HubSpot vs Zoho CRM: Which CRM is the best for automation?

Deciding between HubSpot and Zoho CRM hinges on a crucial question: which CRM genuinely enhances automation to save time rather than generate additional admin tasks?

For teams that value simplicity, folk provides one of the most efficient and robust automation solutions in the CRM space, enabling users to automate emails based on defined conditions and execute actions via the API.

Why Automation is Crucial for CRM in 2026

In today’s landscape, automation is the backbone of revenue teams. Sales and marketing must manage an increasing number of leads, channels, and intricate buying journeys without adding headcount or compromising personalization. A CRM that depends on manual data entry, sporadic follow-ups, and outdated reporting can silently sap time, energy, and focus away from meaningful customer interactions.

Key reasons why automation is indispensable today:

• Buyers demand quick, relevant responses across email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and phone calls.
• Sales pipelines operate swiftly, and any overlooked follow-up can lead to lost revenue.
• The volume of data has surged, making manual updates impractical and unreliable.
• Leadership requires real-time visibility into performance rather than relying on end-of-month estimates.

The effectiveness of a CRM is determined by how much it alleviates the team's workload, not by the number of fields it can accommodate. The ideal platform automatically captures activities, maintains clean records in the background, and prompts the appropriate next steps at just the right moment, allowing representatives to concentrate on nurturing relationships and closing deals rather than managing the system.

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM platform that integrates marketing, sales, and customer service into a unified contact database. Its email integration allows users to connect personal Gmail and Outlook accounts, enabling representatives to send individual emails, log responses, and initiate sequences directly from the CRM or their inbox. Features like open and click tracking, templates, and shared timelines enhance visibility into email activities for the entire revenue team.

What is Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM is a versatile all-in-one CRM designed for businesses seeking extensive customization and an expansive suite of business applications. Its email integration accommodates Zoho Mail, Gmail, Outlook, and various IMAP providers, enabling teams to send, receive, and archive messages directly within the CRM. With features like shared inbox views, basic tracking, and automation, email interactions become integral to a broader omnichannel engagement approach.

Feature comparison of HubSpot and Zoho CRM

Integration Capabilities

HubSpot provides seamless two-way email integration for Gmail, Outlook, and any IMAP-compatible provider, allowing you to send one-on-one emails directly from contact records while automatically logging every reply in your CRM timeline. Its built-in scheduler also writes meeting events back to Google Calendar or Office 365, complete with automatic guest invitations and timeline entries for comprehensive visibility.

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

Sync Frequency and Reliability

HubSpot’s email synchronization functions on a nearly real-time basis with Gmail and Outlook, typically reflecting updates within seconds to a minute. Once you connect your account, HubSpot establishes a persistent connection via OAuth, continuously pushing and pulling message data to ensure your CRM timeline remains current. The reliability of this service is enhanced by HubSpot’s global cloud infrastructure, which boasts an impressive 99.99% uptime for its core offerings.

Similarly, Zoho’s Email Insights add-on keeps a live connection to your mail provider using IMAP IDLE or OAuth, allowing for near real-time message synchronization. You can expect emails to populate your CRM timeline within seconds of receipt, complete with attachments and metadata. Moreover, two-way calendar synchronization for Google Calendar, Office 365, and iCal occurs instantly, with Zoho’s retry logic effectively managing any intermittent failures.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise offer robust one-to-one sequences, allowing the enrollment of up to 50 contacts at once and enabling users to send hundreds of personalized emails each day. Its intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, manages delays, and detects replies, while Marketing Hub can scale to thousands of recipients through segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, since the most powerful campaign features are housed within Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users without this add-on encounter limitations on total send volumes and more basic reporting capabilities.

Zoho CRM facilitates email synchronization through POP/IMAP or OAuth for Outlook, Gmail, and any IMAP provider. Once set up in Settings > Channels > Email, both inbound and outbound messages automatically link to the corresponding lead or contact record.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise enable powerful one-to-one sequences, allowing you to enroll up to 50 contacts at once and send hundreds of personalized emails per user each day. Its intuitive drag-and-drop sequence builder simplifies template creation, sets delays, and detects replies. Meanwhile, Marketing Hub can scale to thousands of recipients, featuring advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, since the most advanced campaign features reside in Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users who don't have this add-on will encounter limitations on total sends and basic reporting.

