If you've spent any time searching for an open-source CRM, you've probably hit the same wall most teams hit: the popular options are either bloated, expensive at scale, locked behind paid editions, or built on aging PHP stacks that are painful to extend.

In this post, I want to introduce you to Horilla CRM — a free, self-hosted, open-source CRM built with Django 6 and Python 3.13. It's designed for teams who want full control over their customer data, deep customization, and a modern developer experience — without paying per seat.

Note: Horilla also ships a separate HRMS product in its own repository. This article is focused on Horilla CRM specifically. If you need HR features, you can install the HRMS repo alongside the CRM — they're designed to live in the same ecosystem but are deployed independently.

Let's dig into what makes it different, what it can do, and how it stacks up against the usual suspects like SuiteCRM, EspoCRM, and Vtiger.

Why Another Open-Source CRM?

Most "free CRMs" today fall into one of three buckets:

1. Freemium SaaS — free until you hit 3 users, 1,000 contacts, or any feature you actually need.
2. Legacy PHP CRMs — SuiteCRM, Vtiger, EspoCRM. Mature, but dated stacks and clunky extension models.
3. DIY Django starters — GitHub projects with 200 stars, a half-finished pipeline, and no docs.

Horilla CRM sits in a different spot. It's a production-grade Django CRM with a real plugin architecture, multi-tenancy baked in, and a modern HTMX-driven frontend — which is rare in the open-source world.

If you're building for a small business, an agency managing multiple clients, or a startup that wants to self-host customer data for compliance reasons, this is worth a look.

What Horilla CRM Actually Includes

Here's the honest feature list — not marketing fluff:

Sales & Pipeline

• Leads with custom scoring rules, criteria, and conditions
• Opportunities with configurable stages, probability, and forecasting
• Accounts & Contacts with relationship tracking
• Pipeline visualization powered by ECharts
• Sales cadences — scheduled outreach sequences (email, call, task steps)

Marketing

• Campaigns with member tracking and metrics
• Email integration via the built-in mail module
• Forecasting with chart-based insights

Productivity

• Activities — calls, meetings, notes, tasks
• Calendar integration
• Real-time notifications via Django Channels + WebSockets
• Keyboard shortcuts for power users
• Duplicate detection and record cloning

Workflow & Automation

• 5 automation triggers: on_create, on_update, on_create_or_update, on_delete, scheduled
• Multi-step approval workflows that plug into any model via ContentType
• Review processes for peer/manager feedback
• Custom signals for cross-module side effects

Pairs With Horilla HRMS (Separate Install)

• HR features (recruitment, employee management, payroll, etc.) live in the separate Horilla HRMS repository
• You can install both side-by-side if you need a unified HR + CRM stack — useful for agencies and SMBs that don't want two unrelated systems
• Each can be deployed independently, so you only run what you need

Developer-Friendly

• DRF API for every module
• Webhooks
• Modular app architecture — drop in new features without touching the core
• Multi-tenancy via CompanyFilteredManager
• Four-layer permission model: model → field → row → role

The Tech Stack (What You're Actually Running)

Backend:    Python 3.13 + Django 6.0.3
API:        Django REST Framework
Database:   PostgreSQL
Frontend:   HTMX + Tailwind CSS + Flowbite
Charts:     ECharts
Async:      Celery + Redis
Real-time:  Django Channels (WebSockets)
Scheduling: APScheduler (in-process) + Celery Beat

A few things worth calling out:

• HTMX over SPA. No React, no Vue. Server-rendered pages with HTMX for dynamic behavior. The result is faster development, simpler debugging, and pages that load in 50ms instead of 3 seconds.
• Channels for real-time. Notifications and live updates are pushed via WebSockets, not polled.
• PostgreSQL only. The team made the call to skip MySQL/SQLite support in production to avoid the ORM compromises that come with multi-DB.

How It Compares: Horilla CRM vs SuiteCRM vs EspoCRM vs Vtiger

The big differentiators for Horilla:

1. Modern Python/Django stack — easier to hire for, easier to extend.
2. Optional HRMS companion — install the separate Horilla HRMS repo if you want HR alongside CRM, skip it if you don't.
3. Real-time by default — WebSockets aren't an afterthought.
4. Multi-tenant out of the box — CompanyFilteredManager filters every query automatically.

Self-Hosting Horilla CRM

Self-hosting is the whole point. Here's the short version:

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/horilla/horilla-crm.git
cd horilla-crm

# Set up Python environment
python3.13 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Configure
cp .env.example .env
# Edit DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, SECRET_KEY

# Migrate and run
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py create_horilla_user
python manage.py runserver

For production you'll want:

• PostgreSQL 14+
• Redis 6+ (for Celery + Channels)
• Gunicorn + Uvicorn workers (for ASGI/WebSocket support)
• Nginx as a reverse proxy
• Celery worker + beat process

A Docker setup is in the repo if you want to skip the manual steps.

What Horilla CRM Is Good For

Be honest about fit. Horilla is a strong choice if you're:

• A small or mid-size business that wants to own its customer data
• An agency that needs multi-tenant isolation between clients
• A team that wants the option to add HRMS later via the separate Horilla HRMS repo
• A Django shop that needs a CRM you can actually extend
• A regulated industry (healthcare, finance, EU GDPR) where self-hosting matters

It's probably not the right pick if you need:

• A turnkey SaaS with zero ops overhead (use HubSpot's free tier)
• Deep marketing automation rivaling Marketo
• A massive third-party integration marketplace on day one

What's Coming Next

A few things on the roadmap that I'm excited about:

• Expanded webhook system
• More automation trigger types
• AI-assisted lead scoring (already partially landed)
• Deeper email threading
• Public API documentation portal

The project is actively maintained and the community is open to contributions — the GitHub issues are a good place to start if you want to get involved.

Try It Out

If you've been looking for a free, self-hosted, open-source Django CRM that doesn't feel like 2012, give Horilla CRM a serious look:

• GitHub: https://github.com/horilla/horilla-crm
• Live Demo: https://crm.demo.horilla.com/
• Docs: https://www.horilla.com/crm/

Star it, fork it, file an issue, or send a PR. Open source gets better when more people kick the tires.

TL;DR

Horilla CRM is a free and open-source CRM built with Django 6, designed for self-hosting. It includes leads, pipelines, opportunities, campaigns, sales cadences, and automations — with real-time notifications, multi-tenancy, and a modern HTMX-based frontend. Need HR too? Pair it with the separate Horilla HRMS repo. If you want a CRM you can actually own and extend, it's worth a look.

Have you tried Horilla CRM, SuiteCRM, EspoCRM, or another open-source CRM? Drop your experience in the comments — I'd love to hear what worked and what didn't.