What is an open-source CRM?
A CRM whose software you can run for free on your own server. There are no licence fees per user, only the server, often €20–50 a month, plus the effort for operations and updates.
Which open-source CRMs are there?
- Twenty: modern, fast, flexible data model, email sync with Gmail and Outlook, good APIs. A young project with a very active community. Licence: AGPL-3.0.
- EspoCRM: lean and stable, good for classic sales processes. Licence: AGPL-3.0.
- SuiteCRM: very extensive, more for larger teams with complex workflows.
- Odoo Community: the free base edition of the Odoo ERP. Some modules are only in the paid Enterprise edition.
When does self-hosting pay off?
- You have many users and want no per-seat costs.
- Your data must stay on servers in Germany or the EU.
- You want to adapt the CRM closely to your processes or connect it to your own systems.
You need someone to handle servers, backups, security and updates.
Our advice: start free, self-host later
This is how we do it at Kosmo Team ourselves:
- Start free with a free plan, for example Zoho CRM.
- Collect requirements: which fields, workflows and integrations do you really need?
- Switch on purpose to your own CRM, for example Twenty, on a server in the EU. You take your data with you by export.
That way you do not pay for features you never use.
How Kosmo Team helps
We host open-source CRMs on EU servers, handle backups, security and updates, and migrate your data. More: CRM setup. Read on: Free CRMs compared.