Pipedrive vs Close CRM: quale CRM è il migliore per l'automazione?

Choosing between Pipedrive and Close CRM ultimately hinges on one crucial question: which CRM genuinely saves time through automation rather than creating additional administrative burdens?

For teams that value simplicity, folk provides one of the most efficient and powerful automation features available in any CRM, enabling users to automate emails based on their defined conditions and execute actions via the API.

Why Automation Is Essential for CRM in 2026

Automation has become the cornerstone of modern revenue teams. Sales and marketing are expected to manage an increasing volume of leads, engage through multiple channels, and navigate complex buying journeys—all without expanding headcount or compromising personalization. A CRM that still depends on manual data entry, ad hoc follow-ups, and outdated spreadsheet reporting saps time, energy, and focus away from meaningful interactions with customers.

Here are the main reasons why automation is now indispensable:

• Buyers demand quick, relevant responses across email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and phone calls.
• Pipelines move swiftly, and any overlooked follow-up can lead to lost revenue.
• The explosion of data makes manual updates both unrealistic and unreliable.
• Leadership requires real-time performance visibility, not just end-of-month estimates.

The true value of a CRM lies in how much work it alleviates for the team, not in 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 the right time, allowing reps to focus on building relationships and closing deals instead of managing the tool.

Cos'è Pipedrive?

Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM designed around a visual pipeline, enabling representatives to track deals from initial contact to closing. Its email synchronization connects seamlessly with Gmail, Outlook, and other IMAP providers, ensuring that every message is automatically logged to the corresponding contact and deal. Featuring a built-in sales inbox along with tracking and basic campaign capabilities, teams can manage outreach and pipeline updates in a centralized location, eliminating the need to juggle multiple tools.

What is Close CRM?

Close CRM is a sales platform tailored for high-velocity inside sales teams, featuring integrated calling, SMS, and email. With a built-in two-way email sync, representatives can send, receive, and track messages directly within Close, ensuring every conversation is automatically associated with the appropriate contact and opportunity. Additionally, bulk emails, sequences, and performance reporting transform email from a standalone inbox into a well-structured outreach channel.

Feature comparison of Pipedrive and Close CRM

Integration Capabilities

Pipedrive seamlessly integrates with Gmail and Outlook (with IMAP fallback for other providers), capturing all inbound and outbound messages linked to the appropriate 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 Google and Microsoft, all your meetings automatically populate on contact timelines, providing a comprehensive view of every customer interaction.

Close offers a straightforward email integration: simply connect your Gmail or Outlook account, authenticate via OAuth, and every message associated with a matched contact will automatically appear in Close's timeline. Although Close does not natively sync calendar events, you can easily bridge meetings back into the CRM using Zapier or Google Calendar integration, ensuring your schedule is in sync with your sales pipeline.

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Pipedrive’s email synchronization with Gmail and Outlook operates every few minutes, striking a balance between immediacy and system performance. Both outbound and inbound messages are captured and matched to contacts or deals in less than five minutes, minimizing instances of missing or delayed logs. The IMAP fallback adheres to standard IMAP IDLE protocols for push notifications, ensuring near-instant updates for compatible providers.

Close’s email integration offers immediate two-way sync by utilizing OAuth-based connections with Gmail and Outlook. When a contact emails you, Close logs it instantly—eliminating the need for polling intervals or manual BCC. Outbound emails sent from Close are reflected in your email provider in real time, and the same applies for incoming messages. For calendar events, you can connect a Google Calendar via Zapier for automatic updates; however, these triggers operate every few minutes based on your Zapier plan.

Two-Way Email and Calendar Sync

With Advanced plans and higher, Pipedrive’s Group Emailing feature allows you to choose up to 100 contacts from any list to send bulk messages that include merge tags and reply tracking. Additionally, Pipedrive Campaigns, an add-on, offers a specialized module for crafting email journeys, segmenting audiences, and analyzing open and click rates. All replies are automatically linked back to the appropriate deal or contact. However, it's important to note that the Campaigns add-on comes with additional costs, and its reporting capabilities are less comprehensive compared to dedicated email marketing platforms.

Close, on the other hand, provides 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 in real time, connecting threads to the correct contact without the need for manual BCCs. While Close doesn't offer native calendar event synchronization, its 'Emailing' setup indicates that you can sync both your work email and calendar.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

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 specialized module for creating email journeys, segmenting audiences, and analyzing open and click rates, with all replies automatically linked to the appropriate deal or contact. However, it's worth noting that the Campaigns add-on comes with an additional cost, and its reporting capabilities are more limited compared to standalone email marketing platforms.

In contrast, Close does not provide a traditional mail merge interface but enables the creation of multi-step drip campaigns through its Workflows engine, integrating email, calls, and SMS into a cohesive sequence. You can enroll leads, customize messages using templates, and allow Close to send steps automatically at your preferred pace, all while logging interactions in its unified Inbox. That said, Close lacks a visual campaign builder and offers limited email campaign analytics, meaning you won't have access to open-rate trends or A/B testing insights within the UI.

Open and Click Tracking

Pipedrive simplifies tracking with its “Track email opening” and “Track link opening” features, allowing you to capture every sent message's opens and clicks, complete with counts and timestamps in the Mail tab. You can easily enable or disable tracking for each email and view who clicked which link directly in the deal view. However, Pipedrive's reporting is somewhat limited, offering only basic open and click rates—there are no built-in funnel visualizations or heat-map insights unless you export the data to a BI tool.

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

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Pipedrive’s Gmail Add-on seamlessly integrates a side panel into your inbox, allowing you to view contact and deal information, update stages, and add new activities directly within Gmail. You can access Smart Email BCC, templates, and tracking toggles instantly without leaving your inbox, and creating new leads or deals is just a click away. It effectively transforms 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.

On the other hand, Close doesn’t offer a native sidebar for Gmail or Outlook, but you can utilize the Missive integration to manage contacts, leads, and opportunities right from your inbox. Emails sent or received through your mail client are displayed in Close’s unified activity stream without the need for manual BCCs, thus maintaining context. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll need to switch tabs to access pipeline overviews or dashboards, meaning it’s not a fully in-inbox CRM—rather, it serves as a well-synced companion.

folk CRM: The Best CRM for Automations

folk CRM is an innovative, AI-driven CRM tailored for teams eager to automate their deals without the hassle. It consolidates all relationships—leads, clients, partners, candidates, and investors—into adaptable views that cater to any workflow.

folk is crafted for teams prioritizing automation. With built-in email and calendar synchronization, teams can effortlessly scale their follow-ups and outreach. New conditional email automations allow you to send emails triggered by real-time data in folk; for instance, onboarding or handoff emails can be automatically dispatched when a contact becomes a client or a deal is finalized.

Driven by AI, folk enhances data, creates icebreakers, drafts customized emails, and recommends the next best actions. Its open API and webhooks integrate smoothly with tools like Zapier and Make, facilitating advanced workflows across email, WhatsApp, Slack, billing, and internal systems.

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

Conclusione

In summary, while Pipedrive effectively integrates email and offers a visual sales pipeline for deal tracking, and Close CRM excels with its instant two-way email sync tailored for high-velocity teams, folk stands out as the premier choice for teams focused on automation. Its advanced email automation, seamless integration capabilities, and AI-driven enhancements allow users to scale outreach effortlessly. For those prioritizing email integration, automation, and sequencing, folk is the best alternative, providing an all-in-one solution for modern revenue teams. Try folk CRM for free

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