Is SugarCRM still active?

[BBBB]

Hi all,

I just gave a try to SugarCRM a few days ago. I checked the online demo and installed the community edition to have a feel of the product.

I must say I am a bit surprised : on the sugarcrm.com web site, I downloaded version 5.2.
However, on sugarforge.org and sugarexchange.com, this version does not seem to exist (5.1 is mentioned as the latest).

Also, I tried to install about 20 different add-on modules. NONE of them worked (mostly due to version incompatibilities) and about 20 more could not even be downloaded (from sugarforge).

I tried to integrate it with Thunderbird. No luck.
I tried to integrate it with my calendaring application. No luck.
I tried to integrate it with our bug tracker (JIRA). No luck.

I would have thought that email integration and bi-directional calendar integration was a bare minimum one could except from a CRM system. Integration with a bug tracker would have been nice.

So, is SugarCRM actually maintained? It seems so as the 5.2 version is apparently quite new, but how comes that I could not install a single add-on? Maybe it is a limitation of the community edition? I'd be more than happy to go for the professional edition if it is indeed the case, but I must say that my first impression was quite horrible: outdated web sites, totally messy add-on directory, and apparent lack of essential features...

Any advocate to give me a brighter side? And maybe some hints on the aforementioned issues?

Regards.

[longreach]

Seems your main issue is running 5.2 - it is so recent that essentially none of the third party add-ons have been updated to be able to work with it.

[salesagility]

The best advice I can give you is not to deploy recent versions of SUgarCRM. Always look for versions that have been out for 6-9 months. That way:

1. A lot of the bugs are out of the version - new versions of SugarCRM are notoriously buggy and you will as often spend time banging your head against a wall in frustration as you will do deriving value

2. Many of the community contributions will have been updated - SugarCRM has a reputation for breaking community contributions with each new release - they do not consult with the community about new releases so the community has no time to prepare. If you want SugarCRM with a number of contributions - NEVER deploy a recent release

[roblaus]

Differently put: Sugar does not accept community contributions for its core product. Thus the "community" is restricted to add-on products which may or may not work after a new Sugar release.

Additionally the "community" is doing most if not all of the testing what explains the 6-9 months or three patches as salesagility pointed out.

[SugarDev.net]

Well, my take on this is that Sugar has no beta testing. All new versions are just put out there with no regards to the existing modules or SugarForge projects.

Would you even believe that we, people owning SugarForge projects, don't even have a mailinglist to discuss API changes and suchs? These upgrades just come online one day, and we have to find out what has changed ourselves. So yeah, this takes time.

[BBBB]

Well, first, thanks to all of you for your replies.

it seems I was unlucky to "discover" sugarcrm a couple of days after the 5.2 release...

Which older version would you advise? (And do you know where to actually find them? :
On the download page, when I click on previous versions, there is nothing...)

Being a complete newbie (just installed it), I can hardly judge of the quality of the whole project, but I find it a bit shocking that the API for modules is broken so often. My initial impression was that one of the strength of sugarcrm was precisely all the add-ons at sugarexchange and sugarforge. Apparently, that is far from being the case...

[SugarDev.net]

Check here for the best download page: http://www.sugarforge.org/frs/?group_id=6

Although I stand by my previous post, I'm sure you can learn to like Sugar. Just use the 5.1 release or perhaps even the 5.0, and check the modules you want to install again.

[Sir.Limpsalot]

On the download page, when I click on previous versions, there is nothing...)

Having read the replies and this last statement i am a bit woried... What happens if i would wait for (lets say) 5.5 but the developers pull 5.2-to-5.5-update.zip from public within 6-9 months?

I made this exact mistake by not updating 4.5 to 5.0 becouse i wanted a stable 5.x release. By the time i wanted to update to 5.0 the 4.5-to-5.x update was completely gone from the SugarUpdate site...

Isn't it an idea to give a place for all hystoric updates somewhere on sugarForge?

[susiewilliams]

Yes, as SugarDevNet pointed out, http://www.sugarforge.org/frs/?group_id=6 is the location for the release archives.

[clint]

Having read the replies and this last statement i am a bit woried... What happens if i would wait for (lets say) 5.5 but the developers pull 5.2-to-5.5-update.zip from public within 6-9 months?

I made this exact mistake by not updating 4.5 to 5.0 becouse i wanted a stable 5.x release. By the time i wanted to update to 5.0 the 4.5-to-5.x update was completely gone from the SugarUpdate site...

Isn't it an idea to give a place for all hystoric updates somewhere on sugarForge?

We don't pull the archives needed for upgrading from previous releases. We may stop distributing a particular patch in favor of the most recent patch, but you will always be able to find the files you need to upgrade to the most recent patch for a release or to the most recent release at the SugarCRM project on SugarForge.org.

Also, for upgrading to the most recent release from a previous release, see this helpful article on the necessary steps.