What Is Insightly?
As a traditional CRM, Insightly works well to help you track contacts, leads and projects, even on its forever-free plan. What sets Insightly apart from a basic CRM—and why it earns a spot on our list of the best CRM services for small business—are its customizable reports and dashboards, report scheduling and integrations with other Insightly products and third-party apps.
When you join the Insightly Plus plan, you’ll pay $29 per user per month (billed annually), opening up a few more benefits. You can add as many users at this rate as you’d like, and you’ll be able to store up to 10GB of files and 100,000 records. Email allowance is much higher at this level, too—you can send up to 2,500 emails per day.
To get workflow automation and customized dashboards, you’ll have to choose at least the Professional plan from Insightly, which costs $49 per user per month (billed annually). Additionally, you’ll get lead assignment and routing to send qualified leads to the right representatives. Email gets more useful, too—you can schedule emails for leads and customers, and when you couple that with the automation of tasks and workflows, you’ll save a lot of time by not having to do the little (but important) things manually.
Larger companies may want to consider the Enterprise plan that costs $99 per user per month (billed annually) to get a full-featured product. Insightly doesn’t limit storage, records or the number of email templates you can create at all. Daily mass emails are limited to 10,000, though.
Aside from the obvious core CRM features that Insightly offers (i.e., contact and lead management), it also works well with other apps. You can integrate Insightly with more than 2,000 third-party apps, regardless of which plan you choose.
How Insightly Works
Insightly opens to a summary of dashboards that includes top sales reps, sales pipeline funnel and total sales. This gives you a good launching point every time you log in to the account. From there, you can toggle between individual contacts listed in a digital Rolodex or search by organization. Take each contact and tag them with a future opportunity of a sale to track the potential and create a sales funnel.
When you create a project, a runway is created with a neat little set of segmented arrows showing how the project is progressing. We like this feature as it allows users to get a simple visual of where any project is in the pipeline and the next step. At the end of the runway is a “complete” segment that lets you know that you’ve finished the project and can move on to the next.
To manage daily duties, a task manager lists things based on due dates and allows you to focus on the next item without the distraction of project overviews. This is a useful feature that adds to the productivity of each user.
Is Insightly Right for Me?
To get the most value from Insightly, you’re better off choosing the mid-tier plan at $49 per user per month (billed annually), which is a good choice for midsized businesses, but the total cost will add up quickly. The free plan is a great CRM pick for individuals who don’t need more than contact and project management for themselves.
Insightly Is Best For:
- Growing teams with a need for a project management system that expands as they do
- Teams that need a CRM for more than just a sales funnel but instead are looking for a true project management solution
- Sales teams that do a lot of bulk marketing that will benefit from a bulk email solution
Insightly Is Not Recommended For:
- Those looking for a robust free solution since the free solution is quite limited
- Small businesses that don’t have the budget for a comprehensive CRM solution
What Sets Insightly Apart
The project runway really sets Insightly apart from other CRMs. This tool visually displays any project’s location on the runway. Users can create custom fields segmenting projects for completion so that there is a uniform way to guide anyone through a project. This makes it easier for teams to work where one department may have the first part of the runway and then hand the project off to another department. Everyone can see what the next step is and the course of action needed to complete any given project.
Aside from the project runway, Insightly offers all the bells and whistles that you’d expect that make it a comprehensive CRM. It allows users to search based on opportunities, contacts or organizations. We especially like the task list that gives users specific tasks to do on any given day so that there are no questions about how team members should spend their time.
Insightly Features
Ease of Use
Anyone can jump into Insightly and start immediately. The user-friendly system has an intuitive left bar that helps you toggle between screens and sections. Entering information is simple, and you can update anything with just a few clicks of the mouse. Users will appreciate the dashboard that starts as a daily launch point with an overview of projects. All in all, it takes about 10 minutes of shuffling through the left bar to understand what each icon does and how to use it. This lowers the learning curve of this CRM.
Customization
Insightly is a customizable solution that starts with the overview page. Customize what reports will be summarized on the page and how they will be displayed on the top two-tiered plans. When it comes to project management, customize the runway to be specific to how you need to progress each segment of projects. This allows teams to create a workflow that works each and every time with nothing falling through the cracks.
Features and Capabilities
Insightly offers key features that make it a useful solution for many small and large teams. It allows you to send mass emails in segmented lists from contacts to target sales, project management and company updates. When it comes to work productivity, Insightly can integrate with more than 2,000 work applications, making it a comprehensive solution that allows you to work with your favorite programs such as Slack and Google Docs.
Workflows and Automations
Users like Insightly because it automates the workflow from segment to segment on any given project. Because it integrates with so many third-party applications, data is easily transferred so that it can be accessed and used as needed. Automations allow team members to focus on getting more done without missing a beat in terms of documentation and the next steps to take.
Third-Party Integrations
Whether it’s Asana or Calendy to 2,000 other common business tools, Insightly can fully integrate to simplify juggling different applications. Team members can integrate with the solutions that make sense for them. For example, the HR team can integrate with ADP payroll solutions to move through payroll quickly, especially when dealing with complex sales reports and commissions.
