Top 6 Best CRMs For Gmail & Google Workspace (With Integrations) in 2024

In today’s digital business landscape, where Gmail and Google Workspace dominate as a central communication hub for organizations, finding the right CRM that seamlessly integrates with its various can offer a huge number of benefits and increased functionality, ultimately helping to streamline workflows and increase efficiency across teams. In this guide, we’ll focus on the CRMs that excel in deeply integrating with Gmail. We’ll review the CRMs that allow you to manage tasks directly within the Gmail interface, and explore how these CRMs enhance email tracking and management, linking emails to client records and sales activities for greater efficiency.

Compatibility with Google Workspace applications like Google Calendar and Google Drive is also a critical feature, ensuring a cohesive workflow. We’ve done the hard work for you, as we extensively assess the performance and reliability of the CRM’s Google integrations. Join us as we delve into the top CRMs that stand out for their Gmail and Google Workspace compatibility and integration in 2024.

What is Gmail integration and why is it important?

Gmail integration in CRM systems allows users to manage their email communications directly within the CRM interface. This streamlines workflows, ensures seamless data synchronization, and enhances customer relationship management by centralizing email interactions and CRM activities.

Ten must-have functionalities that define a top-notch CRM for Gmail

As we navigate the interconnected world of Gmail and CRM systems in 2024, let’s zoom in on the essential features that make a CRM stand out in its integration with Google’s ecosystem. These features not only streamline your workflow but also ensure a seamless and productive experience within the Gmail and Google Workspace environment.

1. Gmail conversation integration: Gmail should effortlessly sync with your email conversations, allowing for easy tracking of client interactions. For example, when you email a client, the CRM automatically attaches the conversation to their record, making follow-up and historical referencing a breeze.

2. Google Contacts sync: Any changes made to contacts in Gmail are instantly updated in the CRM. If you add or update a contact in Gmail, the CRM reflects these changes, keeping client information seamlessly synchronized.

3. Google Calendar integration: Integrates directly with Google Calendar. When you schedule a meeting in Gmail, it automatically appears in your CRM, and vice versa, helping you stay on top of appointments.

4. Direct email functionality: Enables you to send emails directly from the CRM interface using Gmail as the backend.

5. Google Drive document management: Integrates with Google Drive, allowing you to link documents to client records.

6. Automated Email categorization: Automatically categorizes and files emails in Gmail based on predefined rules.

7. Gmail label integration: Recognizes and utilizes Gmail labels for organizing communications and tasks.

8. Email template synchronization: Offers the ability to create and sync email templates with Gmail.

9. Gmail analytics and reporting: Provides analytics based on email interactions, such as tracking open rates or identifying engaged contacts.

10. Google Workspace app integration: Smoothly integrates with other Google Workspace apps like Sheets or Slides for reporting or presentation purposes.

Utilizing Google Workspace and Gmail CRM integrations

As organizations increasingly rely on Gmail and Google Workspace for their business operations, let’s explore how they are maximizing CRM features and integrations to boost productivity and streamline processes:

1. Seamless email management

Companies utilize Gmail integrations to manage their email communications effectively. Sales teams can automatically log all client emails in the CRM, ensuring every interaction is tracked and easily accessible.

2. Integrated task scheduling

By syncing Google Calendar with their CRM, businesses streamline appointment scheduling. Meetings scheduled in Google Calendar automatically appear in the CRM.

3. Document collaboration

Organizations leverage Google Drive integration for efficient document management. Important documents are linked within the CRM for easy access and collaborative editing.

4. Unified contact database

Businesses can synchronize Google Contacts, ensuring a unified and updated database. Any contact added or modified in Gmail is automatically reflected in the CRM.

5. Enhanced reporting with Google Sheets

Companies integrate Google Sheets with their CRM for advanced reporting and data analysis, providing deeper insights into sales performance and customer trends.

Now that you understand how Gmail and Workspace integrations can benefit your business, let’s jump into the good stuff. Our reviews on the top 6 best CRMs for Gmail in 2024 will break down features, pricing, integration capabilities, and more.

