Summary

Customermates provides an open-source, modern CRM for teams seeking an intuitive system for contacts, organizations, deals, services, and tasks, avoiding enterprise complexity. It integrates AI agents, APIs, webhooks, and n8n automation, offering flexible managed cloud or self-hosted deployment.

How It Works

The platform combines practical CRM workflows with extensive integration capabilities, featuring AI-agent workflows, API access via OpenAPI, event-driven integrations through webhooks, and automation via n8n. Users can choose between a managed cloud service or self-hosting using Docker Compose and PostgreSQL, balancing ease of use with infrastructure control.

Quick Start & Requirements

Self-hosting is initiated with docker-compose.yml and .env files, followed by docker compose up -d. Prerequisites include Docker, Docker Compose v2, and PostgreSQL. It requires ~2 GB RAM and a few GB disk per thousand records. Essential .env variables cover authentication, cron secrets, PostgreSQL credentials, and BASE_URL. First boot takes ~1 minute for database migrations. TLS requires a domain name. The fastest start is the managed cloud version.

• Documentation: customermates.com/docs

Highlighted Details

• Comprehensive CRM features: contacts, organizations, deals, services, tasks.
• Extensive API access with OpenAPI documentation.
• Webhooks and event-driven integrations for real-time data.
• n8n workflow support for complex automation.
• MCP support for agent tooling and structured tool calling.
• Enterprise features (Audit Logging, SSO, Whitelabeling) require paid cloud plans or a self-host license key.
• Role-based access control.

Maintenance & Community

The README lacks details on community channels, contributors, or sponsorships. Self-hosted maintenance involves managing Docker, PostgreSQL, proxies, TLS, and backups.

Licensing & Compatibility

An open-core model is used. The community edition is AGPLv3 (strong copyleft). Proprietary ee/ features have separate commercial terms (ee/LICENSE.md). AGPLv3 compliance is mandatory for distributed modifications.

Limitations & Caveats

Enterprise features (Audit Log, SSO, Whitelabeling) are gated behind paid cloud plans or a self-host license key. The AGPLv3 license imposes copyleft obligations on derivative works, requiring them to be open-sourced under the same license.