Insightly Review: Is It Right for Your Business in 2023?
Jess served on the founding team of a successful B2B startup and has used a wide range of sales and marketing tools over the course of her 15-year career. She uses her industry knowledge to deliver the best answers to your questions about sales tools and sales management.
Jill is a writer at Fit Small Business specializing on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
Insightly is one of our recommended customer relationship managers (CRMs) for real estate, startups, and operations. In our evaluation, Insightly scored high in the areas of pricing, general features, and ease of use. We scored it a little lower for its specialized features due to its lack of lead scoring features, while its automation workflow tools are also only available in the two highest-priced plans. It also scored lower on customer service due to its limited support channels on the paid plans.
Overall Score:
4.09 / 5
What We Like
- Highly customizable sales workflows
- Extensive third-party software integrations
- Robust project management tools
- Real-time data synchronization with mobile app
What's Missing
- Free plan is limited to two users
- Workflow automation is only available in the more expensive plans
- Phone support requires an additional cost, and is only available on the two highest-priced plans
- Limited report customizations
When to Use Insightly
- Real estate: Insightly is one of our top choices for the best real estate CRM due to its extensive and free third-party integrations.
- Startups: It is one of our top picks for startups because of its robust project management tools.
- Outlook integration: It is one of our top choices for businesses using Outlook as their primary email.
When to Use an Alternative
- Ecommerce CRM: Read this guide for top CRM options to manage your online store.
- Free CRM: While Insightly has a free plan, it is limited to two users. Check out better options in this guide.
Insightly is a CRM system that integrates sales automation with project management in a single platform. It also offers tools for lead routing, email marketing, and pipeline management. It is best for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a robust operational CRM to track their ongoing lead and opportunity management activities. It is also ideal for users who need a reliable project management tool in their CRM.
Insightly Deciding Factors
Supported Business Types | Small sales teams to enterprise-level companies, depending on the plan chosen | |
Standout Features |
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Insightly CRM Pricing |
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Contract Duration | Monthly and annual plans are available | |
Key Integrations | ||
Customer Support |
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Looking for other free CRMs well-suited for small businesses? Read our guide on the best free CRM software to learn about your other options.
Insightly Alternatives
If Insightly doesn’t meet your business needs, below are some alternatives you can consider:
 |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Businesses that need a robust free CRM with advanced email marketing tools | Companies that need visual representations of their sales pipelines | Businesses that want an affordable CRM with excellent analytics tools |
Starting Price | Offers a free plan, while paid plans start at $50 per month for two users | Starts at $14.90 per user, monthly | Offers a free plan, while paid plans start at $14 per user on a monthly basis |
Interested in reading about Insightly’s head-to-head comparison with our top overall pick for the best CRMs for small businesses, HubSpot CRM? Check out our article comparing HubSpot vs Insightly and read how these two systems stack up against each other. You can also check out our guide on the best Insightly CRM alternatives for more options.
Insightly pricing earned a score of 4.75 out of 5 due to the availability of a free plan and a range of affordable pricing options. Its Free plan provides an allocation for up to two users, while its three paid tiers support an unlimited number of users. Monthly fees range from $29 to $99 per user, per month, when billed annually. Interested users can sign up for a 14-day free trial.
Plans | Free | Plus | Professional | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Freelancers and individual users | Small sales teams that need excellent project management tools | Mid-sized businesses in need of automation tools | Large enterprises with a large number of subscribers for email marketing |
Monthly Pricing ($/User/Month) | $0 | $35 | $59 | $129 |
Annual Pricing ($/User/Month) | $0 | $29 | $49 | $99 |
Max Number of Users | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Record Limit | 2,500 | 10,000 | 250,000 | Unlimited |
File Storage | 200MB | 10GB | 100GB | Unlimited |
Email Templates | 5 | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Daily Mass Emails | 10 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
Customer Support | Help center | Help center and email | Help center and email | Help center and email |
Contact, Lead, Sales & Project Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom Dashboards | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Workflow Automation | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Products, Price Books & Quotes | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Free
The Free plan offers basic CRM features for managing contacts, leads, opportunities, and projects, and has an allocation for two users. It also provides standard dashboards and custom reports but has lower limits on the number of records, email templates, daily mass emails, and file storage. In addition, you can access these CRM functions via its mobile app.
Plus
Starting with the Plus tier, you can add unlimited users and enjoy higher limits on records and file storage. In addition to the features available in the Free plan, you also get access to smart alerts, email scheduling, business card scanning, and calendar syncing capabilities.
Professional
With the Professional tier, you unlock several advanced features. These include custom CRM dashboards, lead assignment rules, customizable business intelligence dashboards, workflow automation, and unlimited email templates. Moreover, this tier allows you to set an unlimited number of roles and permissions for different users.
