Twenty CRM Review 2026: The Open-Source CRM That Could Replace HubSpot
After deploying Twenty CRM for myself and multiple clients, here's my honest review — the good, the limitations, and why it's the best open-source CRM I've found.
Everyone says open-source CRM isn’t ready for real business. Too rough around the edges. Missing features. Only for developers who want a hobby project.
After a year of deploying Twenty CRM in production — for myself and for paying clients — I can tell you that’s wrong. Not completely wrong (there are real limitations I’ll cover below), but the gap between open-source and proprietary CRM has closed faster than most people realize. Gartner’s 2025 Market Guide for CRM acknowledged open-source CRM as a viable category for the first time. That’s not an accident.
I’ve migrated data into Twenty from HubSpot, Salesforce, and spreadsheets. I’ve built custom integrations on top of its API. I’ve hit its limitations and found workarounds. This is my honest review after a year of real production use.
Why I Chose Twenty
When I started building the Birbol stack, I evaluated every serious CRM option. The requirements were simple:
- No per-seat pricing — clients shouldn’t pay more just because they hired someone
- Self-hosted — client data stays on their servers
- Modern API — I need to build integrations, not fight them
- Clean UI — users should actually want to use it
That eliminated HubSpot (per-seat), Salesforce (per-seat and nightmare API), Zoho (clunky UI, limited self-hosting), and most others. It came down to Twenty and a few smaller open-source options.
Twenty won because it felt like a product built for 2025, not a legacy codebase with a fresh coat of paint.
The investor list tells you something too. Twenty’s $5M seed round included Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot’s cofounder), Mathilde Collin (Front founder), and Pierre Burgy (Strapi cofounder). When the people who built the incumbents start backing the challengers, pay attention.
YY Combinator @ycombinatorCongrats to the @twentycrm team on the $5M round! Twenty (YC S23) is building a flexible Open Source CRM alternative to Salesforce
What Twenty Does Well
The UI Is Actually Good
This sounds like faint praise, but in the CRM world, it’s radical. Most CRMs — even expensive ones — look like they were designed by someone who hates the people using them. Cluttered sidebars, modal on top of modal, 47 tabs per contact.
Twenty’s interface is clean, fast, and minimal. It uses a Notion-like approach: everything is an object, objects have fields, and you interact with them in a consistent way. Contacts, companies, deals — they all follow the same pattern. The learning curve is shallow because once you understand one object type, you understand them all.
The search is fast. The filtering is intuitive. The kanban view for deals actually works without lagging. Small things, but they add up to a CRM that people open willingly instead of resentfully.
Unlimited Users, Zero Seat Fees
This is the headline feature and it’s not a gimmick. Twenty is AGPL-licensed open-source software. You host it on your own server. Add 5 users or 50 — the cost is the same: whatever you’re paying for the VPS.
For context, a 15-person team on HubSpot Sales Hub Professional pays $1,500/month in seat fees alone. On Twenty, that same team pays $0 in seat fees. The only cost is the server, which runs comfortably on a $50/month Hetzner VPS alongside other services. Capterra’s CRM pricing survey found that per-seat CRM costs have risen 18% since 2023 — making the zero-seat-fee model increasingly attractive.
I wrote more about the real cost difference in How Much Does HubSpot Actually Cost.
Self-Hosted Means You Own Your Data
Your CRM data — contacts, deals, companies, notes, activities — lives in a PostgreSQL database on your server. Not on someone else’s cloud. Not behind an API that rate-limits your own data access. Not subject to a terms of service that can change without notice.
What this means in practice:
- Full database access. You can query your CRM data directly with SQL. Need a custom report that the UI doesn’t support? Write a query.
- Real backups. Standard PostgreSQL backups. Not “export to CSV and pray.”
- Compliance is straightforward. GDPR data subject requests? You know exactly where the data is and can delete it directly.
