7 Best CRMs with Email Integration
Learn what features to expect & how each email CRM stacks up
For most people in sales, email is the #1 most important way to communicate with leads and customers.
So you’re definitely not wrong to expect a great integration between your email and CRM.
With all the different CRM possibilities out there however, it can be hard to figure out what to expect from such an integration between email and CRM, so first, I’ll tackle that for you and give you a list of useful features to look out for. 👀
After this, I’ll use this same feature list as well as review scores from two leading sites to compare 7 different top CRMs that closely integrate with your email inbox.
Here we go! 👇
Before we start: are your needs more specific?
In case your needs are more specific, I’ve made separate overview rankings for:
- CRMs that integrate well with Gmail
- CRMs that integrate well with Google Workspace
- CRMs that integrate well with Outlook & Microsoft Office 365
If you don’t have a Google or Microsoft inbox however, just keep reading below!
Also, if you’re using LinkedIn a lot, make sure to check out my dedicated breakdown of LinkedIn-CRM integrations.
Core features of an email integrated CRM
Here are 10 core features you can expect from a CRM that is well integrated with your email inbox:
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
That’s a lot of useful stuff to follow up your leads better and boost your productivity! 😄 I’ve detailed below which of these features come with each CRM.
Ranking CRMs with email integration: methodology
If you’re looking for a CRM that integrates well with your email inbox, the above set of features can significantly boost your productivity.
To compile this ranking, I went through a list of around 600 possible CRMs to make a pre-selection. Then I tested every one of the 7 selected email CRMs first hand and researched which of them offer which features and detailed this for you below.
It is however important to keep the bigger picture in mind when comparing CRMs, because you need to make sure your team will actually use that CRM as well. Getting a CRM that nobody uses is pretty useless. 😏
Because of that, I’ve included the current scoring for each CRM on G2 so you get a better idea of how each CRM stacks up. It’s broken down as follows:
- Ease of Use
- Ease of Setup
- Meets Requirements
- Quality of Support
- Ease of Doing Business With
- Ease of Admin
And to top it off, I’ve also incorporated the review score each CRM’s mobile app gets on Google Play. That way it isn’t only great for your email inbox, but handy on the phone too! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I then took the average of the email integration feature score, the average G2 review score, and the Google Play score for the mobile app, to calculate… the final score! 🥇
The 7 Best CRMs with Email Integration ranked
Don’t want to read the whole comparison? 🤓
The top 7 best CRMs with email integration in 2025 are:
- Salesflare: 9.7/10 🏆
- Copper: 8.5/10
- HubSpot CRM & Sales Hub: 8.2/10
- Freshworks CRM: 7.2/10
- Streak: 6.7/10
- Zoho CRM: 6.4/10
- Pipedrive: 5.7/10
Want to dig into the details? Read on!
1. Salesflare [9.7/10] 🏆

It’s no surprise that Salesflare stacks up so well against other CRMs with a strong email integration: it’s built from the ground up to make following up leads more productive, starting from your email inbox.
Salesflare (founded in 2014) is used by thousands of small and medium-sized businesses who sell to other businesses (incl. agencies, consultancies, development houses, tech companies, …). It’s top ranked across review platforms and is the #1 CRM on Product Hunt, the leading community for product enthusiasts.
Salesflare’s plugins for Gmail and Outlook don’t just offer a really tight integration (more on that below). What’s absolutely unique about them is that they bring 100% of the CRM functionality into your email inbox, so you never need to switch apps while selling (although if you want to use Salesflare separately and do all the same things from there, that is fully possible too 👊).
Note that many CRMs are only focused on integrating on with Google Workspace / Gmail and Office 365 / Outlook. Salesflare however also integrates with most other types of email inboxes and synchronizes those perfectly (not through the email inbox plugin, but through a direct connection with the inbox).
