Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
Choosing the right CRM is crucial for managing customer relationships and streamlining your sales process. Salesforce and Streak are two popular options, each serving different business needs. Salesforce is a powerful, enterprise-level CRM known for its vast array of features, customization options, and scalability, making it ideal for larger organizations. On the other hand, Streak is a Gmail-based CRM designed for simplicity and convenience, perfect for smaller teams or businesses that rely heavily on email communication. In this blog, we’ll compare Salesforce and Streak to help you decide which CRM best suits your business’s workflow and goals. Additionally, we'll introduce folk as a popular all-in-one alternative.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a robust CRM platform for large enterprises, offering tools for sales, marketing, service, and analytics, with extensive scalability.
Key features of Salesforce
- Comprehensive ecosystem: A unified platform offering CRM, marketing automation, customer service, and custom app development, suitable for the varied needs of large enterprises.
- Customization and scalability: Salesforce is highly customizable and scalable, allowing large organizations to tailor the platform to complex workflows and manage significant growth.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) integration: Salesforce Einstein offers AI-driven analytics and automation, providing insights that help large businesses optimize their strategies.
- Extensive integration capabilities: With Salesforce's AppExchange, large companies can integrate the platform with a wide range of third-party applications, ensuring seamless operation across different business systems.
- Enterprise-grade security and compliance: Salesforce provides robust security measures and compliance features, critical for large organizations handling sensitive customer data.
What is Streak?
Streak is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that integrates directly with Gmail, allowing users to manage their sales pipeline and customer interactions from within their email inbox. Designed to simplify CRM tasks, Streak offers features such as email tracking, mail merge, task management, and pipeline visualization, all seamlessly embedded in Gmail’s interface.
Key features of Streak
- Gmail interface: Streak operates entirely within Gmail, making it easy to manage your CRM without leaving your inbox.
- Shared pipelines: Collaborate with your team by sharing pipelines, allowing everyone to track and manage deals, projects, or tasks in real-time.
- Email tracking and snippets: Get notifications when your emails are opened and use pre-written snippets to streamline communication and save time.
- Contacts: Streak helps organize and manage contact information directly within Gmail, making it easy to stay connected with clients.
- Google Workspace integrations: Seamlessly integrates with Google Workspace tools like Calendar and Drive for enhanced productivity and collaboration.
Salesforce vs. Streak: Feature Comparison
Let's break down the key features of two CRM software solutions and take a closer look at their sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management.
1. Sales pipeline management
Salesforce's pipeline management feature, known as Pipeline Inspection, provides a comprehensive view of sales opportunities by consolidating key metrics, deal changes, and AI-powered insights into a single interface. This allows sales teams to make informed decisions and prioritize deals effectively. On the other hand, Streak CRM's pipeline management is deeply integrated with Gmail, allowing users to track, organize, and manage sales processes directly from their inbox. The system uses a visual layout, similar to a spreadsheet, with automation features that streamline workflows and enhance productivity.
While Salesforce offers a robust and data-driven approach suitable for larger enterprises needing advanced analytics, Streak's integration with Gmail makes it an attractive choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking simplicity and ease of use directly from their email platform. Both systems cater to different needs, with Salesforce excelling in comprehensive data management and Streak providing seamless email integration for efficient pipeline tracking.
2. Ease of use
Salesforce, while powerful, can have a steeper learning curve due to its extensive features and customization options. Streak, on the other hand, is designed for simplicity and ease of use, seamlessly integrating within Gmail, making it accessible for users familiar with Google's ecosystem.
3. Contact enrichment
Salesforce's contact enrichment feature leverages tools such as the Data Cloud to automatically enhance and update contact records in real time, drawing from verified data sources like LinkedIn and InsideView to provide real-time updates.
4. Outreach
Salesforce's outreach solution is powered by its AI capabilities, particularly through the integration of Einstein AI and their Outreach list that allows users to see cross-sales paths and leads they need to engage with. Streak CRM's outreach solution is designed around email communication directly within Gmail, leveraging its integration to manage sales and customer engagement.
5. Automation
Salesforce offers robust automation features designed to streamline business processes. Its automation capabilities include workflow rules, flow builders, and AI automation through Einstein AI. Streak CRM, integrated directly within Gmail, offers automation features that streamline workflow by automating tasks such as email tracking, follow-ups, and pipeline updates.
6. Integration
Salesforce integrates with a wide range of third-party applications through its AppExchange marketplace, allowing users to connect tools for marketing automation, customer service, analytics, project management, and finance. Streak CRM integrates with various third-party applications to extend its functionality, particularly through its deep integration with Google Workspace, including Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar.
7. Artificial intelligence
Salesforce CRM integrates AI through its Einstein platform, which enhances decision-making by providing predictive analytics, intelligent recommendations, and automated insights. Streak CRM has limited native AI integrations, focusing on essential features within Gmail rather than advanced AI-driven functionalities, but can connect with third-party AI tools via integrations.
Price and plans comparison
Let's take a closer look at the price and plans of both Salesforce and Streak.
Salesforce prices
- Starter suite: $25/user/month provides basic CRM features for small businesses.
- Pro suite: $80/user/month includes advanced tools for growing businesses.
- Enterprise plan: $165/user/month offers extensive customization and automation for large companies.
- Unlimited plan: $330/user/month provides comprehensive features for large enterprises.
- Einstein 1 Sales: $500/user/month provides AI-driven insights and advanced features for large enterprises.
Streak prices
- Pro: Starts from $49 per user, per month.
- Pro +: Starts from $69 per user, per month.
- Enterprise: Starts from $129 per user, per month.
Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to Salesforce and Streak
Looking for an affordable alternative? We recommend folk. There is a reason why folk is a multiple award-winning CRM platform loved for its easy-to-use, plug-and-play CRM system.
Key features
- Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that you can use it across your sales cycle and pipeline management – and other business functions such as recruitment, marketing, and more.
- Social media integration: Import people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk’s Google Chrome extension.
- Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
- Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so you can fill in missing data points with 1-click.
- Email sequences: Send email sequences with reminders if your leads don’t reply to your first emails. It includes an AI integration allowing you to personalize email at scale.
- Notes and reminders: Take notes directly and attach these to relevant contact profiles in folk, and assign reminders to get notified when it's time to follow-up.
Price and plans
folk has a 14-day free trial. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual subscription plan is as follows.
- Standard: $20 per user, per month.
- Premium: $40 per user, per month.
- Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.
Salesforce vs. Streak: What's the verdict?
Both Salesforce and Streak offer robust CRM solutions, each catering to different business needs. Salesforce excels in providing a comprehensive, scalable platform ideal for large enterprises seeking extensive customization and integration capabilities. On the other hand, Streak offers a simpler, email-integrated approach, perfect for small to medium-sized businesses looking for ease of use within Gmail. However, for companies that need a more personalized approach to relationship management, folk provides a flexible alternative to these traditional CRM options, blending ease of use with customization. Try folk today, free
Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses