Copper
The CRM that lives inside Gmail, rebuilt around agencies and client work
Copper (formerly ProsperWorks) is a CRM designed natively for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail through a Chrome extension, auto-captures contacts and email activity, and combines drag-and-drop pipelines with task automation and lightweight project management, aimed at agencies, consultancies, and other service businesses that sell and then deliver client work.
Overview
Copper's founding bet, made in 2013 in San Francisco under the name ProsperWorks, was that the CRM should come to the inbox instead of dragging salespeople to another tab. Its Chrome extension puts the full CRM in a Gmail sidebar: open a thread and Copper shows the contact, company, open deals, tasks, and history, and adds new people to the CRM without retyping. Google itself recommended the product for G Suite, and the Google-native angle remains the cleanest reason to buy it.
The company has since repositioned from generic small-business CRM to a client-relationship tool for service businesses: agencies, consultancies, financial advisors, media and production companies, construction firms. That shows in the feature set, which extends past the sales pipeline into project management, task automation, and email marketing tools for the post-sale relationship, and in marketing that leads with 'be there for your clients, every step of the way' rather than pipeline velocity. Copper claims 30,000+ customer companies and pitches onboarding in days (one customer quote contrasts 3 days on Copper with 3 months on HubSpot).
Copper raised roughly $100M in venture funding through a $53M 2019 Series C, rebranded from ProsperWorks in 2018, and promoted longtime CMO Carrie Shaw to CEO in 2023. Pricing runs $23 to $99 per user per month on annual billing across three tiers, with contact caps (2,500 on Basic, 15,000 on Professional) that quietly matter as much as the feature gates. It is a comfortable, opinionated product rather than a cutting-edge one; teams outside the Google ecosystem, or wanting deep automation and AI, will feel its ceiling.
Best for
Service businesses of 3 to 50 people running on Google Workspace (agencies, consultancies, advisors, production and construction firms) that want relationship tracking, light pipeline management, and post-sale project handoff living directly inside Gmail with minimal setup or training.
Not the right fit for
- Teams on Microsoft 365; Copper's entire design premise is Google-native, and using it outside Gmail discards its main advantage.
- High-velocity inside sales floors needing dialers, SMS, and call coaching; Copper has no native telephony (Close owns that ground).
- Data-heavy or product-led teams wanting custom objects, flexible schemas, and deep workflow automation; Attio's data model runs well past Copper's.
- Large contact databases on a budget: the 2,500-contact cap on Basic and 15,000 on Professional push list-heavy teams into the $99-per-seat Business tier quickly.
- Buyers who require published SOC 2 or ISO certification; Copper describes security practices but does not publish formal certifications on its security page.
How it works
- 1
You install the Chrome extension and connect Google Workspace; Copper then works primarily from the Gmail sidebar, suggesting contacts to add from your email traffic, syncing threads and calendar events to records automatically, and exposing pipelines, tasks, and files next to the conversation they belong to.
- 2
Deals move through drag-and-drop pipelines with customizable stages; when a deal closes, service teams hand off into Copper's project boards and task lists, keeping delivery in the same system as the sale, a loop most sales-only CRMs do not attempt.
- 3
Automation covers the repetitive middle: task automation chains follow-up steps to stage changes, workflow automation (Professional tier and up) updates fields and triggers actions on record changes, and email tools range from templates and bulk sends to multi-step email series (drip sequences) on the Business tier.
- 4
Reporting tracks pipeline, activity, and revenue, with custom report builders and multi-currency on the top tier; data flows out through native integrations (Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Zapier, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, Slack, DocuSign among them) and a REST API.
Feature breakdown
23 features in 5 modulesGoogle Workspace integration
The defining layer: Copper as a native extension of Gmail, Calendar, and Drive.- Gmail sidebar CRM
- The Chrome extension renders full CRM context (contact, company, deals, tasks, activity history) beside every email thread, with add-to-CRM one click away.
- Automatic contact capture
- Copper suggests new contacts from email traffic and creates records with details scraped from signatures and public data, cutting manual entry.
