6 Best CRM Systems for Outlook Integration for 2022
Jess served on the founding team of a successful B2B startup and has used a wide range of sales and marketing tools over the course of her 15-year career. She uses her industry knowledge to deliver the best answers to your questions about sales tools and sales management.
Bianca is a staff writer at Fit Small Business who specializes in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
The best customer relationship management (CRM) systems that integrate with Outlook provide users with seamless access to their leads, deals, contacts, and other essential CRM functionalities within their Outlook inbox. This article compares several options based on pricing, features, ease of use, customer support, and expert scores to arrive at the top CRMs for Outlook integration.
Our top picks, and their best uses cases, include:
- Zoho CRM: Best overall for marketers who want to capture and manage social media leads from Outlook email
- Pipedrive: Great option for businesses that want to manage Outlook email within a mobile CRM app
- HubSpot CRM: Excellent choice for businesses wanting a free, simple CRM with Outlook integration
- Insightly: Ideal for account managers who want to manage both deals and their resulting projects within their Outlook inboxes
- Salesforce Essentials: Great fit for teams wanting access to robust features while using the desktop version of Outlook
- Microsoft Dynamics 365: Best for companies using the full Microsoft ecosystem of productivity and office software
Best CRMs for Outlook Integration
 |  |  |  |  |  | |
No. of Users on the Free Plan | 3 | N/A | Unlimited | 2 | N/A | N/A |
Starting Price for Paid Plans* | $14 per month | $14.90 per user, per month | $40 per user, per month | $29 per user, per month | $25 per user, per month | $50 per user, per month |
Free Trial for Paid Plans | 15 days | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days | 30 days |
Built-in Phone Dialer | Available through third-party integration | Available in higher tiers | Available through third-party integration | Available in higher tiers as an add-on | Available as an add-on and via third-party integration | Available through third-party integration |
Mobile App | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | X |
Customer Support | Knowledge base, tickets, and 24/7 support via email, live chat, and phone | Knowledge base, Pipedrive Academy, Pipedrive community, and 24/7 chat and email support | Knowledge base, community support, and videos; chat, email, and phone support | Knowledge base, videos, and webinars; subscription-based email and phone support | Community support, webinars, and email support | Knowledge base, community forum, and 24/7 ticket and phone support |
Marketing Tools | Yes, on free and paid plans | Yes, on higher tiers only | Yes | Yes, on paid plans | Yes | Yes |
Check out our guide to the best free CRM systems for our top recommendations. However, if you find these free CRMs lacking for your business needs, you can choose to upgrade to a paid plan. Find more options from our list of the best CRMs for small businesses.
Zoho CRM: Best Overall Outlook Integration for Social Media Lead Generation
Zoho CRM
Overall Score: 4.30
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Customer support is available across multiple channels
- Customizable product catalog
- Extensive team collaboration through feeds, chat, groups, and product management features
What's Missing
- Does not offer team and individual goal tracking options
- Free plan is only for up to three users and has very limited features
- Prediction and artificial intelligence (AI) tools are only available in top-tier plan
Zoho CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to three users (minimal features)
- Standard: $14 per user, per month
- Professional: $23 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
- Ultimate: $52 per user, per month
- Free trial: 15 days
Special CRM Editions:
- Bigin: $0 to $9 per user, per month
- Zoho CRM Plus: $57 per user, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Zoho CRM is a CRM software solution that offers free and affordable plans packed with tools for collaboration, custom billing and payment, products, catalogs, and quotes. It features an Outlook productivity plugin that lets you sync your contacts, tasks, and calendar meetings with Microsoft Outlook. It also allows you to associate your emails with related leads or contacts in the CRM and view social media mentions of your business, all from your inbox.
What Zoho CRM is missing are options for individual and team goal tracking, which you can find in Pipedrive, HubSpot CRM, and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Zoho CRM’s free plan offers very limited features and can support only up to three uses. Aside from that, its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools are only available in the top-tier plan, while Pipedrive offers the same across all of its plans. HubSpot CRM’s free plan, on the other hand, supports an unlimited number of users.