“I am a start-up and I needed a powerful CRM that I could set up quickly and easily, and Salesflare is perfect for me. Very powerful; great knowledge base to check whenever I have a question. I especially like the integration with my Outlook email. I can quickly add new contacts and accounts right from my email, and I can see who is opening my emails from the dashboard – very helpful.” writes Steve N., founder of a consultancy, about Salesflare.
Testing it out
When you start using Salesflare, the integration with your email inbox is immediately apparent. As soon as you connect your email, Salesflare begins to pull in relevant data and automatically fills in details about your contacts and leads. You can update and manage your CRM directly from your inbox, without having to switch between apps, which makes it incredibly convenient. Every email, meeting, and interaction is logged automatically, and the CRM even enriches contact details by pulling in data from email signatures. The seamlessness of this integration ensures that you spend less time on manual data entry and more time engaging with your leads.
Scoring
Without further ado, here’s an analysis of how Salesflare stacks up:
Features Salesflare offers: 10/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
Features Salesflare doesn’t offer: none
G2 review scoring:
- Ease of Use: 9.5
- Ease of Setup: 9.5
- Meets Requirements: 9.3
- Quality of Support: 9.7
- Ease of Doing Business With: 9.9
- Ease of Admin: 9.5
Final result:
- Email CRM feature score: 10/10
- Average G2 review score: 9.6/10
- Google Play review score: 4.8/5 → 9.6/10
- FINAL SCORE: 9.7/10
Pricing
Pricing to get all of the above (10 of 10 features) on the Salesflare Pro plan:
$49/user/month (billed annually)
$55/user/month (billed monthly)
Try Salesflare
Want to see it all in action? You can try Salesflare for free. 👈
It only takes a few minutes to start a trial, connect your email inbox (it’ll be the first thing Salesflare asks you to do) and install the Gmail or Outlook plugin (you can find those in Settings > Applications & Integrations).
I guarantee you won’t find an easier CRM that connects so well with your email inbox! 👌


2. Copper [8.5/10]

Copper is a CRM software company founded in 2011 that fully focuses on serving Google Workspace clients and on closely integrating with Gmail, which is why it deserves its second place in this email CRM ranking.
If you’re not using Gmail, Copper is not for you. It doesn’t even integrate with Microsoft Outlook / Office 365. So just scroll past it if you’re not using Gmail! 🖱️
Copper’s target industries are relatively similar to Salesflare’s, additionally serving real estate clients, as the software is not focused on B2B sales. This allows the company to reach a larger target audience, but inevitably also makes using it a little less straightforward for its B2B users.
When objectively comparing scores, the main differences are a more difficult set-up, lower quality support, and the absence of two email productivity features. Also, the pricing to get all below functionality (8 features) is more than double.
Testing it out
When I tested Copper, the first thing that stood out was its tight integration with Gmail. Setting it up was straightforward, and once connected, the CRM was fully embedded into my Gmail interface. Every time I sent or received an email, Copper automatically logged it and updated the corresponding contact or lead in the CRM. This feature was particularly helpful in keeping track of ongoing conversations without needing to jump between different platforms. However, I found that while the email integration was solid, Copper lacked some advanced features, like automatic contact enrichment from email signatures, which limited the overall efficiency slightly.
Scoring
Features Copper offers: 8/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook (Gmail only)
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
Features Copper doesn’t offer:
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
G2 review scoring:
- Ease of Use: 9.2
- Ease of Setup: 8.9
- Meets Requirements: 8.8
- Quality of Support: 8.8
- Ease of Doing Business With: 9.1
- Ease of Admin: 9.1
Final result:
- Email CRM feature score: 8/10
- Average G2 review score: 9/10
- Google Play review score: 4.2/5 → 8.4/10
- FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10
Pricing
Pricing to get all of the above (8 of 10 features) on the Copper Business Plan:
$99/user/month (billed annually)
$134/user/month (billed monthly)
3. HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub [8.2/10]

HubSpot is a marketing automation platform turned everything platform. It was founded in 2005 to make marketing automation easier.
