Sumac Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Pros
This software was purchased to keep track of over 5,000 members of our organization spread through out the Province. Membership data was organized into 50 groups. It was easy to organize the data into separate groups that enabled each group to maintain security and control. Converting the membership data from the existing spread sheets was also very easy.

Cons
There were really no downside to this software, it worked as expected and was easily accepted by

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
If support is paramount, Sumac is a great choice. Sumac covers a broad scope of functions, including donations, memberships, sales and events. The software is very easy to use. Built in import functions are very user friendly and very complete. Transferring data into Sumac from another system is not difficult and the error checking before import is very good. Contact history is strong and allows drill downs into all the underlying documents. Contact records allow the addition of extra user-defined tabs and fields which is a great asset.

Cons
Inventory tracking functionality could be more robust. Mail merges currently allow links between contacts and one other view, such as donations, memberships, etc. It would be helpful if more than one additional view would be supported. Reports could be improved, but this problem is easily resolved with a good report writer that links with an ODBC driver.

Rating breakdown

Pros
Sumac has everything we need -- keeps our database, sends out our communications, keeps track of all our donations and receipts/acknowledgements. It is set up in a straightforward way and, when I first researched CRMs, it was the only one where I could understand the setup from the start (I think the others were not set up logically). Also, the support team at Sumac is wonderful; attentive, understanding, they are really willing to help me solve all my problems, whether it is a quick question or a larger issue that needs much more overhaul. In fact, they resolved the biggest problem I had with the software: I frequently must bulk import changes to my data, and there were parts I had to do manually because the contact types weren't available to use in the import workspace. But they have recently changed the import workspace to be more flexible, at least partly in response to my comments, so now my bulk imports go much more quickly. In addition, the program has many optional add-ons that can help with courses, volunteer hours, registrations, silent auctions and so many other bits of software that anyone might need. Also, it is very reasonable priced.

Cons
The only things that I find difficult are remembering all the little details of complicated searches, downloads, and the steps of emailing. But I am not very technologically savvy, and others will not be as easily frustrated as I am.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
We started using Sumac for organizing our data a couple of years ago. Before that we were swimming in excel sheets and having multiple users access the same information was problematic. We use Sumac for ticketing, memberships and donations. I like that we have one system that organizes these three aspects, as there is (as one would hope) quite a bit of overlap between those three actions. It is also useful for organizing mailing lists (either hard copy or email) and analyzing data. But most importantly for us, it's an affordable option. There are CRMs out there that are more robust but for a small non-profit we wouldn't be able to afford them. Sumac is a really cost-effective option to suit our needs.

Cons
Sumac has a lot of software updates. These updates don't fundamentally change the look or experience of using it, but the updates often require us restarting our server. The other aspect is, though they are working on this, is that the web integration is not as customizable as one might like. It's difficult to change the look or flow of it to go with our branding. Finally - there are just a lot of pop-ups for any application while using it (do you want to record this, do you want to save this, etc.) which seem unnecessary.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
User friendly Excellent customer support New releases on regular basis

Cons
Online functionality for some add-ons is very basic (e.g. ticketing) or not available yet (e.g. sales) The User Guide is good at describing each of the many fields in the database but limited in explaining how these are used together (processes)

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10