Hermit CRM compared with other CRMs
Hermit CRM is for one person doing their own sales. Most CRMs are built for teams, run in the vendor's cloud and charge per seat. That makes them the better choice for many people, and the pages below say when. This overview lists what is different, with prices from each vendor's own pricing page.
Prices and features checked on .
| CRM | Best for | Price for one person | Where your data lives | Source code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hermit CRM | One person doing their own sales, who wants the data on their own computer | Free | In a folder on your own computer. | Open source, Apache License 2.0. |
| HubSpot | Teams that want marketing, sales and service from one vendor | Free for up to 2 users; paid from $7 a seat a month | In HubSpot's cloud. | Closed source. |
| Attio | Start-up teams that want a flexible data model and automatic mail sync | Free for up to 3 seats; paid from €31 a seat a month | In Attio's cloud. | Closed source. |
| Pipedrive | Sales teams that live in a deal pipeline and want automations | No free plan; from €14 a seat a month billed yearly | In Pipedrive's cloud. | Closed source. |
| folk | Small teams that manage relationships and outreach from LinkedIn and mail | No free plan; from €22 a member a month billed yearly | In folk's cloud. | Closed source. |
| Twenty | Teams that want an open-source CRM they can self-host or buy as a service | Self-hosting is free; cloud from $9 a user a month billed yearly | On your own server, or in Twenty's cloud. | Open source, AGPL-3.0. Some enterprise files are under a commercial licence. |
| Notion | People who already run their work in Notion and want a simple sales list | Free for one person; Plus €9.50 a member a month | In Notion's cloud, with offline access to pages you choose. | Closed source. |
Hermit CRM vs HubSpot
Choose HubSpot if a team shares the CRM, or if you want marketing, sales and service in one hosted platform. Choose Hermit CRM if you sell on your own, want your pipeline as plain files on your own computer, and want AI tools such as Claude Code to work on it directly. Hermit CRM is free; HubSpot is free for up to 2 users, and its paid plans are priced per seat.
Hermit CRM vs Attio
Choose Attio if a small team shares the CRM, or you want your own objects and records built automatically from your mailbox and calendar. Choose Hermit CRM if you work alone and want your pipeline as plain files on your own computer, readable by any AI tool without an API key. Hermit CRM is free; Attio is free for up to 3 seats, and paid plans start at €31 a seat a month.
Hermit CRM vs Pipedrive
Choose Pipedrive if you run a sales team, want automations and email sequences, or need a mobile app. Choose Hermit CRM if you sell on your own, want a pipeline board without a subscription, and want the data as plain files on your own computer that AI tools can read. Hermit CRM is free; Pipedrive has a 14-day trial and starts at €14 a seat a month billed yearly.
Hermit CRM vs folk
Choose folk if you work with a small team, manage many relationships and want contacts enriched and captured from LinkedIn and your mailbox for you. Choose Hermit CRM if you work alone and want your companies, contacts and conversations as plain files on your own computer, with AI tools reading them directly. Hermit CRM is free; folk has a 14-day trial and starts at €22 a member a month billed yearly.
Hermit CRM vs Twenty
Both are open source. Choose Twenty if a team shares the CRM and you can run a server with Docker, or want its hosted cloud. Choose Hermit CRM if you work alone and want the CRM on your own laptop, with no server and no database: every record is a Markdown file in git that you and your AI tools can read.
Hermit CRM vs Notion
Choose Notion if you already work in Notion, share it with others, and a database with a board view is all the CRM you need. Choose Hermit CRM if you want a CRM that does CRM work for you: mail logged on the right contact by BCC, a follow-up radar for unanswered threads, meeting briefs and reports, with the data as plain files on your own computer. Both are free for one person.
Hermit CRM is a free, open-source CRM for founders, freelancers and anyone doing their own sales. It runs on your Mac or Linux computer and keeps every company, contact and conversation as a Markdown file in a git folder on your own disk. A local web app gives you a pipeline board, a calendar of next steps, message drafts and reports. AI tools such as Claude Code, Codex or Claude Desktop can read and update the pipeline through the files, a small CLI or the built-in MCP server. It is alpha software under the Apache License 2.0, with no warranty and no support.