head to head · open source
sellbird vs EspoCRM
sellbird has 4,775 GitHub stars, 1,013 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped yesterday. EspoCRM has 3,557 stars, 1,024 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sellbird leads on adoption by 34% (4,775 vs 3,557 stars). sellbird is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; EspoCRM is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. sellbird has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, EspoCRM 29%. sellbird 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
| sellbird | EspoCRM | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.8K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2026-11-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick sellbird if
- You weight community size — 4.8K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick EspoCRM if
- You want the EspoCRM feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and EspoCRM fits your workflow better
About sellbird
The open source outreach platform that runs on your Claude or ChatGPT plan. Sellbird finds companies that need what you sell, finds the person who decides, checks their email address, writes each one a personal cold email, sends it and handles the replies. It runs on your own machine, and by default nothing goes out until you approve it. Harvey is now Sellbird. Same project, same history, new name. Already running Harvey? Your setup carries over: see Upgrading from Harvey. Prefer not to run it yourself? sellbird.ai is the hosted version, with sending domains, inboxes and warmup set up for you. It's in early…
read the full sellbird overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sellbird or EspoCRM more popular?
sellbird has 4,775 GitHub stars and EspoCRM has 3,557. sellbird has the larger community by that measure.
Are sellbird and EspoCRM free?
Both are open source. sellbird is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and EspoCRM under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sellbird and EspoCRM?
sellbird is written in Python and EspoCRM in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, sellbird or EspoCRM?
Choose sellbird if you want the larger community (4,775 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose EspoCRM if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.