Short version: Streak is the best free option and the one most Gmail users should try first. Copper is the best full CRM if you need a real pipeline. Simple CRM for Gmail is the cheapest of the paid options and the only one that stores your records in your own Google account rather than its own database. Choose on team size and on whether you need sequences — not on feature count.
Every tool on this list puts a CRM in the Gmail sidebar, and on a feature grid they look interchangeable. They are not. They differ on three things that actually decide whether you still use one in six months: what it costs per person, whether it holds your data or you do, and how much setup it demands before it is useful.
Every price below was read off the vendor's own pricing page on 14 August 2026, not from a review site, and is per user per month. Most vendors headline the annual rate and charge more monthly, so both are given where they differ. They change these; check before you buy.
1. Streak — best free option
The original Gmail CRM and still the one most people try first. Streak turns the inbox itself into pipelines, so deals live as rows across your email rather than in a separate screen.
Use it if you want a pipeline view without paying anything, or you are a small sales team that lives in Gmail. Skip it if you are one person paying $49 a seat for pipeline features you will not use, or if you want your records somewhere you control.
Free tier is genuinely usable. Pro is $49 billed annually ($59 monthly), Pro+ $69 annually ($89 monthly), Enterprise $129 annually with a 10-seat minimum.
2. Copper — best full CRM for Google Workspace
Copper is a complete CRM that happens to integrate tightly with Google Workspace, rather than a CRM that lives inside Gmail. That distinction matters: you get real pipeline management, reporting and a web app, and in exchange you get a second place to be.
Use it if you need pipelines, forecasting and reporting and you have a team to justify it. Skip it if one person is doing the selling — you will pay for structure you never use.
Basic $23 billed annually ($29 monthly), Professional $59 annually ($69 monthly), Business $99 annually ($134 monthly).
3. NetHunt — best automation inside Gmail
NetHunt sits in Gmail like Streak but is built more like a real CRM underneath, with the strongest workflow automation of the inbox-native options.
Use it if you want drip sequences and multi-step automation without leaving Gmail. Skip it if you are one person tracking a few dozen relationships — the automation is the reason to pay for it, and you will not use it.
Basic $24 billed annually ($30 monthly), Basic Plus $34 annually, Business $60 annually.
4. Salesflare — best for automatic data entry
Salesflare's pitch is that it fills itself in: it reads your email and calendar and builds the contact and company records without you typing them.
Use it if you hate data entry and want the CRM to keep itself current. Skip it if you want control over exactly what is stored, or if the enrichment feels invasive to your clients.
Growth $29 billed annually ($39 monthly), Pro $49 annually ($64 monthly), Enterprise $99 annually ($124 monthly, 5-seat minimum). 30-day free trial, no card.
5. Simple CRM for Gmail — best for solo operators who want to keep their data
This is ours, so treat the recommendation accordingly — but the reason it exists is a gap the four above share.
Every other tool on this list stores your contacts, notes and deals in the vendor's database. Simple CRM writes them to your own Google account: contacts to Google Contacts, notes and deals to Google Sheets in your Drive, tasks to Google Tasks, files stay in Drive. There is no database of ours holding your client list, so "what happens if I stop paying" has a boring answer — you keep everything, in ordinary formats, where it already was.
It has a pipeline: deals carry a stage (Lead, In talks, Proposal, Won, Lost by default, and you can rename or replace them), the home screen filters by stage and totals what is open. What it does not have is a drag-and-drop board.
Use it if you are one person — a freelancer, consultant, contractor, agent — who wants notes, deals and follow-ups attached to the people who email you, without another tab and without a per-seat bill. Skip it if you need a kanban board, email open-tracking, sequences, or seats for a team. It does not have those, and the next release will not either.
$15 flat, not per seat. $149 a year. $49 once for six years with a .edu address. Fourteen days free, no card.
6. folk — best for relationship-led work
folk is aimed at partnerships, BD and investor relations, where the relationship matters more than the deal volume. Modern interface, good enrichment.
Use it if your work is networking-shaped rather than pipeline-shaped. Skip it if you want something that lives entirely inside the inbox.
Standard $24 billed annually ($30 monthly), Premium $48 annually ($60 monthly).
7. A spreadsheet — still the honest answer for some people
It belongs on the list because it is what most solo operators actually use, and for maybe a third of them it is correct. A Google Sheet costs nothing, has no learning curve, and does not care how you organise it.
Use it if you have fewer than about thirty relationships and no recurring follow-ups. Skip it when you notice you have stopped updating it — that is the moment it silently became a liability rather than a system, because a half-maintained record is worse than none.
Side by side
| Tool | From | Per seat? | Data lives | Pipeline | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Streak | Free / $49 | Yes | Their servers | Board | Free pipelines in Gmail |
| Copper | $23 | Yes | Their servers | Board | Full CRM for a team |
| NetHunt | $24 | Yes | Their servers | Board | Automation in Gmail |
| Salesflare | $29 | Yes | Their servers | Board | Automatic data entry |
| Simple CRM | $15 | No — flat | Your Google account | Stages, no board | Solo, data ownership |
| folk | $24 | Yes | Their servers | Light | Relationship-led work |
| Spreadsheet | Free | No | Your Drive | No | Under ~30 contacts |
How we chose
Everything here had to do three things: appear in the Gmail sidebar or as a Google Workspace add-on, be usable by one person without an administrator, and publish its pricing. That last one removed several otherwise-reasonable products — a CRM that will not tell you the price before a sales call is not a solo-operator tool.
We build one of these, which you should weigh accordingly. What we have not done is put ourselves at the top or claim a category we lose: Streak is the better free tool, Copper the better full CRM, NetHunt the better automation platform, and if you want to drag cards across a board none of our advice applies.
Which one should you actually pick
Team of two or more, running sequences: Streak or NetHunt.
You need a kanban board, forecasting and reports: Copper.
You hate data entry above all else: Salesflare.
One person, referral-led, wants notes and follow-ups on the people who email you — and wants to keep the data: ours. That is the case it was built for, and the only case where we would argue we are the best answer.
Under thirty contacts: the spreadsheet is fine. Come back when it stops being.
If that last one is you
Install Simple CRM for Gmail from the Google Workspace Marketplace, open an email, and press Create contact. There is no setup, no import and no empty database waiting to be filled — it opens already holding the Google Contacts you have. Fourteen days free, no card.
There are walkthroughs for what this looks like in specific work: freelancers, consultants, contractors, real estate agents, travel agents and college students. The reasoning behind all of them is in why a CRM should live in your inbox.