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Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

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211–220 of 317 posts

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#211
post #16

The biggest mistake a competitor can make is thinking Salesforce is a CRM. They may sell themselves as one, but that is just to get a foothold in a company's sales system. Salesforce actually sells (1) an ecosystem that lets your company connect to any other software out there and (2) a platform on which you can build...basically anything. These two together ensure that every one of their customers is 100% locked in…

> The actual CRM part (basically tables of data with a UI) is trivial Although I agree with the general sentiment, I disagree with this. I've tried out over 100 low-code ui builder over the past year (including creatio,Corteza,ERPNext,Baserow,tadabase,appsmith,nocodb,mathesar,bubble, etc.) and so far none of them have perfected "excel like ease with the power of a database". If anyone has any suggestions, (that's not…

You seem to be missing Coda ( https://coda.io ) which (in my experience) comes remarkably close to “Excel with data powers”. Think of Notion’s document editing and tables, but with _much_ more power, a proper formula language, UI widgets, etc. The Coda team have churned out a ton of amazing features in remarkably short time. The main drawback I’ve encountered: no obvious way to separate code and data. I can’t find a way to version/clone one without the other while keeping the data in Coda. However there are plenty of integrations with external data sources, so keeping a chunk of the data external may be the best way.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to thank you for creating this amazingly comprehensive sheet. I’m looking for a similar thing myself: a self-hostable CRM for a small team that wants some flexibility around custom fields and automation but doesn’t need most of the other common CRM features. My current plan is to try AppSmith, but there are a bunch of entries in your sheet that I haven’t seen before. Thanks again!

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#213

> We’re very eager to get your feedback I love the total lack of the Material UI! That being said, can you please make columns in tables to be resizable and the dividing lines between table rows a bit more visible?

Thanks! Resizable columns and higher contrasts are on their ways.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#214
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The actual CRM part (basically tables of data with a UI) is trivial Although I agree with the general sentiment, I disagree with this. I've tried out over 100 low-code ui builder over the past year (including creatio,Corteza,ERPNext,Baserow,tadabase,appsmith,nocodb,mathesar,bubble, etc.) and so far none of them have perfected "excel like ease with the power of a database". If anyone has any suggestions, (that's not…

You seem to be missing Coda ( https://coda.io ) which (in my experience) comes remarkably close to “Excel with data powers”. Think of Notion’s document editing and tables, but with _much_ more power, a proper formula language, UI widgets, etc. The Coda team have churned out a ton of amazing features in remarkably short time. The main drawback I’ve encountered: no obvious way to separate code and data. I can’t find a…

Also missing these app builders, both of which are open source but offer managed hosting:

* Budibase https://budibase.com * ToolJet https://www.tooljet.com

They’re both more of the AppSmith/Retool sort of thing than Excel, but may be worth a look anyway.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#215
Alright so I'm going to say it: Make a local install please I'm begging you. As a 1-man consultant, I really don't want to: 1. Download docker or some other LAMP stack 2. Compile and run it 3. Launch a local database everytime I open it from my laptop 4. Voila! I'm into my locally server DB with a nice fronted.

No thank you. If you want adoption it has to be adoptable, and most open source crms (SuiteCRM, Odoo, ERPNext, Espo, Crust, Corteza, Civi, etc) I've tried them all. I'm now back to running an Excel workbook split into categories taken from a notion template.

Please just make this local :( It's gorgeous!

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#216
post #72

Looks neat iFelix! I'm interested to know how much time you've actually spent using CRMs or ERPs yourself. Not clicking around and exploring features, but actually using for something. While I know this is a very early release, my biggest concern is naivety about real world usage requirements, and if you'll be able to manage the feature creep that will be coming with it without just turning into another Salesforce or…

Your question is right on spot. We are three founders with a passion for design (1 designer + 2 ex-Airbnb were design was key to the culture), building this product 2 decades after Salesforce when the tech is different, so we will approach problems with different priorities and ways of thinking than Salesforce did. But there is definitely some naivety and some challenge ahead of us, as none us is an expert ERP/CRM us…

As a daily Salesforce user for a decade I'm happy to rant about everything salesforce does wrong from an admin and end user perspective.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#217
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have never used nor worked at an organization that is built on top of Salesforce. You probably do. Salesforce has all kinds of different products from Slack to Mulesoft and Tableau. Salesforce starts their pipeline by solving one problem, making that work well from a business ROI perspective, and then they pitch you on another and another and another with package pricing. This is basically the Oracle model and ho…

Oh yes. I definitely use WorkDay. Interesting, never knew WorkDay is created by Salesforce. We are a very M$ bias company, hence, no slack.

Workday isn't owned by Salesforce.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#218
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is why are they so successful in doing this. Why do organizations by default use Salesforce. I have never used nor worked at an organization that is built on top of Salesforce. Just a regular web dev.

The basic answer is that when an certain type of organization gets to a certain size, they hire professional full-time sales people, and those sales people have been trained their whole career on Salesforce, so that's what they're familiar with and that's what they're going to want to use. I've tried twice to buck this trend at small startups. I was successful in getting the companies to use a lightweight, elegant, u…

It is the React of sales!

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#219

Alright so I'm going to say it: Make a local install please I'm begging you. As a 1-man consultant, I really don't want to: 1. Download docker or some other LAMP stack 2. Compile and run it 3. Launch a local database everytime I open it from my laptop 4. Voila! I'm into my locally server DB with a nice fronted. No thank you. If you want adoption it has to be adoptable, and most open source crms (SuiteCRM, Odoo, ERPNe…

Interesting feedback! The recommended install is already local (through yarn).

The only piece mentioning docker is to provision a Postgres database, which you need to have to run a CRM anyway. We have planned to replace it by a section explaining how to install Postgres on the different OS. Planned for next week!

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#220
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes. I definitely use WorkDay. Interesting, never knew WorkDay is created by Salesforce. We are a very M$ bias company, hence, no slack.

Workday isn't owned by Salesforce.

That was my fault, I don't know why I thought that, but they got it from me.
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