

To efficiently implement CRM (customer relationship management) one must first understand its history and its importance. Travel through time, and you will learn of a detailed background, its creators and evolution.
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To choose or not to choose an open-source CRM, that's the dilemma.
Deciding which customer relationship management (CRM) system is best suited to your business or organization is no easy task, especially considering the sheer number of options on the market today.
If you are interested in customer service and satisfaction, you need CRM software.
Now, if you’re unsure what an open-source CRM platform is all about, what the best options are and want to discover the advantages that this type of tool brings to your company or enterprise, this article is for you.
We’ll compare the best open-source CRM software so that you can make the right choice for your business or enterprise without wasting valuable time searching for information all over the internet.
Let's get started!
Starting off simply, a CRM or Customer Relationship Management software allows businesses to interact with customers or potential buyers and manage their information. This software centralizes their data, tracks interactions, manages sales activity, and more.
Why are CRMs useful? Because they allow you to learn more about your customers, increase client satisfaction, improve prospecting and selling, and be more responsive.
When it comes to open-source CRM software, they are a kind of blueprint that allows users to create their own customized system, tailored to their needs. In this sense, because the code is public, it is possible to edit and distribute freely.
Because any programmer can work on the code, the benefit of such open platforms is that the application is gradually improved until it becomes more useful and bug-free.
However, unlike most proprietary CRMs, you may need a programmer to modify the code of the open-source solution or platform. Despite this, most open source programs don’t need too many alterations to be operationally functional.
As long as you have the right people on your team, an open-source CRM platform is an excellent choice for your business!
These are some of the main advantages of choosing an open-source CRM for your business:
![]() Bitrix24 | ![]() CiviCRM | ![]() SugarCRM | ![]() SuiteCRM | ![]() Vtiger CRM | ![]() Yetiforce |
For companies with more than 1 employees | For companies with more than 1 employees | For companies with more than 1 employees | For all companies | For all companies | For all companies |
Learn more about Bitrix24 | Learn more about CiviCRM | Learn more about SugarCRM | Learn more about SuiteCRM | Learn more about Vtiger CRM | Learn more about Yetiforce |
For enterprises and NGOs of all sizes, Bitrix24 is a multi-component online collaboration, automation, and marketing software platform. Technically speaking, Bitrix24 is an online cloud service that you may access through a browser or a desktop/mobile application.
Businesses get an excellent value from Bitrix24 in terms of the quantity of features they get for the cost. It may assist a small or medium-sized firm in managing staff, potential clients, and consumers in a number of ways. Each price tier, including the Free tier, includes instant messaging, group chat, email, voice calling, and activity tracking.
Through Bitrix24, businesses can:
Their features are designed for effective client and customer management, acquisition, and retention. It adds leads for you to the CRM database from sources including your website, social media accounts, phone calls, and other locations. Analytics regarding your company's marketing initiatives are produced through sales and marketing automation.
You may initiate video calls with up to 48 individuals using Bitrix24 to speak with team members. It also provides resources for organizing projects, monitoring time, and allocating tasks. You may create a funnel for new prospects and keep track of every contact's activities, including sales and customer service contacts.
You may build up a customer help desk with email ticketing, live chat, and phone assistance with Bitrix24's contact center. Over 100 editable landing page and online store designs are available in the website builder.
Bitrix24 offers many different plans that you can either pay every month, every three months or every year (you get a 35% discount).
Considering you want to pay a monthly subscription, here are the different plans:
The open source initiative CiviCRM creates software for nonprofit and public sector companies. CiviCRM may be used to handle volunteers, activists, and voters as well as more basic types of business relationships like workers, clients, or vendors.
Even the most sophisticated organizations may benefit from CiviCRM's vast array of functionality:
The "price set" feature of CiviCRM enables you to establish a cost for participants to sign up for a breakout group. After setting up your new pricing to be used for events, start adding the price fields. The API CSV importer plugin can import in the background and supports very huge data sets.
Any size firm can centralize all communication and collaboration with CiviCRM. The focus is on CiviEvents and memberships, which also offer the opportunity to enjoy discounts. All of these services are modular. You may construct connected CRM and websites using Drupal, Wordpress, and Joomla integrations. The features CiviMail, Scheduled Jobs, and Reports are only a handful of.
EspoCRM is an open-source CRM for all types of companies and sectors:
It’ll stay free if you deploy it yourself locally. There is no limit on database size, and you can change and develop the code however you want. In its basic version, EspoCRM covers most CRM needs (sales automation, sales opportunity management, calendar and shared calendar, emailing, mass marketing, etc.)
With the extensions, the Sales Pack, or the Advanced Pack (all paid versions), you can strengthen the software by adding additional modules. These include, for example:
The software offers support for 26 languages. It also has a sleek, modern, and responsive design. On top of that, EspoCRM is constantly evolving, with new features released every couple of months.
EspoCRM’s functionalities and potential to evolve make it tempting for companies that choose to turn to free software.
