Notes from building
a CRM for solo operators
Comparisons against the big players, deep dives on how specific features work, guides for getting set up, and opinions from a solo dev who built a CRM because every other one assumed I had a sales team.
Comparisons
6Notion as a CRM — where it genuinely works, and where it structurally cannot
Notion is a far better CRM than people give it credit for, right up until you need it to do something rather than record something. Here is the honest line between the two.
Which CRMs actually have MCP servers (and what they can really do)
Most of the big CRMs shipped an MCP server in the last year. Far fewer can actually do anything with it. Here's the survey, including where Groundbase is weaker.
Groundbase vs Close.com — the indie alternative to a sales-team CRM
Close is the most sales-focused CRM in the category — built for high-volume calling teams. Here's the honest comparison for solo operators who do their own outreach, including the five things Close genuinely wins on.
Groundbase vs Zoho Bigin — the indie alternative to the giant
Bigin is Zoho's CRM for solo operators. It's polished, cheap, and a funnel into a $45/user/month upsell. Here's the indie alternative.
Groundbase vs Pipedrive for solo founders
Pipedrive is a great sales tool. The question is whether you're a sales team or a solo operator — because Pipedrive's pricing model has opinions about that.
Groundbase vs HubSpot for solo founders
HubSpot is great if you have a sales team. You don't. Here's what changes when the CRM stops assuming you do.
Features
5Invoicing inside your CRM — bill the contacts you already have
Most solo operators run a CRM and a separate invoicing tool, and keep two customer lists in sync by hand. Groundbase invoices the contacts already in it, from your own email address.
How to leave Groundbase
Every row you own, in one JSON file or per-entity CSVs, on demand and without asking. Written by the person you'd be leaving.
Calling from inside your CRM
A dialer, call history, voicemail with transcription, and voicemail drops — in the CRM itself, billed through your own Twilio account at cost.
Booking meetings without Calendly (the scheduler is already in your CRM)
A public booking page, availability rules, intake questions, and SMS reminders — with the booking landing in your pipeline as a contact instead of a calendar invite you reconcile later.
Connect Claude (or any AI) to your CRM via MCP
Most CRMs bolt on a chat sidebar and call it "AI." Groundbase exposes itself as a Model Context Protocol server so your existing AI tools talk to your real CRM data directly. Here's what that actually enables.
Guides
8How to warm up a new email domain (a four-week schedule, and what actually gets you filtered)
You verified the domain, the DNS is green, and your first campaign still went to spam. Warming is the missing step — here is the schedule, the number that matters more than volume, and how to enforce it without watching a clock.
When a spreadsheet stops working as a CRM (six signs it already has)
A spreadsheet is a perfectly good CRM for longer than most people admit. Here are the specific signals that yours has stopped working, and the honest case for staying put a while longer.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain English (what each one does and how to check yours)
Three acronyms that decide whether your email arrives. Here is what each one actually does, why passing two of three still fails, and how to check what your domain is publishing right now.
How to create a Gmail app password for SMTP (and when you should not use Gmail at all)
Gmail rejects your normal password over SMTP. You need an app password, which needs 2-Step Verification first. Here is the whole flow, the errors it throws, and the sending limit that catches people out.
What Twilio SMS actually costs (carrier fees, A2P, and the real per-message price)
Everyone quotes Twilio's $0.0083 per message. That is not what you pay. Here is the full bill — carrier fees, number rental, A2P registration — with real numbers from my own invoices.
What is an MCP server, in plain English (and why your software might need one)
MCP is the standard that lets an AI assistant actually use your software rather than just talk about it. Here is what it is, what it is not, and what you are really granting when you connect one.
Twilio A2P 10DLC for solo operators (and how to figure out if you even need it)
A2P 10DLC is genuinely confusing. Here's the structural overview, the rejection traps I hit firsthand, and a quick test to figure out whether you can skip it entirely.
Setting up Resend + verifying your sending domain (a complete walkthrough)
The piece every solo founder hits when they wire up transactional email. Add a domain, prove you own it, send your first email — about 15 minutes start to finish.
Notes
7Why Groundbase is three apps, not one
Web, Windows desktop and Android, built and maintained by one person. Here is the reasoning, the tax it charges every single week, and the rule I had to invent to stop it going wrong.
Why I'm not marketing Groundbase on LinkedIn
Most indie marketing advice eventually arrives at "you should be on LinkedIn." Here's why I deliberately won't — and why for indie SaaS specifically, it's the wrong tool.
Why I killed Groundbase's credits system and went BYO Twilio
The "platform credits" model looks great on a pricing page. Behind the scenes it's a maze of compliance overhead, customer confusion, and accounting friction. Here's why I scrapped it.
Why Groundbase won't build social media management
People ask if Groundbase will become Hootsuite-plus-a-CRM. Short answer is no. Long answer is more interesting.
Groundbase isn't for everyone — here's who it's for and who it isn't
Most products pretend to be for everyone. That's the wrong frame. Here's the honest answer about who Groundbase fits and who it doesn't.
Why I built Groundbase as a solo dev (and why that's the point)
There's no team. No investors. No support tier. Here's why that's a feature of Groundbase, not a bug.
Why I built Groundbase on Cloudflare Workers instead of Vercel
Vercel is the default for indie SaaS in 2026. I picked Cloudflare Workers anyway. Here's the honest reasoning and what I'd tell other indie devs.