SugarCRM Reviews

Pros

I used the self-hosted community CRM for several years for my own music business. It has a ton of functionality that matches a lot of the basic features you find in Salesforce Classic. It's a great tool for keeping track of client data, deal tracking, etc. It's also nice to be able to self-host the platform as well as it's a lot more affordable than using a paid SaaS solution.

Cons

SugarCRM Community Edition looks pretty dated. If you don't have a lot of experience with the typical CRM data model concept, it can be hard to figure out how to use the system. The interface could be modernized to make it easier to navigate and find your way around. Another downside to being the Community Edition is that you need to know how to install and maintain the platform on your own server, but this is also a plus if you do have these skills.

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.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM and Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Switching to SugarCRM

We choose this because it has strong customer support team and it is less expensive compared to there products.

Pros

I like the Online (sugar on demand) that allows Sugar Support to get into your software and look and something you may be struggling with, like reports...

Cons

Design is little clunky. Think with some improvements, it might be easier to convert leads, update opportunities. Need less clicks!

Pros

The SugarCRM team was incredibly helpful and supportive during our decision between various CRMs we were testing out, namely Salesforce and SugarCRM. They were flexible, accommodating and had amazing customer service throughout the process, even willing to develop new APIs to integrate with our proprietary billing system 90% of our clients were on. I really enjoyed the visuals of Sugar - as all the bells and whistles were there, but it didn't seem overwhelming (as Salesforce can) and it's geared more towards marking service teams, like my division of the business. I also really find the dashboard visuals to be superior to Salesforce. Overall, the price point was better than Salesforce, too.

Cons

Since Sugar is geared towards marketing and sales teams, it wasn't a great fit for the other teams within our organization (i.e. one-time products like printing, etc.). Though workflows are cleaner and more intuitive than Salesforce, there wasn't quite as many bells and whistles (i.e. it was difficult to build in processes that involved external teams that we outsource to).

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Switching to SugarCRM

We didn't - we ended up choosing Salesforce over Sugar, simply due to the fact that we had to incorporate other areas of the business already in Salesforce and ultimately they were able to provide all the necessary features. For other orgs, I would recommend Sugar, as it's an amazing product.

Pros

Very stable, solid
easy to use, administer
Easy to implement and deploy
Reporting is good and allows fro complex reports to be built

Cons

It has not changed in a looong time (perhaps years?)
For the functionality, it is expensive - better options exist
Marketing is poor (unless you go for Sugar marketing apps which are expen$ive!)

Alternatives Considered

Freshsales and Bitrix24

Reasons for Switching to SugarCRM

At the time, the other options were not developed enough. Today, they far-surpass Sugar. Today, I would not go for Sugar at all...

Pros

Sugar CRM is a functional CRM that works reasonably well for tech-minded folks who don't mind getting used to its unappealing interface. It has the basic tools and functionality one would expect from a CRM and some of the integrations are solid (for data imports primarily).

Cons

The interface feels old and doesn't give the user much power to reconfigure it to work in a way that will help the user's specific needs. The marketing automation integrations are clunky, too.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM, Dynamics 365, Salesforce Retail CRM, Copper and HubSpot CRM

Reasons for Switching to SugarCRM

Sugar CRM was cheaper than any of the other solutions and we had a CTO who liked it because he'd used it many times before.

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.

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.

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.

Pros

I like cloud based updates, but that's all I like.

Cons

Constant planned increases in price without keeping pace with new functionality. Forced to purchase through constantly changing reseller network. Having to pay for integration with Quickbooks. This is a dinosaur trying to avoid the tarpit.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pros

We could customize it in-house without paying a lot of outside consulting fees

Cons

Storage space is an issue and your forced to buy more storage even when its Sugar's temp files building up.

Alternatives Considered

Odoo

Reasons for Choosing SugarCRM

AutoPal was for the auto industry and had limited features

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.

Pros

Sugar is easily customized and the option to host on-site is not available by a lot of other CRM providers. We are able to synchronize a lot of data from our existing business software easily by directly accessing the SQL database. With the cloud version, we would have had to write code utilizing the CRM API to synchronize everything. Building all of that would have been significantly more expensive for us.

From both the Admin and user perspectives, the software is very easy to learn and intuitive. Our users are very happy with the new software and easy it is to use.

Pros

Functionality and API is impressing

Cons

UI is slow for 2017. Need to speed up the response time.

Pros

SugarCRM is customizable and can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your organization .The way you can store and access customer data is intuitive . It is also easy to pull out the data you need on Excel files and then add it to the program(s) you use for analytics .

Cons

The interface on mobile is noticeably different than on desktop and the app is overall slow and buggy . You can't log in simultaneously from multiple devices .SugarCRM doesn't integrate with almost any other program and information transfers have to be done manually .

Pros

There does not see be a lot of down time. In other words it is very seldom out of service. The format is good since we can customize it. Customer service is fast, professional and courteous.

Cons

We should be able to BOLD or Underline . We need more color options. We need to be able to highlight within our comment section. We cannot cut and paste like we used to be able to do.

Pros

SugarCRM is opensource this gives myself and the technical department in my organization the freedom to develop on this platfrom , without being hindered by technology ,programming language or a restricted API.
Sugar effectively manages every communication we have with sales leads and customers. Over the years ,we have been able to tweak Sugar to work with our internal sales process , thus everyone in the sales and marketing department is glad to work with our in-house improved CRM - Sugar.

Cons

The user interface is outdated ,obviously since it is open source ; it didn't come as a surprise to me. However ,barring this ; the sales department works effectively with Sugar.

Pros

Honestly, there is not one thing I like about this software and I do CRM implementation/administration.

Cons

It is EXTREMELY slow and always times out, it doesn't connect to facebook to import events (it use to,) the email system is extremely antiquated and more that I won't get into on here, everytime you do something it refreshes and send you right back to the beginning instead of where you were, when events or businesses are deleted they still show up all over the place... the list goes on and on.

Pros

It can be personalized for your particular company or organization. The fields can be easily edited and it is extremely easy to run reports. The notes function is very easy to use. You can also connect emails to sugar and save emails. The calendar function is very useful as well.

Cons

There are more lags and "time outs" than I've seen with some other software. However, the issue is usally addressed fairly quickly.

Pros

Very flexible and easy to edit. Fast response time on queries (I use the OnDemand cloud version). Good support for SugarCRM staff. And there are many integrations and plugins that enhance the experience.

Cons

Lot of 3rd party integrations and customizations can "break" as Sugar goes through upgrades. The Word and Outlook Add-ins are a bit awkward and time consuming -- but they do work as advertised. Sometime there is constant re-logging in to make them work.

Pros

What I like most is that we can create reports easier,
I can create new custom fields and add functions.
I like the workflow - I added for send emails to an admin account to report when a opportunitie is closed and is part of a project - and this email creates a new record in my project system.
I can create Modules as I need

Cons

Is very difficult to work with the API´s´, at this moment i cant work with them . and IT Sugar support is not helping me.
The thing i Dont like if you want to create a Report Type:Summary you cannot add the Text Fields, is not showing in the system, this type field in the version 7.0 it was added but in the new version is not there any more, and I reported this to Sugar Support but they do not do anything, I think is a kind of a bug but they are not doing anything.