Capsule CRM vs Insightly: Which CRM Actually Deserves Your Money in 2026?

Every Capsule CRM vs Insightly comparison on page one is written by a competing CRM vendor - monday.com (whose #1 result is AI-generated via Perplexity), folk.app, even Capsule itself. Half of them still list Insightly's free plan, which doesn't exist anymore. Folk.app still claims Insightly offers unlimited records - it doesn't; limits run 100K to 500K depending on tier. The other half get Capsule's pricing wrong.

Here's an honest comparison built on actual G2 data, verified pricing, and the hidden costs nobody wants to talk about.

30-Second Verdict

Capsule wins for most small teams. It's cheaper, easier to use, better supported, and outscores Insightly on every single G2 dimension. Insightly wins only if you need deep project management baked into your CRM - and can stomach the add-on costs that quietly double your bill.

What Each CRM Actually Costs in 2026

Most comparison pages get Insightly's pricing wrong - and it's not an accident. The CRM sticker price looks reasonable. The add-ons are where it gets ugly.

Capsule CRM Pricing

Capsule's pricing is straightforward. No hidden modules, no surprise setup fees.

All paid plans are billed annually with a 14-day free trial. Monthly billing runs roughly 14% higher. Capsule also offers 20% off monthly pricing for the first 12 months through G2 Deals - worth checking before you commit.

Insightly CRM Pricing

The CRM tiers look competitive until you see what's sold separately.

CRM Plans:

Those daily email sending limits matter. If your team runs outbound sequences from the CRM, 2,500 emails per day on the Plus plan caps a 10-person team at 250 sends each. That's tight for any serious outreach operation (see our guide to email pacing and sending limits).

The add-ons nobody mentions:

Insightly also sells All-in-One bundles starting at $349/month (Plus) through $2,599/month (Enterprise). These bundle CRM, marketing, and service - but the price jump from standalone CRM is steep enough that most small teams won't touch them.

What a 10-Person Team Actually Pays

This is the number that matters.

Capsule Growth: 10 users x $36/mo x 12 = $4,320/year. That's it. Automation, 5 pipelines, AI assists, 77 native integrations - all included.

Insightly Professional + AppConnect: 10 users x $49/mo x 12 = $5,880 CRM. Add $249/mo x 12 = $2,988 for AppConnect. Add $3,000 setup fee. Add $3,000 for premium support (optional but common - without it, phone support cuts off at 4pm Pacific). Total: $14,868 year one. Drop the setup fee in year two and you're still at $11,868.

That's a 3.4x price difference. For a CRM that scores lower on every G2 metric.

Ease of Use and Setup

The G2 data here isn't close.

Capsule beats Insightly on ease of use (9.4 vs 8.4), ease of setup (9.3 vs 8.3), and ease of admin (9.4 vs 8.5). A full point on G2's 10-point scale represents a meaningful difference in daily experience. Capsule's G2 reviews tell a consistent story: 85% of reviewers give it five stars, and the #1 praised attribute across 469 reviews is ease of use with 98 mentions. One reviewer nailed it: "Capsule struck the perfect balance between being powerful and easy to use... The global word search in particular is brilliant."

That said, Capsule's most common G2 complaints - missing features (21 mentions) and limited customization (14 mentions) - reflect its intentional simplicity. If you need deep custom objects or complex multi-level reporting, that's a real trade-off. Capsule chose to be excellent at the basics rather than mediocre at everything.

Insightly's picture is more mixed. 58% five-star reviews - decent, but not in the same league. PCMag calls out "fast setup," but G2 users tell a different story: "learning curve" appears in 11 separate reviews. Advanced features like deeper automation and reporting are locked behind higher tiers, which means the tool you demo isn't the tool you get on the Plus plan.

If you're a small team without a dedicated CRM admin, Capsule is the safer bet. You'll be running pipelines on day one instead of watching onboarding videos.

Features Head-to-Head

Contact and Pipeline Management

Capsule scales pipeline capacity across tiers: 1 pipeline on Starter, 5 on Growth, up to 100 on Ultimate. Contact limits range from 250 (free) to 240,000 (Ultimate). The interface is clean Kanban-style boards - nothing revolutionary, but nothing confusing either (if you want a deeper ops view, see B2B sales pipeline management).

Insightly uses a similar Kanban pipeline view. Record limits run 100K (Plus) through 500K (Enterprise). Where Insightly pulls ahead: custom objects on Professional and above, which let you model non-standard data relationships. If your business tracks assets, properties, or inventory alongside deals, that matters.

Project Management

This is the one area where Insightly genuinely outclasses Capsule.

Capsule gives you project boards from the Growth tier ($36/user/month). They're Kanban-style, tied to your contacts and deals, with "Tracks" - pre-defined task sequences for repeating processes like client onboarding. Simple and effective for lightweight PM.

