Best CRM with Email Tracking

You want to know when prospects open your emails. You want to follow up at the right time. And you want all of this inside your CRM, not scattered across three different tools.

Email tracking in a CRM isn't just about checking if someone opened your message. It's about seeing who's engaged, when they clicked, and which deals are actually moving forward. Without it, you're guessing. With it, you're working with real data.

Here's what actually matters when you're shopping for a CRM with email tracking, plus real pricing and what you get at each tier.

What Email Tracking Actually Does

Email tracking tells you when someone opens your email, clicks a link, or downloads an attachment. Most CRMs use a tracking pixel-a tiny invisible image that loads when the email opens. Some also track link clicks and how many times someone viewed your message.

The good ones give you real-time notifications so you can follow up while the prospect is still thinking about your email. The best ones automatically log everything to the contact record so your whole team can see the engagement history.

But email tracking isn't perfect. The tracking pixel only works when recipients allow images to load in their email client. If someone reads your email with images disabled, the open won't register. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, introduced in iOS 15, also affects tracking accuracy by preloading images regardless of whether the recipient actually opens the email.

Click tracking tends to be more reliable than open tracking because it doesn't depend on image loading. When someone clicks a link in your email, that action is harder to mask or block, giving you a clearer signal of genuine interest.

Key Features to Look For in Email Tracking

Not all email tracking systems are created equal. Here's what separates basic tracking from tools that actually help you close deals:

Real-time notifications: The best systems alert you the moment someone opens your email or clicks a link. This lets you follow up while your message is fresh in their mind, dramatically increasing response rates.

Automatic logging: Every tracked interaction should automatically sync to the contact record in your CRM. Manual logging is a waste of time and leads to incomplete data.

Link click tracking: Knowing someone opened your email is useful. Knowing they clicked your pricing page or demo request link tells you they're serious.

Multiple opens detection: If a prospect opens your email five times, that's a strong buying signal. Your CRM should track this.

Device and location data: Understanding which devices prospects use and where they're located can inform your follow-up strategy.

Attachment tracking: Did they download your proposal? View your case study? This data matters.

Email templates with tracking: Reusable templates that automatically include tracking save time and ensure consistency.

Team-wide visibility: Everyone on your team should be able to see email engagement history, not just the person who sent the message.

Close CRM: Built for Sales Teams

Close is a sales-focused CRM with email tracking baked in from day one. Every email you send from Close is automatically tracked and logged to the right contact record. You get notifications when leads open emails and click links, so you can time your follow-ups perfectly.

What makes Close different is that email, calling, and SMS are all built into the platform. You're not bolting on integrations or paying for add-ons. Email tracking works out of the box, with two-way sync to Gmail and Outlook included.

Close Pricing:

Email tracking is available starting at the Essentials plan. The Solo plan is too limited for most teams-you'll hit the ceiling fast. Most small sales teams land on Essentials or Growth depending on whether they need automation.

The tracking itself is solid: you see who opened, when, and how many times. Click tracking works. Notifications are instant. Everything syncs to the contact timeline automatically, which is exactly what you want.

What Close does well: The all-in-one approach means you're not juggling multiple tools. Email tracking integrates seamlessly with calling features, so you can see the complete communication history. The mobile app includes full tracking capabilities, which matters when you're working on the go.

Limitations: Close is designed for B2B sales teams. If you need heavy marketing automation or complex lead scoring, you'll need to integrate with other tools. The reporting is solid but not as deep as enterprise platforms like Salesforce.

Try Close free for 14 days | Read our Close CRM review

HubSpot: Free Email Tracking (With Limits)

HubSpot offers free email tracking in their Sales Hub. No cost, unlimited tracking, desktop notifications when someone opens your email. It works with Gmail and Outlook and automatically logs everything to the CRM.

The free tier is legitimately useful. You get email tracking, templates, meeting scheduling, and basic CRM tools without paying a dime. The catch: you hit limits fast if you want automation, sequences, or better reporting.

HubSpot Sales Hub Pricing:

Email tracking on the free plan is great for solo users or small teams just getting started. But HubSpot gets expensive fast when you add features. The real power is in the Professional tier, where sequences and automation live-that's where most growing teams end up.

