SuiteCRM
CRMAn open-source CRM for sales, marketing and customer service that you host on your own PHP and MySQL-compatible stack, maintained as two lines: SuiteCRM 7 and SuiteCRM 8.
Open-source alternative to:
What the free edition leaves out
We have not been able to confirm enough from official sources to give a verdict. “Not confirmed” means the official pages we read did not say, so we do not guess.
| Feature | Free edition | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSO / SAML | Not confirmed | The docs list a SAML Configuration Reference (8.x) and Azure SAML Single Sign On (7.x), and an LDAP configuration reference (8.x). The pricing page does not say whether these are free or tied to a paid plan, and it appears they are part of the open-source product, but the docs pages themselves were not read. | Source ↗ |
| Role-based access control | Not confirmed | The docs list Roles and Security Groups for 7.x. The pricing page does not mention roles; the docs page itself was not read. | Source ↗ |
| Audit logs | Not confirmed | No audit log is described. The paid SuiteASSURED plan mentions 'Audit readiness & compliance', which is not an audit log. | Source ↗ |
| Multi-user / teams | Not confirmed | No user limits are stated for the self-hosted edition on the pages read. | Source ↗ |
| Backups and restore | Not confirmed | Backups are included with fully managed hosting (from 50 GBP/month), with no schedule or retention stated. No built-in backup tool for self-hosting was found. | Source ↗ |
| API access | Free | The developer docs include API v8 (setup, authentication, endpoints) and API v4 sections. The pricing page does not mention the API. | Source ↗ |
| Support SLA | Paid | Community support (forums and knowledge base) is free. Standard Support (1,200 GBP for 10 hours) and SuiteASSURED (from 3,350 GBP/year) are paid; neither page lists response-time SLAs. | Source ↗ |
Best for
Organisations that want a broad sales, marketing and service CRM with an AGPL licence and a long-established codebase, and are ready to administer it themselves or buy paid support.
Why choose it over Salesforce
The software is free to download under AGPLv3, so there are no per-user licence fees from the project. Your data stays on your own servers. SuiteCRM publishes both a stable SuiteCRM 7 line and a newer SuiteCRM 8 line, and the docs cover SAML, LDAP, OAuth providers, roles and security groups, and an API.
Where it falls short
Two product lines exist: SuiteCRM 7 (the repo read) and SuiteCRM 8, which its own README says is still in a 'levelling up' phase and not yet as feature complete as 7. The two live in separate repositories with separate docs. Professional help is paid: the cheapest support plan listed is 1,200 GBP for 10 hours and hosting starts from 50 GBP/month. The pricing page does not describe audit logging or built-in backups. You manage PHP, database, cron and upgrades yourself.
Open-source alternative to
- Salesforce — SuiteCRM is an AGPL-licensed CRM you can host yourself, so it can replace a per-seat hosted CRM such as Salesforce.
Category
CRMTech stack
PHP
JavaScript
TypeScriptLanguages as reported by GitHub for the repository.
