier to connect it with most external platforms.
Is Streak a good fit for growing teams?
It depends. For solo users or very small teams, yes. But once you need structured collaboration, multi-channel workflows, or custom reporting—it quickly shows its limits.
Streak CRM Review: The Final Verdict
Streak CRM makes email-based work feel effortless. It’s quick to set up, easy to use, and ideal if you spend your day in Gmail. For freelancers or solo operators managing a few pipelines, it does the job.
But once your business grows—or your workflow gets more complex—Streak starts to feel limited. No serious automation. Basic reporting. Few native integrations. And no support for multichannel outreach or structured team collaboration.
If you need a CRM that scales with you, folk CRM is a smarter choice. It combines modern design, powerful contact enrichment, and flexible pipeline views built for real collaboration. Perfect for agile teams that want to move fast—without sacrificing structure.
Discover folk CRM - Like the sales assistant your team never had
