7 Best CRMs for Gmail + Top Features
Learn what features to expect & how each Gmail CRM stacks up
If you’re using Gmail (whether a personal Gmail or a business email via Google Workspace), then you’re in luck. It allows for the best and most stable integrations with your CRM (if you don’t believe me, ask our tech team 😏).
With the many different CRM possibilities out there however, it can be hard to figure out what to expect from such an integrated Gmail-CRM setup, so first, we’ll tackle that for you and give you a list of essential features to look out for. 👀
After this, we’ll use this same feature list as well as review scores from G2 and the Google Marketplace to compare 7 different top CRMs that directly integrate with Gmail.
Here we go! 👇
What features can you expect from a Gmail CRM?
Here are 10 core features you can expect from a CRM that is well integrated with Gmail:
- Update and use your CRM from within your Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google 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 Gmail inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- 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
- 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 😄 We’ll detail below which of these features come with each CRM.
How can you define what is the best Gmail integrated CRM for your company?
If you’re looking for a CRM that integrates well with your Gmail environment, the above set of features can significantly boost your productivity. We’ve researched which of the current Gmail CRMs offer which features and have detailed them 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 it as well. Getting a CRM that nobody uses is pretty useless as well 😏
Because of that, we’ll include 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, we also incorporate the review score each CRM gets on the Google Marketplace. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
We then take the average of the feature score, the average G2 review score, and the Google Marketplace score, to calculate… the final score! 🥇
The 7 Best CRMs for Gmail ranked
Don’t want to read the whole comparison? 🤓
Here’s a quick overview of how each CRM performs:
- Salesflare: 9.9/10 🏆
- Copper: 8.4/10
- HubSpot CRM & Sales Hub: 7.8/10
- Streak: 7.6/10
- Freshworks CRM: 7.1/10
- Zoho CRM: 5.6/10
- Pipedrive: 5.1/10
Want to dig into the details? Read on!
1. Salesflare [9.9/10] 🏆
It’s no surprise that Salesflare stacks up so well against other Gmail CRMs: it’s built from the ground up to make following up leads more productive, starting from your Gmail 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 Gmail plugin (also for LinkedIn!) doesn’t only offer a really tight integration (more on that below). What’s absolutely unique about it is that it brings 100% of the CRM functionality into Gmail, so you never need to switch tabs while selling (although if you want to use Salesflare in a separate tab and do all the same things from there, that is fully possible too 👊).
If you’re a little technical: Salesflare is built on Google’s cloud server infrastructure with Google-led technologies like Angular. It also follows Google’s “Material Design” design language, so if you notice that it looks a little similar to the Google products you’re using already, that’s why. 😄
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 Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google 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 Gmail inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- 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
- 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
- Gmail CRM feature score: 10/10
- Average G2 review score: 9.6/10
- Google Marketplace review score: 5/5 → 10/10
- FINAL SCORE: 9.9/10
Pricing to get all of the above (10 features):
$49/user/month (billed annually)
$55/user/month (billed monthly)
Want to see it all in action? You can try Salesflare for free. 👈
It only takes a few minutes to start a Salesflare trial and install the Gmail plugin (it’s easiest in that order).
We guarantee you won’t find an easier CRM that connects so well with Gmail! 👌
2. Copper [8.4/10]
Copper is a CRM software company founded in 2011 that fully focuses on serving Gmail users, which is why it deserves its second place in this Gmail CRM ranking.
Its 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 Gmail productivity features. Also, the pricing to get all below functionality (8 features) is more than double.
Features Copper offers: 8/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google calendar meetings to the CRM
- Auto-create contacts for people you’re emailing or meeting with
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your Gmail inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail
- 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
- Gmail CRM feature score: 8/10
- Average G2 review score: 9/10
- Google Marketplace review score: 4.1/5 → 8.2/10
- FINAL SCORE: 8.4/10
Pricing to get all of the above (8 features):
$99/user/month (billed annually)
$134/user/month (billed monthly)
3. HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub [7.8/10]
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 Gmail integration, HubSpot does a fair job, although the pricing to get all this handy functionality (7 features) is quite steep, starting at $450/month billed annually (for 5 users, which is the minimum they impose).
Features HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub offers: 7/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google calendar meetings to the CRM
- Automatically enrich your contact database by syncing your contacts’ email signatures
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your Gmail inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail
- 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
- Gmail CRM feature score: score: 7/10
- Average G2 review score: 8.5/10
- Google Marketplace review score: 4/5 → 8/10
- FINAL SCORE: 7.8/10
Pricing to get all of the above (7 features):
$90/user/month (billed annually — minimum 5 users)
$100/user/month (billed monthly — minimum 5 users)
4. Streak [7.6/10]
When ranking CRMs for Gmail, one can not ignore Streak. Streak was founded in 2011 to be the dedicated CRM for Gmail, and it has stayed true to this mission ever since.
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 managing 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).
Features Streak offers: 6/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google calendar meetings to the CRM
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your Gmail inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail
- 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
- Gmail CRM feature score: 6/10
- Average G2 review score: 8.9/10
- Google Marketplace review score: 3.9/5 → 7.8/10
- FINAL SCORE: 7.6/10
Pricing to get all of the above (6 features):
$49/user/month (billed annually)
$59/user/month (billed monthly)
5. Freshworks CRM [7.1/10]
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.
This CRM’s 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 Gmail 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.
Features Freshworks CRM offers: 4/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google calendar meetings to the CRM
- Send automated, personalized email sequences from your Gmail inbox
- Track whether people open your emails and click on the links in your emails sent from Gmail
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
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- 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
- Gmail CRM feature score: score: 4/10
- Average G2 review score: 9.0/10
- Google Marketplace review score: 4.2/5 → 8.4/10
- FINAL SCORE: 7.1/10
Pricing to get all of the above (4 features):
$69/user/month (billed annually)
$83/user/month (billed monthly)
6. Zoho CRM [5.6/10]
Zoho is a true household name in the CRM industry, so we couldn’t omit them from this ranking.
The company 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, …). The two Gmail integration features below are already available on its free plan of its standard Zoho CRM product. Do note that its Gmail add-on gets the second lowest rating in this overview.
Features Zoho CRM offers: 2/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google calendar meetings to 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 Gmail inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- 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
- 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
- Gmail CRM feature score: 2/10
- Average G2 review score: 7.8/10
- Google Marketplace review score: 3.5/5 → 7/10
- FINAL SCORE: 5.6/10
Pricing to get all of the above (2 features):
Free
7. Pipedrive [5.1/10]
Pipedrive is an easy-to-use and easy-to-setup sales CRM for small businesses, 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 and made it super easy to track your sales.
While the company has been doing its best in recent years to build out a closer Gmail integration, it still has some work to do on this front. Its relatively low depth of integration, combined with an abysmal rating on the Google Marketplace, makes it land in last place for this Gmail CRM ranking.
Features Pipedrive offers: 2/10
- Update and use your CRM from within your Gmail inbox
- Live sync your Gmail emails & Google 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 Gmail inbox
- Use (shared or private) email templates when sending emails from Gmail
- 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
- 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
- Gmail CRM feature score: score: 2/10
- Average G2 review score: 8.6/10
- Google Marketplace review score: 2.3/5 → 4.6/10
- FINAL SCORE: 5.1/10
Pricing to get all of the above (2 features):
$49.90/user/month (billed annually)
$59.90/user/month (billed monthly)
Want to dig deeper into the differences? Just ask our team using the chat on salesflare.com. We’re here to help 😄
Not sure about Gmail by the way? We also have a guide with Outlook CRMs.
Or if you’re still in full exploration mode, check out these CRM examples.