Insightly CRM Review: Pros & Cons, Features, Pricing 2023

Insightly is a popular CRM with extensive project management tools, a user-friendly interface, and affordable pricing. It'll suit most small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) wanting an accessible way to track post-sale activities, but it won’t meet the needs of larger companies seeking a CRM with myriad customization options and advanced forecasting and analytics. Read our in-depth Insightly review to learn about its core features, pricing, and ideal use cases.

Ratings only tell one part of the story. Also consider scenarios where Insightly could be a successful solution — and learn why it may fall short in some situations. Continue reading to learn about the CRM’s use cases, pricing plans, key features, and user support, including what people think of the software and its alternatives. Otherwise, jump down to see our scoring logic.

When to Use Insightly CRM

Insightly is good for teams wanting an easier way to track post-sale projects, collaborate with multiple departments, and manage Mailchimp email campaigns. With reasonable monthly user costs, an intuitive visual interface, and a relatively quick setup, Insightly will help companies transition from spreadsheets to CRM software.

Click below for a list of reasons to consider Insightly:

• Project Management Is a Major Focus for Your Sales Team: Converting won opportunities into projects directly from your pipeline with a click of a button makes entering and tracking post-sale activities a much less complicated process.
• You Develop Email Campaigns in Mailchimp: Insightly is one of the best Mailchimp CRMs for its seamless integration with the email marketing platform. Import Mailchimp data right into the CRM and assign Insightly contacts to Mailchimp campaigns.
• You or Your Team Are New to CRM Software: Insightly’s clean layout and kanban-style pipelines are simple to grasp, so CRM newbies shouldn’t feel intimidated.
• Your Sales Team Works With Multiple Departments: This collaborative CRM makes it easy to create project dashboards you can share with sales team members and colleagues from other departments so everyone is on the same page.
• You’re an SMB on a Budget: With paid plans from $29 per user, per month, Insightly offers good value for money for companies seeking a perfect medium between basic CRM software and complex sales tools.
• You Want a Turnkey CRM: Want something that’s ready to go out of the box? Insightly requires little time to set up and get running, unless you add a lot of third-party app integrations.

Show More >>

If the above points sound good to you, visit Insightly to compare individual plans according to cost and features. Most paid plans come with a 14-day risk-free trial.

When Not to Use Insightly CRM

Insightly may not suit businesses seeking a CRM for robust workflow sequences, as it’s a rather rigid platform (outside of integrations and custom fields) and doesn’t have an AI assistant. Meanwhile, its mobile app lacks offline access, so it’s an uncertain choice for field workers who are often without a reliable wireless or cellular connection. A severely limited free platform plus a lack of quality live support channels are other reasons to consider alternatives to Insightly.

Click below for a list of reasons to consider platforms other than Insightly:

• You Do a Lot of Field Work in Remote Areas: Insightly’s mobile CRM is an excellent adaptation of its parent platform, but a lack of offline access makes it hard to recommend for traveling sales professionals who often travel to areas without a reliable connection.
• You’re a Startup Seeking a Scalable CRM: The free version of Insightly only supports two users and lacks a lot of key functions. Solopreneurs may get on with it well, but fast-expanding businesses will outgrow it immediately.
• You Want to Automate Complex Workflows: Insightly offers templates for basic sales processes, but you need to upgrade for robust automations. Companies needing smart workflows might also consider alternatives, as Insightly lacks a built-in AI assistant.
• You Need Access to Multiple Support Channels: Insightly no longer maintains an active user community forum, and phone support is only available via an expensive premium service plan. All paid tiers include chat and email support, but results will vary.

Show More >>

Should Insightly not align with your sales goals, head to our roundup of the best CRM software for a complete look at other CRMs according to cost, functions, and use cases — or skip down for a list of Insightly alternatives.

Insightly CRM Pricing

Insightly’s free-for-life plan offers basic CRM tools such as limited records for leads and contacts, email marketing, and native integrations. However, it’s limited to only two users. Subscribers can upgrade to paid plans for a broader range of features, such as Kanban views for project management, custom reports, workflows, and more. Full pricing details are below:

