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Marketing
Marketing covers every channel TXproducts uses to reach an audience and build the brand. Today that's Social Media, reachable from the dropdown above; more channels (content, events, campaigns) will land here as the department grows.
Follower growth, content performance, and visitor traffic for the TXproducts LinkedIn Page — the full breakdown lives in its own dashboard, built and maintained separately.
Conferences
Every conference where TXproducts has a speaking or attending presence, with its full presentation directory alongside it.
Sales
Sales is where research turns into contracts. Today that's the Market Intelligence research; the Address Book (outreach board) will land here too once it's built.
Market Intelligence
Competitor profiles, prospect pitch angles, and sourced market research that inform outreach messaging and hesitations — the full research lives in its own site, built and maintained separately.
CRM Research
No CRM exists at TXproducts today — contacts and outreach are scattered across Excel sheets, the LinkedIn follower list, and the conference mail-merge sheet. This page tracks research into what a CRM needs to support before any product is chosen. No recommendation has been made; non-US vendors only, checked against the must-have requirements below.
Work Package Timeline
| # | Title | Type | Dates | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Requirements Definition | Work Package | 2026-08-18 → 2026-08-22 | ✓ Done |
| 2 | Candidate Research & Vendor Verification | Work Package | 2026-08-22 → 2026-08-27 | ✓ Done |
| 3 | Pricing & Cost Comparison | Work Package | 2026-08-27 → 2026-08-29 | ✓ Done |
| 4 | Dashboard Build (CRM Research Page) | Work Package | 2026-08-29 → 2026-08-30 | |
| 5 | Outstanding Verification | Work Package | 2026-08-29 → 2026-08-30 | |
| 6 | Final Review & Sign-off | Milestone | 2026-08-31 |
| Company | CSV/Excel Import | Sales Pipeline | Generic IMAP/SMTP | EU Hosting + DPA | Self-Hosted | Free / Open-Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capsule CRMcapsulecrm.com | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗* | ✗ | ✗ |
| EspoCRMespocrm.com | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Odoo CRModoo.com | ✓ | ✓ | ✓* | ✓‡ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SuiteCRMsuitecrm.com | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓‡ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zoho CRMzoho.com/crm | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓* | ✗ | ✗† |
| CentralStationCRMcentralstationcrm.de | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗† |
| Dolibarrdolibarr.org | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓‡ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Efficy CRMefficy.com | ✓ | ✓ | ✗* | ✗* | ✓ | ✗ |
* unconfirmed / conflicting sources — needs direct vendor confirmation before relying on it. † has a free tier, but capped well below our 5-person team. ‡ self-hosted, so EU hosting + DPA is whatever server you choose, not vendor-provided.
| CRM | Origin | CSV Import | Pipeline | Generic IMAP/SMTP | EU Hosting/GDPR | Self-Hosted | Cost / Free Tier | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capsule CRM? | UK | Yes | Yes | No — Gmail/Outlook native only, others SMTP-send only | GDPR-oriented, data-center specifics unclear | No | Quote-based | Fails the IMAP must-have — needs a live check before including further |
| EspoCRM? | Ukraine (core dev entity) | Yes | Yes | Yes, native, well-documented | Self-hosted = full control; cloud plans exist | Yes, free open-source | Free self-hosted (server cost only) | Needs a server + basic PHP/MySQL upkeep |
| Odoo CRM | Belgium (EU) | Yes | Yes | Documented generic IMAP/POP3 support (not independently re-verified live) | Community self-hosted = full control; Online EU terms unclear | Yes, Community free | Cloud pricing varies by region | Full suite — easy to over-buy for CRM-only needs |
| SuiteCRM | UK (Scotland) | Yes | Yes | Yes, standard IMAP config | Self-hosted = full control | Yes, free open-source | Free (server cost only) | Most feature-rich but heaviest of the open-source options |
| Zoho CRM? | India | Yes | Yes | Supported at protocol level (TLS) | EU data center (Netherlands); sources conflict on whether DPA/EU-region needs Enterprise tier | No | Mid-tier pricing per seat, varies by plan | Cheapest tier may not include the EU-hosting guarantee needed |
| CentralStationCRM | Germany (Cologne) | Yes | Yes | No — email is BCC-to-proprietary-address or forward-to-inbox, or a Microsoft 365-specific add-on; no generic IMAP/SMTP host+port setup found | Yes — hosted in Frankfurt, online-clickthrough DPA (AVV) provided | No — SaaS-only | Free tier capped at 3 users/200 contacts, not usable at 8 | Fails the IMAP must-have despite being the most "German" option |
| Dolibarr | France (non-profit association, GPL) | Yes | Yes | Yes — plain IMAP login (host+port+SSL) to any server, OAuth2 optional not required | N/A — self-hosted, so EU hosting/DPA is whatever server you pick; no official DoliCloud DPA found | Yes, GPL, unlimited users | Free, fully open-source | Cleanest sovereignty story and meets every must-have; only cost is your own hosting |
| Efficy CRM | Belgium | Yes | Yes (industry-standard feature, not independently verified) | Unclear — only Outlook/Gmail/Exchange/Kerio sync confirmed in public docs, no generic IMAP host+port setup found | Unclear — a third-party site claims EU data centers + on-prem/hybrid, no official DPA page located | Yes — cloud, on-prem, and hybrid offered | Paid only | Needs a direct answer from Efficy sales on IMAP + DPA before it can be trusted |
Requirements
Neutral survey, no recommendation made — non-US vendors only, for data-sovereignty reasons. Last updated 2026-08-17.
