Ontraport vs SugarCRM
Written by Marcus Taylor - CEO
Updated 12/02/2026
5 minute read
Who is this software for?
Ontraport is ideal for coaches, teachers and other information product-based businesses looking for an all-in-one sales and marketing platform.
Pros
- Huge range of features including built-in Wordpress membership functionality, affiliate program & more.
- Scalable, unified system allows measurable results for business growth
Cons
- Currently, no invoicing/quotes, true shopping cart with inventory monitoring or multi-currency capability without a shopping cart integration.
- Less integrations than competitors, but API helpers like Zapier and Apiant make most things possible.
- Live Support isn't 24 hours yet.
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 Ontraport
Landon Ray founded ONTRAPORT in 2006 in Santa Barbara, California. "I was running another business and ran into the problems that all entrepreneurs do, and I couldn't believe there wasn't a slick solution to solve them," Ray said of the founding. ONTRAPORT offers customer relations management services that help with content management, such as creating and hosting webpages, lead tracking, which includes collecting customer data and behavior, traditional marketing approaches, such as e-mail, SMS, social media, and direct mail, managing online payments, including automated billing, and workflow automation, such as for recruiting. Forbes named ONTRAPORT no. 71 on its list of "America's Most Promising Companies. "ONTRAPORT was no. 102 in the Inc. 500 list. The company also placed no. 10 on Inc.'s "Top 100 Software Companies" and no. 26 on its "Top 100 California Companies.". ONTRAPORT has clients all over the globe.
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.
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