- No vendor lock-in. Want to leave? Export the database. Your data doesn’t belong to Twenty — it belongs to you.
The GraphQL API
Twenty’s API is GraphQL, which is a joy to work with after years of fighting REST APIs that return 47 fields when you need 3.
The API gives you full CRUD access to every object type. Custom objects are first-class citizens — you create them through the UI or API, and they get the same query capabilities as built-in objects.
For my Birbol integrations, the GraphQL API is what makes everything work. The scheduler creates CRM contacts through it. Claude MCP queries pipeline data through it. Custom reporting tools pull data through it. One API, consistent interface, no surprises.
Custom Objects and Fields
Twenty lets you create custom objects — not just custom fields on existing objects, but entirely new object types with their own fields, relationships, and views.
I use this extensively. For the Birbol pipeline, I created custom objects for Engagements, Proposals, and Invoices. Each has custom fields for scope, pricing, status, and timeline. They link to contacts and companies through standard relations.
In HubSpot, custom objects are a Professional-tier feature ($500+/month). In Twenty, they’re built in.
Email Integration
Twenty connects to your email (Gmail, Outlook, IMAP) and automatically logs email activity against contacts. Sent an email to a contact? It shows up in their timeline. Received a reply? Also logged.
The integration is straightforward to set up and works reliably. It’s not as polished as HubSpot’s email tracking (no open tracking, no click tracking), but for keeping a record of communication, it does the job.
Activity Tracking
Every interaction — emails, notes, meetings, deal changes — gets logged in a timeline view per contact. You can see the full history of a relationship at a glance.
The timeline is chronological and clean. No algorithm deciding what’s “relevant.” Just every interaction, in order.
Where Twenty Falls Short
No review is worth reading if it skips the rough edges. Here’s what I’ve run into.
Younger Ecosystem
Twenty launched its 1.0 in 2024. HubSpot has been around since 2006. That 18-year head start shows in the ecosystem. G2’s CRM category lists over 800 products — Twenty is one of the newest, which is both its strength and its limitation.
HubSpot has thousands of marketplace integrations. Twenty has a growing but still limited set. If you need a native integration with a specific niche tool, HubSpot is more likely to have it.
That said, Twenty’s GraphQL API makes custom integrations feasible. What takes a marketplace app in HubSpot takes a few hours of development with Twenty. The tradeoff is development time vs. pre-built convenience.
Requires Technical Setup
You can’t just sign up for Twenty and start using it. You need a server, Docker, and basic sysadmin knowledge — or someone to do it for you.
For technical founders and agencies with developers, this is fine. For a non-technical small business owner, it’s a barrier. That’s exactly why managed services like Birbol exist: I handle the deployment, updates, backups, and maintenance so clients get the benefits of self-hosting without the ops work.
But let me be clear: if you don’t have technical resources and don’t want to pay for managed hosting, Twenty isn’t the right choice. Stick with HubSpot Starter or a simpler SaaS CRM until the equation changes.
Missing Some Enterprise Features
Twenty doesn’t have:
- Advanced reporting and dashboards — the built-in reporting is basic. For anything complex, you query the database directly or use an external BI tool.
- Predictive lead scoring — no AI-powered “this lead is likely to convert” scoring built in.
- Advanced workflow automation — Twenty has basic automation, but it’s not at HubSpot’s level for complex multi-step workflows.
- Phone integration — no built-in calling or call logging from VoIP providers.
- Advanced permissions — role-based access is available but not as granular as enterprise CRMs.
For most small businesses and agencies, these aren’t dealbreakers. The core CRM functionality — contacts, companies, deals, pipelines, email, activities — is solid. But if you need enterprise-grade features, evaluate carefully.
Documentation Is Still Maturing
Twenty’s documentation has improved significantly in 2025–2026, but it’s not at the level of HubSpot’s extensive knowledge base. Some features require reading the source code or asking in the Discord community.
The community is active and helpful. The core team is responsive. But if you’re used to “Google it and find a HubSpot Academy article,” the experience is different.