Quick comparison of the top 6 best CRM for Gmail

The top 6 best CRMs for Google Workspace and Gmail are:

1. Shape
2. Nethunt
3. Copper CRM
4. Pipedrive
5. Streak CRM
6. HubSpot Sales Hub

1. Shape

Shape CRM is a top-tier sales and marketing automation software that comes loaded with pre-built, customizable features suitable for any business. The all-in-one platform elevates your workflow and its seamless G Suite integration (including Gmail and the entire Google Workspace) is one way it achieves this.

With Shape and your Google Workspace integrated, you can easily sync and share your calendar events, send emails, and centralize all your important information within this single, user-friendly platform. Having your entire email communications and workflow in one place means you’ll no longer be switching tabs and you can work efficiently and manage client interactions better.

By default, Shape is already built to track your outgoing emails but if you also want your incoming emails integrated within the CRM as well, all you have to do is enable email forwarding in your settings. Once you’ve set up email forwarding, Shape will be able to incorporate all your inbound emails, ensuring you have a comprehensive and centralized email management experience.

As new contacts enter your Gmail inbox, Shape automatically tracks them through its Zapier integration. This integration ensures that whenever you receive an inbound email in a specified Gmail inbox, it automatically creates a new record in Shape. This means that each new email you receive becomes a new record in the CRM, and you no longer need to enter information manually for your new contacts.

That’s not all. Shape CRM also integrates with Google Drive to serve as a cloud storage platform for your files. You can easily connect your Google Drive account to Shape and have all the documents uploaded in your CRM synchronized to a secure and easily accessible file folder within the Google Drive storage system. This feature ensures that all-important client documents are properly organized and managed.

Despite these robust features, Shape does not compromise on user-friendliness. The platform strikes a balance between advanced functionality and ease of use, providing a user experience that is both efficient and intuitive. Therefore, your onboarding process will be seamless and you will not be spending excessive time training your team or navigating help resources when adopting the software.

User reviews also support this with many users describing the software’s interface as logical. They note that elements and features are positioned in a way that makes them easy to locate. That’s not all, Shape takes commitment to ease of use even further by having website inquiries go straight into the CRM. This is a feature that is hard to find in other CRMs.

Overall, if your business relies heavily on Gmail and other Google Workplace tools, you are in good hands with Shape. The seamless integration with Gmail and Google Workspace, its user-friendly design, email management system, and automation features makes it a comprehensive and efficient solution for businesses across multiple industries. With its pricing starting at $47, this CRM offers goods value for money.

2. Nethunt CRM

NetHunt CRM for Gmail is designed with the sole purpose of bringing all your important sales and marketing functions into your Gmail inbox. This software adds an extra tab to your Gmail dashboard, converting it into a comprehensive CRM suite with features like contact management, email tracking, and automated email campaigns. That way, you no longer need to move between tabs, or input data in multiple places. Everything your team needs is conveniently located within an app you use daily.

With NetHunt integrated into your Gmail, your emails go from being just messages to actionable data that can be converted into tasks or potential leads. Nurturing these leads from your emails through NetHunt is also easy.

You can set up drip campaigns, design personalized email templates, and share them with your team which eliminates the need to constantly write repetitive emails for your campaigns. That’s not all. Since the CRM comes with automated workflows, you can automatically link your email discussions to the corresponding client profiles, and set notifications to stay updated on any developments, reducing your manual workload.

As these leads progress through your pipeline and evolve into new deals, you can add their value, likelihood of closing, and predicted closing date, giving you complete context into each deal’s lifecycle.

While running your email campaigns, you will also be able to track their status in real-time through vital metrics like email opens and clicks. These metrics allow you to know exactly when and how often your recipients check your emails, giving you insights into how to improve your processes.

When we tested the CRM, managing deals initially seemed easy and straightforward due the user friendly interface. However, as the number of deals increased, the interface became cluttered and difficult to navigate, and deal management went from easy to complicated.

In addition to Gmail, NetHunt CRM is also compatible with other Google Workspace Apps like Google Chat, Drive, Calendar, Contacts, and Meet so you can have all your Workspace applications and CRM system in one platform. With these integrations, you can easily view customer-related information next to your work emails, calendar events, and chat messages.