Enterprise
The Enterprise plan offers unlimited records, file storage, and customizable business intelligence dashboards. You can also send quotes to your customers within the CRM. In addition, it allows administrators to build custom CRM apps for each team in your company and deploy them on both web and mobile platforms.
Insightly Features
Insightly offers CRM features like lead generation and management, contact and sales activity management, collaboration, and project delivery features. It automates sales processes to allow your reps to sell more proactively and spend less time on repetitive tasks.
We gave Insightly’s general features a score of 5 because it offers fundamental CRM features like lead, project, and pipeline management, as well as reporting and analytics. It lets you qualify prospects and automatically assign incoming leads to the right reps based on your criteria. Insightly also lets you send, schedule, and track custom and templated emails to targeted leads or customer lists, and allows you to capture new leads from web pages.
This platform helps you manage sales opportunities more efficiently by providing a system for tracking all the pipeline stages and custom fields under each deal. You can also assign templated tasks and event activities to leads, opportunities, projects, and organizations.
Below are some of the general features of Insightly:
- Contact and organization management
- Task and event management
- Lead management, assignment, and routing
- Opportunity management
- Customizable sales processes
- Mass emailing
- Email templates
- Visualize leads with a Kanban board
- Web-to-lead capture
- Automatic social profile enrichment
Insightly’s dashboard provides a complete overview of an organization’s overall business performance. (Source: Insightly)
We gave Insightly a score of 3.25 out of 5 for its niche features as we saw some areas that need improvement, such as its lack of a lead scoring tool, which is crucial for getting quality leads. In addition, while its automation tools are available, they are only accessible to the subscribers of higher-priced plans.
Project Management
Insightly has excellent project management tools that let teams collaborate on various tasks and opportunities. Its project management pipeline is customizable, and each stage can be assigned to a particular user. It also automatically notifies the user when a project hits their stage in the pipeline so that they can work on it promptly.
Here are some functionalities under Insightly’s project management feature:
- Track projects, milestones, and correspondence
- Schedule and assign tasks associated with projects
- Calendar synchronization
- Configurable project processes
- Convert won opportunities to projects
Users can configure the settings of the project management tool so their team members are alerted accordingly on projects assigned to them. (Source: Insightly)
Automation
Users can streamline sales and business processes using Insightly’s CRM automation feature. This allows you to build automated workflows, tasks, emails, and reports to reduce manual labor. You can also set roles and permissions for data access of different users. Higher-tier subscribers can create and send pricing quotes and proposals directly within the CRM.
Here are some functionalities under Insightly’s workflow automation feature:
- Task assignments
- Task notifications
- Custom validation rules
- Roles and permissions
- Deploy custom apps on any platform
- Configurable webhooks
Users can set settings on the workflow automation tool to streamline their sales process. (Source: Insightly)
In-app Phone
Insightly’s phone integration with third-party apps like RingCentral and Kixie allows you to call leads and contacts with a single click from within the CRM. You can configure it to automatically log and record each call. You can also track the frequency and duration of calls, as well as generate reports based on call logs.
Here are some functionalities under the in-app phone feature:
- Click-to-call from leads or contacts
- Call logging
- Prerecorded voicemail messages
- Incoming call forwarding
- Call recording
- Call routing
Its in-app phone feature, through its third-party integration with Kixie, enables users to make calls straight from the app. (Source: Kixie)
Business Intelligence
Insightly’s business intelligence feature offers over 40 different kinds of chart types and drag-and-drop layouts you can use to build data visualizations. You can also customize dashboards with real-time data and share it with your coworkers. Lastly, Insightly allows you to schedule reports to run at a specified time and have them automatically sent to your intended recipients.
Below are some functionalities under Insightly’s business intelligence feature:
- Built-in business intelligence dashboards
- Customizable and shareable real-time insight cards
- Configurable reports
- Customized report scheduling and emailing
Users can extract action-based insights from the platform that can help them make sound business decisions. (Source: Software Advice)
Mobile App
Insightly allows you to manage your customer relationships anywhere using its Android and iOS apps. It syncs your data, contacts, and calendar with your CRM account in real time. Its mobile business card scanning feature allows you to take photos of business cards using your mobile device and automatically convert the details into contacts or leads. The mobile app also lets you record audio notes into your CRM using your mobile phone’s mic.
