SugarCRM Platform vs Zoho Desk comparison

SugarCRM and Zoho are both solutions in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category. SugarCRM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.5, while Zoho is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2. SugarCRM holds a 2.2% mindshare in CCEC, compared to Zoho’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 50% of SugarCRM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Zoho users who would recommend it.

SugarCRM Platform

Read 12 SugarCRM Platform reviews

553 Views
122 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

Zoho Desk

Read 21 Zoho Desk reviews

1,103 Views
77 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

SugarCRM Platform

Zoho Desk

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

SugarCRM Platform and Zoho Desk are competing CRM solutions, each catering to specific business needs. Zoho Desk seems to have an upper hand due to its comprehensive integration capabilities and ease of use, making it appealing for businesses focused on customer service.

Features: SugarCRM Platform stands out with its robust customization options, extensive automation, and flexibility in creating custom modules and layouts. It offers useful default and customizable reports. Zoho Desk is notable for its integrated customer service tools, the ability to capture contacts across various channels, and excellent integration with telephonic solutions and other business tools.

Room for Improvement: SugarCRM Platform could improve by enhancing its user interface and simplifying its setup process for users who are new to CRM software. It may also benefit from more out-of-the-box integrations to make it further compatible with modern business tools. Zoho Desk might focus on expanding its customization options to match industry-specific needs better, refining its analytics features for deeper insights, and reducing reliance on third-party integrations by incorporating more native functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SugarCRM offers customizable deployment options suited for complex environments, providing tailored flexibility. Zoho Desk offers an intuitive setup and excellent customer support, making it highly accessible for organizations prioritizing ease of use and immediate deployment.

Pricing and ROI: SugarCRM requires a higher initial investment, with potential long-term benefits through customizability and scalability. It is ideal for businesses that can invest in tailored CRM processes. Zoho Desk offers lower setup costs, known for being budget-friendly and providing good ROI through its efficient integration capabilities and cost-effective features without significant upfront expenditures.

To learn more, read our detailed SugarCRM Platform vs. Zoho Desk Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SugarCRM Platform vs. Zoho Desk

July 2025

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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 Customer Engagement Centers

8th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM (23rd), Marketing Automation (8th), Sales Force Automation (5th)

Zoho Desk

Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category, the mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 2.2%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho Desk is 2.4%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM Customer Engagement Centers

Featured Reviews

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.

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Babatunde-Olugbode

Technical presales engineer at Avetium Consult Ltd

End-to-end solution to manage customer support tickets and consolidate all communication channels into one platform

For me, the valuable features are related to customer engagement because I want to ensure I don't miss any customer inquiries, no matter the channel. For example, I haven't seen any other platform that consolidates all channels into one console. That's a valuable feature to me. Then there's the pricing, which is better than Zendesk. Zendesk charges in USD per user, per month, whereas Zoho let us pay in Naira (Nigerian currency). Zoho can also identify user locations, letting you leverage existing reviews. These are valuable features that many organizations have adopted Zoho Desk for. We can download the mobile app to see requests and respond from anywhere. It is one of the most improved applications and widely integrated systems I've worked with. You can virtually integrate it with almost anything, like Microsoft Teams and other data applications. The marketplace lets you find native integrations. For example, we have an organization that uses multiple systems and wants to ensure agents don't log in to multiple platforms to see emails. They have a native integration system that takes care of that and works seamlessly.

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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."

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

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

"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 aspect of this solution is its low cost."

"The most valuable feature of Zoho Desk is the parent and child task management feature."

"The most valuable feature of generating the ticket through the web form and for the e-mailers. So, if you are facing any issues, by the ticket, you can generate the issue in Google Test."

"It is a scalable platform."

"The most valuable features of Zoho Desk are the user interface, pricing, and how they customize the solution for us."

"The solution doesn't have any bugs."

"It is a highly scalable solution. You can easily add more users through the portal within seconds."

"The ticketing feature is very easy to use, compared to other systems."

"The most valuable features of Zoho Desk are archiving queries and analytics."

More Zoho Desk pros

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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"Zoho Desk needs to be enhanced to support IT service management policies."

"Sometimes support is available according to their time slots and they can't fulfill everything I need them to. They give us a time slot but it's not always enough."

"I would like to have integrated support, and integration between the ticketing tool and the project management tool."

"There is room for improvement with the pricing."

"Zoho Desk could be improved by making it multi-tenant, as it is currently not suitable for service providers with multiple customers."

"The solution urgently needs improvement in the display's night mode. When we use the system for a long time, it's very stressful for our eyes. I also need to see improvements that can help to find the assets under a previous owner."

"I would want Zoho Desk to integrate Zoho CRM, Zoho SalesIQ , and Zoho Campaigns."

"The solution needs to have more customization on alerts and notifications."

More Zoho Desk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"Zoho Desk's pricing is more flexible."

"The gap is limited, but it should limit the price back bracket so that most start-ups can use it most effectively."

"The solution is relatively cheap. However, there are additional licensing fees involved."

"For what it does, it's quite cheap."

"Price-wise, Zoho Desk is about 35 USD a month per user."

"Zoho Desk is a cost-effective solution."

"Zoho Desk's cost is pretty much okay."

"The pricing is better than Zendesk. Zendesk charges in USD per user per month, whereas Zoho let us pay in Naira (Nigerian currency)."

More Zoho Desk pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Engineering Company

20%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Government

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

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 was a little bit of a challenge. But it was overcome with the help of SugarCRM com...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zoho Desk?

The most valuable features of Zoho Desk are archiving queries and analytics.

See all answers

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

The pricing in Brazil is complicated due to the high exchange rate, with one dollar equaling six reais. Altasnet has a favorable pricing from Zoho as an early account in Brazil, but current website...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zoho Desk?

Zoho Desk could be improved by making it multi-tenant, as it is currently not suitable for service providers with multiple customers. Additionally, Zoho Desk's potential would be fully realized wit...

See all answers

Comparisons

Zoho CRM vs SugarCRM Platform

Compared 100% of the time

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ServiceNow vs Zoho Desk

Compared 39% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Zoho Desk

Compared 14% of the time

Freshdesk vs Zoho Desk

Compared 9% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs Zoho Desk

Compared 7% of the time

Zendesk vs Zoho Desk

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SugarCRM Platform

July 2025

Download SugarCRM Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Zoho Desk

July 2025

Download Zoho Desk product report

Overview

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

With Zoho Desk, agents become more productive, managers become more impactful, and customers become more empowered. It's customizable, convenient to use, and it doesn't cost you a fortune. Part of Zoho's 30-strong suite of business software, Zoho Desk brings you the power to put customer service at the heart of your company.

Zoho

Sample Customers

Redglaze Group, TengoInternet, Hilco, Bancvue, Vet Adivsor

Intel, Sears, Daimler, Essilor, Aon Hewitt, Shop Your Way, CoffeeRocket

Buyer's Guide

SugarCRM Platform vs. Zoho Desk

July 2025

Free Report: SugarCRM Platform vs. Zoho Desk

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