- Email and calendar sync
- Threads and meetings log to the right records automatically, building interaction timelines without rep effort.
- Google Drive and Sheets connections
- Files attach to records from Drive, and CRM data exports to Sheets and Looker Studio for custom analysis.
- Google-recommended pedigree
- Copper has been a Google Partner and a Chrome Enterprise recommended app, and its interface follows Material Design so it reads like part of Workspace.
Pipeline and relationship management
Classic CRM mechanics, tuned for relationship-driven selling.- Drag-and-drop pipelines
- Multiple customizable pipelines with stage values and probability; deals move by dragging cards, with pipeline reporting behind them.
- Contact and company records
- Enriched records with custom fields, tags, filters, and saved views; contact caps scale by tier (2,500 Basic, 15,000 Professional, unlimited Business).
- Contact enrichment
- Records auto-populate with firmographic and social details, included from the Basic tier.
- Lead management and forms
- Web forms and template libraries capture inbound interest into the pipeline without third-party form tools.
- LinkedIn assist
- Integration for researching prospects and pulling profile context into records.
Projects and post-sale delivery
The feature set behind the client-work repositioning.- Project management
- Boards and task lists for delivery work after a deal closes, keeping the client's sale and its execution in one system, included from Basic.
- Task automation
- Stage changes and record events trigger task sequences (for example, a won deal spawns the onboarding checklist automatically).
- Pipelines for non-sales work
- Pipelines double as workflow trackers for renewals, onboarding, or recruiting, a pattern Copper templates explicitly support.
- Client activity visibility
- Because email sync covers the whole team, account handoffs keep full relationship history, aimed squarely at agencies where many people touch one client.
Automation, email, and reporting
The middle tiers' upgrade path: more automation, more sending, more analysis.- Workflow automation
- Field updates, record creation, and task triggers on defined conditions, available from the Professional tier.
- Bulk email and templates
- Merge-field templates and bulk sends to filtered lists from Professional up, with open tracking.
- Email series
- Multi-step automated drip sequences to contacts, a Business-tier feature for nurture and stay-in-touch programs.
- Reporting suite
- Pipeline, activity, and sales performance reports from Professional; fully custom reports and multi-currency arrive on Business.
- Template library
- Prebuilt pipeline, email, and form templates by industry shorten initial setup.
Platform and integrations
The surface beyond Google, adequate if not expansive.- Mobile apps
- iOS and Android apps with record access, tasks, and activity logging for field and travel work.
- REST API
- Programmatic access to records, activities, and pipelines for custom integrations.
- Native integrations
- Zapier, Slack, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, DocuSign, Calendly, and accounting/marketing staples connect without code; Zapier covers the long tail.
- Data import
- CSV importers and migration templates for moving off spreadsheets or other CRMs.
Use cases
4 documentedMarketing agency principal with a 12-person team
New business, client emails, and project delivery all live in Gmail and spreadsheets; handoffs between account leads lose history, and nobody updates the standalone CRM the firm bought last year.
Copper rides along in everyone's inbox, so client history accrues automatically; won deals trigger onboarding task sequences, and delivery runs on Copper projects, giving the principal one view from pitch to retainer without forcing reps into a separate tool.
Independent financial advisory practice
Relationships span years with long quiet stretches; the firm needs reliable follow-up cadences, meeting history, and compliance-friendly record keeping, all inside Google Workspace.
Automatic email and calendar capture builds the relationship record passively, task automation enforces review cadences, and email series keep clients warm between reviews.
Construction or production company managing bids and jobs
Bids, subcontractor threads, and job execution scatter across inboxes; the office needs pipeline visibility on bids and a tracker for jobs won.
Separate pipelines track bids and active jobs, Drive-linked records hold plans and contracts, and the team works it all from the Gmail they already use in the field via mobile apps.
Consultancy outgrowing a spreadsheet, evaluating CRMs
The partners want CRM discipline but refuse a long implementation; previous attempts died because consultants would not maintain a separate system.
Because capture is automatic and the interface lives where consultants already work, adoption sticks; the firm is running in days (Copper's marketing cites a customer moving from a 3-month HubSpot rollout to 3 days on Copper).
