HubSpot vs Streak: Find the right CRM for your team

For most businesses, effective customer relationship management (CRM) is essential for driving growth and maintaining strong customer connections. Fortunately, there are various CRM solutions available that help you manage customer interactions, track sales, and streamline your workflows. These tools are crucial for personalizing the customer experience and optimizing your sales processes.

Among these CRM options, HubSpot and Streak stand out as leading platforms, each popular with different types of businesses, from startups to established enterprises. To assist you in determining which CRM solution is the best fit for your business, we've prepared a comprehensive comparison of HubSpot and Streak. We’ll walk you through their features, advantages, disadvantages, and key distinctions to help you decide which platform aligns best with your needs. Let’s explore!

HubSpot and Streak are prominent contenders in the CRM software category, each bringing distinct strengths and features tailored to different business needs.

HubSpot is renowned for its all-in-one marketing, sales, and service platform. It offers a powerful suite of tools designed to help businesses attract, engage, and delight customers throughout the entire customer journey. On the other hand, Streak differentiates itself with its unique approach as a CRM that lives directly within Gmail. It’s an ideal option for smaller teams or businesses heavily reliant on Google Workspace, offering simplicity and convenience by allowing users to manage their sales pipeline and customer interactions without leaving their inbox.

Now, let's dive into the HubSpot vs. Streak comparison to help you make an informed decision when choosing the CRM that best aligns with your business objectives and operational style.

HubSpot and Streak are both designed to enhance your customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, offering tools to manage sales pipelines, track customer interactions, and automate key processes. However, a fundamental difference between them lies in their scope and approach. While HubSpot provides a comprehensive, all-in-one platform that spans marketing, sales, and service, Streak takes a more focused approach, integrating directly with Gmail to offer a lightweight CRM solution primarily aimed at smaller teams or businesses deeply embedded in the Google Workspace ecosystem.

HubSpot is a full-featured CRM platform designed to cater to the needs of growing businesses. It offers an extensive range of tools, including email marketing, content management, sales automation, and customer service management. HubSpot’s CRM is part of a broader ecosystem that includes marketing and service hubs, enabling businesses to manage every aspect of customer engagement from one centralized platform. An example of HubSpot’s expansive approach is its marketing automation features, which allow users to create complex workflows and personalized campaigns that integrate seamlessly with the sales pipeline.

In contrast, Streak offers a streamlined, easy-to-use CRM that lives directly within Gmail. Its focus is on simplicity and ease of use, allowing users to manage their sales pipeline, track customer interactions, and automate follow-ups without leaving their inbox. Streak is particularly well-suited for businesses or teams that do not require the extensive features of a platform like HubSpot but instead value a CRM that integrates effortlessly with their existing email workflows. Unlike HubSpot, Streak does not offer marketing automation or a dedicated service hub, but its lightweight nature and seamless Gmail integration make it an attractive option for smaller businesses or those heavily reliant on email-based communication.

Another key difference is pricing. HubSpot’s pricing structure varies across its different hubs and tiers, with free plans available but more advanced features requiring a subscription. Streak, on the other hand, offers a straightforward pricing model that scales based on the number of users and additional features, making it easier to budget for smaller teams. This contrast in pricing and scope makes HubSpot ideal for businesses seeking a comprehensive, scalable CRM solution, while Streak is better suited for teams looking for simplicity and Gmail integration.

• All-in-one platform: HubSpot offers a comprehensive suite of tools for marketing, sales, and customer service, allowing businesses to manage all aspects of customer engagement in one place. This integration helps streamline workflows and ensures consistency across different departments.
• User-friendly interface: HubSpot is known for its intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise. This reduces the learning curve and enables teams to get up and running quickly.
• Free CRM option: HubSpot provides a robust free CRM with essential features, making it an attractive option for startups or small businesses. The free version includes contact management, email tracking, and basic automation, with the option to scale up as the business grows.
• Extensive automation capabilities: HubSpot excels in marketing automation, allowing users to create complex workflows, automate email campaigns, and personalize customer interactions at scale. This can significantly enhance efficiency and lead generation efforts.
• Comprehensive analytics and reporting: HubSpot offers detailed analytics and reporting tools that help businesses track performance across various channels. These insights enable data-driven decision-making and allow users to fine-tune their strategies for better results.

