Email is the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication, serving as the platform where deals advance, follow-ups occur, and relationships grow stronger.

With teams increasingly depending on automated outreach, multi-channel engagement, and precise tracking, CRMs are vying for dominance based on the capabilities of their native email integrations.

While both Streak and Zoho CRM provide built-in email workflows, their effectiveness, ease of use, and influence on daily sales tasks vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity over complexity and seeking quick, dependable email execution, folk stands out with one of the cleanest and most robust email integrations available in any CRM, enabling effortless sending, tracking, and automation of outreach right from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Effective email integration elevates a CRM from a basic database to a cohesive communication hub. Instead of toggling between tabs or using separate tools, sales representatives can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement all in one location.

• Centralized communication. All emails—both sent and received—sync automatically with the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at the ideal moment, eliminating manual effort.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies are directly integrated into the CRM, informing subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enrich contact profiles with context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Reusable, personalized templates ensure consistency and save time for teams.
• Outreach automation. Send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stages or contact activity.

When a CRM manages email seamlessly, reps can stop juggling various tools and concentrate on conversations that generate revenue. This distinction sets apart a good CRM from one that genuinely accelerates sales!

What is Streak?

Streak is an intuitive CRM seamlessly integrated within Gmail, transforming your inbox into a collaborative pipeline for sales, support, and account management. Users can manage deals, track stages, and engage in discussions directly from their familiar Gmail interface, eliminating the need for constant tab switching. With email at its core, Streak offers real-time tracking and pipeline views that enhance your existing conversations.

What is Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM is a versatile, all-in-one CRM designed for businesses seeking extensive customization and a comprehensive suite of business applications. Its email integration is compatible with Zoho Mail, Gmail, Outlook, and various IMAP providers, enabling teams to send, receive, and archive messages within the CRM itself. With shared inbox views, basic tracking, and automation features, email interactions contribute to a broader omnichannel engagement strategy.

Feature comparison of Streak and Zoho CRM

Integration Capabilities

Streak seamlessly 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.

Zoho’s Email Insights add-on allows you to sync Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP provider directly with Zoho CRM, automatically logging messages and attachments to the correct records. You can select which folders to include, filtering out irrelevant threads while capturing every opportunity-driven email. Additionally, Zoho Calendar syncs in both directions with Google, Office 365, or iCal, ensuring that meeting invites and updates are reflected in both your personal calendar and your CRM timeline.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Streak’s email synchronization occurs in real time, seamlessly integrated within Gmail’s infrastructure. The moment you send or receive a message, Streak instantly logs it into the relevant pipeline, ensuring your team is always updated with the latest activity without any delays. There’s virtually 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 benefits of Google’s exceptional uptime and reliability.

Zoho’s Email Insights add-on keeps a live connection to your mail provider through IMAP IDLE or OAuth, allowing messages to sync almost in real time. You can anticipate seeing emails in the CRM timeline just seconds after receipt, complete with attachments and metadata. Additionally, two-way calendar sync occurs instantly for Google Calendar, Office 365, and iCal, with Zoho’s retry logic effectively managing any temporary failures.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is integrated directly within Gmail, allowing you to send personalized mass emails to hundreds of recipients in under 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) from your pipelines, schedule automatic follow-up sequences on the same thread, and even A/B test subject lines to enhance reply rates. Every sent message and follow-up is logged seamlessly in your Streak timeline, ensuring you maintain visibility on who’s opened, clicked, or replied. However, it’s worth noting that Streak’s campaign features do not provide advanced analytics dashboards, so you’ll miss out on detailed reporting regarding unsubscribes or bounce handling unless you incorporate an additional tool.

Zoho CRM offers email synchronization through POP/IMAP or OAuth for Outlook, Gmail, and any IMAP provider. Once you configure it in Settings > Channels > Email, both inbound and outbound messages are automatically linked to the corresponding lead or contact record.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

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 applications. 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 conduct A/B tests on subject lines to enhance reply rates. Every sent message and follow-up logs smoothly in your Streak timeline, ensuring you maintain visibility on who’s opened, clicked, or replied. However, note that Streak’s campaign features do not include advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won’t receive detailed reports on unsubscribes or bounce handling unless you incorporate an additional tool.

