Free offline CRMs for Windows (2026): what's out there and what each one needs
Most "free CRMs" are a website with a free plan, a user limit and a contact cap. If you want one that runs on your own Windows PC and works offline…
Comparisons · 6 min
Bill your hours without retyping them
Track time with a timer or log it after the fact, let the hourly rate remember itself, and put the unbilled hours on an invoice with one tick each.…
Guides · 7 min
Quotes with a deposit: price the job before you invoice it
A quote in Groundbase is a priced offer the customer accepts online, optionally by paying a deposit through your own Stripe. When they say yes, it…
Features · 7 min
Set up a booking link that keeps your Google Calendar free
A step-by-step setup for a Groundbase booking link that only offers the times you actually want to give away. Hours, buffers, minimum notice, days…
Guides · 7 min
Can Groundbase replace QuickBooks for invoicing? Yes, for invoicing. Not for the books.
If you pay QuickBooks Online mainly to send invoices and get paid, Groundbase does that job inside the CRM for the same $19 that covers texting…
Comparisons · 6 min
Can Groundbase replace Mailchimp? For a service business of one, yes, and it adds texting.
Mailchimp charges by how many contacts you store, whether or not you email them. Groundbase sends newsletters, drips and lead forms from the CRM…
Comparisons · 6 min
Can Groundbase replace Calendly? For a business of one, yes. Here is the exact list.
Groundbase has booking links built in, and for one person they cover what Calendly's Standard plan is paid for. The bookings land on the contact…
Comparisons · 6 min
Workflows in Groundbase — a complete guide to "when this happens, do that"
A workflow texts the new lead, makes the call-back task, sends the thank-you when a deal is won and stops a follow-up the moment someone replies.…
Guides · 23 min
Why I'm not marketing Groundbase on LinkedIn
Most advice for small software products ends at "you should be on LinkedIn." I've decided not to market Groundbase there. Here's the reasoning, what…
Notes · 6 min
Why I killed Groundbase's credits system and went BYO Twilio
Groundbase used to sell texting and calling as prepaid credits, at a markup. I removed the whole system and had customers connect their own Twilio…
Notes · 6 min
Why I built Groundbase as a solo dev (and why that's the point)
There's no team behind Groundbase. No co-founder, no investors, no support tier. Here's why that's deliberate, what it means if you sign up, and the…
Notes · 5 min
Why Groundbase won't build social media management
People ask whether Groundbase will add social media scheduling. It won't. Here's the reasoning, what I said I'd build instead, and what has shipped…
Notes · 5 min
Why I built Groundbase on Cloudflare Workers instead of Vercel
Groundbase's backend runs on Cloudflare Workers, with a database for each account. This website runs on Vercel. Here's what the Workers choice means…
Notes · 7 min
Which CRMs actually have MCP servers (and what they can really do)
Most big CRMs now have an official MCP server, and nearly all of them can change your records. Almost none can send anything, and several sit behind…
Comparisons · 9 min
Per-seat pricing: what a one-person business actually pays (checked October 2026)
Per-seat pricing should mean one person pays for one seat. In practice the seat is the smallest part of the bill. Seat minimums, solo plans capped at…
Guides · 8 min
HubSpot alternatives for one-person businesses (checked October 2026)
The best HubSpot alternative for one person depends on which HubSpot tier you were about to need. Here are eight, with real prices, the plan each…
Comparisons · 6 min
How to leave Groundbase
Everything you put into Groundbase comes out with one button, at any time, including after you stop paying. Your phone numbers, your email and your…
Features · 6 min
Groundbase vs Zoho Bigin — what each plan includes for one person
Zoho Bigin is a polished pipeline CRM with a free plan and paid plans from US$7 a user. For one person, three of Bigin's four plans cost less than…
Comparisons · 7 min
Groundbase vs Pipedrive for solo founders
Pipedrive has four plans and five paid add-ons, and the features a one-person business needs start on different ones. Groundbase has one plan with…
Comparisons · 5 min
Groundbase vs Less Annoying CRM — two one-price CRMs, two different jobs
