Fat Free CRM vs Vtiger 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 | Fat Free CRM | Vtiger CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 57 · Fair |
| Category | CRM & Business Apps | CRM & Business Apps |
| License | MIT | VPL-1.1 |
| Language | Ruby | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,632 | ★ 258 |
| First released | 2008 | 2004 |
| Replaces | Salesforce | Salesforce, HubSpot |
What are Fat Free CRM and Vtiger CRM?
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
Vtiger CRM
Vtiger CRM is a feature-rich open-source customer relationship management system. It covers sales automation, marketing campaigns, inventory, and customer support.
- Sales force automation
- Marketing campaigns
- Inventory management
- Customer support module
Fat Free CRM vs Vtiger CRM: key differences
Fat Free CRM is written in Ruby, while Vtiger CRM is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Fat Free CRM versus VPL-1.1 for Vtiger CRM. Vtiger CRM is the more established project (first released 2004), while Fat Free CRM arrived in 2008. Fat Free CRM has the considerably larger community, at 3,632 GitHub stars versus 258.
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
Choose Vtiger CRM if…
- Released under the VPL-1.1 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is Fat Free CRM or Vtiger 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 Fat Free CRM and Vtiger CRM free and open-source?
Yes. Fat Free CRM is licensed under MIT and Vtiger CRM under VPL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fat Free CRM and Vtiger CRM with Docker?
Fat Free CRM: yes. Vtiger CRM: yes.