head to head · open source
EspoCRM vs Malak
EspoCRM has 3,541 GitHub stars, 1,017 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Malak has 0 stars, 0 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped —. EspoCRM leads on adoption by 0% (3,541 vs 0 stars). EspoCRM is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; Malak is written in various languages under AGPL-3.0. EspoCRM has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, Malak 0%. EspoCRM was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| EspoCRM | Malak | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.5K | ★ 0 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | — |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 0 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick EspoCRM if
- You weight community size — 3.5K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Malak if
- You want the Malak feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and Malak fits your workflow better
About EspoCRM
EspoCRM EspoCRM is a free, open source CRM platform designed to help organizations build and maintain strong customer relationships. It provides a wide range of tools to store, organize, and manage leads, contacts, sales opportunities, marketing campaigns, support cases, and more – all business information in a simple and intuitive interface. Architecture EspoCRM is a web application with a frontend designed as a single page application and a REST API backend written in PHP. Demo You can try the CRM on an online demo. Requirements PHP 8.3 8.5; MySQL 8.0 (and later), or MariaDB 10.3 (and later); PostgreSQL 15…
read the full EspoCRM overview →
About Malak
read the full Malak overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is EspoCRM or Malak more popular?
EspoCRM has 3,541 GitHub stars and Malak has 0. EspoCRM has the larger community by that measure.
Are EspoCRM and Malak free?
Both are open source. EspoCRM is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Malak under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between EspoCRM and Malak?
EspoCRM is written in PHP and Malak in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, EspoCRM or Malak?
Choose EspoCRM if you want the larger community (3,541 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Malak if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.