Twenty 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.
Twenty
Modern open-source CRM alternative
VS
Fat Free CRM
Ruby on Rails open-source customer relationship manager
| Feature | Twenty | Fat Free CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | CRM & Business Apps | CRM & Business Apps |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 57,389 | ★ 3,632 |
| First released | 2023 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Salesforce, HubSpot | Salesforce |
What are Twenty and Fat Free CRM?
Twenty
Twenty is a modern, open-source CRM designed as a flexible alternative to Salesforce with a clean, customizable interface. It targets startups and teams wanting an open CRM. It is deployed via Docker.
- Modern customizable CRM
- Flexible data model
- Keyboard-driven UI
- API and webhooks
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
Twenty vs Fat Free CRM: key differences
Twenty is written in TypeScript, while Fat Free CRM is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Twenty 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 Twenty. Fat Free CRM is the more established project (first released 2008), while Twenty arrived in 2023. Twenty has the considerably larger community, at 57,389 GitHub stars versus 3,632.
Why pick each one
Choose Twenty if…
- Clean modern interface
- Customizable objects
- Active development
Watch out for
- Young project
- Some features still maturing
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 Twenty or Fat Free CRM better?
Neither is universally better. Twenty has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Twenty and Fat Free CRM free and open-source?
Yes. Twenty is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Fat Free CRM under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Twenty and Fat Free CRM with Docker?
Twenty: yes. Fat Free CRM: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Twenty 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 Twenty. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.