Copper Alternative: Customermates and Copper Compared

Which CRM fits which team: Copper or Customermates?

What is Copper CRM, and who is it a good choice for?

Copper describes itself as the CRM software built into Google Workspace, and the pages we read back that up. It is a hosted CRM for relationship-driven teams, with agencies and consulting firms as the industries it names first.

• Gmail, Calendar and Drive. A Chrome extension adds Copper to Gmail and Google Calendar on desktop. Hover over a contact for conversation and activity details, see CRM reminders and tasks beside the inbox, and send or reply to email from a Copper record. Gmail email, contact and file sync, Google Calendar sync, Google Contact sync and Google Drive linking are on every plan; Google Sheets and Looker Studio reporting starts at Professional.
• Email that follows the contact. Once you add a contact to Copper, it syncs one year of email with that contact. Copper does not add contacts for you; you decide who goes in.
• Pipelines, projects and tasks. Customizable sales pipelines, project pipelines for delivery after a deal closes, tasks, reminders and a global activity feed come with every plan.
• AI. Copper's pricing table lists an AI email template generator and an AI email rewriter from Professional. Its Google Workspace page names Gemini quick replies and AI-suggested follow-ups in Gmail. Copper GPT is a read-only assistant inside ChatGPT.
• Reach beyond the desktop. iOS and Android apps, a LinkedIn Chrome extension and Zapier on every plan, and Slack, Mailchimp, DocuSign and QuickBooks integrations from Professional.

If your whole team works in Gmail and wants the CRM inside it, Copper is built for exactly that, and switching will probably cost you more than it saves.

How much does Copper cost, and is there a free plan?

Prices checked on 10 November 2026 on Copper's pricing page. Copper sells three plans in US dollars, excluding taxes and fees where applicable: Basic at $29, Professional at $69 and Business at $134 per seat per month on monthly billing. Billed annually, the same plans cost $23, $59 and $99 per seat per month, which Copper advertises as up to 26% off.

What each plan adds, from the pricing page:

• Basic: 2,500 contacts, 25 custom fields, task automation, pipelines, project management and contact enrichment.
• Professional: 15,000 contacts, 50 custom fields, workflow automation, bulk email, reporting and integrations.
• Business: unlimited contacts and custom fields, email series, custom reports, multi-currency and premium support.

The pricing page lists no free plan. It says to start free with no credit card, and its LinkedIn page names a 14-day trial. Copper prices in US dollars and Customermates bills monthly in euros; the table does not convert between them.

These rows do not buy the same things, so read them in pairs:

• Copper Basic is the cheapest way to get Gmail inside a CRM. Gmail sync and the Chrome extension are on every Copper plan. In Customermates, Gmail sync starts at Pro, and Starter has no inbox.
• Copper Professional and Customermates Pro are the closest pair. Copper adds bulk email, workflow automation, enrichment, reporting and mobile apps. Customermates Pro adds LinkedIn conversations, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram in the inbox, an MCP server, an open-source core and a Free plan to fall back on after the trial.
• LinkedIn and Gmail side by side cost a Business seat in Customermates. One Pro account is Gmail or LinkedIn, not both. Business includes 3 accounts per user and lets you share a whole account with the team.
• Copper's price follows features and contact limits. Workflow automation, the API and most integrations need Professional, and email series, custom reports and Okta single sign-on need Business.

Does Copper work with LinkedIn?

Copper works with LinkedIn through a Chrome extension that captures profiles. According to its LinkedIn page, checked on 10 November 2026, one click creates a record from a LinkedIn profile and fills in name, title and company, and enrichment can find a verified email address. Copper matches the profile to your existing leads, people or companies, and an Update button pulls a changed title or company into the record.

The same page lists LinkedIn conversations as not there yet: "Coming soon: Sync direct messages from LinkedIn into the CRM", with smart summaries. It also says capturing from LinkedIn Sales Navigator is coming. So today, Copper helps you put a LinkedIn contact into the CRM, and the conversation with that person stays on LinkedIn.

