Some customer relationship management (CRM) software integrates directly with your Gmail inbox. Everything you need to communicate with your customers is in a single view–no more jumping between windows.
It also means you don’t have to spend time learning completely new software and can manage your customer relationships in the same place you communicate with them.
If this sounds perfect to you, stick with me! I spent hours researching and testing the best CRM software for Gmail and share the top performers below.
The Top 6 Best CRM for Gmail
- Streak – Best for tracking sales pipelines
- HubSpot – Best free Gmail CRM tool
- NetHunt – Best for most
- Copper – Best for automations
- Agile CRM – Best for contact management
- Insightly – Best for managing enterprise-level relationships
I’m going to take a closer look at the features, benefits, and pricing of each software below. Use this guide to find the best CRM for Gmail for your business.
If you’re interested in looking into CRM solutions that don’t specifically integrate with Gmail, you can also check out this list of the best 8 CRM software solutions in 2021.
#1 – Streak — Best For Tracking Sales Pipelines
- Fully integrated with Gmail
- Customizable pipelines
- Solopreneur plan available
- Mobile friendly
Streak is one of few Gmail CRM options that is completely integrated with Gmail, meaning it lives directly inside your Gmail inbox. It comes with all the Google Workspace integrations too.
Streak is considered more of a lightweight CRM option, but don’t let that deter you. Streak packs a punch with tons of juicy CRM details like pipeline and lead generation features. Its pipeline tool is one of the best around. You’ll be able to keep your pipeline moving at all times by setting up and customizing a perfect process for your team to follow–no matter the scenario!
Furthermore, Streak will automatically capture data from your contacts and emails and add them to your pipeline. You can set up notifications to alert you as things progress through the pipeline so you’ll never forget a follow-up task.
Some other features Streak has to offer include:
- Manage a range of workflows such as sales, project management, support, or recruitment
- Easy-to-use with virtually no training required
- Available on mobile devices
- Email power tools such as tracking, mail merge, and send later features
- Easy scalability for growing businesses
Streak offers a range of pricing plans with the flexibility to choose billing monthly or annually.
You can even get started on a very basic plan with Streak for free!
- Free – $0 per month for an unlimited period of time
- Solo – $15 per month (single users only)
- Pro – $49 per user per month
- Enterprise – $129 per user per month
Get started for free with Streak today!
#2 – HubSpot — Best Free Gmail CRM Tool
- Easy implementation
- Powerful contact management
- Log and track emails in real time
- iPhone/Android accessible
HubSpot is a household name in the CRM world, so it’s only natural that they would make the top list of Gmail CRM software. HubSpot offers comprehensive CRM tools to all types of businesses for free.
It is important to point out that although the free version has a lot of features, they may not be as robust as what you need as your company scales. Luckily, HubSpot also offers phenomenal paid plans to support you as you grow.
HubSpot’s free Gmail CRM tool is implemented as a Chrome extension. It helps to streamline its user’s workflow by optimizing email tracking and sales with features like:
- Customizable email templates
- Automated outreach
- Simplified meeting scheduler
- Sales pipeline
- Mobile access for both iPhone and Android
You’ll also be able to log emails with one click, and track email opens and clicks in real time, all under one roof. The great thing about choosing HubSpot Gmail CRM is that as your business grows you’ll have one of the most extensive CRM software tools out there, already at your fingertips.
You can start using HubSpot for free today. If you want to start with one of its feature-rich plans the pricing tiers are:
- Basic – $6 per user per month
- Business – $12 per user per month
#3 – NetHunt — Best for Most
- Algorithm-based pipeline mgmt
- Personalized email sequencing
- Automated data capturing
- Detailed contact organization
At Quick Sprout, we prefer not to be vague when it comes to recommending what a software tool is best for. But in the case of NetHunt, it truly is suitable for just about everyone.
No matter whether you are a freelancer, small team, or a large company, NetHunt is ready to support you with its feature-rich CRM software that will integrate directly into your Gmail inbox.
