Insightly vs SugarCRM: Which CRM Actually Fits Your Team?

Your ops manager dropped two CRM finalists on your desk. You Google "insightly vs sugarcrm" and get a wall of identical checkmark grids that tell you nothing. Here's the thing: Insightly and SugarCRM serve fundamentally different buyers. Comparing them feature-for-feature is like comparing a Swiss Army knife to a forklift - they both get work done, but you'd look ridiculous using the wrong one.

Insightly is a lightweight, self-serve CRM built for small teams that want to be running in a week. SugarCRM is a mid-market platform designed for B2B sales orgs - especially in manufacturing and distribution - that need their CRM talking to an ERP system. The right choice depends entirely on which of those descriptions sounds like you. If you’re still deciding at a category level, start with a broader list of CRM software options to sanity-check fit.

30-Second Verdict

Use Insightly if: You're a team of 1-15, want built-in project management, and need a CRM you can set up without hiring a consultant. Over 25,000 companies and 1M+ users run Insightly - 73% of its G2 user base is small business. That's not an accident.

Use SugarCRM if: You're a 15+ person B2B sales org in manufacturing or distribution, run an ERP system, and need revenue intelligence from existing order data. Nucleus Research named SugarCRM a leader in Sales Force Automation for 2026, and 47% of Sugar Sell's G2 reviewers are mid-market companies.

Skip both if: You're mid-market without ERP needs - HubSpot or Salesforce will serve you better at scale. (If SugarCRM is on your shortlist anyway, compare it directly against HubSpot in our HubSpot vs SugarCRM breakdown.)

Hot take: If you're genuinely torn between these two, you haven't defined your requirements clearly enough. A 5-person agency and a 30-person distributor shouldn't be evaluating the same shortlist. Period.

Key Changes Heading Into 2026

Both platforms went through major shifts recently. If you're basing your decision on a comparison article from 2023, you're working with stale intel.

The Unbounce-Insightly Merger

Unbounce acquired Insightly in July 2024, creating a combined company of 200+ employees under CEO Steve Oriola. Both brands continue operating independently for now, but the strategic play is clear: Unbounce gets first-party CRM data for better marketing attribution, and Insightly gets Unbounce's AI/ML talent to accelerate its AI roadmap. Insightly's SVP of Engineering and VP of Marketing joined Unbounce's senior leadership team.

What this means for buyers: Insightly's AI features should improve faster than they would have independently. But there were "some reductions" in staff from consolidation, which can slow feature development and support response times in the near term.

SugarCRM's sales-i Integration

This is the bigger deal for the comparison.

SugarCRM fully integrated its sales-i acquisition into Sugar Sell as of May 2025. sales-i analyzes ERP data - customer orders, product history, purchasing patterns - to surface cross-sell, upsell, and churn risk insights. The results are real: Chassis Cab boosted sales 24%, Nappa Auto Parts saw CRM adoption jump from 40% to 95%, and FSIoffice achieved 40% improved sales efficiency. For manufacturing and distribution companies already running Epicor, NetSuite, or SAP, this is a genuine differentiator that no other CRM in this price range offers.

Insightly's Free Plan Is Gone

As of October 2024, Insightly removed its free plan entirely. The cheapest option is now Plus at $29/user/month, billed annually only. No monthly billing option exists. If you're a solo founder who was counting on a free CRM, look at HubSpot's free tier or Zoho instead.

Pricing Breakdown - The Numbers Nobody Shows You

Pricing is where this comparison gets interesting, because the sticker prices hide some ugly math.

Insightly Pricing

All tiers are annual billing only. No minimums - a single user can sign up.

Here's my issue with the Plus tier: it's a bait-and-switch. No AI Copilot, no workflow automation, only 50 custom fields, and just 2 role-based permissions (Professional and Enterprise get unlimited). For $29/user/month, you're getting a contact database with project management bolted on. The real Insightly experience starts at Professional ($49), which is where automation and AI kick in. Those storage limits also matter - 100k records and 10GB fills up fast for a growing team.

SugarCRM Pricing

| Tier | Price | Min Users | Min Annual Cost | |------|-------|-----------|-----------------| | Standard | $59/user/mo | 15 | $10,620 | | Advanced | $85/user/mo | 15 | $15,300 | | Premier | $135/user/mo | 15 | $24,300 |

All tiers are annual billing with a hard 15-user minimum. A "Sell Essentials" tier at $19/user/month appears on G2, though it isn't prominently listed on SugarCRM's main pricing page - ask your sales rep about it if you're exploring lower-cost entry points.

One thing worth flagging: Insightly's own comparison page still shows SugarCRM starting at $49/user/month. It's actually $59 now. Not a great look for a company asking you to trust their data.

The 15-User Minimum Problem

This is the single biggest factor in this comparison, and most articles bury it.

If you have 5 salespeople, Insightly Professional costs $2,940/year. SugarCRM Standard costs $10,620/year - and you're paying for 10 seats nobody sits in. That's $7,680/year for ghost users.