For example, the integration with Google Drive means you can easily attach Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to client records and deals in the CRM. And since you have your Google Calendar within the same platform, you can schedule meetings and easily prepare ahead by attaching any important Google Drive files to your client’s record in the CRM. Even after the meeting, you can quickly update the client’s record with new or updated documents.

Despite how crucial having these integrations on the CRM is, it would be counterproductive if the CRM compromises on performance and reliability. Fortunately, we experienced no downtime while testing NetHunt. User reviews also support this as many users report seamless integration without any bugs or glitches.

Starting at $24, NetHunt CRM is fairly affordable. The base plan offers essential CRM features, Gmail and Google Workspace integration, Google Contacts Sync, a messenger account, and basic emailing and customization features.

However, if you need the CRM to cater to more complex needs like mass email campaigns, sales automation, and email sequences, you’ll need a higher plan. The higher subscription plans will have you shelling out between $34 to $96 monthly so if you are in the market for a free Gmail CRM, you’ll need to look further.

Overall, integrating NetHunt with your Gmail opens the door to more effective email campaigns, higher productivity through workflow automations, and easier client data management. However, the CRM also has its drawbacks. Even though you can track your emails in real-time for metrics like open and click rates, the system’s analytics functionality is not so robust.

Also, as your deals grow in number, managing them within the CRM can become complex due to the clustered user interface, taking away from the platform’s scalability.

3. Copper CRM

Copper CRM is a chrome extension sidebar that gives you a quick overview of all your contact’s important details. Once you install the extension, you’ll see all the information you need about anyone who has ever emailed you.

The software is built with Google Material Design, meaning that even within the CRM platform, all your contact management tasks, like email tracking and call logs, will look and feel just like Google Workspace. However, even though Copper is completely built for Gmail it remains a google chrome extension and not a fully integrated CRM software like Shape and NetHunt. Hence, you’ll still find yourself switching between tabs to get a complete view of your customer data.

When testing Copper, one distinct function that stood out for us is how it simplifies managing your relationships with your leads, prospects, partners and other connections. The CRM helps you categorize the contacts in your inbox based on the details that matter most to you and notifies you when your contacts open your emails so that you always know the best times to follow up. It even goes further to display your availability status to your contacts so they can book meetings with you without unnecessary back and forth.

That’s not all, Copper also minimizes manual data entries with its “zero data entry” approach. The CRM automatically fills your CRM entries by scraping the internet for your leads’ work details and capturing them directly from Gmail emails, calendar events, and other Workspace apps so you don’t have to enter any information manually.

However, the CRM does not shine as brightly in its reporting features as it does in automation. For instance, you can’t can’t get real-time reports on your sales efforts, instead, you’ll have to wait every 10 hours to receive updates. Additionally, many users also express dissatisfaction with the inability to get an accurate week by week view of confirmed and won deals.

Copper’s integration with Google Workspace integrations is very robust. It extends beyond Gmail to other tools such as your Calendar, Contacts, Drive, Forms, Data studio, Chat and Data enrichment. With these integrations, you can upload and link any Google file directly to customer accounts which makes them readily accessible.

Additionally, your contacts will always be automatically updated with the Data Enrichment integration and you can always hold private conversations with them right in your CRM through the secure Google Chat rooms. Although these integrations are usually seamless, some users have reported experiencing connectivity issues with the Gmail integration.

Copper’s pricing plans start at $25 with a 2,500 contact limit, Google Workspace Integration, Pipelines, contact enrichment, and team collaboration. As your business expands and requires you to manage more contacts and workflows, you will need to upgrade to either the professional or business plan at $59 and $119 respectively.

Although there’s no free plan, the CRM offers a generous 14-day free trial so you won’t be committing to a subscription without being sure of their service.

Copper houses all its features in a user-friendly interface similar to the Google Workspace which made adopting the software during our test quick and easy.