Pricing
from $23/user/mo (Basic, billed annually; $29 monthly)Per-seat subscription across three tiers, billed monthly or annually (annual saves up to about 26%), with contact-count caps and feature gates defining the upgrade path; 14-day free trial, no free plan.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $23 per user, per month, billed annually ($29 monthly) |
The contact cap, not the feature list, is what pushes teams off Basic; 2,500 contacts fills fast for any list-building business. |
| Professional | $59 per user, per month, billed annually ($69 monthly) |
Copper says 63% of customers start here, and it is the realistic baseline for a working sales team. |
| Business | $99 per user, per month, billed annually ($134 monthly) |
|
Billing notes
- Annual billing saves up to about 26% versus monthly ($23 vs $29 Basic, $59 vs $69 Professional, $99 vs $134 Business); the Business tier has the widest monthly-to-annual gap.
- Contact caps are the hidden meter: Basic's 2,500 and Professional's 15,000 include everyone synced into the CRM, and automatic capture from team inboxes fills those caps faster than teams expect.
- Prices are listed in USD and exclude taxes; no separate usage meters or AI credit systems, which keeps Copper's bill more predictable than credit-metered rivals.
- Current as of August 2026 per copper.com/pricing.
Value assessment: For a Google Workspace service business, Professional at $59 per seat is fair value: automatic capture, pipelines, projects, workflow automation, and bulk email cover the whole client lifecycle for less than half a HubSpot Sales Professional seat. The economics sour in two directions: list-heavy teams hit contact caps and get pushed to the $99 Business tier for capacity rather than capability, and feature-per-dollar hawks will note that Attio sells deeper automation, custom objects, and AI at a lower entry price. You are paying a premium for the Gmail-native experience; whether that premium is worth it depends entirely on how much your team lives in the inbox.
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- The deepest Gmail integration in the CRM market: for Google Workspace teams the sidebar workflow eliminates the adoption problem that kills most CRM rollouts.
- Automatic contact and activity capture means the CRM stays current even when the team ignores it, which for service firms is the realistic scenario.
- Project management and task automation extend the system past the close, matching how agencies and consultancies actually operate.
- Fast time-to-value: days to running, with templates by industry and essentially no implementation project.
- A decade-plus of focus on one buyer type gives the product coherent opinions instead of a feature grab bag, and predictable per-seat pricing with no usage meters.
- Established company (founded 2013, roughly $100M raised, 30,000+ customers claimed) with a stable niche rather than pivot-chasing.
Limitations
- Google-only by design: on Microsoft 365 or mixed environments, Copper's core advantage evaporates and better options exist at every price.
- No native calling, SMS, or dialer, and no sales-engagement depth (mailbox rotation, multichannel cadences), so high-velocity outbound teams need other tools.
- Automation and customization ceilings arrive early: no custom objects, workflow automation is field-and-task level, and the AI story is thin next to Attio's agents or Close's Chloe.
- Contact caps on the lower tiers function as a stealth price increase for any team doing list building or newsletter-scale email.
- Security page describes practices (encryption, 2FA, pen testing, SCCs) but publishes no SOC 2 or ISO certification, and references the deprecated Privacy Shield framework, which reads as dated for 2026 procurement.
- Reporting is serviceable but shallow for data-driven revenue teams; serious analysis means exporting to Sheets or Looker Studio.
Head-to-head comparisons
4 alternativesCopper vs Close
from $9/user/mo (Solo, billed annually; $19 monthly)Copper and Close split the SMB CRM market by channel: Copper owns the inbox, Close owns the phone. A Google Workspace agency nurturing long client relationships gets daily value from Copper's Gmail sidebar and project handoff, while an inside sales floor doing forty dials a day per rep needs Close's dialers, SMS, and coaching stack that Copper simply does not have. Choose by where your revenue conversations actually happen.
