vtiger CRM

vtiger CRM is a completely free, platform-independent and open source web-based software project that provides users with an easy-to-install, industrial-strength CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application based on a wide range of open source projects.

Features at a glance

The application provides a richer UI (User Interface), tools for migrating CRM applications, reports, sales force automation, marketing automation, support for multiple databases, as well as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, GMail and Mozilla Thunderbird/Mozilla Firefox integration.

Among other attractive features, we can mention end to end sales cycle management, data import and export via CSV (Comma-separated values) files, role based access control, support for mobile applications, support for workflows, and support for tasks.

Can be extended through plugins

But that’s not all, as the software can be easily extended through plugins, which have been created by the community and can be downloaded for free from the vtiger CRM marketplace at https://marketplace.vtiger.com/app/listings.

Another interesting feature is support automation using support tickets and customer portal. In addition, the software offers support for reports, a built-in project management tool, customizable user dashboards, and web-to-lead forms.

Runs on top of a web server

Being a web-based application, vtiger CRM must be deployed on top of a web server, such as Apache or nginx, that in turn runs on top of a Linux kernel-based operating system. You can install the software on 32 or 64-bit computers.

Getting started with vtiger CRM

To get started with vtiger CRM, you should first download the latest release from either Softoware or the project’s website (see link below), save the archive somewhere on your computer, extract its contents, open a FTP client (e.g. FileZilla or gFTP), connect to your server and upload all the files from the outputted folder into a folder on the root of your server.

Open a web-browser, point to the location of the folder on your server where you’ve uploaded the vtiger CRM files and follow the instructions displayed on the screen.

Requirements:

• 3GB free disk space
• Minimum 1GB RAM