However, because the CRM is a google chrome extension and not fully integrated, you may still end up switching tabs to get a full picture of your client data. So if you want an all-in-one experience, a fully integrated CRM like Shape would be more suitable. Regardless, Copper’s familiar user interface and robust team features makes it one of the best CRM for Gmail, especially for team collaboration.

4. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales CRM designed to help you manage all the deals in your pipeline and drive business growth. It has a Gmail extension with a sidebar for access through which you can add contacts from your Gmail and perform sales-related tasks within your inbox.

After installing the extension, you can view your entire sales history with each contact anytime you open their email thread, giving you context throughout all the stages of the sales process.

One feature that stood out during our Pipedrive evaluation was the email sync.
This feature syncs your emails with your contacts and deals, giving you a detailed view of all your email conversations from both the contact and the deal’s perspective.

However, we noticed that even though the emails appear properly formatted in the CRM, they seem distorted when viewed in Gmail, which gives off an unprofessional appearance.

Additionally, many users also pointed out in reviews that despite the smooth gmail integration, sometimes the emails are not correctly mapped to the corresponding deal which leads to confusion within the sales team and missed opportunities.

Apart from Gmail, Pipedrive also integrates smoothly with Google Drive and Calendar. With the Google Calendar integration, you’ll not only see all your upcoming activities in one place but also have enough context to prepare for them in advance.

On the other hand, the Google Drive integration allows you to create new Google documents within Pipedrive and link your existing ones to their corresponding deals, contacts, or organizations. At the same time, it provides a storage location for the files and attachments you upload to the CRM.

One of Pipedrive’s major perks is its affordability. The CRM’s subscription plans range between $9.90 and $59.90 per user per month. Despite this affordability, it also offers a 14 day free trial you can take advantage of to test out the CRM before making any financial commitment.

Wrapping up, although Pipedrive for Gmail is a Chrome extension and not a fully integrated CRM suite, it still offers robust sales features. These features are also easily accessible through the sidebar it adds to your Gmail.

The best part is all these features are housed in affordable and flexible subscription plans that cost less than $60. However, the platform is not perfect. You may experience email formatting issues as well as occasional inaccuracies and confusion when linking your emails to deals.

5. Streak CRM

Streak CRM is an extension designed to integrate with your Gmail and other Google Workplace apps like Calendar, Drive, Sheets, Chat. The fundamental concept of this CRM is to naturally extend your existing workflow.

Even though it is a relatively basic CRM, it still offers major CRM functions like pipeline and lead generation. However, when compared to other CRMs with Gmail plugins, it is a bit more simplistic.

Like other CRMs for Gmail, Streak also ensures little to no manual input by automatically extracting relevant details from your emails and filling them in contact information. It does this through its Magic Columns feature Apart from auto-filling contact details, Streak also has a unique email tracking capability. You’ll know the exact moment your emails are read, giving you valuable insights into recipient behavior.

Our experience with Streak’s interface was user friendly and intuitive with little to no learning curve. Infact, if you are familiar with using Gmail and Google Sheets, you’re already well-equipped to use Streak. It’s just like having a spreadsheet integrated directly into Gmail. Many users also confirmed Streak’s user-friendly nature in reviews saying the intuitive interface contributed to high adoption rates of the software by their team members.

Although Streak looks like a basic spreadsheet, its functionalities are far from basic. The spreadsheet shows each stage of your deal flows, and the pipelines are fully customizable to fit your specific sales process. After customizing your pipelines, you can start setting up automated workflows to perform simple repetitive tasks like sending follow-up emails when a lead becomes qualified.

Streak is an ideal option for startups and small businesses due to its free plan and an affordable Solo plan that costs $15. The free provides basic CRM features, like a maximum of 500 contacts, 50 mail merges, and email tracking. However, you won’t be able to access shared pipelines which makes it unsuitable for teams to work with. This free plan works best if you only wish to test out the CRM without a set trial period limit.

Upgrading to the Solo plan expands your contact limit to 5,000 and allows 800 mail merges per day. The more premium plans are where you get unlimited contacts, increased mail merges, team email sharing, and more.

