In today’s fast-paced sales environment, teams rely on tools that automatically capture emails, meetings, and tasks in Salesforce—reducing manual work and ensuring every customer touchpoint is tracked.
While Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) is Salesforce-native, it has critical limitations around data access, governance, and flexibility. Revenue Grid, by contrast, offers robust customization, deeper admin control, and full data ownership. Here's a more accurate and detailed comparison:
| Feature | Revenue Grid | Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) |
|---|---|---|
| G2 Rating | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Support for Exchange On-Premises | ✅ Full support via EWS or Graph with impersonation | ❌ Not supported — only works with Gmail or Office 365 |
| Native Salesforce Integration | ⚠️ 3rd party AppExchange integration (writes into native objects) | ✅ Native to Salesforce, but data is stored externally |
| Data Ownership & Control | ✅ Full control — data stored in Salesforce, no time limits | ⚠️ Salesforce, but historical data needs to be migrated from AWS |
| Activity Auto-Capture | ✅ Yes — emails, calendar, attachments | ✅ Yes — emails and calendar only (no attachments) |
| Email & Calendar Sync | ✅ Bi-directional; supports recurring, shared, and delegated calendars | ⚠️ One-way for many users; no shared/delegated/recurring support |
| Email Attachment Capture | ✅ Attachments saved to Salesforce records | ❌ Not supported |
| Custom Object Support | ✅ Can link emails to custom Salesforce objects | ❌ Only supports Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, Leads |
| Admin Filtering & Control | ✅ Highly configurable (filter by domain, event type, etc.) | ❌ Very limited — few global settings, no filtering rules |
| Reporting & Dashboards | ✅ Full support via native Salesforce reports | ⚠️ Requires paid Einstein Analytics; not in standard objects |
| Pricing Transparency | ❌ Must request quote; depends on feature set | ✅ Free version available; paid options for more storage |
Choosing the right activity tracking solution is critical for sales teams that rely on Salesforce. While Revenue Grid and Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) both automate activity logging, they differ significantly in several key areas. Below, we break down these key differences to help you determine the best fit for your team.
Einstein Activity Capture only supports cloud-based email providers like Office 365 or Gmail. It does not support on-prem Exchange servers, making it unsuitable for organizations with legacy or private email infrastructure.
Revenue Grid offers full support for on-prem Exchange environments (e.g. Exchange 2016, 2019) via EWS or Microsoft Graph with impersonation accounts—even syncing shared and delegated calendars.
One of the biggest differences between Revenue Grid and EAC is data storage.
Revenue Grid stores all logged activity directly within Salesforce, ensuring complete data ownership. This means sales teams can fully leverage Salesforce reports, dashboards, and workflows without restrictions.
Although EAC now stores data in Salesforce, any historical data that was once stored in AWS won’t be restored if a user leaves or licensing changes. This means there can still be gaps in activity history, especially when users transition off the system.
Having a complete view of sales activity is essential for tracking team performance, forecasting revenue, and refining sales strategies.
EAC does not write data to standard Salesforce objects—activities are surfaced in the Activity Timeline UI only and are not usable in Salesforce reports, list views, or workflow rules.
Salesforce offers a paid Einstein Analytics dashboard for EAC data—but it provides read-only visibility, limited to the retention window, and requires additional licensing.
Revenue Grid writes captured data into Salesforce objects, making it fully actionable via standard CRM reports, dashboards, APIs, and workflows. Historic analysis and audit reporting are fully supported.
EAC is limited to each user’s primary calendar. It does not support shared mailboxes or delegated calendars, nor reliable support for recurring event series, and does not sync attachments in event invites.
Revenue Grid offers bidirectional syncing, supports recurring events, captures attachments, and—through admin-configured Exchange impersonation—can sync from shared or assistant-managed calendars.
Einstein Activity Capture automatically logs emails to contacts, leads, accounts, or opportunities, with no ability to choose or exclude specific messages. It does not capture attachments or support custom Salesforce objects.
