17 years helping Canadian businesses
choose better software
About SugarCRM
SugarCRM is one of the world's leading CRM solutions, ideal for organisations with between 50 to 5,000 employees across all industries.
That's always a good thing. At first glance, it seemed like it would be easy to use and an inexpensive fix to a client tracking problem in a new division.
A bit difficult to install and set but in the end I did it.
Filter reviews (412)
Sort by
Filter reviews (412)
Alternatives Considered:
SugarCRM is the best and will always be the best.
Comments: Awesome experience, and I would recommend them to others.
Pros:
I like how easy it is to find the information I am looking for from projects, leads and contacts
Cons:
The cost would be the least I like about the software, but it is still a very good price, not the worst and it could always be a bit cheaper.
Alternatives Considered:
Round the clock support
Pros:
First of all SugarCRM has a great set of features that outperforms many competitors. It comes with round the clock support and user forums for quick fixes and learning. Pipeline management and analysis powered by AI both thoroughly impressed me. I liked the integration with marketing.Dashlets are great organizers and lists are adjustable by filters. SugarCRM is customizable on many fronts.
Cons:
I don't like how much we're paying for Sugar CRM. I don't like the learning curve that comes with it, it's hard even with great support. To me it doesn't look like enough care was taken to make a user friendly interface.Permissions for the entire team proved to be one of the worst tasks next to getting contacts imported which I had to do manually.
Alternatives Considered:
Lots of bugs, terrible customer support. Spend a little more for something that works.
Comments: You get what you pay for. It's an average platform with some significant drawbacks that aren't realized until you've signed on the line and are trying to onboard it. We use Sage as our base platform and had intended to use Sugar to allow our teams to work in one system and have it communicate with Sage. In theory, this saves us time, entering data in one window instead of multiple tabs in Sage. However, in many instances, Sugar cannot write to Sage. That's a one-way street, so many tasks still require manual entry in Sage. It's also very clunky. The data refreshes/synchs very slowly, so you're rarely looking at real-time data. It will refresh and reload pages while you're actively working in them, deleting your progress and forcing you to start the process over. Creating dashboards and reports requires the user to be literate in tech talk and computer logic. Trying to navigate the back end to find the data you're looking for takes ages. I haven't even tried playing with the workflow builder because I can't find the time to teach myself how to build a report or dashboard, much less anything more complex. We have identified numerous shortcomings, but when we contact Sugar Support, they tell us it's a bug they're working on with no timetable for a solution. Apparently, there are a LOT of bugs.
Pros:
The system is easy to use in theory. The UI is decent and processes are intuitive. The price point is attractive since the company boasts that it parallells other higher-priced options in features and functionality. The onboarding was fairly simple and adjusting to the system was not difficult.
Cons:
Customer service is abysmal. Our original contract included six limited use licenses designed to let our leadership team review content across all areas of the system (able to view all, but not edit certain elements). However, they did not work as promised and we ultimately had to purchase the more expensive licenses to allow our team access. When we made the purchase, the team at Sugar deactviated all other licenses on our account, despite the fact that we were only half way through our annual contract, which we'd already paid for. I tried calling their domestic customer support line and got voicemail. I eventually reached technical support via email, who had to relay my request to another department. Our business was effectively offline for half a day while this was sorted out and our access was restored. Two weeks later, I received an EMAIL from our Customer Success rep. She apologized for her late response and asked me to outline the issue. I did so and requested a call to discuss the incident. I never received another follow-up email, much less a phone call. Between bugs with the licenses, bugs with the search/filter, email issues, and zero customer support, I cannot understate how disappointed I am in this purchase and this company as a whole.
Alternatives Considered:
Indeed a great CRM with effective results
Comments: Overall my experience with this CRM is great. I am using it daily and I can say that my daily work is incomplete without it. It is so simple to use and provides amazing results for reports and dashboards, their customer's support team is very responsive.
Pros:
I am using it for more than three years and like almost everything about it. This CRM is very easy to use because of its simple design and easy to use user interface. I like the way SugarCRM provides reports and dashboards which is very easy to understand. SugarCRM provides secruity of data and information and now I can handle the different campaigns, create a different campaign for anyone and even get a complete picture of it very easily.
