Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

SugarCRM Platform vs Zoho CRM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

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

SugarCRM Platform
Ranking in CRM
26th
Ranking in Sales Force Automation
5th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (8th), Marketing Automation (9th)
Zoho CRM
Ranking in CRM
4th
Ranking in Sales Force Automation
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Opportunity Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 1.8%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Zoho CRM1.8%
SugarCRM Platform0.7%
Other97.5%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Styliana Araouzou - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
NaveenKumar S - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 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."
"It works well with Jira. You can customize it to fit your needs."
"The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashboards."
"The most valuable features include the dashboards, deal tracking, email tracking, notes, managing notes and the ability to manage databases in one place."
"Zoho CRM is very simple and easy to use."
"The best thing about Zoho CRM is that it is integrated with other Zoho applications."
"It also provides robust reporting capabilities to analyze and report on these key aspects of customer relationship management."
"For the most part, the solution is stable."
"The product is customizable."
"The solution has an efficient notification feature."
"Zoho CRM's automation capabilities have helped to streamline my organization's sales and marketing tasks."
 

Cons

"You cannot include all your entities under one instance at the moment."
"I would appreciate it if SugarCRM could support us in on-premise implementation."
"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."
"In the next release, I would like to see personalization of information about customers or specific businesses or opportunities."
"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 like to see more integration on a mobile platform in the next release."
"It lacks customization, and this is the main reason that we are switching to a different solution."
"Zoho could be more user friendly by improving the UI of the interface."
"Sometimes, they don't understand what my actual needs are."
"Adding a new contract to the solution is quite complicated."
"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 chatbot feature is not very intelligent and lacks AI capabilities."
"The main area for improvement is how the solution handles leads. Leads are separated and always tied to a contact, which makes it difficult to maintain leads within a company. This could be handled better."
"There should be easy access to feature recommendations in the solution"
"Some of our clients could not develop their requirements using the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"If you compare the pricing with SAP, it is well priced and you are able to pay as you go."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"We have an annual license fee that costs $12,000."
"The price of Zoho CRM is already competitive, but we would always like to have a better discount. Most of the features are included in the price but if we want the extra features then we have to purchase them."
"The licensing is the subscription, where we pay $50 per month per user."
"This solution is less expensive than Salesforce."
"There is an annual license."
"Compared to other CRMs, it is very cheap."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which CRM solutions are best for your needs.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Engineering Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
6%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Sugar Enterprise?
The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashboards.
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 do you like most about Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM integrates easily with customer service workflows.
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 businesses.
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. Zoho CRM's support can improve significantly, although it's designed to require mi...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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 SugarCRM Platform vs. Zoho CRM and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.