With NetHunt, it’s all about automation. You can automate your entire CRM process from capturing inbound leads to nurturing them into a sale with personalized email sequencing. You can kiss data entry goodbye too. NetHunt will automatically capture client data from multiple forms such as web forms, inbound emails, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
You can even automate the sales pipeline. NetHunt uses clever algorithms to move leads along the pipeline depending on their actions such as replying to an email.
Some other features NetHunt offers are:
- In-depth customer base organization including links to conversations, events, and tasks
- Capability to create several pipelines for your product and services
- An easy drag-and-drop process to manually progress cards in sales pipelines Prioritization of customer requests from critical severity to low need
- No tab-switching or window-minimizing with all capabilities linked directly inside your Gmail inbox
Not only is NetHunt consistently presented as a top contender in the Gmail CRM software market, but it’s also one of the most affordable on the market. NetHunt pricing plans include:
- Basic – $24 per user per month
- Business – $48 per user per month
- Advanced – $96 per user per month
If you’re not sure which plan to choose, NetHunt offers 14-day free trials for all its plans.
#4 – Copper — Best For Automations
- End-to-end automation
- AI-drive task management
- Custom report generation
- Starts at $25/month
When Google itself recommends a software, you have to acknowledge that it is likely one of the best in the market. Copper is exactly that.
One of the first CRM software to integrate CRM and Gmail beyond sidebar status, Copper is built with Google Material Design. Within the CRM platform, email tracking, call logs, and contact management, all look and feel like Google Workspace.
Copper offers powerful AI-driven capabilities in a bid to give you back more time. It takes care of tedious and time-consuming tasks such as recording emails, calls, and events, while you focus on building customer relationships.
What I particularly love about Copper is the email automation features. You can automate follow-up emails with personalized templates and set automatic reminders for when it’s time to personally get in touch with a prospect or buyer.
Some other features Copper has to offer include:
- Organize contacts in one central place
- Set up the sales pipeline in a way that works for you
- Generate custom reports to track business progress
- Manage projects after the deal is closed
If you want to give Copper a go, you can do a 14-day free trial totally commitment-free. When your trial is over, Copper offers three pricing plans:
- Basic – $25 per user per month (3-seat limit)
- Professional – $59 per user per month
- Business – $119 per user per month
#5 – Agile CRM — Best For Contact Management
- 360-degree contact view
- Sync contacts automatically
- First 10 users free
- Plans under $50/user per month
If you’re looking for a straightforward CRM software that offers simplified and easy contact management, Agile CRM is the one for you.
Agile CRM’s Chrome extension for Gmail will streamline communication between the CRM platform and your Gmail inbox. This does mean there is some tab switching involved to get the complete overview of your data. Luckily its two-way contact sync allows you to access contacts from both systems, so you won’t need to enter the data twice.
Agile CRM also offers a unique contact management feature–a 360-degree contact view. This feature allows you to build a detailed profile for each contact including contact information, communication history, social media profiles, interests, points of engagement, and much more. Furthermore, you can access all of this information from a single contact page.
If this isn’t giving you everything you need to woo the prospect and nurture the relationship, then I don’t know what will.
You’ll also be able to:
- Track email campaigns
- Add or delete contacts from existing campaigns
- Generate email performance reports
- Send out personalized SMS and include mobile messaging in your campaigns
- Automate your workflow with an easy drag-and-drop designer
If you’re looking for the bare minimum, you can get away with Agile CRM’s free plan. Alternatively, its paid pricing plans based on a two-year contract are as follows:
- Starter – $8.99 per user per month
- Regular – $29.99 per user per month
- Enterprise – $47.99 per user per month
The free plan can be used for up to 10 users, so why not get started for free today!
#6 – Insightly — Best for Managing Enterprise-Level Relationships
- Handles sales, marketing, & project management
- Detailed relationship mapping
- Up to two users free
- Kanban pipeline views
Insightly is built for enterprise-size sales and relationship management. Insightly is a bit different from the other tools we’ve looked at today. Not only does it focus on sales and marketing, but it also offers project management software. In a nutshell, it’s a CRM and project management powerhouse.
