Best Outlook CRM Software Integration (Free & Paid Plugins)

Come on in and step right up to learn all there is to know about the very best Outlook CRM software integration options to use with this popular email client. These CRMs will give your MS email provider a serious boost when it comes to marketing, sales and customer support, among other functionalities.

In this article, we’ll compare top 10 free and paid CRM software in terms of features, pros, cons, and pricing (where applicable). Let’s get started!

Wondering how to use Outlook as a CRM?

If you’re wondering about using Outlook as a CRM, here’s what you will need to know. This can be done through an integration, either native to the CRM system, with a plugin or add-on, or by using a connector app like Zapier.

Wondering what is CRM? Check out our article that explains CRM meaning, how to use one, and how it can boost your business.

CRM Outlook integration comparison chart (top 10 highest rated)

Here’s a table of some CRM with Outlook integration. You’ll see where the pricing starts, and get quick links to the sales pages of these vendors. There, you’ll find contact information either by request form, live chat, email and sometimes phone numbers. What’s more, for each of these CRM that integrates with Outlook, we’ve tried to tell you what their speciality is.

What is the best Outlook CRM software? Here’s our top 10 list:

Time to explore more thoroughly these customer relationship management software solutions and how they fit with Outlook, and in some other cases with Microsoft Dynamics and Office 365. We’ll run over pros and cons for each CRM, and give more detailed info about the costs.
 

1. Zoho CRM (Best Outlook CRM software overall)

Zoho CRM is among the leading apps for customer relationship management and other business functionalities. There is a dedicated Zoho CRM plugin for Microsoft Outlook. 

Pros:

For better contact management, you can add all your Outlook contacts into your Zoho CRM database.

With every contact you get important data, like notes, activity history, engagement history, past deals based on size or revenue, and more. Automation can be applied to send follow-ups as well.

Email tracking is available where you can get notified when colleagues or contacts see your email. You can also create support tickets from your Outlook to be run in your Zoho system.

Finally, you can leverage the many great Zoho CRM sales pipeline CRM features to boost email marketing automation in sync with your Microsoft Office Outlook email system. 

Cons:

While Zoho CRM is an ideal Outlook inbox partner for combining things like email marketing with contact management for small businesses, this platform might feel shallow for larger companies.

Pricing:

• Standard plan is $14 per user per month billed annually 

• Professional plan is $23 per user per month billed annually 

• Enterprise plan is $40 per user per month billed annually  

• Ultimate plan is $52 per user per month billed annually 

Zoho CRM Review 

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2. HubSpot CRM (Best free CRM for Outlook)

HubSpot CRM, like Zoho, is another huge name in the CRM software solution scene, specializing in marketing, ecommerce, sales and project management too. HubSpot offers a free CRM system to run inside Microsoft Outlook email.

Pros:

You get the basic marketing, sales and productivity features streamlined for sales teams to use with Outlook, and it’s easy to set up and a snap to use.

HubSpot CRM offers a wide variety of email templates. Such templates include workflow automation that can optimize the sales process with rich customer data and personalized journeys.

You can get email tracking, analytics and reporting, with HubSpot CRM monitoring the activity in your Outlook account, like open rates and click through rates.

Sales reps can use this to manage your meetings and scheduling data that comes in through Office 365. 

Cons:

You might be tempted to see HubSpot CRM as the all-in-one contact management plugin or integration with Microsoft Outlook email client, however, some more advanced tools will not be there unless you shell out for the premium packages, which are quite expensive.

Pricing:

• HubSpot has a free plan that includes an Outlook integration

• HubSpot CRM Suite Starter is $45 per month billed annually 

• HubSpot CRM Suite Professional is $1,600 per month billed annually

• HubSpot CRM Suite Enterprise is $5,000 per month billed annually  

Hubspot Review 

Visit Hubspot 
 

3. Pipedrive (Great contact management for Outlook)

Pipedrive is another top CRM that has an Outlook contact management software integration. Pipedrive has been striving to make a name for itself as the ultimate toolbox of sales team CRM features. 

Pros:

Setting up the synchronization between Pipedrive CRM data and Microsoft Outlook email activity is quite the user-friendly experience. Aside from emails, you can sync deals, notes and other engagement activities in real-time.

Aside from accessing Outlook information inside Pipedrive with the Outlook add-on, you can also install a Pipedrive add-in solution to the Outlook platform.

