What are CiviCRM users saying about the software?
Read what people like you have said about using CiviCRM software through verified user reviews
User Review Highlights
4.22
34 Reviews
Ease-of-use
out of 5Customer Support
out of 5Value for money
out of 5Functionality
out of 5"While it is not the most integrated system, Civi's platform allows for the essential patron ticketing needs. The following being the strongest aspects."
"Although there is no customer service as it is open sourced, there are several forums that are helpful."
"I like the fact the CiviCRM works nicely, have a lot of features I need and are integrated to my CMS."
"Mass imports are painful to execute and time consuming."
"I have had some trouble using the scheduled mailings feature. Once the mailing didn't go out at all."
"It was hard to upgrade if too many releases went by since you were supposed to do one at a time. I almost had a database disaster during one of the updates and lost a couple days to recover the data."
Jump to:
Product Overview
Alternatives
Comparison
Browse all CiviCRM Reviews
- Have you used CiviCRM and would like to share your experience with others?
- Write a Review
Sort by
Reviews are by default sorted by Recommended to software buyers, driven by our proprietary algorithm reflecting the depth and quality of the review, recency of experience, and other factors. As a neutral reviews platform, the star rating of the review is not considered in the "Recommended" ranking, and there is currently no voting mechanism that would allow site visitors to influence the ranking.
Showing 1 - 25 of 34 reviews
Jonathan
Verified reviewer
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Internet
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: GetApp
May 2016
Our go-to for Associations and others
CiviCRM integrates CRM functions for associations, affiliation groups and others as an add-on for the top GPL content management systems WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. We have been installing and hosting CiviCRM for several years and it has become a standard part of our toolbox. It is especially strong on event registration and membership management. CiviMail does an excellent job with bounce and subscription management, but it's not as user friendly as a service like MailChimp or Constant Contact for HTML mail composition. CiviContribute handles payments for memberships, donations and events. CiviCase brings case management into to application and CiviVolunteer helps you keep track of the eager beavers who want to help your cause. We have used CiviCRM for projects ranging from an international arts group to our son's Boy Scout troop. We have used it for camping registrations and conference registrations for thousands of users. The real gem, as in any CRM tool are the reporting tools. You can pull membership, attendance or other reports in minutes. Think of a data related question and get an answer quickly and simply.
Pros
Excellent event registration and membership management at a price that can't be equaled. Best of all, it works in and with our client's websites.
Cons
It's not an intuitive tool. You need to learn the logic of CiviCRM to get things done. It's not hard, but I wouldn't give it to a client without a few explanations and probably training.
Youssef
Company size: 501-1,000 employees
Industry: Religious Institutions
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
October 2020
Great potential and features
Pros
The flexibility of this platform is truly amazing. You can customise it to your exact needs and the range of features is unbeaten. Most powerful CRM I have come across.
Cons
The user interface is what lets this platform down. It is not responsive and although a developer has made a mobile app, it is too late to the game and does not properly give you the power of CiviCRM in your mobile. Considering most people now will want to access these platforms from phones, this is what makes CiviCRM unfortunately not really future proof.
Reasons for choosing CiviCRM
Civicrm was compatible with our server, was free to use and more powerful with its portfolio of features and customisability.
Alex
Industry: Religious Institutions
Time used: More than 2 years
July 2016
A versatile but clunky CRM software
Pros
CiviCRM is extremely versatile and customizable. We use it to produce letters to donors and large mailing lists for various functions. If you have a fair amount of technical web knowledge, you can integrate your database with other online software like MailChimp. It is also FREE!
Cons
CiviCRM is pretty clunky and not pleasing to the eye. While you can segment your database in almost any way with the search features, it's often nearly impossible to know which version of the search interface you should use: Advanced Search? Search Builder? Full-text Search???????
Chelsea
Industry: Environmental Services
Time used: Less than 12 months
April 2016
A wonderful experience with CiviCRm
Pros
I work for a very small and relatively new non-profit organization and CiviCRM has been the perfect combination of intuitive/ user-friendly, as well as adaptive to our unique needs as we continue to define our direction, expand our scope, and grow to reach a larger audience. Civi has allowed us to track and maintain well-rounded profiles of our constituents, donors, participants, and volunteers -- many of whom fit into multiple of these categories. I have a lot left to learn about Civi and when I get stumped, I can almost always find the answer in the forums online or through our vendor.
Cons
I've had the most difficulty with CiviCRM integrating into our Mailchimp account and newsletter. Overall, it's worked quite well but there have been several glitches and several times where the solution or steps to take to fix a problem were not at all obvious (to me, at least!).
