Email is the cornerstone of modern sales communication: it's where deals progress, follow-ups occur, and relationships flourish.

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

While both Streak and Pipedrive provide built-in email workflows, their depth, usability, and influence on daily sales tasks vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity over clutter and seeking swift, dependable email execution, folk offers one of the cleanest, most efficient email integrations available in any CRM, simplifying the process of sending, tracking, and automating outreach directly from your workspace.

Why Email Integration Matters?

Effective email integration elevates a CRM from a mere database to a cohesive communication hub. Instead of toggling between tabs or relying on disparate tools, sales reps can send messages, automate follow-ups, and monitor engagement all in one place.

• Centralized communication. All emails—whether sent or received—sync automatically to the appropriate contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at optimal moments without manual intervention.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies are integrated directly into the CRM to inform subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails instantly enhance contact profiles with relevant 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 activities.

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

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 need to switch tabs, all from the familiar Gmail interface. At its core, Streak revolves around email, offering real-time tracking and pipeline views that enhance your existing Gmail conversations.

What is Pipedrive?

Pipedrive is a sales-centric CRM designed around a visual pipeline that assists representatives in tracking deals from initial contact to closure. Its email synchronization feature connects with Gmail, Outlook, and other IMAP providers, ensuring every message is automatically logged to the appropriate contact and deal. With an integrated sales inbox, tracking capabilities, and basic campaign features, teams can manage outreach and pipeline updates in a single platform instead of juggling multiple tools.

Feature comparison of Streak and Pipedrive

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, providing you with a real-time timeline of each deal without the hassle of manual bcc’ing.

Pipedrive’s email synchronization directly connects to Gmail and Outlook, with IMAP support for other providers, ensuring that every inbound and outbound message is logged against the correct contact or deal record. The Smart Email BCC address feature allows you to log messages without leaving your email client—simply add the dynamic bcc, and Pipedrive takes care of the rest. With native calendar integration for both Google and Microsoft calendars, all your meetings automatically appear on contact timelines, offering you a unified view of every customer interaction.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Streak’s email sync operates in real-time, leveraging Gmail’s own infrastructure. As soon as you send or receive a message, Streak logs it instantly into the relevant pipeline, ensuring your team has access to the latest activity without any delays. 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 enjoy the benefit of Google’s exceptional uptime and reliability.

Pipedrive’s email sync with Gmail and Outlook is designed to update every few minutes, striking a balance between immediacy and system performance. Outbound and inbound messages are captured and matched to contacts or deals in under five minutes, meaning you rarely face missing or delayed logs. The IMAP fallback adheres to standard IMAP IDLE protocols for push notifications, providing near-instant updates for compatible providers.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is seamlessly 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 external applications. You can easily insert custom variables such as first names, company names, and deal data directly from your pipelines, set up automatic follow-up sequences on the same thread, and even 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 always have visibility on who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, it's worth noting that Streak’s campaign features lack advanced analytics dashboards; thus, detailed reporting on unsubscribes or bounce handling requires an additional tool.

Freshsales provides native plugins for Gmail and Outlook, offering the option of two-way or one-way email sync during setup—two-way sync is the default, ensuring that both incoming and outgoing emails are instantly reflected in your mailbox and CRM timeline. For calendar integration, Freshsales supports bi-directional sync with Google Calendar and Office 365, meaning appointments scheduled in either your inbox or CRM are mirrored on both platforms, so your meeting history is conveniently aligned with your email conversations in the same timeline.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

Streak’s Mail Merge tool is conveniently integrated within Gmail, enabling 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, schedule automatic 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 logged seamlessly in your Streak timeline, ensuring you maintain visibility on who has opened, clicked, or replied. However, Streak’s campaign capabilities fall short on advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won't receive detailed reports on unsubscribes or bounce handling without integrating an additional tool.

