Insightly CRM review

Insightly is versatile CRM software that enables B2B sales teams in small- to medium-sized businesses build stronger, more strategic relationships with customers by leveraging data. In this Insightly review, we compare it to some of the best CRM software out there to see how it stacks up. 

With advanced lead management tools, a wide range of available integrations, and an attractive interface, Insightly is certainly a strong contender in the CRM market.

Insightly review summary

Insightly is a good choice for small- to medium-sized businesses as it offers all of the everyday CRM features you might need, from lead management to mass emailing, in one place.

It comes with some excellent project management tools and boasts an impressively wide range of available integrations to further extend its functionality. Recent changes have also made the interface more user friendly and customizable. 

Insightly falls short on customer service, however, as it charges extra for live support options. Telephony features also cost extra and aren’t included in any of the plans. Although Insightly’s plans are affordable, competitors such as Zoho CRM do offer a similar service at a cheaper price. 

For larger enterprises or those with vast databases, Hubspot may be a better option as it offers much more storage at a reasonable price.

Score: 4/5

Read on for the full review.

Insightly’s competitors

Insightly: Key features

Insightly offers advanced lead and contact management tools, enabling you to better organize your existing contact list and reach prospective new customers.

It provides a few ways to capture new leads. You can add new records manually, which is very easy to do, although batch importing leads from an excel spreadsheet is the quickest option. Alternatively, you can embed Insightly contact forms into your own website to capture leads; or, you can use the Insightly app to scan business cards and convert the information into a lead. Once captured, the social profile enrichment feature links relevant social media information to each record. 

Once they are in the system, you can automatically route new leads to the right sales reps depending on the criteria you set. You can then view an activity timeline of every interaction a contact has had with your brand, including a history of all communications, tasks, activities, linked items, and more. 

Insightly also enables you to communicate with contacts via email, with Outlook and Gmail integrations. In addition, there is an inbuilt phone dialler that can place calls and automatically record them. However, there is an additional price for this feature on top of all plans. 

When a contact is qualified as a potential customer, they are converted into an “opportunity”, and enter the sales pipeline. You can set up and customize multiple sales pipelines, assigning activity sets to each stage in the pipeline. Once a prospect has converted, you can then change an opportunity into a project, and make use of Insightly's integrated project management tools to manage relationships with the client.

Insightly: Key features and highlights

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Insightly offers decent reporting capabilities, enabling you to build sophisticated reports and dashboards for a top-level overview of the state of your business. These can be shared with colleagues, and you can even schedule reports to be emailed automatically to them on a recurring basis. To access more advanced reporting features, you can also integrate Insightly with Microsoft Power BI. 

Its workflow automation tools enable you to automate certain business processes, such as sending emails, updating records, and firing webhooks, based on defined triggers. These help to streamline your sales process and reduce the amount of repetitive manual work your team does, freeing people up for more productive tasks. On Insightly's Enterprise plan, you can even price products and send quotes directly from within the CRM. 

Insightly offers an impressive range of over 250 integrations with business apps, as well as an API. Popular integrations with apps such as Slack, Amazon S3, and Adobe will help to keep your business connected. The CRM also integrates with cloud file storage services to enable you to link files to records, as well as offering contact details and calendar sync with Microsoft Office and Google.

Insightly: What’s new?

In the most recent version of Insightly, changes have been made to the interface to improve user experience. The side navigation has been slimmed down, making the interface feel cleaner and less cluttered. The new “list view” grid also gives you more control over how your data is displayed, with better sorting and filtering options. 

Alongside this, the latest version boasts improved versatility, with added features to create custom objects, enabling you to store data that doesn't fit into the premade objects. You can also create custom page layouts and custom fields for a more personalized experience.

Insightly: Pricing

Insightly offers a free plan and three paid pricing plans with more advanced features. The free plan is only available for two users, and has very limited features, making it unsuitable for most businesses looking for good CRM functionality. 

For the paid plans, all prices are per user a month. You can choose to pay either monthly or annually, though paying annually works out cheaper. For example, by paying annually you could save $6 a month on the Plus plan.

*Hubspot’s basic plan is based on two paid users, while price plans for Insightly and Zoho are based on one user.

Testing Insightly

To effectively evaluate Insightly in comparison to its competitors, we tested the effectiveness of this CRM’s workflow automation feature, which is a useful everyday feature that will help to streamline your business processes. We also tested the responsiveness of its customer support. Both features are key when taking into account which CRM is right for your business.

How effective are Insightly's automated workflows?

To test the effectiveness of Insightly's automated workflows, we set up a simple workflow that sends a short introductory email every time a new record is created in the CRM. 

First we set the trigger for the workflow, which was the creation of a new record. Then we added the immediate action “send an email”. There are also options to run the workflow more than once, or add time triggers. You can also choose other actions including attaching tasks, activities, or notes to the record. 

We then tested our automated workflow by creating a new contact in the CRM. Sure enough, the email we set up arrived in our inbox moments later, with no delays or glitches.

How responsive is Insightly's customer service?

We tested Insightly's basic customer support, which comes included with all of its plans. This includes email support and access to its online knowledge base. 

While the knowledge base does offer a comprehensive library of information for beginners, getting in touch with a customer service rep is much harder. When we emailed customer support, it took two days to receive a response. This is a pretty poor response time, and the only way to access live support options is to pay extra for the premium support plans.

Alternatives to Insightly

If you’re shopping around for the right CRM, there are several key competitors to Insightly. Zoho CRM offers a similar service aimed at the small- to medium-sized business market, with up to 10 custom dashboards included in the basic plan, as well as live support options. It also works out a little cheaper than Insightly. You can read our Zoho CRM review to find out more.

For those with very large databases, Hubspot may be a better option, as all paid plans come with the storage capacity for a whopping 15 million contacts. Find out more in our Hubspot CRM review.

Insightly: Final verdict

Insightly is a versatile CRM aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses, offering all of the everyday CRM features you might need, from lead management to mass emailing. It also has an impressively wide range of available integrations to further extend its functionality. 

Insightly boasts a user-friendly platform that’s easy to navigate and personalize, with some excellent project management features to boot. It also offers advanced features such as the capability to create automated workflows, custom objects, multiple sales pipelines, and custom dashboards. 

Insightly falls short on customer service. Unless you pay extra for a premium support plan, you can only access email support, which is slow to respond. The inbuilt telephony feature also costs extra, and isn’t included in any of Insightly’s plans. 

Overall, Insightly is a good, comprehensive CRM product. However, it struggles to stand out in a crowded market full of excellent CRM solutions. With Zoho CRM, for example, offering a similar service for a lower cost, it may be worth comparing Insightly with a few alternatives before deciding if this is the right CRM for your business.

Further reading on CRM software

For more information on how to choose the right business CRM, read our guides to the best CRM for small business and the best CRM for real estate, and if you're on a budget, the best free CRM software available.

If you’d like to learn more about how a CRM could grow your business, read our article answering the question: what is a CRM?