CiviCRM vs Fat Free CRM
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted crm & business apps options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
CiviCRM
CRM for nonprofits, NGOs, and advocacy groups
VS
Fat Free CRM
Ruby on Rails open-source customer relationship manager
| Feature | CiviCRM | Fat Free CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CRM & Business Apps | CRM & Business Apps |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 762 | ★ 3,628 |
| First released | 2005 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Salesforce, Blackbaud | Salesforce |
Why pick each one
Choose Fat Free CRM if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is CiviCRM or Fat Free CRM better?
Neither is universally better. Fat Free CRM has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are CiviCRM and Fat Free CRM free and open-source?
Yes. CiviCRM is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Fat Free CRM under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run CiviCRM and Fat Free CRM with Docker?
CiviCRM: check the project docs for container support. Fat Free CRM: yes.