head to head · open source
Twenty vs EspoCRM
Twenty has 56,947 GitHub stars, 9,143 forks, 205 open issues and last shipped yesterday. EspoCRM has 3,368 stars, 972 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Twenty leads on adoption by 1,591% (56,947 vs 3,368 stars). Twenty is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; EspoCRM is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Twenty has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, EspoCRM 29%. Twenty was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (crm, crm-system), 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
| Twenty | EspoCRM | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 972 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Twenty if
- You weight community size — 57K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 Twenty
Twenty is an open source CRM platform built for technical teams that need to design and deploy custom customer relationship management systems without vendor lock in. It provides a framework for defining data models, views, workflows, and AI powered agents entirely as code, enabling full version control and integration into existing development pipelines. The project lives in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem and uses modern tooling including NestJS, React, PostgreSQL, and Redis.
read the full Twenty overview →
About EspoCRM
EspoCRM is a free, open source customer relationship management application written in PHP. It lives in the open source business software ecosystem for CRM and sales systems, and it combines a single page frontend with a REST API backend. The project describes itself as a platform for storing, organizing, and managing leads, contacts, sales opportunities, marketing campaigns, support cases, and related business information.
read the full EspoCRM overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Twenty or EspoCRM more popular?
Twenty has 56,947 GitHub stars and EspoCRM has 3,368. Twenty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Twenty and EspoCRM free?
Both are open source. Twenty has no licence declared in this registry, and EspoCRM is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Twenty and EspoCRM?
Twenty is written in TypeScript 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, Twenty or EspoCRM?
Choose Twenty if you want the larger community (56,947 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose EspoCRM if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.