Gmail isn’t perfect for contact management. Here’s how to integrate your inbox with a CRM.

Gmail has never left its pedestal as the most prominent email service provider globally. It’s always been a big deal, serving personal and business accounts.

Your business likely uses Gmail to communicate with leads, customers, and partners.

Unfortunately, despite being a leading email service provider, Gmail isn’t the best system for contact management. It shouldn’t be. But with the growing number of emails sent every day, the risk of missing important emails and losing sales opportunities rises exponentially.

However, we’re talking about a whole different ball game with a CRM that integrates with Gmail. Just look at the results NetHunt CRM’s clients have achieved:

Give a try to a fully-fledged Gmail CRM

If you need some extra convincing to make the right choice, let’s take a look at some other CRMs integrated with Gmail. This article answers crucial questions about what a Gmail CRM is, what a CRM Gmail integration helps users do, and the benefits of implementing one.

We’ll also share the most comprehensive list of the best CRM for Gmail available on the market, outlining their pros and cons, key features, levels of Gmail integration, and prices.


What is a Gmail CRM?

Gmail CRM is a cloud-based software that helps manage your customer database, sales processes, and other workflows that affect relationships with leads and customers. It works right out of a regular Gmail inbox, integrating its functionality.

With their CRMs for Gmail, users can...

  • Send and receive emails in CRM
  • Create new sales opportunities from incoming and outgoing emails
  • Link emails with corresponding CRM data
  • See whether they receive emails from existing or potential customers

The most well-integrated solutions extend their functionality further, letting you build sales pipelines and reports, automate the sales process, and set up drip campaigns from your Gmail inbox itself.

Further reading: What is a CRM? The complete guide

Benefits of a Gmail CRM: Do you really need a CRM that integrates with Gmail?

Compared to non-Gmail CRM, there are a bunch of benefits associated with a CRM that integrates with Gmail...

  • CRM with Gmail integration allows users to manage their conversations with leads and customers directly from CRM. This makes email management more efficient
  • Sales and customer support teams have a better shot at managing relationships with leads, partners, and customers. Gmail CRMs centralise all email communications
  • CRM integrated with Gmail spares sales team time from monotonous work. Data is updated automatically, drastically increasing the productivity and effectiveness of employees
  • Gmail CRM reduces response times as sales reps can promptly reply to messages or send follow-ups to CRM and Google mails from a single platform
  • CRM for Gmail reduces the risk of errors and missing information. No details fall through the cracks; all email correspondence is automatically saved
  • Integrate CRM with Gmail enables easier collaboration between teams, allowing it to share Gmail information right through the CRM system

But to leverage the benefits of a Gmail CRM, you need to find the best solution for your business. Read on to find out what your options are!

Giveaway signs your business needs a Gmail CRM

Emails are a fundamental part of your business, but they can also be a source of pain and frustration for your team. If you're feeling the sting of email fatigue, it's time to invest in a Gmail CRM.

Here are some telltale signs that your business needs a CRM integrated with Gmail:

  • Your team is struggling to keep up with emails. If your team is constantly complaining about being swamped with emails and doesn’t know how to catch up and stay caught up, it's time to consider a dynamic Gmail CRM tool that'll help your team navigate their share of emails like a pro.
  • You're missing sales opportunities due to lost emails or unaccounted-for email replies. A CRM Gmail integration can keep track of customer responses and help you stay on top of leads.
  • Your team can't remember the last time they hit inbox zero. A CRM can help prioritise emails, set reminders, and automate tasks to keep the inbox under control.
  • Your team’s productivity is low. If your team wastes their time switching between tabs to respond to emails and log the information in the CRM, you need to consider a CRM with Gmail integration that would allow them to manage everything from one tab.
  • The standard Gmail functionality is no longer enough. If your team needs to customise the standard Gmail functions to meet their specific needs, a Gmail CRM can provide the flexibility to tailor the system to their requirements.
  • You need shared access to email tags and notes. The best Gmail CRM can provide the necessary collaboration features to ensure everyone is on the same page and has access to critical information.

Investing in a Gmail CRM can help your team manage emails more effectively, streamline communication, and improve your sales pipeline.

