Streak vs Close CRM: Which CRM is the best for automation?

Deciding between Streak and Close CRM ultimately hinges on one critical question: which CRM genuinely minimizes time spent on automation rather than generating additional administrative tasks?

For teams that value simplicity, folk provides one of the most efficient and robust automation solutions available in any CRM. It empowers users to automate emails based on their defined conditions and execute actions seamlessly using the API.

Why Automation Is Crucial for CRM in 2026

Automation has emerged as the cornerstone of contemporary revenue teams. Sales and marketing professionals are expected to manage more leads, navigate multiple channels, and address intricate buying journeys without expanding their teams or compromising on personalization. A CRM that relies on manual data entry, sporadic follow-ups, and outdated spreadsheet-style reporting significantly detracts from the time, energy, and focus needed for meaningful customer interactions.

Here are the main reasons why automation is now essential:

• Customers demand quick, relevant responses across various platforms, including email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and phone calls.
• Pipelines operate at a rapid pace, and any overlooked follow-up can result in lost revenue.
• The surge in data volume renders manual updates both impractical and unreliable.
• Leadership requires real-time insights into performance rather than relying on end-of-month estimates.

The true value of a CRM is determined by the amount of work it alleviates for the team, not by the number of data fields it can hold. The most effective platform is one that automatically captures activities, maintains clean records behind the scenes, and prompts the appropriate next steps at the right moments. This allows representatives to concentrate on fostering relationships and closing deals rather than managing the tool itself.

What is Streak?

Streak is a streamlined CRM integrated directly within 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 hassle of switching tabs, all from the familiar Gmail interface. With email at its core, Streak enhances your existing conversations with real-time tracking and pipeline views.

What is Close CRM?

Close CRM is a dynamic sales platform designed for high-velocity inside sales teams, featuring integrated calling, SMS, and email. The two-way email sync allows representatives to send, receive, and track messages directly within Close, ensuring every conversation is automatically associated with the correct contact and opportunity. With tools for bulk emails, sequences, and performance reporting, Close transforms email into a structured outreach channel rather than just an isolated inbox.

Feature comparison of Streak and Close CRM

Integration Capabilities

Streak seamlessly integrates within Gmail, transforming your inbox into a comprehensive CRM without the need for additional windows or applications. Each email you send or receive is automatically recorded in the appropriate pipeline and shared within your team's workspace, providing you with a real-time overview of every deal without the hassle of manual bcc’ing.

Close offers a straightforward email integration: simply connect your Gmail or Outlook account, authenticate through OAuth, and every message linked to a contact will automatically populate in Close’s timeline. Although Close doesn't sync calendar events natively, you can easily connect meetings back to the CRM using Zapier or Google Calendar integration, ensuring your schedule is always in sync with your sales pipeline.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Streak's email sync operates in real-time within Gmail's infrastructure. The moment you send or receive a message, Streak instantly logs it into the relevant pipeline, ensuring your team has access to the latest activity without any delays. There’s almost no lag or queuing—messages and thread updates show up immediately in both your inbox and Streak’s interface. By connecting directly to Gmail, you enjoy the benefit of Google’s exceptional uptime and reliability.

Close’s email integration offers immediate two-way sync through OAuth-based connections to Gmail and Outlook. When a contact emails you, Close logs it instantly—no polling intervals or manual BCC necessary. Outbound emails sent from Close also appear in your email provider in real-time, and vice versa. For calendar events, you can link a Google Calendar via Zapier for automatic updates, though these triggers may run every few minutes depending on your Zapier plan.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is conveniently integrated within Gmail, allowing you to send personalized mass emails to hundreds of recipients in less than two minutes—no need for CSV imports or third-party applications. You can easily insert custom variables (such as first name, company, and deal data) directly from your pipelines, set up automatic follow-up sequences within the same thread, and conduct A/B tests on subject lines to enhance reply rates. Each sent message and follow-up is automatically logged in your Streak timeline, ensuring you never miss out on who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, it's worth noting that Streak’s campaign features do not include advanced analytics dashboards, so detailed reporting on unsubscribes or bounce handling will require an additional tool.