Zoho CRM Features
Zoho CRM Outlook sidebar (Source: Zoho CRM)
- Sales force automation: Lead, deal, contact, account, and workflow management tools
- Marketing automation: Customer segmentation, lead nurturing, marketing attribution, Google Ads integration, and event management
- Omnichannel communication: Connect with your customers via email, phone call, live chat, web forms, and video conferencing
- Analytics: Customizable reports, charts, anomaly detector, cohorts, quadrants, key performance indicators (KPIs), comparator, funnels, and target meter
- Sales enablement: Quotes, documents library, calendar, SalesInbox (prioritized emails), Zoho Meeting integration, Google Workspace and Office 365 integrations, and Sales Signals (real-time notifications on customer interactions)
- Sales performance management: Sales forecasting, territory management, multiple currency support, AI prediction, analytics, website visitor tracking, and gamification
- Zia: Conversational AI-powered sales assistant, sales prediction, anomaly detection, data enrichment, personalized automation suggestions, assignment suggestions, and workflow suggestions
- Customizations: Page layouts, custom components, views and filters, subforms, currencies, and translations
- Team collaboration: Feeds, chat, notes, tags, groups, and project management
- Mobile app: iOS and Android apps, insights on key metrics and sales trends, voice notes, customer visit records, call logs, and offline access
- Customer support: Lower-tier plans offer email, live chat, and phone support during office hours, while higher-tier plans offer 24/7 support
Read our Zoho CRM review to discover how this software can benefit your growing business.
Pipedrive: Best for Managing Outlook Email Within a Mobile CRM
Pipedrive
Overall Score: 4.15
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Robust contact management, visual pipelines, and configurable reporting features
- Allows you to manage Outlook email from the browser-based interface or mobile app
- Automate repetitive tasks with its AI sales assistant
What's Missing
- No free service plan and Outlook desktop plugin
- Phone support limited to top-tier plan
- Lead generation tools are an additional cost
Pipedrive Pricing at a Glance*
- Essential: $14.90 per user, per month
- Advanced: $24.90 per user, per month
- Professional: $49.90 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $99 per user, per month (10-user minimum)
- Free trial: 14 days full access
Add-ons:
- LeadBooster (lead generation tool set): $32.50 per company, per month
- Web Visitors (web activity tracking): $41 per company, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Pipedrive is a CRM that allows you to track and manage your leads and deals using visual sales pipelines. Its features include workflow automation, product catalogs, a meeting scheduler, and custom reports. Its two-way sync periodically synchronizes and transfers all your contacts, companies, deals, activities, and emails between Pipedrive and Outlook. This platform also lets you manage your Outlook email from both its web and mobile apps.
While Pipedrive has a robust set of contact management and reporting features, it lacks the free plan and Outlook desktop plugin Zoho CRM offers. Its phone support is available only for top-tier subscriptions. You have to pay extra for lead generation tools, which Zoho CRM offers across all of its paid plans.
Pipedrive Features
Pipedrive’s Outlook sync dashboard (Source: Pipedrive)
- AI sales assistant: See performance-based tips, sales notifications, and progress updates
- Sales automation: AI-powered sales assistant, workflow automation, and smart contact data
- Lead management: Visual sales pipelines, leads inbox, chatbot, custom web forms, custom data fields, data import, products catalog, and deal probability and rotting
- Insights and reports: Custom reports (deals, revenue, activities, and leads), interactive dashboards, individual and team goals, and team management reports
- Communications: Email tracking, contact management with mapping and timeline, email templates, call scheduler, Caller (in-app dialer), and call tracking
- Smart Docs: Trackable and shareable and auto-filled sales documents (quotes, proposals, and contracts), templates, eSignatures, Google Drive integration, Microsoft OneDrive integration, products, PDF support, and Google Sheets and Slides support
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps, call tracking, caller ID, offline data access, tasks for the day, contacts and deals, notes, and meeting scheduler
- Customer support: Blog articles, Pipedrive community, Pipedrive Academy, knowledge base, and 24/7 support via chat and email
Not sure if this is the right CRM for you? Check out our Pipedrive review to learn how it can help grow your business.