• Costly advanced features: While HubSpot offers a free CRM, many of the more advanced features, particularly in the marketing and sales hubs, come at a premium. For small businesses or startups, the cost of these advanced tools can quickly add up.
• Steep learning curve for advanced features: While the basic features are user-friendly, some of the more advanced tools and customization options can be complex and require a deeper understanding or additional training.
• Limited customization in lower tiers: The lower-tier plans have limitations in terms of customization and access to certain advanced features. For businesses with more specific needs, this could be a drawback, requiring an upgrade to higher-tier plans.
• Occasional overwhelming interface: Due to the extensive range of tools and features, the HubSpot interface can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially for users who only need a few of the available features. This could lead to underutilization of the platform’s full potential.
• Heavy reliance on HubSpot ecosystem: HubSpot’s extensive integration across its own hubs can sometimes make it challenging to integrate with third-party tools outside the HubSpot ecosystem. Businesses with existing software solutions might face difficulties or require additional workarounds to achieve seamless integration.

• Seamless Gmail integration: Streak is fully integrated with Gmail, allowing users to manage their CRM directly within their inbox. This seamless integration makes it easy for teams already using Google Workspace to adopt Streak without the need for additional software.
• Ease of use: Streak’s user interface is simple and intuitive, designed for users who prefer a lightweight CRM solution. Its minimalistic design makes it easy to set up and use, even for those with little to no CRM experience.
• Customizable pipelines: Streak offers highly customizable pipelines that can be tailored to fit various workflows, whether for sales, customer support, hiring, or project management. This flexibility allows users to adapt the CRM to their specific needs.
• Affordability: Streak offers a straightforward pricing model, which can be more affordable for smaller teams or businesses. There’s also a free tier available with basic features, making it accessible for startups or small businesses on a tight budget.
• Real-time collaboration: Streak supports real-time collaboration, allowing team members to share and update information instantly. This feature ensures that everyone stays on the same page, improving communication and coordination within teams.

• Limited advanced features: Compared to more comprehensive CRMs like HubSpot, Streak lacks advanced features such as in-depth marketing automation, complex reporting, and extensive analytics. This limitation may make it less suitable for larger businesses with more complex needs.
• Reliance on Gmail: While the integration with Gmail is a strength, it can also be a limitation. Streak’s functionality is tied to Gmail, so if your business relies on a different email provider or prefers a standalone CRM, Streak might not be the best fit.
• Scalability issues: Streak is designed for smaller teams or simpler workflows, and while it works well for these scenarios, it may struggle to scale with a growing business that requires more robust CRM capabilities or extensive customization options.
• Basic reporting tools: Streak’s reporting and analytics features are relatively basic compared to more advanced CRMs. Businesses that need detailed insights or complex reporting may find Streak’s capabilities insufficient for their needs.
• Fewer integrations: Streak has a more limited range of integrations compared to other CRMs, particularly outside of the Google Workspace ecosystem. This can be a drawback for businesses that rely on a variety of third-party tools and need seamless integration across different platforms.

HubSpot is a comprehensive, all-in-one CRM platform that offers robust tools for marketing, sales, and customer service, making it ideal for growing businesses that need a scalable solution. It excels in automation, analytics, and integration across multiple departments, providing a centralized hub for managing customer relationships. 

In contrast, Streak is a lightweight CRM that integrates directly with Gmail, offering simplicity and ease of use for smaller teams or businesses heavily reliant on Google Workspace. While HubSpot offers more advanced features, Streak’s simplicity and affordability make it a practical choice for those needing a straightforward, email-centric CRM.

Whether HubSpot is better than Streak largely depends on your business needs. HubSpot’s comprehensive suite of tools provides a scalable solution with extensive features across marketing, sales, and customer service, ideal for businesses seeking deep functionality and integration. Its advanced capabilities in automation and analytics support complex workflows and strategic decision-making. 

Conversely, Streak is best suited for users who prioritize ease of use and integration within Gmail. Its simplicity and focus on essential CRM features make it a practical choice for smaller teams or individuals who need a straightforward, email-centric tool. Thus, HubSpot is generally better for larger, more complex operations, while Streak excels in straightforward, email-focused environments.

HubSpot is best used for managing and optimizing customer relationships through its integrated platform that combines marketing, sales, and customer service tools. It's particularly effective for businesses looking to streamline their operations by automating marketing campaigns, managing leads, and tracking customer interactions across multiple channels. 

HubSpot's robust analytics and reporting features allow businesses to gain insights into customer behavior, measure the effectiveness of their strategies, and make data-driven decisions. Additionally, its scalable nature and extensive integrations make it suitable for companies of all sizes aiming to enhance their inbound marketing efforts and improve customer engagement.

HubSpot can replace Streak for businesses that need a more comprehensive CRM solution beyond simple email management. While Streak is ideal for small teams that primarily use Gmail, HubSpot offers a broader range of features, including advanced marketing automation, sales pipeline management, and customer service tools. 

