SugarCRM has been a pioneer of sorts in the business software marketplace. Its most notable difference to its competitors and other vendors in that space is that it is an open source product where most others are closed-source, proprietary systems. Like any other company, they must model their business in such a way that allows them to make some money, or they would cease to exist.
This presents a unique challenge for a company whose flagship product is an open source solution, as the solution is freely available to one and all. SugarCRM has tackled this challenge quite effectively by offering different editions of SugarCRM, as we have discussed earlier in this book.
In this section, we will explore some of the more important differences between the commercial offerings and Community Edition. This information will help you better assess whether or not an upgrade to either Professional or Enterprise Edition is a more appropriate choice for your needs...