HubSpot CRM: Best Free CRM for Outlook Integration
HubSpot CRM
Overall Score: 3.79
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Free plan supports 1 million contacts and companies
- Includes lead generation tools such as smart forms and chat
- Easy Outlook integration and supports email templates
What's Missing
- Free option only offers community support
- Workflow and marketing automation cost extra
- No advanced project management or operational CRM features
HubSpot CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Supports an unlimited number of users
- HubSpot for Startups: Ranges from $40 to $89 per month
- Marketing Hub: Starts at $45 per month (up to 1,000 contacts)
- Sales Hub: Starts at $45 per month (up to 2 users)
- Service Hub: Starts at $45 per month (up to 2 users)
- CMS Hub: Ranges from $270 to $900 per month
- Operations Hub: Starts at $45 per month
- Free trial for CMS and Operations Hub: 14 days
Add-on for paid plans:
- CRM Suite: Starts at $45 per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
HubSpot CRM offers a free scalable CRM that supports unlimited users and robust contact and lead management capabilities. This platform’s free lead generation tools include smart forms and chat. Its easy Outlook integration allows you to access its CRM and email tracking functions directly from your inbox. All these combined features helped propel it to our list of the top CRM software for small businesses.
Some of HubSpot CRM’s major setbacks are the lack of advanced support, workflow, and marketing automation in its lower-tier plans. It also does not have advanced project management capabilities. In contrast, Zoho CRM offers these features and benefits in its paid plans, while Insightly has built-in project management and delivery tools like milestone tracking and won opportunities conversion.
HubSpot CRM Features
HubSpot Outlook sidebar (Source: HubSpot)
- Premium products: Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Customer Management System (CMS) Hub, and Operations Hub
- CRM tools: Contact management, contact website activity, companies, deals, tasks and activities, and company insights
- Sales tools: Live chat, basic bots, team email, quotes, voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) calling, email scheduling, email templates, canned snippets, and sales documents
- Marketing tools: Web forms, email marketing, ad management, landing pages, shared inbox, list segmentation, team email, live chat, basic bots, and email tracking
- Service tools: Ticketing, live chat, tickets closed reports, rep productivity reports, time-to-close reports, reporting dashboard, and channel switching
- Mobile app: iOS and Android apps, contact and deal management, caller ID, live chat, voice notes, file attachments, task assignment, and real-time notifications
- Customer support: Help center with community support, knowledge base, and video training; paid tiers offer email, chat, and phone support
Read our HubSpot CRM review to learn more and find out if it is the right CRM platform for your business.
Insightly: Best CRM Outlook Integration for Project Management
Insightly
Overall Score: 3.38
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Browser-based plugin for Outlook allows users to create contacts, link emails, and view contact history from within the inbox
- Allows you to create custom project pipelines
- Professional plan features strong project management tools and a wide variety of third-party integrations
What's Missing
- Free plan is limited to two users
- Email tracking and workflow automation are not available in lower-tier plans
- No native social media tools or web activity tracking
Insightly Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 2 users
- Plus: $29 per user, per month
- Professional: $49 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $99 per user, per month
- Free trial of paid plans: 14 days
Add-ons:
- Insightly Voice (built-in phone dialer): $35 per user, per month, billed annually (exclusive for Professional and Enterprise subscribers only)
- CRM Support & Service: Starts a $1,500 per year (available only to users who commit to an annual subscription)
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Insightly is ideal for teams needing a CRM with project management tools to manage customer relationships after closing a deal. You can easily integrate your email account with this program by adding the Insightly Sidebar for Outlook from the Microsoft Store. This plugin lets you access your CRM and its email engagement tools within your inbox. This integration allows you to schedule emails, create new contacts, and communicate with your customers.
