Every CRM comparison table has a row called email sync, and the cheaper tools often have a cross in it. Maybe you BCC’d a client from a trial account and nothing showed up on the deal. Do you need your whole inbox connected, or is copying the right emails enough?
CRM email sync connects your mailbox so every email with a saved contact logs itself in both directions, while BCC logging files only the emails you copy to a private CRM address. If your team can name the emails a deal needs, BCC is enough and keeps the rest of your inbox private. Fluid CRM logs email by BCC.
Two-Way Email Sync vs BCC Logging: What Each One Records
Two-way email sync, the usual form of CRM email integration, is a live connection between your mailbox and your CRM. Emails you send and emails you receive from a saved contact appear on that contact’s record without you doing anything, and many CRMs also let you send from inside the CRM.
How two-way sync works
You sign in with Google or Microsoft from the CRM’s settings and give it permission to read your mailbox. From then on the CRM watches the inbox and copies over every thread that involves someone it knows. Replies log by themselves, which is the whole point.
Many sync plans add open and click tracking, so you see when a buyer read the proposal. That tracking comes from the CRM sending the email or adding a tracking pixel, which a plain BCC copy never does.
How BCC logging works
BCC email logging gives you a private address that belongs to your account. When you write an email worth keeping, you put that address in the BCC line and send as normal. The CRM receives a copy, finds the other person among your saved contacts and files the email on their record.
The buyer never sees the address, and nothing logs unless you choose it. Their reply doesn’t log either, so if it matters, BCC the address on your answer.
| Two-way email sync | BCC logging | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup effort | Sign in with Google or Microsoft, pick settings | Copy one address, verify the address you send from |
| What it covers | Every email with a saved contact, sent and received | Only the emails you BCC |
| Replies log without you | Yes | No, only emails you send with the address in BCC |
| Open and click tracking | On many plans | No |
| What the CRM can read | Your mailbox, through the permission you grant | Only the copies you send it |
A CRM is worth having when the people using it open it every day, and that has little to do with how many emails sit inside it. Logging is one of several ways to cut typing, and my guide to CRM data entry covers the rest. If you want a simple CRM that a small team keeps current, the logging method matters less than you would think from the comparison tables.
What a CRM Can Read When You Connect Your Inbox
Connecting an inbox is a permission decision as much as a feature decision. Google classes the Gmail permission that lets an app read your messages as a restricted scope, its label for access that gives an app wide reach into your data. The read-only version is described as being able to view your email messages and settings.
That permission covers the mailbox, not a list of clients you picked. Your inbox also holds supplier threads, hiring conversations, your accountant and the occasional personal note. A sync CRM shows the emails that match saved contacts, but the access you granted is wider than what you see on screen.
For an agency or consultancy with client confidentiality terms, that is a real question to answer before you click connect. Ask the vendor what it stores, who on your team can see synced emails and how you remove the connection later.
BCC logging works the other way round. Nothing reaches the CRM unless you send it there, so the decision is made one email at a time. In Fluid CRM each copied email is saved on the contact’s most recent open deal.
Fluid CRM’s settings tell you to treat the private address like a password, so keep it out of shared documents and signatures.
Why a BCC Email Doesn’t Show Up in the CRM
When a BCC email doesn’t show up, check these five things. Each one has a quick fix, and none of them needs support.
The person is not a contact yet
BCC files an email against someone already in your CRM, and an email to a brand-new address has nowhere to go. Add the contact first, then send.
You sent from an address the CRM doesn’t know
Fluid CRM only accepts BCC copies from sending addresses you have verified. If you write from a second inbox or an alias, verify that address too.
You forwarded an old email
A forward goes from you to the CRM address, so there is no contact on it to match. BCC works on the email you send, at the moment you send it.
The contact has no open deal
In Fluid CRM, an email to someone with no open deal lands in the contact’s notes instead of a deal’s activity. Open the contact to find it.
The contact’s saved email is different
A typo, an old domain or a personal address on file means the CRM can’t match it. Fix the address on the contact record.
The first one is the easiest to miss, especially for people who switched from a CRM that worked differently. If your contacts are scattered across a phone, an inbox and a spreadsheet, getting them into one list comes first, and my guide to contact management software covers that step.
BCC or Sync: A Decision Table for Small Teams
Before you pick, think about your last won deal. How many of the emails in that thread actually changed the outcome?
In most deals, a handful of emails decide it. The first reply, the proposal, the price, the yes and the handover to delivery. Everything else is scheduling.