On the other hand, Close offers seamless two-way email integration using IMAP/SMTP. Once you authenticate your Gmail, Google Apps, or Microsoft account, Close automatically logs every sent and received email, linking threads to the appropriate contact without the need for manual BCCs. While Close does not natively sync calendar events, its “Emailing” setup states that you can sync both your work email and calendar.

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 less than two minutes—no need for CSV imports or third-party applications. You can easily incorporate custom variables (like first name, company, and deal data) straight from your pipelines, schedule automatic follow-up sequences within the same thread, and even conduct A/B tests on subject lines to enhance reply rates. Every sent email and follow-up is logged seamlessly in your Streak timeline, ensuring you maintain visibility on who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, Streak’s campaign features are limited by the absence of advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won’t have access to detailed reporting on unsubscribes or bounce handling without integrating another tool.

Close doesn’t provide a conventional mail merge interface but enables you to create multi-step drip campaigns through its Workflows engine, which combines emails, calls, and SMS into a single sequence. You can enroll leads, personalize messages with templates, and allow Close to automatically execute steps at your desired cadence, with every interaction recorded in its unified Inbox. However, Close lacks a visual campaign builder and comprehensive email campaign analytics, so you won’t find open-rate trends or A/B testing insights within the UI.

Open and Click Tracking

Streak seamlessly integrates a small tracking pixel and link tracker into Gmail, providing 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 link click data, all without leaving your inbox. Built solely on Gmail’s API, it requires virtually no setup and delivers instant feedback, although it lacks aggregated campaign dashboards and multi-link heat mapping beyond individual message views.

Close automatically monitors opens for any email sent from its unified Inbox, displaying open counts and timestamps beneath each message.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, providing full CRM capabilities—such as pipelines, contact details, and email logging—without ever leaving your inbox. The sidebar presents deal stages, custom fields, and shared notes alongside each thread, ensuring you always have context readily available. You can effortlessly drag and drop emails into different pipelines or update statuses on the go, creating a seamless integration between your inbox and CRM. However, it's important to note that since Streak is exclusive to Gmail, you won't enjoy this same in-inbox experience if you decide to switch to Outlook or any other email client.

Close, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a native sidebar in Gmail or Outlook; however, you can utilize the Missive integration to manage contacts, leads, and opportunities directly from your inbox. Emails sent or received in your mail client automatically appear in Close’s unified activity stream without the need for manual BCCs, maintaining context. You will still need to switch tabs for pipeline overviews or dashboards, so while it isn't a fully in-inbox CRM, it serves as a well-synced companion.

folk CRM: The Best CRM for Automations

folk CRM is a modern, AI-native platform designed for teams eager to simplify their deal automation. It consolidates all relationships—leads, clients, partners, candidates, and investors—into adaptable views that fit any workflow.

folk caters specifically to automation-driven teams. With built-in email and calendar synchronization, teams can efficiently automate follow-ups and outreach. Newly introduced conditional email automations allow you to send emails triggered by real-time data in folk—such as automatically dispatching onboarding or handoff emails when a contact becomes a client or a deal is finalized.

Fueled by AI, folk enhances data, crafts engaging icebreakers, drafts personalized emails, and recommends the next best actions. Its open API and webhooks allow seamless integration with tools like Zapier and Make, facilitating advanced workflows across email, WhatsApp, Slack, billing, and internal systems.

With one-click contact capture via the folkX Chrome extension and collaborative pipelines, folk empowers teams with a lightweight yet robust CRM, enabling them to scale automation while maintaining complete control.

Conclusion

In summary, Streak excels with its seamless Gmail integration and real-time email tracking, making it ideal for teams embedded in Google’s ecosystem. Close CRM shines in high-velocity sales environments, offering robust email and SMS integration along with two-way sync capabilities. However, for teams focused on advanced email automation, sequencing, and comprehensive integration with various tools, folk emerges as the superior choice. Its AI-driven features and flexible workflows enable effortless automation, allowing teams to concentrate on what truly matters—building relationships and closing deals.

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