However, Insightly’s email tracking and workflow automation features are not included in lower-tier plans. Plus, it has no native social media tools or web activity tracking capabilities, unlike Zoho CRM. Also, its free plan is limited to only two users, so you might want to consider HubSpot CRM if you want a free CRM that supports an unlimited number of users.
Insightly Features
Sending an email from Insightly Outlook sidebar (Source: Insightly)
- Essential CRM tools: Contact, organization, task, and event management features
- Lead tracking and management tools: Targeted mass emails, templated emails, scheduling, Kanban lists, web-to-lead capture, and automatic social profile enrichment
- Productivity tools: Opportunity management tools, custom sales processes, and integrated project management, milestone tracking, and calendar synchronization
- Business process automation: Workflow automation, product catalogs, bills and invoices, roles and permissions, as well as custom profiles
- Insightly Voice: Integrated phone dialer, call logging, and automatic call analysis
- Reporting and analytics: Built-in business intelligence dashboards and configurable reports
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps
- Help center: In-depth tutorials and community with like-minded professionals
- Customer support: Knowledge base, videos, and webinars; subscription-based email and phone support from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Time
If you want more information on how this software works, read our comprehensive Insightly review.
Salesforce Essentials: Best for Robust Desktop Outlook Integration
Salesforce Essentials
Overall Score: 3.25
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Gives users access to all contact records and sales opportunities
- Features the most robust integration with Outlook’s desktop client
- Provides extensive tutorials and setup guides
What's Missing
- Does not offer a free plan
- Missing the ability to add more than 10 users to your account
- No workflow automation tools
Salesforce Essentials Pricing at a Glance*
- Essentials: $25 per user, per month
- Free trial: 14 days
Add-ons:
- Sales Dialer for Essentials (inbound and outbound calls from Salesforce phone channel): $2 per 100 minutes, per month
- Sales Dialer (click-to-dial and automatic logging): Starts at $5 per user, per month
- Social Intelligence: $25 per user, per month
- Inbox: $25 per user, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Salesforce Essentials is a cloud-based Salesforce CRM edition designed specifically for small businesses with up to 10 users. Its features include sales activity tracking, customer support tools, and contact data importation. Among the providers in this article, this platform has the most robust integration with Outlook’s desktop and web apps that allow you to access essential CRM features, contact records, and sales opportunities from within your email.
Unfortunately, like Pipedrive and Microsoft Dynamics 365, this software does not offer a free plan. The Salesforce Essentials package also does not include workflow automation tools, and you cannot have more than 10 users. HubSpot CRM, on the other hand, offers a free plan for unlimited users, while Zoho CRM’s plans all include workflow automation features.
Salesforce Essentials Features
Salesforce Outlook plugin (Source: Salesforce)
- Contact management: Contacts, accounts, and Einstein Activity Capture (automatic data sync with customer data from email)
- Sales tracking: Sales funnel stages and pipelines
- Service tools: Respond to customer queries and provide support via email, phone, chat, social channels, and help center
- Reporting and analytics: Customizable reports, dashboards, and charts; measure your business health by looking at your revenue from deals, support case sources, deals that need help, and priority customer feedback
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps
- Customer support: Each license includes email, community, and webinar support, with an option to upgrade to 24/7 support from expert coaches
Find out how this CRM can help produce better results by checking out our Salesforce Essentials review.
