Flowlu vs Insightly
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Editorial assessmentFlowlu compared with Insightly
Insightly is the established CRM-plus-projects option with deeper reporting, a larger integration set, and enterprise credentials, at a materially higher per-seat price. Flowlu covers similar ground for a fraction of the cost and adds invoicing and a client portal, but with a smaller vendor behind it. Companies needing procurement-grade assurances take Insightly; cost-driven small agencies take Flowlu.
Choose Flowlu if
Small service businesses, agencies, and consultancies of two to about twenty-five people who sell projects rather than products, and who want one affordable subscription covering the pipeline, the delivery work, and the invoice instead of three separate tools.
Choose Insightly if
Small and mid-sized project-based businesses (agencies, consultancies, professional services, specialist contractors) that need the sale and the delivery to share one system, and that value record scale and permissions over deep sales automation.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | Flowlu | Insightly |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CRM | CRM |
| Starting price | $0 for two users, then $6 per user per month on annual billing (Essential) (free plan available) | $29 per user per month, billed annually (Plus) (14 days trial) |
| Pricing model | Per-user subscription across a free plan and three paid tiers, billed monthly or annually, with annual billing published at roughly half the monthly rate. | Per-user subscription across three CRM plans billed annually, with marketing automation priced by prospect volume, service ticketing priced per user, and the AppConnect integration platform priced by monthly task volume. |
| Free plan | Free forever for 2 users with 100 contacts, one pipeline, lead capture forms, and core project and task management. | No |
| Free trial | 7 days on paid plans with no credit card required, on top of the permanently free plan | 14 days |
| Best for | Small service businesses, agencies, and consultancies of two to about twenty-five people who sell projects rather than products, and who want one affordable subscription covering the pipeline, the delivery work, and the invoice instead of three separate tools. | Small and mid-sized project-based businesses (agencies, consultancies, professional services, specialist contractors) that need the sale and the delivery to share one system, and that value record scale and permissions over deep sales automation. |
| Setup time | A working CRM in under an hour. Setting up the project side properly, with templates, billable rates, invoice formats, and the automation that turns a won deal into a project, is a one to two week part-time job. | A working CRM in a day or two through CSV import and pipeline configuration. Setting up project pipelines, task templates, routing rules, and dashboards so that sales and delivery genuinely connect takes 2 to 4 weeks of part-time work. |
| Learning curve | Moderate, mostly because of breadth. Each module is straightforward, but a new user meeting CRM, projects, finance, and the knowledge base at once takes a while to orient. Sales-only users learn it in an afternoon. | Moderate. The CRM half is conventional and familiar, and the project half requires deliberate process design, since the value only appears if the opportunity-to-project handoff mirrors how the business actually delivers. |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web app, iOS, Android, Gmail and Outlook integrations |
| Compliance | GDPR, Standard data processing agreement available | SOC 2, GDPR, ISO 27001, HIPAA support on eligible configurations |
| Founded | 2016 | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Distributed team, with origins in Chelyabinsk, Russia | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Ownership | Privately held and bootstrapped | PE-owned (Crest Rock Partners, merged with Unbounce in July 2024) |
Strengths and limitations
Flowlu
Strengths
- The CRM, project management, and invoicing genuinely share one client record, so a won deal becomes a project becomes an invoice without retyping anything.
- Pricing is exceptional: $11 a user on Advanced for a feature set that normally requires three or four separate subscriptions.
- A permanently free two-user plan makes it viable for freelancers and costless to evaluate properly.
- Project management is real rather than token: Gantt charts, dependencies, sprints, workload views, templates, and billable time tracking.
Limitations
- The CRM is competent rather than sophisticated; there is no custom object model, no advanced forecasting, and no lead scoring of consequence.
- Automation, email tracking, and the client portal are all withheld from the $6 Essential tier, making the headline price unrepresentative for teams.
- No native dialer, so telephony is an integration and call recording depends on the provider.