Insightly's project management is deeper. You can convert won opportunities directly into projects, maintain linked records throughout, and use the same custom fields and workflows. G2 reviewers consistently cite this as Insightly's strongest feature: "What I like best about Insightly is how it combines CRM and project management in one platform." If project management is your primary use case - not a nice-to-have - Insightly has the edge.

Skip Insightly's PM if: you already use Asana, Monday, or Notion for project management. Paying a CRM premium for built-in PM you won't use is throwing money away.

Workflow Automation and AI

Capsule unlocks workflow automation at the Growth tier: automated tasks, email notifications, and stage-change triggers. AI features include Email Assist (Starter+), AI Business Enrichment (Growth+), interaction summaries, and a Pipeline Generator. AI Contact Enrichment - pulling job titles, seniority, and professional profile data - requires the Advanced tier at $54/user/month.

Insightly gates workflow automation behind Professional ($49/user/month). Its Copilot AI assistant handles conversational task management, data hygiene suggestions, and insight generation. PCMag's verdict on Insightly's AI: "underwhelming." Copilot gets 75 queries on Professional and 100 on Enterprise - not exactly unlimited.

Neither is production-ready for serious sales automation. But Capsule gives you automation at a lower price point, which matters more than AI features most teams won't use (related: CRM integration for sales automation).

Reporting and Analytics

Capsule offers basic reporting on Starter, with advanced sales analytics and customizable dashboards from Growth onward. It covers pipeline velocity, win rates, and activity tracking. The common G2 complaint - and we've heard this pattern from multiple teams we've spoken with - is that "reporting could be more advanced." For teams that need board-ready pipeline reports, this is Capsule's weakest spot. You'll likely end up exporting to Google Sheets or a BI tool for anything beyond standard sales metrics.

Insightly leans harder into analytics - it's the only one of the two categorized under "Sales Analytics" on G2. Pre-built dashboards come standard on Plus, with custom report builders on Professional. Insightly also supports calculated fields and scheduled report delivery, which Capsule doesn't offer natively. If you need polished pipeline reports without exporting to a spreadsheet, Insightly's reporting is more capable (see also: revenue dashboards).

Mobile Experience

Both CRMs offer iOS and Android apps, but neither is a standout.

G2 reviewers note that Capsule's mobile app "isn't as smooth as desktop" - functional for checking contacts and logging notes on the go, but don't expect to run your pipeline from your phone. Insightly's mobile app covers core CRM functions but lacks some advanced features available on desktop. If your team has field sales reps who live on their phones, test both apps during the trial period before committing (and consider the broader B2B sales tech stack you’ll need around it).

Integrations - The Biggest Gap Nobody Mentions

This is where the comparison gets lopsided.

Capsule offers 77 native integrations: accounting (Xero, QuickBooks, FreshBooks), marketing (Mailchimp, lemlist), helpdesk (Zendesk, Help Scout), telephony (JustCall, Kixie), plus Zapier, Make, and Microsoft Power Automate for everything else. You connect tools on day one without paying extra.

Insightly offers 6 native integrations: Aurora Solar, Calendly, Egnyte, Microsoft 365, Outlook, and Slack. That's the complete list per G2's verified data.

Insightly claims 500+ integrations via AppConnect. Technically true - but AppConnect starts at $249/month with a $3,000 setup fee. So the "500+ integrations" marketing is really "6 free integrations + 500 that cost $6,000+ in year one."

Use Capsule if:

You rely on Xero, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, Zendesk, or any common SMB stack. Everything connects natively.

Skip Insightly if:

Your team uses more than Outlook, Slack, and Calendly. The AppConnect tax is brutal for small teams.

Who Uses Each CRM - and What That Tells You

The user bases reveal what each tool is actually built for.

Capsule skews heavily SMB: 93.6% of G2 reviewers are small businesses. Geographically, it's a European tool - 64% of reviewers are in Europe, with 21% in North America. Top industries: consulting, marketing & advertising, IT services. Capsule serves 10,000+ customers globally and supports English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Insightly has a broader spread: 73% small business, 20% mid-market, 7% enterprise. It's a North American tool - 77% of reviewers are in the US and Canada. Top industries: marketing & advertising, IT services, construction. Insightly serves 1.5 million users across 25,000+ organizations and is now owned by Unbounce.

The takeaway: if you're a 15-person consulting firm in London, Capsule's user base looks like you. If you're a 200-person construction company in Texas, Insightly's mid-market footprint is more relevant.

G2 Ratings Breakdown: Capsule vs Insightly

Capsule outscores Insightly on every single G2 dimension. Not most. All seven.