	Free	Plus	Professional	Enterprise
Annual Plan Monthly Rate	$0 for up to 2 users	$29 per user, per month	$49 per user, per month	$99 per user, per month
Monthly Plan Monthly Rate	N/A	$35 per user, per month	$59 per user, per month	$129 per user, per month
Free Trial	N/A	14 days	14 days	Contact sales
Key Features	Custom fields, mass emails, integration with QuickBooks and PandaDoc, online help center access	Project management, custom reports, mobile business card scanner, standard user support	Workflow automation, lead assignment rules, custom objects, unlimited email templates	Unlimited records, storage, and dashboards — plus support for custom functions on AWS Lambda
Record Limit	2,500 records	100,000 records	250,000 records	Unlimited records
File Storage	200MB	10GB	100GB	Unlimited storage
Mass Email Sends Per Day	N/A	2,500 sends per day	5,000 sends per day	10,000 sends per day
Custom Fields	2 custom fields per record type	50 custom fields per record type	100 custom fields per record type	200 custom fields per record type
Scheduled reports or smart alerts	N/A	25 scheduled reports or smart alerts	100 scheduled reports or smart alerts	250 scheduled reports or smart alerts

Unlike a lot of popular CRMs, Insightly is sparse with paid add-ons, which can be a good thing if you’re hoping to keep overall costs down. However, there are a couple of paid extras worth purchasing for telephony functionality and fully-automated app integrations.

Insightly CRM Add-Ons

Insightly offers two add-ons: Insightly Voice (a telephony service) and Insightly AppConnect (an expanded app integrations platform). Prices start at $35 per user, per month for Insightly Voice, and range from $249 to $3,499 per month for AppConnect.

Meanwhile, Insightly All-in-One is a comprehensive platform that combines Insightly CRM with Insightly AppConnect, Insightly Marketing, and Insightly Service. Plans range from $349 per month (for two users) to $2,599 per month (for 10 users), with the option to add extra seats from $29 to $99 per user, per month.

Insightly CRM Features

Insightly is a collaborative CRM with a focus on project management, but its core CRM features offer ways to manage contacts and leads, build custom reports, and trigger basic workflows. Upgraded plans add advanced automation, email marketing tools, and customizable dashboards. Learn more about Insightly's features below:

Insightly's free plan offers access to basic CRM features, but it can only be used by two people and has limited functionality otherwise. Upgrade to one of its paid subscriptions for more features, expanded data storage, and increased contact record limits.

Insightly CRM Ease of Use

Insightly combines an intuitive interface with a rich feature set to satisfy novice and experienced CRM users alike. Colorful kanban boards and a straightforward layout will help newbies feel at ease, while veterans will appreciate its rich suite of sales and project management tools. All plans come with access to the knowledge base, webinars, and help center, as listed below:

	Free	Plus	Professional	Enterprise
Knowledge Base	✔	✔	✔	✔
Webinars	✔	✔	✔	✔
Help Center	✔	✔	✔	✔

While Insightly offers a relatively flexible platform, businesses needing industry-specific software have to subscribe to more expensive tiers for unlimited records, fields, and permissions.

Insightly CRM Customer Service

Insightly has three customer support tiers. All plans include access to Insightly’s knowledge base, webinars, and live chat (a hybrid of a chat bot and a human representative). Below is a breakdown of what each support plan entails: 

	Free Plan Support	Standard Plan Support	Premier Success Support
Cost	Included with free plan	Included with paid plans	20% of subscription ($3,000 minimum)
Live Chat	✔	✔	✔
Email Support	✘	✔	✔
Phone Support	✘	✘	✔
Dedicated Support Manager	✘	✘	✔

Guided onboarding is also available for a one-time $1,500 fee and includes implementation guidance plus ongoing CRM support. It’s a requirement for Premier Success Support plan users, as it’s their introduction to the customer success manager, who’ll provide dedicated support post-onboarding. Subscribing to this plan will yield faster turnaround times via email and phone, although it can be costly for small to medium businesses to purchase both plans.

What People Think of Insightly CRM

Reviews for Insightly are mostly positive. Per Capterra, more than 60% of Insightly users would recommend the platform to others. Below is a brief look at how sales professionals rate Insightly across three of the most well-known software review aggregate sites: 

4 / 5 stars	8.4 / 10 stars	4.2 / 5 stars
600+ total reviews	700+ total reviews	800+ total reviews

Insightly has glowing reviews for real users across certified sites. However, we like to go beyond the scores, so we analyzed individual reviews from current and former Insightly customers for a comprehensive overview of its benefits and shortcomings. Here’s what people like about Insightly — and what they wish it did better:

What People Like About Insightly CRM

Fans of Insightly praise its ease of use, minimalist UI, and streamlined organization of sales data. Project managers appreciate Insightly’s robust project management tools for allowing them to track real-time activity and share progress with colleagues and clients. Other reasons why people like Insightly include seamless data entry; tight integration with Mailchimp, Gmail, and Outlook; and good value for money.

