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Salesforce Essentials vs SugarCRM Platform comparison

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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
22nd
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
27th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (11th), Marketing Automation (16th), Sales Force Automation (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Essentials0.6%
SugarCRM Platform1.2%
Other98.2%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
Has provided a reliable service with responsive support and offers valuable features, though pricing could be more affordable
We are a large organization with 14,000 people. As a user, Salesforce Essentials is extremely easy to use. The complete rollout from minimum viable product to final acceptable product took two years for our global deployment. The business operations for our 14,000 people are managed by approximately 10 people on the business side. These business admins are responsible for sales operations, troubleshooting, training, and driving features and requirements from the sales and marketing organizations. Additionally, we work with product owners on the IT side and a team of programmers. Daily operations require about five people for IT work, security programming, system connections, and development execution. For day-to-day user support, we need eight to ten people in the business. We operate on Microsoft Azure private cloud infrastructure. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate Salesforce Essentials a 9 out of 10.
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

"High availability is really important for us when getting our reports as a vendor."
"The solution is very scalable and flexible. It can be customized as per the business need."
"The CRM system has SAP Sales, SAP Service, and SAP Billing, with everything integrated into an on-premise SAP CRM system. Salesforce Essentials replaced this on-premise system, bringing all functionalities onto the cloud platform."
"Salesforce Essentials is a reliable and powerful application."
"We use Salesforce Essentials for everything we do on the sales side."
"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."
"I can download the data to Excel, create tables, and do whatever I want. I am very comfortable with the tool's mobile application. Its main benefit is transparency because I can share it with representatives."
"Salesforce makes tracking every product and customer activity easy, enabling managers to monitor their products, such as key products and their peak performance."
"Saying that, it has a small server footprint and is easy to set up."
"The most valuable feature is relation capability, which allows us to relay customers with invoice orders."
"Good, basic out-of-the-box solution, however, in my estimation not a long term play as the design flow and user interface make it a true chore to enter data."
"The performance and stability are fine."
"The most valuable features of Sugar Enterprise are the exports of graphics, statuses, complaints, and tasks."
"Affordable and commercial open source solution is good for organizations with budget constraints."
"This solution's stability is very good, it runs almost without effort, and we don't have any support issues with it."
"My advice to others is this is a good solution for importing or exporting any graphics."
 

Cons

"The solution's UI is not user-friendly."
"Integrating Salesforce with SAP, considering our business relies heavily on SAP for ERP, has been quite challenging due to the intricate product configurations. Unlike standard products like computers with a few options, our products have hundreds of configurable options, making the integration complex. If such integration were possible, it would have been easier to understand the unique nature of our industry and the limited number of customers who buy steel products, unlike consumer electronics."
"The product's reporting area has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The solution could be cheaper."
"Less integration would be better. It should work independently."
"The cost of running Salesforce Essentials is significant. The licenses are expensive, and the operational costs are considerable, including the necessity to maintain a team of approximately 15 people to run the system."
"Salesforce Essentials does not contain domain-specific solutions."
"Areas that could be improved or upgraded in the next release include analytics, automation capabilities, and stability."
"The interface could be more user-friendly."
"Pipelines, forecasts, and reporting in general, are not that good in the free version."
"At the moment, there is a complicated flow in regards to the user's permissions and what they can see."
"In the next release, I would like to see personalization of information about customers or specific businesses or opportunities."
"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."
"Functionality and features are well suited for small business companies only."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 tool is moderately priced."
"We chose quarterly payments."
"It's a perpetual license, and the subscription can be expensive."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"The pricing is a bit on the expensive side."
"I rate Salesforce Essentials' pricing an eight out of ten."
"The pricing is on the higher side, especially with additional costs for professional services like consultants."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Construction Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
10%
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...
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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: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.