CiviCRM vs Krayin
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted crm & business apps options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | CiviCRM | Krayin |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 77 · Good | 97 · Excellent |
| Category | CRM & Business Apps | CRM & Business Apps |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 779 | ★ 23,938 |
| First released | 2005 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Salesforce, Blackbaud | Salesforce, HubSpot |
What are CiviCRM and Krayin?
CiviCRM
CiviCRM is an open-source constituent relationship management system designed for nonprofits and civic-sector organizations. It manages donors, members, events, and campaigns.
- Donor and member management
- Event registration
- Email campaigns
- Integrates with WordPress and Drupal
Krayin
Krayin is a free and open-source CRM built on Laravel, offering lead management, contacts, and sales pipelines. It targets small businesses wanting a lightweight PHP CRM. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.
- Lead and pipeline management
- Contact and activity tracking
- Built on Laravel
- Email integration
CiviCRM vs Krayin: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for CiviCRM versus MIT for Krayin. CiviCRM is the more established project (first released 2005), while Krayin arrived in 2020. Krayin has the considerably larger community, at 23,938 GitHub stars versus 779. Krayin lists first-class Docker deployment; CiviCRM does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Krayin if…
- Lightweight CRM
- Laravel-based and extensible
- Open source
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Fewer features than big CRMs
Frequently asked questions
Is CiviCRM or Krayin better?
Neither is universally better. Krayin has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are CiviCRM and Krayin free and open-source?
Yes. CiviCRM is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Krayin under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run CiviCRM and Krayin with Docker?
CiviCRM: check the project docs for container support. Krayin: yes.