Full Copper vs Close comparisonCopper vs Attio
from $29/user/mo (Plus, billed annually; $36 monthly)Attio is the more modern and more capable platform: flexible data model, deeper automation, real AI, lower entry price. Copper is the more frictionless one for its niche: it meets Gmail-centric service teams exactly where they work and adds delivery projects Attio lacks. Ops-minded teams that will configure a system should pick Attio; teams whose CRM survival depends on zero behavior change from busy client-facing staff should pick Copper.
Full Copper vs Attio comparisonCopper vs Salesflare
from $29/user/mo (Growth, billed annually; $39 monthly)Both bet on automatic data capture to solve CRM neglect, but Salesflare does it leaner and cheaper ($29 entry) for small B2B sales teams, while Copper wraps capture in a fuller client-management suite with projects, email series, and team-scale controls. Solo operators and small sales squads get faster payback from Salesflare; multi-person service firms managing delivery as well as deals justify Copper's higher tiers.
Full Copper vs Salesflare comparisonCopper vs folk
from $24/member/mo (Standard, billed annually; $30 monthly)folk and Copper both serve relationship-first teams, but folk is LinkedIn-native and prospecting-oriented (Chrome capture from social, enrichment, sequences) while Copper is Gmail-native and account-oriented (email capture, projects, client history). Teams building new networks, like agencies hunting logos or VCs sourcing, lean folk; teams servicing an existing book of clients inside Google Workspace lean Copper.
Full Copper vs folk comparisonImplementation & onboarding
- Setup time
- Days: install the extension, connect Google, import a CSV, and pick a pipeline template. Copper's marketing leans on a customer going live in 3 days versus a 3-month HubSpot rollout, and that order of magnitude is credible for small teams.
- Learning curve
- Low, and that is the product's point: anyone who can use Gmail can use the sidebar. Admin-level work (workflow automation, report building) is modest and documented.
- Onboarding
- Self-serve trial with templates and guided setup; premium support arrives on the Business tier. No mandatory implementation fees.
- Migration notes
- CSV import covers contacts, companies, and deals from spreadsheets or other CRMs; email history rebuilds forward automatically from Gmail sync, though historical threads predating connection attach unevenly. Leaving Copper is likewise CSV-and-API, with no unusual lock-in beyond the Google coupling itself.
Platform, API & security
- Platforms
- Web appChrome extension (Gmail sidebar)iOS appAndroid appREST API
- API
- REST API for records, activities, and pipelines; adequate for integrations and BI export, though not positioned as a developer platform the way newer rivals' APIs are.
- Compliance
- GDPR alignment via EU Standard Contractual Clauses in its termsNo SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification published on the public security page as of this review
- Data residency
- Not offered/published; US-based cloud infrastructure.
- SSO
- Google sign-in is native (the product presumes Google identity); no published SAML SSO tier.
- Security notes
- Security page cites encryption in transit and at rest, two-factor authentication, role-based access controls, third-party penetration testing, and employee security training, but references the deprecated Privacy Shield program; certification-requiring buyers should request current documentation directly.
Support & resources
- Channels
- In-app and email supportHelp centerPremium support (Business tier)
- Documentation
- Solid help center plus template libraries and industry playbooks; developer docs cover the API.
- Community
- No large public user community; support is vendor-direct, supplemented by Google Workspace marketplace presence.
Company
- Founded
- 2013
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, US
- Ownership
- Venture-backed
- Founders
- Jon Lee, Kelly Cheng
- Employees
- ~200 (LinkedIn band 51-200; third-party databases estimate up to ~250, 2026)
- Funding
- Roughly $100M raised, including a $24M Series B (2016) and a $53M Series C (2019); investors include Norwest Venture Partners, NextWorld Capital, and True Ventures.
Funding history
| Round | Amount | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series B | $24M | 2016 | Raised as ProsperWorks. |
| Series C | $53M | 2019 | Brought total funding to roughly $100M. |
Timeline
- 2013Founded in San Francisco as ProsperWorks by Jon Lee and Kelly Cheng, building a CRM natively on Google's ecosystem.
- 2016Raises a $24M Series B as the G Suite integration wins Google's official recommendation.