At 15+ users, the math shifts. SugarCRM Standard at $59/user is only $10 more per seat than Insightly Professional at $49/user. For a 20-person team, that's $14,160 vs $11,760 annually - a $2,400 gap that's easy to justify if you need ERP integration.

The 15-user minimum makes SugarCRM economically irrational for small teams and perfectly reasonable for mid-market ones. That's by design.

SugarCRM also marks AI features on the Advanced tier with an asterisk, meaning they're add-ons with unpublished pricing. You'll need to sit through a demo and negotiate just to find out what "intelligent lead prioritization" actually costs. Hiding pricing behind sales calls is a tax on RevOps teams trying to build a budget.

Free trials tell you something about confidence: Insightly gives you 14 days, SugarCRM gives you 7.

Feature Comparison: Where Each CRM Wins

Where Insightly Wins

Built-in project management is Insightly's genuine differentiator. No other CRM at this price point lets you convert a closed deal into a project with tasks, milestones, and pipelines - all in the same platform. For agencies, consulting firms, and service businesses, this eliminates the need for a separate Asana or Monday.com subscription.

The UI is also meaningfully better. G2 reviewers mention "ease of use" 29 times as a top pro - more than double SugarCRM's 13 mentions. We've seen teams get Insightly configured and running in under a week with zero outside help. That matters when you don't have a dedicated admin.

Insightly's AppConnect integration engine connects to 2,000+ apps with a no-code builder. The catch: it starts at $249/month with a $3,000 technical setup fee. That's a steep add-on for a CRM that positions itself as affordable. If you’re evaluating automation across your stack, it helps to understand CRM integration tradeoffs before you commit.

Where SugarCRM Wins

SugarCRM wins on three fronts that Insightly can't touch:

ERP data analysis. The sales-i integration pulls order history, product data, and purchasing patterns directly from your ERP. If you're a distributor with 10,000 SKUs and 500 accounts, this surfaces which customers are buying less, which products are trending, and where cross-sell opportunities hide. No other CRM in this tier does this.

Complex workflow automation. Sugar BPM handles multi-step, conditional workflows that Insightly's automation can't match. One G2 reviewer praised it for automatically pulling in social and corporate data for new contacts - the kind of enrichment that saves reps 30+ minutes per day. (If you’re standardizing flows across teams, use a lead qualification process to keep automation aligned with routing and SLAs.)

On-premise deployment. If your compliance team requires on-premise hosting - common in manufacturing and government - SugarCRM offers it at $85/user/month. Insightly is cloud-only.

SugarCRM also includes a customer portal and ticketing system natively via Sugar Serve ($80/user/month). Insightly offers ticketing as a separate Service product ($29-$99/user/month).

The Full Feature Table

AI and Revenue Intelligence

This is where the comparison gets genuinely interesting, because both platforms took very different AI approaches.

Insightly's AI Copilot is straightforward: email summaries, AI-generated replies, and record management queries. It's available on Professional (75 queries/month) and Enterprise (100 queries/month). Think of it as a lightweight assistant that saves you 10 minutes per day on email triage. Useful, not game-changing. If you’re benchmarking this category, see how teams evaluate AI lead scoring versus traditional models.

SugarCRM's Sugar Intelligence is a different animal entirely. It combines CRM data with ERP data to deliver forecasting, churn prediction ("spot churn 30 days earlier"), meeting prep summaries ("prep for meetings in 60 seconds, not 30 minutes"), and real-time alerts on engagement drops or buying behavior shifts.

The customer results back this up: Office360 saw 58% revenue growth year-over-year, Alto-Shaam reported 61% higher opportunity close rates, Creative Foam exceeded their annual sales goal by 44%, and Sun State International Trucks gained 10% productivity improvement. These aren't hypothetical - they're published case studies from companies running the integrated platform.

Here's the frustration: SugarCRM marks most AI features with an asterisk on the Advanced tier, meaning they're add-ons with unpublished pricing. You can't budget for "intelligent lead prioritization" or "generative AI" without getting on a call with sales first. For a platform targeting mid-market companies that need to build business cases, this opacity is maddening.

If you're a manufacturing company with ERP data sitting in Epicor or NetSuite, SugarCRM's AI is the clear winner - it can actually analyze your order history and predict revenue patterns. If you're a 10-person agency that just wants AI to draft email replies, Insightly's Copilot does the job without the complexity.

Ease of Use and Implementation

Insightly implementation timeline:

• Basic setup: 1-2 weeks
• With customization: 2-4 weeks
• No partner required

SugarCRM implementation timeline:

• Basic: 2-4 weeks
• Advanced (custom objects, integrations): 4-8 weeks
• Enterprise (complex security, multiple roles): 8-16 weeks
• Most implementations require a certified partner

The gap here is significant.

Insightly is genuinely self-serve - a competent ops person can have it running in a week. SugarCRM almost always requires professional services, which adds $5,000-$20,000+ to your implementation cost depending on complexity.

G2 data tells the story clearly. Insightly has 29 mentions of "ease of use" as a top pro. SugarCRM has 13 - and 6 mentions of "learning curve" as a con. One SugarCRM reviewer put it bluntly: "The user experience can be a bit of a hurdle for new hires. The interface feels a little busy and dated."