Must-have features of Gmail CRM software: What to look for in the best Gmail CRM

To make your search for the best Gmail CRM for your business more efficient, it’s essential to create a list of must-have (and nice-to-have) features you’re most interested in getting.

Apart from the standard key features to add to your CRM shopping list, you should also seek a Gmail CRM that offers…

  • The level of the CRM Gmail integration. Is a sidebar and manual data update enough for you? Or would you like to use a tool that lives inside every Google Workspace app? Would you like to have access to CRM records from Calendar events or send pipeline updates to Google Chats?
  • Email marketing features. Send mass email campaigns from Gmail to the whole audience or just a segment thereof. Then, track your emails to know exactly when they’re opened, whether the links are clicked, and whether attachments are downloaded. It can help you prioritise follow-ups and gauge your email campaign's success.
  • Email templates. Save time and maintain consistency by creating and using pre-written email templates stored in your Gmail CRM. It's handy for repetitive emails like welcome messages, follow-ups, and meeting requests.
  • Automated lead capture and contact management. Automatically capture leads and customer data from emails and web forms. It saves time and ensures that no potential leads fall through the cracks. Then, manage all your contacts in one place, including their contact details, email history, notes, and tags. A CRM with Gmail integration that offers this functionality makes it easier to personalise your communication and improve customer relationships.
  • Integration with other apps. A CRM that integrates with Gmail is excellent, but your business likely has more solutions in your tool stack — you need to find a Gmail CRM that integrates with them. Seek a system that offers integrations with Google apps, Slack, LinkedIn, Zapier, and more.
  • Analytics and reports. Gain insights into your team's email performance and effectiveness with analytics and reports. A CRM for Gmail that offers reporting functionality will help you make data-driven decisions and improve your email strategy over time.

The 10 best Gmail CRMs for your business

As the CRM software market expands, more and more Gmail CRMs are available to users. Not all of them are equal, and the difference between Gmail CRM platforms lies in the features they offer, the level of Gmail integration, prices, customisation flexibility, and provided customer support.

Here is our list of 10 Gmail CRM options, with everything you need to know about them: the level of the Gmail CRM integration, key features Gmail CRM software offers, specific pros and cons of Gmail CRM systems, the prices and ways to buy them.

CRM System

Level of Gmail integration

Pros

Cons

Pricing

NetHunt CRM

Full Gmail integration

Powerful automations, multi-channel communication

Limited mobile app functionality

Competitive pricing at $24/user/month

Streak

Full Gmail integration

Suitable for small teams

Limited scalability and features

$15/user/month

HubSpot

Sidebar, Gmail plugin

Free tier for basic needs

Can become expensive quickly

Free, but premium plans are costly

Zoho CRM

Sidebar

Wide range of features

Steeper learning curve

$14/user/month

Copper

Sidebar

Fairly user-friendly

Limited automation features

$25/user/month

Insightly

Sidebar

Fits project-based work

Complexity might deter some users

$29/user/month

Pipedrive

Gmail plugin

Simple sales tools, user-friendly

Limited marketing tools

$12.50/user/month

Salesforce

Chrome extension

Powerful tool for enterprise companies

Can be overly complex

$25/user/month

Freshsales

Gmail add-on

Easy to navigate

May lack advanced features

$15/user/month

Agile CRM

Chrome Extension, add-on

Good value

The interface may feel outdated

Free tier on offer

NetHunt CRM — the Best CRM For Gmail

NetHunt CRM for Gmail
NetHunt CRM for Gmail

NetHunt CRM is a cloud-based Gmail CRM platform living inside your Gmail inbox.

Launched back in 2015, NetHunt CRM has quickly become a user-favourite, recognised by awards, badges, and bundles of positive online reviews. It also successfully passes the Google Security Assessment every year.

NetHunt CRM boasts a 4.7 rating on G2 and a 4.8 rating on Capterra.

In fact, NetHunt CRM is currently the highest-rated CRM with Gmail integration on these platforms.

NetHunt CRM’s popularity is down to its power and customisation potential. NetHunt offers the level of integration with Gmail you can’t get in any other Gmail CRM, built inside and living in your inbox. NetHunt helps your business organise, automate, and grow without you having to switch tabs regularly. Everything you need is right there.

