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README.md
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README.md
@@ -4,8 +4,19 @@
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## Theme
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The blog uses the [hugo-nederburg-theme](https://github.com/moan0s/hugo-nederburg-theme) which was created by [appernetic](https://www.patreon.com/appernetic) but is no longer maintained, therefore I use my own fork.
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The blog uses the [hugo-nederburg-theme](https://github.com/moan0s/hugo-nederburg-theme) which was created
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by [appernetic](https://www.patreon.com/appernetic) but is no longer maintained, therefore I use my own fork.
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## CI
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The blog is deployed using my own [Woodpecker CI](woodpecker.hyteck.de). There is a seperate SSH key to the uberspace.
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## Forgejo runner
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| Secret | Example | Description |
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|-----------------|---------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
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| DEPLOY_HOST | example.org | Target host to deploy to |
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| DEPLOY_USER | ci-user | SSH username |
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| DEPLOY_PATH | /static_sites/static-hyteck/hyteck.de | Pather where to deploy to |
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| SSH_PRIVATE_KEY | | Private key matching one in the server’s authorized_keys |
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| HUGO_VERSION | v0.147.8 | (Optional) Specify the hugo version |
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@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
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---
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title: "How to manually check hundreds of animal shelters - every 14 days"
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date: 2025-11-08T12:05:10+02:00
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lastmod: 2025-11-08T21:05:10+02:00
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lastmod: 2025-11-09T21:05:10+02:00
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draft: false
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image: "uploads/checking-shelters.png"
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categories: [ 'English' ]
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@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ I set up a special page to make it most efficient to check shelters. It's struct
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* **Last checked** It sometimes happens that I accidentally set a organization to "Checked" by accident. I added this
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section to make it easier to revert that.
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## Shortcuts
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@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ After implementing all this, how long does it take now to check all organization
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This excludes the time, it takes to add animals or contact rescue organizations. One of these actions must be taken
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whenever an eligible animal is found on a website. Here you can see how this interrupts the process:
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And here is the breakdown of time per activity. A big caveat here is, that I did not follow up on previous conversations
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here, therefore the contacting number is likely an underestimation.
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@@ -1,22 +1,25 @@
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---
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title: "Trying Twenty: How does an Open Source CRM work?"
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date: 2025-08-03T06:10:10+02:00
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lastmod: 2025-08-03T12:10:10+02:00
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lastmod: 2025-11-17T12:10:10+02:00
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draft: false
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image: "uploads/twenty.png"
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categories: ['English']
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tags: ['crm', 'twenty', 'salesforce', 'django', 'self-hosting']
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categories: [ 'English' ]
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tags: [ 'crm', 'twenty', 'salesforce', 'django', 'self-hosting' ]
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---
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I spend my day working with Salesforce, a very, very feature-rich CRM that you pay big money to use.
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Salesforce is the opposite of OpenSource and the many features are expensive. Salesforce business model is based on this and on the lock-in effect.
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Salesforce is the opposite of OpenSource and the many features are expensive. Salesforce business model is based on this
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and on the lock-in effect.
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If your company invested in implementing Salesforce, they'll likely pay a lot to keep it.
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So what does an alternative look like? Let's have a look at [Twenty](https://twenty.com), an OpenSource CRM that recently reached the magic 1.0 version.
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So what does an alternative look like? Let's have a look at [Twenty](https://twenty.com), an OpenSource CRM that
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recently reached the magic 1.0 version.
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# Getting started
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There are two options of getting started: Register at [app.twenty.com](https://app.twenty.com) and start right away on the devs instance or self-host Twenty on your own server.
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There are two options of getting started: Register at [app.twenty.com](https://app.twenty.com) and start right away on
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the devs instance or self-host Twenty on your own server.
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I did the ladder, so let's discuss how that. The basic steps I took were
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* point twenty.hyteck.de to a server
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@@ -36,7 +39,8 @@ Twenty offers an initial datamodel that you should be familiar from other CRMs.
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* **Opportunities** The classic opportunity with customizable stages
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* **Notes** They can be attached to any of the objects above
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* **Tasks** Items to work on
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* **Workflows** Automations similar to Salesforce flows. E.g. you can create a task every time an Opportunity is created.
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* **Workflows** Automations similar to Salesforce flows. E.g. you can create a task every time an Opportunity is
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created.
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The basic datamodel can be extended in the GUI. Here is how my "Company" model looks like
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@@ -54,23 +58,29 @@ updated or deleted. In addition, they can be started manually, on a schedule and
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You can then add nodes that trigger actions. Available right now are
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* **Creating, updating or deleting a record**
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* **Searching records**
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* **Sending E-Mails** This is the only option to trigger e-mails so far
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* **Code** Serverless Javascript functions
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* **Form** The form will pop up on the user's screen when the workflow is launched from a manual trigger. For other types of triggers, it will be displayed in the Workflow run record page.
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* **Form** The form will pop up on the user's screen when the workflow is launched from a manual trigger. For other
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types of triggers, it will be displayed in the Workflow run record page.