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Solo founder with 10 to 40 open deals | BCC | You know which emails matter, and you are the only one reading them |
| 2 to 5 people who cover each other’s deals | BCC, with a team rule on what gets logged | A colleague needs the proposal and the price, not every thank-you |
| Deals start and live in email, hundreds of threads a week | Two-way sync | Choosing email by email would take longer than the selling |
| Cold email from many sending inboxes | Connect the sending tool to the CRM | Replies belong in the CRM when someone shows interest, not every send |
| Inbox holds legal, health or confidential client mail | BCC | Only the emails you choose leave your mailbox |
| You need to know when a proposal is opened | Two-way sync with tracking | BCC copies carry no tracking |
The cold email row has its own method, and my post on sending cold email from a CRM explains where outreach should live.
Across the 1,250+ sales calls we booked at Fenixtal, my old B2B outbound agency, deals almost never stalled for lack of an email log. They stalled in the days after a reply, when nobody set the next step.
How to Set Up BCC Logging in Fluid CRM
In Fluid CRM the setting is called Email sync, and it works by BCC. Setup is five steps, and each person on the team does it once for their own account.
1. Copy your private address
Open Settings and go to Email sync. Your private Fluid CRM address is shown masked, with a button to copy it. Save it as a contact in your email app so it autocompletes in the BCC line.
2. Verify every address you send from
Type the address you send email from, click Send verification and follow the steps on that screen. Fluid CRM only saves emails from an address you have verified.
Repeat this for each address you write from.
3. Add the contact before you email them
Make sure the person has a contact record with the address you are writing to.
4. BCC the emails that matter
Agree on a short list with your team. Proposals, prices, any yes or no and anything a colleague would need if you were away all get the BCC.
Always put the address in BCC, never in To or Cc, so the buyer never sees it.
5. Check the deal’s activity
Open the deal and look at the activity list. The email sits there with its subject and a preview of the text, filed against the contact’s most recent open deal.
Andy, a freelance web designer and a verified customer, described who Fluid CRM is for in his review.
“Those of us working on our own or with a small team. Those of us with a handful of clients at a time.”
At that size you can remember which emails matter, and a BCC line takes a second in the email app you already have open.
CRMs With Two-Way Email Sync, If You Need It
Some teams really do live in their inbox, and for them sync is worth paying for. Fluid CRM has no two-way inbox sync and no open tracking, so if either one decides it for you, pick a CRM from this list instead.
| CRM | Plan with two-way sync | Price per seat per month |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Every plan, including the free CRM for up to 2 users | Free, Starter $20 monthly |
| Pipedrive | Growth and up | $39 billed annually |
| Attio | Every plan, including Free | Free, Plus $35 billed annually or $44 monthly |
| Close | Every plan | Solo $9 billed annually or $19 monthly |
| Salesflare | Every plan | Growth $29 billed annually or $39 monthly |
HubSpot
HubSpot lets you connect a personal Gmail or Outlook inbox on every plan, and the free CRM covers up to 2 users. Pick it if you want logging from day one at no cost and expect to stay small.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive’s full email sync with tracking starts on Growth at $39 per seat per month billed annually. Lite does not include it. Pick it if your pipeline is busy and you want sync and automations on the same plan.
Attio
Attio includes email and calendar sync on every plan, with one connected account per user up to Plus. Pick it if you want sync plus a flexible data model and don’t mind setting it up yourself.
Close
Close has two-way email sync on every plan, with up to 3 connected email accounts on Solo and Essentials. Pick it if you sell by phone and email all day and want calling in the same tool.
Salesflare
Salesflare logs emails and meetings automatically on every plan. Pick it if you want the CRM to fill itself in from your inbox and calendar with almost no typing.
If your whole sales process runs inside Gmail, my comparison of Streak CRM alternatives looks at the tools built around that.
How to Choose Between BCC Logging and Email Sync
Sync suits a team whose deals happen in a busy inbox, and BCC suits a team that can name the few emails a deal needs. Most small teams are in the second group, and they keep their inbox private as a result.
If that is you, Fluid CRM gives you a simple CRM with BCC logging, reminders and a pipeline the whole team can read, all on one plan at $16 per seat per month.
Start your 7-day free trial here, no credit card required.
FAQ
CRM email sync is a connection between your mailbox and your CRM. Emails you send to saved contacts are copied to their records automatically, and two-way sync logs their replies too, without you doing anything.
No. BCC logging only records the emails you copy to your private CRM address, while sync records every email with a saved contact once your inbox is connected. BCC takes a few seconds per email and keeps everything else in your inbox.
No. Fluid CRM logs email by BCC. You copy your private address into the BCC line and the email is filed on the contact’s most recent open deal, or in the contact’s notes if they have no open deal.
Not in Fluid CRM. The email is matched to someone already saved, so add the contact first. After that, every email you BCC to them is filed automatically.