Is SugarCRM Open Source?
The appeal of a CRM becomes clearer every year, and SugarCRM’s suite of products demonstrates the best of what one can offer. The development of the Sugar suite has come on leaps and bounds since its humble beginnings as an open source product. Now, it is at the point where it leads the industry in many regards according to research firm Nucleaus Research.
Online searches continue to refer to SugarCRM as a company that offers open source software, but is that still the case? Here, we’ll break down the details behind whether SugarCRM is open source.
What is Open Source?
When a product is defined as ‘open source’, it means that the developer of the product or service has made the code of the software publicly available. Not only this, but it usually includes supporting documentation that explains what the software is, how it works, and details of the licence to those looking for it.
Typically, open source means the code is free to download for anyone and can be altered as they wish. Software that is published as open source, usually on depositories such as GitHub or GitLab that store details on version changes, is typically done so to include others within the development community to test or contribute to a project.
Any version released on an open source licence will always be so, and the code from that version can be modified indefinitely.
However, the original author is still the copyright owner of the code and reserves the right to change the licence from any subsequent version of their software’s code should they decide to make the change. This could be because the original intention of the developer was to gain feedback for the concept stage before a larger release.
Is SugarCRM open source?
In its current form, Sugar Sell, Sugar Market and Sugar Serve are not fully open source. The core product has roots in open source.
The platform was open source until 2014, when it was announced that the Community Edition, the open source version of the product, would no longer receive new versions. SugarCRM announced that the Community edition project officially ended in 2018.
This means that anyone looking for the source code for any new version of Sugar’s main product set will not find it.
However, the Enterprise product works a little differently. The source code can be accessed for it, but only with the purchase of an Enterprise licence. This is known as commercial open source, and we’ll cover more about what this is shortly.
Sugar 25 vs Sugar Community Edition
While the project is no longer actively worked on, the final version can still be found online. However, there have been several releases of Sugar since the final Sugar Community Version launched. Is the Sugar Community Edition still worth considering for your business?
The short answer here is that we would highly recommend that you don’t attempt to implement it.
The reasons why we would not recommend looking at the Community Edition include:
- It is built on the foundation of SugarCRM 6.5, which at this point is over eight years old. That might not sound like a long time, but the improvements to the user experience alone in the recent Sugar 25 are a night and day difference.
- The lack of security updates means that you risk compromising your data security by using the Community Edition. It is unlikely that using this version would pass security accreditations and would leave you vulnerable to fines and penalties depending on your industry. There is also no guarantee that it will work or host properly on modern operating systems.
- The jump forward in technology with more recent Sugar releases, including AI and predictive enhancements, automation and integrations, means that you’d be leaving a lot of useful technology on the table by going with the older system.
- As Sugar and no partners continue to support Sugar’s Community Edition, you’ll be on your own with implementation and improvement. The setup requires a level of technical expertise that means that without a developer, it’s unlikely that you would get an instance of the system up and running. Sugar 25 offers the benefit of the cloud, where everything can be started for you without this requirement.
This means that the only real choice is Sugar 25, especially if you work in an industry with sensitive client data.
That said, Sugar has a number of different options that mean companies of every size can benefit from all of Sugar’s modern advancements in CRM tech.
It’s also important to remember that modern Sugar products still offer a wealth of customization options within the software, all designed to improve the user experience. While they don’t include access to the source code, there’s plenty of flexibility to it.
Sugar Enterprise, Commercial Open Source and enable’s role
As described earlier, Sugar Enterprise offers a commercial open source licence. Commercial open source differs by offering the source code, but with premium features or services attached to it. This could include paid support, hosting services, or features that are additional to the free version.
As Sugar Enterprise consists of yearly releases, the base code only changes once per year, but that doesn’t mean its functionality is set in stone.
With Enterprise, full use of this source code access creates deeper adjustments and customisation of Sugar systems to better match the requirements of users.
To ensure the best product possible, Sugar Enterprise is accessible through SugarCRM’s partner network. This is where we at enable come in and take the heavy lifting of building out a system for you. No in-house developer needed!
We’ve built and hosted Sugar Enterprise systems for clients for over 20 years, with customers benefitting from highly bespoke systems created to work around them. This includes complete overhauls of how the CRM works via portals, forms and wikis built into Sugar.
Sound good? It’s easy to get started. Click here to book a consultation with our team.