The quality of support gap is the most telling: 9.4 vs 8.1. Capsule offers human-led support across all tiers with no chatbot walls. Insightly's phone support runs 9am-4pm Pacific on Plus and Professional plans. Want extended hours? That's the $3,000+/year premium support add-on.

Star distribution tells the rest of the story. Capsule: 85% five-star, 12% four-star, essentially zero negative reviews. Insightly: 58% five-star, 29% four-star, with 3% at two stars or below.

The product direction score (9.3 vs 8.0) matters for anyone signing a multi-year deal. Capsule users feel confident about where the product is heading. Insightly users are less sure - and given the Unbounce acquisition, that uncertainty isn't unfounded.

What Both CRMs Get Wrong

Here's the thing neither Capsule nor Insightly solves: garbage in, garbage out.

You can have the cleanest pipeline views and the slickest automation workflows, but if 15% of your contact emails bounce, your sequences tank and your domain reputation suffers. Neither CRM includes built-in email verification. Capsule's AI Contact Enrichment (Advanced tier, $54/user/month) pulls basic firmographic data - job titles, seniority - but doesn't verify whether an email address actually works. Insightly's Copilot focuses on task management and data hygiene suggestions, not contact accuracy (see: how to keep CRM data clean and data quality).

The Verdict - Which CRM Should You Pick?

You're a team under 20 people who wants simplicity: Capsule Growth at $36/user/month. You get automation, 5 pipelines, AI features, and 77 native integrations. It's the best value in this comparison by a wide margin.

You need serious project management inside your CRM: Insightly Professional at $49/user/month - but budget for the real cost. AppConnect, premium support, and marketing automation can push your annual spend past $15K for a 10-person team. Go in with eyes open.

You're price-sensitive and just getting started: Capsule's free tier (2 users, 250 contacts) beats Insightly's 14-day trial. You can run a real workflow for months before deciding to upgrade. And no - Insightly no longer has a free plan, despite what other comparison pages still claim.

You're a European team: Capsule. 64% of its user base is in Europe, support aligns with your time zones, and the product roadmap reflects European business needs.

You're mid-market (100-500 employees): Look, neither tool is built for you. Insightly has more mid-market users (20% of its base), but at that scale you should evaluate HubSpot's Sales Hub or Salesforce Starter. Pipedrive is worth a look if you're purely sales-focused - it starts at ~$14/user/month and does pipeline management exceptionally well. Bigin by Zoho ($7/user/month) and Freshsales ($9/user/month) are strong options if budget is the primary constraint (start with our roundup of CRM software for small businesses).

My hot take: Insightly's pricing structure is designed to look competitive at the sticker price and extract value through add-ons. A $29/user CRM that requires a $249/month integration platform and $3,000/year premium support isn't a $29 CRM. It's a $50-80/user CRM wearing a discount costume. If your average deal size is under $15K, you almost certainly don't need that level of complexity - and you definitely don't need to pay for it.

When comparing Capsule CRM vs Insightly, the data points in one direction: Capsule delivers more value per dollar for the vast majority of small teams.

FAQ

Does Insightly still have a free plan?

No. Insightly discontinued its free plan. The cheapest option is the Plus plan at $29/user/month (billed annually) with a 14-day trial. Several comparison sites still list a free tier - that information is outdated. Capsule still offers a genuinely free plan for 2 users and 250 contacts.

Can I use Insightly without AppConnect?

Yes, but you'll be limited to 6 native integrations: Calendly, Microsoft 365, Outlook, Slack, Egnyte, and Aurora Solar. AppConnect unlocks 500+ integrations but starts at $249/month plus a $3,000 setup fee. Most teams using more than basic Microsoft tools will need it.

Which CRM has better customer support?

Capsule scores 9.4/10 on G2 for quality of support versus Insightly's 8.1/10. Capsule provides human-led support across all tiers with no chatbot walls. Insightly's phone support runs 9am-4pm PT on lower tiers, and premium support with extended hours costs $3,000+/year.

Is Capsule CRM or Insightly better for small businesses?

For most small businesses, Capsule is the stronger pick - it's cheaper ($18-$72/user/month vs $29-$99/user/month), easier to use (9.4 vs 8.4 on G2), and includes 77 native integrations without add-on fees. The exception: if your team needs CRM and project management in one tool and you're willing to pay the premium, Insightly's PM capabilities are genuinely stronger.

How do I keep my CRM data accurate after setup?

Use a dedicated verification tool before importing contacts. Neither CRM includes email verification natively, and bad data tanks deliverability fast. Prospeo's enrichment tools handle this at ~$0.01 per email with Zapier integrations for both Capsule and Insightly, and the free tier (75 emails/month) lets you test the workflow risk-free.