SuiteCRM

CRM · evaluated · Website · bitnami/suitecrm:latest

Summary

Most feature-rich OSS CRM — rivals Salesforce breadth. 219 tables covering sales, marketing, quoting, invoicing, workflows, support, security groups, custom fields. V8 REST API (JSON:API, OAuth2) + legacy V4.1 API. But: heavy SugarCRM-derived architecture, OAuth2 setup friction, Bitnami image now on legacy channel (Broadcom uncertainty), no GraphQL/MCP, workflow design requires UI. Avg score: 6.3/10.

Evaluation Scores

AI Controllability 6/10 Reasonable once OAuth2 is configured — full CRUD over all modules via JSON:API. Has workflow engine (AOW) whose rules can be written to the DB but no clean API for workflow design. Custom modules require Module Builder / Studio UI or config file deployment (not trivial for Claude). No MCP, no GraphQL, no native agent system. Lower ceiling than Twenty or EspoCRM because of the 2004-era SugarCRM architecture underneath the modern Angular front-end.

API Coverage 7/10 V8 REST API (OAuth2 + JSON:API compliant) over every module, plus legacy V4.1 API for backward compatibility. Covers all 219 modules by default. Drawback: V8 API requires manual OAuth2 public/private key generation and Client/Secret setup before first request (returns 500 on fresh install). Heavier setup than EspoCRM basic auth or Twenty bearer tokens.

DB Schema Quality 6/10 219 tables — largest of the three CRMs evaluated. Each business module has primary table + _audit for change tracking + _cstm for custom fields + many junction tables (e.g. accounts_contacts, accounts_opportunities, leads_audit, leads_cstm). Heavy, historical SugarCRM-derived schema. Comprehensive but not as clean as Twenty's metadata-driven model or as compact as EspoCRM.

Feature Completeness 9/10 Most feature-rich OSS CRM of the three. Covers: full sales CRM (accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, prospects), marketing automation (campaigns, email_marketing, prospect_lists, campaign tracking/URLs), quoting and invoicing (aos_quotes, aos_invoices, aos_contracts, aos_products, aos_line_items, aos_pdf_templates), workflows (AOW engine), customer support (cases, bugs), calendaring (calls, meetings, tasks, notes), documents and knowledge base, custom fields per module, security groups with role-based access, inbound and outbound email, schedulers (cron jobs). Rivals Salesforce feature breadth. Weakness: built-in features lean enterprise-sales; less modern than GHL for SMB-marketing.

Resource Usage 5/10 PHP + Apache + MariaDB. SuiteCRM 8 runs a dual-stack: modern Angular SPA front-end + legacy PHP backend at /legacy/. Heavier than EspoCRM and comparable to Mautic. 219 tables. Minimum viable requires 2 containers but production typically adds Redis/Elasticsearch for performance. Start-up time was ~45 seconds including DB schema install.

Setup Complexity 5/10 Bitnami image is the easiest path (env-var install), BUT: (a) bitnami/suitecrm is now only on bitnamilegacy channel since Broadcom changes — no guarantee of long-term maintenance, (b) V8 API requires manual OAuth2 key generation post-install, (c) dual-stack Angular + legacy PHP means two codebases to understand, (d) Studio/Module Builder must be used through the UI for custom entities. More friction than EspoCRM or Twenty, whose admin + API work out of the box.

Research Notes

Feature List feature_list

Sales CRM: accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, prospects, prospect_lists, prospect_list_campaigns, cases, bugs, contacts_bugs, contacts_cases, opportunities_contacts, documents (+ per-module document relationships), notes, address_book, favorites, saved_search, alerts. Marketing: campaigns, campaign_log, campaign_trkrs (trackers), email_marketing, email_marketing_prospect_lists, email_templates, emails, emailman (queue), emails_email_addr_rel. Full drip + broadcast + landing-page tracking. Email: emails, email_templates, inbound_email, outbound_email, external_oauth_connections, external_oauth_providers, eapm (External App Password Manager). SMS: Not built-in; extensions only. Voice/Phone: calls, calls_reschedule. No native dialer. AI: None built-in. No MCP. Community extensions only. Funnel/Website Builder: None. Forms: Web-to-lead forms built-in + landing pages module (when enabled). Surveys: surveys, surveyquestions, surveyquestionoptions, surveyquestionresponses, surveyquestionoptions_surveyquestionresponses, surveyresponses. Full built-in survey builder. Calendar/Booking: meetings, calls, tasks, reminders, reminders_invitees, calls_reschedule, aobh_businesshours, am_tasktemplates, am_projecttemplates (+ contacts/users/project links). No public booking page built-in. Courses/Memberships: None. Communities: Customer Portal (aop_case_events, aop_case_updates) for cases only. Payments/Invoicing/Products: aos_quotes, aos_invoices, aos_contracts, aos_products, aos_product_categories, aos_line_item_groups, aos_products_quotes, aos_pdf_templates, templatesectionline. Strongest quoting/invoicing of the three. Reputation: None. Reporting/Dashboards: aor_reports, aor_fields, aor_conditions, aor_charts, aor_scheduled_reports. Full scheduled reporting engine. Workflows/Automation: aow_workflow, aow_actions, aow_conditions, aow_processed, aow_processed_aow_actions (Advanced OpenWorkflow). Scheduled jobs. Integrations: JSON:API V8 REST (OAuth2), legacy V4.1 REST, SOAP (deprecated). 219 tables total. White-label/SaaS Mode: Extensions only (StudioPro, rebrand packs). Snapshots: None built-in; module-loadable packages. Social: None built-in. Events: fp_events, fp_event_locations (+ contacts/leads/prospects links), fp_events_fp_event_delegates_1_c. Built-in event management. Projects: project, project_task, projects_accounts/bugs/cases/contacts/opportunities/products, am_projecttemplates, am_tasktemplates. Maps: jjwg_maps, jjwg_areas, jjwg_markers, jjwg_address_cache (geocoded contact maps). Permissions: roles, roles_modules, roles_users, securitygroups, securitygroups_roles/users/modules.