Omar Abdel-Wahab

Hi all, I liked vTiger 4.2.x as a good and balanced OpenSource CRM solution. Most other powerful solutions weren't LAMP, Java and other technologies. Anyways I developed for some time over vTiger 4.2 and things were fine, still I had some criticism about the vTiger code which I had discussed with Gopal, one of the core developers. Anyways, I was awaiting the release of vTiger 5.0 unpatiently and as soon as an RC was there I was grapping it, installing, watching the differences. It could be me who was expecting more than I am supposed to but vTiger 5.0 was, for me, disappointing. I deceided finally to go see what SugarCRM offers in the OpenSource edition. I didn't like SugarCRM in the past because of their liesence, which hasn't changed at all as far as I know, thus I started the comparison with a sort of dislike towards SugarCRM. After few hours of playing with both CRM solutions from almost all sides I came to the following results: Installation: Sugar wins. It could be a bit complicated for non tikkies, but I still see it way better than vTiger though there were no indication Sugar was creating the database or it just stucked. UI: Sugar wins. vTiger 4 was exactly as Sugar but in vTiger 5 they went too far with tabs and sub-tabs. What was more confusing is seeing a module repeated in many sections. Adding modules: Sugar wins. An installer is there to add new modules, the fact that those features are in Sugar makes you wonder: what additions vTiger made to the core? I started to get the feeling that vTiger CRM is Sugar with some aimless modifications and some modules. Diversity of modules: vTiger wins. I missed Products module, Orders module though I didn't check the community yet. Someone may have already done them. Administration area: Sugar wins. Sugar is really great when it comes to administration. Though vTiger is based on Sugar, I have seen in vTiger's code they have disabled some features that were built-in Sugar such as mandatory custom fields. Theming: Sugar's Smarty is way better than vTiger's. I really think it's easier to theme Sugar. Code base: Sugar wins. I really liked Sugar's code over vTiger's. It's still clean and tidy. I believe I can do things faster on Sugar than on vTiger. To sum up: I generally believe if you have no problems with SugarCRM liesence then you go for it. It will give you way better stability and scalability than vTiger. If you're a coder seeking a better code then go for Sugar. I'd only recommend vTiger in case it will fit your needs without any developing, otherwise you may end-up wasting some time which you could save doing it with Sugar. -- This is my own opinion and I fully respect both companies with their codes, developers and efforts. It's only their efforts that allowed us to compare and reach the best solution. I hope this helps anyone.