CRM Comparison

Freshsales vs Insightly (2026)

Freshsales is an AI-powered sales CRM from Freshworks with built-in lead scoring and pipeline automation. Insightly is a deal-to-delivery CRM that layers native project management on top of a classic sales pipeline. Here's how they compare for SMB and mid-market buyers in 2026.

Freshsales

AI-powered sales CRM from Freshworks that handles lead management, pipeline tracking, and deal automation with Freddy AI built in from the start.

Pricing Free plan available; paid from $9/user/mo; 21-day free trial

Our rating 4.2/5

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Insightly

CRM built for SMBs that blends sales pipeline management with native project management. Practical choice for service businesses that need to track deals and then deliver on them.

Pricing Free for 2 users; Plus $29/user/mo, Professional $49/user/mo, Enterprise $99/user/mo

Our rating 4.1/5

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TL;DR

Pick Freshsales if your team needs AI-guided selling at an affordable price. Freddy AI's scoring and deal recommendations are genuine productivity tools, not just marketing copy, and the $9 entry tier gets you a functional CRM with room to grow.
Pick Insightly if your business model involves closing a deal and then doing the work — consulting, professional services, construction, software implementation — and you want one tool that handles both halves without a Zapier bridge to a project app.

Pricing

Freshsales starts at free (up to 3 users, limited features), with paid plans at roughly $9/user/mo (Growth), $39/user/mo (Pro), and $69/user/mo (Enterprise). Freddy AI's most useful features — deal health scoring, email recommendations — become meaningful at Pro. Insightly's free plan covers 2 users and is genuinely usable for a solo founder; Plus at $29/user/mo is the real entry point for small teams, and Professional at $49/user/mo is where automation opens up. Both require annual billing for best prices. For a 15-person sales team, Freshsales Pro runs about $585/mo; Insightly Professional runs about $735/mo — a ~25% premium for the project layer.

AI and Automation

Freddy AI is Freshsales' biggest differentiator. It surfaces contact scores, deal health signals, next-best-action prompts, and drafts outbound emails — all within the standard deal and contact views. On Freshsales Pro and above, it's genuinely woven into daily workflow, not a separate module you have to navigate to. Insightly's automation is more traditional: workflow rules trigger based on field changes or stage moves, which is reliable and flexible but doesn't carry the AI-native feel. For teams focused on rep efficiency and pipeline discipline, Freshsales' AI layer delivers measurable value.

Pipeline and Deal Management

Both platforms offer multi-pipeline support with kanban views, stage automation, and deal forecasting. Freshsales has a cleaner UI for high-velocity sales — drag-and-drop cards, built-in activity feed, and email tracking baked into the deal view at every tier. Insightly's pipeline is equally functional but optimized for considered, longer-cycle deals; the visual pipeline editor is a strength, and the deal-to-project conversion on close is unique. If you run multiple parallel sales motions with different stages and goals, Freshsales handles that more elegantly. If you run one careful pipeline per client type, Insightly's structure is just as good.

Project Delivery (Post-Sale)

Insightly wins this category outright. Clicking "Won" on a deal triggers a project creation workflow that copies deal data into a project with pre-defined task templates, milestones, and responsible owners. Service businesses that have historically toggled between a CRM and a PM tool (Asana, Basecamp, Monday) find that Insightly's native delivery layer eliminates an entire category of software cost and friction. Freshsales has no equivalent — it ends at deal closure. If you sell services that then require structured delivery, this is the comparison that matters most.

Integrations and Ecosystem

Freshsales benefits from the broader Freshworks ecosystem: native connections to Freshdesk (customer support), Freshservice (IT), Freshmarketer (marketing), and Freshchat (live chat). If you're building a unified Freshworks stack, the data sharing across products is a genuine advantage. Insightly has strong native integrations with Xero (accounting), Mailchimp, QuickBooks, and a solid Zapier layer, but doesn't have an equivalent platform ecosystem. Both support Zapier and major third-party tools; Freshsales has the larger native integration catalog.

Reporting

Freshsales' reporting covers standard pipeline metrics, lead source attribution, and Freddy AI-generated forecasts. Insightly earned a 2026 G2 recognition for analytics strength — its report builder is flexible, the project-level reporting is unique (track delivery timelines and milestone completion alongside deal metrics), and custom dashboards are available on Professional and above. If analytics depth across both sales and delivery matters, Insightly has more to offer.

Verdict

Freshsales and Insightly are solving adjacent but distinct problems. Freshsales is the right call when sales efficiency is the goal — faster reps, better lead prioritization, AI-assisted outreach at an SMB price. Insightly is the right call when the business model requires tracking clients from first contact through final delivery, and you'd rather have one system of record than two. For pure sales teams, Freshsales; for project-based businesses, Insightly.

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Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper — Freshsales or Insightly?

Freshsales wins on entry price. Its Growth plan (meaningful AI + automation) runs around $9–$39/user/mo, and there's a free tier for small teams. Insightly's free plan caps at 2 users; the useful Plus tier is $29/user/mo, and Professional (where real automation kicks in) is $49/user/mo, billed annually. For a 10-person team on mid-tier plans, Freshsales typically runs $100–$300/mo less per month.

Does Freshsales have project management?

No — Freshsales is a sales-focused CRM. Post-sale delivery tracking requires integrating a separate project tool like Asana or Jira. Insightly's differentiator is the native deal-to-project conversion: when a deal closes, it becomes a project with tasks, milestones, and deliverables in the same system. For service businesses, that difference alone often settles the comparison.

How good is Freddy AI in Freshsales vs. Insightly's AI features?

Freshsales has the stronger native AI story. Freddy AI (available on mid-tier and above) scores leads, flags at-risk deals, recommends next actions, and drafts emails. Insightly has introduced some AI-assisted reporting and enrichment but doesn't match Freddy's depth in the sales workflow itself. If AI-assisted selling is a priority, Freshsales wins.

Which integrates better with Google Workspace and Outlook?

Both integrate well with Gmail and Outlook, but Insightly has historically emphasized deep two-way email sync as a core feature — contact records update automatically from your inbox with minimal setup. Freshsales' Gmail and Outlook integrations are solid and include tracking and sync, but the two-way relationship updating is less automatic on lower tiers.

Can I migrate from Insightly to Freshsales (or vice versa)?

CSV exports cover contacts, organizations, and deals cleanly from either platform. Insightly's project data (tasks, milestones) has no native import path into Freshsales since Freshsales doesn't have that construct. Moving from Freshsales to Insightly is straightforward for CRM data but requires rebuilding any Freddy AI scoring logic as manual criteria. Budget 1–2 weeks for data cleanup regardless of direction.