Email serves as the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication: it's the platform where deals progress, follow-ups are conducted, and relationships flourish.

As teams increasingly depend on automated outreach, multi-channel engagement, and precise tracking, CRMs are now competing based on the effectiveness of their native email integrations.

While both Streak and Monday CRM provide built-in email workflows, their usability, depth, and influence on daily sales operations vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity and desiring fast, reliable email execution, folk offers one of the most streamlined and powerful email integrations in any CRM—enabling effortless sending, tracking, and automation of outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Effective email integration elevates a CRM from merely a database to a cohesive communication hub. Instead of toggling between tabs or relying on disparate tools, representatives can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement from a single location.

• Centralized communication. All emails—whether sent or received—sync automatically with the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences empower reps to follow up at optimal times without manual effort.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies are fed directly into the CRM to inform subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enrich contact profiles with context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates enable teams to maintain consistency while saving time.
• Outreach automation. Send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stages or contact activity.

When a CRM seamlessly manages email, representatives can shift their focus from juggling tools to engaging in conversations that drive revenue. This distinction sets a good CRM apart from one that truly accelerates sales!

What is Streak?

Streak is a streamlined CRM seamlessly integrated into Gmail, transforming your inbox into a collaborative pipeline for sales, support, and account management. Users can manage deals, track stages, and collaborate on conversations without needing to switch tabs, all while staying within the familiar Gmail interface. At its core, email functions as the backbone of the product, enhanced with real-time tracking and pipeline visuals overlaid on your existing Gmail threads.

What is Monday CRM?

Monday sales CRM leverages the monday.com work management platform, providing teams with a visual approach to manage pipelines in conjunction with projects. The Emails & Activities app integrates Gmail and Outlook, allowing users to send, receive, and log emails directly from boards while tracking opens and replies where the action occurs. With templates and automation features, follow-ups are standardized, and lead statuses, tasks, and email histories remain synchronized.

Feature comparison of Streak and Monday CRM

Integration Capabilities

Streak fully integrates within Gmail, transforming your inbox into a comprehensive CRM without the need for additional windows or applications. Every email you send or receive is automatically recorded in the appropriate pipeline and shared across your team's workspace, ensuring you have an up-to-date timeline for each deal without the hassle of manual bcc’ing.

Monday CRM’s Emails & Activities app allows you to connect up to six Gmail or Outlook accounts for seamless two-way synchronization, so your sent and received emails appear as items on your boards alongside calls and tasks. Although it lacks native calendar syncing within the CRM, you can create simple automations or utilize Monday’s Calendar view to visualize your scheduled events.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Streak’s email sync operates in real time, seamlessly integrated within Gmail’s infrastructure. As soon as you send or receive a message, Streak instantly logs it into the relevant pipeline, guaranteeing that your team is always up-to-date with the latest activity without any delay. There’s virtually no lag or queuing—messages and thread updates appear immediately in both your inbox and Streak’s interface. By connecting directly to Gmail, you also benefit from Google’s exceptional uptime and reliability.

On the other hand, Monday CRM’s Emails & Activities app syncs your inbox every few minutes by default, polling Gmail and Outlook for new messages to convert into board items. While this results in a slight delay compared to push-based systems, updates typically appear within two to three minutes. If you require sub-minute responsiveness, you can adjust polling intervals or implement custom webhooks for faster updates.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is integrated directly within Gmail, enabling you to send personalized mass emails to hundreds of recipients in under two minutes—no need for CSV imports or third-party apps. You can easily insert custom variables like first name, company, and deal data from your pipelines, schedule automatic follow-up sequences in the same thread, and even A/B test subject lines to boost reply rates. Each sent message and follow-up logs seamlessly in your Streak timeline, ensuring that you maintain visibility over who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, Streak’s campaign features do not offer advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won't receive detailed reports on unsubscribes or bounce handling unless you incorporate additional tools.

Monday’s Emails & Activities app delivers native two-way email sync for both Gmail and Outlook through straightforward integration recipes—new messages and replies automatically transform into pulses on your boards, ensuring your communications are tracked alongside your deals. Calendar items are synced using Monday’s Calendar Sync feature: date or timeline columns correspond to Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, or any other external calendar, with events appearing on your board and calendar within minutes.

