Salesforce Sales Cloud vs SugarCRM Platform vs Zoho CRM comparison

Salesforce and SugarCRM are both solutions in the CRM category. Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while SugarCRM is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.5. Salesforce holds a 3.5% mindshare in CRM, compared to SugarCRM’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Salesforce users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of SugarCRM users who would recommend it.

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Read 117 Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews

5,161 Views
3,871 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

SugarCRM Platform

Read 12 SugarCRM Platform reviews

766 Views
613 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

Zoho CRM

Read 58 Zoho CRM reviews

1,920 Views
1,766 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Salesforce Sales Cloud

SugarCRM Platform

Zoho CRM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Salesforce Sales Cloud, SugarCRM Platform, and Zoho CRM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and others in CRM.

To learn more, read our detailed CRM Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

CRM

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 868,759 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Salesforce Sales Cloud is 3.5%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 1.8%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Salesforce Sales Cloud	3.5%
Zoho CRM	1.8%
SugarCRM Platform	0.7%
Other	94.0%

CRM

Featured Reviews

Kamal Deep

Founder and Salesforce Consultant at SaaSnic

Experience exceptional project enhancements and seamless automation integration

Salesforce Sales Cloud itself is a wonderful solution, and there are two different versions: Lightning and classic. The Lightning version is a new generation version compatible with any mobile device, whether it's a phone, iPad, or any size of screen. The reporting and analytics functionalities, especially with the Einstein feature, are wonderful because it allows for analysis of data regarding your opportunity pipeline, giving insight into how long it will take to close deals. This gives a great understanding of running different levels of campaigns and defining smart workflows, where if one task is done, the other task can automatically get created and assigned to different team members. This flexibility is a key benefit of Salesforce Sales Cloud. Lead management is a great feature in Salesforce Sales Cloud because if you go for enterprise and above licenses, you can define different record types. For example, if one company is into two different businesses such as real estate and car reselling, both being opposite, this can be defined in Salesforce Sales Cloud, allowing for different workflows, fields, and mechanisms that do not affect each other's operations. The predictive insight feature known as forecasting is a very old feature of Salesforce Sales Cloud, giving predictions based on your pipeline and previous opportunity closings. The new Einstein analytics feature is more advanced and is enabled with AI, providing better forecasting based on your current pipeline. Salesforce Sales Cloud is working smartly with AI to help close more deals based on opportunity stages, trends, and industries, advising on the steps to take next. Lead generation is the most important thing because every sale starts from the lead. At the lead level, different stages and resources can be defined. You can capture leads from various resources, with Salesforce Sales Cloud offering a web-to-lead feature and integrations with LinkedIn to fetch data. Once a lead is qualified and converted into opportunities, there are stages with percentages, and workflows can help in easily closing deals.

Read full review

Styliana Araouzou

Senior Operations Analyst at Etoro

Customizable, easy to configure, and reliable

My company is considered a customer and an end-user. I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using right now. It's a company that offers lots of user manuals and you can find most of your stuff there before starting development. I'd advise potential new users to go through everything. I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 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. It's a system that includes everything related to the client and you can see everything under one screen without having a different product or system. It's been great, for the most part.

Read full review

NaveenKumar S

Software Engineer at Maximus

Zoho CRM improves lead conversion with AI assistance but could have better technical support

