SuiteCRM 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 | SuiteCRM | Fat Free CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | CRM & Business Apps | CRM & Business Apps |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,764 | ★ 3,632 |
| First released | 2013 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Salesforce, HubSpot | Salesforce |
What are SuiteCRM and Fat Free CRM?
SuiteCRM
SuiteCRM is a fully featured, open-source CRM with sales, marketing, and service modules, forked from SugarCRM. It targets businesses wanting a mature, free CRM. It is deployed via Docker or a LAMP stack.
- Sales, marketing and service modules
- Workflow automation
- Customizable modules
- Reporting engine
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
SuiteCRM vs Fat Free CRM: key differences
SuiteCRM is written in PHP, while Fat Free CRM is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for SuiteCRM versus MIT for Fat Free CRM. Fat Free CRM is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for SuiteCRM. Fat Free CRM is the more established project (first released 2008), while SuiteCRM arrived in 2013.
Why pick each one
Choose SuiteCRM if…
- Feature-complete CRM
- Free and open source
- Mature
Watch out for
- Interface feels dated
- Setup can be heavy
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 SuiteCRM or Fat Free CRM better?
Neither is universally better. SuiteCRM has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are SuiteCRM and Fat Free CRM free and open-source?
Yes. SuiteCRM is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Fat Free CRM under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SuiteCRM and Fat Free CRM with Docker?
SuiteCRM: yes. Fat Free CRM: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, SuiteCRM or Fat Free CRM?
Fat Free CRM has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for SuiteCRM. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.