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Salesforce Essentials vs SugarCRM Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Essentials
Ranking in CRM
25th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SugarCRM Platform
Ranking in CRM
23rd
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (9th), Marketing Automation (11th), Sales Force Automation (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 1.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SugarCRM Platform1.1%
Salesforce Essentials0.6%
Other98.3%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

SB
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Creates efficient integrations and boosts operational efficiency through comprehensive dashboards
I have experience with products such as Acronis and Huntress, though Salesforce Essentials serves a different purpose. I have had experience with Huntress for the last few months as we are an MSSP and offer Huntress to our clients. I have used Odoo and HubSpot recently, though not extensively. The main differences between Salesforce Essentials and HubSpot or Odoo is the market presence. It is comparable to the Windows versus Linux situation because both have a huge presence. They have deeper pockets so they can spend money on collecting insights and developing features. Integration and good partnerships with major companies make Salesforce Essentials better than the others.
reviewer1345677 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager / IT Planning & Architecture Services at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Easily customizable, automation enhances the marketing campaigns but support is the main hiccup for us
It has been effective in managing customer relationships. It has sales email campaigns, plus integration with Active Directory. And there are centralized reports for the CEO and the general managers. We work with automation for these marketing and email campaigns. It sends out emails to prospective customers related to sales offers automatically. And it copies the sales team so that they can follow up. They are tracking the sales leads. So, the automation within SugarCRM enhances the marketing campaigns. For now, my work is done because I am the IT strategy and planning manager. I just try to deliver the solution according to the requirements of the business. From my side, it's implemented already, the requirement related to the sales funnel. But if they have any other requirement from the business side, they will submit it to me, and then I will look for a suitable solution.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"In terms of features, the cloud-based solution and easy deployment are standout elements that have made a difference."
"The most important feature is how Salesforce Essentials brings together information from multiple channels. The nature of our complex custom product data has been challenging due to our manufacturing nature. Salesforce also allowed business processes like finance, credit lines, customer complaints, and quality issues to integrate seamlessly. I haven’t used the mobile app functionality, because we haven't fully utilized because of our preferance of more personal interactions over using mobile apps."
"Their reporting and analytics features have a very significant impact on my company's operational efficiency."
"High availability is really important for us when getting our reports as a vendor."
"The combination of product and service are exceptional."
"Salesforce provides the best they have with the current version. Most of the features we need are already there, and it's very easy to use."
"Salesforce Essentials is a reliable and powerful application."
"The solution is very scalable and flexible. It can be customized as per the business need."
"The performance and stability are fine."
"This solution's stability is very good, it runs almost without effort, and we don't have any support issues with it."
"It works well with Jira. You can customize it to fit your needs."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is its low cost, and it works well."
"The most valuable feature is relation capability, which allows us to relay customers with invoice orders."
"My advice to others is this is a good solution for importing or exporting any graphics."
"Affordable and commercial open source solution is good for organizations with budget constraints."
"By default, it comes with a really good model where you can start working with it without having a lot of developers in your team."
 

Cons

"Areas that could be improved or upgraded in the next release include analytics, automation capabilities, and stability."
"The solution could be cheaper."
"The solution needs to be more user-friendly. It's difficult for a senior to track leads when a salesperson uploads leads. The solution should also improve its integration capabilities."
"Less integration would be better. It should work independently."
"When we use mixed languages, it can be uncomfortable because there seems to be no consideration for right-to-left speakers. It feels like these tools were developed by people who only speak left-to-right languages and didn't consider other language types' needs."
"The product's reporting area has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Salesforce Essentials does not contain domain-specific solutions."
"Salesforce should encourage new users by offering smaller license packages, such as packages for three or two users."
"Sugar Enterprise could improve by removing bugs and glitches. For example, a comment was made but in the comment section, it was never displayed. However, the problems we faced might not be the fault of the solution."
"While it is already user-friendly, a slight enhancement in UI design, especially in terms of color combinations, could make the platform more visually appealing and comfortable to use."
"I would appreciate it if SugarCRM could support us in on-premise implementation."
"Functionality and features are well suited for small business companies only."
"Pipelines, forecasts, and reporting in general, are not that good in the free version."
"In the next release, I would like to see personalization of information about customers or specific businesses or opportunities."
"Putting so many things into SugarCRM became a much-hated task, mainly because of the horrible UI."
"The interface could be more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"We chose quarterly payments."
"I rate Salesforce Essentials' pricing an eight out of ten."
"The tool is moderately priced."
"Salesforce Essentials is quite expensive, almost 10 out of 10. I don't have the exact cost, but we found it to be very expensive based on our budget constraints."
"The pricing is on the higher side, especially with additional costs for professional services like consultants."
"It's a perpetual license, and the subscription can be expensive."
"The pricing is a bit on the expensive side."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
24%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
16%
Engineering Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Essentials?
Salesforce Essentials is very expensive, but it delivers exceptional value. It is a good platform to have if you can afford it because it has numerous add-ons and modules. Anything that Salesforce ...
What needs improvement with Salesforce Essentials?
The mobile access can be improved in several ways. Salesforce Essentials operates in a table format where the entire user interface is based on tables, more specifically pivot tables. This is not v...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Essentials?
I have experience with Salesforce Essentials' Tableau and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, but not extensively. I was more focused on their CRM platform, specifically the core CRM and sales basics. My e...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sugar Enterprise?
All are almost the same pricing. Maybe the cheapest is Salesforce, I believe.
What needs improvement with Sugar Enterprise?
The only challenge was that we implemented it in our on-premise data center instead of using it in the cloud. That was a little bit of a challenge. But it was overcome with the help of SugarCRM com...
What advice do you have for others considering Sugar Enterprise?
To start with, SugarCRM is a very good platform. It's easy to implement and easily customizable. Might be later when you want to scale, then I would recommend Salesforce. Overall, I would rate it a...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Redglaze Group, TengoInternet, Hilco, Bancvue, Vet Adivsor
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce Essentials vs. SugarCRM Platform and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.