Open source CRM: the self-hosted options in 2026

What is an open source CRM?

An open source CRM is a customer relationship tool whose code is published under an open source license. Anyone can use, study, change and share it. You can run it on a server you control, so your contacts, deals and email history live in your own database, not a vendor's.

The license matters, because it sets what you can do with the code. The Open Source Definition sets the ground rules. Three kinds of license are common in CRMs:

• AGPL-3.0, used by Twenty, SuiteCRM, EspoCRM and Frappe CRM, and by MagpieCRM. You can use it for any purpose, including business. If you offer a changed version to others as a hosted service, you must publish your changes.
• MIT and LGPL, which are looser. Krayin uses MIT and Odoo Community uses LGPL-3.0.
• Open core, where the base is open source but key features sit in a paid, closed edition.

Why do teams choose an open source CRM?

Teams choose an open source CRM to cut per-seat costs, own their data and avoid lock-in. Self-hosted, you pay for the server, not for each person who logs in. A team of 20 costs about the same to run as a team of 2.

• No per-seat pricing. Hiring does not raise your software bill.
• You own the data. Records stay in a database you control.
• No lock-in. If a vendor raises prices or shuts down, you keep the code and every record.
• You can change it. Add fields or whole features without waiting for a roadmap.

Owning the data also helps with privacy law. Under the GDPR, fines can reach 4% of yearly global turnover, so knowing where personal data lives matters. The UK data protection rules work the same way.

The trade-off is that someone has to run it: apply updates, back up the data and watch the server. For most modern CRMs, that means a small VPS and a Docker Compose file. If you would rather not, most projects sell a hosted version.

What should you look for in an open source CRM?

Look at four things in an open source CRM: how much of the sales and marketing job it covers, which features are really open source, whether your team can run its stack, and whether it is still maintained. A cheap CRM that needs three paid add-ons is not cheap.

• Coverage. Most open source CRMs are strong on companies, contacts and deals. Ask whether you will also need other tools to find new prospects or send marketing email.
• License and open core. Check which features need a paid licence. Automation, advanced reports and single sign-on are common upsells.
• Stack. PHP and MySQL projects are easy to host anywhere. Projects on Postgres suit teams that want to query their data or plug in BI tools.
• Maintenance. Look for a release in the last few months. An old, unpatched CRM is a security risk, because it holds your most sensitive data.

Which open source CRMs cover sales and marketing?

SuiteCRM, EspoCRM and Odoo Community are open source CRMs that include some email marketing as well as deals. We compared each project on 26 September 2026, using its own website, docs and code repository. None of the three includes prospect data out of the box, though Odoo sells lead generation credits.

SuiteCRM

SuiteCRM is one of the longest-running open source CRMs, licensed AGPL-3.0 and built on PHP with MySQL or MariaDB. It includes a Campaigns module with open and click tracking. The interface shows its age, and there are no sequences or prospect data.

EspoCRM

EspoCRM is a light AGPL-3.0 CRM on PHP. It supports MySQL, MariaDB or Postgres. Mass email with tracking is free, but workflows and drip emails need the paid Advanced Pack.

Odoo Community

Odoo is a full business suite written in Python on Postgres. The Community edition is LGPL-3.0, and CRM and email marketing are both included. Its lead generation uses paid credits. It is a lot of system if you only need sales and marketing.

Which open source CRMs focus on the pipeline?

Twenty, Frappe CRM and Krayin are open source CRMs that focus on leads, deals and pipelines. Frappe CRM and Krayin have no built-in email campaigns, and Twenty's are in beta, switched on by request. They suit teams that want a clean, modern CRM and already use other tools for outreach and marketing. All three had releases in September 2026.

Twenty

Twenty is a modern CRM in TypeScript on Postgres, with a polished interface and a large community. Its core is AGPL-3.0, with some enterprise features under a commercial licence. It syncs Gmail and Microsoft mail and has workflows. Twenty's cloud starts at $9 per user per month, billed yearly.

Frappe CRM

Frappe CRM is a fast AGPL-3.0 CRM built on the Frappe Framework, in Python and Vue. It has strong WhatsApp and phone integrations, and ties in with ERPNext.

Krayin

Krayin is an MIT-licensed CRM built on Laravel and Vue, with MySQL or MariaDB. The loose license suits agencies that build custom CRMs for clients.

Open source CRM comparison table

The table compares the free, self-hosted edition of each open source CRM, with MagpieCRM for context. It shows the features that most often force teams to buy extra tools.

We found that every CRM here handles the pipeline well. The gaps are in finding new contacts and sending marketing email. If you need those, count the cost of the extra tools, not just the CRM.

Where does MagpieCRM fit next to an open source CRM?

MagpieCRM fits as a lightweight CRM for teams whose main job is finding and emailing new contacts. It has deals in drag-and-drop pipelines and email sequences, but no sales reports yet. We built MagpieCRM for small B2B teams, founders and agencies who want prospecting, email marketing and a simple pipeline in one open source app.

• Prospect search. Search companies by keyword, industry, headcount and country, and people by title, seniority, country and keyword.
• Verified emails. Each email is checked with the mail server. Only verified emails are saved by default.
• Contacts. CSV or paste import, custom fields, lists, personas and CSV export.
• Deals and pipelines. A drag-and-drop board with a value, owner and close date on each deal, and more than one pipeline if you need it.
• Email marketing. A drag-and-drop builder, templates, scheduled campaigns, sign-up forms, surveys and open and click stats.
• Sequences and tasks. Plain-text email sequences that stop when someone replies, and follow-up tasks with reminders.
• AI. Maggy, the copilot, on Cloud (self-hosted, it runs on your own Anthropic or OpenAI key), and an MCP server for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and the OpenAI Codex CLI.

If you also run another CRM, there is no built-in sync. You move contacts between the two with CSV files. MagpieCRM is early access software, at version 0.9.136.

How do you self-host MagpieCRM?

You self-host MagpieCRM by running one container, with its data kept in a JSON file on a persistent volume. There is no separate database to run. The image is ghcr.io/magpiecrm/magpie-crm-app:0.9.136, and the full steps are in the self-hosting guide.

You will need:

• The AUTH_EMAIL, AUTH_PASSWORD and TRACKING_SECRET settings.
• A SocialFetch API key for prospect search.
• SMTP or your own email provider: Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, SendGrid, Mailgun or Brevo.
• A self-hosted email verifier, with outbound port 25 open. Most cloud providers block it.

Prefer not to run servers? Magpie Cloud gives you your own isolated copy of the app, hosted in the EU, from £10/month$15/month. Prospect data, email verification and sending are included, and updates are applied for you.