Cons:
I would like to highlight one thing that I dislike about it which is its overall cost. A small organization may not afford this CRM but overall it is worth to spend on it.
A complete history of calls, emails, and customers in one location only
Comments: SugarCRM offers you a way to monitor all the clients and leaflet details so you can keep everyone within the business on the same page, from ads to distribution to support to everyone to work with a system to get a detailed view of what is going on for each and every customer and future buyers. This is where I can show the details that are most important for my day, whether it is my channeling of potential clients, the weekly operation and predictions from my staff, or my allocated customer service cases. The home page can be personalized for any division of Sample with exactly the right details for every user. The browser bar at the top of the screen is the preferred position, but it can be placed sideways, floating or at the bottom.
Pros:
The software provides a robust search feature that allows you to search by name, phone number, and other data values that I need. A standard profile account view would highlight the key information in the configuration of the presentation card, which may include phone number categorizations and to whom the account is allocated, for example. Admin software provided with SugarCRM enables the setup of each screen such that The company wants, including adding personalized infinite areas, changing values on any deployable list, and arranging everything and all. Another main way in which I can use SugarCRM phones or tablets when out of the office, helps you to extract some data through searches and tables, you can quickly call a contact and when you have a call.
Cons:
You will choose to separate and divide the data into different categories. one way that you might do this is through searches, you will get to sort so many that you can get lost in so much dating.
We re-engineered Sugar to work with our sales process.
Pros:
SugarCRM makes it easy for the sales department to save information about customers and clients ,and follow up with service cases.Fantastic customer support team ,and as administrator,I am glad at how helpful the SugarCRM team has been to me over the years. SugarCRM is open source too,and thus we have been able to tweak this Customer Relationship Management system ,to fit into our current business environment and in-house sales process.And I think this is the best part of this CRM.
Cons:
Average user interface. However since it is an open source solution ,it is probably very much expected.
Make more sales with SugarCRM
Pros:
SugarCRM has a good support team, which makes it a reliable system that is easy to use and maintain. The process of adding leads, nurturing them is way easy. We can create segment anytime using the filters.
Cons:
I feel user interface can be improved. The UI look bit outdated. There is again possibility that the user experience could have been improved. The platform might be times when it is bit slow time to time.
This was always going to be a stepping stone for us
Comments: Implementation was rough, but most of that was on us. We should have hired a consultant and had rock solid best practices in place, but we didn't. Growth and support was a nightmare because we didn't employ a full timer with the right skill set to maintain it. Have since corrected those mistakes and moved to SalesForce. So much better!
Pros:
A big step up from our legacy CRM (ACT). With the right resources, it was manageable.
Cons:
We did not allocate the right resources and opted to implement the free community version. We paid for that dearly with disorganization and mistakes. We should have hired a consultant to help us.
Have too much to config and set up, rgreat custom stuff but kinda plain and boring
Comments: if you need an online crm this can do good for you, Others are also less expensive but with less features.
Pros:
Is a very good software at least the on-demand version I use. as a CRM is very good but it also tries to be a help desk and it is not. very reliable and love to extract the raw data to excel and do whatever I want with the data
Cons:
Much complicated, too much to customize, and configurate, the access levels and roles are not easy to set up. takes times to deploy, and cost per seat, is kinda expensive.
In the past, I have been a SugarCRM administrator for a Software Sales company.
Comments: The software itself was a great place to house my data in an organized fashion. I was able to report upon the data, and additionally could assign and reassign accounts and contacts with ease. This was a value driven solution for my company at the time, since Salesforce was too pricey.
Pros:
There is a lot of simplicity with using SugarCRM. It was straightforward, and user friendly. The value of the product is pretty good for what you are paying, and it is relatively easy to administer. There are different directions you can go with reporting, for example: tabular, summary and matrix report types. I integrated this CRM with Pardot Marketing Automation software and was not disappointed with the integration, as it worked pretty seamlessly together.
Cons:
This CRM obviously is more economic than the likes of Salesforce - but you get what you pay for. I found it difficult to manage my duplicate records, and a lot of the bells and whistles that could potentially make your work flow easier are not present. I would consider this a "bare bones" CRM solution.
SugаrCRM: Bооst yоur busіnеss
Comments: Thе Sugаr рlаtfоrm wоrks vеry wеll аnd іs quіtе sсаlаblе асrоss оrgаnіzаtіоns оf аll sіzеs.
