I’m evaluating Frappe and ERPNext to use our small business and I mostly like what I see and I wanted to thank you for sharing this project so openly.
However, while I have fresh eyes I would like to point out that products like Frappe Gameplan and Frappe CRM are hard to get one’s head around. For instance, why make Frappe CRM standalone when you could just make ERPNext CRM better? Now you have two apps to maintain and you give new adopters a confusing decision to make. Frappe Gameplan makes even less sense: standalone and has LESS features than ERPNext Projects.
I’m assuming that there are solid strategic drivers for creating these Frappe application silos, but they create uncomfortable decisions for new adopters. Should we start using Projects, E-CRM, and Desk which are well integrated but will not be supported going forward or should we use Gameplan, F-CRM, and Helpdesk which are expected to evolve but aren’t integrated with the basic ERPNext core?
Even if your strategy is to attract users to these narrow Frappe products by focussing the feature list, if they are not inter-operable with the other products it is harder for users to adopt them horizontally. This approach has worked well for Zoho where people come for something like Books and then (often reluctantly) adopt Desk and Subscriptions etc… “by default”.
Maybe some of these decisions will become clear as I get deeper in, but Claude summed it up quite nicely when it said: “Frappe CRM is the better product, but ERPNext CRM is the better citizen”
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Regarding the post title, let me clarify that Frappe is a framework that ERPNext (and all other frappe apps) are built on. They are not different solutions.
Regarding the post content
ERPNext is an all-rounder app. It’s an enterprise resource planning solution that serves many departments and needs within an enterprise (Accounting, CRM, HR, Stock, Project Management, Quality & Audit, Etc…)
While technically any business requires those, the operation, scale and size of a business might say otherwise. ERPNext might be massive for very small businesses and might add complexity.
However to keep it simple for you, as of today and out of all business aspects, Frappe CRM is the only standalone business solution provided by Frappe (HRMS is a separate app but still requires ERPNext). If your business demands anything other than a B2B CRM, then ERPNext is the way.
Hi @rawnsley and welcome to the community
First of all, thanks for the feedback.
For this very reason Frappe Partners are certified to explain all the pros and cons to you
If you want to explore on your own, be ready for a big learning curve. That may be one downside in which Frappe targets SME and Enterprise all in one product. Otherwise overall it is an excellent product IMHO
We the community are always ready to help you in this journey
Best of luck
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Hi @rawnsley
Thanks for your feedback.
Why Frappe CRM, Frappe Helpdesk are built as separate apps?
Most of these apps end up having users from a different department (Sales, Support). We wanted to build crafted experiences for these apps, and since desk has limitations when it comes to building a crafted experience, we took the decision to build them separately. Also having them separate leads to separation of concern and dedicated focus helps us build better features and experience for these apps. Lastly, these apps help us attract business who are looking for specialised apps and may not immediately need a full blown ERPNext.
We’re moving towards unification
While these apps were built separately, we have now started to unify them. We have shipped multiple integrations for FrappeCRM <> ERPNext (item, customers) for the same reason. And the same effort will continue. Our goal is to ensure all the apps work well together.
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Thank you for clarifying - this gives me more confidence in adopting the platform.
It would be useful for future evaluators (and possibly existing users) to spell this out more clearly somewhere (perhaps a sticky post in the forum) as part of a general “strategic direction” memo that you update periodically.
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Gameplan is not a projects management app, its a discussion app for remote teams, and is centered around discussions and team communications. For your context, BatchProjects is a real projects management app for erpnext that brings project management, automations, templates, tasks, timesheet, plannings, sales, billing and hr inside one app.
There are valid reasons for dedicated crm app in frappe. Suppose I don’t need accounting, stocks, payrolls, purchases, I just want a crm. In that time, instead of installing entire erpnext, i can just install crm app and use it instantly. I think what worries new customers is the duplicating concepts/features across those apps rather than dedicated app itself**.**
But as time goes on and requirements grow, teams eventually adopt to a better app. Based on the requirements of customers, we also sometimes quit the crm app and customize erpnext for them.