If you've spent any time searching for an open-source CRM , you've probably hit the same wall most teams hit: the popular options are either bloated, expensive at scale, locked behind paid editions, or built on aging PHP stacks that are painful to extend. In this post, I want to introduce you to Horilla CRM — a free, self-hosted, open-source CRM built with Django 6 and Python 3.13. It's designed for teams who want full control over their customer data, deep customization, and a modern developer experience — without paying per seat. Note: Horilla also ships a separate HRMS product in its own repository. This article is focused on Horilla CRM specifically. If you need HR features, you can install the HRMS repo alongside the CRM — they're designed to live in the same ecosystem but are deployed independently. Let's dig into what makes it different, what it can do, and how it stacks up against the usual suspects like SuiteCRM, EspoCRM, and Vtiger. Why Another Open-Source CRM?…