Pros:
Eхсеllеnt dаtаbаsе systеm. Cаn bе соріеd tо оthеr sеrvеrs. Custоm fіеlds. Abіlіty tо lіnk CRM dаtа tо dеаls. Gооd usеr іntеrfасе. Wе usе SugаrCRM аs оur рrіmаry tооl іn trасkіng аррlісаtіоns, dеtеrmіnіng еlіgіbіlіty, аnd mаnаgіng раymеnts fоr сhіldrеn іn рublісly fundеd рrеsсhооl рrоgrаms. Althоugh іt wаs рrіmаrіly dеsіgnеd аs а sаlеs tооl, wе usе іt lеss аs fоr sаlеs (gіvеn thаt wе аrе nоt а sаlеs оrgаnіzаtіоn) аnd mоrе аs а rеlаtіоnshір mаnаgеmеnt аnd ассоuntіng tооl. Wе hаvе а vеry smаll tеаm (10 реорlе tоtаl), but wе аll usе Sugаr оn а dаіly bаsіs.
Cons:
Rеаlly, rеаlly fіnd іt а hаsslе (аt lеаst rіght nоw) tо synс Sugаr wіth оur mаrkеtіng аutоmаtіоn sоftwаrе. Wе usе а 3rd раrty API аs оur соnnесtоr bеtwееn thе twо systеms but I fіnd glіtсhеs іn іt thаt соnсеrn mе аnd mаkе mе wоndеr іf аll my іnfоrmаtіоn іs bеіng ассurаtеly trаnsmіttеd аnd mаtсhеd uр. Sugаr wаsn't vеry іntuіtіvе whеn I fіrst bеgаn usіng іt. Wе rесеntly hаd а 3rd раrty соmе іn tо rеdеsіgn thе systеm fоr us аnd оnсе іt wаs сustоmіzеd, іt wаs muсh bеttеr. Sеаrсh funсtіоn dоеsn't аlwаys sееm tо wоrk іn thе tор nаv bаr- frustrаtіng whеn I'm tryіng tо fіnd sоmеthіng fаst аnd dоn't wаnt tо gо іntо а mоdulе tо dо іt.
Bargain paid open source CRM with lots of power
Comments: In my opinion, one of the top two open source CRM apps. A responsive web interface which works the same on all smartphones tablets laptops and desktop computers, no app required. The CRM of choice used by many upstart aggressive disruptive companies of all sizes. Highly cost effective, and expandable with tons of third party PHP modules available from the SugarOutfitters app store, such as connectors to your phone system, document system, marketing automation, reports, social media, etc. A complete bargain when compared with the usual salesforce which runs inside a restricted environment. Way more customizable because you have the wide ranging freedom of adding the latest innovations of PHP code to strengthen and automate your CRM.
Pros:
Open source roots. Benefits from the rising tide of PHP innovations which let you keep up to date by adding new modules for a very affordable prices. There is a massive community of PHP developers available to help build custom modules for you for cheap prices, if you don't have PHP programming skills.
Cons:
It can take some time to get used to how to use it. Also, it's too bad the free SugarCRM CE (Community Edition) version 6.5.25 is somewhat outdated, and updated only to fix security bugs. Although, it's about 75% the same features as the paid current version of SugarCRM Pro 7.8.
Even the free version is great, with nice custom reporting capabilities.
Comments: Sugar allowed us to consolidate a few disparate software tools into one - now any one at our organization can login and see all there is to know about any of our customers!
Pros:
Sugar is SUPER customizable. We've been able to easily make it ours (some via the UI, some "behind the scenes" via scripts). One of the best features are the custom reports. You can do almost SQL-level queries to get the information you want (and if you wish, you can use MySQL as well on the back end.) The ability to build multi-level dropdowns, e.g. to categorize issues, is great too. You can make almost anything you want appear on any screen you wish as well.
Cons:
The built-in issue tracking part is designed for issues reported by your team - not for issues reported by your customers. We do use it for customer support, and we LOVE being able to see issues customers have had when we pull up their records - but the emails they receive are not well designed, even after considerable work on our part. In addition, we can't provide them with a login to see all their open issues, so they have to ask us.
