Insightly vs Streak: The Honest Comparison for 2026
Only 34% of sales teams fully adopt their CRM. That stat should haunt every ops leader evaluating new tools. The "best" CRM on paper is worthless if reps won't touch it.
Insightly and Streak represent two fundamentally different bets on solving that adoption problem: one lives inside Gmail, the other stands alone as a full business platform. Streak powers 750,000+ professionals across 4,000+ companies, while Insightly claims over a million users worldwide. Both have earned real traction - but for very different teams. On G2, reviewers rate Streak 4.5/5 (260 reviews) versus Insightly's 4.2/5 (931 reviews), with Streak consistently winning on ease of use.
30-Second Verdict
Pick Streak if you're a solo operator or small team that lives in Gmail and values instant adoption over feature depth. The free plan is real, and the learning curve is almost nonexistent.
Pick Insightly if your team needs CRM plus project management plus marketing automation under one roof. It's heavier, but it does more.
Pricing Compared
Both tools bill annually for the best rate, but Streak also offers monthly billing. Insightly's CRM pricing is annual-only.
Insightly Tiers
| Plus | Professional | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual | $29/user/mo | $49/user/mo | $99/user/mo |
| Monthly | Annual only | Annual only | Annual only |
Streak Tiers
| Free | Pro | Pro+ | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual | $0 | $49/user/mo | $69/user/mo | $129/user/mo |
| Monthly | $0 | $59/user/mo | $89/user/mo | $159/user/mo |
At the Pro tier, they're identical: $49/user/month. The divergence happens at the edges. Streak gives you a genuinely useful free plan; Insightly gives you no free option at all - just a 14-day trial.
Here's the thing: Insightly's real cost can balloon fast. If you want CRM + Marketing + Service + AppConnect bundled together, the All-in-One packages run $349/mo (Plus) to $2,599/mo (Enterprise). That's a different budget conversation entirely, and one most comparison pages conveniently ignore. Streak keeps it simpler - CRM pricing is the only pricing.
Plan Limits and Storage
| Limit | Insightly Plus | Insightly Pro | Streak Free | Streak Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 10 GB | 100 GB | Google Drive | Google Drive |
| Records | 100K | 250K | Limited | Unlimited |
| Emails/day | 2,500 | 5,000 | 50 (merge) | 1,500 (merge) |
| AI | - | Copilot | - | 10-500 credits |
| Automation | No | Yes | - | Integration-based |
Insightly's Plus plan caps you at 10 GB of storage and 100K records. That sounds generous until you start attaching proposals and contracts to deals. Streak sidesteps the issue entirely - pipeline records are unlimited on paid plans, and your files live in Google Drive.
API access is available on all Streak paid plans, but webhooks - critical for real-time integrations - only unlock at Pro+ and above. Streak's mail merge limit of 1,500/day on paid plans also matters if you're running high-volume sequences.
Streak and Insightly both cap daily email sends - but neither checks if those emails are valid. Prospeo verifies addresses at 98% accuracy across 143M+ contacts, so every send in your CRM actually lands.
Stop burning email limits on addresses that bounce.
Five Things That Actually Differ
Gmail integration - Streak wins, and it isn't close. Streak doesn't "integrate" with Gmail like a typical add-on. It runs inside Gmail as a sidebar and pipeline view, so your CRM workflow never leaves your inbox. It also supports Magic Columns (auto-filled system data) and Formula Columns (JavaScript-based formulas), letting you compute and transform data without opening a single extra tab. In our testing, Streak's Gmail experience felt genuinely invisible - you forget you're using a CRM. Insightly is still a separate app you alt-tab into. One TrustRadius reviewer put it bluntly: they wanted "a dashboard rather than a tab in your email." If you want the tab, pick Streak. If you want the dashboard, pick Insightly.
Project management - Insightly wins. Insightly can convert opportunities into projects within the same workspace. That sales-to-delivery handoff is genuinely useful for services firms and agencies. Streak doesn't have anything comparable.
Automation depth - Insightly wins. Workflow automation unlocks at Insightly's Professional tier with native rules, triggers, and routing. Streak's automation is more integration-driven - think Calendly, Typeform, Google Forms, or Zapier moving deals through stages. For teams that want automation living inside the CRM itself, Insightly is the clear choice.
AI features - skip the hype on both. Insightly launched its conversational AI Copilot in late 2025. Separately, PCMag called Insightly's AI features "underwhelming" overall. Streak takes a more transparent approach with a credit system: 10 credits/month on Pro, 50 on Pro+, 500 on Enterprise. Neither tool's AI is a reason to choose it over the other. Let's be honest: if AI is your deciding factor between two mid-market CRMs, you're optimizing the wrong variable.
Enterprise controls - different strengths. Streak's Enterprise tier ($129/user/mo) includes pipeline data validation, custom roles, and support metrics where 90% of inquiries get an initial response within 2 minutes. Insightly Enterprise ($99/user/mo) counters with sandboxes, audit logging, and product/pricebook/quote management. We've seen Insightly users on SelectHub flag syncing delays with third-party integrations and a weaker mobile experience compared to desktop - worth testing before you commit at this tier.
Who Should Pick Which
Choose Streak if you're:
- A solopreneur or freelancer who wants CRM without leaving Gmail
- A small team of 2-10 that values fast adoption over feature breadth
- Happy with integration-based automation via Zapier or native connectors
Choose Insightly if you're:
- A team that needs CRM + project management + marketing in one platform
- Running workflows complex enough to need native automation rules
- Planning to scale past 10 users and need audit logging and sandboxes
Streak tends to get adopted faster because it's easier to use, set up, and administer. Insightly tends to win when you need more depth once the system is configured. For teams under five people, that adoption speed difference usually matters more than any feature checklist.
The Data Layer Both CRMs Miss
Neither Insightly nor Streak verifies the contact data you put into them. You can build the most beautiful pipeline in either tool, and it won't matter if half your emails bounce.
Prospeo sits underneath whichever CRM you pick, verifying emails at 98% accuracy across 143M+ verified addresses. Upload a CSV before importing, or verify on the fly with the Chrome extension. The free tier gives you 75 verified emails per month - enough to test the workflow before committing. With native integrations for Salesforce, HubSpot, and tools like Zapier, it plugs into whatever stack you land on.
If you're trying to keep your database clean long-term, treat verification as part of CRM hygiene, not a one-time cleanup.
Beautiful pipelines don't close deals - reaching real buyers does. Prospeo enriches your CRM contacts with 50+ data points at a 92% match rate, refreshed every 7 days. At $0.01 per email, it costs less than a single bounced opportunity.
Feed your CRM clean data and watch reply rates climb.
FAQ
Does Streak work outside Gmail?
No. Streak is built entirely inside Gmail and Google Workspace. If your team uses Outlook or another email client, it's not an option. Consider Insightly, HubSpot Sales Hub, or Pipedrive instead.
Does Insightly have a free plan?
No. Insightly starts at $29/user/month on the Plus tier, billed annually, with a 14-day free trial. Streak offers a genuinely free plan that includes mail merge at 50/day, email tracking, and snippets - no time limit.
Which CRM is better for outbound sales?
Neither is purpose-built for outbound. Both manage pipelines well, but they don't source or verify contact data. For outbound-heavy teams, pair either CRM with a verification tool like Prospeo to push clean, verified contacts into your pipeline. The free tier covers 75 emails/month so you can test the workflow risk-free.