Unlike some other Gmail CRM solutions, NetHunt CRM doesn’t simply focus on helping the sales team. It’s an excellent tool for Customer Support, Customer Success, and Marketing. You can bend the system to fit your exact business needs, taking advantage of many different features…

  • Contact management functionality to store and segment contacts
  • Multiple sales pipeline management and visualisation
  • Collaborative functionality such as tasks, mentions, and shared databases
  • Email marketing functionality like bulk emailing, email tracking, custom SMTP, email templates, and reporting
  • Integrations with LinkedIn, Facebook Messenger and Intercom for lead generation
  • Zapier integration to connect NetHunt CRM with tools that you love
  • Sales automation functionality such as automated lead capture, automated task assignment and distribution, and notifications
  • Drip campaigns to nurture leads automatically
  • Reporting functionality to create different types of reports
  • Integration with other Google services like Google Contacts, Data studio, Calendar, Google Drive, and Chat

Pros of NetHunt CRM

✅ A fully-fledged CRM system that integrates with Gmail seamlessly
✅ Extensive sales automation functionality, including lead capture, data entry, email auto-linking, and notifications
✅ Email marketing functionality, including bulk, tracking, templates, and drips
✅ Advanced contact management functionality like duplicate prevention feature
✅ Creation and management of multiple sales pipelines from within Gmail
✅ Integrations with Google Workspace, LinkedIn, Google Contacts, Data Studio, Intercom, and Facebook Messenger
✅ Highly customisable - change anything from the number and names of your folders to every field in the customer record
✅ Easy to navigate and user-friendly
✅ Easy and quick to implement; a short learning curve
✅ Has an amazing, highly-responsive customer success team

Cons of NetHunt CRM

❌ Limited functionality of the mobile app compared to the desktop version
❌ Some advanced features are only available for Business and Advanced subscribers
❌ Currently offers only seven integrations with third-party apps and platforms
❌ Basic reporting functionality

Level of Gmail integration

If you’re looking for a CRM that doesn’t just offer a shy, little sidebar in your inbox, NetHunt CRM should be your first choice. It’s a CRM fully integrated with Gmail, meaning all of the system’s features are accessible from your Gmail inbox, located either above or under the main Gmail menu.

NetHunt CRM for Gmail
NetHunt CRM for Gmail

For example, if you receive an email from a potential customer or partner, you don’t have to go anywhere to create a contact in the CRM. You can simply click the NetHunt icon and instantly add the contact as a new record to the database.

All the emails from this contact will be auto-linked to their profile, and you’ll see the entire history of your communication, including emails, documents, notes, and tags in the sidebar as soon as you install this Gmail CRM's Chrome extension.

NetHunt CRM for Gmail
NetHunt CRM in Gmail

Extra email tools such as NetHunt CRM’s email templates and email tracking are built-in to your Gmail email composition form.

Advanced NetHunt CRM features such as sales automation functionality are accessible right from your Gmail inbox. You can build and set off elaborate automated workflows to take the hard work out of working hard.

NetHunt CRM pricing

  • Basic: $24 per user per month, billed annually
  • Basic Plus: $34 per user per month, billed annually
  • Business: $48 per user per month, billed annually
  • Business Plus : $68 per user per month, billed annually
  • Advanced: $96 per user per month, billed annually

How to download NetHunt CRM for Gmail

Head over to NetHunt’s website and sign up for the 14-day free trial of the system. Then download the Chrome extension from the Chrome Webstore and place the CRM at the heart of your Gmail inbox.

Streak — Full Gmail integration

Streak CRM for Gmail
Streak CRM for Gmail

Streak one of the few CRMs that fully integrates with Gmail currently available on the market. It organises your work, aids collaboration with the team, and prioritises email communications.

Teams can use Streak to take care of a wide range of business processes, from sales and deal flow; to partnerships and hiring. There are 11 ready-made project templates for you to get started with. However, you don’t have to limit yourself to just those templates. It’s easy to customise this Gmail CRM to help your exact business with specific tasks and processes.

This CRM platform packs a punch...