- 2018Rebrands from ProsperWorks to Copper alongside its positioning as the CRM for G Suite.
- 2019Closes a $53M Series C, bringing total funding to roughly $100M.
- 2023Longtime CMO Carrie Shaw becomes CEO; the product doubles down on agencies and client-work features like projects and email series.
- 2026Positions as the client-relationship CRM for service businesses, claiming 30,000+ companies on the platform.
Integrations
- Gmail / Google Workspace (native)
- Google Calendar, Drive, Sheets
- Looker Studio
- Zapier
- Slack
- QuickBooks
- Mailchimp
- DocuSign
- Calendly
- LinkedIn (research assist)
- REST API
Frequently asked questions
10 questionsWhat is Copper CRM?
Copper is a CRM built natively for Google Workspace: a Chrome extension puts the full CRM in a Gmail sidebar, contacts and email activity are captured automatically, and drag-and-drop pipelines pair with task automation and light project management. It targets service businesses such as agencies, consultancies, and financial advisors.
How much does Copper cost?
Three per-seat tiers: Basic at $23 per user per month, Professional at $59, and Business at $99, billed annually (monthly billing runs $29, $69, and $134). There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card, but no free plan. Contact caps apply: 2,500 on Basic and 15,000 on Professional, with unlimited contacts on Business.
Does Copper only work with Gmail?
Effectively, yes. Copper is designed around Google Workspace: the Gmail sidebar, automatic email and calendar sync, and Drive integration are the core experience. There is a web app you can use standalone, but on Microsoft 365 or other email systems Copper loses its main advantage and is hard to recommend.
Was Copper called ProsperWorks?
Yes. The company launched as ProsperWorks in 2013 and rebranded to Copper in 2018, keeping the same Google-native product line. Older reviews and articles under the ProsperWorks name refer to the same company.
Which Copper plan should a small team pick?
Professional ($59 per user per month annually) for most working teams: it lifts the contact cap to 15,000 and adds workflow automation, bulk email, and reporting that Basic lacks. Copper itself says 63% of customers start on Professional. Basic suits very small teams with short contact lists; Business is mainly about unlimited contacts, email series, and custom reports.
Does Copper include project management?
Yes, from the Basic tier: boards and task lists let teams manage delivery after a deal closes, and task automation can spawn checklists when a deal reaches a stage. It is lightweight compared to a dedicated PM tool, but keeping sale and delivery in one system is a genuine differentiator among CRMs at this price.
Does Copper have calling or texting built in?
No. Copper has no native dialer, phone numbers, or SMS. Teams that need built-in telephony should look at Close; Copper covers voice only through third-party integrations.
Is Copper SOC 2 certified?
Copper's public security page describes encryption in transit and at rest, two-factor authentication, role-based access, and third-party penetration testing, but does not publish a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification as of this review. Buyers with formal compliance requirements should request documentation from Copper directly.
How is Copper different from HubSpot's free CRM?
HubSpot free is broader and costs nothing, but Copper's Gmail-sidebar workflow and automatic capture are deeper than HubSpot's Gmail plugin, and Copper stays coherent for service businesses where HubSpot's upgrade path pulls toward expensive marketing hubs. Teams choosing Copper are usually paying to maximize inbox-native adoption, not for feature breadth.
Who owns Copper and how big is it?
Copper is a private, venture-backed company headquartered in San Francisco, founded in 2013 by Jon Lee and Kelly Cheng, with roughly $100M raised from investors including Norwest and NextWorld Capital. Carrie Shaw, previously CMO, has been CEO since 2023; headcount estimates sit around 200.
Editorial verdict
Copper is the best CRM for one precisely drawn buyer: a Google Workspace service business whose past CRMs died of neglect. The Gmail sidebar and automatic capture solve adoption better than any competitor, and the project-management layer matches how agencies and advisory firms actually run client work. Outside that profile the case weakens fast: no telephony, early automation ceilings, contact caps that tax growth, and a security posture described rather than certified. Buy Copper for the inbox-native experience and the client lifecycle; look to Attio for power and flexibility, or Close for the phone.
Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.