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—without the need for CSV imports or third-party apps. You can easily insert custom variables such as first names, company details, and deal data from your pipelines, schedule automated follow-up sequences in the same thread, and even A/B test subject lines to enhance reply rates. Every sent message and follow-up is automatically logged in your Streak timeline, ensuring you maintain visibility on who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, it's worth noting that Streak’s campaign features fall short on advanced analytics dashboards—meaning you won’t have detailed reporting on unsubscribes or bounce handling unless you incorporate an additional tool.

Monday CRM’s Emails & Activities app can sync up to six Gmail or Outlook accounts and includes a Group Emailing action for sending bulk messages to board items and contact lists. You can automate follow-ups using monday.com automations or integrate with Mailchimp for comprehensive email marketing capabilities. Just keep in mind that without Mailchimp or a similar add-on, you won't have access to native campaign analytics beyond basic send logs on your boards.

Open and Click Tracking

Streak seamlessly integrates a tiny tracking pixel and link tracker within Gmail, providing you with real-time “eye” icons that indicate when an email is opened or a link is clicked in a specific thread. By hovering over the green eye, you can easily view timestamps, locations, and per-link click data, all without leaving your inbox. Since it's entirely built on Gmail’s API, setup is virtually non-existent, and you receive instant feedback; however, aggregated campaign dashboards and multi-link heat mapping are not available beyond individual message views.

Monday’s Emails & Activities app does log message opens if you send emails directly through its board interface, but it lacks native tracking for which links were clicked. To obtain click-through rates, you'll need to embed links with UTM parameters and pull the data into your board using automations or by integrating a marketing tool like Mailchimp.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, providing comprehensive CRM functionality—such as pipelines, contact details, and email logging—without requiring you to leave your inbox. The sidebar displays deal stages, custom fields, and shared notes alongside each thread, ensuring context is always at your fingertips. You can easily drag and drop emails into various pipelines or update statuses in real time, creating a seamless integration between your inbox and CRM. However, since Streak is exclusive to Gmail, this integrated experience is lost if you switch to Outlook or another email client.

In contrast, monday.com’s Emails & Activities app functions on your boards rather than within your inbox. When you connect Gmail or Outlook, emails appear as pulses on relevant items, allowing you to reply or add notes directly from monday.com. This setup is ideal for visual teams who prefer managing everything on boards, but it lacks the true in-inbox sidebar experience, as you primarily work within monday.com instead of your email client.

folk CRM: The Ultimate Email CRM

folk provides teams with a seamless and connected email workflow that enhances productivity. It centralizes communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing—all within a clean, intuitive CRM interface. Boasting a 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the highest-rated lightweight CRMs ideal for modern sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and scaling sales teams of 20-50 members, folk ensures that email operations are smooth and manageable.

Extract Insights from Emails

One of folk’s standout features is its ability to centralize communication and convert every email and call into actionable insights. With native email syncing for Gmail and Outlook, combined with AI-driven analysis, teams can:

• Quickly recap past conversations with a single click using folk's Recap assistant, which compiles information from emails and notes to create a summary—providing context in seconds.
• Time follow-ups effectively as AI scans conversations and alerts you when to reconnect with a contact, even drafting responses for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s built-in sequencing engine simplifies the creation of automated outreach flows within the CRM. You can easily develop multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and automatically log every interaction. Whether you’re nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging inactive deals, folk provides a robust yet straightforward sequencing workflow without the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to automatically trigger emails, such as when a deal is closed or when a new lead enters the system.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

folk’s AI Follow-Up feature ensures that no conversation slips through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk alerts you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights cold conversations, and suggests ideal times to re-engage. It functions like a built-in assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline progressing—eliminating the need for manual tracking.

folk starts at $20 per user per month, offering native email integration and sequences, accompanied by a 14-day free trial—no credit card needed.

Conclusion

In summary, Streak excels with its seamless Gmail integration, providing real-time email logging and a familiar interface, making it ideal for teams embedded in Google Workspace. Monday CRM offers a visual, board-based approach that integrates emails from multiple accounts but lacks true inbox functionality. In contrast, folk stands out as the premier choice for teams focused on email integration, automation, and sequencing. With intuitive workflows and AI-powered follow-ups, folk transforms your email into a strategic asset, central to driving sales success.

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