  • Sales pipeline management helps customise your workflow by using the search, filter, group, and sort functions
  • Contact management functionality
  • Email marketing functionality including mail merge, email scheduling, view tracking, canned responses, and thread splitter
  • Task management functionality
  • Smart input types that support all formats such as numbers, text, lists, checkboxes, tags, formulas, and contacts
  • Full G-Suite integration

Pros of Streak CRM

✅ Free version
✅ Fully integrated with Gmail
✅ Great email marketing functionality such as mail merge, scheduling, tracking, canned responses, and thread splitter
✅ Easy to use
✅ Works on both mobile and desktop
✅ Integration with G-Suite and Zapier
✅ Basic sales reporting functionality
✅ Creation of tasks reminders

Cons of Streak CRM

❌ Doesn’t allow you to import data directly from a different CRM
❌ For Google accounts, mail merge is limited to 400 emails per day
❌ You’re limited to a single sales pipeline per project
❌ Doesn’t offer sales or email automation
❌ Inbox may feel slower and crowded due to Streak’s clashing colours in the design

Streak CRM in Gmail
Streak CRM in Gmail

Streak is a CRM very well integrated with Gmail. Users can do many different things without leaving their Gmail inbox. With Streak installed on a computer or mobile device, you can directly access information about your pipelines, contacts, and tasks in your inbox.

You can view the sender’s CRM profile alongside an entire interaction history in a Streak sidebar whenever you get an email.

Streak CRM in Gmail

Streak CRM pricing

A limited-functionality version of Streak is available for free.

If you want to access the advanced features of this Gmail CRM, you’ll have to pay for either the Pro or Enterprise subscription plans.

  • Solo: $15 per user per month, billed annually
  • Pro: $49 per user per month, billed annually
  • Enterprise: $129 per user per month, billed annually

Where to download Streak CRM

If you want to give a try to this Gmail CRM, you can download the Streak extension for Chrome here.

Copper — Gmail sidebar integration

Copper Gmail CRM
Copper Gmail CRM

Built with Google Material Design, Copper CRM is a Gmail CRM designed to mimic the look and feel of Google products. Most core features are located outside your Gmail inbox, but everything inside this CRM platform resembles Google design; it’s easy to navigate.

Despite not being fully integrated with Gmail, Copper is one of the best Gmail sidebar CRMs available on the market. Google itself uses and recommends Copper to billions of users.

The Copper CRM Gmail sidebar makes it easy to keep tabs on each contact in your inbox, providing access to the history of the entire relationship between them and you. Every single email you or your reps have exchanged with the contact, all the calls they’ve scheduled and hosted, files, and notes are all stored in one place.

Although only limited functionality of Copper is accessible from within Gmail, this Gmail CRM solution is still a powerful one. It aids sales productivity through lead and contact management, visualised sales pipeline management, and task management.

The key features of Copper CRM include…

  • Lead management functionality, including lead capture and lead scoring
  • Sales automation functionality
  • Workflow automation
  • Sales pipeline management functionality
  • Built-in sales analytics
  • Email marketing functionality, including email tracking, bulk emails, and templates
  • Task management functionality
  • High levels of customisation with custom fields, views, activities, and alerts
  • Collaborative functionality

Copper CRM is a good choice for teams from anywhere in the world. This Gmail CRM offers users a chance to manage customer relationships in their preferred language - English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, or Italian.

Pros of Copper CRM

✅ Several third-party integrations
✅ Offers sales automation functionality
✅ Highly customisable
✅ Third-party tested and compliant with data privacy laws
✅ Easy to navigate
✅ Superb collaborative functionality

Cons of Copper CRM

❌ Doesn’t let you send email campaigns using HTML email templates
❌ May take a while to save updates
❌ Bulk emails limited to 200 recipients at a time
❌ Basic users are limited to 2500 contacts
❌ Email marketing functionality is only available to Professional and Business subscribers

Level of Gmail integration

The only way in which Copper modifies your Gmail inbox is by adding the Copper panel to the right side of the page. The sidebar functionality is limited compared to the features accessible from the CRM platform itself.

Still, it can help create new contacts in a few clicks, and all Gmail activity is automatically synchronised to Copper through their native Gmail integration. Whenever you click on an email in your inbox, the system automatically pre-creates a new record in the Gmail CRM and enriches it with all the data pulled from the email.

