Building an Open-Source CRM Solo: Lessons Learned After Five Months of Development

Embarking on the journey to create an open-source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system over the past five months has been both rewarding and challenging. With only a single developer working on the project, leveraging modern tools and best practices proved essential. Here’s a reflection on what I discovered along the way.

Key Successes

Exceptional Frameworks and Tools:
Utilizing Filament significantly accelerated development. Tasks that might normally take weeks were streamlined into days, thanks to its powerful features and ease of use.

Simplified Architecture:
Combining Laravel with Livewire provided a seamless development experience. This integration eliminated the need for a separate API layer or complex frontend frameworks, making it ideal for solo development.

Enjoyable PHP Development:
Modern PHP, particularly with 99.6% typed code and PHPStan at level 7, proved to be both reliable and enjoyable. Writing clean, type-safe code minimized bugs and increased confidence in the system.

Challenges Faced

Handling Custom Fields at Scale:
Initially, custom fields for each record appeared straightforward. However, as the number of fields grew beyond 50 per record, page load times increased from under 250ms to over 2 seconds. This bottleneck was resolved through optimized eager loading strategies and effective caching.

Target Audience Focus:
Designing for “everyone” often means diluting the product’s specificity. Narrowing the target to small teams allowed for more focused feature development and better user experience.

Open Source Commitments:
While open source is rewarding, it doesn’t equate to free labor. Ongoing maintenance, security updates, and feature enhancements demand consistent dedication.

Valuable Tech Decisions

• Conventional Laravel Workflow:
  Sticking to Laravel standards kept development predictable and sped up onboarding and troubleshooting.

• Early Adoption of Static Analysis:
  Implementing PHPStan from day one enabled early bug detection and improved code quality throughout the project lifecycle.

• Choosing Filament for Admin Interfaces:
  For the admin panel, Filament offered a ready-made solution that saved time compared to building a custom interface from scratch.

Reflecting on the Timeline

Completing an MVP in five months strikes a balance between speed and thoroughness. While the system is production-ready—a noteworthy achievement—the process involved three times longer development of each feature due to careful implementation and quality assurance.

If you’re interested in the technical details or the current state