One thing HubSpot does well: the tracking data integrates with their marketing tools if you're running campaigns. If you're doing inbound marketing and sales together, that's valuable. If you're just doing cold outreach, it's overkill.

What sets HubSpot apart: The free tier is unmatched. You can run a small sales team on $0/month and get genuine value. The ecosystem is massive-thousands of integrations, extensive documentation, and a huge community. When you're ready to scale, everything connects.

Drawbacks: Pricing jumps are steep. Moving from Starter to Professional means jumping from $15 to $90 per user. The platform can feel overwhelming with so many features you might never use. Email sequences require Professional tier, which is a significant investment for basic drip campaigns.

Salesforce: Enterprise Email Tracking

Salesforce is the 800-pound gorilla of CRM platforms. Email tracking in Salesforce works through Enhanced Email and Activity Timeline features, logging engagement directly on contact and lead records. You can see not only if an email was opened, but when, helping reps prioritize follow-ups.

Native Salesforce email tracking is functional but limited. Most serious users add integrations like Cirrus Insight, Salesforce Inbox, or Einstein Activity Capture to get complete visibility including real-time notifications, reply tracking, and attachment analytics.

Salesforce Sales Cloud Pricing:

Email tracking starts to get useful at the Professional tier. Enhanced Email needs to be enabled by an administrator, and emails must be sent directly from Salesforce or through integrated tools to track properly. Native tracking doesn't provide real-time alerts-you need third-party tools for that.

Salesforce tracking approaches: Sales Cloud focuses on individual rep outreach with per-recipient open and click tracking. Marketing Cloud handles campaign-level metrics like open rates, click-throughs, unsubscribes, and deliverability at scale. Most businesses running both get the complete picture of email performance.

Why choose Salesforce: If you're an enterprise with complex sales processes, custom objects, and multiple teams, Salesforce offers unmatched customization. The AppExchange has thousands of integrations. You can track literally everything.

Why skip Salesforce: It's expensive and complex. Small teams get overwhelmed. Setup requires technical expertise or hiring a Salesforce admin. The learning curve is steep, and native email tracking is bare-bones without add-ons that cost extra.

Pipedrive: Email Tracking in the Advanced Plan

Pipedrive is a pipeline-focused CRM that's popular with sales teams who want simplicity. Email tracking is available, but only from the Advanced plan up-not in the cheaper Essential tier.

The tracking feature shows who opened your email and clicked links. It syncs with Gmail and Outlook, and everything logs to your deals automatically. The interface is clean and the pipeline view makes it easy to see which deals are moving.

Pipedrive Pricing:

You're paying for the Advanced plan minimum if you want email tracking. That's reasonable for the feature set, but it means Pipedrive isn't the cheapest option if tracking is all you need.

Pipedrive is best for teams that care about pipeline visualization and want a CRM that doesn't feel bloated. The tracking works, but it's not the main selling point-the pipeline management is.

Pipedrive strengths: The visual pipeline is intuitive. Drag-and-drop deal stages feel natural. Email tracking integrates nicely with the deal flow, so you see engagement in context of where each deal stands. Group emailing lets you send to up to 100 contacts at once while maintaining tracking.

Pipedrive weaknesses: No tracking on the cheapest plan forces you to spend more. The feature set is focused-great if that's what you need, limiting if you want marketing automation or advanced analytics. Mobile app is solid but not as feature-rich as desktop.

Streak: Email Tracking Inside Gmail

Streak is different-it's a CRM that lives inside Gmail. Everything happens in your inbox. Email tracking, pipelines, contact management, all without leaving Gmail.

The email tracking feature is included even on the free plan. You see when emails are opened, how many times, and you get notifications. It's simple, it works, and it doesn't add extra steps to your workflow because you're already in Gmail.

Streak Pricing:

Streak makes sense if you live in Gmail and don't want to switch tabs. The tracking is solid, the pipeline view is useful, and the price is lower than most standalone CRMs. The downside: if your team uses Outlook or needs a full-featured CRM, Streak won't cut it.