Microsoft Dynamics 365: Best for Businesses Using Microsoft’s Full Productivity Suite
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Overall Score: 2.36
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Seamless integration with the desktop and browser-based versions of Outlook
- Users can create contacts and leads from emails, send tracked emails, schedule emails, and view contact history from within Outlook
- Sales Enterprise plan adds territory management as well as social connections and automatic email logging
What's Missing
- Does not offer a free plan; paid plans are the most expensive overall option
- Lacks simple setup features; can be overwhelming to implement
- No mobile-specific features, like calling and call recording
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Pricing at a Glance*
- Customer Data Platform: Starts at $200 per tenant, per month
- Sales: Starts at $65 per user, per month
- Service: Starts at $50 per user, per month
- Marketing: Starts at $1,500 per tenant, per month
- Commerce: Starts at $180 per user, per month
- Supply Chain: Starts at $65 per user, per month
- HR: $120 per user, per month
- Finance: $180 per user, per month
- Project Management: $120 per user, per month
- Small and Medium Business: Starts at $50 per user, per month
- Free trial: 30 days
Add-on:
- Professional Direct Support (advisory services and faster response times): $9 per user, per month (minimum $180 per month)
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an enterprise resource platform (ERP) that offers a variety of business applications for mid-sized to large teams. It seamlessly integrates with all Microsoft products, such as Teams and Office 365, allowing you to manage your contacts and collaborate with your teams more effectively. You can also add the Dynamics 365 for Outlook App to access your CRM data from your desktop, web, and mobile email client.
The biggest setback to using Microsoft Dynamics 365 is its pricing—the most expensive option in this guide—and the lack of a free option. Also, unlike Pipedrive, it has a steep learning and implementation curve because it lacks simple setup features. Consider using Zoho CRM for free and affordable plan options with rich contact and lead management functionalities.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Features
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Outlook plugin (Source: Microsoft Dynamics 365)
- CRM features: Find and manage accounts, contacts, leads, deals, and opportunities using a comprehensive timeline
- Multichannel communications: Softphone dialer and email templates
- Pipeline management: Manage pipelines from a single workspace and collaborate with your team using a built-in chat function
- Automation: Automate recurring tasks, including sales and marketing processes
- Reporting and analytics: AI-powered forecasts and real-time visibility into sales performance
- Customer data platform: AI-powered audience and customer insights, as well as a scalable feedback management solution
- Service platform: Self-service portals, knowledge base, AI-driven agent productivity tools, field service management solutions, and remote assist solutions
- Marketing platform: AI-driven recommendations to help you personalize customer journeys and deliver content via the right channels
- Commerce platform: Fraud protection and unified customer engagement features
- Customer support: 24/7 essential and technical support via ticket submission and phone; knowledge base, community forum, admin portal, and free e-learning catalogs
How We Evaluated CRMs With Outlook Integration
The integration of CRM with Outlook boosts your productivity by improving team collaboration, project management, and reporting capabilities. In addition, it lets you easily log all the emails sent from Outlook.
With a score of 4.30 out of 5, we’ve evaluated Zoho CRM as the best overall choice for businesses wanting a simple CRM with Outlook integration. It clinched the top spot in this category because of its affordability and robust contact management features. Aside from that, it offers a user-friendly interface and multi-channel customer support.
The tabs below offer more insight into our evaluation process for selecting the best CRM software for Outlook integration:
40%
Pricing
20%
General Features
15%
Ease of Use
15%
Help & Support
10%
Expert Score
40% of Overall Score
The costs per user and any upfront costs like CRM customizations, onboarding, and maintenance fees were considered. We also factored in the availability of a free plan and a monthly billing option to determine the best value for your money.
20% of Overall Score
We evaluated the overall set of CRM features, including customizable pipelines, leads, reporting and analytics, deal management, and email management. The quality of its integration with Outlook was one of our main deciding factors. In addition, we looked at the availability of a mobile app and third-party integrations.
15% of Overall Score
The top CRM software for Outlook integration should not require technical skills to understand and use, and it should also have an intuitive interface. Each solution in this list was evaluated on how easy it is to set up and operate.
15% of Overall Score
Business users looking for CRMs that integrate well with Outlook favor solutions with 24/7 customer service via phone, live chat, and email. We assessed the platforms in this article to see the quality of help and support they offer to their users.
10% of Overall Score
We checked customer reviews on reputable sites to find out how satisfied their customers are. We also noted common issues the users had. Apart from reviews, we weighed the features that stood out, their value for money, and their popularity to narrow down the best CRM software for Outlook integration.
*Percentages of overall score
