JSONCRM vs Twenty
The short version: Twenty is a full CRM platform — Postgres, GraphQL, Docker, dashboards, permissions — and an excellent open alternative to Salesforce for teams. JSONCRM is the opposite bet: no platform at all, just git-tracked JSON files and tools. Need a team CRM system? Twenty. Running a pipeline with agents and want zero infra? JSONCRM — the lightweight Twenty alternative. They're AGPL twins with completely different centerlines.
Credit where due: Twenty is one of the great open-source business-software stories — tens of thousands of GitHub stars, YC-backed, genuinely competing with Salesforce on features. If you evaluate both, you're choosing between two honest open-source projects with opposite instincts about where the complexity should live.
Platform vs files
Twenty self-hosts as a stack: containers, a Postgres database, a GraphQL/REST API, a full web application. That's what it takes to replace Salesforce — custom objects, row-level permissions, SSO, dashboards, 30+ languages. The managed cloud starts at $9/user/month (Pro) and $19/user/month (Organization), with Enterprise from ~$50k/yr, and even paid tiers rate-limit API calls (50–100 req/min).
JSONCRM is a pip package with no database, no containers, and no server process other than an
optional local UI. The "API" is the filesystem — unlimited rate limit, and your query planner is
grep. Collaboration is git: branches, diffs, pull requests. There is no hosted tier,
because there's nothing to host — your repo is the instance.
Two different AI-agent stories
Both projects take agents seriously. Twenty exposes REST/GraphQL APIs and a native MCP server, so agents operate against a running service. JSONCRM gives agents the files themselves plus a CLI/MMP surface with dry-run previews — closer to how an agent works on a codebase: read state, propose a diff, apply on approval. One is an API to a system; the other is a working tree. For a developer-led pipeline, the working tree is a surprisingly good shape.
Side by side
| JSONCRM | Twenty | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | CLI + local web UI over JSON files in git | Full CRM platform (web app, API, database) |
| Self-host footprint | pip install — no DB, no containers |
Docker Compose + Postgres + services |
| Price | Free (AGPL-3.0); commercial licenses available | Free self-host core · cloud $9–19/user/mo · Enterprise ~$50k+/yr |
| Data model | Flat JSON objects; schema defined by .crm.json |
Custom objects, fields, relations — full GUI builder |
| Team features | Git (branches, PRs; "Open PR" button in the UI) | Roles, row-level permissions, SSO/SAML, audit logs (paid tiers) |
| Agent access | Files + CLI + MCP, dry-run previews, no rate limits | REST/GraphQL (rate-limited by tier) + MCP server; official agent skills |
| Reporting | Pipeline stats in the CLI/UI; roll your own from JSON | Dashboards, views (table/kanban/calendar), workflows |
| Backups | Git + out-of-git ZIP snapshots | Database backups |
| Scale story | Solo / small dev-led teams; thousands of records per file | Departments and companies |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 (core) |
Twenty pricing as of Oct 2026 — check twenty.com/pricing for current numbers.
🏢 Choose Twenty if…
- You need a team CRM with roles, permissions, and SSO
- Non-technical sellers live in the UI all day — kanban, dashboards, workflows
- You want custom objects and relations without writing code
- You have ops capacity to run Docker + Postgres (or pay for the cloud)
- You're genuinely replacing Salesforce/HubSpot at a company
⚡ Choose JSONCRM if…
- You're a developer-led or solo pipeline (outbound, fundraising, bizdev)
- You want zero infra — a pip install and a git repo is the whole deployment
- AI agents are the primary operators; humans review diffs and PRs
- You want every CRM change to be a reviewable, revertable commit
- You'd rather script the CRM than configure it
Can you use both?
Yes, and it's not crazy: some teams run JSONCRM as the agent-facing working layer (intake, scoring, outbound tracking) and sync summaries into a platform CRM for the sales team. Because JSONCRM's data is just JSON, exporting into anything is a script, not a project. There's no official bridge yet — if you build one, PRs welcome.
Twenty alternative — common questions
Is Twenty CRM free?
The open-source core is free to self-host (AGPL-3.0), but self-hosting means running Docker Compose with Postgres and services. Twenty's managed cloud runs $9/user/month (Pro) to $19/user/month (Organization), with Enterprise from ~$50k/year. JSONCRM has no paid tier at all — it's a pip package over files in your git repo.
What's the best open-source CRM for AI agents?
It depends on shape. Twenty suits teams that want a full CRM platform with an API and MCP server in front of a database. JSONCRM is built agent-first: the CRM is structured JSON, so LLMs read and write it natively, with a CLI and a first-party MCP server on top and dry-run previews on every write. (Hermit CRM covers the Markdown-notes corner of the same space.)
Can I self-host a CRM without Docker or a database?
That's JSONCRM's whole pitch: pip install, three JSON files, a .crm.json config, and git init. No containers, no Postgres, no services to babysit — the local web UI and MCP server are optional extras in the same package.
No platform. Just files.
pip install, git init, pipeline running — before the Docker pull would finish.