Why Streak works: Zero learning curve if you already use Gmail. The sidebar shows CRM data without leaving your inbox. Pipeline stages appear as Gmail labels. Mail merge with tracking lets you send personalized bulk emails. Snippets save common responses. Everything feels native to Gmail.

Streak limitations: Gmail-only means Outlook users are out of luck. The mobile app is extremely limited-no email tracking notifications on mobile. Click tracking is only available on paid plans. Features beyond email and basic pipeline management are sparse compared to full CRMs.

Zoho CRM: Affordable Email Tracking

Zoho CRM includes email tracking with insights into opens, clicks, and engagement patterns. The platform records contact data, automates workflows, and tracks revenue alongside email metrics.

Zoho CRM Pricing:

Zoho's email tracking works across plans but gets more sophisticated as you move up tiers. The Standard plan includes solid tracking features for most small businesses. Email sync with Gmail and Outlook is straightforward.

Zoho advantages: The pricing is aggressive compared to competitors. You get a lot of features at lower price points. The ecosystem includes Zoho Mail, Campaigns, Desk, and dozens of other apps that integrate seamlessly. Good for businesses that want to stay in one vendor's ecosystem.

Zoho drawbacks: The interface feels dated compared to newer CRMs. Some users report the learning curve is steeper than expected. Customer support quality varies. Advanced features require higher-tier plans or separate Zoho products.

Freshsales: AI-Powered Email Tracking

Freshsales builds email tracking into their CRM with AI-driven insights like predictive contact scoring. The system tracks opens, clicks, and bounces, labeling engagement automatically to help prioritize leads.

Freshsales Suite Pricing:

Email tracking is available on all plans including free. You enable it in settings, and Freshsales automatically tracks emails sent from the CRM or synced from Gmail/Outlook. The tracking shows as tags: Opened, Clicked, or Bounced. Hover over tags to see timestamps and recipient details.

Freshsales highlights: AI-powered features help identify which leads to prioritize based on email engagement and other signals. The interface is modern and intuitive. Phone integration is built-in. The Growth plan offers good value with AI scoring at a low price point.

Freshsales trade-offs: Email tracking doesn't work without proper CNAME records configured-a technical setup step some users find confusing. Marketing contacts are limited per plan, which can get expensive as your list grows. Mobile app is functional but not as polished as some competitors.

ActiveCampaign: Marketing Automation with CRM Email Tracking

ActiveCampaign is primarily a marketing automation platform, but their CRM functionality includes robust email tracking. The platform tracks opens, clicks, and replies for both marketing campaigns and one-to-one sales emails.

ActiveCampaign Pricing:

Email tracking for one-to-one emails requires the Plus plan or higher and the Chrome extension. The extension shows tracked emails with the ActiveCampaign logo in Gmail, displaying how many times each email was opened. Campaign tracking is available on all plans.

ActiveCampaign strengths: Marketing automation is best-in-class. You can automate virtually anything based on email engagement: tag contacts, update deals, trigger follow-ups, score leads. Time windows let you segment contacts based on email activity like "hasn't opened anything in 90 days." Reply tracking captures responses for analysis.

ActiveCampaign limitations: The platform is complex-powerful but overwhelming for beginners. CRM features are solid but not as comprehensive as dedicated CRMs like Salesforce or Pipedrive. Apple Mail Privacy Protection affects open tracking accuracy. The pricing based on contact count gets expensive as your list grows.

Agile CRM: Free Email Tracking for 10 Users

Agile CRM offers email tracking for free, for up to 10 users. You get notifications when contacts open your email or click links, plus automated reminders to follow up on unopened emails.

The free tier is genuinely free-no credit card required. Email tracking works right away, and you can set reminders based on tracking results. For a small team on a budget, it's worth testing.

Agile CRM Pricing:

The catch: Agile CRM's interface feels dated compared to newer tools like Close or HubSpot. It works, but the user experience isn't as polished. Still, free is free, and the tracking does what it's supposed to do.

Agile CRM benefits: Truly free for small teams. Email tracking on the free plan is generous. The platform combines sales, marketing, and service tools in one place. Automated reminders for unopened emails help prevent follow-ups from slipping through the cracks.

