How much does EspoCRM cost, and what do you really pay for?

Listed price: free (paid plans from €12.90/month/user). What the subscription covers and is hard to maintain yourself: The entity builder and no-code layouts.; Quotes, orders, stock and invoices linked to the CRM.; Workflows and BPMN processes.; Official extensions included in the cloud plan..

What free or open-source alternatives to EspoCRM exist?

Twenty (open source), SuiteCRM (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.

Where do you start to build an equivalent of EspoCRM?

Copy this page’s prompt into Claude, Codex or Cursor to get a first prototype. Then plan for hosting, data backups and GDPR compliance: that is what costs the most to maintain over time.

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EspoCRM

Official website · espocrm.com ↗Are you the publisher? Suggest a correction

Partly replaceableOur view: worth studying depending on your use.free (paid plans from €12.90/month/user)casevibecode verdict · 0 votesPage updated on October 23, 2026 · Published by North Studio

Open-source CRM (AGPL-3.0) to host yourself or as a hosted service: accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, pipelines, tasks, meetings and calls, quotes, orders, invoices, stock, projects, knowledge base, emailing, entity builder, roles and permissions, REST API. Free download for self-hosting; cloud at €12.90 per user per month (minimum 3 users), Enterprise at €22 (minimum 5), Ultimate at €59 (minimum 10). Official extensions included in the cloud. The interface is multilingual; the pricing page does not name French.

A CRM for a small business (contacts, companies, deals, notes, follow-ups) can be built, and it is even more relevant than paying a per-user subscription. EspoCRM goes well beyond that: quotes, orders, stock, projects, knowledge base and BPMN processes. Reproducing all of it custom is a big project; reproducing the third you really use is realistic. Self-hosting is free but, according to the pricing page, extensions have to be bought once you leave the cloud: check which ones you need.

What you lose

The entity builder and no-code layouts.
Quotes, orders, stock and invoices linked to the CRM.
Workflows and BPMN processes.
Official extensions included in the cloud plan.

Existing alternatives to EspoCRM

TwentyOpen source
Open-source CRM (AGPL-3.0 for the most part; some modules are under a commercial licence), self-hosted or hosted.
SuiteCRMOpen source
Very complete open-source CRM (AGPL-3.0): prospecting, price catalogues, contracts and customer service; rather heavy to install and maintain.

See all 2 alternatives

What a home-built tool costs once it exists

Hosting and database: a server cost, and automatic backups you actually test.
Security and GDPR: dependency updates, an HTTPS certificate, protection of your customers’ data.
Upkeep time: who fixes the tool on a Saturday night in the middle of service if the server goes down?

The prompt to build it yourself

Open in ClaudeOpen in Codex Open in Cursor

Build a custom CRM for my business, replacing a CRM that is too broad.

Context: a small services company, 3 salespeople, about 400 contacts, 40 open deals.

To do:
- Company and Contact records with exchange history and notes.
- A stage-based deal pipeline with amount, probability and expected close date.
- Tasks and reminders assigned to a person, with a «my tasks today» board.
- A simple quote (lines, discount, validity) generated as a PDF from the deal.
- Roles: salesperson (their deals), manager (all deals).
- CSV import and export, and a dashboard: deals by stage, weighted amount, win rate.

Out of scope: mass emailing, stock, projects, BPMN processes.

Stack: web app, PostgreSQL. README: how to run, backup, deleting a contact on request (GDPR).

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Frequently asked questions

How much does EspoCRM cost, and what do you really pay for?: Listed price: free (paid plans from €12.90/month/user). What the subscription covers and is hard to maintain yourself: The entity builder and no-code layouts.; Quotes, orders, stock and invoices linked to the CRM.; Workflows and BPMN processes.; Official extensions included in the cloud plan..
What free or open-source alternatives to EspoCRM exist?: Twenty (open source), SuiteCRM (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
Where do you start to build an equivalent of EspoCRM?: Copy this page’s prompt into Claude, Codex or Cursor to get a first prototype. Then plan for hosting, data backups and GDPR compliance: that is what costs the most to maintain over time.

How are our verdicts established? Read our detailed methodology ↗

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