Shirley
Company size: 1 employee
Industry: Environmental Services
Time used: More than 2 years
July 2017
High functionality at low costs
Very functional so long as you don't need something new
Pros
Cost -- our volunteer run organization could afford it (we pay for hosting which includes administrator and user coaching) Highly functional and generally very easy to use Very flexible with extensions that are much more advanced than found in cost-comparable products -- membership, events, etc. Very good API Ability to fully get all data out of it
Cons
Import of large quantities of data using supplied import procedures is painful at best. That said, a person who understands the database can bypass the worst of it -- however, we could do this, and the closest competing product priced itself out of our reach by an excessive import fee. While existing reports are easy to use, creating truly new ones is nearly impossible (need to create a new extension) Sadly lacking documentation on creating extensions
Richard
Company size: 11-50 employees
Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
September 2020
A great option for a CRM if you have the staff to maintain the software
Overall, CiviCRM is a great choice for those organizations that have the qualified staff to maintain the backend intricacies along with those who can perform the customizations and those to enter the data.
Pros
I liked that it was open source and maintained by volunteers. It was fairly easy to add to our Wordpress website and very flexible as far as customizations and shaping it to match our processes.
Cons
It was hard to upgrade if too many releases went by since you were supposed to do one at a time. I almost had a database disaster during one of the updates and lost a couple days to recover the data. Since that point, we had to just run with the last working version. Also, it doesn't integrate with QuickBooks Online, so there was double bookkeeping involved.
Nicolas
Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management
Time used: More than 2 years
April 2016
The best CRM for nonprofits, and it's free!
Pros
The depth and breadth of functionality is staggering, and the community provides extensions that enrich the product even more. The software is highly configurable and can be adapted to almost any nonprofit organization's needs. And if a feature is not there, you can always add it as the full source code is available.
Cons
Setup and administration is quite technical, documentation is extensive but could still be improved. Users will feel lost at first due to the richness of the software, but with a little hand holding will get the gist of it and start exploring.
Steve
Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management
Time used: More than 2 years
May 2015
Powerful Contact Management for Nonprofits
Pros
CiviCRM is open source. There is no cost in getting started if you have the expertise yourself. There is also an excellent Eco-system of vendors that install, upgrade, migrate, extend and support CiviCRM.
Cons
Because the product is open source is lacking some of the features that other CRMs have. That said there is a large library of extensions and material on the Internet to help you make CiviCRM do everything you want it to.

Armando
Verified reviewer
Company size: 11-50 employees
Industry: Computer Software
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
December 2021
On-the-go solution to manage elections campaign and manage data responses.
Pros
CiviCRM allowed me to manage as many as possible thanks to the registration forms, follow up with the CRM and customize your preferences. With the Reports module I was able to obtain voting statistics and focus on undecided voters. An agile solution of multiple applications. Connected to my Joomla Portal.
Cons
I had problems connecting to my big data server to process the collected information together with other databases. Specifically Kafka.

Kitty
Verified reviewer
Company size: 501-1,000 employees
Industry: Public Relations and Communications
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
October 2019
Pretty fantastic for doing the essentials
It's not a terrible software to have and allows you to carry out ticketing and patron service management at a fundamental level. Wouldn't recommend it at the higher tiered levels of with theatres/spaces that are more complex and demand more.
Pros
While it is not the most integrated system, Civi's platform allows for the essential patron ticketing needs. The following being the strongest aspects: -Easily accessible patron accounts - Format is very fundamental in account management and ticketing management - Allows for seamless EOD reporting and comp lists
Cons
Here are the biggest drawbacks that I have seen with this ticketing software: -It cannot retrieve events/reservations once deleted. The recovery process of anything really is very difficult with regards to patron and account management. - Very difficult to change seating arrangements once reservation is secured. - Can be cumbersome with the website interface and do not allow for intuitive browsing.
Karl
Time used: More than 2 years
April 2016
CiviCRM is a great tool for campaign management
Pros
CiviCRM is free and open source, meaning the development is driven by a community dedicated to it's success. The community is fairly responsive and keeps an active release cycle as well as an extension community which build meaningful extensions to functionality.
Cons
Specializing in political clients, CiviCRM is not the most documented to reach these markets. However, I am working with others to expand this as I have personally tested several competing products and found CiviCRM to be the most versatile in this space.
Rusty
Company size: 1 employee
Time used: More than 2 years
April 2017
We have continued to use more features over time
Good program
Pros
Flexibility. It can do almost anything for non computer people, that flexibility can also be a disability
Cons
It can be complicated. It has such flexibility that it can be daunting . Consultants can help but are costly.
Costa
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Civic & Social Organization
Time used: Less than 2 years
March 2017
Long user, secure software, lots of features
I really like to feel that CiviCRM is a successful free/open source software.
Pros
I like the fact the CiviCRM works nicely, have a lot of features I need and are integrated to my CMS.
Cons
Some translation to languages around still need, help everybody could help. Same to new payment methods to places different from Major markets.
Ashley
Company size: 2-10 employees
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
October 2018
Decent open sourced CRM
This is a free software program that can for the most part, make it do what you want it to do as long as you are experienced enough. If you have database experience with a limited budget, this would be a good route to go.
Pros
CiviCRM is an open sourced database, so there are no fees or contracts associated with it, which is nice. If you have previous database experience, it can be pretty intuitive on how to use for donor management. Although there is no customer service as it is open sourced, there are several forums that are helpful.
