Over the past two decades, SugarCRM has evolved from an open-source project to one of the most popular CRM vendors globally.
That growth has established SugarCRM as a significant presence in the CRM marketplace.
Given the company’s popularity and growth, it’s worthwhile to examine where SugarCRM originated and where it stands today.
Company Founding
Building on their experience at companies like Hewlett-Packard and IBM, Clint Oram, John Roberts, and Jacob Taylor started a project called Sugar Open Source. The project was hosted on SourceForge, a development repository for free and open-source software.
By June 2004, the project’s success enabled them to found SugarCRM and raise $2 million in venture capital. A month later, on July 3, 2004, Sugar Open Source version 1.0 was released. By October of 2004, more than 25,000 people had downloaded the software.
Critical Reception
Aside from some rumblings from the open-source community, SugarCRM was well-received. Those rumblings had to do with SugarCRM’s decision not to use a software license that had been approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
Some community members felt that SugarCRM’s licensing was too restrictive to truly qualify as “open source.” However, SugarCRM put those complaints to rest in 2007, when Sugar Community Edition 5.0 was released under the GNU General Public License (GPLv3)—an OSI-approved license.
Company Ownership and Management
In 2013, the multinational investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs, invested $40 million in SugarCRM. That money was earmarked to help expand SugarCRM’s global reach.
That year, Sam Biardo and I interviewed co-founder Clint Oram 🎧 on our CRM Talk podcast.
In 2018, private equity firm Accel-KKR acquired SugarCRM, providing the resources to accelerate product development and market expansion.
In 2019, SugarCRM appointed Craig Charlton as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Sam interviewed Craig 🎧 in early 2020.
Under the leadership of CEO David T. Roberts, appointed in September 2024, SugarCRM has sharpened its focus on mid-market companies in the manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution industries.
Co-founder Clint Oram left SugarCRM in March 2025, marking exactly 21 years of service.
Market Share and Revenue
According to our 2013 U.S. CRM Market Share study, SugarCRM ranked eighth with a 1.6% market share that year.
According to one source, the current SugarCRM market share remains unchanged at 1.51%.
Major Clients
SugarCRM offers services to a diverse range of well-known organizations.
A few of the company’s many customers include Tetly Harris, Materion, Kreato, and TitanHQ.
According to GetLaka.com, in 2024, SugarCRM achieved $98.5 million in revenue and served 2 million customers.
Current Products
Over the years, SugarCRM transitioned from its open-source roots to a proprietary model, focusing on delivering comprehensive CRM solutions for businesses of all sizes. The company expanded its product offerings to include:
- Sugar Sell: Sales automation
- Sugar Serve: Customer service
- Sugar Market: Marketing automation
- Sugar Enterprise: On-premises CRM solution
Things to Come
SugarCRM continues to improve earnings and is attracting brand-name customers.
If they can remain focused and continue expanding into vertical markets, SugarCRM should remain a well-known CRM brand.
