iContact vs SugarCRM
Written by Marcus Taylor - CEO
Updated 12/02/2026
5 minute read
Who is this software for?
iContact is ideal for freelancers and small to mid sized businesses
Pros
- Offers live chat support Monday - Friday
- 20% Discount for nonprofit organizations
- Integrations with social media platforms
Cons
- Missing some fundamental features like importing contacts from Gmail
- Limitations on segments
Screenshots
Pricing
Ratings
Features
Lead scoring Lead segmentation Web activity tracking SMS marketing Personalize web content Predictive analytics Bi-directional CRM syncing Event management Create invoices Create quotes Split testing Create membership sites Bulk social media posting Sales reports Real-time sales alerts Mobile app Social CRM Integrations
Outlook integration Gmail integration Salesforce integration SugarCRM integration Microsoft Dynamics integration Zapier integration Alternatives
About iContact
Since 2003, iContact have provided small to mid sized businesses a practical and user friendly solution to email marketing and marketing automation. With scalable solutions that grow with your business iContact is well suited for high-volume senders, marketers and businesses starting out with email marketing. The iContact platform is a full suite of marketing automation features including email marketing, landing page builder, social media management, analytics, reporting and more.
Who is this software for?
SugarCRM is ideal for freelancers, small to mid sized businesses, large enterprises, non profit organisations and public administrations
Pros
- Ability to quickly scale to suit any sized business
- Ability to self host and keep data on your own servers
- Ability to customize the platform to suit any business
Cons
- Limited functionality of reporting dashboard makes creating custom reports time consuming
- Minimum 1 year commitment required
- Customizing it to suit your needs can be time consuming and expensive
Screenshots
Pricing
Ratings
Features
Lead scoring Lead segmentation Web activity tracking SMS marketing Personalize web content Predictive analytics Bi-directional CRM syncing Event management Create invoices Create quotes Split testing Create membership sites Bulk social media posting Sales reports Real-time sales alerts Mobile app Social CRM Integrations
Outlook integration Gmail integration Salesforce integration SugarCRM integration Microsoft Dynamics integration Zapier integration Alternatives
About SugarCRM
While the company's brand of "Commercial Open Source" sounds a bit like an oxymoron, SugarCRM's business model pursues a symbiotic relationship between maintaining a viable company and delivering customer benefits attributable to open source software solutions. SugarCRM has a two-tiered business model the company gives away the basic open source customer relationship management software application, and sells four progressively richer commercial versions which include proprietary code and more advanced feature sets such as integration to Microsoft Outlook, support for MS SQL or Oracle databases, disconnected mobile support, customer self service, reporting and system integration capabilities for companies wanting to achieve full CRM software potential.
If you have found this guide useful, please share it with your colleagues
