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.
| Feature | CiviCRM | Fat Free CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 77 · Good | 86 · Excellent |
| 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 | ★ 779 | ★ 3,632 |
| First released | 2005 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Salesforce, Blackbaud | Salesforce |
What are CiviCRM and Fat Free CRM?
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
Fat Free CRM
Fat Free CRM is an open-source, Ruby on Rails based customer relationship management platform. It offers group collaboration, campaign and lead management, contact lists, and an opportunity pipeline out of the box.
- Lead and campaign management
- Contact and account lists
- Opportunity pipeline
- Group collaboration
CiviCRM vs Fat Free CRM: key differences
CiviCRM is written in PHP, while Fat Free CRM is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for CiviCRM versus MIT for Fat Free CRM. CiviCRM is the more established project (first released 2005), while Fat Free CRM arrived in 2008. Fat Free CRM has the considerably larger community, at 3,632 GitHub stars versus 779. Fat Free CRM lists first-class Docker deployment; CiviCRM does not.
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
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Slower development
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.