Below are some functionalities under Insightly’s mobile app feature:
- Android and iOS mobile apps
- Real-time mobile data synchronization
- Mobile business card scanning
- Mobile contact and calendar integration
- Mobile voice notes
Agents on the go can access customer data anytime, anywhere with Insightly’s mobile app. (Source: Software Advice)
Third-party Integrations
Insightly has integration capabilities with many third-party applications, giving you the ability to synchronize all your customer data into the platform. You can connect Insightly with more than 250 business software from its app library or integrate with other apps using application programming interface (API) access at no additional cost. These include its integrations with other software for email marketing, document management, and accounting.
Some of its most popular integrations include:
- Slack
- Asana
- Magento
- DocuSign
- ActiveCampaign
- Airtable
- Capsule CRM
- Google Workspace
- Bamboo HR
- Calendly
- Jira
- QuickBooks Online
- Workday
- Xero
You can find the complete list of Insightly’s integrations on its AppConnect page. (Source: Insightly)
Insightly earned a 3.63 out of 5 score for customer service due to its limited support options. Its Free plan only provides users with access to the Insightly Help Center. Meanwhile, paid plan users get access to email support, as well as its help center and community forums. Insightly provides customized support and service plans at a premium cost for its Professional and Enterprise plans. Interested users need to get in touch with Insightly for a customized quote.
We scored Insightly a perfect 5 out of 5 for ease of use because it features an intuitive interface with a simple and organized layout. Insightly does not require a lot of technical skill to get acquainted with its navigation and controls—even for beginners. All the tabs and dashboards are adequately labeled, and menu options are easy to spot. Those who need advanced support and guidance can avail of its add-on support plans and onboarding program.
We scored Insightly 4.13 out of 5 for expert scores because most Insightly users are satisfied with its ease of use, customization options, and extensive third-party integrations. They particularly like its workflow automation and project management features. However, some Insightly CRM reviews noted the limited customer support available in the lower tiers and the added cost required to have a shorter response time to their request for support.
- Capterra: 4 out of 5 based on 552 reviews
- G2: 4.2 out of 5 based on 737 reviews
- TrustRadius: 7.8 out of 10 based on 690 reviews
Methodology: How We Evaluated Insightly CRM Reviews
To write this Insightly review, we tested the system ourselves. We looked at crucial areas, such as pricing and the core set of features every CRM should have, as well as the level of customer support and ease of use. We also looked through existing CRM ratings about Insightly from credible review sources.
Click through the tabs below for our Insightly review evaluation criteria:
10%
Pricing
10%
General Features
30%
Niche Features
20%
Ease of Use
20%
Support
10%
Expert Score
10% of Overall Score
Cost is typically an essential criterion for any business, so it was one of our considerations when evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Insightly. We usually give a high score to providers that offer a starter plan that costs $30 or less. We also check the availability of a free plan, scalable pricing options, and options to pay monthly or annually.
10% of Overall Score
We looked at overall features we feel are necessary for any CRM system, such as integration options, reporting, and analytics tools. We also considered the availability of a mobile app—which is important for sales reps who are always on the go.
30% of Overall Score
We also looked at the niche and targeted features of the software to see the value a user can get by subscribing. For Insightly, we checked if they offer specialized features such as lead scoring, workflow automation, and analytics.
20% of Overall Score
We evaluated Insightly’s platform usability and the level of technical experience needed to use the system. This was analyzed in terms of the expertise needed to set up an account, the learning curve to use its features, and the ease of integrating with other third-party applications.
20% of Overall Score
Support is a critical part of running any CRM tool, especially for small businesses that don’t have in-house technical support. We analyzed the types and availability of support offered by these providers through live chat, email, and phone.
10% of Overall Score
We looked through existing and best CRM reviews on credible sites to measure the level of satisfaction current users have and any problems they typically encounter. We also added our thoughts and expert opinion on key features, value for money, and popularity.
*Percentages of overall score
Insightly Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who will benefit most from using Insightly?
Insightly can be used by various businesses—from startups to enterprise-level teams. It offers a free CRM plan and three paid subscription options that cater to varying business needs and sizes. Due to its substantial project and pipeline management, it is ideal for users looking for a robust operational CRM.
When should I use an Insightly alternative?
Users who need higher document storage in their free plan can consider Zoho CRM instead, as it offers an allocation of 1GB in its free plan, while Insightly offers only 200MB.
Users who want a more robust free plan can consider HubSpot CRM, which tops our list of the best free CRMs for small businesses. This is because Insightly lacks some essential features in its Free plan, including workflow automation and custom dashboards.
Insightly Review Bottom Line
Insightly’s CRM software offers robust contact and lead management features and has integrated project management capabilities. The combination of these features helps nurture business relationships with leads and customers. Aside from that, it has a simple interface and extensive third-party integration options. However, access to phone support entails additional costs for Insightly users and is only available to the subscribers of the two highest-priced plans.
