Free offline CRMs for Windows (2026): what's out there and what each one needs

Search for a free CRM and nearly everything you find is a website with a free plan: you sign up, your customer list lives on their servers, and the free plan has a ceiling on users, contacts or features. That's a fine deal for a lot of people. But if what you want is a CRM that lives on your own computer, works without an internet connection and doesn't ask for an account, the list gets much shorter.

There are really three kinds of option: a desktop app you install, an open-source CRM you host yourself, or a spreadsheet. Below is what each one needs and where each one stops, with the popular cloud free plans for comparison.

I build Groundbase, and one of the options below, Groundbase Classic, is ours. I've tried to be straight about where the others are the better choice. Everything was checked on each product's own site on 22 October 2026.

The short answer

Desktop apps: install it and go

This is the closest thing to "a free CRM that works offline". You download an installer, it puts a program on your computer, and your data sits in a file on your own disk.

Groundbase Classic is a free CRM for Windows 10 and 11. It covers contacts and companies with custom fields and tags, a deals board with your own stages, tasks with reminders and repeats on a calendar, notes, filters and saved views, and import and export (spreadsheets, CSV, PDF and full backups). It backs your database up to your Documents folder once a day and keeps the last 14. There's no account and no contact limit, and nothing you put in it is sent anywhere; the only time it goes online is to check whether a new version is out.

What it doesn't do: it's Windows only, it lives on one computer and doesn't sync, and it doesn't send email or texts or do invoices. The email and phone buttons open your own email and phone apps. Those things are what our paid cloud version is for, and Classic exports your contacts in a format the cloud version imports by itself, if you ever want to move.

offlineCRM is another free, standalone CRM, for Windows and Mac. According to its site it covers contacts, companies, to-do tasks, file storage, reports, custom fields, import and export, and backups, with no internet connection needed. It also offers a team mode, which needs you to run an external database server. That list is the vendor's own description; check its site for anything you depend on.

Pick a desktop app if you work alone, mostly from one Windows PC, and want something that works the moment it's installed.

Self-hosted open source: free software, your server

EspoCRM, SuiteCRM and Twenty are full, capable CRMs, and the software costs nothing. The catch is that they're web applications, not desktop programs. To run one you set up a server, or a server stack on your own machine, and keep it updated.

• EspoCRM needs a web server (NGINX, Apache or IIS), PHP 8.3 to 8.5 and a database (MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL). On Windows, its own guide uses Docker. It's AGPLv3, with a commercial licence for companies that want one.
• SuiteCRM 8 lists Linux, Unix and macOS as its platforms, with Apache, PHP 8.2 to 8.4 and MySQL or MariaDB.
• Twenty is a newer open-source CRM, usually run with Docker alongside Postgres and Redis. Self-hosting is free under AGPLv3; you pay for wherever you host it.

Pick self-hosted if you, or someone you work with, is comfortable running a server, you want several people on the same data, and you want the source code. If "Docker" and "PHP version" aren't words you want in your week, a desktop app is the easier road.

Cloud free plans: free, but not offline

These are what most "best free CRM" lists mean, so they're worth knowing even though none of them run offline or keep your data on your PC.

• HubSpot's free CRM is free for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with no time limit. It connects to Gmail and Outlook.
• Zoho CRM's Free Edition is free for up to 3 users.
• Bigin, Zoho's smaller CRM, has a free plan for 1 user with 500 records, one pipeline and 3 automations.

Pick a cloud free plan if you want to reach your CRM from a phone and several computers and you're fine with an account, as long as you stay inside its limits.

A spreadsheet

It costs nothing, it's offline, and you already know how to use it. It stops working when you need reminders, a pipeline, or the history of everything that happened with one customer in one place. We wrote more about that point in When a spreadsheet stops working as a CRM.

If you're there now, every desktop app above imports a spreadsheet, so moving is an afternoon, not a project.

How to choose

• Alone, on one Windows PC, want it simple and private: a desktop app. Groundbase Classic or offlineCRM.
• A small team, someone technical on hand: self-hosted EspoCRM, SuiteCRM or Twenty.
• Need it on your phone and your laptop, fine with an account: a cloud free plan, within its user and contact limits.
• Fewer than a few dozen customers and no follow-ups to track: a spreadsheet is honestly fine.

Whichever you pick, make sure you can export everything to a plain file. A free CRM you can't leave isn't free for long.

If you outgrow a free CRM and want the version that texts, emails, invoices and lets your AI do the admin, who Groundbase is and isn't for is the honest place to start.

Questions about this one? Email me directly: blog-classic@groundbasecrm.com — I read every one.