Agile CRM downsides: The UI looks and feels old. Navigation isn't intuitive. Some features that should be simple require more clicks than necessary. Documentation could be better. Not ideal if you want a modern, sleek experience.

Reply.io: Built for Cold Email at Scale

Reply.io is a sales engagement platform, not a traditional CRM, but it has strong email tracking built in. It's designed for cold outreach at scale-multichannel sequences, email warmup, deliverability tools.

Reply.io Pricing:

Reply.io is best for outbound teams running high-volume cold email campaigns. The tracking is solid, the deliverability suite helps you stay out of spam, and the multichannel automation is powerful. But it's overkill if you just need basic email tracking in a CRM.

What Reply.io excels at: Email warmup automatically builds sender reputation before you send cold campaigns. Deliverability monitoring catches issues before they hurt your domain. Multichannel sequences combine email, LinkedIn, calls, and WhatsApp. AI-powered reply detection categorizes responses. Unlimited email sending at the top tier.

Why Reply.io might not fit: It's not a full CRM-you'll likely need to integrate with another platform for deal management and full customer lifecycle tracking. The focus is cold outreach, not relationship management. Learning curve exists for setting up complex sequences properly.

Try Reply.io free for 14 days

Monday Sales CRM: Visual Email Tracking

Monday.com's sales CRM includes email tracking with a visual, customizable interface. The platform integrates with Gmail and Outlook, tracking opens and clicks while letting you manage emails from specific deal items automatically.

Monday Sales CRM Pricing:

Email tracking notifies you when prospects open emails, enabling timely follow-ups. Automations can change lead status from cold to hot based on email engagement. The visual boards show email activity in context with other deal activities.

Monday strengths: The visual interface makes it easy to see deal progress at a glance. Highly customizable-build your CRM workflow exactly how you want it. Good for teams that already use Monday.com for project management. Integration options are extensive.

Monday limitations: Email send limits on lower plans restrict high-volume outreach. The platform is more project management tool than pure CRM. Email tracking features aren't as sophisticated as dedicated sales CRMs. Pricing adds up quickly with multiple users.

Try Monday.com free

How Email Tracking Actually Works: The Technical Side

Understanding how email tracking works helps you use it effectively and troubleshoot when things go wrong.

Tracking pixels for opens: When you send a tracked email, the CRM embeds a tiny, invisible 1x1 pixel image with a unique identifier. When the recipient opens the email and their email client loads images, it requests that pixel from the CRM's server. The server logs this request as an "open" and records the timestamp, IP address, and device information.

Link tracking for clicks: Tracked links get replaced with redirect URLs that route through the CRM's server before sending users to the actual destination. When someone clicks, the server logs the click, then instantly redirects them to the intended URL. This happens so fast that users don't notice any delay.

Why tracking sometimes fails: Email clients that block images prevent open tracking. Plain text emails can't use tracking pixels. Some privacy tools strip tracking pixels and links. Corporate email filters might remove tracking elements. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection pre-loads images on proxy servers, triggering false opens.

Privacy considerations: Email tracking walks a line between useful business intelligence and privacy concerns. Always comply with GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other regulations. Provide opt-out options. Some CRMs let you disable tracking for specific contacts who request it. Be transparent about your tracking practices in your privacy policy.

Best Practices for Using Email Tracking

Having email tracking is one thing. Using it effectively is another. Here's how to get actual value from tracking data:

Set up instant notifications: Configure desktop and mobile alerts for email opens and clicks. Speed matters-following up within minutes of an open dramatically increases response rates compared to waiting hours or days.

Focus on click tracking over opens: Open rates are increasingly unreliable due to privacy features. Link clicks represent genuine interest and provide clearer signals for prioritizing follow-ups.

Track multiple opens as buying signals: If someone opens your proposal email five times, they're seriously considering it. Prioritize these high-engagement leads for immediate follow-up calls.

Use tracking to refine your messaging: Low open rates indicate subject line problems. High opens but no clicks mean your email content isn't compelling. High clicks but no responses suggest your offer or call-to-action needs work.

