Most email tracking tools were built for sales teams. They come with pipelines, CRM fields, sequence builders, and a bunch of stuff that makes no sense when you're a freelancer sending 15 proposals a month and just trying to figure out who actually read them.
I've been using email tracking tools for Gmail since 2023. I've tried free email trackers, paid Chrome extensions, and full CRM platforms. Some were too simple, some were way too much. Here's what I found after testing each one on real client proposals and invoices, with honest takes on pricing, what each tool actually does well, and where it falls short for freelancers.
1. Pynglo, Best for seeing who's ghosting you
Price: Free (10 emails/month), $9/month Pro, $69/year, or $129 lifetime. Works with Gmail.
Pynglo is my product so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. I built it because none of the other tools on this list answered the question I kept asking: which of my sent emails need attention right now?
It connects to your Gmail, pulls your sent emails, and sorts each one into a status: Fresh (sent recently), Waiting (a few days, still reasonable), Ghosted (5+ days, no reply), or Replied. You open the dashboard and immediately see what needs follow-up. No setup, no pipeline configuration, no CRM to learn.
It also does open tracking on follow-ups with a 1x1 pixel, tracks per-contact response patterns so it can flag when a specific person is taking longer than usual to reply, and has one-click follow-up templates in different tones (gentle, firm, last chance). There's a daily digest email that tells you which proposals need attention that morning.
Where it falls short: it's Gmail only, there's no Outlook support. It doesn't do email scheduling or sequences. It's not a CRM (and I'd argue most freelancers don't need one). If you need those things, keep reading.
2. Mailtrack, Best for simple open tracking
Price: Free (with branding), $9.99/month Advanced. Works with Gmail (Outlook support exists but is limited).
Mailtrack, which recently rebranded to Mailsuite, is probably the most installed email tracker out there. It does one thing and it does it right away: you send an email, and it tells you when someone opens it.
The free plan works for basic open tracking, but it adds a "Sent with Mailtrack" signature to every email you send. On a casual email that's fine. On a client proposal it looks unprofessional. The $9.99/month plan removes the branding and adds link click tracking, full tracking history, and mail merge through Google Sheets.
They added no-reply alerts that nudge you if someone hasn't opened or responded within a day or so, and there's a basic analytics dashboard showing open rates over time. Document tracking lets you see which pages of an attached PDF someone actually looked at, which is a nice touch for proposals.
Where it falls short: the alerts are passive notifications, not a system. You get told that someone hasn't replied, but there's no central view of all your ghosted emails, no follow-up tools built in, no way to see your overall reply rate at a glance. You still end up doing the mental tracking yourself. Also, the Outlook version is missing most of the features that make the Gmail version useful.
3. Streak, Best for a full CRM inside Gmail
Price: Free (email tools only), $49/user/month Pro (annual). Works with Gmail.
Streak is a CRM that lives entirely inside your Gmail sidebar. Pipelines, deal stages, contact management, custom fields, reporting. If you want to manage your entire client workflow without leaving your inbox, Streak does that.
The free tier is surprisingly useful if you just want email tracking. You get open tracking, click tracking, and mail merge up to 50 emails per day. No CRM features, no pipelines, but the tracking alone is solid and there's no branding added to your emails.
The paid plans start at $49 per user per month on annual billing, which gets you pipelines, custom fields, magic columns that auto-fill data from emails, and team collaboration. There's an AI co-pilot feature that summarizes deals and suggests next steps.
Where it falls short for freelancers: the CRM is the product. If you're paying $49/month, you're paying for pipelines and deal management. That's a lot of overhead when your actual need is "did this person reply to my invoice." I set up Streak once, configured three pipeline stages, and realized I'd created a system I had to maintain on top of actually doing client work. If you're running a small agency and genuinely need deal tracking, Streak is great. For a solo freelancer, it's probably more tool than you need.
4. Boomerang, Best for email scheduling
Price: Free (10 credits/month), $4.98/month Personal (Gmail only), $14.98/month Pro (Workspace), $49.98/month Premium. Works with Gmail.
