Frappe HR 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?
Frappe HR
Complete HRMS solution with over 13 different modules right from
VS
Fat Free CRM
Ruby on Rails open-source customer relationship manager
| Feature | Frappe HR | Fat Free CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CRM & Business Apps | CRM & Business Apps |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,535 | ★ 3,628 |
| First released | 2026 | 2008 |
| Replaces | — | Salesforce |
Why pick each one
Choose Frappe HR if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8.5k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
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 Frappe HR or Fat Free CRM better?
Neither is universally better. Frappe HR has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Frappe HR and Fat Free CRM free and open-source?
Yes. Frappe HR is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Fat Free CRM under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Frappe HR and Fat Free CRM with Docker?
Frappe HR: yes. Fat Free CRM: yes.