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* **HTTP request** Although possible via Code, this is a handy shortcut to trigger HTTP requests
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What is currently completely missing are Foreach-loops and [conditions](https://github.com/twentyhq/core-team-issues/issues/1265). I can not say "If Opportunity stage is updated to X do Y else, do Z".
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What is currently completely missing are Foreach-loops
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and [conditions](https://github.com/twentyhq/core-team-issues/issues/1265). I can not say "If Opportunity stage is
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updated to X do Y else, do Z".
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Without this, Workflows are really limited in their power.
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What already seems quite mature though is the code option. It allows to put in arbitrary code and output a result.
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I did not try a lot, but I assume most basic Javascript works. I successfully built an http request that send data to a server.
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I did not try a lot, but I assume most basic Javascript works. I successfully built an http request that send data to a
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server.
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If what you're doing is straightforward enough to not use loops and conditions or if oyu are okay with doing all of them in the Code node, you can do basically anything.
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If what you're doing is straightforward enough to not use loops and conditions or if you are okay with doing all of them
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in the Code node, you can do basically anything.
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## API
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@@ -141,10 +151,17 @@ The current business model is to charge for using the company's instance of Twen
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enterprise features. SSO and support will cost you 19\$/user/month.
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Selfhosting is free but SSO is locked behind an enterprise badge with seemingly no way to pay for activating it.
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I suspect that in the future more features will become "Enterprise only" even when self-hosting. All contributors must agree
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I suspect that in the future more features will become "Enterprise only" even when self-hosting. All contributors must
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agree
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to [a Contributor License Agreement (CLA)](https://github.com/twentyhq/twenty/blob/main/.github/CLA.md), therefore I
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believe they could change the License in the future, including switching away from Open Source.
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# AI Usage
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The repo contains a `.cursor` directory and `CLAUDE.md` so I assume the devs make (heavy?) use of LLM generated code.
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The ethical and legal problems with this are for you to decide. I don't know what effect this has on code quality, for
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now I'd say things are sometimes buggy (failed upgrades) and UX could be better tested (looking at the e-mail
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integration) - if this is due to AI slop I don't know.
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# Conclusion
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@@ -152,18 +169,22 @@ Twenty is a really promising start of building a good CRM. The ease of customizi
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using the API and a solid beginning to Flows allows users to get a lot of value from it already.
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Flows need some more work to become as powerful as they should be and the E-Mail integration needs to get better.
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Stating the obvious: This is not something that could ever replace Salesforce. But it doesn't have to!
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There are many organizations that would benefit a lot from a CRM like Twenty, they simply don't need, can't handle or
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don't want to pay for all the features other CRMs offer.
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If Twenty continues to focus on small to medium companies and the right mix of standard features vs. custom development options I see a bright future for it.
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There are the usual problems of VC-backed OSS development, we shall see how it goes for them.
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Stating the obvious: This is not something that could ever replace Salesforce. However, there are many organizations
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that would benefit a lot from a CRM like Twenty, they simply don't need, can't handle or don't want to pay for all the
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features other CRMs like Salesforce offer.
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If Twenty continues to focus on small to medium companies and the right mix of standard features vs. custom development
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options I see a path where it becomes a solid choice for these companies. On the other hand there are the usual problems
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of VC-backed OSS development, and we shall see how it goes for them. Unless there is a strong userbase that credibly
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threatens a hard fork, enshittification could start soon.
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# Addendum: Important Features
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Here is a short list of features I missed and their place on the roadmap if they have one
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* **Compose & Send E-Mails** Planned [Q4 2025](https://github.com/orgs/twentyhq/projects/1?pane=issue&itemId=106097937&issue=twentyhq%7Ccore-team-issues%7C811)
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* **Foreach loops in Workflows** [Q3 2025](https://github.com/orgs/twentyhq/projects/1/views/33?pane=issue&itemId=93150024&issue=twentyhq%7Ccore-team-issues%7C21)
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* **Conditions in Flows** [Q4 2025](https://github.com/orgs/twentyhq/projects/1/views/33?pane=issue&itemId=121287765&issue=twentyhq%7Ccore-team-issues%7C1265)
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* **Compose & Send E-Mails**
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Planned [Q4 2025](https://github.com/orgs/twentyhq/projects/1?pane=issue&itemId=106097937&issue=twentyhq%7Ccore-team-issues%7C811)
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* **Foreach loops in Workflows
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** [Q3 2025](https://github.com/orgs/twentyhq/projects/1/views/33?pane=issue&itemId=93150024&issue=twentyhq%7Ccore-team-issues%7C21)
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* **Conditions in Flows
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** [Q4 2025](https://github.com/orgs/twentyhq/projects/1/views/33?pane=issue&itemId=121287765&issue=twentyhq%7Ccore-team-issues%7C1265)
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Submodule themes/hugo-nederburg-theme updated: 5d4a2fc1fa...d9d1250a46
Reference in New Issue
Block a user