SugarAI (SugarCRM) vs Zoho CRM

SugarAI (SugarCRM)

The REST reference covers 350 endpoint pages with filters, field selection, bulk calls and upsert by sync_key. SugarAI's AI Supplemental Terms forbid connecting a customer's or third party's AI agent or MCP connector to the APIs unless Sugar has approved it, tokens carry no scopes, and no OpenAPI file, trial or SLA was found.

Zoho CRM

A public OpenAPI 3.1 description of 644 operations and OAuth scopes down to one module and one operation suit agent use, and the Free edition includes 5,000 API credits a day. The documented token refresh puts the client secret in the URL, and no SLA, deprecation policy or dated API changelog was found.

SugarAI (SugarCRM)

1. Confirm that Sugar has approved the agent integration before connecting. The AI Supplemental Terms forbid unapproved AI agents and MCP connectors on the APIs
2. POST to /rest/v11_27/oauth2/token with grant_type password and a platform other than base, mobile or portal, or the login can end the user's own session
3. Send the access token in the OAuth-Token header. It lasts 60 minutes by default, so store the refresh token and not the password
4. Stay under 20 requests a second on SugarCloud and reuse one session for batches. Over-limit traffic is blocked by IP address until support lifts it
5. Page with max_num and offset until next_offset is -1, and pass fields to keep responses small
6. Use PATCH /integrate/:module/:sync_key_field_name/:sync_key_field_value for writes that may be retried, since it inserts or updates by sync_key

Zoho CRM

1. Use the api_domain returned with the token, since each data centre has its own host (zohoapis.com, zohoapis.eu, zohoapis.in and others)
2. Send Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <token> and refresh hourly. Put refresh parameters in the POST body, not the URL
3. Pass fields on every list call. Page with page up to 2,000 records, then page_token up to 100,000
4. Create through /{module}/upsert so a retry updates instead of duplicating
5. Budget credits. Convert Lead costs 5, Send Mail 20, a bulk read 50, and calls through the MCP servers draw on the same allowance