For users on Advanced plans and above, Pipedrive’s Group Emailing feature allows you to select up to 100 contacts from any list and send bulk messages complete with merge tags and reply tracking. The Pipedrive Campaigns add-on offers a dedicated module for crafting email journeys, segmenting audiences, and analyzing open and click rates, with all replies automatically mapped back to the correct deal or contact. The downside? The Campaigns add-on comes at an additional cost, and its reporting capabilities are more limited when compared to standalone email marketing platforms.

Open and Click Tracking

Streak integrates a small tracking pixel and link tracker directly into Gmail, providing real-time “eye” icons that indicate when an email is opened or a link is clicked within a thread. By hovering over the green eye, you can view timestamps, locations, and click data for each link, all without leaving your inbox. Since it's built entirely on Gmail’s API, setup is minimal and feedback is instantaneous; however, you won't find aggregated campaign dashboards or multi-link heat-mapping beyond individual message insights.

Pipedrive offers “Track email opening” and “Track link opening” toggles, enabling every sent message to log opens and clicks, complete with counts and timestamps in the Mail tab. You can turn tracking on or off for each email and see exactly who clicked which link in the deal view. Nevertheless, Pipedrive’s reporting is limited to basic open and click rates—there's no built-in funnel visualization or heat-map insights without exporting data to a BI tool.

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, providing complete CRM functionality—including pipelines, contact details, and email logging—without ever leaving your inbox. The sidebar displays deal stages, custom fields, and shared notes alongside every thread, ensuring you always have the context you need at your fingertips. You can effortlessly drag and drop emails into various pipelines or update statuses on the go, creating a seamless integration between your inbox and CRM. However, since Streak is exclusive to Gmail, you won't enjoy this in-inbox experience if you switch to Outlook or another email client.

Pipedrive’s Gmail Add-on adds a side panel to your inbox, allowing you to view contact and deal information, update stages, and create new activities directly from Gmail. You instantly access Smart Email BCC, templates, and tracking options without leaving your inbox, and you can generate new leads or deals with just a click, effectively transforming your mailbox into a Pipedrive cockpit. However, this in-inbox functionality is only available on Chrome or Edge, as there’s no equivalent add-on for desktop Outlook.

folk CRM: The Best Email CRM

folk offers teams the seamless and interconnected email workflow they've been missing. It centralizes communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing, all within a clean and user-friendly CRM interface. With a 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk distinguishes itself as one of the top-rated lightweight CRMs designed for contemporary sales and partnership teams.

Crafted for startups, agencies, and scaling sales teams of 20-50 members, folk streamlines email operations, making them efficient rather than overwhelming.

Extract Intel from Emails

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

• Quickly recap past conversations with a click using folk's Recap assistant, which gathers insights from emails and notes to create a summary, enabling you to grasp the context in seconds.
• Follow up at optimal times as AI scans conversations to notify you when to reach out to a contact and even drafts replies for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s built-in sequencing engine facilitates the creation of automated outreach flows directly within the CRM. You can design multi-step email sequences, personalize communications using CRM fields, and automatically log every interaction. Whether nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging inactive deals, folk provides a robust yet straightforward sequencing workflow that eliminates the need for external tools.

Set conditions based on your CRM variables to trigger automated emails, such as when a deal is closed or when a new lead is added.

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

folk’s AI Follow-Up feature ensures that no conversation slips through the cracks. By evaluating your email history, folk notifies you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights cold conversations, and pinpoints the best moments to re-engage. It acts as a built-in assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without the hassle of manual tracking.

Conclusion

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

In summary, Streak excels with its seamless Gmail integration, turning your inbox into a collaborative sales hub, while Pipedrive offers a robust visual pipeline experience complemented by reliable email sync. However, for teams prioritizing email integration, automation, and sequencing, folk stands out as the best alternative. Its user-friendly interface, AI-driven follow-up reminders, and advanced sequencing capabilities streamline email operations, making it the ideal choice for teams looking to elevate their sales processes without the clutter.

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