Revenue Grid allows users/admins to manually approve or block individual emails, capture attachments, and link emails to custom objects or multiple records using smart matching.
Revenue Grid is SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified, offers optional on‑prem/private‑cloud deployment for email sync, and keeps all data in your org under your control.
Einstein Activity Capture operates under Salesforce’s infrastructure, but its external data storage and deletion policy can conflict with retention policies, governance, or data residency requirements.
Administratively, Revenue Grid provides dashboards and logs for monitoring sync jobs and handling failures—whereas EAC offers minimal admin visibility beyond basic toggles.
EAC is easy to enable in Salesforce Setup—but has no granular controls. You cannot filter by event type, internal domains, categories, or users.
Revenue Grid offers extensive sync filters, domain blacklists, event vs. email type exclusions, user grouping, and advanced custom rules—though the depth of customization requires more administrative effort.
When evaluating Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) and Revenue Grid for your organization's needs, it's crucial to consider the potential drawbacks of each platform. User reviews from G2 and Salesforce AppExchange offer valuable insights into these limitations.
While EAC integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, users have reported several concerns:
Data Storage Limitations: Some users note that EAC's data retention policies can be restrictive, leading to challenges in accessing historical activity data.
Customization Constraints: Users mention that EAC offers limited customization options, making it difficult to tailor the platform to specific business processes.
See What Users Have to Say:
Revenue Grid is praised for its feature set, but users have identified certain drawbacks:
Complex Setup: Some users find the initial configuration of Revenue Grid to be complex and time-consuming, requiring dedicated resources for proper implementation.
Learning Curve: Users indicate that the platform's extensive features come with a steep learning curve, necessitating comprehensive training for effective use.
See What Users Have to Say:
It's important to weigh these potential shortcomings against the benefits each platform offers to determine the best fit for your organization's specific requirements.
Activity capture is the process of automatically logging emails, meetings, and calls between sales teams and their prospects or customers. This ensures that all interactions are recorded in the CRM without manual data entry, helping sales reps stay organized and providing managers with a complete view of customer engagement.
There are a number of tools to automate this process by syncing activity data with Salesforce, though they differ in how they store and report on this information. Cirrus Insight is one tool that enables seamless email and calendar sync with comprehensive data control and settings while keeping activity data fully within Salesforce, ensuring better visibility and reporting. Choosing the right activity capture tool depends on factors like data ownership, reporting capabilities, and workflow automation needs.
How to Choose Between Revenue Grid and EAC
Selecting the right activity capture solution depends on your business needs, budget, and how your team leverages Salesforce. Both Revenue Grid and Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) automate email and calendar logging, reducing manual data entry and ensuring sales activities are recorded. However, they differ in key areas such as data storage, reporting capabilities, customization options, and pricing structure.
If you need a basic, no-cost solution that integrates seamlessly with Salesforce for short-term activity capture, EAC may be sufficient—especially for organizations that only require email and calendar sync without deep reporting or long-term data access. However, since EAC once stored data externally, it's historical access is limited and it may not be ideal for teams that rely on Salesforce-native reports and analytics.
On the other hand, Revenue Grid offers a solution, particularly for businesses that prioritize data ownership, reporting, and workflow automation. Due to Revenue Grid's complex nature, users typically require more support during the onboarding phase.
Ultimately, the choice comes down to your organization’s long-term goals. If basic activity tracking is enough and you're comfortable with limited data access, EAC might be the right fit. However, if you need full control over your sales data, deeper reporting, and automation capabilities, Revenue Grid is probably the better option for maximizing CRM efficiency.
Final Verdict
While both Revenue Grid and Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) offer solutions for automating activity capture in Salesforce, they both have their limitations.
Cirrus Insight offers sales teams the best balance of automation, data control, and ease of use. It seamlessly syncs emails, calendars, and tasks directly into Salesforce while keeping data fully within your CRM, ensuring better reporting, compliance, and visibility without extra complexity.