HubSpot's all-in-one platform is more scalable and provides detailed analytics, making it suitable for businesses looking to grow and integrate their operations across departments. However, for teams that prefer a lightweight, Gmail-centric CRM, Streak’s simplicity might still be preferable, depending on their specific needs and workflow preferences.

HubSpot is generally more expensive than Streak, especially as you move beyond its free CRM and start utilizing its advanced marketing, sales, and customer service features. While HubSpot’s pricing structure offers a free tier with basic functionality, its premium plans can become costly, depending on the features and scale required. 

Streak, on the other hand, offers a more straightforward pricing model, with lower costs that make it more affordable for small teams or businesses that primarily need a simple CRM integrated with Gmail. Therefore, while HubSpot provides more robust tools, Streak tends to be the cheaper option for businesses with simpler needs.

While HubSpot is a highly popular and comprehensive CRM platform, it's worth considering whether there might be better software solutions tailored to your specific needs.

There are several notable alternatives to HubSpot in the CRM and marketing automation space, including Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, and ActiveCampaign.

Choosing the right CRM should be based on a thorough evaluation of your business's unique requirements, the complexity of your sales and marketing processes, integration needs, and budget. While HubSpot offers a robust set of tools across marketing, sales, and service, other platforms may excel in specific areas or provide more specialized features that better align with your business goals and operational strategy.

Streak is a CRM that integrates directly with Gmail, offering simplicity and convenience for users who primarily manage customer interactions through email. It’s ideal for small teams or businesses embedded in the Google Workspace ecosystem, providing easy access to CRM tools without leaving the inbox. 

In contrast, HubSpot is a more comprehensive CRM platform that goes beyond email management, offering robust tools for marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot is better suited for businesses looking to scale and integrate operations across multiple departments, while Streak appeals to those seeking a straightforward, email-focused CRM solution.

Streak can be considered better than HubSpot for users who value seamless integration with Gmail and a straightforward CRM experience. Its tight integration with Google Workspace makes it exceptionally convenient for managing customer interactions directly within your email client, which is ideal for small teams or businesses heavily reliant on email. 

Streak’s simplicity and focus on essential CRM functions like pipeline management and task reminders are beneficial for those who need a streamlined tool without the complexity of more extensive platforms. However, for businesses seeking a more extensive feature set and scalability, HubSpot’s broader functionality may be more advantageous.

Streak is best used for managing customer relationships and sales pipelines directly within Gmail. It’s particularly effective for small teams, freelancers, and businesses that rely heavily on email communication. Streak allows users to track leads, manage tasks, and collaborate with team members without leaving their inbox, making it ideal for those who need a simple, easy-to-use CRM that integrates seamlessly with their existing email workflow. 

Additionally, Streak’s customizable pipelines and real-time collaboration features make it a great choice for managing projects, hiring processes, and other workflows that benefit from being closely tied to email communication.

Streak can replace HubSpot for small teams or businesses that primarily need a simple, Gmail-integrated CRM to manage their customer relationships and sales pipelines. However, Streak lacks the comprehensive features that HubSpot offers, such as advanced marketing automation, detailed analytics, and integrated customer service tools. 

While Streak is excellent for managing tasks directly within Gmail and is more affordable for smaller operations, it may not meet the needs of businesses looking for a scalable, all-in-one platform like HubSpot. Therefore, Streak is more suitable for basic CRM needs, whereas HubSpot is better for those requiring a robust, multi-functional solution.

Streak is generally cheaper than HubSpot, particularly for small teams or businesses with basic CRM needs. Streak offers a more affordable pricing structure, with a free tier and lower-cost plans that cater to users primarily managing their workflows within Gmail. In contrast, HubSpot, while offering a free CRM, can become significantly more expensive as you scale up and add advanced features for marketing, sales, and customer service. 

Therefore, for businesses looking for a cost-effective, email-centric CRM, Streak’s pricing plans tend to be the more budget-friendly option, whereas HubSpot's pricing reflects its broader, more comprehensive feature set.

Streak is a popular CRM solution, especially for those who use Gmail extensively, but it's important to consider whether there might be a better software option for your specific CRM and workflow management needs.

There are several notable alternatives to Streak in the CRM space, including HubSpot, Hiver Gmail Extension, Copper, Keap, and Monday.com.

Choosing the right CRM should be based on a thorough assessment of your business's unique requirements, email integration needs, scalability, and budget. While Streak offers a streamlined and convenient solution within Gmail, other platforms may provide more advanced features, better scalability, or more tailored solutions that could align more closely with your business objectives and operational needs.

