Best Boilerplates for CRM Applications in 2026

#crm #contacts #boilerplate #saas

CRM: The Most-Built Internal Tool

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is one of the most-cloned SaaS categories. Every sales team eventually says "we need a CRM that works the way we work" — which means custom CRM builds are common.

Building a CRM from a generic SaaS boilerplate is possible but involves significant custom work. Existing open source CRM platforms are often better starting points.

Quick Comparison

Tool	Price	Contacts	Pipeline	Activities	API	Best For
Twenty	Free (AGPL)	✅	✅	✅	✅ GraphQL	Modern open source CRM
Monica	Free (AGPL)	✅	❌	✅	✅	Personal CRM
SuiteCRM	Free (AGPL)	✅	✅	✅	✅	Enterprise CRM
Custom T3/Next.js	Dev cost	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual	Deeply integrated CRM

Twenty — Best Modern Open Source CRM

Price: Free (AGPL v3) | Creator: Twenty team

The most developer-friendly open source CRM. Built with TypeScript (NestJS backend + React frontend), GraphQL API, and PostgreSQL. Designed to be self-hosted and customized.

Features: Contact management, company records, deals/opportunities, activity timeline, notes, tasks, email integration, and custom fields/objects.

Choose if: You want to build on top of an existing CRM rather than from scratch.

Monica — Best Personal CRM

Price: Free (AGPL) | Creator: Monica team

Personal CRM for managing relationships: birthdays, last contact date, notes, gifts, activities. Strong privacy focus — fully self-hostable. Not for sales pipelines.

Choose if: You're building a personal relationship manager or relationship intelligence product.

Building CRM Features from a SaaS Boilerplate

If you're adding CRM features to an existing SaaS:

// Core CRM data model
model Contact {
  id         String    @id @default(cuid())
  firstName  String
  lastName   String
  email      String?
  phone      String?
  company    Company?  @relation(fields: [companyId], references: [id])
  companyId  String?
  activities Activity[]
  deals      Deal[]
  tags       String[]
  notes      Note[]
  ownerId    String    // Sales rep who owns this contact
  owner      User      @relation(fields: [ownerId], references: [id])
  createdAt  DateTime  @default(now())
  updatedAt  DateTime  @updatedAt
}

model Deal {
  id         String   @id @default(cuid())
  title      String
  value      Decimal?
  stage      String   // lead, qualified, proposal, negotiation, won, lost
  closeDate  DateTime?
  contact    Contact  @relation(fields: [contactId], references: [id])
  contactId  String
  activities Activity[]
  ownerId    String
}

model Activity {
  id        String   @id @default(cuid())
  type      String   // call, email, meeting, note, task
  notes     String?
  date      DateTime @default(now())
  contact   Contact? @relation(fields: [contactId], references: [id])
  contactId String?
  deal      Deal?    @relation(fields: [dealId], references: [id])
  dealId    String?
  userId    String
}

CRM Pipeline View

The kanban pipeline view is the most-requested CRM feature:

// tRPC: Get deals grouped by stage
const dealsByStage = api.crm.getDealsByStage.useQuery();

// Returns: { lead: [...], qualified: [...], proposal: [...], ... }

// Drag-and-drop stage update
const updateDealStage = api.crm.updateStage.useMutation();

// @hello-pangea/dnd for drag-and-drop
<DragDropContext onDragEnd={({ draggableId, destination }) => {
  updateDealStage.mutate({
    dealId: draggableId,
    newStage: destination.droppableId,
  });
}}>
  {STAGES.map(stage => (
      {deals.filter(d => d.stage === stage.id).map((deal, i) => (
      ))}
  ))}