CRM · head to head
Affinity vs SuiteCRM
Affinity
CRM
Relationship intelligence platform for professionals
- From
- $2000/year
- Rated
- -
SuiteCRM
CRM
Open source fork of SugarCRM with no per user licence fee, sold as hosting and support
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only SuiteCRM has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Affinity enterprise tier requires custom quote, pricing not transparent; SuiteCRM the interface still carries SugarCRM conventions from over a decade ago, and sales teams used to modern CRMs frequently resist adoption, which is the most common reason SuiteCRM projects fail rather than any technical limit.
- They diverge on capability: Affinity covers Contact management, SuiteCRM covers Studio module builder.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Affinity and SuiteCRM actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (CRM).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Affinity
- Contact management
- Deal tracking
- Intelligence engine
- Relationship mapping
- Integration aggregation
- Gmail
- Outlook
Only in SuiteCRM
- Studio module builder
- Workflow engine
- Opportunity and quote management
- Case management
- Campaign module
- Reporting engine
- Security groups
- REST API
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Affinity
- Deal sourcing and pipeline management for venture capital and private equitynot SuiteCRM
- Automatic capture of email and meeting activity into relationship recordsnot SuiteCRM
- Finding warm introductions through existing relationship networksnot SuiteCRM
- Investor relations and fundraising trackingnot SuiteCRM
- Portfolio company support and reportingnot SuiteCRM
SuiteCRM
- An organisation with two hundred occasional CRM users where per seat pricing from Salesforce or HubSpot would dominate the budgetnot Affinity
- A public sector body or regulated firm that must host customer data on infrastructure it controlsnot Affinity
- A company that needs custom modules modelling its own objects and wants to build them in Studio rather than pay for platform licencesnot Affinity
- A business that wants open source economics but whose procurement requires a warranty, which SuiteASSURED suppliesnot Affinity
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Affinity
- Enterprise tier requires custom quote, pricing not transparent
- Scale tier API calls capped at 100000 per month
- All plans charge per user annually
SuiteCRM
- The interface still carries SugarCRM conventions from over a decade ago, and sales teams used to modern CRMs frequently resist adoption, which is the most common reason SuiteCRM projects fail rather than any technical limit.
- Zero licence fee does not mean zero cost: hosting, ten hours of annual support and a quick start implementation together run into thousands of pounds before anyone has configured a pipeline.
- The integration marketplace is small compared with Salesforce or HubSpot, so common connections to marketing, telephony and finance tools are often paid third party add-ons or custom builds.
- Upgrades between major versions can break customisations made outside Studio, so heavily customised instances tend to lag behind current releases and accumulate security debt.
- Native email marketing and campaign functionality is basic next to a dedicated tool, so most deployments end up paying for a separate marketing platform and syncing it, undoing part of the cost saving.
Pricing, plan by plan
Affinity
$2000/year- Essential$2000/year
- Activity capture (email and calendar)
- Relationship scoring and interaction history
- Deal pipeline tracking
- Scale$2300/year
- Automatic meeting capture (Notetaker)
- AI Chat conversational access
- Affinity Ascend agent platform
- Advanced$2700/year
- Third-party data enrichment (PitchBook, Dealroom, Crunchbase)
- Company growth insights
- Packaged integrations (Slack, Salesforce, Box)
- Enterprise$null/year
- Fund-level permissions
- Enterprise SSO
- Custom data retention
SuiteCRM
Free- Self-hostedFree
- GPL licensed with no per user fee at any user count
- All core CRM modules included
- You provide hosting, upgrades and support
- Managed hosting$50/month
- Hosting, security patching, updates and monitoring
- Still no per user licence fee
- Support purchased separately
- Standard support$1200/year
- Ten support hours per year
- Discount available when bought with managed hosting
- Does not include implementation work
- SuiteASSURED$3350/year
- Warranty and legal indemnification over the open source code
- Priority support and security assurances
- Aimed at organisations whose procurement rules block unwarranted open source
Which should you pick?
Choose SuiteCRM if
- You need studio module builder.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, iOS, Android.
- You also want workflow engine.
Questions people ask
- Is Affinity or SuiteCRM better?
- Neither clearly leads. Affinity starts at $2000/year and SuiteCRM at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Affinity or SuiteCRM?
- SuiteCRM has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $2000/year for Affinity and Free for SuiteCRM.
- Does Affinity or SuiteCRM run on more platforms?
- Affinity runs on Web. SuiteCRM runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, iOS, Android.
- Can I use SuiteCRM for free?
- Yes. SuiteCRM has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Affinity starts at $2000/year.
- What is Affinity best used for?
- Affinity is most often used for deal sourcing and pipeline management for venture capital and private equity, automatic capture of email and meeting activity into relationship records, finding warm introductions through existing relationship networks, investor relations and fundraising tracking. Of those, deal sourcing and pipeline management for venture capital and private equity and automatic capture of email and meeting activity into relationship records are not what SuiteCRM is typically brought in for.
- What can Affinity do that SuiteCRM cannot?
- Affinity covers Contact management, Deal tracking, Intelligence engine, Relationship mapping. SuiteCRM covers Studio module builder, Workflow engine, Opportunity and quote management, Case management.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Affinity: How much does Affinity CRM cost per user?
Affinity CRM pricing starts at 2000 USD per user per year for the Essential plan, 2300 USD for Scale, and 2700 USD for Advanced. Enterprise tier requires custom pricing.
SourceSuiteCRM: Is SuiteCRM really free?
The software is, at any user count. SalesAgility charges for managed hosting from about 50 GBP per month, support from about 1,200 GBP per year and SuiteASSURED from about 3,350 GBP per year.
Affinity: What is the API call limit on Affinity's Scale tier?
The Scale and Advanced tiers provide 100000 API calls per month. Enterprise tier customers receive unlimited API access.
SourceSuiteCRM: How does it relate to SugarCRM?
It is a fork of SugarCRM Community Edition, created after SugarCRM discontinued its open source release.
Affinity: Which Affinity tier includes Notetaker and MCP integration?
The Scale tier (2300 USD per user per year) includes automatic meeting capture via Notetaker and Model Context Protocol server integration for AI tool connections.
SourceSuiteCRM: Are there per user fees?
No. This is the central commercial argument for it, particularly for organisations with many occasional users.
Affinity: When does Affinity offer Enterprise SSO capabilities?
Enterprise SSO (single sign-on) capability is included only in the Enterprise tier, which requires custom pricing and is designed for established firms with multi-fund complexity.
SourceSuiteCRM: What is SuiteASSURED?
A paid subscription that adds warranty, indemnification and legal protections on top of the open source licence, for buyers whose procurement rules block unwarranted software.
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