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SAP CRM 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

SAP CRM
Ranking in CRM
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Local Government CRM (2nd), Marketing Management (5th)
SugarCRM Platform
Ranking in CRM
25th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (9th), Marketing Automation (12th), Sales Force Automation (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of SAP CRM is 1.9%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP CRM1.9%
SugarCRM Platform1.1%
Other97.0%
CRM
 

Q&A Highlights

it_user128490 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Leader at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 18, 2016
 

Featured Reviews

FA
CRM administrator at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Customization and automation drive effective user training and insights sharing
Recently, the price of SAP CRM has increased, which is one concern. Another issue is that sometimes we experience slow performance. Reports in SAP CRM itself can become very slow. Other than that, it is a very good CRM system. I am happy with SAP CRM because whenever we have requirements for changes or customization as per our needs, we get them, and the downtime is minimal. We are getting very good support from the incident team and the in-house support team who are responsible for customization. Some customer centers have moved to Salesforce, but I don't have any experience with Salesforce to make a comparison.
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

"The initial setup of SAP CRM was simple."
"The flexibility to design the portal and customize it according to the needs of the clients is valuable. The integration with SAP ERP is also valuable."
"I have found the most valuable feature of the SAP CRM system is its ability to integrate with other modules. SAP CRM is all about integrating with other modules. For example, SuccessFactors is their learning management. This is one use case that SAP CRM themselves use. Their lead generation versus their sales from their educational services. You can instantly receive insight into how many leads have been generated and how much it turned into real business or revenue for them. I was told in one of the seminars that the data transfer from the lead generation to sales is only 24 hours in SAP CRM."
"The most important factor for recommending SAP CRM is its integration with the core SAP platform, with out-of-the-box integration that lets you easily bring together pre-sales and post-sales on a single platform and even extend the CRM to customers so they can see exactly what is happening to their orders just by logging in."
"SAP CRM is a scalable solution."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that our management side can see the report instantly, they can predict the forecast, and see what is in the pipeline."
"SAP is very easy to use."
"Overall productivity improved by more than 50%."
"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."
"The performance and stability are fine."
"Affordable and commercial open source solution is good for organizations with budget constraints."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is its low cost."
"My advice to others is this is a good solution for importing or exporting any graphics."
"This solution's stability is very good, it runs almost without effort, and we don't have any support issues with it."
"The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashboards."
 

Cons

"There could be some specific configurable options on the UI level to improve visibility."
"The interface could be improved."
"SAP CRM could improve in the area of user-friendliness. It would help if you had an engineer to do the administration."
"What I see as a challenge against our competitor is that Salesforce comes with more flexibility, for enhancement purposes, whereas the SAP CRM Cloud is more robust and rigid. It's not flexible to implement any bespoke solution."
"SAP CRM could improve by being easier to use and customer-friendly."
"The product's pricing could be better."
"For those who do not have SAP at all, it might be a difficult choice because you can get more or less the same functionality from Salesforce with a better UI."
"CRM is costlier than its competitors."
"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."
"Pipelines, forecasts, and reporting in general, are not that good in the free version."
"Sugar Enterprise could improve by removing bugs and glitches. For example, a comment was made but in the comment section, it was never displayed."
"The interface could be more user-friendly."
"Functionality and features are well suited for small business companies only."
"Putting so many things into SugarCRM became a much-hated task, mainly because of the horrible UI."
"The UX was such that it limited the use of it."
"It lacks customization, and this is the main reason that we are switching to a different solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As for the product licensing, we pay an annual fee. It's important to consider setup costs and licensing based on your organization's budget and needs."
"The solution is expensive."
"There is a license required for the solution and most of my clients purchase an annual license."
"The pricing from SAP is good but it takes time to realize the investment."
"SAP CRM costs approximately a couple of thousand a month."
"SAP CRM offers a free trial for anyone wanting to test the product before purchasing it."
"Every user needs to have a license."
"SAP CRM is not suitable for smaller businesses because it is expensive. The larger businesses would be able to handle the cost."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
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Answers from the Community

it_user128490 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Leader at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 18, 2016
Jan 18, 2016
Hello Pratyush. Now that you are 1.5 years out from this post, just wondered how the project is working for you. Sounded like you were leaning towards Salesforce with custom development. Is that where you ended up? Are you meeting your goals? Looking forward to your reply. Steve
2 out of 11 answers
it_user131094 - PeerSpot reviewer
Change & Delivery - Prog Lead / CxO at SJS Access Limited
Jun 26, 2014
I will respond over the weekend
it_user105723 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jun 26, 2014
Hi, I can only really comment on Oracle Siebel, interesting why it isn’t on your list? Regards Simon Collins
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
14%
Engineering Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP CRM?
Getting the right information at the right time across different programs is important. These programs lack interaction between them. IPA is a good option to bring them together.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP CRM?
SAP CRM is not suitable for small companies because of the cost. It is suitable for medium and large enterprise companies.
What needs improvement with SAP CRM?
Recently, the price of SAP CRM has increased, which is one concern. Another issue is that sometimes we experience slow performance. Reports in SAP CRM itself can become very slow. Other than that, ...
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

Brau Union Osterreich AG, Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., AOK Bundesverband, RAK Ceramics, NHS 24, Wholesale Sports Outdoor Outfitters, FC Bayern Munchen AG, Tumi, The Kellogg Company, MVV Energie AG, Anglian Water Services, German Football Association (DFB), Nebraska Book Company Inc.
Redglaze Group, TengoInternet, Hilco, Bancvue, Vet Adivsor
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP CRM vs. SugarCRM Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.