If the sender is already a contact in your database, you can use the sidebar to see the entire history of your relationship from the moment they’re added to the system.

Copper CRM in Gmail

Copper CRM pricing

Copper offers a 14-day free trial period; you can sign up for it without a credit card.

  • Basic: $25 per user per month when paid annually
  • Professional: $59 per user per month, billed annually
  • Business: $119 per user per month, billed annually

Where to download Copper CRM

To get started with Copper, sign up for the system on the Copper website, then download and install the browser extension from the Chrome Webstore by following this link.

Hubspot CRM — Gmail sidebar integration

Hubspot CRM for Gmail
Hubspot CRM for Gmail

Hubspot is a big name in the CRM world. Millions of users worldwide enjoy this product and use it to grow their business by managing their sales, marketing, and relationships with leads and customers. HubSpot offers Gmail integration, but it is limited.

Hubspot’s Chrome extension places an uber-light version of HubSpot’s portal in your Gmail account. It doesn’t let you access more advanced features without leaving the comfort of your inbox.

HubSpot Gmail CRM is designed for essential email marketing and sales optimisation, which is reflected in the key functionality of the Hubspot CRM Gmail integration…

  • Customisable email templates
  • Automated email outreach
  • Simplified meeting scheduling
  • Sales pipeline management

Hubspot and its Gmail integration are so popular among the target audience because it’s free. As long as you have a Hubspot account, you can use it at no cost.

Pros of HubSpot CRM

✅ Free version
✅ Several integrations with various third-party tools and apps
✅ Sales automation functionality
✅ Email marketing functionality like tracking, templates, and bulk emailing
✅ Canned snippets
✅ Contact management functionality
✅ Very advanced reporting functionality

Cons of Hubspot CRM

❌ Free version offers limited functionality
❌ Limited level of customisation
❌ Creating contacts inside each deal takes a long time
❌ A relatively long learning curve
❌ Only offers a surface-level integration with Gmail

Level of Gmail integration

Hubspot’s Gmail integration doesn’t change the appearance or capabilities of your Gmail inbox too drastically. Install the extension and log in to your Hubspot account — you’ll see a little Hubspot icon at the top of the page to access some additional tools. Easy.

You can configure the Hubspot extension to automatically log every email you send or receive. The system automatically creates new records in the database for every further contact that lands in your inbox. If you don’t want that to happen, you can turn this setting off or manually list all the addresses or domains you don’t wish to log or track.

HubSpot CRM in Gmail

If Hubspot already recognises the contact, you can access a quick rundown of all your information about them in the Hubspot portal from the sidebar. This includes About, Deals, Tasks, Timeline, and Tickets associated with the contact.

On top of that, all the tools you’ve set up in your Hubspot portal are available to you in the compose new email field: Templates, sequences, documents, snippets, and all that good stuff. You can check the ‘log’ or ‘track’ boxes in the same tool panel if you want the email you’re composing to be logged or tracked.

The other basic HubSpot features are only available through the HubSpot web app.

HubSpot CRM pricing

There’s a free version of the CRM. If you want to access advanced add-on packages such as Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, or Service Hub, you need to pay The prices start at $45 per month for two users, billed annually.

Where to download HubSpot CRM

If you think Hubspot is the right kind of Gmail CRM for your business, feel free to create an account through the Hubspot portal, sign in to your Hubspot account, and download the extension. You can do it here.

Zoho CRM — Gmail sidebar integration

Zoho CRM for Gmail
Zoho CRM for Gmail

Founded in 1996, Zoho is one of the most well-known names in the CRM game.

But it’s not old, it’s vintage.

The majority of functionality this Gmail CRM offers is up to date with industry standards and exceeds them. Tech review platforms like Capterra and G2 regularly name Zoho as one of the top performers in the market. They know what they’re doing.

Zoho CRM developers have worked hard to develop a wide selection of different sales, marketing, and customer support functionality. You could say Zoho offers more features than a small or medium business would ever realistically need.

When pondering Zoho CRM as the go-to CRM for your business, it’s worth checking the specific features you’re most interested in work well.