Insightly Pricing and Plans
Plus | Professional | Enterprise | |
---|---|---|---|
Starting Price | $29 per user, per month | $49 per user, per month | $99 per user, per month |
Free Trial Length | 14 days | 14 days | Contact sales |
Role-Based Permissions | Two | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Contact Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Opportunities Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Team Collaboration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Analytics and Reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Custom Automated Emails | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Lead Management | No | Yes | Yes |
Customizable Workflows | No | Yes | Yes |
Lead Scoring | No | No | No |
Third-Party Integrations | 2,000-plus | 2,000-plus | 2,000-plus |
Customer Support | Email | Email | Email |
Plus Plan
The Plus plan allows you to create stronger pipelines by offering lead management, automated emails and email templates. Companies can take advantage of the web-to-lead capture feature that maximizes their web presence. Should team members prefer, they can switch to a Kanban view for a more visual workflow. Building relationships is easy in the Plus plan as well. There is service integration and contact and organization management. Even the baseline plan offers task management, allowing users to maximize their time on any given day.
Professional Plan
The Professional plan comes with everything that the Plus plan does but adds lead assignment and routing, scheduled outbound emails and custom queues. This increases the efficiency of any team member working on a project. Users get 100 insight cards that provide valuable information about a given contact or project. The Professional plan upgrades from two configurable profiles to an unlimited number and moves up from 50 custom fields to 100. The Professional plan also introduces webhooks so that you can capture the data with callbacks.
Enterprise Plan
The Enterprise plan is the most robust of the plans available. It offers everything in the Professional plan plus a lot more. You get 200 customizable fields, audit logging, field-based permissions, product price books and quotes. Users can rely on added security features that include SAML and SCIM single sign-on.
Customer Service and Support
Insightly’s customer service is limited. No plan offers phone support. Users are left to contact support@insight.ly to get help. This can be problematic if you have a pressing issue that needs to be resolved.
Additional Features Worth Noting
Insightly may focus on the basics of a CRM, but it has a couple of unique features that you may not see in other CRM tools. You can use your mobile phone to snap a photo of a business card and the Insightly mobile app will automatically generate a lead within the software for you (you’re limited to 15, 25 or 50 per user, per month, depending on the paid plan you’re using).
Many CRM apps today offer automatic dialers or telephony integrations so that you can make calls directly from your CRM—simply press the call button on a contact or lead record and call from your computer or mobile phone. Insightly offers this feature of a built-in dialer, known as Insightly Voice. It’s a great timesaver and includes the option to record calls or route calls to reps. However, it isn’t included in any plan—you have to pay $35 per user, per month (paid annually).
Insightly Alternatives and How They Compare
Insightly | Pipedrive | monday.com | Salesforce | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rating | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Starting Monthly Price | $29 per user | $14.90 per user | $0 for up to two users | $25 per user |
Free Trial Length | 14 days | 14 days | Free forever | 14 days |
Contact Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Lead Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Opportunities Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Lead Scoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Customizable Workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Automations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Team Collaboration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Analytics and Reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Third-Party Integrations | 2,000-plus | 50 | 350 | 7,000+ |
Customer Support | Email | Chat, email, Phone | Email, phone | Email, phone |
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Insightly vs. Pipedrive
Users will notice the different ways information is automatically presented immediately. Insightly uses a list-style board, while Pipedrive uses a Kanban board for easy drag-and-drop movement of cards. This is how you visually see projects move down the pipeline in Pipedrive, which is designed primarily for sales teams and doesn’t provide a way for teams to work on non-sales projects.
Insightly vs. monday.com
Insightly and monday.com are two comprehensive CRM platforms. Insightly starts at $29 per month per user, whereas monday.com stands out for having a free forever plan. And monday.com scores higher on our rubric for its ease of use and overall functionality. However, where Insightly rises above monday.com is in terms of integrations. Insightly partners with thousands of common work applications, whereas monday.com works with around 350. This can make a huge difference in workflow and automation for a team.
Insightly vs. Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the most commonly used CRM solutions on the market used by small and large organizations alike. The two CRMs are similar in price, and both offer a 14-day free trial to test out the solution and see how it works for you. Where Salesforce edges out Insightly is in customizations, making the product work specific to your teams’ needs. Users find that Insightly is easier to use than Salesforce, reducing the learning curve and helping you get productive faster.
Our Expert Opinion
Insightly is an easy-to-use and affordable CRM solution that works for sales funnels and project management. We especially like the pipeline view of projects that allows people from different departments to collaborate on a project, moving it through to completion in an organized fashion. Small business owners won’t need the full 14-day free trial to get used to the system and determine how to use it for their productivity needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Insightly free?
Insightly offers a free 14-day trial. Its baseline plan, the Plus plan, is $29 per user per month (billed annually). If you’re primarily using Insightly as a project management tool, consider looking into a list of the best project management software instead.
Is Insightly any good?
Overall, Insightly is a good collaborative CRM tool to help you organize leads, contacts and projects across different teams, especially if you’re all working remotely. There are alternatives to Insightly that are more affordable, offer more features on their low-tier plans and offer better free options with fewer limits. Find out which type of CRM would suit your business the best.
What does Insightly integrate with?
Insightly integrates with more than 2,000-plus apps, which extends its value. Top integrations include Google Workspace, QuickBooks, Slack, Dropbox and social media platforms.
Is CRM software only for large businesses?
Not anymore. While the software originated to meet the needs of enterprise-level businesses, over the years it has evolved to meet the needs of small to midsized businesses (SMBs).
Does CRM require a large IT investment?
No. There are plenty of cloud CRM solutions that information technology (IT) novices can employ. You don’t have to make a large investment in physical IT infrastructure or hire IT staff to manage your CRM. Many CRM solutions are available as software as a service (SaaS), which means that you only pay for what you use and can stop using it at any time.