Insightly CRM Review 2025

You found Insightly CRM while searching for a way to manage your sales and customer relationships. You’re on the right track, but you might not actually need everything this small business CRM wants to charge you for.

Insightly attempts to be more than just a CRM. It wants to manage your entire business process from first contact through project completion. But does trying to do everything mean it does them particularly well?

We put Insightly CRM through extensive testing to determine whether the feature-packed platform makes sense for small businesses or if its complexity outweighs its benefits.

Overview of Insightly CRM for Small Business

Insightly wants to be your complete business platform. Not just a CRM, but a system that manages sales, projects, and everything in between.

The basic CRM features work fine. You can track contacts, manage leads, and monitor sales opportunities. But Insightly doesn’t stop there. It adds project management, time tracking, and advanced reporting on top of the standard CRM features.

You can track a lead, close the sale, and then manage the entire project delivery without switching tools. Everything stays connected, and your team has one system to learn.

However, this small business CRM software comes with a number of problems.

The interface has up to twelve navigation tabs, making it considerably more complex than focused CRM solutions. Setup and configuration can stretch into several weeks, rather than days. And despite all these features, Insightly somehow manages to leave out email sequencing entirely.

The CRM software does include email marketing as part of its all-in-one package, but the cost is steep. Pricing starts at $349 per month, covers only two CRM users, and requires a $1,500 onboarding fee.

Even if you want to stick to their CRM product, the pricing for that can be off-putting, as well. Starting at $29 per user/month, Insightly costs significantly more than most small business CRMs, yet still requires upgrades or third-party integrations for basic capabilities like workflow automation.

Insightly is also owned by Unbounce, another marketing automation platform. So, while it’s a powerful tool, it’s not built purely with small-business CRM needs in mind.

It’s a lot to think about, but if you need an all-in-one platform and don’t mind the high price, Insightly may just work for you.

Insightly CRM Pros and Cons

Let’s take a closer look at what Insightly CRM gets right and where it falls short.

Key CRM Features of Insightly CRM

Insightly’s Plus plan is the entry plan most small businesses will look at. It covers the basics well, but several advanced tools are held back for higher tiers.

The table below breaks down what you actually get with Insightly’s Plus plan ($29/month per user).

• Core Features

  • Mobile app
    ✅
  • Contact management
    ✅
  • Follow-up tracking
    ❌
  • Pipelines
    ✅ Unlimited
  • Duplicate management
    ✅

• Centralization Tools

  • Centralized workspace

    

    A centralized workspace is an essential small business CRM feature that lets you manage your whole business on just one page.
    ❌
  • Dashboard
    ✅
  • Number of integrations
    540+

• Communication Tools

  • Two-way email sync
    ✅
  • Click-to-call options
    ✅
  • Multi-channel inbox

    

    To make communications faster and easier, a multi-channel inbox stores messages you receive from various channels in one place.
    ❌
  • Meeting scheduling
    ❌

• Simple Automation

  • CRM workflows
    ⚠️ Higher plans only
  • Sales email sequences
    ❌
  • Free web forms
    ✅
  • Browser extension for auto lead capture
    ⚠️ Gmail only

• Customer Support

  • Email support
    ✅
  • Live chat
    ✅
  • Phone support
    ✅ Limited hours

• Pricing

  • Starting price
    $29 per seat/month
  • Free trial
    ✅ 14 days
  • Free plan
    ❌
  • Next paid plan
    ⚠️ Expensive $49 per seat/month

Below, we’ll examine the features in detail.

Contact Management

Insightly CRM lets you add up to 100,000 contacts, organize them on your contact list, and manage them from there.

You can edit, merge, clone, and delete contacts or change their owners. You can also send emails, add new opportunities and projects, and create new tasks, activities, or events.

Click on the contact’s name to open up the sidebar containing their entire journey. There, you can view and edit the contact’s profile. You can add comments or notes, create activities, share files, send and receive emails, and keep a log of almost everything.

You can also view related projects and opportunities, and update their stages (or status) with a click.

It’s worth noting that Insightly CRM, like many enterprise-level CRMs, differentiates between contacts and leads. The Contacts module works more like a database, where you store and manage the profiles of people and organizations. The Leads module, on the other hand, is where you manage potential customers who are not yet qualified.

You can change a contact to a lead and qualify it for your sales process. If it meets your requirements, it becomes a sales opportunity. And if it fails the qualification process, you can change it back to a contact.

Task Management

Activities in Insightly CRM are managed using two different tabs: Task and Calendar.

In the former tab, you can create new tasks and set their due dates and priority. You can also create reminders and update the progress of each task. If you switch to the Compact view, you’ll see a list of all your tasks, grouped by “overdue tasks”, “today”, and “later tasks”.

The Calendar tab mainly lets you create and view events (like meetings and appointments) on your plate, but it can be configured to show tasks, as well.

While these features cover the basics, they fall short as a true follow-up tracking system.

An ideal setup would link every activity to a lead or opportunity, organize all activities in one place with clear color coding and urgency levels, prompt you to create the next step when one is completed, and send reminders whenever something is due.

