Deploy and Host self hosted Twenty vs Salesforce (Open-Source Salesforce Alternative CRM) on Railway

This template deploys the open-source Twenty CRM on Railway and weighs it against Salesforce Sales Cloud on data model, customisation, and what you give up.

About Hosting Twenty vs Salesforce open-source software on Railway (self hosted Twenty as a Salesforce alternative template)

Running Twenty yourself means your companies, people, opportunities and custom objects live in a Postgres database you control, not in a multi-tenant Salesforce org you rent per user.

Why Deploy Twenty vs Salesforce, the Salesforce alternative on Railway (Railway Free Trial)

Salesforce charges per user and usually needs a consultant for customisation, which is hard to justify for a small sales team.

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Twenty vs Salesforce on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.

Railway vs Other Hosting Providers and VPS for Twenty vs Salesforce self hosting

Twenty needs a server, a worker, Postgres and Redis online, so your hosting choice decides how much time goes to infrastructure instead of pipeline.

Provider	What You Get with Railway	What You Get with the Other Provider
DigitalOcean	Four services from one template, with generated secrets and private networking.	A droplet or managed database you size, patch and connect yourself.
AWS	Twenty, its worker, Postgres 16 and Redis 8.2 deployed without VPC or IAM setup.	Fine-grained control, but networking, storage and backups span several services.
Hetzner	Managed deployment with a public domain and volumes handled for you.	Low raw cost, but you install Docker, manage the firewall and handle upgrades.

Either way, your contact and deal data stays in a database you own.

Common Use Cases for hosted Twenty vs Salesforce

A small sales team leaving an under-used Salesforce org: Nobody has time to administer the org, so export Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities as CSV and load them into Twenty's companies, people and opportunities.
A startup that wants a CRM it can extend in code: Twenty is AGPL-3.0 and built on TypeScript, NestJS, React and Postgres, so your engineers can read and change the source. The REST and GraphQL APIs are generated from your own data model.
Keeping customer data in your own database: The data lives in your Postgres service, so you control backups, retention and access.
Custom objects for a niche pipeline: Create custom objects and fields in Settings instead of forcing your process into Salesforce's standard shapes, then build kanban views around it.
API-first integrations: Generate an API key in Settings and call the GraphQL or REST endpoints, with webhooks for change events, so the CRM works as one service among many.

Dependencies for Twenty vs Salesforce Docker hosted on Railway

This template runs four services in one Railway project: the Twenty server (which also serves the web app), a worker for background jobs, Postgres 16 for CRM data, and Redis 8.2 for queues and cache.

Deployment Dependencies for Managed Twenty vs Salesforce Service (CRM)

twenty (server and web app): official Twenty image, public port 3000, health check on /healthz, volume at /app/packages/twenty-server/.local-storage.
twenty-worker: same image with the start command /app/entrypoint.sh yarn worker:prod.
Postgres 16: stores companies, people, opportunities and custom objects, on a volume.
Redis 8.2: queue and cache backend, on its own volume.
Email sync (optional): Gmail or Microsoft 365 sync needs OAuth credentials set as environment variables, which are not included by default.

Implementation Details for Twenty vs Salesforce (Using Twenty official docker image)

Set SERVER_URL to https://RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN, generate APP_SECRET and ENCRYPTION_KEY at 32 characters each, and wire PG_DATABASE_URL and REDIS_URL from the Postgres and Redis services.

How does Twenty vs Salesforce compare against other Salesforce alternatives

Twenty vs Salesforce (Salesforce Sales Cloud Alternative)

Data model: Twenty ships companies, people and opportunities out of the box, and you add custom objects and fields in Settings without writing Apex. Salesforce has a deeper standard schema, but you'll likely need an admin for anything beyond the defaults.
Ecosystem: Salesforce wins here. AppExchange covers almost everything, while Twenty's integration list is much shorter.
Reporting: Salesforce's reports and dashboards are mature. Twenty has filtered table and kanban views, but fewer built-in reports.