Pros of Zoho CRM

✅ Great customer support available via email, 24/7 assigned rep chat, and live chat
✅ A vast selection of features
✅ Affordable
✅ Scalable
✅ Great reporting
✅ Several integrations with third-party apps and platforms
✅ A free version is available

Cons of Zoho CRM

❌ Low flexibility in customisation
❌ Level of integration is limited
❌ Confusing user interface
❌ A steep learning curve

Level of Gmail integration

The level of Gmail integration Zoho CRM provides is limited.

Zoho is only present in your Gmail inbox as a sidebar, and it doesn’t let you do too much from within the Gmail account. All you can do with the Zoho CRM Gmail extension is create new leads and contacts from Gmail and see the contact CRM context when you open an email.

Zoho CRM in Gmail

Zoho CRM pricing

There’s a free version of Zoho CRM with limited functionality. For advanced features, you need to invest in paid subscription plans. They’re pretty affordable!

  • Standard: $12 per user per month, billed annually.
  • Enterprise: $35 per user per month, billed annually.

Where to download Zoho CRM

Download the Zoho CRM Gmail extension from the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Pipedrive — Gmail sidebar integration

Pipedrive CRM
Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive competes with well-known CRM like Salesforce CRM, Hubspot CRM, and Zoho CRM. Having been in the market for a while, this platform has established itself as one of the most user-friendly and robust platforms.

Above anything else, Pipedrive is a sales management tool. It lacks some critical marketing features, including email marketing functionality. This also explains the shallow Gmail integration. Pipedrive only offers a shallow Gmail sidebar integration, but bear with us; this is a  popular CRM platform that could help your business.

The Pipedrive Gmail CRM extension works as a planner and to-do list for its users. It displays all the tasks and activities scheduled for the day when the user logs into the system.

Pros of Pipedrive CRM

✅ Contact management
✅ Task management
✅ An affordable CRM solution
✅ Free trial
✅ Gmail extension works in any browser
✅ Several third-party integrations
✅ User-friendly, intuitive interface

Cons of Pipedrive CRM

❌ Lack of email marketing functionality
❌ Limited Gmail integration features
❌ Workflow automation could be better
❌ Slow customer service responses

Level of Gmail integration

Pipedrive offers a Gmail add-on, placing a Pipedrive sidebar application in your Gmail inbox. The range of CRM processes and tasks you can do from within Gmail is limited to scheduling sales activities, making notes, and quickly adding contacts from Gmail to Pipedrive.

There’s no automatic record creation from incoming emails, but you can manually create new contacts in the CRM. Once a connection already exists in your Pipedrive database, all the subsequent emails from them get automatically linked to the record.

With the Pipedrive CRM Gmail extension, users can access the whole history of relationships with any correspondent in an open email communication thread. That’s full context about the customer or lead you’re dealing with, including all the notes, deals, and activity associated with the contact in question.

You can also add deals, activities, and notes from Gmail via the Pipedrive sidebar.

Pipedrive CRM pricing

Pipedrive is among the more affordable solutions that offer a Gmail CRM integration. There’s a 14-day free trial for you to look around the solution and try out all the core and advanced features it provides. There’s no need to give Pipedrive your credit card details either.

  • Essential: $12.50 per user per month, billed annually
  • Advanced: $24.90 per user per month, billed annually
  • Professional: $49.90 per user per month, billed annually
  • Enterprise: $99 per user per month, billed annually

Where to download Pipedrive CRM

Head over to Pipedrive’s website and sign up for the free trial, then download the Gmail extension for your browser here.

Insightly — Gmail sidebar integration

Insightly CRM for Gmail
Insightly CRM for Gmail

Insightly is a unified customer relationship, sales, and marketing management system for organisations from any industry. It’s amongst the most popular CRM software for Google users, with over 1.5 million worldwide. Insightly is the best Gmail CRM suited for large enterprises, rather than small or medium-sized businesses. We can conclude from the functionality and pricing plans the platform offers.

Nonetheless, Insightly offers a plan that is free for two users. That means early-stage startups can find Insightly helpful too.

Although not fully integrated with Gmail, the Insightly sidebar application is powerful enough to score this CRM system on the list of the best Gmail CRM systems. It’s great for contact management, lead generation, and task management.

