Twenty vs Frappe CRM

Twenty and Frappe CRM are both open-source, AGPL-3.0 CRMs you can run on your own server as alternatives to Salesforce and HubSpot, and both ask for about 2 GB of RAM by our estimate. They come from different worlds. Twenty is a young, developer-minded CRM with a Notion-like interface that treats the CRM as code you extend. Frappe CRM is a sales app built on the Frappe framework, the same platform as ERPNext, and its strengths are telephony, messaging and an ERP next door. The install effort is the other big gap: we rate Twenty 3 out of 5 and Frappe CRM 4 out of 5.

Two philosophies

Twenty is TypeScript, with a NestJS back end, a React front end and PostgreSQL. Its README pitches "the CRM you build, ship, and version like the rest of your stack": objects, views, workflows and agents are building blocks, and you define your own objects and fields as code with its SDK and CLI. It exposes a GraphQL API and its data model is customisable without code. It is the pick for a team with engineers who want the CRM to behave like a codebase.

Frappe CRM is Python on the Frappe framework with a Vue interface built on Frappe UI. Its README describes a CRM for modern sales teams with unlimited users and lists an all-in-one lead and deal page that gathers activity, comments, notes and tasks, a drag-and-drop Kanban view, and custom views with filters, sorting and columns. Extensibility comes from Frappe framework customisation and custom views rather than from a code-first SDK.

Integrations

This is where Frappe CRM is clearly ahead. Its README lists built-in Twilio and Exotel integrations for making, receiving and recording calls, WhatsApp messaging through the Frappe WhatsApp app, and ERPNext integration to add invoicing and accounting. If your sales team works on the phone, or you already use or plan to use ERPNext, that is a concrete reason to choose it.

Twenty's README leads with the platform instead of a list of connectors: apps, workflows and agents you write yourself. Twenty exposes a GraphQL API.

Install and footprint

Twenty's official Docker Compose is a server, a worker, PostgreSQL and Redis. In our install the first boot ran a long series of database migrations and the server reported unhealthy until they finished, so the worker had to be started afterwards. It measured about 2.2 GB of RAM idle on our GCP test box, above its 2 GB estimate.

Frappe CRM's catalog install uses upstream's Docker files, which provision a site alongside MariaDB and Redis. Upstream's README files this under development: the default login is Administrator with the password admin. For production it points to an easy-install script that wants a domain and an email address. We have not measured its RAM. Treat the 2 GB figure as an estimate, and expect the MariaDB, Redis and web processes to share it.

Which to choose

Choose Twenty if your team can write code and wants a CRM modelled as objects you define and version, with a GraphQL API, on PostgreSQL. Budget more than 2 GB and a patient first boot.

Choose Frappe CRM if you need built-in calling and WhatsApp, want a path to ERPNext, or already run Frappe apps, and you can accept the harder install and a less code-first extension story.

Not the only two options

For another CRM head-to-head, see Twenty vs EspoCRM. The setup is walked through in the Twenty deploy guide, and the SaaS side of the choice is on our Salesforce alternatives page.