Zoho Zia has helped our lead conversion process by serving as a private AI of Zoho CRM that assists in boosting lead conversation by analyzing customer data, predicting outcomes, and automating workflow follow-ups. Regarding how Zia helps with lead conversion, there's lead scoring and conversion predictions, sentiment analysis, and workflow suggestions. For lead scoring, Zia analyzes past lead conversation patterns and assigns scores to new leads, and high score leads get prioritized for faster follow-up. In terms of conversation predictions, Zia predicts the probability of lead conversion based on demographics and engagements, helping the sales team focus on the most promising leads. Another point is sentiment analysis, where Zia scans customer emails, chats, and notes to detect tones such as positive, negative, or neutral, guiding us on how to approach the leads better. For workflow suggestions, it recommends automated workflows such as sending emails and assigning tasks to agents, improving our engagements. Additionally, the conversational AI feature through Zia chatbot can interact with leads via website chat or capture details and push them into Zoho CRM automatically. The analytics and reporting features in Zoho CRM helped me understand sales patterns and customer behavior through standard reports that include pre-built reports for leads, deals, sales activities, and campaigns. We can customize reports as well, creating reports based on any module fields, and we can integrate with Zoho Analytics for direct capture of reports from our modules. We can merge leads reports to contact reports using SQL, allowing for effective sales funnel tracking to identify drop-offs and optimize conversation strategies. Auto-generated reports are also available for daily scheduling, ensuring that admin receives daily basis reports through automation. With advanced BI features such as drag-and-drop dashboards and predictive analysis using pivot tables, we can create insightful dashboards while pulling CRM and external data from sources such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads for unified analytics. The automation capabilities in Zoho CRM have helped streamline our organization's sales and marketing tasks by handling repetitive tasks such as sending follow-up emails, assigning leads, and updating fields. For example, if a lead score is greater than 80, it automatically assigns that record to the senior sales representative. There are also blueprint options to define the step-by-step sales process, ensuring every sales representative follows the same process. Automation includes assignment rules, lead scoring, priority load options, sales signals, macros, and territory management, which automatically routes leads based on geography, revenue, and industries. Additionally, deal stage automations trigger actions when a deal moves stages, such as sending a contract when it moves to negotiation. For marketing, there are tools for email campaign automation, behavior-based triggers, campaign to lead sync, and social media automations. The overall benefits I have seen from using Zoho CRM include centralized customer data, where all customer interactions are visible in one place, providing a 360-degree view. Improved lead conversations through AI-powered scoring and automation helps us focus on the right leads, with end-to-end sales automation managing tasks from lead capture to deal closure, thereby saving time on repetitive tasks. This leads to better marketing ROI, as we can track campaigns, ad spend, and lead sources, connecting marketing efforts to revenue. Enhanced collaboration through shared notes, tasks, and role-based access enables teamwork within our internal users and sales teams, contributing to customer satisfaction. Moreover, Zoho CRM is scalable and customizable, adapting to startups, SMBs, and enterprises with its flexible modules and fields. Lastly, it is cost-efficient compared to Salesforce and HubSpot while including a wide range of features.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The user interface is pretty simple."

"Salesforce is very user-friendly, which makes it effortless to track business management reports."

"The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable."

"When it comes to the lead management process, we track and evaluate the different stages and the challenges in each stage. It's so that the entire team has visibility of what's going on with each individual lead."

"The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are opportunity management and metric integration."

"It is a very stable solution."

"Salesforce Sales Cloud is a stable solution."

"I like that Salesforce is ERP agnostic. In the past and at different companies, I have implemented new or replacement ERPs. It's best in class. I like that it's a SaaS. I like that it can work on any device—any Windows, Android, or Apple device."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pros

"The most valuable aspect of this solution is its low cost."

"The most valuable feature is relation capability, which allows us to relay customers with invoice orders."

"The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashboards."

"It works well with Jira. You can customize it to fit your needs."

"The most valuable features of Sugar Enterprise are the exports of graphics, statuses, complaints, and tasks."

"It has sales email campaigns, plus integration with Active Directory."

"The login and logout times of each employee of our company are recorded by Zoho CRM for productivity calculations"

"Zoho CRM's best feature is its reporting."

"Zoho CRM is easy to use and easy to understand."

"The dashboards and visualizations help us see how different markets perform. I find the dashboard feature most valuable because it's easy to visualize data. I've been trying to use the built-in quotations feature, which could reduce turnaround time. We're not using many automation features for record management and opportunity tracking. I'm trying to integrate Zoho CRM with Zoho Flow for quotation submission workflow."

"It has helped to manage, move forward, and also customize my processes. It has helped me with my sales pipeline, sales process, and performance."

"The user interface, especially the dashboard, offers good navigation."

"One of the most important features is that it's a cloud base and, it's also quite cheaper when compared to other solutions. Zoho CRM is customizable as per your requirement and, the Zoho team is able to help you to customize the CRM based on your requirements, and you can integrate to any third-party solution."

"For the most part, the solution is stable."