Pros of Insightly CRM

✅ Powerful Gmail sidebar integration
✅ Free for two users
✅ Sales pipeline management
✅ Contact management
✅ Lead capture and enrichment

Cons of Insightly CRM

❌ Customisation is a bit complicated
❌ The UX/ UI of the platform is outdated
❌ On the pricier side
❌ Lacks email marketing functionality

Level of Gmail integration

The Gmail CRM power of Insightly is stored within a Gmail sidebar that’s added to your Gmail account upon downloading a browser extension. Once you log in to your Insightly CRM, you’ll find a pretty impressive light version of the tool within your Gmail inbox.

You can search different records within your Insightly database from the sidebar inside your Gmail inbox and access their complete profiles.

Insightly CRM in Gmail

There’s also a Tasks tab in the sidebar, where you can see open or imminent tasks. You can also create new tasks right out of Gmail. Hovering your pointer over the functions in Insightly’s sidebar, you’ll be able to access all the necessary information related to that task.

You can create contacts in the CRM directly from incoming emails by clicking the Create Contact button in the sidebar. Insightly CRM automatically pulls all the relevant information about the contact and enriches their newly-created record. You can then use the Insightly sidebar to create an Opportunity or Project associated with that record. Everything relevant is linked to that contact in the database.

With the Insightly Gmail add-on, you can link incoming and outgoing emails to any contact or deal in the database.

Insightly CRM Pricing

You can try Insightly CRM for free with Insightly's original, no-frills plan for two users.

  • Plus $29 per user per month, billed annually
  • Professional $49 per user per month, billed annually
  • Enterprise — $99 per user per month, billed annually

Where to download Insightly CRM

Sign up on Insightly’s website and download the Insightly Gmail CRM extension from the Chrome Webstore.

Salesmate — Gmail sidebar integration

Salesmate CRM for Gmail
Salesmate CRM for Gmail

Launched back in 2016, Salesmate has established a strong market presence. Since then, it has quickly developed into a well-known, feature-packed Gmail CRM solution.

Salesmate devs have hopped on all the latest CRM trends and created a CRM system that offers a wide range of features. This platform helps manage and automate business processes with features for every department in a business. Salesmate integrates with several third-party apps.

One of the most prominent Salesmate integrations is its integration with Gmail, turning the system into a Gmail CRM.

Pros of Salesmate

✅ 2-way sync between Salesmate and Gmail
✅ Email marketing functionality; bulk emailing, tracking, and templates
✅ Contact management
✅ Email marketing automation
✅ Affordable
✅ 15-day free trial
✅ Several native integrations with third-party apps
✅ Zapier integration
✅ Quickbook integration helps keep up with accounting from Gmail

Cons of Salesmate

❌ Gmail CRM extension can slow the loading speed of your inbox
❌ Sales reports are sometimes hard to read
❌ Daily send-limit for emails
❌ No mobile app available

Level of Gmail integration

The Salesmate Gmail extension adds a Salesmate sidebar to your Gmail inbox.

As soon as you log in, you’ll see the Activity widget of Salesmate CRM full of filtered views and favourites. If your list of views is too long to navigate by scrolling, use the search bar to find the view you’re interested in. The Sort icon allows you to sort all the activities by different criteria. By clicking the hamburger menu, you can change the active view in the sidebar to Contacts, Companies, or Deals.

The Quick Action button at the top-right of the Salesmate sidebar helps users add new contacts, companies, activities, deals, and more to Salesmate CRM from Gmail.

Salesmate CRM in Gmail

Clicking on any email in your Gmail inbox, if the contact is present in your Salesmate database, all the contact information such as details, insights, timeline, related, and apps will be displayed on the preview screen. You can edit or update fields.

If the contact isn’t saved in the system, Salesmate Gmail CRM integration will give you a chance to create a new record from the email. The system will automatically capture some details.

You can compose emails to records in your CRM or enroll them to sequences from the Gmail Salesmate sidebar. The system allows you to automatically log emails sent and received, track emails, and use email templates stored in your Salesmate account.

If you'd like to learn more about Salesmate, check out our newest article about how this CRM compares to Pipedrive.

Salesmate CRM pricing

Salesmate offers a 15-day free trial of both their plans.