While Insightly CRM has a robust task management functionality, the fact that these tasks don’t have to be linked to CRM records means that your to-do list can become cluttered pretty fast.

Pipeline Management

Insightly CRM allows you to create multiple pipelines and customize them as you deem fit.

You can create pipelines for sales opportunities, as well as projects. And with this CRM’s flexibility, you’re able to configure the stages of these pipelines.

Lead Management

Insightly CRM does not include traditional deal management, but it does provide lead management functionality.

This module lists all your leads in a table, arranges them in alphabetical order, and includes some of their basic information.

Clicking on a name on that list opens a sidebar that shows their full journey. From here, you can view and edit details, update statuses, add notes and comments, create activities, share files, and send or receive emails. The system also keeps a record of all emails, notes, files, and activities tied to that lead.

Leads can also be organized on a Kanban board according to what stage of the pipeline they’re in. Here, you have the same options as above, with the added ability to advance leads through stages using drag-and-drop.

Leads progress through qualification stages until they reach the final stage—conversion—at which point they turn into sales opportunities and appear in the Opportunities tab.

The opportunity management module functions much like a standard deal management system. Opportunities are displayed in a list or in Kanban view, with their values, related organizations, and current stage in the pipeline.

Email Sync

Insightly CRM features two-way email sync, or bidirectional email sync, as it’s called inside the tool. You can not only send and receive emails from inside your CRM, but also keep a complete record of all email correspondence.

Insightly also provides BCC mailboxes to help log emails. There is one for contacts and another for leads. By forwarding, BCCing, or CCing messages to these addresses, you can ensure the emails are automatically added to your CRM.

Collaboration

Insightly CRM comes equipped with a host of functionalities that let you work together across teams in your organization.

Besides simply adding seats for team members to use, the CRM software lets you assign contacts, leads, opportunities, and tasks to them. You can also leave comments for team members and ‘@’ them to get their attention.

Insightly CRM includes visibility settings that let you control who can see what inside the system. You can choose to make your records visible to other members of your organization or keep them private to your own CRM seat. The same applies to dashboards and reports.

And if you’re an administrator on the Professional or Enterprise plans, you’ll be able to decide which seats (or users) can view, edit, or manage records.

Duplicate Management

In Insightly CRM, there are two ways to deal with duplicate records: manually or automatically.

The former works when you’re well aware of any duplicate records in your CRM system. Simply go to one of the duplicates, select the Merge function, type in the name of the other duplicate, and you’re good to go.

The latter is dubbed SmartMerge, and it’s best for when you have reason to believe there’s a duplicate record. Go to a record’s page and choose the SmartMerge option, and the tool will automatically look for duplicates of that particular record. If found, you’ll be prompted to merge them into one record.

That said, this CRM can also scan your entire database for all duplicate records in your system. The only catch is that the results won’t appear in your CRM; they’re sent to you by email, instead.

Dashboard and Reporting

As the name implies, Insightly CRM is big on reporting and business insights. From the lowest plan, you can create reports based on parameters of your choosing (customizable reports).

You can also visualize your sales funnel’s KPIs in dashboards. These dashboards can be built from scratch by combining various cards and using 40+ chart types and drag-and-drop layouts.

When you log into Insightly, you’ll land on the homepage containing all your dashboards.

Automations

Automations in Insightly can be confusing. On the lowest plan, you only get access to something called Configurable Automated Workflows, which are essentially task and event templates. They work more like Activity Sets—predefined groups of tasks you can quickly apply to a contact, project, or opportunity to save time.

The more advanced option, Complete Workflow Automation, is only available on higher-tier plans. This feature is closer to what most people expect from true workflow automation, since it lets you build workflows that trigger based on conditions and actions.

Insightly also includes automatic lead capture to cut down on manual entry. With the browser extension, you can pull lead details directly from your Gmail inbox and turn them into CRM records. Leads can also be captured through web forms built into the platform.

Another feature is the built-in AI assistant. It can summarize emails and even help draft replies.

However, there is no built-in email sequencing tool on any of Insightly’s subscription plans. If you need that feature, you’ll need to integrate a third-party marketing app like Mailchimp or buy Insightly’s email marketing software.

Integrations

There are tons of integration options available on Insightly CRM. You can sync with Google, Microsoft, PandaDoc, QuickBooks, Xero, and more than 540 business apps on the marketplace.

The small business CRM also integrates with AWS Lambda, AppConnect, and Webhooks to facilitate integrations with many other business apps. However, this custom integration feature is not available on the lowest plan; you’ll need a Professional or Enterprise plan.

Mobile App

Insightly, like many other small business CRMs, has mobile apps available on Android and iOS devices.

With these applications, you can access your entire CRM system from anywhere. That means everything, from contact and lead management to pipelines, dashboards, emails, and more.

Moreover, Insightly’s mobile CRM comes with a business card scanner for capturing contact details directly into your database. It also automatically syncs your CRM’s contacts and calendar with your phone’s. There’s also a tool for creating voice notes and audio reminders.

Project Management and Time Tracking

Besides just closing sales, Insightly comes equipped with project management functionality.

