Why does Frappe CRM feel underserved?

Business Apps Frappe CRM
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I keep checking the Frappe CRM repo every now and then, hoping to see that some major improvements are being cooked in the oven.

If you checked the open issues and PRs, many have been open for a very long time (some of them for almost 2 years). And they are not noise or random stale issues. They look like things that matter for real CRM usage.

IMHO, CRM is one of the main factors when deciding whether to adopt an ERP. I understand Frappe is investing in a wider ecosystem of apps (Meet, Present, Video Editor, and so on). I personally feel CRM deserves more serious attention.

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In my opinion this is a key indicator that Frappe the company is creating more products than they can maintain. When you compound this with Frappe’s “more difficult than other open source projects” considering pull requests and the community’s role in contributing.

I realize many of Frappe’s projects have been created as internal tools in which they kindly open-sourced. My point is their flagship product should not suffer while spreading resources.

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Hi @ahassoun @volkswagner

You can see dozens of fixes, features and releases in the last weeks … indeed I feel, from outside, CRM like a really important product for Frappe as a company. Traction and numbers are behind this.

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Maybe they launch too much (full open source) products. Probably is the best way to achieve good (open source) products.

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Hey, fair ask - don’t worry though - our flagship product (ERPNext and Framework) has a much larger team now, and you’ll see a lot of new features being shipped lately.

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It definitely is. Thanks @avc .

@ahassoun @volkswagner I understand your concern. But be assured, Frappe CRM is one of the more serious apps we have at Frappe now. We had a dedicated team working on the roadmap, which you can check here: Projects · crm · GitHub

If you feel any issue needs serious attention, feel free to bring this to our notice.

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Thanks Michelle, appreciate the clarification.

Has anything materially changed recently in how Frappe CRM is being resourced, prioritized, or managed?

Because Frappe CRM has always appeared to be a serious app in principle, but the actual progression has felt slow.

Is it safe to expect a different trend going forward compared to the past?

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Yeah, we’re actively expanding the team around Frappe CRM.

We’ve also become much more deliberate about prioritization. For example, our roadmap decisions are now driven by customer feedback and actual usage patterns rather than building features in isolation.

On top of that, we’ve recently onboarded a few larger customers onto Frappe CRM. That has been a strong internal validation that this is evolving into a serious product with broader market demand, and it’s influenced how much focus we’re putting behind it.

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any feature you think deserves more attention or something that has demand in the market and we’ve actively ignored it?

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Thanks Michelle. That’s reassuring to hear, and I genuinely hope Frappe CRM gets the momentum it deserves. Congratulations as well on onboarding larger customers. :rocket: :clap:

For your question: it’s not about a single missing feature. Thankfully, I haven’t yet lost a proposal or bid because a client rejected Frappe CRM specifically for a specific missing feature :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I trust that if you open the door, many seasoned product people in the community would be happy to contribute.

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I think this concern goes beyond just Frappe CRM and applies more generally to the Frappe apps ecosystem.

From the outside, it can sometimes be difficult to understand which apps are strategic, long-term products and which are experimental, internal tools, or smaller side projects - especially since everything is published under the same GitHub organization without clear signals (e.g. “experimental”, “internal”, “core product”, etc.).

As a result, even apps like ERPNext, HRMS, CRM, Insights, or Drive (to some extent) feel active and evolving, but their long-term positioning and commitment level isn’t always obvious. That uncertainty naturally makes it harder for partners and implementation companies to confidently invest in building solutions and businesses around them.

A good example is the webshop/e-commerce stack or the payments module. At one point they seemed like important parts of the ecosystem, but today they don’t appear to have the same level of focus or momentum, at least from an external perspective.

So I think the core issue is less about individual missing features, and more about product signaling and clarity around priorities - so the ecosystem can better understand what is strategically supported long term and what isn’t.

At the same time, I do think it’s important that Frappe continues to give developers a lot of autonomy and freedom, which is clearly part of its strength. But as the ecosystem grows and more partners build on top of it, a bit more structured product direction and transparent communication around it would likely help align expectations and increase confidence.

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RANT: Why can't you stay constant?
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You said it better. I couldn’t agree more.

Not a single missing feature and not specific to a single app, but CRM is a) more likely to be a critical decision factor, and b) for a broader client base.

Drive, for instance, you can .. just keep using Google Drive. Nice to have it (seamlessly?) in the ecosystem, but it won’t hurt to keep using it externally. Other apps, while they are more critical to live in the ecosystem, might not be essential for all industries.