Pipedrive offers up its very versatile API, which means that if you want even more functionality out of your Pipedrive-Outlook integration, you can have your devs build one.

Cons:

Tools like two-way email sync, customizable email templates and email tracking are not available in the Pipedrive essential plan, so you need to budget for these advanced tools.

Pricing:

• Essential plan is $14 per user per month billed annually

• Advanced plan is $29 per user per month billed annually

• Professional plan is $49 per user per month billed annually

• Power plan is $64 per user per month billed annually  

• Enterprise plan is $99 per user per month billed annually

Pipedrive CRM Review 

Visit Pipedrive CRM 
 

4. Salesforce Lightning for Outlook (Top CRM Outlook integration for email tracking)

There are very few areas of business technology which Salesforce has not yet penetrated into, and email integrations are fully included in the Salesforce conquests. Here let’s talk about Salesforce Lightning for Outlook.

Pros:

Lightning for Outlook by Salesforce is a leading email tracking software. Workflows and other automations can send reminders when top deals are going down, and to help find ideal times and dates for scheduling meetings.

All email activity, whether in Outlook or other platforms like Gmail, undergo real-time synchronization with the Salesforce platform.

You can also read, write and send emails inside your Salesforce dashboards.

When it comes to task tracking and project management, you can create new deals and projects instantly using email data.  

Cons:

Salesforce always has many products, integrations, add-ons and plugins, and sometimes it can be difficult to navigate this vast selection of tools and products.

Pricing:

• Salesforce Lightning for Outlook is free with some Salesforce Sales Cloud editions

• Salesforce Inbox includes Lightning and costs $25 per user per month billed annually 

Salesforce Review 

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5. Microsoft Dynamics 365 (Good CRM for Outlook 365)

Now, it may seem weird to some that Microsoft Dynamics 365 even needs to be mentioned on the list of the best CRM software solutions to run with MS Outlook or any other MS Office app, for that matter. But here we are, deal with it. 

Pros:

Microsoft has many great apps and sites aside from their email provider Outlook. Office includes Word and Excel, meanwhile Microsoft owns the most important social media platform for business, LinkedIn. One surely gets the most out of Microsoft from staying within their app ecosystem.

You can run Outlook for Dynamics on your desktop app, on the web browser version, or with your mobile apps.

Outlook can become a major tool for managing other Microsoft features like marketing, sales, customer service, field service and project management automation. Link email conversations to meetings, appointments, support issues or tasks.

Cons:

Microsoft is hardly the first choice for individuals, small teams and startups, whether we are simply talking about Outlook or the more expensive and advanced Dynamics 365 tools.

Pricing:

• Sales Professional starts at $64 per user per month 

• Sales Enterprise starts at $95 per user per month 

• Marketing starts at $1,500 per user per month 

• For more products and prices visit their website

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Review 

Visit Microsoft Dynamics 365
 

6. Insightly (Great CRM sidebar for Microsoft Outlook)

Insightly is a fully-stacked business SaaS combining CRM, marketing, sales, customer service, project management, and it’s also got a wealth of integrations, including one for Outlook.

Pros:

You can use this integration to install an Insightly CRM sidebar inside the Outlook interface for easier cross-functionality between the two systems.

Emails from CRM contacts will then display other important information about the contact, like if you have any upcoming meetings with them, added attachments, or you can use Insightly to schedule emails to be sent out at later times.

You can also create emails inside Insightly, using email templates, and then send them directly without toggling back to the Outlook interface.

Cons:

The Insightly sidebar integration with Outlook is your basic CRM features, but it lacks advanced stuff for sales and marketing, like trend forecasting.

Pricing:

• Insightly Plus is $29 per user per month billed annually 

• Insightly Professional is $49 per user per month billed annually 

• Insightly Enterprise is $99 per user per month billed annually  

• The Insightly Outlook integration is free with any plan

Insightly CRM Review 

Visit Insightly CRM
 

7. Nimble (Top CRM system for MS Office 365)

Nimble knows what it does well and that is creating a CRM solution designed specifically to work as an add-on with Microsoft Office 365, as well as Dynamics 365, and this includes some functionality for Outlook.

Pros:

Stay inside your Outlook inbox and still have access to every single drop of data in your Nimble CRM database.

There is automation which runs across your CRM and matches it with data from social media sites to stay up to date.

Add notes, tasks, deals, events and attachments directly to emails and from there get notifications and follow-up reminders.