Less Annoying CRM and Groundbase both sell one plan with every feature in it. Less Annoying CRM is cheaper and simpler, and keeps a careful record of…
Comparisons · 8 min
Groundbase vs HubSpot for solo founders
HubSpot spreads the features a one-person business ends up wanting across a free plan, three paid tiers and a second hub. Groundbase puts all of its…
Comparisons · 6 min
Groundbase vs Follow Up Boss for a solo real estate agent
Follow Up Boss is built to route portal leads across a team of agents, and it's very good at it. Groundbase is built for one agent working their own…
Comparisons · 9 min
Groundbase vs Close.com for a one-person business
Close is a calling-first sales CRM, and its Solo plan leaves workflows, bulk email, scheduled texts and voicemail drop to its Growth tier. Groundbase…
Comparisons · 9 min
Groundbase vs Bonsai — a freelancer's back office, or a CRM that reaches people
Bonsai runs a freelancer's back office (proposals, contracts, projects, time and invoices) across four tiers. Groundbase is a CRM that texts, calls…
Comparisons · 8 min
Event-driven workflows — when X happens, do Y
A Groundbase workflow starts when something happens in your CRM and does the thing itself: sends the text, makes the task, sends the thank-you, stops…
Features · 5 min
CRMs that let you use your own Twilio account (checked October 2026)
Groundbase runs texts and calls on your own Twilio account, with recording, voicemail transcripts and voicemail drops, all in its one plan. Vtiger…
Comparisons · 13 min
Calling and texting from inside your CRM
Groundbase calls and texts from the contact record on web, Windows and Android, with recording, voicemail you can read, voicemail drops, and every…
Features · 9 min
The booking page that's already in your CRM
Groundbase has booking links built in. Confirmations, reminders by email and text, Yes/No/Maybe buttons, reschedule and cancel links, booking a…
Features · 9 min
Why I removed Sequences from Groundbase (and what replaced them)
On 14 September I deleted a whole feature rather than keep improving it. Groundbase had three ways to send someone a series of messages, and one was…
Notes · 5 min
Our email campaign reported 60 clicks. One was a person.
Across 24 outreach campaigns sent between 1 and 21 September 2026, Resend reported about 60 unique clicks. Measuring the gap between delivery and…
Notes · 7 min
Multiple email accounts in one CRM: how Groundbase decides which one sends
You can connect as many Gmail, Outlook or other IMAP/SMTP mailboxes to Groundbase as you like and read them in one inbox. Replies leave from the…
Features · 4 min
Email and text campaigns in your CRM: drips, daily limits, and follow-ups that stop when they reply
Groundbase campaigns send email and texts to a segment of your contacts — one-off blasts or multi-step drips that switch channel per step and skip…
Features · 7 min
A customizable CRM dashboard: pick the cards, arrange them, and it follows you
Groundbase's dashboard is thirteen cards you choose, move and resize yourself — pipeline, tasks, money owed, unread texts, campaigns, your Twilio…
Features · 4 min
What you can actually do with a CRM connected to Claude: 10 real examples
Ten requests that work when your CRM is connected to Claude via MCP — from "what's my pipeline worth" to "tag these 40 people" — each one run against…
Features · 5 min
How 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…
Guides · 8 min
Why 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…
Notes · 6 min
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…
Guides · 6 min
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…
Guides · 5 min
Notion 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…
Comparisons · 6 min
Invoicing 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…
Features · 7 min
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…
Guides · 5 min
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…
Guides · 9 min
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…
Guides · 6 min
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…
Features · 8 min
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…
Guides · 8 min
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…
Guides · 8 min
Groundbase isn't for everyone — here's who it's for and who it isn't
Groundbase is a CRM for one-person businesses — solo agents, trades, consultants, freelancers. Here's the honest answer about who it fits, what the…
Notes · 6 min
