by Insightly · insightly.com ↗
Best for project management and delivery in B2B
Insightly CRM and Freshsales both sit in the CRM category, but they are positioned around different buyer priorities. Insightly’s own pricing page emphasizes a broader workflow: lead and contact management, project management, advanced reports, pre-built dashboards, and native project delivery. That makes it a natural fit when the CRM is expected to hand work off into delivery, not just sales. Freshsales, by contrast, is described in review content as a sales CRM built to stop teams from juggling multiple tools, with lead scoring, automation, pipeline tracking, and email/calendar integration. For a buyer choosing between them, the simplest distinction is whether the CRM is primarily a sales execution system or a combined sales-and-delivery system. TrustRadius review text for Insightly calls it “simple to customize” and says it can scale as companies grow, while Freshsales reviews highlight that it feels “easy to use” and helps teams build pipelines and maintain customer/prospect information. That means the comparison is less about one being universally better and more about which operating model you need. If your team wants a CRM that supports project handoff and ongoing delivery, Insightly has the clearer advantage. Its official plan details explicitly include project management in the core CRM tier, and the product’s feature pages also call out convert-won-opportunities-to-projects and native project management. Those are strong signals for services-led or implementation-heavy B2B businesses. If your team wants a comparatively straightforward sales CRM with strong lead and pipeline tools, Freshsales has the edge in the supplied review material. The review platform text points to lead scoring, automation, and pipeline tracking, which are exactly the kinds of capabilities sales managers usually want first. Pricing also separates the products. Insightly publishes a clear CRM entry point at $29 per user per month billed annually, with higher tiers at $49 and $99 per user per month. Freshsales pricing in the supplied comparison shows Growth at $11 per month per user, Pro at $47, and Enterprise at $71, and the same comparison shows a free-forever option for HubSpot rather than Freshsales, so buyers should be careful not to generalize from adjacent CRM competitors. On the evidence supplied here, Freshsales appears cheaper at the entry tier, but Insightly’s lower plan already includes project management and dashboarding, which may reduce the need for add-ons. Buyers should compare total cost against the amount of delivery workflow, reporting, and customization they need. Review sentiment is directionally favorable for both, but the reasons differ. Insightly review text stresses customization, integration with tools like Google Suite and Slack, and the ability to link multiple objects to records; criticisms focus on support responsiveness, duplicate contacts, and UI complexity. Freshsales review text praises usability, automation, deal navigation, and support responsiveness, while criticizing the mobile app and some large-data performance issues. In practical terms, Insightly reads as stronger for teams that want structure across sales and projects, while Freshsales reads as stronger for teams that want a leaner, sales-first interface.
Insightly CRM is best for B2B teams that need their CRM to do more than manage leads. Its supplied product and pricing materials emphasize project management, native project delivery, dashboards, and workflow automation, which makes it a strong fit for organizations that sell services and then hand work into delivery. The review material also points to high customization and flexible data management, which helps teams tailor the system to more complex internal processes.
Freshsales is best for teams that want a sales CRM centered on lead handling, pipeline management, and automation. The supplied review content describes it as a sales CRM with lead scoring, pipeline tracking, and integration with email and calendar tools, which suits reps who want to move quickly and keep the sales process lightweight. If your priority is sales execution over delivery management, Freshsales looks like the more focused option in the supplied documents.
| Dimension | Insightly CRM | Freshsales |
|---|---|---|
| Core positioning | Insightly CRM is positioned as a modern CRM that supports sales and project delivery together. The supplied materials emphasize lead and contact management, project management, advanced reports, and dashboards. | Freshsales is positioned as a sales CRM built to help teams stop juggling multiple tools. The supplied review content emphasizes lead scoring, automation, pipeline tracking, and email/calendar integrations. |
| Project delivery | Insightly explicitly includes project management in its CRM plan details and also describes native project management and converting won opportunities to projects. That makes the product better aligned to organizations that deliver work after the sale. | Freshsales review material does not present project management as a core strength in the supplied documents. Its feature set in the provided sources is centered on sales automation and pipeline management rather than delivery workflows. |
| Customization and data model | Insightly review content highlights a high degree of customization, flexible data organization, and linking multiple objects to records. The official plan page also shows higher-tier options for more fields, permissions, and workflow depth. | Freshsales review content highlights user-friendliness and efficiency, but the supplied documents are lighter on deep customization details than Insightly’s materials. |
| Lead and pipeline management | Insightly supports lead and contact management, automated customized emails, web-to-lead capture, Kanban view, and opportunity management, so it covers the core CRM pipeline well while keeping delivery in view. | Freshsales is described as offering lead scoring, automation, pipeline tracking, and contextual sales workflows. If the buyer wants the CRM to stay closely tied to rep activity, Freshsales is very competitive here. |
Choose Insightly CRM if your buying team needs project management built into the CRM, not bolted on later. The supplied documents explicitly show native project management and convert-won-opportunities-to-projects, so it is a better match when sales, onboarding, and delivery need to live in the same system. Choose Freshsales if you want a sales-first CRM with strong lead scoring and pipeline motion and you do not need the CRM to manage project delivery.
Choose Freshsales if you are optimizing for quick adoption and a simpler sales workflow. The supplied review text says it “looks and feels energetic and easy to use,” and it highlights automation, sequences, calendar sync, and deal navigation. Choose Insightly if your operating model depends on customization, linked records, and reporting depth across sales and projects, because that is where the supplied Insightly materials are strongest.
Insightly CRM is the stronger fit for project-based B2B teams based on the supplied documents. Its pricing page explicitly includes project management in the CRM plan, and the product materials also mention converting won opportunities to projects and native project management. Freshsales is presented more as a sales CRM, with the supplied sources focusing on lead scoring, automation, and pipeline tracking rather than delivery execution. If your team sells services and then delivers them, Insightly aligns more closely with that operating model.
Freshsales appears easier to adopt quickly in the supplied review content. One review says it “looks and feels energetic and easy to use,” and another section highlights simplified administration and responsive support. Insightly is also described as easy to use and customize, but its review content more often mentions navigation complexity and setup issues. For teams that want the lightest sales workflow, Freshsales looks like the safer first choice.
Buyers should compare total workflow cost, not just the entry monthly price. Freshsales shows a lower starting price in the supplied comparison, while Insightly’s higher starting tier includes project management and reporting features that may remove the need for separate software. If you need those capabilities anyway, Insightly’s list price may be easier to justify. If you only need a sales CRM, Freshsales can look more economical.
The supplied review material gives Freshsales a clearer support edge. Freshsales reviewers describe the team as providing immediate assistance and fast, responsive help, while Insightly reviewers mention slow and sometimes unhelpful customer service. That does not prove every customer’s experience will be the same, but it is a useful signal for buyers who expect to need frequent vendor help during rollout. If support responsiveness is a deciding factor, Freshsales has the stronger quoted sentiment in the provided sources.