I really hope Frappe takes these comments into serious consideration!

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l dont know if its me alone who have this issue but l suggest frappe make big investments in marketing . Now there is a good product but its not known out there its difficult to get credidability especailly when odoo is being peached as well its difficult to close that deal .

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I believe its a concious decision by Frappe not to agressively advertise.

The product will market itself (Organic) through word of mouth because of superior quality
Over the (very) long run they believe this will work. Check out The Product Concept at

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I agree that FrappeCRM has the potential to become a key product. However, I feel that development progress has been relatively slow, and it is still missing several basic and essential CRM features.

I would genuinely like to promote FrappeCRM to some of my customers, but there are areas that make this challenging. One of the biggest concerns is the difficulty of extending the platform. As an example, adding a custom module such as Orders feels far more tedious and complex than it should be. In comparison, I often find myself recommending alternatives such as Twenty CRM because they provide a more straightforward customization experience.

What makes this even more difficult is the lack of comprehensive developer documentation. There is very little guidance available for developers who want to extend FrappeCRM beyond its standard capabilities. Clear documentation, examples, and extension guides would significantly improve adoption and make it easier for partners and developers to build solutions on top of the platform.

I believe that improving extensibility and developer resources would greatly increase FrappeCRM’s appeal and help drive wider adoption among both customers and implementation partners.

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yeah have seen that as well , l think the issue is that if its made very simple to modify and there is clear documentation community developers will not get jobs but on the other end its killing the product , because frappe CRM especially the default one is not anywhere near odoo crm .

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Noted, we are working on improving the customization of these frontend apps, including Frappe CRM. Please let me know any other limitations you’re facing with CRM.

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I’m still advocating for this proposal:

this proposal is not about how to make Frappe CRM more unique but in contrast make it more like any other CRM, and I quote

Sales is a sequential process. Every business follows
the same logical steps:

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I would like to raise a point regarding the usability of the ToDo and Activity system within the ERPNext default CRM. While the system is robust, we have identified a significant bottleneck in the workflow that negatively impacts our sales team’s productivity, particularly when managing multiple leads and follow-ups.

Currently, the process of updating a lead’s activities is fragmented and requires excessive navigation. Here is a breakdown of the current friction points:

  1. Scattered Information: When a user is in the ToDo list, they cannot see the name of the lead they are dealing with without opening the record. This forces users to open each lead individually to get context.
  2. Complex Workflow: The process of simply logging a call or updating a lead is as follows:
  • Open the ToDo List.
  • Open the specific ToDo.
  • Realize you cannot update the ToDo from this view or see the historical thread.
  • Click through to the actual Lead record.
  • Navigate to the Activities tab.
  • Close the old task (if applicable).
  • Create a new Task/ToDo for the follow-up.
  • Navigate back to the ToDo list to start the process over for the next lead.
  1. Time Consumption: Our current workaround to manage this is to have users open multiple tabs (one for the ToDo list, one for the lead record) to help them navigate between the two. This is inefficient and prone to errors.

We didn’t notice the severity of this until a new team member, who previously used other systems like Odoo CRM, pointed out how streamlined these processes are in other platforms. In those systems, the entire conversation history, the current task, and the “Next Action” scheduling can be handled on a single page/thread.

Proposed Improvement:

It would be a significant quality-of-life upgrade if the ToDo management could be consolidated onto the Lead record page itself, allowing for a unified thread view. Specifically, it would be beneficial if users could:

  • View the conversation/activity history and schedule the next task simultaneously.
  • Reschedule or update the next contact date without leaving the lead page.
  • See the Lead name clearly in the ToDo list without needing to open the record.

Is anyone else facing this challenge, or does the community have advice on how to better configure the system to reduce these steps? We are open to suggestions, but ultimately believe this is an area where the core framework could be enhanced to improve user efficiency.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Also it would help if you a quick look at odoo CRM

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Although I can not relate 100% to your situation I also feel task management should be improved.

Tasks should reference to Leads/Deals as well as Contacts/Organizations

also as I stated here, tasks should even be able to reference Activities, for instance client writes an email and you want to create a task. Currently you need to browse the entire activity (history) to grasp the context.

Speaking about activities (history), in all CRM Systems I worked with so far, the history was connected to Contacts/Accounts additionally to leads/deals.