Sugar was one of my first forays into the world of CRM and covers all the basics
Comments: I learned how to work a CRM. I kept track of all customer records, ranging from revenue and profit and order amount and contact list and order dates and essentially everything related to my job operationally as a purchasing coordinator. Definitely made my life easier.
Pros:
Very customizable to your needs. Straightforward, no nonsense UI. Easy to read and find things. Sugar is a perfect entry into CRMs that aren't salesforce, because its useful across all industries and departments. Its simple while being complex. You can create functions and layouts that are very specific to your needs, but without it cluttering and looking like there's a lot of information.
Cons:
Its not very pretty. Sort of looks like it was made in the early 200s and they just kept the look since. People are always talking about professionalism, and this definitely looks less polished than other CRMs. Because of this, some of the information can blend together and be difficult to find if there are long lists of things you are looking for.
SugarCRM Review
Comments: One of the main benefits is having the mobile app that SugarCRM provides this helped to get us data and information at our fingertips when needed. Sugar is reasonably priced, has pretty good user-friendly interfaces and requires just a little training to get used to it. It's more suitable for mid-sized companies.
Pros:
SugarCRM functioned well for storing prospect and customer information. I was able to load new contacts into the system without much hassle. Our company is able to adjust the system software to fit our specific needs with ease simply by reaching out to the support team.
Cons:
We wanted to explore other CRM options it was nearly impossible for me, from a user standpoint, to export all of our information. We were coming up on the end of our trial and stood to lose all of our data and I couldn't figure out how to export it. Difficult to do filters as well. I didn't like the format for leads to accounts to sales. Pipeline is also difficult to follow.
Sugar CRM Review
Comments: Sugar seemed like a really awesome CRM with exciting features, but it was very time consuming to make sure everything was in and done correctly that it just became a headache and took focus off of selling.
Pros:
Sugar had a lot of cool features that I had not seen in other crm's I've used in the past. When they worked, it allowed me to quickly see my month and goals and see what I had in my pipeline still. Also, it was fairly easy to use while driving in the car between appointments and quickly type in a review of what I met with the accounts about.
Cons:
Quit often the software features that we nice to have were either not accurate or not working. The idea of having it was nice but it was annoying when I had no idea what was correct with my numbers. Also, it took quite a long time to find certain accounts and many of them were duplicated in the system and you must pay close attention to the account number to make sure it was the right one. Also, putting in tasks and calls were done separately so our management team required that we basically put in one contact with an account twice to make sure it was on our calendar and the pipeline.
Review of SugarCRM
Comments: Databases are complete and it definitely solved some issues with sales pipeline tracking. The software is extremely expensive to customize using certified Sugar partners, it's not intuitive enough to customize in-house. The system does not do everything that was advertised to us
Pros:
There is a lot of potential here, it is possible to create automated business processes, highly customizable reports, and creates high visibility of sales pipeline.
Cons:
You really need to be a basic-intermediate level programmer to customize this software in house. Sales rep told us the mobile app would auto log both incoming and outgoing calls. There is no way to auto-log incoming calls and it will only auto-log outgoing calls if you use the app to make the call. In addition the training provided was not comprehensive and going to an outside company to assist with problems, set up or any other technical support is extremely expensive. They give you just enough rope to hang yourself.
An effective software to keep a great relationship with your custormers and clients
Comments: Sugar CRM has been a great software for my business. Ever since I started using it, I have been able to manage and sort out organization structures easily. The way I deliver customer service and manage a relationship with them has changed for the better.
Pros:
Sugar CRM as a software is great because it comes with a customizable home page since it is an open source platform. Features such as the new user wizard tool, shortcut bar and downloadable plugins are just ingenious. I like how the software comes in a diverse range of languages which number 9 in total. Sugar CRM provides data and information security meaning I am assured of protection from internal and external corruption which might have dire consequences. The software can be intergrated with other software such as Zendesk, Happy fox or Pardot just to mention a few. Sugar CRM is a very good marketing platform which has aided my small business to grow exponentially. With the software, I am able to keep track of client data and track deals with ease. With the lead management feature, I am able to generate potential business clientele, acquire and manage potential clients up untill the point where a deal can be closed.