Boomerang's main thing is controlling when emails send and when they come back. Write something now, send it Tuesday at 9am. Get a reminder if nobody replies in three days. Snooze an email thread to deal with later. The scheduling is genuinely good and the interface is simple.
They also have read receipts and click tracking, but it works differently from the other tools here. Boomerang embeds a visible image at the bottom of the email that tells the recipient a read receipt was requested. Recipients can opt out by clicking it. This is a deliberate privacy choice and I respect it, but it means your tracking data will have gaps. Some people will opt out, and you won't know exactly how many.
The response tracking is reminder-based. You set a timer per email: remind me if no reply in 3 days. Boomerang brings it back to the top of your inbox. It works, but it's manual. You're setting reminders one by one, not looking at a dashboard of everything that's pending.
The free plan gives you 10 credits per month, and every action counts against that: every scheduled send, every reminder, every read receipt. That runs out fast. The Personal plan at $4.98/month is Gmail only and doesn't work with Google Workspace custom domains. For that you need Pro at $14.98/month.
Where it falls short: no dashboard showing your overall email status. No ghosting detection. No follow-up templates. Boomerang is an email productivity tool, not a tracking tool. If scheduling is your main need, it's the best option here. If tracking is what you're after, it won't get you far.
5. Yesware, Best for sales teams
Price: Free (24-hour data only), $15/seat/month Pro (annual), $35/seat/month Premium, $65/seat/month Enterprise. Works with Gmail and Outlook.
Yesware is a sales engagement platform that works in both Gmail and Outlook, which already makes it unusual on this list. You get email tracking, templates, multi-step campaigns, a meeting scheduler, and attachment tracking that shows you which slides in a deck someone actually looked at.
The free plan exists but is barely functional. Tracking data expires within 24 hours, so by the time you check it the next morning, it's gone. You also get 10 campaign recipients per month and Yesware branding on everything. It's basically a trial that doesn't expire.
Pro at $15/seat/month gives you unlimited tracking, 20 campaign recipients per month, and basic reporting. Premium at $35/seat adds unlimited campaigns and team features. Enterprise at $65/seat adds Salesforce integration.
Where it falls short for freelancers: the pricing is per seat and adds up if you're a solo operator paying for features designed for teams. The Pro plan only lets you email 20 campaign recipients per month. Multiple reviewers mention that corporate firewalls and security scanners trigger false opens, which makes the tracking data unreliable for certain industries. And since its acquisition by Vendasta, some users report slower feature development and support issues. If you're on a sales team that uses Salesforce and Outlook, Yesware makes sense. For a freelancer, you're paying for a lot of team infrastructure you won't use.
6. HubSpot, Best free option for basic tracking
Price: Free (200 notifications/month, 2 users), $20/seat/month Starter. Works with Gmail and Outlook.
HubSpot's free email tracking is surprisingly good for what it costs, which is nothing. Install the Chrome extension, log into your HubSpot account, and you're tracking opens and clicks. Setup takes about five minutes. You get real-time desktop notifications when someone opens an email, and tracked activity shows up in a feed.
The free tier gives you 200 tracking notifications per month, 3 email templates, and up to a million contacts in the CRM. That's generous for a freelancer doing light outreach. The tracking just works and the notifications are fast.
Starter at $20/seat/month removes the notification cap, lets you create unlimited templates, adds email sequences, and removes HubSpot branding. Professional jumps to $90/seat with a $1,500 onboarding fee, which is clearly enterprise territory.
Where it falls short: HubSpot is a CRM that happens to have email tracking, and you feel it. Even the free plan keeps nudging you toward deal pipelines, contact properties, and marketing tools. The tracking itself is simple: you know someone opened your email. But there's no concept of ghosting, no reply detection dashboard, no status categories for your sent mail. And once you're in the HubSpot ecosystem, the upsell gravity is real. Everything just slightly better is on the next tier up.
7. Mixmax, Best for email sequences
Price: Free (20 tracked emails/month), $29/user/month Inbox Copilot (annual), $49/user/month Engagement Copilot, $89/user/month Suite. Works with Gmail only.