On the other hand, Zoho CRM’s Mass Email tool allows you to send up to 1,000 emails per day per user, utilizing customizable templates and merge tags for enhanced personalization. For more extensive campaigns, Zoho Campaigns integrates effortlessly, providing advanced segmentation, a user-friendly drag-and-drop design, and analytics on delivery, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. However, since Zoho Campaigns operates as a separate product, managing billing and user permissions across both systems can lead to increased administrative tasks.

Open and Click Tracking

Streak seamlessly integrates a small tracking pixel and link tracker into Gmail, allowing you to see real-time “eye” icons that indicate each time an email is opened or a link is clicked within a thread. By hovering over the green eye, you can access timestamps, locations, and detailed per-link click data—all without leaving your inbox. Since it is entirely built on Gmail’s API, there is minimal setup required, providing instant feedback; however, keep in mind that aggregated campaign dashboards and multi-link heat-mapping options are not available—only individual message views.

Zoho CRM offers basic Email Insights that automatically track opens when you send emails through Gmail or Outlook connectors. Additionally, you can enable link-click tracking via the ZeptoMail integration for comprehensive click-through data. Without ZeptoMail, CRM users will only see open rates; to access full click analytics, you will need the separate transactional email product, which entails additional costs and setup steps.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, providing comprehensive CRM functionality—such as pipelines, contact details, and email logging—without you ever needing to step outside your inbox. The sidebar displays deal stages, custom fields, and shared notes next to each thread, ensuring that you always have relevant context at hand. You can effortlessly drag and drop emails into various pipelines or adjust 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, this in-inbox experience will be lost if you choose to switch to Outlook or any other email client.

In contrast, Zoho’s eWidget appears as a sidebar within Zoho Mail, Gmail, or Outlook, allowing you to add leads, view contact details, and log emails without leaving your mailbox. You can see deal stages, tasks, and meeting notes displayed inline, and sending predefined templates or creating new records is just a click away. However, the sidebar functionality is limited to these specific mail clients; if you use Thunderbird or a different service, you'll miss out on this in-inbox convenience.

folk CRM: The Best Email CRM

folk provides teams with the seamless, connected email workflow they’ve long desired. By centralizing communication, automating follow-ups, and simplifying sequencing, it offers a clean and intuitive CRM experience. With a 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the top lightweight CRMs for contemporary sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and growing sales teams of 20-50 members, folk streamlines email operations without overwhelming users.

Extract intel from emails

One of folk’s standout features is its capacity to centralize communications, transforming every email and call into actionable insights. With native email sync for Gmail and Outlook, paired with AI-driven analysis, teams can:

• Easily recap past conversations in an instant using folk's Recap assistant, which gathers information from emails and notes to create summaries, providing context in seconds.
• Follow up at optimal times as AI scans conversations, notifying you when to reach out to a contact and even drafting replies for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s integrated sequencing engine simplifies the creation of automated outreach flows directly within the CRM. You can easily set up multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and automatically log every interaction. Whether nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging dormant deals, folk provides a robust yet simple sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for additional tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to automatically trigger emails, such as when a deal closes or a new lead is acquired.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

With folk’s AI Follow-Up feature, you can rest assured that no conversation will slip through the cracks. By analyzing your email history, folk notifies you when contacts haven't replied, highlights cold conversations, and pinpoints the ideal moments to re-engage. It functions as a built-in assistant that keeps your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without the hassle of manual tracking.

folk starts at just $20 per user per month, offering native email integration and sequences, along with a 14-day free trial—no credit card required.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Streak excels with its seamless Gmail integration, providing real-time tracking and a straightforward user experience. Zoho CRM offers extensive customization and omnichannel capabilities but can complicate workflows. In contrast, folk shines as the ideal choice for teams prioritizing email integration, automation, and sequencing. Its intuitive design, AI-driven features, and native sync for Gmail and Outlook streamline outreach efforts, ensuring that no conversation is missed. For those seeking a powerful email-centric CRM, folk stands out as the best alternative.

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