Cons:
From my time using the software I have found the software to be very slow when running through Sugar's own servers. The sheer number of options present on the dashboard can be perplexing, especially for users who might not have much expirience in CRM data models. Lastly, over the years the software has become a bit dated and this has forced me to move to other CRM software such as HubSpot.
SugarCRM is a usefull CRM tool
Pros:
Since the latest updates it became very user friendly compared to previous interfaces, it has several modules you can purchase and also customize to your own needs, given that these are designed correctly. The latest version of the App is really good and saves a lot of time in you are on the road.
Cons:
It was not the simplest thing to connect it to a Dashboard service and also to setup reports, but once you set it up runs pretty smoothly. It might have been an issue with my company's server but it ran incredibly slow when outside company's internet, being very frustrating to use on the go. The Outlook Add-on never worked properly and made my outlook crash all the time, finally removed it.
Sugar user for 5 years
Comments: Overall, Sugar has worked pretty well for us. As with most customizable software, it is all about the implementer and getting it set up well. If we had worked to get other areas more integrated, I would rate it higher. We are a smaller company (15 users), and do not have a " Sugar champion" other than the president. Reporting module is easy to use, the mobile app is (now) pretty good. We recently looked at the other major CRM apps, and chose to continue with Sugar. We are making some much needed changes to our Sugar instance, which will help with utilization.
Pros:
Pretty easy to use, robust mobile app, good reporting.
Cons:
Some basic functionality is missing, ie, had to write a custom report/fields to be able to see when the last time a contact was contacted (email, meeting or phone).
We started using the basic online software and built it up from there. Use is up as are sales.
Comments: We understand more about the daily activities of traveling and phone based salespeople and can be regularly updated with notes. Tech work is easily tracked and shared company wide instead of being branch based. Email and phone lists are easily generated to focus on specific groups.
Pros:
Both salespeople and management are able to use the information generated to increase sales and look for new opportunities.
Cons:
Not being a programmer, it can sometimes take a lot of work to tweak the program to specific ideas. Integrating old information that is not in Sugar categories had to be done manually and took a lot of time, but it was worth the effort.
I like SugarCRM, we use it in my workplace for many applications
Comments: An easy way for a business to manage their customers. It can be as custom or out of the box as they want to make it.
Pros:
I like that I can add lots of features and functionality myself, including whole new custom modules. As my workplace deals with lots of custom items Sugar fills our custom needs. Our reseller has been fantastic in keeping that custom functionality.
Cons:
I dislike that we are able to edit default field formulas at all without an easy "restore." I think this makes it easy for a developer to make a small mistake that can cause the instance to stop being "upgrade safe." I wish customizing the color, notifications and "logos" were easy to change in an ondemand instance. I also want the global search function to be more consistent.
Free has value
Comments: Great tool to manage relations with customers and follow-ups, brought some visibility where it was lacking.
Pros:
Extremely configurable, vastly customizable, lots of modules available, large online community, free version.
Cons:
The only sad part about it is that all the captions used for drop-down lists (Or radio buttons or any multiple choice controls) are stored straight to PHP pages and not in the database (So in MySql you end up having only keys but no trace of the long values). There is some workaround (Nightly job to extract and copy those in a table), but it's a hassle.
Very Customizable CRM software.
Comments: We use CRM to track our sales leads, current customer support and create mass mailing lists. It is a very powerful tool when used correctly.
Pros:
It is a very robust systems that can be used for tracking customer support, sales and contact management.
Cons:
Because of it customizable nature, it can be set up incorrectly by the end user. For this reason, it is very important to have someone in house that is very Sugar savvy to ensure it works the way you need it to. When updates are delivered, it commonly knocked us down for a few days while we implemented changes to make everything work again.
Lot of tinker around and slow hosting
Comments: It was a great place to store leadscontacts/and track opportunity pipelines
Pros:
It has very comprehensive help docs and the answer was always available. It offered a lot of customization with little experience in managing CRM.s
Cons:
It was very very slow when running through Sugar's own servers. We had to pay a 3rd party to host this elsewhere which was lame because we were not managing very many people of leads. Not ideal for cold calling, it was pretty clunky to track many calls per day. Some of the more intense marketing automation stuff was not very intuitive, they made up a lot of their own language and had some annoying steps to get things done that were not always clear.