SugarCRM vs OpenCRX

[mydatahub]

We currently host a number of SugarCRM Open Source databases for clients. I came across OpenCRX the other day. It appears to have many features SugarCRM does not. Does anybody have any real-world experience running both? How about developers - which has been easier to customise?

OpenCRX appears completely open, unlike SugarCRM which is commercial open source.

David Kellam
Technical Director
myDataHub
http://www.mydatahub.com.au

[longreach]

Some of the key differences seemed to me to be:

1 - Java based
2 - Fairly nasty user interface design (somewhat related to Java base)
3 - Less popular project

We work with both Java and PHP open source projects - and we find the PHP projects much more suitabe for small/medium deployments - as the customization of a PHP project is much more likely to be affordable to a SMB - making changes to a Java-based UI has for us always been significantly more expensive (so we reserve the use of Java-based Open Source projects for our larger clients).

Since CRMs are the most customized business applications there are, even if the application were perfect, if it cannot affordably be customized to its target market - it is of no use to us. And that is why we focussed on a PHP-based project for our CRM-based activities aimed at 200 users or less.

[filcole]

Thanks for bringing OpenCRX to my attention. There's an online demo here: http://www.opencrx.org/demo.htm
It looks like it does have some nice functionality but the user interface is not good enough. If CRM is to be used by sales people then the UI needs to be slick and easy to use.

[george_bbch]

I've briefly evaluated OpenCRX a few months ago:
- the installation was much more complicated than with Sugar
- the user interface has more features, but it's also less user-friendly (IMHO)
- the resources (disk space, memory) used on the server are much higher than Sugar
If you like to read an interesting document (although a bit outdated), click on the attachment link.

George

PS:
I've sent this document to all the companies or key people that develop the systems covered by this whitepaper - only two of them answered, and none of them was Sugar
I've also asked Cambridge Technology Partners for an updated version of their study, but got no reply...

[malcolmh]

I also briefly evaluated it several months ago, my main issue and that of a potential client was the terrible user interface.

For me, one of the major success factors for a CRM project is eas of use for the end users, which means an easy intuitive user interface, OpenCRX does not have this!