Cons
The open source can be a double edged sword. While it is nice that you can build yourself, unless you have a developer/script writer on hand things can get complicated and messy quick. The reporting is alright, but does not do anything extravagant (unless again you have a developer on hand that can help you write more canned reports). The import feature works okay, but often times still creates duplicates.
Detlev
Time used: More than 2 years
April 2016
CiviCRM: Big help for accomplishing our goals
Pros
- Very broad feature set - Open source: makes us independent from a single provider - large community: Several professional service providers, and many voluntary helpers made us solve any problem quickly
Cons
- learning curve: Due to the broad features and complexity we needed quite some time to fully understand the capabilities
Eitan
Company size: 11-50 employees
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
June 2018
Great Value
Pros
Cost - our volunteer based organization is always looking for cheap solutions to complex problems. This coupled with ease of use makes a great software tool for non-profits.
Cons
Mass imports are painful to execute and time consuming. Existing reports are easy to replicate but custom reports are almost impossible without a consultant.
Donald
Industry: Primary/Secondary Education
Time used: More than 2 years
April 2016
Excellent package targeted for the Non Profit Sector
Pros
The software is free, libre and open source. it is customizable and extensible and works seamlessly with the most popular content management systems. It has public support forums, chat rooms and issue tracker.
Cons
The software is free and open, you need to have the expertise (or pay someone) to install and customize it for you.

Joseph
Verified reviewer
Company size: 11-50 employees
Industry: Marketing and Advertising
Time used: Less than 6 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
February 2019
Exceptional value
We have had a wonderful experience with installing/implementing CiviCRM for a nonprofit client. We're very thankful for the community's help when we needed help with an issue, which was quickly resolved.
Pros
Other than the fact it's open source, which is extremely beneficial to nonprofits, the community is vibrant and quick to offer sound advice.
Cons
It's truly an excellent CRM for nonprofits. What could be a huge step forward would be a templating system for front-end design.
Anonymous
Company size: 51-200 employees
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
August 2019
Great general use database
Still learning it, but it is a great tool for managing our volunteer and client database
Pros
Super flexible, can be used with nearly any type of data
Cons
it is not very user friendly / self explanatory
Reasons for switching to CiviCRM
Needed a modern database tool
Neto
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Information Technology and Services
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
April 2020
Show
Excelente
Pros
O Produto é fácil de usar, rápido e bem estruturado
Cons
Não tenho indicações neste critério, não encontrado.
Heather
Verified reviewer
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
August 2020
Moved away from this for a simpler option
It was brief that I actively used it, and it holds a lot and has a lot of capacity, but the flip side of that, like Salesforce, is that you have to have the resources to invest in doing it well and there are just easier options.
Pros
This was chosen before I got here and was universally recognized as very complicated and buggy. In going back into it for old records, I do like the theoretical capacity if you had the time to figure it out.
Cons
Complicated and open source is great if you're a programmer, but less helpful when you just need a program to do a specific thing.
Anonymous
Time used: Less than 6 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
April 2018
Specifically designed for a variety of Non Profits
The flexibility of working with a strong team that understands the business requirements gets the non-profit up to speed faster.
Pros
Great Business Rules, Forms and Integrations. The setup is complicated as the Non-Profit needs to understand its business processes. Being forced to understand what works and best practices is a significant benefit.
Cons
Be prepared to spend time on setting CiviCRM on the right path. The user interface is old fashioned compared to Program Management tools I'm used to for software development. Search is in the fashion of a database query rather than as a blob search. You have to know what you are looking for in a number of different areas rather than have the search self-develop,
Anonymous
Company size: 501-1,000 employees
Time used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
January 2019
Not a product that I could recommend.
The problem I had with CiviCRM was more due to the organisation I was working in trying to adapt it for their own sector, rather than using something that was appropriate to their requirements and location. CiviCRM reminded me of a ball of thread that could tangle and loop back on itself very easily, and was almost impossible to unpick.
Pros
It is adaptable to the requirements of the organisation.
Cons
This product isn't designed to be used in the sector that I was working in.
Fatima
Industry: Civic & Social Organization
Time used: Less than 6 months
September 2015
Quick-start CRM
Pros
CiviCRM includes everything you'd expect from a robust, comprehensive non-profit CRM solution: mailings, memberships, contributions, pledges, volunteer management, contact groups, activity tracking, events, and more. Its extensible, open-source nature means its always evolving and can be adapted to your needs.
Cons
Like most CRMs, it does draw upon server resources--and since it must be integrated with your site, that means it's drawing upon the same resources as your CMS-based website. I wouldn't want to use it on budget shared hosting, which is unfortunately the kind of hosting most small non-profits have.
Bryan
Industry: Higher Education
Time used: Less than 6 months
May 2016
CiviCRM is highly adaptable and able to fit our non-standard use case
Pros
Very active and helpful community around the CiviCRM. Lots of free intergrations.
Cons
I think it would have been very difficult to get the full value out of CiviCRM without Back Office Thinking to guide us. There is a lot of add ons and extensions that would be tricky to navigate for people coming to the product without expertise. It may be easier out of the box for more standard deployments but our needs were sufficiently different that we really did need a guide.