Many EspoCRM users emphasize its intuitiveness and ease of use (once the tool has been installed and configured), due in particular to a rather pleasant interface and navigation.
Odoo CRM allows companies to go beyond just the CRM and touch on other business aspects like accounting, enterprise resource planning, and more. It can be used successfully by small to medium-sized businesses and larger companies or organizations.
Beyond its flexibility, Odoo CRM offers many in-house and third-party integrations, but that’s not all. To help sell faster and create more leads for your business, the software has extensive functionalities:
The modular aspect of this open-source solution is very useful for companies that need more than just a CRM. It also provides a modern interface that tracks and centralizes all your customer information.
Despite this, it can also be somewhat technical and require some more support to get started, but this is understandable due to its extensive features and various apps.
SugarCRM is suitable for very small companies as well as large groups. It offers very advanced and ideal functionalities for a controlled management of customer relations.
The database can be consulted and modified by all members of the company’s staff in order to have valuable knowledge of each customer or prospect profile:
It offers multi-channel management of marketing campaigns. Emailing, faxing, direct mail, texts, all media are used to reach a targeted population according to predefined parameters. Workflows are adjustable and processes automated for simplicity.
Sugar CRM is one of the most powerful software and is considered the world leader in open source customer relationship management solutions. It has gradually established itself in the field since its release in 2004.
It has great flexibility thanks to numerous settings and its great accessibility on all media.
SuiteCRM is an open-source CRM that was created as an evolution of the SugarCRM solution by using its code.
The software is more particularly intended for VSEs and SMEs, but it also works great for big organizations and companies.
There is no need to manually perform updates or manage maintenance requests thanks to the SaaS model of this application.
Whether the software is running on Linux, Mac, or Windows, Suite CRM can be used anytime, anywhere thanks to its SaaS model, all you need is a stable internet connection. This means you always have access to core functions such as account and contact management and opportunity management. The software data is stored directly at SuiteCRM, ensuring its secure storage.
The strengths of SuiteCRM:
SuiteCRM is a helpful solution for increasing sales. The software provides a clear view of the processes that affect sales and customers, as well as elements that allow you to easily spot new opportunities.
With its Open API and its extensive catalog of plugins, SuiteCRM integrates seamlessly with other solutions, such as Outlook, WhatsApp, Zoom, Facebook, Gmail, Quickbooks, LinkedIn, and many more.
This CRM is free in its standalone version, but like other open-source options, you’ll have to pay to use the software on the cloud.
All their “On-demand” cloud plans are for unlimited users and offer a free 30-day trial after which you will be billed annually.
VTiger is an open-source CRM inspired by SugarCRM since it is an evolution created from the app’s code.
Rather modern, the tool is more particularly intended for VSEs and SMEs. While it is sales-oriented (as expected of any good CRM), it is also support and customer service-oriented.
The open-source version of VTiger is free if you install it on your own servers, as well as their cloud-based version for companies that are just starting to use a CRM.
The solution includes many features to optimize your sales, but also your customer relationships, such as:
This CRM system can be built according to your needs thanks to the numerous integrations. This open-source solution allows fine control of user access, thanks to the assignment of roles and profiles by administrators.
The software is also available in 25 languages for international usage.
If you want to move to the cloud without paying extra, there is a Pilot version of VTiger, which is quite comprehensive in terms of features and is completely free for up to 10 users.
VTiger is known for its ease of use and its large community. It is therefore perfectly suited to young companies who wish to embark on the adventure of open-source CRM.
The tool is also very customizable and scalable, thanks to the new extensions that are regularly developed and that will complete your basic version if necessary.
For a professional:
For an enterprise:
YetiForce is an open source CRM program that is a multichannel system that may be customized to any company's needs. It comes with over 100 admin and user modules and it can also be combined with other packages to provide an even more complete solution.
The dashboard may be customized with widgets and module summaries to display all the operations graphically which will facilitate your decision-making by delivering data analysis on a single screen. The collection of pre-configured widgets also contains many more items such as a history, timer, calendar, tickets, and leads. Infinite possibilities are made possible by the system's flexibility. You may send and receive emails right to your system using the built-in email module in YetiForce.
This assures very high security and total confidentiality for all of your emails. Emails may easily be connected to contacts, leads, accounts, partners, competitors, and a variety of procedures and subprocesses. The ability to swap mailboxes is another feature that, for example, enables support workers to manage their own inbox.
You can easily set up on your localhost or a remote server thanks to the open source and PHP and MySQL architecture. You may use it on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop since it is responsive. This program may be modified and customized to meet the needs of large-scale enterprises. YetiForce is incredibly easy to use and user-friendly.
As we have said above, when choosing your open-source software there are many features to take into account. However, these are the most basic and relevant:
Finally, remember to choose your tool according to your needs and take into account the time you are willing to invest in developing and customizing it. We all know that time is money and this factor is essential when choosing.
If you still haven't decided which CRM software to choose, we invite you to take a look at our directory of Customer Relationship Management software and evaluate all the options that Appvizer has for you.