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Looking for an affordable or self-hosted CRM that does this.
Hi guys,
I've been trying to find a nice looking CRM, affordable per user or self-hosted, that does this:
Basic CRM ; Meeting and/or Schedule ; Activity log;
Mobile Apps (Desktop App would also be nice but not exactly necessary);
Tasks with sub-tasks, ability to assign to team members etc;
Slack Integration, or Rocket.Chat (last one preferably);
Ability to import/export the clients through/to an API, as easy as possible;
Not a bloated front-end;
Any suggestions? I've tried many, really, many. Most important is the basic crm with meeting or call schedules and activity log so the team can see what's going on, tasks system, slack/rocket.chat integration, ability to import clients via API, or to export to an API.
Comments
Looks like Bitrix24 checks all of the boxes except Slack/Rocket.Chat integration:
https://www.bitrix24.com/features/
Looks like they had a Slack integration at one point in time. Not sure what happened with it:
https://helpdesk.bitrix24.com/open/3606353/
Hubspot does most of those items and has a calendar feature. I believe its around $50/seat though.
They also have a slack integration.
Never liked bitrix24. Maybe its time to give it a try again. Im on mobile but that seems to be quite expensive?
Too expensive.
It might be helpful if you say which you've used and why you didn't like them, otherwise this thread will likely be "I recommend this/already tried it and didn't like it because of X" ad nauseum.
Also API on the 99USD license and so on. Too expensive. And both bitrix and hubspot are bloated.
Looking for opinions. Mentioned the features we need. I have tested many dozens. Cant even recall its names. Not looking for something I have not tested but opinions/feedback.
Have you tried Only office?
has a good CRM
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/768/1*HBs-wo2cYvX0Zr3qyGF10A.png
try it on and tell me
Sounds to me that any of these two: vTiger (open source) or this other one at codecanyon : https://codecanyon.net/item/perfex-powerful-open-source-crm/14013737
should work ok.
For a while, SugarCRM was popular until they went totally dickish on license...SuiteCRM is the community continuation:
https://suitecrm.com/
Does it do everything @MikePT needs? No idea.
I was using SugarCRM as well, community version, but later I turn to SuiteCRM as well.
Thanks guys, I appreciate, I'll be reviewing those you suggested, cheers!
Most of my clients use Zendesk and I've used it in the past as well. It has great integration options. An inexpensive option would be Zoho which is what I currently use.
That's not a CRM as far as I know, it's a ticket system + knowledgebase, no?
Opps - you are correct - Zendesk is ticketing. Brain fart. I should have elaborated. Zendesk have a marketplace kinda like Salesforce. And there are CRM overlays for Zendesk which I'm told work pretty well. I guess it depends on the direction that you come from. Some companies value the customer support (ticketing) experience and start with ticketing and then overlay the other customer relationship features.
You can find the CRM addins for Zendesk here - also - you can find the Slack integration that you wanted as a app here. Zoho CRM integrates into Zendesk as well.
https://www.zendesk.com/apps/directory/?q=CRM
https://www.zendesk.com/support/features/customer-relationship-management-systems/
Zoho has a CRM component which I do use. We also use their project management, sales mgt, and billing components of Zoho so as a bundle, it's really inexpensive.
Zoho CRM is interesting, Zendesk isn't, it's expensive and we'd be paying for a ticket system we don't need.
I'll give a try to Zoho CRM, thank you!
I used Zendesk at an old job and thought it was crap. Could someone explain what these CRM thingies actually do, that a wiki wouldn't do perfectly well for a small group of techies? apt-get install gitit works for me.
Customer Relationship Manager, a CRM is much more than just notes. :P
I'm taking a look to ERPNext.com, seems to be what we're looking for, and they have it self-hosted too.
CRM as you probably know is customer relationship management. I'm guessing that different people will have different needs based on their business.
So for me, it's the lifecycle on how we manage our interactions with customers, prospects, and leads.
For example. it's the contact information for multiple people at a customer. If we are bidding on projects at a customer, it's how we track the interaction and the progress, if we win the engagement, it's how we manage the status and progress of the engagement. And when the engagement is done, it integrates into A/R for billing and invoicing. We also use it to remind us of keeping up with the relationship at existing customers or prospects. We may not have existing work with a customer but it manages our interactions so we don't let a relationship go stale.
A “project management app” could be anything from Basecamp to Microsoft Project to PlanView to Winderlist, depending on the seeker’s mind. CRM is the same. Some people would consider WHMCS a CRM.
Sorry I haven't read all the thread, but take a look to AgileCRM and see if it meets all of your requirements.
Not in our opinion, but, well, opinions differ. :P
Don't like AgileCRM. And it gets pretty expensive.
I say, burn them!
Thanks, that helps, but this still sounds to me like a contacts/ticketing app with a time tracking feature that can export data for invoices. Can you tell me how many customers you track with yours, and how many of your own staff use it? Can everyone see all the data, or do individual staff have their own logins and have private pages that others can't see? MikePT same questions. I'm not trying to pitch a solution, just trying to understand what goes wrong with a low tech approach. I know Salesforce is the big name in this stuff but I presume it's too expensive and I don't know what it does.
ERPNext looks promising but I wasn't able to get it up running. I don't remember why but it was late night and I was half asleep but still had this as my last task of the day to install and go through ERPNext.
Let us know if you try it.
Yup, it all comes down to the needs.
Places I've worked (sw dev) have been addicted to tracking tools like Kanban and various others. They switch between them almost every week. There are usually multiple ones in use at any time, so you have to surf around between them to find your own tasks. It has mostly seemed like bullshit to me. The common factor has been Jira (Atlassian ticket system) which sucks but it's cheap and it does what's needed. It sounds to me like a contacts directory with links to Jira tickets does everything MikePT asked for?
Haven't yet: https://github.com/frappe/bench seems to be easy using bench.
I no where mentioned tickets. We need an internal tasks system, and CRM.
CRM: Following the customer's activity with us, leads, prospects, scheduling meetings/calls, etc. We don't even invoice using it.
Tickets are a method of tracking tasks. Does a CRM use a different name for the same thing, or does it really do something different? Re "following the customer's activity": again that sounds like a contacts app, with tags for categories like leads, prospects, etc., connected up to a calendar to track appointments and reminders. I'm probably missing something, and am trying to figure out what it is.
A CRM isnt a ticket system. Check some of the suggestions above!
Did you said Jira from Atlassian sucks? Are we using the same product? There is no competitor for Jira. Jira is the Agile / Scrum God.
Don't even mention that shitty Visual Studio Team Foundation. Don't you dare...