Django-CRM

Django‑CRM is a full‑stack, open‑source Customer Relationship Management platform built entirely on the Django web framework. From a developer’s perspective, it is a monolithic application that leverages Django’s ORM, admin interface, and authentication system to deliver an end‑to‑end solution for sales pipelines, contact management, task orchestration, and analytics. The codebase is structured into reusable Django apps (e.g., contacts, deals, tasks, reports), each encapsulating its own models, serializers, and admin customizations. This modularity allows developers to cherry‑pick components or extend them without touching unrelated parts of the stack.

Architecture

• Language & Framework: Python 3 + Django 4.x (latest LTS). The project follows Django’s MTV pattern, with a heavy reliance on the built‑in admin for CRUD operations and permissions.
• Database: PostgreSQL is the recommended backend, providing robust support for JSONB fields used in dynamic reporting and audit logs. SQLite can be used for quick prototyping, but production deployments should switch to PostgreSQL.
• Front‑end: The UI is rendered server‑side using Django templates, augmented with Alpine.js for lightweight interactivity. All assets are bundled via Webpack (or Django‑Webpack‑Loader), enabling hot reloading during development.
• API Layer: A RESTful API is exposed through Django‑Rest‑Framework, with token‑based authentication. Endpoints for leads, contacts, deals, and reports are available out of the box, making it straightforward to build custom dashboards or mobile clients.
• Background Jobs: Celery (Redis broker) handles asynchronous tasks such as email synchronization, automated reminders, and scheduled reporting. This decouples time‑consuming operations from the request cycle.

Core Capabilities

• Role‑Based Access Control: Fine‑grained permissions are managed via Django’s auth system, allowing admins to define custom groups and grant CRUD rights on specific models.
• Lead & Deal Tracking: State machines model the sales pipeline, with configurable stages and automated transitions. Sales forecasting aggregates deal values per stage.
• Custom Reports & Analytics: A query builder lets developers define ad‑hoc reports; results are cached in Redis for performance. Export options include CSV, PDF (via ReportLab), and JSON.
• Internal Chat & Email Sync: Integration hooks for popular email providers (SMTP, IMAP) and a lightweight chat module using Django‑Channels enable real‑time communication.
• Webhooks & Extensibility: External services can subscribe to model signals via a webhook dispatcher. Developers can register custom endpoints that receive JSON payloads on create/update/delete events.

Deployment & Infrastructure

The application is designed for self‑hosting with minimal friction. A single docker-compose.yml orchestrates the Django app, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Celery workers. For high‑availability setups, developers can spin up multiple worker replicas behind a load balancer and use PostgreSQL replication. The codebase is cloud‑agnostic; it can run on bare metal, VPS, or managed Kubernetes clusters (Helm charts are available in the repo). The Django admin’s built‑in static file handling allows quick CDN integration for assets.

Integration & Extensibility

• Plugin System: The plugins Django app scans a designated directory for third‑party modules that register new models, admin classes, or API endpoints. This plug‑in architecture enables rapid feature addition without core code modifications.
• REST & GraphQL: While the primary API is RESTful, a GraphQL endpoint (via graphene-django) can be enabled to support complex queries from front‑end frameworks like React or Vue.
• Custom Templates & Themes: The admin interface can be themed by overriding base templates. Developers may also create bespoke views that consume the API and render data with modern JavaScript frameworks.
• SDKs & Libraries: A lightweight Python SDK wraps the API, simplifying authentication and request handling for internal services or CI pipelines.

Developer Experience

Documentation is consolidated on a single web page (docs/README.md) and available in multiple languages, reflecting the project’s international focus. The code follows PEP‑8 conventions and is heavily commented, making onboarding quick for Django veterans. A robust test suite (Pytest + FactoryBoy) ensures that new features do not regress core functionality. Community support is active on GitHub Discussions and a dedicated Slack channel, where contributors can request features or report bugs.

Use Cases

• Enterprise Sales Teams: Deploy a self‑hosted CRM that integrates seamlessly with existing Django applications, allowing the same authentication backend and user models.
• Startup MVPs: Leverage the out‑of‑the‑box API to build a custom mobile app or single‑page dashboard while keeping data on-premises.
• Data‑Driven Agencies: Use the reporting engine to generate client‑specific dashboards and export analytics without leaving the platform.
• Compliance‑Heavy Organizations: Keep all customer data under full control, avoiding third‑party SaaS providers that may expose data to external jurisdictions.

Advantages

• No Vendor Lock‑In: Full source code ownership means you can modify, extend, or audit every line.
• Performance & Scalability: Django’s ORM and PostgreSQL’s indexing provide efficient query handling; Celery workers can be horizontally scaled to handle peak loads.
• Licensing: Released under the MIT license, allowing commercial use without royalty obligations.
• **Developer