Open-Source Customisation · CRM
Open-source CRM, customised
A proven open-source CRM, set up and shaped around the way you actually sell. No fee per seat, and your customer data stays on your own server.
The CRM bill that grows with every hire
Subscription CRMs charge per person, per month, and the useful features usually sit a tier or two up. Every new starter makes it more expensive, and your customer list lives on someone else's servers.
An open-source CRM turns that round. You pay to set it up and make it fit, and for hosting, and then adding people costs nothing. The data is in a database you control, usually on a UK server. And because the code is open, nothing is off limits: if the way you sell needs a field, a screen or an integration that no product offers, it can be built.
Five open-source CRMs worth considering
All five are actively maintained, with releases in the last few months. Licences and details checked against each project's own repository on 9 October 2026.
Krayin
Built with PHP and Laravel · Licence: MITA clean, modern CRM for leads, contacts, deals and email, built on Laravel. Laravel is what we build in every week, so we can extend Krayin the way the framework intends: with our own packages that sit alongside it rather than changes to its code.
Good for: Small and mid-sized sales teams who want a straightforward pipeline and expect to need custom features.
EspoCRM
Built with PHP, with a JavaScript front end · Licence: AGPL-3.0Mature, fast and tidy. A lot of tailoring needs no code at all: custom fields, new record types and screen layouts are set up in its admin area. Anything beyond that goes in as a proper extension.
Good for: Businesses that want something running quickly and plan to change it gradually as they learn what they need.
SuiteCRM
Built with PHP · Licence: AGPL-3.0The long-standing open-source fork of SugarCRM. It does nearly everything: sales, marketing campaigns, support cases, quotes and workflows. Version 8 has a newer interface built around the older version 7 code, and it can feel heavy. Customisations go in its upgrade-safe custom area.
Good for: Larger teams who need the breadth, or anyone already running SuiteCRM or SugarCRM.
Twenty
Built with TypeScript, React and PostgreSQL · Licence: Mostly AGPL-3.0; some features under a commercial licenceThe newest and most fashionable of the five, with a polished interface that feels like Notion or Airtable, and custom objects you can set up in the app. It is not our core stack, so we would mostly connect to it through its API rather than extend it from the inside.
Good for: Teams who care most about a modern interface and are happy with its standard features.
Frappe CRM
Built with Python (Frappe framework) and Vue · Licence: AGPL-3.0A newer CRM from the people behind ERPNext, built on the same framework. Its real strength is sitting alongside ERPNext, so a deal can become an order, an invoice and a delivery in one system.
Good for: Businesses that run, or plan to run, ERPNext for stock and accounts.
Making it fit
Installing a CRM takes an afternoon. Making it the place your team actually works is the real job.
-
Shape it around how you sell
Your stages, your fields, your record types and your screens, so the CRM matches the conversation your team is already having with customers.
-
Connect it to everything else
Email, your website's enquiry forms, Xero or FreeAgent, Shopify, your own systems. If they have an API, the CRM can talk to them.
-
Take the busywork out
Follow-up reminders, assignments, status changes and alerts into your team chat, so the CRM does the chasing instead of people.
-
Bring your data across
From Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive or spreadsheets, tidied on the way, with a trial run you can check before anything goes live.
-
Reports people will read
The few numbers you actually manage by, on a dashboard, using the CRM's own reports or Metabase when you need more.
-
Host it and keep it updated
On a UK server, backed up, with updates tested against your customisations. Or on your own servers if you would rather.
Every change is built using the CRM's own extension points, never by editing its code, so you can keep taking updates from the project. You own the code we write. More on how we work in open-source customisation.
When to stick with what you have, or build your own
An open-source CRM makes sense when
- Per-seat fees are adding up as the team grows
- You keep paying for a tier just to get one feature
- You want your customer data on your own server
- You need it to fit a way of selling no product quite matches
Stay where you are when
- You are a small team on a free or starter plan that does the job
- Marketing automation is the main thing you use it for
- Nobody will own the CRM and keep it updated
- Your team is happy and the bill is fair
And sometimes bespoke is right. We have run our own business on a CRM we built ourselves, in PHP, every day since 2011. If the way you sell is genuinely unusual, building one to spec can beat bending a product. We will tell you which side of that line you are on.
What people ask us
Usually, once you have more than a handful of users. You pay for setup, customisation and hosting rather than a fee per person per month, so the saving grows as your team does. For a very small team on a free or starter plan, the subscription can be the cheaper option, and we will say so.
Yes. Contacts, companies, deals, notes and history can all come across. The real work is deciding what to keep and tidying it on the way, because a migration is the best chance you will get to clean your data. We do a trial run first so you can check it before anything goes live.