Combine email tracking with other signals: Email data is one piece of the puzzle. Combine it with website visits, content downloads, demo requests, and other engagement signals for a complete picture of buyer intent.

Don't be creepy: Just because you know someone opened your email six times doesn't mean you should mention it. Use the data to time your follow-up appropriately, not to weird people out.

Clean your email list based on engagement: Contacts who haven't opened emails in 90+ days hurt your deliverability. Segment non-engagers and either try re-engagement campaigns or remove them from your list.

Test everything: A/B test subject lines, send times, email length, and call-to-action placement. Use tracking data to identify what actually works for your audience, not what marketing blogs say should work.

Email Tracking Metrics That Actually Matter

CRMs track dozens of email metrics. Here's what you should actually pay attention to:

Open rate: Percentage of recipients who opened your email. Useful for subject line effectiveness, but less reliable than before due to Apple MPP and other privacy features. Industry average hovers around 20-25% for B2B sales emails, but varies widely by industry and list quality.

Click-through rate (CTR): Percentage of recipients who clicked links in your email. More reliable than opens and indicates genuine interest. A 2-5% CTR is typical for sales emails. Higher CTRs suggest compelling offers or strong targeting.

Click-to-open rate (CTOR): Percentage of people who opened your email and then clicked a link. Measures email content quality independent of subject line effectiveness. A 20-30% CTOR indicates your email content resonates with people who open it.

Response rate: Percentage of recipients who replied. The ultimate measure of email effectiveness. B2B cold emails typically see 1-5% response rates. Warm outreach to existing contacts should see much higher rates.

Bounce rate: Percentage of emails that couldn't be delivered. Hard bounces (invalid addresses) should be removed immediately. Soft bounces (temporary issues) warrant a few retry attempts. Keep total bounce rate under 2% to maintain good sender reputation.

Time to open: How quickly recipients open your email after you send it. Helps identify optimal send times for your audience. If most opens happen 8-10am, schedule emails for 7:30am.

Device type: Desktop vs. mobile opens. Matters because mobile users need shorter emails and bigger buttons. If 70% of your audience opens on mobile, design for mobile first.

Engagement over time: Track whether individual contacts are becoming more or less engaged with your emails. Declining engagement signals you need to change your approach or reduce send frequency.

Common Email Tracking Problems and Solutions

Problem: Opens aren't being tracked

Solution: Verify that tracking is enabled in your CRM settings. Check that you're sending HTML emails, not plain text. Confirm recipients aren't blocking images. For persistent issues, check your email authentication (SPF, DKIM) is properly configured.

Problem: Getting false positives on opens

Solution: Apple Mail Privacy Protection and some corporate email scanners trigger false opens. Look for patterns-if every email shows an open within seconds of sending, it's likely automated scanning. Focus more on click tracking and replies for these contacts.

Problem: Tracking links look suspicious to recipients

Solution: Use a custom tracking domain that matches your company domain instead of generic CRM tracking URLs. Configure CNAME records in your DNS settings to make tracking links appear more professional.

Problem: Emails with tracking end up in spam

Solution: Tracking itself rarely causes spam issues, but it can contribute. Ensure proper email authentication. Don't use URL shorteners. Keep image-to-text ratio reasonable. Warm up new sending domains gradually. Monitor sender reputation.

Problem: Tracking notifications are overwhelming

Solution: Configure notification rules to only alert on high-value actions-like multiple opens or clicks on specific links. Turn off notifications for cold leads and focus on warm opportunities. Use digest notifications instead of real-time for less critical tracking.

Integrating Email Tracking with Your Sales Process

Email tracking delivers maximum value when it's embedded in your sales process, not just bolted on.

Lead scoring: Automatically increase lead scores based on email engagement. Multiple opens might add 5 points. Link clicks add 10. Clicking a pricing page adds 20. Use these scores to prioritize outreach.

Follow-up triggers: Set up automations that trigger specific follow-ups based on tracking data. If someone opens your proposal email three times but doesn't respond, trigger a task for a sales rep to call them.