Building and maintaining complicated and large-scale relationships is easy with Insightly. Its relationship map feature allows you to create a comprehensive web of interactions between the customer, the business, and other partners. At a glance, you can quickly determine who knows who, and build a clear view of an organization’s structure and networks.
While Insightly’s Gmail integration isn’t particularly robust, it offers key CRM tools such as Kanban sales pipeline and relationship maps designed to nurture your customer relationships. There will be some significant tab-switching between the two platforms but for the feature-rich software you receive for your trouble, I think it’s worth it.
Although Insightly is certainly geared to enterprise-size organizations, its free option for two users positions it well to cater to freelancers or startups as well. Paid pricing plans look like this:
- Plus – $29 per user per month
- Professional – $49 per user per month
- Enterprise – $99 per user per month
Why not try one of Insightly’s paid plans for free today!
How to Find The Best Gmail CRM For You
With so many great software to choose from how do you tell the difference? How do you decide which one is the right CRM tool for you? Of course we have an underlying methodology to follow when it comes to narrowing down the top picks of this list.
Obviously our first point of focus is seamless integration with Gmail. Then depending on the size and scope of your business, you may want to consider which of the existing software you use can also integrate with your chosen CRM software.
Aside from ensuring the software covers the other standard criteria such as price and ease of use, here are some things that you should factor into your buying decision if you’re looking to step outside of the options mentioned above.
Bulk Email Management
Having the ability to store and easily send email templates is one thing, but the ability to send personalized bulk emails to your contact list at once is a game changer for organizations with lots of contacts. Instead of manually addressing and sending the same email to hundreds or thousands of contacts, your CRM tool should do that for you.
Ideally, it would also be great if your Gmail CRM tool could automatically tag and label emails as they land in your inbox. This will help you to prioritize the leads that are hot and nurture the leads that need a little more attention.
If you are running a smaller business with only a handful of contacts, this criteria may not be as important to you as others. However, it’s still a great feature to keep in mind when searching for the right CRM tool, even if it’s a feature of a higher paid plan of your chosen software provider. This way you’ll have the option to upgrade to this feature if you find your contact list growing beyond your means.
Automation & Scheduling
Automation and scheduling almost go hand-in-hand with bulk email management. In a nutshell, you want to take as much work off your plate and put it in the hands of the software.
Your Gmail CRM software should offer enough automation to prevent any bottlenecks from arising in your sales pipeline. These automations can either be in relation to email leads or responses, or to do with other business processes such as tracking leads through the pipeline and invoicing.
Similarly, an excellent feature to look out for in your CRM software is scheduling. This is particularly important for organizations who may be working on a global scale across multiple time zones. But in general, having the ability to prepare emails and schedule them for a time when your prospects are most engaged is going to offer plenty of advantages to your business.
Team Collaboration
Whether you’re a team of two or a team of 20, transparency and collaboration among the team is vital to nurturing customer relationships. As a prospect, there is nothing more frustrating than having to repeat conversations with different representatives multiple times over. This shows a lack of communication and collaboration among the team that you could be working with.
Therefore it’s vital that you consider implementing a Gmail CRM that will not only help you to organize and automate your entire email process, but will also encourage seamless team collaboration. Some of the key features to keep an eye out for are the ability to tag colleagues in tasks or updates, share common files or templates, share appointment dates, and share notes on customer contact information.
Not all Gmail CRM software options have these collaboration features. Although it would certainly be beneficial for a small team, if you need to pay more than you can afford for a plan to include these features, it may be a deal-breaker for you. Instead, look out for plans that include collaboration features on its higher plans so you know you can grow into these features as your team grows.
Summary
What’s the best CRM for Gmail? That depends on what you’re looking for!
If price is your number one priority, you simply cannot go past CRM powerhouse, HubSpot.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for software that will integrate with your inbox as if it has been there forever, tools like NetHunt or Streak are great options.
At the end of the day, the best software for me isn’t going to be the best for you. Do your research while keeping our criteria in mind and sign up for lots of free trials. Testing is a great way to narrow down what your key requirements in a software are.
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