Twenty vs. HubSpot vs. Salesforce
Here’s the comparison table based on real-world usage:
| Feature | Twenty | HubSpot (Professional) | Salesforce (Professional) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (10 users) | $0/seat | $1,000/mo | $800/mo |
| Self-hosted | Yes | No | No |
| Data ownership | Full | Vendor-controlled | Vendor-controlled |
| API | GraphQL (unlimited) | REST (rate-limited) | REST (rate-limited) |
| Custom objects | Included | Professional+ ($500/mo) | Enterprise+ ($1,500/mo) |
| UI quality | Modern, clean | Good but cluttered | Dated |
| Integrations | Growing (API-first) | Extensive marketplace | Extensive marketplace |
| Reporting | Basic (SQL for advanced) | Good | Excellent |
| Automation | Basic | Advanced | Advanced |
| Email tracking | Activity logging | Full tracking + sequences | Full tracking + sequences |
| Mobile app | Basic | Polished | Polished |
| Vendor lock-in | None | High | Very high |
| Open source | Yes (AGPL) | No | No |
The pattern is clear: Twenty wins on cost, ownership, and developer experience. HubSpot and Salesforce win on mature features, integrations, and polish. Your choice depends on which tradeoffs matter more to your business.
Who Twenty Is For
Small businesses (5–30 people) who want a real CRM without per-seat fees eating their budget. If you’re paying $500–$2,000/month for HubSpot and most of your team barely uses the advanced features, Twenty gives you 80% of the functionality at a fraction of the cost.
Agencies that manage multiple clients and need a CRM for each. With Twenty, you can deploy separate instances per client without seat fees multiplying across accounts.
Startups that want to own their data from day one. Starting on HubSpot Free and upgrading later means you’re already locked into their ecosystem by the time the bills get painful. Starting on Twenty means you own everything from the beginning.
Technical founders who want a CRM they can extend. The GraphQL API and custom objects make Twenty a platform, not just a product. If you have ideas for how your CRM should work that go beyond out-of-the-box features, Twenty lets you build them.
How Birbol Deploys Twenty
For my clients, Twenty is one component of the full Birbol stack. Here’s what the deployment looks like:
Hosting: Twenty runs in Docker on a dedicated Hetzner VPS. PostgreSQL database with daily automated backups. Updates managed by us — clients don’t touch the server.
AI integration: Claude connects to Twenty through MCP (Model Context Protocol), giving clients natural-language access to their CRM data. “Show me all deals closing this month” just works — no dashboards, no custom reports.
Scheduler integration: When someone books a call through the Birbol scheduler, the contact is automatically created in Twenty with the meeting logged. No manual data entry. No Zapier in between. The integration is native because I built both sides.
Data migration: I handle the full migration from whatever CRM you’re on. HubSpot, Salesforce, spreadsheets — I’ve done them all. Typical migration takes 1–3 days depending on data complexity.
The goal is simple: you get a CRM that’s better than what you had, costs less, and you actually own.
The Verdict
Twenty CRM is the best open-source CRM I’ve found. It’s not perfect — the ecosystem is younger than HubSpot’s, the enterprise features aren’t all there yet, and you need technical resources to deploy it. But for the businesses I work with — small teams, lean budgets, strong opinions about data ownership — it’s the right tool.
The CRM market spent two decades convincing businesses that per-seat pricing is normal. Twenty proves it’s not. Grand View Research projects the CRM market will reach $262 billion by 2032 — and a growing share of that will go to open-source alternatives that don’t nickel-and-dime every user. Your CRM should help you manage relationships, not extract maximum revenue from every employee who needs to look up a contact.
If you’re tired of your CRM bill growing faster than your team, Twenty is worth a serious look.
I deploy and manage Twenty CRM as part of every Birbol package. Unlimited users, full data ownership, AI integration included. See how I deploy Twenty →