More Zoho CRM pros

Cons

"Salesforce is a powerful tool and you need specialists to create or to develop new functionalities. It is a difficult platform to learn to manage and you need years to know the whole product."

"As a cloud solution with web browser, it's different than my classical way of thinking. It's modern, but for older people, maybe it's not that understandable. It could be more user-friendly, maybe with an option to switch between interfaces."

"The scalability could improve by a small amount."

"If they could have convenient APIs into the other parts of the corporation that I wish to share data with, that would be helpful."

"Salesforce could improve its response speed. Compared to AWS, it is slower, which could be a hindrance."

"Sales Cloud could be improved with more training. In general, the training is very good, but you have to really seek out some good options in order to upskill yourself. Another thing, which could also be a benefit, is that Sales is very customizable. If you move from one organization to another, you can see your Salesforce as before, but their Sales Cloud may look completely different from what you're used to. It's not like Microsoft Excel or Trello, where the layout and all the functions are the same. Because it's so customizable, I feel like there is a bit of a learning curve when you inherit another Sales Cloud instance. To be honest, I think that's the beauty of Salesforce because you can customize it so much to fit your needs as a company. It follows your processes and use cases in order for you to get the most out of the system itself."

"The connectivity has some latency. It could be more responsive."

"I would like to see licensing fees reduced in the next release."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud cons

"You cannot include all your entities under one instance at the moment."

"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 like to see more integration on a mobile platform in the next release."

"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."

"I would appreciate it if SugarCRM could support us in on-premise implementation."

"In the next release, I would like to see personalization of information about customers or specific businesses or opportunities."

"It lacks customization, and this is the main reason that we are switching to a different solution."

"There was a challenge while deploying Zoho when we brought an API code. Because integrations "aren't perfect" for every organization."

"The only thing I noticed was that it does not support multi-country operations. In Canada, for example, we do not use the term "state," but rather "province," and we do not use zip codes, but rather "postal codes.""

"The process of creating reports is not very user-friendly - it takes time, and it's confusing."

"I'm not sure that there is scalability potential for enterprises."

"Custom development is often necessary to make such extensive changes, and it does come with associated costs."

"The solution can improve by having a policy that allows us to integrate with the cloud."

"Since Zoho CRM is not made for the enterprise kind of company, its stability for enterprise businesses could be improved."

"The product's scalability and stability need improvement."

More Zoho CRM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Implementation and add-ons may be additional costs."

"We must pay for the licenses."

"Pricing is reasonable."

"It is a premium product, so it is not the cheapest solution. I think if it's implemented well, and you're getting the soft cost benefits, the efficiencies, it's justified. But not if you're looking at just apples for apples as a subscription, without the complexity that you can achieve. It can deal with complex business requirements. Some other CRMs can't. But you certainly pay, so it's a premium-charged solution. It's one of the more expensive ones."

"The overall price of Salesforce Sales Cloud could be better, it is more expensive than other competitors. There is an annual license for Salesforce Sales Cloud."

"Its license is expensive. It is probably a lot more than smaller solutions. It is around £500 a month, but I don't know how many licenses we have."

"Being license based, the license varies by type. The pricing is considered average."

"You need to pay for the license per user per month. For example, you need to pay $100 per user. If you have 200 users using your Salesforce, that would be multiplied by a hundred, that's $20,000 per month and a quarter million per year."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing and cost advice

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"There is a license required for this solution."

"The tool started out quite cheap. It's had some changes with small and medium business subscriptions, but it's still worth the price. I'd say it's priced a bit below the medium range."

"Professional plans cost $35 per user in the USA and EUR 35 in Europe."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price and ten is a low price, I rate the pricing a five. However, the pricing is fine because we chose the enterprise plan as a private limited company."

"The product costs $35 per user per year."

"We have an annual license fee that costs $12,000."

"I rate the product a four out of ten. The cost for Zoho CRM is not fixed; different editions are available, and the features depend on the edition chosen. Some capabilities, such as integrating with workflows, might incur additional costs, but these are well-documented and not hidden."

"I have no information about the pricing for Zoho CRM because the finance department handles that."