- The native integration list is short, and much of the long tail runs through Zapier rather than first-party connectors.
Insightly
Strengths
- Genuine project management inside the CRM, with opportunities converting into delivery projects that keep the customer history attached; almost nothing else in this price band does this properly.
- Generous record and storage limits (up to 500,000 records and 250 GB) compared with most small-business CRMs.
- Serious administrative controls at the top tier including sandboxes, audit logging, and serverless function authoring.
- One vendor now covers landing pages, CRM, marketing automation, and service following the 2024 Unbounce merger, which is a coherent story for marketing-led service businesses.
Limitations
- No free plan and a 14-day trial only, with an entry price double Zoho Standard for less configurability.
- The Plus plan has no workflow automation and only two permission roles, which makes $49 Professional the real starting point.
- Native sales sequencing and cadence tooling are thin; serious outbound follow-up pushes you toward the separately priced marketing product.
- Four separate subscriptions (CRM, Marketing, Service, AppConnect) make total cost of ownership opaque, and AppConnect at $249 a month is expensive for an integration layer.
Pricing compared
Flowlu
Per-user subscription across a free plan and three paid tiers, billed monthly or annually, with annual billing published at roughly half the monthly rate.
- Free$0
- Essential$6
- Advanced$11
- Ultimate$16
At $11 a user annually, Advanced buys a CRM, a project management system with Gantt charts and time tracking, quoting and recurring invoicing, financial reporting, a client portal, and a knowledge base. Priced individually those are four subscriptions and would run five to ten times as much. Against pure CRMs the comparison is less flattering: Bigin does sales better for $7 and Pipedrive does it much better for $39. So the buying question is simple. If you sell projects and deliver them, Flowlu is one of the best value purchases in this entire directory. If you only sell, you are buying software you will not open.
Insightly
Per-user subscription across three CRM plans billed annually, with marketing automation priced by prospect volume, service ticketing priced per user, and the AppConnect integration platform priced by monthly task volume.
- Plus$29
- Professional$49
- Enterprise$99
Insightly is not cheap and does not pretend to be. Against pure sales CRMs it looks expensive: $49 for the automation tier where Zoho charges $23 and includes far more configuration. The value case rests entirely on the project layer. If your business genuinely delivers work after the sale and would otherwise buy a CRM plus a project tool plus an integration between them, Insightly at $49 a user is competitive and simpler. If you would never open the project module, you are paying a premium for shelf space, and the multi-product pricing around it makes the total cost harder to predict than most competitors here.
Editorial verdict on each
Flowlu
Flowlu is one of the best value purchases in this directory, provided you are the buyer it was built for. An agency or consultancy paying $11 a user gets a CRM, a real project management system with Gantt charts and billable time tracking, recurring invoicing, financial reporting, a client portal, and a knowledge base, which is four subscriptions replaced by one and a client record that finally stays in one place. Do not buy it as a pure CRM: the sales tooling is competent, not exceptional, there are no custom objects, no native dialer, and no AI, and Bigin or Pipedrive will serve a sales-only team better. Budget for Advanced rather than Essential, because automation and the client portal are the features that make the consolidation work, and take the annual billing, because monthly costs roughly double.
Read the full Flowlu profileInsightly
Insightly is a specialist wearing a generalist's clothes. As a sales CRM it is fine and slightly expensive; as a system that carries a customer from lead to won deal to delivered project on one record, it is one of very few options a small business can buy self-serve. Agencies, consultancies, and contractors are the natural buyers, and they should budget for the $49 Professional plan because Plus has no automation and only two permission roles. Treat the surrounding product family with caution: marketing, service, and AppConnect are separate subscriptions that can triple the bill. And factor in that the company is two years into private equity ownership and a merger with Unbounce, so the combined-platform pitch is still a promise. If the project layer is not the reason you are looking, buy something cheaper.
Read the full Insightly profileFlowlu profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; Insightly last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.