Sales sequences: Build email sequences that adapt based on engagement. If someone clicks your demo link, automatically send them a calendar booking link. If they don't open the first email, send a different subject line in the follow-up.

Deal stage progression: Use email engagement as one factor in determining when deals should move to the next stage. High email engagement indicates a deal is warming up. Zero engagement suggests a deal might be stalling.

Territory assignment: In larger sales organizations, use engagement data to help assign leads to reps. Hot leads (high email engagement) go to senior closers. Cold leads go to SDRs for nurturing.

Win/loss analysis: Compare email engagement patterns between won and lost deals. You might discover that deals with specific engagement patterns (like viewing proposals multiple times) close at higher rates.

Email Tracking for Different Use Cases

Cold outreach: Focus on open rates and initial clicks to identify interested prospects quickly. Use tracking to time follow-ups-if someone opened your cold email, follow up within hours, not days. Multiple follow-ups to non-openers are usually wasted effort.

Proposal follow-up: Track opens obsessively. If a prospect opens your proposal email five times, they're reviewing it with their team. That's your signal to reach out proactively. If they haven't opened it in 48 hours, call to ensure they received it.

Contract negotiation: Email tracking during contract discussions reveals buying urgency. Rapid opens and frequent clicks suggest urgency and interest. Long delays between opens might indicate the deal is losing momentum or stuck in internal approvals.

Customer onboarding: Track whether new customers open and engage with onboarding emails. Low engagement predicts churn risk. Proactively reach out to customers who aren't engaging with onboarding materials.

Re-engagement campaigns: For dormant leads or customers, tracking shows who's still interested. Contacts who open your "haven't heard from you" email are worth pursuing. Those who don't open multiple attempts should be removed from active outreach.

Account-based sales: When multiple people from the same company engage with your emails, it signals organizational interest. Track engagement across all contacts at target accounts to identify buying committees and champions.

Email Deliverability and Tracking

Email tracking can impact deliverability if not implemented correctly. Here's what you need to know:

Authentication is essential: Properly configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. This authenticates your emails and signals to inbox providers that tracking elements are legitimate, not phishing attempts.

Custom tracking domains: Use custom tracking domains (track.yourcompany.com) instead of shared CRM tracking domains. This protects your sender reputation and looks more professional.

Image-to-text ratio: Tracking pixels add images to your emails. Balance this by ensuring your emails contain substantial text content. An email that's mostly images raises spam flags.

Engagement matters more than ever: Inbox providers increasingly use engagement signals (opens, clicks, replies) to determine whether future emails reach the inbox or spam. Email tracking helps you identify and remove non-engaged contacts, protecting your deliverability.

List hygiene: Use bounce tracking to immediately remove invalid addresses. Use engagement tracking to identify and suppress chronically non-engaged contacts. Clean lists maintain good sender reputation.

Warm-up new domains: If you're starting fresh with a new sending domain, gradually increase volume over several weeks. Track engagement carefully during warm-up to ensure your reputation builds positively.

Which CRM with Email Tracking Should You Pick?

Here's the short version:

Making Your Decision

Email tracking isn't a magic bullet. It won't fix a bad sales process or terrible email copy. But when you know who's engaged and when, you can follow up at the right time instead of guessing. That's the difference between closing deals and watching them go cold.

Most small teams start with HubSpot's free plan or Streak if they're in Gmail. Once you outgrow that, Close makes sense if you want a sales-focused CRM with everything built-in. Pipedrive works if you care more about pipeline management than all-in-one features.

For teams doing high-volume cold outreach, Reply.io delivers the deliverability and automation features you need, though you'll likely pair it with a traditional CRM. Enterprises with complex needs and technical resources should evaluate Salesforce, but be prepared for the investment in both money and time.

Mid-market companies wanting strong automation should look hard at ActiveCampaign, especially if marketing and sales work closely together. Zoho provides good value for businesses that want a full suite of business tools from one vendor.

Questions to ask when choosing:

Pick the one that fits your workflow and budget. Try the free trials. See which one your team actually uses. The best CRM is the one that doesn't sit empty after three weeks.

For more CRM comparisons, check out our guides on best CRM software and CRM software comparison.