SugarCRM has become the third most used CRM software in the world. Of course, every great start has a humble beginning. SugarCRM’s humble beginning came from Sugar Community Edition.

Many people who were nervous to commit to a CRM product opted for the SugarCRM Community Edition because it was free. Sugar CE allowed users to try Sugar for free, enabling them to build a loyal following of people who realized that SugarCRM was worth the investment.

Of course, SugarCRM wasn’t going to give away their product for free. There are several differences between SugarCE and Sugar Pro. First, SugarCE is not hosted by Sugar. It’s a download version that lives on your server (IE, not on the cloud.) SugarCE is limited in functionality compared to Sugar Professional and Enterprise.

If your unsure about the benefits of a CRM software, Sugar CE can be a very useful tool. Still, we would be remiss not to mention that Sugar CE is missing features that the Pro version has, such as…

• Sales forecasting
• contracts
• quotes
• marketing reports/custom reports
• customizable dashboard/numerous plugins (Word, excel, outlook, etc.)
• support and a knowledge base
• work flow automation rules
• reminders and alerts
• mobile editions

SugarCE is a great way to get into a CRM product, but beware, there can be a lot of IT work to get it up and running. Community Edition can also be easily converted to Sugar Pro or Enterprise. There is a wizard to convert the data that works well.

For a full comparison of the 3 sugar editions, (Community, Professional and Enterprise) download the comparison sheet now!

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