head to head · open source
EspoCRM vs nextcrm-app
EspoCRM has 3,541 GitHub stars, 1,017 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nextcrm-app has 734 stars, 282 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. EspoCRM leads on adoption by 382% (3,541 vs 734 stars). EspoCRM is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; nextcrm-app is written in TypeScript under MIT. EspoCRM has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, nextcrm-app 38%. nextcrm-app was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (crm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | nextcrm-app | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.5K | ★ 734 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 282 |
| 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 nextcrm-app if
- You want the nextcrm-app feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nextcrm-app 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 nextcrm-app
NextCRM NextCRM is an open source CRM built with Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, PostgreSQL (Prisma 7), and shadcn/ui. Features CRM, project management, invoicing, document storage, email client, AI powered features, vector search, and MCP server for AI agent access. Introduction · What's New · Tech Stack + Features · Roadmap · Installation · Repo activity · License · Discord Online Demo You can try it here demo.nextcrm.io, login via Google account or create new user and password. What's New 🧾 Invoices Module — Full Invoicing Workflow (NEW) Complete invoicing system built into NextCRM — create, issue, pay…
read the full nextcrm-app overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is EspoCRM or nextcrm-app more popular?
EspoCRM has 3,541 GitHub stars and nextcrm-app has 734. EspoCRM has the larger community by that measure.
Are EspoCRM and nextcrm-app free?
Both are open source. EspoCRM is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and nextcrm-app under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between EspoCRM and nextcrm-app?
EspoCRM is written in PHP and nextcrm-app in TypeScript. 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 nextcrm-app?
Choose EspoCRM if you want the larger community (3,541 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nextcrm-app if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.