Customermates works the other way round. It has no capture extension and no enrichment, but from Pro the conversations themselves are in the inbox: LinkedIn chats, InMail, Sales Navigator and Recruiter threads, each matched to a contact. If your team wins clients on LinkedIn and wants the chat history beside the Gmail thread, that is the difference. The LinkedIn integration page lists the limits, such as no bulk invites and no sequences.

Why do teams look for a Copper alternative?

LinkedIn messages are not on the client record yet. Copper's page promises message sync as a future feature. Teams that follow up on LinkedIn today keep that half of the conversation outside the CRM.

Plan limits decide what you can do. On Basic you get 2,500 contacts and 25 custom fields, and workflow automation, bulk email, reporting and the API start at Professional. A team that outgrows Basic moves to the $69 plan, and one that needs email series or custom reports to the $134 plan.

A Google Workspace focus. Copper calls itself purpose-built for Google Workspace, and its partner page says it does not currently offer a native Microsoft 365 integration. That is a strength for a Gmail team and a gap for a team that mixes Gmail and Outlook.

Data hosting in the United States. Copper's privacy policy, last updated 11 May 2026, says its servers are in the United States and that it cannot accommodate requests to store data elsewhere. It lists participation in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and applies Standard Contractual Clauses to EU customers through its terms. As the controller, you assess whether that fits your own data processing agreement.

No free plan, and no MCP server yet. The pricing page lists a free start but no permanent free plan. A support article lists "Coming soon: Copper MCP", and Copper GPT works inside ChatGPT on a paid ChatGPT plan and only reads data; it cannot create, edit or delete anything in your account.

Where does Customermates fit?

Customermates is our product, so check each line against its own docs. It is an open-source CRM made in Germany for small client-facing teams: the conversation sits on the client, a date field holds the next step, and Mate or your own AI client drafts the reply that you review and send.

Gmail and LinkedIn beside each client. From Pro, the unified inbox brings Gmail, Outlook and IMAP mailboxes, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram into one list, and you reply on the original channel. Connecting Gmail takes a Google sign-in under Settings, Channels, and the history imports in the background. Link a participant to a contact once, and every conversation with that address or handle shows on the contact's timeline. Our Gmail CRM integration guide compares the sidebar, sync and BCC approaches, including Copper's. Customermates caps sending at 300 emails a day per connected Gmail account, below Google's own limits; see the messaging rate limits.

Private by default. Your conversations are private; admins cannot read them either. You share a single thread with the team, or, on Business, a whole connected account.

A next step on every client. Add a date field such as "Next contact" to contacts or deals, sort a saved view by it and add an Upcoming widget to the dashboard. The follow-up guide walks through it. Nothing pings you; you open the list.

AI that drafts for you. In Customermates Cloud, Mate summarizes threads, drafts replies, updates records and builds views, using hosted AI credits: a monthly allowance per active user, listed on the pricing page. Mate sends a message without asking when you tell it to send, so ask for drafts when you want to review first. Prefer Claude or ChatGPT? Connect it to the MCP server, with 59 tools on every plan, Free included, and on self-hosted installs. Its model calls then run on your own AI provider, and our guide to CRMs with Claude shows how the options compare.

Open source, with a hosting choice. The AGPL-3.0 core runs with Docker Compose and PostgreSQL 16, including REST, webhooks and MCP. A self-hosted install has no inbox, no Mate and no hosted credits. In Customermates Cloud the database is configured in the AWS Frankfurt region, a DPA is available, and the subprocessors, including US providers, are listed on the legal pages. Customermates holds no compliance certification.

Where is Customermates the wrong choice?