Both HubSpot and Streak offer equal benefits in terms of sales email tracking and templates, delivering powerful tools that enhance your email outreach capabilities. Each platform allows you to send personalized, trackable emails directly from their CRM interface, ensuring that your communication is both effective and efficient. For example, both HubSpot and Streak provide real-time notifications when prospects open emails, click on links, or engage with the content, enabling timely follow-ups and better engagement. 

Additionally, both platforms offer customizable email templates, allowing you to maintain consistent messaging while saving time on repetitive tasks. Whether you prioritize seamless Gmail integration with Streak or the broader CRM features of HubSpot, either tool excels in supporting your sales email efforts, making them strong contenders depending on your specific needs.

HubSpot outshines Streak when it comes to lead scoring and segmentation, offering advanced tools that help businesses identify and prioritize their most valuable leads. HubSpot’s lead scoring feature allows you to assign scores to leads based on various criteria, such as email engagement, website activity, and social media interactions, enabling your sales team to focus on prospects with the highest conversion potential. Additionally, HubSpot's robust segmentation capabilities allow you to categorize leads into specific groups for targeted marketing campaigns. 

In contrast, Streak lacks a dedicated lead scoring feature, primarily focusing on task management and collaboration within Gmail. While Streak is effective for organizing and tracking communications, it doesn’t provide the sophisticated lead prioritization tools that HubSpot offers, making HubSpot the better choice for businesses looking to optimize their lead management processes and drive sales growth.

Both tools address different but equally important aspects of business management. HubSpot excels at content creation and management, offering a user-friendly landing page builder and a website converter that simplifies the process of creating and optimizing web content. For instance, HubSpot’s drag-and-drop editor allows users to design customized landing pages without coding skills, enhancing their marketing efforts. 

On the other hand, Streak prioritizes operational efficiency with a mobile app that ensures access to critical CRM information from anywhere. This feature is particularly useful for teams on the move, enabling them to manage customer relationships and track sales while traveling. Depending on your business priorities—whether it's advanced content management with HubSpot or mobile CRM accessibility with Streak—each tool offers unique advantages to meet specific needs effectively.

Streak’s task reminder system is more highlighted and user-friendly compared to HubSpot's, particularly for teams looking for straightforward task management within their CRM. With Streak, users can effortlessly set up reminders for themselves or team members directly within Gmail, ensuring that important tasks and deadlines are not overlooked. This feature is seamlessly integrated into the Gmail interface, allowing for quick setup and easy tracking of reminders alongside your email communications. 

While HubSpot offers similar task management functionalities within its Sales Hub, including automated reminders and task assignments, Streak’s reminder system stands out for its simplicity and ease of use. This makes Streak an excellent choice for teams that prioritize intuitive task management tools within their existing email workflow, providing a hassle-free way to stay on top of tasks without the need for navigating through a more complex system like HubSpot.

In terms of user-friendliness, Streak gains an upper hand over HubSpot, particularly for those who are already familiar with Gmail. Streak’s intuitive design allows users to manage CRM functions directly within their inbox, making it easy to track emails, manage pipelines, and collaborate with team members without needing to switch between different platforms. 

For example, users can create and update sales pipelines or track customer interactions right from their email threads. While HubSpot offers a broader range of features, its more complex interface can require a steeper learning curve, especially for users new to CRM systems.

When it comes to integrations, HubSpot pulls ahead of Streak, offering a more extensive and versatile range of options to connect with other tools and platforms. HubSpot seamlessly integrates with a wide variety of third-party applications, including popular software such as Salesforce for customer relationship management (CRM), Mailchimp for email marketing, and Slack for team communication. For example, HubSpot’s integration with Salesforce allows for real-time syncing of customer data, ensuring consistency across CRM and sales tools. 

Additionally, HubSpot connects with various analytics platforms, project management tools like Asana, and e-commerce solutions like Shopify, enabling businesses to create a unified ecosystem for their marketing, sales, and service needs. On the other hand, Streak is more limited in its integration capabilities, primarily focusing on Gmail and Google Workspace, which may not be sufficient for businesses needing broader connectivity across multiple platforms and software categories.

HubSpot executes automation and workflows more effectively than Streak, offering a comprehensive suite of tools that seamlessly synchronize marketing, sales, and service processes. HubSpot’s automation capabilities include advanced features such as email drip campaigns, social media scheduling, lead nurturing, and sales process automation, all of which can be customized to align with specific business goals. For example, you can set up workflows that automatically segment leads based on their behavior and trigger personalized email sequences, improving engagement and conversion rates. 

While Streak also provides automation, its focus is more limited to sales pipeline automation, such as sending notifications when a lead moves stages. If your business requires a robust, multi-departmental automation strategy, HubSpot clearly stands out as the superior choice, offering more detailed and expansive automation processes that cater to diverse business needs.