Nowadays, HubSpot’s main selling point is offering an all-in-one solution, including marketing, sales, service and operations. If you don’t like using different apps and integrating them (using tools like Zapier and native integrations), then HubSpot might be what you’re looking for.
To get CRM functionality that is comparable to what you’re getting with the other CRMs in this ranking, you need to get two HubSpot products: its CRM and its Sales Hub.
In terms of its email integration, HubSpot does a fair job, although the pricing to get all this handy functionality (7 features) is quite steep, starting at $90-100/user/month plus an extra required fee of $1470 for onboarding.
Testing it out
Using HubSpot CRM alongside the Sales Hub was a robust experience, albeit a bit overwhelming at first due to the platform’s extensive features. The email integration was solid; every email I sent from Gmail or Outlook was automatically tracked, and I could view interactions directly within the CRM. However, I noticed that setting up automated email sequences and personalizing them required more steps than I anticipated. While HubSpot excels in providing a comprehensive view of customer interactions, it requires a bit more effort to unlock its full potential, especially for smaller teams.
Scoring
Features HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub offers: 7/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
Features HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub doesn’t offer
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
G2 review scoring:
- Ease of Use: 8.6
- Ease of Setup: 8.3
- Meets Requirements: 8.5
- Quality of Support: 8.5
- Ease of Doing Business With: 8.7
- Ease of Admin: 8.6
Final result:
- Email CRM feature score: score: 7/10
- Average G2 review score: 8.5/10
- Google Play review score: 4.6/5 → 9.2/10
- FINAL SCORE: 8.2/10
Pricing
Pricing to get all of the above (7 of 10 features) on the HubSpot Sales Hub Professional plan:
$90/user/month (billed annually)
$100/user/month (billed monthly)
+ an extra required fee of $1470 for onboarding
4. Freshworks CRM [7.2/10]

Freshworks CRM (formerly known as Freshsales) is a sales CRM from Freshworks, the company behind / initially called Freshdesk. The company was founded in 2010 to provide a better, cheaper solution for customer service teams.
Freshworks’ main selling point is its feature depth. It has also managed to offer this range of functionality through an easier to use interface than its competitor/predecessor from the same city, Zoho.
While its email integration is not as deep as with better performing CRMs in this ranking, it still deserves a mention in this ranking due to its relatively popular Gmail add-on and integration.
“Freshsales make it easy to monitor sales team activities. The best part is I can generate leads automatically from emails which will helps in minimizing manual errors. They provide a complete dashboard of all activities such as CRM, email tracking, call tracking, sales engagement, etc. Its very important for me and I’m also happy with Freshsales’ service. Mainly, I also like that Freshsales allows to keep monitoring or tracking all your clients. It has a very good interface.” writes Sourav S., sales rep at a financial services company, about Freshsales.
Testing it out
Testing Freshworks CRM, I found that the email integration was decent but not as seamless as I had hoped. After connecting my Gmail account, emails were synced with the CRM, and I could track opens and clicks directly from the inbox. However, unlike some other CRMs, Freshworks didn’t automatically create new contacts from email interactions, which meant I had to manually enter this information. The ability to send personalized email sequences was a nice touch, but overall, the email integration felt a bit basic compared to other tools I’ve used.
Scoring
Features Freshworks CRM offers: 5/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook (Gmail only)
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
Features Freshworks CRM doesn’t offer
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
G2 review scoring:
- Ease of Use: 9.1
- Ease of Setup: 8.9
- Meets Requirements: 8.9
- Quality of Support: 9.0
- Ease of Doing Business With: 9.1
- Ease of Admin: 9.4
Final result:
- Email CRM feature score: score: 5/10
- Average G2 review score: 9.0/10
- Google Play review score: 3.8/5 → 7.6/10
- FINAL SCORE: 7.2/10
Pricing
Pricing to get all of the above (5 of 10 features) on Freshsales Enterprise plan*:
$59/user/month (billed annually)
$71/user/month (billed monthly)
* Sequences with stricter limits also available on Pro plan
5. Streak [6.7/10]

When ranking CRMs with email integration, one can not ignore Streak. Streak was founded in 2011 to be the email integrated CRM for Gmail, and it has stayed true to this mission ever since.
