Email is the cornerstone of contemporary sales communication: it’s where deals progress, follow-ups take place, and relationships flourish.

As teams increasingly depend on automated outreach, multi-channel engagement, and accurate tracking, CRMs are now vying for attention based on the quality of their native email integrations.

While both Streak and HubSpot provide built-in email workflows, their usability, depth, and influence on daily sales activities vary significantly. For teams prioritizing simplicity and rapid, dependable email execution, folk offers one of the sleekest and most effective email integrations available in any CRM, streamlining 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. Sales representatives can send messages, automate follow-ups, and track engagement all from a single location, eliminating the need to switch tabs or rely on disparate tools.

• Centralized communication. All emails—both sent and received—sync seamlessly with the corresponding contact or deal.
• Smarter follow-ups. Automated reminders and sequences enable reps to follow up at optimal times without any manual effort.
• Real-time tracking. Open rates, clicks, and replies are integrated into the CRM, informing subsequent actions.
• Cleaner data. Emails enrich contact profiles instantly, providing context and conversation history.
• Email templates. Customizable, reusable templates help teams maintain consistency and save valuable time.
• Outreach automation. Send bulk emails, sequences, or triggered messages based on deal stages or contact interactions.

When a CRM expertly manages email, sales reps can stop juggling various tools and concentrate on conversations that drive revenue. This distinction is what separates a competent CRM from one that truly accelerates sales!

What is Streak?

Streak is a lightweight CRM seamlessly integrated into Gmail, transforming your inbox into a shared pipeline for sales, support, and account management. Users can manage deals, track stages, and collaborate on conversations directly from the familiar Gmail interface, eliminating the need to switch tabs. Email is at the heart of this product, enhanced by real-time tracking and pipeline views that overlay your existing Gmail discussions.

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot serves as a comprehensive CRM platform that integrates marketing, sales, and customer service around a unified contact database. Its email integration allows representatives to connect their personal Gmail or Outlook inboxes, enabling them to send one-on-one emails, log replies, and trigger sequences directly from either the CRM or their inbox. Features like open and click tracking, email templates, and shared timelines provide full visibility of email activities across the entire revenue team.

Feature comparison of Streak and HubSpot

Integration Capabilities

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

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

Sync Frequency and Reliability

Streak’s email sync occurs in real time, seamlessly integrated within Gmail’s infrastructure. The moment you send or receive a message, Streak instantly logs it to the relevant pipeline, ensuring your team has immediate access to the latest activity. There's virtually no lag—messages and thread updates show up instantly in both your inbox and Streak’s interface. By connecting directly to Gmail, you leverage Google’s exceptional uptime and reliability.

In contrast, HubSpot’s email synchronization functions on a near-real-time basis with Gmail and Outlook, typically updating changes within seconds to a minute. After connecting your account, HubSpot maintains a continuous connection via OAuth, constantly pushing and pulling message data so your CRM timeline remains current. This reliability is further enhanced by HubSpot’s global cloud infrastructure, which boasts an impressive 99.99% uptime for its core services.

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 third-party applications. You can effortlessly insert custom variables such as first names, company details, and deal data directly from your pipelines, schedule automatic follow-up sequences within the same thread, and even conduct A/B tests on subject lines to enhance response 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 do not include advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you'll miss out on detailed reporting for unsubscribes or bounce handling unless you integrate an additional tool.

HubSpot’s CRM connects via OAuth to Gmail, Outlook, or any IMAP-compatible provider, enabling genuine two-way email synchronization—send and receive one-to-one emails directly from contact records, with every reply logged in seconds to the appropriate timeline event. On the calendar front, HubSpot's native integrations with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar offer bi-directional sync: meetings created in your external calendar appear on contact, company, or deal timelines, while events scheduled in HubSpot automatically update your calendar and send guest invites.

