Pipedrive vs Streak: Which CRM Fits a Small Service Business?

If you run a small service business, your “CRM” is probably a mix of a notebook, a spreadsheet, your text messages, and your inbox. That works until it doesn’t. A lead from last Tuesday goes cold, a quote never gets a follow-up, or you forget which neighbor asked you to come back after the holidays.

Two CRMs come up a lot for small teams: Pipedrive, built around a visual sales pipeline, and Streak, which runs inside Gmail. Both are good. They solve the problem from different directions. Here is how they compare for local service work like canvassing, liquidation, notary, and design jobs.

The short answer

• Choose Streak if you live in Gmail, most of your deals start and finish over email, and you want your CRM in the same window as your inbox.
• Choose Pipedrive if your leads come from many places (doors, phone calls, referrals, web forms), you want a drag-and-drop view of every job by stage, and you want scheduled activities to keep you on track.

Pipedrive vs Streak at a glance

Prices as of Oct 2026, in US dollars, per user/seat per month, excluding taxes. Always confirm on each vendor’s pricing page before you buy.

	Pipedrive	Streak
Where it lives	Its own web app, plus mobile app	Inside Gmail, plus iOS/Android apps
Core idea	Visual, drag-and-drop sales pipeline	Pipelines built on your Gmail threads
Paid plans	Lite, Growth, Premium, Ultimate	Pro, Pro+, Enterprise
Entry price (billed annually)	Lite: $14	Pro: $49
Other annual prices	Growth $39 · Premium $59 · Ultimate $79	Pro+ $69 · Enterprise $129
Monthly billing	Available, costs more (Pipedrive says annual saves up to 42%)	Pro $59 · Pro+ $89 · Enterprise $159
Free option	14-day free trial, no credit card required	Free email tools (tracking, snippets, 50 mail-merge sends/day) without CRM pipelines; 14-day free trial of Pro+
Email sync and tracking	Full email sync with open/click tracking from Growth	Built in, since it runs in Gmail; email tracking even on the free tools
Automations	Workflow automations and email sequences from Growth	Automations and integrations from Pro+
Integrations	500+ apps, including Zapier	Google Workspace, Zapier, Calendly, Typeform, Slack, and more
Lead capture	LeadBooster (web forms, chatbot, live chat, prospecting) included in Premium, or an add-on from $32.50	Create leads from Gmail, LinkedIn, Google Forms and other integrations
Best fit	Stage-by-stage sales with lots of calls, visits and follow-ups	Teams that run their business from a Gmail inbox

Streak: best if your business runs on Gmail

Streak’s big advantage is that you never leave your inbox. Once it is installed, Gmail gets a pipeline view. Each email thread can become a “box” in a pipeline, and the whole conversation history stays attached to the deal. Streak’s pricing page describes it as “a full CRM in Gmail,” and it is a natural fit if every client conversation already happens over email.

Where Streak stands out:

• No new app to learn. If you already know Gmail, you are most of the way there.
• Useful free tools. Email and link tracking, snippets, and limited mail merge are free, though the free tier does not include CRM pipelines.
• Unlimited records and pipelines on every paid plan, according to Streak.
• Google Workspace integration with Calendar, Drive, Sheets, and Chat.

The trade-offs: Streak’s paid plans start higher ($49 per user per month billed annually on Pro), automations and most integrations require Pro+, and it is built around Gmail. If your team uses Outlook, or most of your leads come from door knocks and phone calls instead of email, you get less out of what makes it special.

Pipedrive: best if you want to see every deal by stage

Pipedrive starts from the pipeline instead of the inbox. You name your stages, and every deal appears as a card you drag from one column to the next. Each deal carries its scheduled “activities”: calls, visits, meetings, follow-ups. Open the app and you see what is due today and which deals have nothing scheduled.

For a service business, a pipeline might look like this:

New lead → Contacted → Site visit / consult → Quote sent → Booked → Completed & paid

Where Pipedrive stands out:

• Lower entry price. Lite is $14 per seat per month billed annually (prices as of Oct 2026), and it includes lead, calendar, and pipeline management.
• Works whatever your inbox. Full email sync on Growth and up supports Gmail, Outlook, or other company email.
• Multiple custom pipelines with custom fields, so different service lines can each have their own stages.
• Automations and follow-up sequences from Growth, plus a meeting scheduler.
• 500+ integrations and a mobile app for updating deals in the field.

The trade-offs: it is one more app to open next to your inbox, the cheapest plan does not include full email sync (that starts on Growth at $39 billed annually), and lead-capture tools like web forms and chatbots come with Premium or as a paid add-on. There is no free-forever plan, only the 14-day trial.

A veteran small-business owner’s take

The Marine Corps teaches you that the plan is only as good as the follow-through. Everyone gets a task, a deadline, and someone checking on it. Running a small business is the same. Most of the jobs we have lost were not lost to a competitor. They were lost to silence: a quote with no follow-up, a callback that never happened.

A lot of service work does not start in an inbox. A canvassing shift can produce a dozen “come back Thursday” conversations. A liquidation job starts with a phone call. A notary appointment might come from a text. That kind of work calls for a CRM that treats every lead the same no matter where it came from, and that pushes you to schedule the next action before moving on. That is why we think Pipedrive’s pipeline-plus-activities approach is worth trying for field-heavy service businesses.

If your business is quotes, proposals, and long email threads with clients, Streak may fit you better, and there is no shame in picking the tool that matches how you already work. The best CRM is the one you will actually open every day.

How to decide in one afternoon

1. Count where last month’s leads came from. Mostly email? Lean Streak. Mixed (door, phone, referrals, web)? Lean Pipedrive.
2. Write down your stages. If you can name five or six clear steps from lead to paid, a visual pipeline will pay off right away.
3. Price it for your real team size. Both are priced per user or seat, so multiply by the number of people who need access.
4. Run both trials on real leads. Both offer 14-day trials. Load ten real leads into each and see which one you open without being reminded.

FAQ

Is Pipedrive or Streak cheaper?

For the cheapest paid plan, Pipedrive costs less: Lite is $14 per seat per month billed annually, while Streak Pro is $49 per user per month billed annually ($59 billed monthly). Streak does have free Gmail tools, but they do not include CRM pipelines. Prices as of Oct 2026.

Do I need Gmail to use Streak?

Streak is built for Gmail. You install it and use it from inside Gmail (it also has mobile apps). If your business email runs on Outlook, a standalone CRM like Pipedrive, which syncs with Gmail, Outlook, and other providers on Growth and up, is the more natural choice.

Can I try either one for free?

Yes. Pipedrive offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Streak offers a 14-day free trial of its Pro+ plan, plus free-forever email tools.

Is a CRM overkill for a one-person business?

Not if you have more leads than you can remember. If you ever forget a follow-up, a CRM pays for itself the first time it saves a job. Start with one simple pipeline and add automations later.

Bottom line

Streak is a smart choice for Gmail-first businesses that want a CRM inside the inbox. Pipedrive is the better fit when leads come from everywhere and you need a clear, visual pipeline with a next step on every deal. For field-heavy service businesses, Pipedrive is the one we’d suggest trying first. Start your free Pipedrive trial here, then build your first pipeline around the stages you wrote down above.

Want help setting up a CRM, website, or lead forms for your Las Vegas business? G2G’s digital services team can help. Email admin@g2glv.com or call 586.306.0000. See more on our Tools We Use & Recommend page.