Cons:

As a standalone CRM, Nimble might have some critics that feel it doesn’t deliver as many tools as, say, Zoho or HubSpot.

Pricing:

• Nimble costs $19 per user per month billed annually 

Nimble CRM Review 

Visit Nimble CRM 
 

8. Method CRM (Good CRM Outlook plugin for sales automation)

Method CRM is a contact management system that puts workflows and automation at the center of their functionality. Method CRM also has a special plugin integration to work with MS Outlook. 

Pros:

Use Method CRM plugin for Outlook to save, categorize and prioritize your emails. Get full conversation histories, and organize your follow-up reminders with Method CRM.

For sales reps using the Method CRM plug-in for Outlook, you can see account balances, and transactions, and get tips for more sales opportunities.

Automation makes sure that you have 100% synchronization between Method CRM and Outlook. Any update or new data entered into one platform will get synced automatically to the other. Sales reps also get some nice sales team collaboration features.

Cons:

Method CRM is a system that runs on many great interactions, but because of this, you might find you still need to have a lot of windows open at all times aside from just Outlook.

Pricing:

• Contact management plan is $25 per user per month billed annually 

• CRM Pro plan is $44 per user per month billed annually 

• Enterprise plan is $74 per user per month billed annually 

Method CRM Review 

Visit Method CRM 
 

9. Salesflare (Good Outlook email tracker CRM tool)

As you can learn in our comprehensive Salesflare review, Salesflare is a CRM app meant for small and medium-sized businesses. It aims for ease of use. The focus of Salesflare is B2B business, or businesses selling to other businesses instead of to end users.

Pros:

Salesflare is a great tracking tool, it can do email tracking, link tracking and website tracking, and you get some of this functionality in the Outlook integration.

You get full social profiles of everyone in your CRM network, for example, you can stay up to date with their latest LinkedIn status updates or Twitter tweet activity.

The Microsoft Outlook integration for Salesflare can also be a real handy personal email and calendar management system.

Cons:

You will need a third party connector app to make this integration, for example, Zapier will do the trick.

Pricing:

• Growth plan is $29 per user per month billed annually 

• Pro plan is $49 per user per month billed annually  

• Enterprise plan is $99 per user per month billed annually 

Salesflare Review 

Visit Salesflare 
 

10. Keap (Great sales Outlook CRM)

Keap was formerly known as Infusionsoft. This is an all around good email marketing and sales automation CRM solution.

Pros:

Keap always had good syncing with Google products like Gmail, but now they offer the same email syncing with Outlook by Microsoft.

All email activity going on in Outlook will get updated in Keap and vice versa.

With every email, you can get a fully detailed contact profile.

Cons:

The Keap Outlook integration for sales is solid because it has the basics and requires very little training. But when you want to take sales to the next level via Outlook, then Keap starts to show its cracks.

Pricing:

• Keap Pro is $129 per month billed annually 

• Kerap Pro Max is $199 per month billed annually 

Keap CRM review 

Visit Keap 

What is the best CRM for Outlook for your business? Our final takeaways

Choosing the right CRM that works with Outlook for your business can be a daunting task. With the vast array of options available in the market, it can be challenging to find one that suits your specific needs. However, integrating a CRM system with Microsoft Outlook can be an excellent way to streamline your business operations and increase productivity.

After thorough research and evaluation, we have compiled a list of some of the best CRM systems that work seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook. However, it's crucial to keep in mind that every business is unique, and what works for one may not work for another.

It's essential to evaluate each CRM system carefully and consider factors such as pricing, ease of use, customization options, and integration capabilities before making a final decision. Many CRM providers offer free trials or demos to help you assess their product's suitability for your business needs.

Furthermore, when integrating a CRM system with Outlook, it's crucial to ensure that your team is adequately trained and comfortable using the new software. This will help to maximize the benefits of the CRM system and ensure that it's utilized to its full potential.

FAQs

Can you use Outlook as a CRM?

You cannot use Microsoft Outlook alone as a CRM. You can use plugins, add-ons or other integrations to link your CRM system to Outlook. Many CRMs have native Outlook integrations, but you can also use a connector app like Zapier to share data between the two platforms.

Does Microsoft Outlook have a CRM?

There is no specific CRM in Outlook. However, you can use an integration to have a CRM sidebar inside the Microsoft Outlook dashboard. This will provide detailed contact profile information, and let you create tasks, schedule meetings or set follow-ups from inside the MS Outlook interface.