EspoCRM vs Membrain: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of EspoCRM and Membrain to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
EspoCRM
6.9/10
Open-source CRM for small and mid-sized businesses that can be self-hosted free or bought as a per-user cloud subscription.
Membrain
6.6/10
Membrain is a Stockholm-built sales enablement CRM that lets B2B sales teams build their sales process, prospecting, pipeline, account growth and coaching into the software.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.9/10 | 6.6/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 9/10 | 5/10 |
| Customization | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Integration | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Security | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 5/10 | 8/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | €13/user/mo Basic | $49/user/mo Prospecting |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Open Source (self-hosted) | $490/mo Prospecting |
| Features | ||
| Contact Management | ||
| Customer Support Management | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Lead Management | ||
| Opportunity Management | ||
| Reporting & Analytics | ||
| Sales Automation | ||
| Built-in Calling | Not listed | |
| Collaboration | Not listed | |
| Marketing Automation | Not listed | |
| Mobile Access | Not listed | |
EspoCRM vs Membrain cost by team size
| Team size | EspoCRM | Membrain |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeOpen Source (self-hosted) | $49/moProspecting |
| 5 users | FreeOpen Source (self-hosted) | $245/moProspecting |
| 10 users | FreeOpen Source (self-hosted) | $490/moProspecting |
| 25 users | FreeOpen Source (self-hosted) | $1,225/moProspecting |
| 50 users | FreeOpen Source (self-hosted) | $2,450/moProspecting |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose EspoCRM
- Has a free plan (Membrain does not)
- Higher Cost score (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Analytics score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for small business (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for customer support teams (6/10 vs 3/10)
Why choose Membrain
- Higher Support score (8/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Ease of Use score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for mid-market (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for sales teams (9/10 vs 7/10)
Pros & Cons
EspoCRM
Pros
- The Entity Manager lets administrators add custom entities, fields and relationships without writing code.
- Every cloud plan includes all official extensions at no extra cost, among them the Sales Pack, VoIP, Google, Outlook and Mailchimp.
- The free, self-hostable open-source core keeps costs very low for small teams.
- You own your database and files and can request copies, which limits lock-in.
- Hosting in Germany is available for teams that need GDPR-friendly data residency.
Cons
- Reviewers say the initial setup of entities, roles and automations takes time and some technical skill.
- G2 reviewers point to a steep learning curve and limited documentation.
- A few reviewers reported slower performance with large datasets.
- Cloud support runs only 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, and the vendor team is very small.
- Self-hosted users must pay for reporting and BPM through the Advanced Pack.
Membrain
Pros
- Teams can model their own sales process, qualifiers and milestones in it, which reviewers on Spotsaas and G2 single out.
- Built-in coaching and guidance, including the Elevate coaching product, OMG assessments and in-app advice, support sales methodologies such as Baseline Selling.
- Reviewers repeatedly praise fast, knowledgeable support, and one customer has stayed more than 10 years.
- Broad integration list covering Gmail, Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Business Central, Fortnox, Zendesk, Slack, plus Zapier and webhooks.
- Pricing is public and modular, so teams pay only for the stages (prospecting, pipeline, account growth) they use.
Cons
- Reviewers often say reporting and dashboards are hard to customise and give limited statistics.
- Setting up custom processes and dashboards takes significant upfront time.
- Reviewers report that Outlook email integration is limited and that companies can be duplicated during data entry.
- API+ (499 USD) and Automation+ (299 USD) are costly account-wide add-ons on top of per-user fees.
- The vendor is small, with about 11 to 50 employees, and its compliance is reported as SOC 2 Type 1 only by a third-party listing.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
EspoCRM scores higher on our CRM criteria: 6.9/10 against 6.6/10 for Membrain. The largest gap is in Cost: 9/10 for EspoCRM and 5/10 for Membrain.
EspoCRM has a free plan; Membrain does not list one.
EspoCRM is the better fit for small business: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 5/10 for Membrain.