What People Wish Insightly CRM Did Better

Several customers say Insightly’s search engine is finicky, yielding unrelated results or oversights that could potentially lead to duplicate records. Some users have also experienced lag or logouts when dealing with large volumes of data. Meanwhile, Insightly’s simple interface, combined with its lack of a native AI sales assistant, is a disadvantage for sales leaders who need a more robust CRM for complex workflows.

Alternatives to Insightly CRM

Insightly is an excellent CRM, especially when it comes to project management. However, your organization may need something different — whether that’s a scalable free platform, AI-powered tools, a more malleable interface, or a diverse mix of sales and marketing functions. If Insightly isn’t ticking the right boxes for you, check out the five top Insightly alternatives below:

FreshsalesZoho CRMHubSpot CRMSalesforcePipedrive

Freshsales is a top-rated CRM for salespeople and the best Insightly alternative for companies wanting access to AI-powered sales tools and built-in telephony at an affordable cost. (Plans range from free to $69 per user, per month.) It also provides plenty of room for customization while sporting one of the cleanest interfaces on the market, although its project management features are not as robust and visual as Insightly CRM.

If you’re curious to know more about this CRM, take a look at our in-depth Freshsales review.

For more on Insightly’s competitors, check out our Insightly alternatives article, where you'll find each platform's pricing, features, use case, and more.

How We Evaluated Insightly CRM

In assessing Insightly, we picked out the six main categories for companies and organizations needing a CRM with a strong project management tool, sales features, and a user-friendly interface. For each category, we identified weighted subcriteria and assigned an overall score out of five to see how Insightly CRM performed across the six areas.

Evaluation Criteria

We first checked Insightly CRM’s pricing and core features, which are essential factors for businesses and teams looking for cost-effective CRM software. We then looked into the platform's ease of use and customization capabilities, followed by its third-party integrations. Lastly, we also scored its customer support solutions to round out our evaluation.

Cost: 25%

Core Features: 25%

Customization: 20%

Integration: 10%

Ease of Use: 10%

Customer Support: 10%

Cost Overview

We assessed Insightly’s cost for its entry-level and enterprise plans for both annual and monthly billing, its free version, free trial length, and add-ons.

Criteria Winner: N/A

Core Features Overview

We considered the platform’s key CRM features, including project management, pipelines, contact management, sales automation, and basic reports.

Criteria Winner: N/A

Customization Overview

This looks into Insightly’s malleability for multiple pipelines, deal stages, reports and dashboards, views, and more.

Criteria Winner: N/A

Integration Overview

We assessed how the CRM software syncs with third-party applications, including email, calendar and scheduling, and social media.

Criteria Winner: N/A

Ease of Use Overview

Here, we evaluated real user feedback from reliable sites, as well as the accessibility of the CRM’s knowledge base and training offered.

Criteria Winner: N/A

Customer Support Overview

We checked the different types of support solutions offered (live chat, email, phone, and onboarding), as well as ratings from certified review sites.

Criteria Winner: N/A

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What Is Insightly CRM & What Are Its Key Features?

Insightly CRM is cloud-based software that offers teams and businesses an intuitive platform to track their post-sales activities. Its key features include a built-in project management tool with visual kanban boards, customizable pipelines, team collaboration, and sales automation. Insightly is also known for its simple interface, allowing CRM newbies and smaller teams to quickly set up and implement the software for sales, marketing, and service processes.

Is Insightly CRM Suitable for Small Businesses, or Is It Better Suited for Larger Enterprises?

Insightly CRM is popular among small-to-medium-sized businesses due to its free platform and standard features for sales and post-sales operations offered at an affordable entry-level plan. It also has a minimal learning curve, ideal for beginners, while also offering a good amount of customization options. However, larger enterprises can purchase higher tiers to unlock more robust features and limits that their businesses might need.

Are There Any Limitations to Using Insightly CRM That Users Should Be Aware Of?

While Insightly CRM provides comprehensive sales features and basic marketing tools, businesses needing complex workflows might find this platform lacking. Unlike its competitors such as Freshsales, Zoho, and Salesforce, Insightly doesn’t have a built-in AI assistant for stronger automations. Insightly’s customer support isn’t accessible enough unless you pay for premium plans, and its knowledge base isn’t as comprehensive as other CRM software.

Bottom Line: Insightly Review

Insightly has a price point and user interface that’ll appeal to small businesses new to CRM software, as well as a comprehensive set of project management tools and workflow automation options for growing companies. However, do your homework before deciding on Insightly — read in-depth reviews, seek feedback from real users, try the platform out for yourself via a free trial or a demo, and weigh other options listed in our guide to the best CRM for salespeople.

This article was written by Alison Barretta and updated by Kezia Jungco.