Must-Have / Nice-to-Have
Must-Have
- Contact + company records with custom fields, tagging, duplicate detection
- Excel/CSV import with field mapping
- Deal/pipeline with customizable stages and value tracking
- Activity/interaction logging (calls, meetings, notes) tied to contact/deal
- Generic IMAP/SMTP email integration — connects to any mail server via host/port/user/pass, not just an OAuth app for Gmail/Outlook (the single biggest filter for a Mailcow shop)
- Multi-user roles/permissions
- EU data hosting + a signed DPA (GDPR Art. 28)
- Export/delete tooling for data-subject access/erasure requests (Art. 15/17)
- Admin burden proportional to a non-technical 5-person team
- Basic reporting: pipeline value, stage conversion, activity counts
Nice-to-Have
- Mobile app
- Email templates/sequencing/mail merge (may overlap with the existing in-house mail-merge tool)
- Bulk CSV export of LinkedIn-sourced contacts
- Workflow automation/triggers
- Self-hosted option (plausible given existing Nextcloud self-hosting)
- API access (for future integration with the mail-merge tool)
- Free tier to trial before commitment
- Calendar sync
Other Names Looked At
- Vtiger — self-host reportedly being de-emphasized by the vendor.
- Salesflare / Close — appear Gmail/Outlook-centric; generic IMAP support unclear from public docs.
- Insightly — insufficient public detail found to evaluate.
- Freshsales — a custom-email-server config exists, but Freshworks/Freshsales ownership needs a sovereignty check before it can be added to the survey.
Sources
Zoho GDPR · Zoho pricing · EspoCRM IMAP/SMTP docs · EspoCRM pricing · SuiteCRM/EspoCRM/Vtiger/Odoo comparison · Odoo pricing · monday.com IMAP limitation · Capsule email integrations · GDPR CRM DSAR guidance
Pricing?
Cost and free-tier status for each candidate, pulled from the same survey as the main comparison table. Self-hosted "free" options still carry a real cost in hosting and admin time, just not a license fee.
| CRM | Self-Hosted | Cost / Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Dolibarr | Yes, self-hosted (GPL), free | Free — no contact cap; ~€4–10/mo VPS hosting |
| EspoCRM? | Yes, self-hosted (AGPL), free | Free — no contact cap; ~€5–12/mo VPS hosting |
| SuiteCRM | Yes, self-hosted, free | Free — no documented contact cap; ~€8–24/mo VPS hosting |
| Odoo CRM | Yes, self-hosted Community (LGPLv3), free | Free — no contact cap; ~€5–15/mo VPS hosting |
| Zoho CRM | No | €70/mo (Standard) or €200/mo (Enterprise — the tier actually needed for confirmed EU hosting + DPA); Standard caps at 100,000 records org-wide |
| Capsule CRM | No | €77/mo (annual) or €90/mo (monthly); Starter tier caps at 30,000 contacts |
| CentralStationCRM | No — SaaS-only | €75/mo flat (Small Office tier, covers 5 users); caps at 10,000 contacts |
| Efficy CRM | Yes — cloud, on-prem, and hybrid offered | Quote-based, no public pricing; third-party figures conflict, ~€17–69/user/mo; contact cap not publicly stated |
Figures here are an August 2026 snapshot, not a quote — pricing pages change often.