Check these before you start a trial:

• No Gmail sidebar and no Chrome extension. Mail reaches Customermates only through the connected account, and you work in the inbox or on the contact. If you want the CRM inside the Gmail window, choose Copper.
• No profile capture and no enrichment. Contact data is what your team or your AI client enters, and a LinkedIn profile does not land in the CRM with one click.
• No bulk email, no email series and no sequences. Messages go out one at a time, written by you or drafted by Mate.
• No web forms. There is no embeddable lead-capture form.
• No reminders and no task due dates. A date field and an Upcoming widget show what is due, but nothing sends a notification.
• Read-only calendar. Customermates shows calendar events from your Google account but does not create, change or book them; Copper's calendar sync creates and manages events.
• A narrower Google connection. Customermates connects Gmail and Google Calendar. Copper also lists Google Drive linking, Google Contact sync and a Sheets and Looker Studio integration.
• No phone, SMS, mobile apps or single sign-on. Customermates has no telephony, no native iOS or Android app and no SSO.
• One connected account per user on Pro. Gmail and LinkedIn for the same person need Business.
• A small free plan. Free covers 1 person and 250 records, without the inbox, Mate or routines; more needs a paid plan after the 14-day trial.

What does a Gmail and LinkedIn setup look like in Customermates?

Take a three-person agency on Google Workspace that wins clients on LinkedIn. Everyone answers from Gmail, and two partners also write to prospects on LinkedIn.

Each partner who needs Gmail and LinkedIn side by side needs a Business seat, which includes 3 connected accounts per user. For three people that is €207 a month. If everyone sticks to one channel, Pro fits at €87 a month for the team.

Each partner also owns a routine for the Monday follow-up. A routine runs as its owner, so it sees that person's contacts and saves drafts in their own channels. It runs in Customermates Cloud and uses hosted AI credits:

How do I move from Copper to Customermates?

The how-to-switch steps above the article cover the basics. Three details are specific to a move from Copper:

• Getting the data out. According to Copper's export guide, checked on 10 November 2026, admins export people, companies, opportunities, projects, tasks and leads from Workspace Settings. Copper emails a link to an .xlsx file. Activities, which hold calls, notes and logged emails, are not part of that export: Copper says to contact its support for a one-time activity export.
• Importing. Customermates reads a JSON export of a list, .xlsx, .xls and .csv files through Add from file, up to 10 MiB and 5,000 non-blank rows per sheet. Import organizations first, then contacts, then deals. Link columns match records by name, and new contacts need a first and a last name. Map email addresses and phone numbers to the contact's Contact details field. Copper's leads, projects and tasks have no preset counterpart: create a list for each in Configure, and add a date field to tasks that need one. Limits are in the records guide.
• Conversations. You do not need Copper's email log. Connecting Gmail in Customermates starts a history import in the background, so past threads show on the contacts whose address matches. Connect LinkedIn the same way, and link the rest once by hand.

Which other CRMs do people compare with Copper?

Customermates publishes this list, so check each line on the vendor's own site. Searches for a Copper alternative often lead to the two big names below.

• HubSpot comes up in searches such as "Copper vs HubSpot". Both offer a Chrome extension for Gmail, according to our Gmail CRM guide, checked on 3 November 2026. For HubSpot's plans and prices, see the HubSpot alternative page.
• Pipedrive is the other common comparison, and Copper publishes its own Copper vs. Pipedrive page. See the Pipedrive alternative page for how it compares with Customermates.

Frequently asked questions

Competitor details checked on 10 November 2026 against Copper's pricing page, Google Workspace page, LinkedIn page, partner page, privacy policy, Send and Reply guide, getting-started article, Copper GPT article, export guide and Developer API. Plan assignments come from the comparison table on the pricing page. The HubSpot lines come from our own Gmail CRM guide, checked on 3 November 2026.

Conclusion

Copper is the better tool when the CRM should live inside Gmail and Google Workspace, with contact cards, tasks, enrichment, bulk email and mobile apps close at hand. Customermates fits small client-facing teams that want LinkedIn conversations next to email on the client, a Free plan, an open-source licence and an MCP server for their own AI. To test the fit, start a free trial, connect Gmail and LinkedIn and add a Next contact date to ten of your clients.