Note that, like Copper, this again means that if you don’t use Gmail, Streak is not for you.
Compared to the other CRMs in this list, Streak has historically focused very much on solo users, which is epitomized by its popular free plan without collaboration functionality (and its affordable “Solo” plan upgrade).
Streak runs entirely within the Gmail interface and that’s where it’s strongest. It has no dedicated web application and its mobile apps are a bit limited (getting 2.5 and 3 stars in the App Store and on Google Play).
Still, if you’re a single user and don’t use your CRM on your phone, Streak can be a simple and strong solution to start tracking your leads.
Do note that to get all the 6 below features, you need to get on its Pro plan for teams, which will set you back $59/user/month (billed monthly).
Testing it out
Using Streak felt like an extension of Gmail rather than a separate CRM. Since it’s built entirely within Gmail, the integration is as seamless as it gets. Every email I sent was automatically added to my pipeline, and I could track deals right from my inbox. However, this tight integration also meant that if you don’t use Gmail, Streak isn’t an option. For single users or small teams who live in their inbox, Streak is an excellent choice, though its limited features outside of Gmail and basic mobile apps might be a drawback for some.
Scoring
Features Streak offers: 6/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook (Gmail only)
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
Features Streak doesn’t offer:
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
G2 review scoring:
- Ease of Use: 8.7
- Ease of Setup: 9.4
- Meets Requirements: 8.8
- Quality of Support: 8.5
- Ease of Doing Business With: 9.4
- Ease of Admin: 8.6
Final result:
- Email CRM feature score: 6/10
- Average G2 review score: 8.9/10
- Google Play review score: 2.6/5 → 5.2/10
- FINAL SCORE: 6.7/10
Pricing
Pricing to get all of the above (6 of 10 features) on the Streak Pro plan:
$49/user/month (billed annually)
$59/user/month (billed monthly)
6. Zoho CRM [6.4/10]

Zoho is a true household name in the CRM industry, so I couldn’t omit them from this ranking.
Zoho launched its small business CRM product in 2005 and has historically been positioning itself as a cheaper alternative to Salesforce. That is immediately its main selling point.
If you’re looking for a CRM solution, Zoho has many tiers (and products even: Zoho CRM, Zoho CRM Plus, Zoho One, …). To get all three features below, you need to get on the Professional plan of its standard Zoho CRM product. Do note that its add-ons (like the comparable Gmail add-on) usually don’t get the best review ratings.
Regarding the CRM itself, Kishore C., sales rep at a backoffice service provider, wrote about Zoho CRM: “Zoho CRM’s pricing is very low when compared to other CRM tools. The best feature of Zoho CRM is its low cost with more features. Also, Zoho CRM is very user-friendly when compared to other CRMs. All the features are up-to-date and every feature is unique in its way. Zoho CRM can be integrated with other tools like marketing automation tools, or sales automation tools, which is useful for maintaining all the records in the tool.”
Testing it out
When I tried Zoho CRM, the email integration experience was somewhat underwhelming. While it did sync emails and allowed me to manage CRM tasks from my inbox, the process felt a bit clunky compared to other CRMs. The setup took longer than expected, and it didn’t automatically pull in new contacts from email interactions, which added extra steps to my workflow. The lack of advanced features like email signature enrichment also made it feel less efficient for managing high volumes of emails and leads.