Twenty vs HubSpot (Free CRM Alternative)

Hosting: HubSpot is SaaS only. Twenty runs on your own Postgres and Redis, so customer data stays in your database.
Marketing: HubSpot's marketing hub is a real strength if campaigns matter to you. Twenty focuses on the CRM core.
Cost of growth: HubSpot's paid hubs climb as you add seats. Self-hosting Twenty is free apart from infrastructure.

Twenty vs Pipedrive (Sales Pipeline Alternative)

Pipeline focus: Pipedrive is quick to set up for a pure sales team. Twenty covers the pipeline view but also treats companies and people as first-class records.
Customisation: Twenty's custom objects handle niche pipelines more flexibly.
Licensing: Pipedrive charges per seat. Twenty's AGPL-3.0 core lets you read, change and host the code yourself.

Twenty vs Attio (Modern Flexible CRM Alternative)

Data model: Attio is also flexible about objects and fields, and its interface is polished. Twenty offers similar flexibility, and as open source you can host and extend it.
Hosting control: Attio is SaaS. Twenty deploys on Railway in minutes and moves to any VPS.
Maturity: Attio is the more established hosted product for teams that don't want to run anything. Twenty asks more of you on operations.

How to use Twenty vs Salesforce (the OSS CRM)?

Open your Railway Twenty domain and sign up. The first user creates the workspace.
Export Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities from Salesforce as CSV.
Import them into Companies, People and Opportunities in Twenty, mapping fields during import.
Create custom fields in Settings for anything unmapped. Build custom objects before importing their records.
Connect Gmail or Outlook. Sync needs OAuth app credentials set as environment variables first.
Set up a kanban pipeline view grouped by opportunity stage.
Create an API key in Settings for integrations.

curl -X POST https://YOUR_TWENTY_DOMAIN/graphql \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"{ companies(first: 5) { edges { node { id name } } } }"}'

How to self host Twenty vs Salesforce on other VPS Services (Twenty self hosting guide)

If you'd rather not run this on Railway, you can self host Twenty on any VPS with Docker.

Clone the Repository

Pull the official Twenty repository and move into the Docker folder.

git clone https://github.com/twentyhq/twenty.git
cd twenty/packages/twenty-docker

Install Dependencies

Twenty runs as a set of containers, so you need Docker and Docker Compose on the host.

Configure Environment Variables

Copy the example env file and set your public URL and secrets.

cp .env.example .env
# set SERVER_URL=https://your-domain
# set APP_SECRET and ENCRYPTION_KEY to 32-character random strings

Start the Twenty vs Salesforce Application

Bring the stack up in the background, then open your-domain in a browser and sign up to create the first workspace.

docker compose up -d

Railway handles the containers, Postgres, Redis, TLS and restarts for you, which is why it's the quicker path if you'd rather not manage a server yourself.

Official Pricing of Twenty vs Salesforce (Twenty pricing)

Twenty is open source under AGPL-3.0, and self-hosting it is free. Check that page for current figures, since we don't quote exact prices here.

Twenty vs Salesforce cloud vs self hosted comparison (Pricing, features, costs, and more)

Twenty is free to self-host and you own the data. Pick based on whether you want to run a CRM yourself or pay someone else to run it.

Monthly cost of self hosting Twenty vs Salesforce on Railway

Self-hosting Twenty is free as software, so your real cost is infrastructure. The $5 Railway trial covers early testing.

System Requirements for Hosting Twenty vs Salesforce on a VPS

If you move off Railway, plan for at least 2 GB of RAM, the minimum upstream recommends for Twenty.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I import my Salesforce data into Twenty?

Yes, export Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities from Salesforce as CSV and import them into Twenty's Companies, People and Opportunities objects.

Does Twenty have reporting like Salesforce?

Twenty offers table and kanban views with filters and sorting, but fewer built-in reports and dashboards than Salesforce.

Can I create custom objects and fields without a consultant?

Yes, you can add custom objects and fields from Settings.

How does email sync work in Twenty?

Twenty syncs email and calendar with Gmail or Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

Is Twenty free to use?

Self-hosting is free under the AGPL-3.0 license, so you only pay for hosting.

Who should stay on Salesforce?

Stay on Salesforce if you depend on AppExchange, enterprise reporting, or CPQ and service cloud features.