  • Starter: $12 per user per month, billed annually.
  • Growth: $24 per user per month, billed annually.

Where to download Salesmate CRM

Go to Salesmate’s website to set up an account, then install the Salesmate Gmail CRM extension from the Chrome Webstore.

Nutshell — Gmail sidebar integration

Nutshell CRM for Gmail
Nutshell CRM for Gmail

Launched back in 2010, Nutshell currently serves thousands of businesses worldwide and has been frequently named a top CRM for both user-friendliness and affordability. It’s also been on the G2’s radar for every quarter since Fall 2020.

Nutshell is a CRM solution best known for its powerful but simple interface. It takes no longer than a couple of minutes to set up, and there are no slowdowns or complicated workflows to wrap your head around. Nutshell is easy.

Nutshell CRM finds a perfect balance between sales and marketing tools, offering extensive functionality for both departments. It’s particularly well-known for its advanced email marketing features.

Pros of Nutshell CRM

✅ Easy to navigate; intuitive interface
✅ Has a short learning curve
✅ Budget-friendly Gmail CRM option
✅ Advanced email marketing functionality, including bulk emailing, sequences, segmentation, and tracking
✅ Fast and professional support from the customer service department
✅ Free 14-day trial
✅ Sales automation

Cons of Nutshell CRM

❌ Lacks native integrations
❌ Not as customisable as competitors
❌ No bulk contact deletion
❌ Limited mobile app functionality
❌ Can’t create new records from emails

Level of Gmail integration

Nutshell isn’t fully integrated with Gmail, but the Nutshell Gmail sidebar might be enough for startups and small businesses. With the extension, whenever you click on an email from someone who’s already in your database, the Nutshell Gmail sidebar visualises CRM data about them. You can also edit records out of your Gmail inbox.

You can view upcoming tasks and activities for the contact and even create a new task saved in your CRM right from Gmail. The sidebar makes it easy to view any open or won leads associated with your contact as well as recent timeline items. Finally, you can choose to share or hide email threads or individual emails with Nutshell.

Nutshell CRM pricing

Nutshell offers a 14-day free trial.

  • Starter: $20 per user per month, billed annually.
  • Pro: $42 per user per month, billed annually.

Where to download Nutshell CRM

Head to Nutshell’s website, then download the extension from the Chrome Webstore.

Capsule CRM — Gmail sidebar integration

Capsule CRM for Gmail
Capsule CRM for Gmail

Capsule CRM has only recently entered the CRM software market and has already scored itself a spot amongst the best CRM for Gmail.

It’s simple, affordable, and versatile. It’s perfect for startups and small businesses that are just getting started with CRM and who need to invest in a solution that would let them bend it around their specific needs. Capsule CRM is highly-customisable.

Moreover, it has a wide range of different integrations that can make the CRM more marketing or sales-centric.

And, of course, it’s integrated with Gmail.

Pros of Capsule CRM

✅ Simple, mobile-friendly interface
✅ Available in the Gmail app
✅ Dedicated customer support team
✅ Pro subscribers can access integrations such as Zapier, Mailchimp, and Zendesk
✅ Affordable
✅ 30-day free trial
✅ Highly customisable, flexible CRM system

Cons of Capsule CRM

❌ Free version is capped at 250 contacts
❌ Free version doesn’t offer any integrations
❌Can’t add data tags in bulk

Level of Gmail integration

While not fully integrated with Gmail, the Capsule CRM Gmail sidebar gets the job done. It stores and tracks email conversations with leads and customers without you having to leave the inbox.

Capsule CRM in Gmail

You can also use the Gmail add-on to add new contacts, tasks, cases, and opportunities into your Capsule CRM database. Whenever a new email pops into your inbox, you can add the sender either as a new person or a new organisation.

Capsule CRM pricing

There’s a 30-day free trial period with no credit card required.

  • Professional: $12 per user per month, billed annually.
  • Teams: $24 per user per month, billed annually.
  • Enterprise: $36 per user per month, billed annually.

Where to download Capsule CRM

Head over to the Capsule's website, create an account, and then download the extension from the Chrome Webstore.


Download a Gmail CRM today - it could just change your business.

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