More Zoho CRM pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which CRM solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Engineering Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	54
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	40

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Salesforce Sales Cloud?

The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Salesforce Sales Cloud?

From a customer perspective, it's a very stable system, and people are used to its functionalities, good and bad. Imp...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Salesforce Sales Cloud?

For managing two different things, I'm managing some sales pipeline, the pipeline of sales of some products, and also...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sugar Enterprise?

The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashb...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sugar Enterprise?

All are almost the same pricing. Maybe the cheapest is Salesforce, I believe.

See all answers

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 wa...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM integrates easily with customer service workflows.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM and all of Zoho's software are quite affordable because they are specifically designed for small and medium ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zoho CRM?

The main improvement needed for Zoho CRM is introducing SQL code for reports, similar to what's in Zoho Analytics. Zo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 19% of the time

SAP CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle CX Sales vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Siebel CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Salesforce Platform vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Salesforce Sales Cloud Competitors

No data available

SAP CRM vs Zoho CRM

Compared 32% of the time

Odoo vs Zoho CRM

Compared 8% of the time

monday.com for Enterprise vs Zoho CRM

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Zoho CRM

Compared 6% of the time

Vtiger CRM vs Zoho CRM

Compared 3% of the time

More Zoho CRM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Sales Cloud

September 2025

Download Salesforce Sales Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

SugarCRM Platform

September 2025

Download SugarCRM Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Zoho CRM

September 2025

Download Zoho CRM product report

Also Known As

Sales Cloud, SFDC, Salesforce

No data available

Overview

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a comprehensive CRM platform designed for efficient lead management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement, offering extensive customization and cloud-based accessibility.

Aimed at enhancing business efficiency, Salesforce Sales Cloud supports core business processes like CRM, lead and opportunity management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement. Its robust integration capabilities allow seamless connectivity with ERP systems and various applications. The platform offers pipeline tracking, process automation, and advanced sales cycle management. Users appreciate its cloud-based accessibility, allowing teams to operate remotely and manage sales operations effectively. However, users highlight concerns about its complexity, cost, and the need for a more intuitive interface.

What features does Salesforce Sales Cloud offer?

Customization: Tailor the CRM to meet specific business requirements.
Robust Reporting: Comprehensive analytics and data insights.
Lead Management: Efficiently manage and convert leads.
API Integration: Seamless connectivity with multiple applications.
Cloud Accessibility: Work from anywhere with cloud-based access.

What benefits should be evaluated in Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews?

Enhanced Productivity: Streamline sales processes with automation.
Improved Collaboration: Facilitate team coordination and client engagement.
Accurate Forecasting: Make informed decisions with reliable sales forecasts.
Flexibility: Accommodate diverse industry needs with ease.
Legacy System Integration: Efficiently update and integrate with existing systems.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, supporting sales teams in tracking and managing sales operations. Its use extends to reporting, collaboration, and enhancing client interactions, allowing companies to tailor Salesforce to meet industry-specific requirements efficiently.

Salesforce

SugarCRM is a versatile CRM solution that facilitates communication and organization within a company. Its primary use case includes call and comment logging, account relation, customer detail storage, verification handling, transaction tracking, marketing material management, and payment transaction handling. The most valuable functionalities include customizable exports of graphics, statuses, complaints, and tasks, as well as its scalability, stability, and low cost. It integrates well with Jira and can be easily configured. The platform improves efficiency, productivity, collaboration, communication, and coordination within organizations, while also providing valuable insights and data analytics for informed decision-making.

SugarCRM

Zoho CRM empowers organizations with a complete customer relationship lifecycle management solution for managing organization-wide Sales, Marketing, Customer Support & Service and Inventory Management.

Zoho

Sample Customers

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kuoni Global Travel Services, Financial Times, Just Eat, Jobsite, H.R. Owen, PlayerLayer, O2, DMGT, Philips, Xtreme.ie, Business Stream, Remote Asset Management, Dialogue Group

Redglaze Group, TengoInternet, Hilco, Bancvue, Vet Adivsor

JetHub, Anderson Sales Advantage, ActionCoach, Milagro Advisory Group, TECO Pneumatic, Proteomics Consult

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and others in CRM. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.