JugnuCRM vs VICIdial
These are not really the same kind of product. VICIdial is a contact centre platform you run yourself. JugnuCRM is a CRM with calling inside it that we run for you.
VICIdial is open-source software released under the AGPL, built on Asterisk, and it is genuinely excellent. It has been running call centres for two decades, scales to hundreds of seats across clustered servers, and costs nothing to licence.
We will say the uncomfortable part first: as a dialer, VICIdial is deeper than ours. It has more dialing modes, fuller inbound ACD with skills-based routing, answering machine detection, per-campaign DNC and time-zone rules. If what you need is the most capable open-source dialer available, that is VICIdial and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
What VICIdial is not is a CRM. It has dispositions and scheduled callbacks, but no lead pipeline, no stage model, no renewal tracking and no messaging beyond voice. And it has to be installed, configured, secured and patched by someone who knows Linux and Asterisk. That is the real comparison.
What free actually costs
The software is free. The system is not
VICIdial costs nothing to download. You still pay for servers, SIP trunks, and somebody who can keep Asterisk, MySQL and Linux running. In India a competent Asterisk administrator costs considerably more per month than any CRM subscription.
Somebody has to patch it
A dialer sits on the public internet with SIP exposed. Unpatched Asterisk installations get compromised and used for toll fraud, and the bill arrives from your carrier. That is a real recurring job, not a one-time install.
It is a dialer, not a CRM
VICIdial tracks campaigns, lists and dispositions extremely well. It does not track a client through stages, chase a renewal before it lapses, or show you which lead source produced paying customers. If you want both, you end up running VICIdial alongside a CRM and reconciling the two.
No WhatsApp
VICIdial is voice only. For most Indian sales teams WhatsApp is now where half the follow-up happens, and bolting it on separately means your call history and your message history live in different places.
The interface shows its age
The agent screen is functional and fast, and experienced agents like it. It also looks like software from an earlier era, which matters when you are training new callers every month.
But you own it outright
This cuts our way too. With VICIdial there is no per-user fee, no vendor who can raise prices, and no one who can switch you off. If independence matters more than convenience, that is a legitimate reason to choose it over us.
Pick the one that matches your situation
Fifty seats or more
VICIdial. It is built for that scale, clusters properly across servers, and at that headcount employing someone to run it makes economic sense.
Five to twenty-five callers, no IT staff
JugnuCRM. At that size the administration burden of VICIdial costs more than the software saves, and there is nobody in the office to carry it.
You already employ an Asterisk admin
VICIdial, probably. You have the expensive part covered, and you get a more capable dialer for nothing.
You want a pipeline, not just a call list
JugnuCRM. Stages, follow-up reminders and renewal tracking are the core of what we do and are simply not what VICIdial is for.
WhatsApp is part of your follow-up
JugnuCRM. VICIdial is voice only.
Skills-based routing and blended agents
VICIdial. Its ACD is more capable than our IVR, with queue prioritisation, overflow and estimated hold time.
You want to own the stack with no vendor
VICIdial. AGPL, your servers, your data, nobody to depend on. That is a real advantage and we will not argue against it.
You would rather not employ a sysadmin
JugnuCRM. That is the whole of what you are paying us for, and it is worth being plain about it.
Side by side
| JugnuCRM | VICIdial | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A CRM with a predictive dialer built in | An open-source contact centre platform built on Asterisk |
| Licence cost | ₹5,000 to ₹8,500 a month for up to 25 users | Free. AGPLv2, no licence fee, and no warranty |
| Dialing modes | Predictive and progressive, plus Click2Call | Manual, preview, ratio, predictive with drop timer, broadcast and auto-dial into IVR — deeper than ours |
| Inbound handling | Smart IVR routing with caller history on screen | Full ACD: skills-based routing, queue priority, estimated hold time, overflow queues, blended agents |
| Lead pipeline and stages | Stages, assignment rules, follow-up reminders, renewal tracking | Dispositions and scheduled callbacks, but no pipeline or stage model |
| WhatsApp and SMS | WhatsApp Business API and SMS from the lead screen | Voice only — no messaging |
| Number masking | Yes | Not a built-in feature |
| Compliance tooling | Role-based access, centralised recordings, audit trail | Answering machine detection, system and per-campaign DNC, time-zone rules by state and day |
| Scale | Built for roughly 5 to 25 callers | Hundreds of seats across clustered Asterisk servers with load balancing and failover |
| Who runs the server | We do | You do — Linux, Asterisk, MySQL, trunks, backups and patching |
| Support | Phone and WhatsApp from Indore, included in the plan | Community forums, or a paid contract from a third-party provider |
| If you stop paying | You stop using it | You keep it. You own the stack and the data |
How to decide
Count your seats
Under about twenty-five with no in-house Linux skills, the maintenance question answers this for you. Above fifty, VICIdial deserves a serious look.
Price the administration honestly
Not the software — the person. Monthly cost of someone who can secure Asterisk, handle a carrier outage and restore a backup at 9pm. Compare that against a subscription.
Decide whether you need a CRM at all
If you only need to dial lists and log outcomes, VICIdial does that superbly for free. If you need to manage clients over months, you need a pipeline.
Try ours on your own process
We will configure a demo around how your team actually works. If after it you conclude VICIdial fits you better, that is a fine outcome and we would rather you knew now.
See JugnuCRM in action
A short walkthrough: how a caller works through leads, logs a call and sets the next follow-up, and what the owner sees in reports.
Questions people ask when comparing these two
Is VICIdial really free?
The software genuinely is, under AGPLv2, with no licence fee and no warranty. What costs money is everything around it: servers, SIP trunks, and the expertise to run it. For a large call centre that trade is usually worth making. For a fifteen-person advisory firm it usually is not.
Is JugnuCRM built on VICIdial?
No. JugnuCRM is our own system. Both run on Asterisk underneath, because that is what serious telephony in this space runs on, but the dialer, CRM and interface are ours.
Which has the better dialer?
VICIdial, on depth. It offers more dialing modes, answering machine detection, per-campaign DNC and time-zone rules by state and day of week. Ours covers predictive, progressive and Click2Call, which is what a team of five to twenty-five actually uses day to day — but we are not going to claim we out-feature a twenty-year-old specialist dialer.
Can VICIdial do what a CRM does?
Partly. It handles lists, campaigns, dispositions and scheduled callbacks very well. It does not give you a pipeline, stages, renewal reminders or lead-source revenue reporting. Teams that need both usually run VICIdial plus a separate CRM and accept the gap between them.
We are already on VICIdial. Why move?
Usually one of three reasons: the person who set it up has left, you need WhatsApp in the same place as the calls, or you need to manage clients over months rather than work through lists. If none of those apply, staying put is a reasonable decision.
Can you migrate our VICIdial data?
Yes. Leads, dispositions, call history and recordings can be migrated, and we run a test migration first so you can check it before cutover. Your data is in MySQL, which makes this straightforward.
What if we outgrow JugnuCRM?
Above roughly fifty seats with heavy blended inbound, VICIdial or a dedicated contact centre platform is the better architecture, and we will tell you when you get there rather than sell you something that does not fit.
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Tell us how your team works and we'll show you the CRM and dialer set up the way you'd actually use it — not a generic slide deck.
Bangali Square, Indore, Madhya Pradesh 452016