It functions similarly to the Sales Opportunities module. All projects are organized in a list, along with their status, assigned team member, and project pipeline stage (which is separate from the sales pipeline). And when you click on a project, you get a 360º view of its details.

There is also a dedicated time tracking module. It includes a built-in timer to measure how long you spend on projects and tasks already in your CRM. You also have the option of logging work hours manually.

Ease of Use

Insightly CRM has a fairly intuitive interface.

The design is clean, the tabs are well organized, and their labels clearly describe the data they contain. The color scheme and text layout also support readability.

The challenge is that Insightly is overbloated. The main navigation has up to twelve tabs, which is a lot for small businesses that want something quick and easy to use.

On top of that, Insightly layers in extras like time tracking and project management, which just make the CRM system harder to learn and use.

And although the visual representations of your business health are genuinely helpful, the reporting and dashboard features are so extensive that setting them up and using them efficiently can be time-consuming.

Another point of concern is the CRM’s flexibility. Insightly is a highly customizable platform that allows you to not only configure your CRM system, but also enable or disable certain features. All these customization options can be too overwhelming for less CRM-savvy teams.

On G2, Insightly holds an average rating of 4.2 out of 5 from more than 920 users. Many reviewers note that while the software is generally user-friendly, onboarding and setup often take longer than expected. Some even reported spending months trying to get comfortable with the system.

Customer Support

Customer support in this small business CRM isn’t tied to your subscription plan. You get equal access to customer care across all plans, even the free trial.

The support comes in the form of:

• Chatbot
• Livechat
• Email support

You can also get assistance via phone call, but that’s only available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.

Insightly CRM Pricing Structure

Insightly CRM does not have a freemium. It has three subscription plans: Plus, Professional, and Enterprise.

Features are spread across each tier, and there are no add-ons or extras to extend any functionality. That means if a plan doesn’t have what you need, you’ll either have to upgrade, integrate a third-party app, or find a different CRM for your small business.

How Much Does Insightly CRM Cost?

The lowest plan (Plus) covers the basics you’d expect of a small business CRM, but at $29 per user/month, it’s more expensive than most other alternatives.

Even more so, when you consider that it lacks workflow automations and email sequences. For this, you’ll need to opt for the next plan (Professional), which is also overpriced ($49 per user/month) and still doesn’t feature any email sequences.

And it makes no difference if you decide to opt for the Enterprise subscription at $99 per seat/month. Email sequencing doesn’t exist in this CRM. Period. If the functionality is important to you, you have three choices:

• Integrate a marketing app like Mailchimp
• Buy Insightly’s own email marketing product
• Or opt for another CRM

Insightly does not offer a freemium plan, but it does provide a 14-day free trial. The trial, however, gives you access to the Professional plan features, regardless of whether you are interested in the lowest or highest tier.

One good thing about Insightly is its generosity with file storage. The small business CRM provides 10GB of space on the lowest plan, and more than 10 times that amount on the higher subscriptions.

Is Insightly CRM Pricing Affordable for Small Businesses?

The short answer is no, not really.

At $29 per user each month, Insightly is almost twice the price of many small-business CRMs.

You would expect premium features for that cost, but email sequences are not even included. Many competing CRMs at half the price offer that as a standard feature.

The same applies to a core tool like workflow automation. If you’ll be needing that, you’ll have to move up to the $49 per user/month plan. For a small team of five people, that comes to $245 per month. That is a steep bill for functionality that cheaper CRMs include right out of the box.

Insightly only offers a 14-day trial, which is often not enough time to properly import your data, get set up, and test how the system works for your team.

Unless your business relies on having project management built directly into your CRM, Insightly’s pricing will feel expensive and difficult to justify for most small businesses.

Final Verdict: Is Insightly the Best CRM for Small Businesses?

Insightly CRM does many things well. The reporting is solid, file storage is generous, and having projects integrated with sales can streamline operations

For businesses that actually need CRM plus project management in one system, Insightly might work. You get everything under one roof, which could simplify your tech stack.

But most small businesses just need to manage contacts, track deals, and follow up with leads. For them, all of Insightly’s offerings might seem like overkill. Not to mention it’s too expensive, takes too long to learn, and still manages to miss basic features like email sequences.

According to our criteria (Value, Impact, and Speed), Insightly’s fit for small businesses is Low.

Best Alternative for Insightly CRM

If Insightly isn’t looking like the CRM for your small business, it’s worth checking out OnePageCRM.

Value: High
Impact: High
Speed: High
Pricing starts from: $9.95

OnePageCRM takes the opposite approach from Insightly. Instead of trying to do everything, it focuses on one thing: helping you carry out sales actions that move deals forward and ultimately grow your business.

OnePageCRM features a project delivery functionality, but unlike Insightly, it does not use that as an excuse to charge you a premium price.

At $9.95 per user/month, you’re paying about a third of Insightly’s cost, and you still get access to workflow automations.

Best of all, as the simplest CRM on the market, OnePageCRM gives you a plug-and-play system you can learn and set up in a few hours.