The level of customer support you’ll receive while using Streak also depends on your subscription plan. If you are on the free plan, your only assistance will come from the knowledge base and YouTube videos, with zero personal support.

The Solo and Pro plans on the other hand, offer email support, but users have reported slow response times. The Enterprise plan at $129 however offers you priority support. Hovwever, having to pay $129 to get quality customer service takes away from the CRM’s user experience and reliability.

As a software built simply for Gmail and Google Workspace tools, Streak’s simple design, intuitive features, and free plan make it an ideal choice for startups and small businesses. However, this also means it may not be the best fit for larger organizations that manage large volumes of data and complex operations. Additionally, the quality of customer support provided is directly proportional to your subscription plan, which may affect the user experience.

6. HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot is a popular name in the CRM space. It is a comprehensive CRM with features like lead assignment and tracking, customer interactions record across multiple channels, email marketing, and a lot more. As part of its robust offerings, it also provides a Gmail Chrome extension that further simplifies your workflow which is why it’s on this list.

This extension brings several sales productivity tools from Hubspot into your inbox. It gives you access to all of your HubSpot Sales and CRM features, such as email templates, contact management, email scheduling, and meetings, all without leaving your inbox.

Additionally, the HubSpot sidebar will show you your contacts’ CRM details, and you can access other external tools like Google Calendar and Drive. Even better, you can get these features at no cost on the free plan!.

HubSpot CRM’s robust offerings don’t stop there. With just one click, you can log emails you’ve sent from your Gmail account into the CRM, and track email opens and clicks in real time. Real-time email tracking is one of HubSpot’s selling points for its Gmail extension.

This feature notifies you once a recipient opens your email, giving you timely insights into user engagement and behavior generally. HubSpot also ensures that you are acting on these insights by scheduling immediate follow-ups. More so, the extension adds complete contact profiles to each email, so as you continue to engage your contacts, you have enough context to convert them favorably.

Since HubSpot CRM on its own is a robust platform, it’s only natural that the Gmail integration is equally efficient. Users generally praise HubSpot for the seamless collaboration between both platforms, allowing orderly sharing of work and data-driven decisions. However, what takes away from the CRM’s effectiveness is the interface. During our test, we noticed the CRM gets cluttered due to excessive email associations which makes navigating it a chore.

HubSpot CRM has a free version that includes many key features, but many are not very robust. As your company grows, you may need to switch to a paid plan for full Sales Hub products. Pricing for the Sales Hub bundle starts at $18 per month and increases significantly to $450 and $1500.

Overall, HubSpot CRM speeds up access to customer data in Gmail and ensures that you don’t lose any data regardless of how old the emails are. However, the platform’s overall user experience is where the challenge is as the interface easily becomes clustered due to excessive email associations. Regardless, Hubspot remains a valuable time-saving CRM for Gmail and its popularity in the CRM space is proof of this.

Finding your Perfect CRM Match: Concluding insights on Gmail CRMs for 2024

As we wrap up our exploration of the top CRMs for Gmail in 2024, we’ve journeyed through a world where Gmail isn’t just an email service but a central hub for business operations. The platfroms we’ve reviewed stand out for their deep integration with Gmail and Google Workspace, transforming the way organizations handle communication, manage tasks, and maintain client relationships. From Shape CRM’s all-in-one email management to NetHunt’s automated email campaigns, and Copper’s zero data entry approach, each CRM brings unique features to the table, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity.

So, what’s your next move? Whether you’re about to integrate a CRM with your Gmail for the first time or considering an upgrade, reflect on how these tools align with your business needs. Assess features like email syncing, Google Workspace compatibility, performance reliability, and user interface to find your perfect match. As business continues to evolve in the digital age, harnessing the power of a customer relationship management system that seamlessly works with Gmail is key to staying efficient and competitive. Embrace these tools, tailor them to your workflows, and watch as they revolutionize your business communications and operations.

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Please note: All pricing mentioned in this article is based on information available as of
08-05-2024 and sourced from the respective companies’ public pricing pages.
While we strive for accuracy, we recommend verifying with the specific company for the most up-to-date details.