Zoho CRM’s Mass Email tool allows you to send up to 1,000 emails daily per user, utilizing customizable templates and merge tags for personalization. For larger campaigns, Zoho Campaigns integrates effortlessly, providing advanced segmentation, a drag-and-drop design interface, and analytics on delivery, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. Nonetheless, because Zoho Campaigns operates as a separate product, managing billing and user permissions across two systems can lead to added administrative complexity.

Open and Click Tracking

HubSpot Sales monitors opens and clicks for every one-to-one email sent from contact records or the Sales extension, providing real-time desktop notifications and logging each event on the timeline. Note that click tracking necessitates a paid Sales Hub seat—free users can only see opens. You can check total clicks per link directly in the email activity feed. For advanced attribution, such as multi-variant link analysis across campaigns, you’ll need to use Marketing Hub, as pure Sales Hub users won't have access to enterprise-level click analytics without the add-on.

Zoho CRM includes basic Email Insights that automatically track opens when you send emails through Gmail or Outlook connectors. To enable link-click tracking and access comprehensive click-through data, you must integrate ZeptoMail; otherwise, CRM users can only view opens. Achieving full click analytics requires the additional transactional email product, leading to extra costs and configuration efforts.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

With the HubSpot Sales extension installed, you can effortlessly view and edit HubSpot records—contacts, companies, and deals—directly within Gmail or Outlook. You can enroll contacts in sequences and log emails with just one click. A user-friendly CRM sidebar displays next to your inbox, allowing you to create tasks, send template replies, and review recent interactions without switching apps. It even highlights lead scores and deal forecasts inline, ensuring that every email action you take directly contributes to your pipeline. The only limitation is that if you don’t hold a paid Sales or Service Hub seat, some in-inbox features (like sequences and call logging) remain inaccessible behind a paywall.

Similarly, Zoho’s eWidget functions as a sidebar in Zoho Mail, Gmail, or Outlook, enabling you to add leads, view contact details, and log emails right from your mailbox. You can see deal stages, tasks, and meeting notes inline, and you have the option to send predefined templates or create new records with a click. However, this sidebar only operates within those specific mail clients—if you prefer using Thunderbird or another service, you’ll forgo the convenience that in-inbox functionality offers.

folk CRM: The Best CRM for Automations

folk CRM is a cutting-edge, AI-driven CRM designed for teams eager to streamline their deal processes without added complexity. It consolidates all relationships—leads, clients, partners, candidates, and investors—into adaptable views that align with any workflow.

folk caters specifically to automation-focused teams. By integrating native email and calendar synchronization, teams can efficiently automate follow-ups and outreach on a larger scale. The new conditional email automations allow you to send messages triggered by real-time data within folk; for instance, you can automatically dispatch onboarding or handoff emails when a contact transitions to a client or when a deal is finalized.

Fueled by AI, folk enhances data quality, generates conversation starters, composes tailored emails, and recommends optimal next steps. Its open API and webhooks integrate seamlessly with platforms like Zapier and Make, facilitating sophisticated workflows across email, WhatsApp, Slack, billing, and internal systems.

With one-click contact capture using the folkX Chrome extension and collaborative pipelines, folk provides teams with a lightweight yet robust CRM to scale their automation efforts while maintaining complete control.

Schlussfolgerung

In conclusion, HubSpot excels with its robust email integration and real-time synchronization, making it ideal for teams that prioritize visibility and immediate response tracking. Alternatively, Zoho CRM offers extensive customization and basic email automation, appealing to businesses needing adaptability. However, for teams that truly rely on advanced email integration, automation, and seamless sequencing, folk stands out as the superior choice. Its powerful AI-driven features and streamlined automation processes ensure that teams can focus on building relationships and closing deals efficiently. Try folk CRM for free

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