Mail Merge and Campaigns

Streak’s Mail Merge tool integrates seamlessly with Gmail, allowing 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, such as first names, company details, and deal data, directly from your pipelines. Additionally, you can 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 effortlessly 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 lack advanced analytics dashboards, meaning you won't have detailed reporting on unsubscribes or bounce handling without integrating another tool.

On the other hand, HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise support powerful one-to-one sequences, enabling 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, manages delays, and detects replies, while Marketing Hub can scale to thousands of recipients, complete with segmentation, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics on opens, clicks, and bounces. However, since the most advanced campaign features are part of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub users who don't opt for that add-on may encounter limitations on total sends and receive more basic reporting.

Open and Click Tracking

Streak integrates a small tracking pixel and link tracker directly into Gmail, allowing you to see real-time “eye” icons that indicate when an email is opened or a link is clicked within a conversation. By hovering over the green eye, you can access timestamps, locations, and specific click data for each link, all without leaving your inbox. Since it operates solely on Gmail’s API, setup is minimal and feedback is immediate; however, it does not offer aggregated campaign dashboards or multi-link heat-mapping beyond individual message insights.

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

In-Inbox CRM Experience

Streak operates entirely within Gmail, providing comprehensive CRM features—like pipelines, contact details, and email logging—without needing to leave your inbox. The sidebar displays deal stages, custom fields, and shared notes alongside every email thread, ensuring you always have relevant context at your fingertips. You can effortlessly drag and drop emails into different pipelines or update statuses on the fly, creating a seamless integration between your inbox and CRM. However, since Streak is exclusive to Gmail, this integrated experience won’t be available if you switch to Outlook or another email client.

With the HubSpot Sales extension installed, you can easily view and edit HubSpot records—such as 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 appears next to your inbox, allowing you to create tasks, send template responses, and track recent interactions without switching applications. It even displays lead scores and deal forecasts inline, meaning every email action contributes directly to your pipeline. However, note that without a paid Sales or Service Hub subscription, some of these in-inbox features—like sequences and call logging—will remain inaccessible.

folk CRM: The Best Email CRM

folk provides teams with the connected email workflow they've been missing. It centralizes communication, automates follow-ups, and simplifies sequencing, all within a clean and intuitive CRM interface. With a 4.5/5 rating on G2, folk is recognized as one of the top-rated lightweight CRMs for modern sales and partnership teams.

Designed specifically for startups, agencies, and growing sales teams of 20-50, folk streamlines email operations, making them efficient rather than overwhelming.

Extract Intel from Emails

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

• Quickly recap past conversations with a single click using folk's Recap assistant. It pulls information from emails and notes to generate a summary, giving you context in seconds.
• Follow up at the optimal time by leveraging AI to analyze conversations, alerting you when to reconnect with a contact and even drafting replies for you.

Email Sequencing & Automation

folk’s native sequencing engine simplifies the creation of automated outreach flows directly within the CRM. You can easily craft multi-step email sequences, personalize messages using CRM fields, and ensure every interaction is automatically logged. Whether nurturing leads, executing outbound campaigns, or re-engaging inactive deals, folk offers a powerful yet straightforward sequencing workflow without needing separate tools.

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

AI-Powered Follow-Up Reminders

folk’s AI Follow-Up feature guarantees that no conversation slips through the cracks. By assessing your email history, it alerts you when a contact hasn’t responded, highlights conversations that have gone cold, and determines the ideal moment for re-engagement. It functions as a built-in assistant, keeping your inbox organized and your pipeline active—without the need for manual tracking.

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

Conclusion

In conclusion, while Streak excels with its seamless Gmail integration and real-time tracking, and HubSpot offers a robust platform with comprehensive email capabilities and analytics, folk stands out as the superior choice for teams reliant on email integration, automation, and sequencing. Its intuitive interface, AI-driven follow-up reminders, and streamlined email workflows empower sales teams to focus on meaningful interactions without the clutter. For those seeking a CRM that transforms email into a dynamic revenue tool, folk is undoubtedly the best alternative.

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