Mixmax is built for sales reps who live in Gmail and send a lot of outbound. The core feature is email sequences: automated multi-step email chains where you set the timing and personalization, and Mixmax sends the follow-ups for you. It also does meeting scheduling with booking links, round-robin routing, and post-meeting AI summaries.
The tracking is solid. Open tracking, click tracking, real-time notifications in Gmail and Slack. On the higher tiers you get an AI sequence builder, workflow automation rules, and Salesforce integration.
The free plan was recently cut from 100 to 20 tracked emails per month, which is barely enough to evaluate the product. Paid plans start at $29/user/month for tracking and templates, $49 for sequences, and $89 for the full suite. Branding removal costs an extra $9/user/month on top of whatever plan you're on.
Where it falls short: this is a sales tool through and through. The pricing reflects that. A freelancer paying $49/month for email sequences is paying for a capability designed for SDRs doing high-volume outbound. There's no mobile app, no Outlook support, and the Chrome extension can slow down Gmail noticeably. Some users also report deliverability problems, with Mixmax's tracking pixel being flagged as malicious by certain security systems. If you're doing serious outbound sales from Gmail, Mixmax is worth evaluating. For a freelancer checking on 20 proposals a month, it's overkill.
What to look for in an email tracker as a freelancer
Before you pick one, think about what you actually need. Most freelancers don't need sequences, campaign analytics, or Salesforce integration. Here's what matters:
How I tested these tools
I used each tool on my own Gmail account over the past couple of years, tracking real proposals, invoices, and client emails. I looked at how easy each one was to set up, how accurate the tracking data was, whether the free plan was actually usable, and how well it fit into a freelancer's workflow rather than a sales team's. Pricing was verified from each tool's official website in March 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is email tracking legal?
In most countries, yes. Email open tracking using pixels is legal in the US, Canada, UK, and most of Europe. However, some jurisdictions require disclosure. The EU's ePrivacy Directive and GDPR mean you should mention tracking in your privacy policy if you're tracking opens from EU recipients. In practice, nearly every email marketing and sales tool uses tracking pixels, and it's considered standard business practice. If you're sending one-to-one proposals as a freelancer, you're generally fine.
Can email tracking be blocked?
Yes. Some email clients block external images by default, which prevents tracking pixels from loading. Apple Mail Privacy Protection (introduced in iOS 15) pre-loads all images through a proxy, which can register false opens. Corporate email security systems also sometimes pre-fetch images, inflating open counts. No email tracker is 100% accurate because of this. Treat open data as directional, not precise.
Does Gmail have built-in email tracking?
No. Gmail does not natively tell you when someone opens your email. You can request read receipts in Google Workspace accounts, but the recipient has to manually confirm, which almost nobody does. To get automatic open tracking in Gmail, you need a third-party tool like one of the ones on this list.
What's the difference between open tracking and reply tracking?
Open tracking tells you someone viewed your email (using a tracking pixel). Reply tracking tells you someone actually responded. Most tools on this list only do open tracking. Pynglo, Streak (via CRM), and HubSpot (via CRM) can detect replies, but only Pynglo is built specifically around reply status as the core feature.
Are free email trackers worth it?
Depends on the limitations. Mailtrack's free plan adds branding to your emails. Boomerang gives you 10 credits a month. Yesware deletes your data after 24 hours. HubSpot caps you at 200 notifications. Streak's free tracking is the most generous with no branding and no notification cap, but you don't get CRM features. For light use, HubSpot or Streak's free tier works. For anything more than 10-15 tracked emails a month, you'll hit a wall on most free plans.
So which one should you pick?
If you just want to know when emails are opened: Mailtrack. Simple, cheap, gets the job done.
If you want a full CRM without leaving Gmail: Streak. Be prepared to spend time setting it up.
If scheduling is your main need: Boomerang. Best-in-class at sending emails at the right time.
If you're on a sales team: Yesware or Mixmax, depending on whether you need Outlook support and what your budget looks like.
If you want free tracking to start with and might grow into the CRM later: HubSpot. The free tier is legitimately useful.
If you're a freelancer who mostly cares about one thing, which is knowing who needs a follow-up right now: that's what I built Pynglo for. No CRM to configure, no pipeline to manage. Just a dashboard that shows you what's going cold.