Insightly isn't without friction. Users note that advanced features like deeper automation and reporting are locked behind higher tiers, and occasional syncing delays with third-party integrations pop up. But the baseline learning curve is dramatically lower.

I've seen at least three teams in the past year try to self-implement SugarCRM to save money. It rarely ends well. The platform's power comes from customization, and customization requires expertise. Budget for a partner or budget for frustration - pick one.

What Real Users Say - Ratings Across Every Platform

Single-platform ratings lie. Here's how both CRMs stack up everywhere that matters:

Insightly wins on volume and consistency. Its G2 star distribution skews positive: 58% five-star, 29% four-star. SugarCRM's distribution is flatter: 45% five-star, but 8% combined one- and two-star reviews (vs. Insightly's 3%).

SugarCRM's Trustpilot score of 2.5/5 from 144 reviews is a red flag. The #1 complaint: "Each upgrade brings issues and new bugs, it is very frustrating." Integration issues also surface repeatedly - "difficult to find integration that matches our needs, always have to rely on codes."

Insightly's main criticism on G2: "Advanced features like deeper automation and reporting are locked behind higher-tier plans" and "can feel a bit limited for very large sales teams." Fair points - but these are scaling problems, not quality problems.

One quirk: SugarCRM has fragmented G2 profiles. The main "Sugar Sell" profile has 775 reviews, but a separate "SugarCRM" profile exists with only 3 reviews. If you're doing your own research, make sure you're looking at Sugar Sell.

Security-wise, Cuspera rates Insightly as low risk across the board. SugarCRM carries a medium security risk rating - flag that for your IT team during evaluation.

Who Should Choose Which - Scenario Recommendations

Stop comparing feature lists. Start with your situation.

The quick-decision matrix

The scenarios that need more context

You're a growing startup that wants CRM + project management in one tool. Insightly Professional is the play. Converting closed deals into managed projects without switching platforms is a genuine workflow win. Just know that you'll outgrow it around 50 users - plan your migration path early.

You're a 20-person B2B sales team in manufacturing with Epicor or NetSuite. SugarCRM Advanced plus sales-i, full stop. The math: $85/user/month x 20 users = $20,400/year. Insightly Professional for the same team is $11,760/year - but it can't touch your ERP data. That $8,640 gap buys you churn prediction, cross-sell intelligence, and revenue forecasting from your actual order history. Chassis Cab boosted sales 24% with this setup.

Don't make this mistake: picking SugarCRM because you think you'll "grow into" the 15-user minimum. If you have 7 people today and optimistic hiring plans, you're paying for 8 ghost seats while you wait. Start with Insightly and migrate when you actually hit 15.

What Neither CRM Solves - Your Data Problem

Both Insightly and SugarCRM are data containers. They manage relationships, track deals, and run reports. What they don't do is find the contacts you need to fill them.

A CRM without accurate data is an expensive address book. If your team is feeling the pain, fix data quality before you blame the CRM.

This is where a B2B data layer like Prospeo fits - 98% email accuracy, a 7-day data refresh cycle, and CRM enrichment returning 50+ data points per contact. It connects to Insightly or SugarCRM via Zapier, with native integrations for Salesforce and HubSpot. The free tier gives you 75 verified emails per month to test data quality before committing. If you’re building the workflow end-to-end, start with a clean import leads process and a repeatable refresh cadence.

FAQ

Is SugarCRM worth it for small teams?

No. The 15-user minimum means a 5-person team pays $10,620/year on Standard - $7,080 of that for empty seats. Insightly Professional at $49/user/month with no minimums is the rational choice for teams under 15. SugarCRM only makes economic sense when you're actually filling those 15 seats.

Does Insightly still have a free plan?

No. Insightly removed its free plan in October 2024. The cheapest option is Plus at $29/user/month, billed annually only - no monthly billing exists. A 14-day free trial is available for Plus and Professional tiers. Budget-conscious teams under 5 users should look at HubSpot's free CRM or Zoho.

Which CRM has better AI features in 2026?

SugarCRM's Sugar Intelligence is more advanced - especially with sales-i for ERP-connected companies, offering churn prediction, forecasting, and revenue intelligence from actual order data. Insightly's AI Copilot is simpler but included on the Professional tier at $49/user/month with no hidden add-on costs. For most small teams, Insightly's transparent approach is more practical.

Can I use Insightly or SugarCRM for project management?

Insightly includes built-in project management at all tiers - a genuine differentiator among CRMs at this price point. You can convert closed deals into projects with tasks, milestones, and pipelines without switching tools. SugarCRM doesn't offer native project management; you'd need a separate tool like Asana or Monday.com.

How do I get accurate contact data into either CRM?

Neither Insightly nor SugarCRM includes native B2B data sourcing. Tools like Prospeo push verified emails and direct dials into your CRM via Zapier for both platforms - with 98% email accuracy and a free tier of 75 verified emails per month to test before committing.