What it does
EspoCRM manages contacts, organizations, deals, cases and customer activities. The free self-hosted core has configurable fields, layouts and sales pipelines, with no per-user charge. Cloud hosting and commercial extensions are separate choices.
Give each sales process its own stages
Enable Pipelines for the relevant entity type, then create them under Administration > Pipelines. Each stage maps to a Status value. A new-business sale and a renewal can use different stages while remaining the same kind of opportunity. A pipeline can be available to everyone or specified teams.
In Kanban, select the pipeline from the dropdown to see its stages. Status is read-only once pipelines are enabled; changing the stage changes status.
Move existing records into pipelines
Add Pipeline to Search Filters and both Pipeline and Pipeline Stage to the Mass Update layout. Filter for records with an empty Pipeline, then assign the appropriate pipeline and stage for each old status. Both fields are needed for mass updates. This feature requires version 10 or later.
Download the self-hosted core free without per-user fees. The operator supplies the server; paid hosting and commercial licensing are available separately.
Strengths
- One record type can use several distinct sales pipelines
- Stages and Kanban views follow the selected pipeline
Watch out for
- Enabling pipelines requires existing records to be assigned a pipeline and stage
- Status changes then follow the stage rather than direct status editing
Best for
- Teams operating a self-hosted CRM with different sales processes
Sources
- EspoCRM free download and licensing (Oct 27, 2026)
- EspoCRM pipeline configuration and migration (Oct 27, 2026)
- espocrm/LICENSE.txt at master · espocrm/espocrm · GitHub (Oct 25, 2026)