It depends on your team and what you need it to do, but if you expect to need custom features, Krayin is our natural first choice because it is built on Laravel, which we work in every week. EspoCRM is a strong choice if you want to tailor a lot without code. We will look at how you work before recommending anything.
Much less than people fear. Licences such as the AGPL mostly come into play when you change the software and let people outside your organisation use it over a network. A CRM used by your own staff is usually straightforward. We check the licence against how you plan to use it before we start.
Sometimes that is the right answer, usually when the way you sell is genuinely unusual. We have run our own business on a CRM we built ourselves since 2011, so we know what is involved. But for most businesses, contacts, pipelines and email are solved problems, and starting from a proven open-source CRM puts your budget into the part that is specific to you.
What our clients say
19 clients. A few of their words.
A well-rounded team, ensuring a full suite of expertise & resource is always available. CDS Global have seen the successful completion of major projects over the years where Dev Partners' ability to grasp the underlying business needs to provide a future-proof solution has been invaluable.
We have worked with Jason & his team to develop our Shopify store, and the experience was outstanding from start to finish. The design is clean, modern, and perfectly aligned with our brand identity, while the build is fast, responsive, and easy to manage on the backend. They clearly understood our vision and delivered a store we're genuinely proud of. Highly recommend to any brand looking for a top-quality Shopify partner.
After ongoing issues and delays with our previous developers, we brought in Rob & Jason at Dev Partners to take over all our websites and bespoke software. What a breath of fresh air, fully focused, excellent pre-launch designs and clear communication throughout. Highly recommended.
BPC Energy Ltd turned to Dev Partners for a complete turnkey solution, and they exceeded our expectations. The team handled everything from project management to development and support with real care and attention. They understood what we were aiming for, stayed on top of every detail, and always delivered on schedule with excellent quality.
Working with Dev Partners to redesign and modernise our WMS system: the whole process has been thoroughly professional from the outset and a delight to work with. Cannot recommend enough.
Great agency. Have used Dev Partners for several years and they have built 20+ sites for us, in addition to taking on our legacy websites, upgrading and maintaining. Easy to work with and some great practical ideas to improve our digital offerings.
Jones Hire have been working with Dev Partners on several projects, which have been very successful. They linked our catering database to a new improved website so clients can easily place and update orders, created a custom warehouse picking app to fulfil all our challenging requirements, and are currently developing a custom transport app to streamline our loading and delivery process.
We have been trying to reinvent our website for over 5 years, trying to make it convert and failing each time. Spoke to Rob at Dev Partners, the team helped create our new site and the improvement was instant.
We have been working with Rob and the team for about 10 years now. Dev Partners helped us build a completely bespoke CRM from scratch which manages our daily business and is always well maintained. We have been able to use the system and roll it out in our new franchise branches.
We collaborated with Dev Partners on the front end of a fairly complex telemarketing platform. Rob and Jason took the time to properly understand the moving parts, asked the right questions, and delivered a clean, intuitive interface that's made the system far easier for our team to use.
I have been working with the team at Dev Partners for the last 3 years and we have always been impressed with the speed in which they act on things for us, along with the honest open communication. The team are a valuable and vital part of our supply chain.
We've had a program for our business in the electronic security sector that Dev Partners developed and keep up to date. They've never let us down, always there when needed. Thanks Rob and the team.
Dev Partners have been working with us for just over 2 years. They have significantly upgraded and redesigned our existing web platforms, and always deliver a first class service.
Dev Partners helped us build an event website. The team were very knowledgeable, easy to work with and quick to deliver a high quality product.
Working with Dev Partners has been an exceptional experience. Their team is highly skilled, professional, and committed to delivering results. What truly sets them apart is their communication and transparency; we always felt informed, supported, and confident.
We've worked with Dev Partners a few times to support us on bespoke web build tasks. They're very easy to work with, approachable, and explain the detail in a way that's understandable. A great partner for technical issues at sensible prices.
Excellent customer service backed up with solid experience. As a media business we have had five websites built by Dev Partners. I would certainly recommend them.
Found Dev Partners and they were great, nothing too much trouble. They managed to help us with integrating our old existing system with Shopify.
I've worked with Rob and his team off and on for many years and have always found them to be professional, knowledgeable, and best of all, they listen to their clients and deliver what is required.
We have worked with Dev Partners for 7 years and can highly recommend them for their expertise and excellent customer service.
What does your CRM need to do?
Tell us how you sell now, and what is getting in the way.
Which CRM you use today, if any, how many people use it, and what you wish it did. If your current CRM is the right answer, we will say so.
What we will cover:
- Which open-source CRM fits, or whether bespoke is better
- What would need customising, and roughly how big that is
- Moving your data across
- Hosting and who keeps it updated
We reply within one working day.