Scoring
Features Zoho CRM offers: 3/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
Features Zoho CRM doesn’t offer:
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
G2 review scoring:
- Ease of Use: 8.1
- Ease of Setup: 7.6
- Meets Requirements: 8.2
- Quality of Support: 7.4
- Ease of Doing Business With: 7.9
- Ease of Admin: 7.8
Final result:
- Email CRM feature score: 3/10
- Average G2 review score: 7.8/10
- Google Play review score: 4.2/5 → 8.4/10
- FINAL SCORE: 6.4/10
Pricing
Pricing to get all of the above (3 of 10 features) on Zoho CRM Professional plan:
$23/user/month (billed annually)
$35/user/month (billed monthly)
+20% if you want to get “Premium support” (i.e. comparable support to what you get in other places)
7. Pipedrive [5.7/10]

Pipedrive is an easy-to-use and easy-to-setup sales CRM for startups, and is therefore compared to Salesflare very often.
The company was founded in 2011 to launch a counterreaction to enterprise CRMs like Salesforce, which are built more for enterprise needs than they are for sales teams. Pipedrive set out to change that.
While the company has been doing its best in recent years to build out a closer email integration, it still has some work to do on this front. Its relatively low depth of integration makes it land in last place for this Google CRM ranking.
Testing it out
When I tested Pipedrive, I found its email integration to be straightforward and effective. Connecting my email account was easy, and the automatic logging of emails to the corresponding contact or deal was helpful for keeping everything organized. However, while it tracks email opens and clicks, it lacks more advanced insights found in some other CRMs. The email templates are useful but offer less customization than I expected. Additionally, new contacts from incoming emails weren’t automatically created, requiring manual entry. Overall, Pipedrive’s email integration works well but could benefit from more advanced features.
Scoring
Features Pipedrive offers: 2/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your email inbox
- Live sync your emails & calendar meetings to the CRM
Features Pipedrive doesn’t offer
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your email inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails through the CRM
- See who your colleagues know and how well, with “relationship strength scores” based on their email traffic
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail or Outlook
- See whether these people who clicked email links also visit your website, which pages and for how long
- Be reminded of emails you haven’t replied to or customer conversations that have gone quiet
G2 review scoring:
- Ease of Use: 8.9
- Ease of Setup: 8.7
- Meets Requirements: 8.4
- Quality of Support: 8.4
- Ease of Doing Business With: 8.7
- Ease of Admin: 8.6
Final result:
- Email CRM feature score: score: 2/10
- Average G2 review score: 8.6/10
- Google Play review score: 3.3/5 → 6.6/10
- FINAL SCORE: 5.7/10
Pricing
Pricing to get all of the above (2 of 10 features) on the Pipedrive Professional plan:
$49/user/month (billed annually)
$64/user/month (billed monthly)
FAQ
Can you use a CRM for email marketing?
Yes, many CRM systems like Salesflare, Hubspot, Copper, and Pipedrive offer email marketing capabilities. They allow you to manage contacts, create email campaigns, track interactions, and analyze email marketing performance, all within the CRM platform.
Can CRM send email?
Yes, most CRM systems have built-in email functionality that enables you to send emails directly from the CRM platform. This feature allows you to communicate with leads, prospects, and customers without switching between different applications.
What CRM integrates into Gmail?
There are several CRMs that integrate with Gmail, such as Salesflare, Copper, HubSpot, Streak, and Zoho CRM. These integrations enable you to access CRM features and data directly within Gmail, allowing you to manage contacts, track email interactions, and more.
Can I use Outlook as a CRM?
While Outlook itself is primarily an email client, you can use it for basic CRM functions such as managing contacts and scheduling emails. However, for more advanced CRM capabilities, it’s recommended to use a dedicated CRM system like Salesflare that integrates with Outlook.
Why integrate email with CRM?
Integrating email with CRM offers several benefits. It allows you to centralize and organize all email communications related to your contacts and customers within the CRM system. This makes it easier to track interactions, view the history of email conversations, and access important email correspondence, leading to better customer management and improved productivity.
Want to dig deeper into the differences? Just ask our team using the chat on salesflare.com. We’re here to help 😄
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