Twenty
Twenty 2.50 lets app front components read the host route, filling a gap in its app platform.
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Close CRM and Easy!Appointments — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Close takes Chloe Chat out of beta for every customer, a month after OIDC SSO.
Close is shipping on three tracks. Its assistant Chloe is now generally available as Chloe Chat, answering pipeline questions, preparing a rep's day, analyzing data and taking actions from any page. Voice agents run on the rebuilt telephony layer with skills like Schedule Meeting, and the October 13 release added a central Security page with OIDC single sign-on alongside update-only Workflow triggers.
Easy!Appointments 1.6 lands video conferencing, GDPR tools, and a serious security overhaul across its CalDAV and booking stack.
Easy!Appointments, an open-source self-hosted scheduler, is shipping its 1.6 major version through a long pre-release cycle that has introduced Jitsi and Google Meet integration, CAPTCHA and ALTCHA anti-abuse protection, GDPR features, and a rebuilt CalDAV synchronization stack. The 1.6.1 security hardening pre-release then landed a concentrated batch of serious vulnerability fixes: LDAP injection in directory search, SSRF in CalDAV URL handling, cross-account appointment takeover, provider credential exposure to secretary accounts, and CAPTCHA bypass — a set that suggests the expanded surface area of 1.6.0 brought corresponding security debt.
Close is shipping on three tracks. Its assistant Chloe is now generally available as Chloe Chat, answering pipeline questions, preparing a rep's day, analyzing data and taking actions from any page. Voice agents run on the rebuilt telephony layer with skills like Schedule Meeting, and the October 13 release added a central Security page with OIDC single sign-on alongside update-only Workflow triggers.
Chloe has moved from a beta chat to the default way into the app: a command-palette fallback in September, notification threads, and now GA for all accounts. Paired with voice agents that act on phone numbers and Workflows that react to record updates, Close is building a CRM where assistants and automation do more of the work, with SSO and a security page arriving as the governance layer that buyers ask for.
Expect Chloe to gain more write actions and to connect with Workflows or voice-agent skills now that it is GA; the truncated entry doesn't list which actions it can take today.
Easy!Appointments, an open-source self-hosted scheduler, is shipping its 1.6 major version through a long pre-release cycle that has introduced Jitsi and Google Meet integration, CAPTCHA and ALTCHA anti-abuse protection, GDPR features, and a rebuilt CalDAV synchronization stack. The 1.6.1 security hardening pre-release then landed a concentrated batch of serious vulnerability fixes: LDAP injection in directory search, SSRF in CalDAV URL handling, cross-account appointment takeover, provider credential exposure to secretary accounts, and CAPTCHA bypass — a set that suggests the expanded surface area of 1.6.0 brought corresponding security debt.
The 1.6 release line is expanding Easy!Appointments from a simple booking page into a more complete scheduling platform: video conferencing links, richer calendar sync, GDPR compliance tooling, and hardened multi-provider access controls all move it closer to commercial alternatives. The security work in 1.6.1-beta.1 is as important as the features — self-hosted deployments that serve real customer data need these fixes before anyone should run 1.6 in production.
A stable 1.6.1 release is the next step, clearing the pre-release label once the security fixes are confirmed across the beta testing community. After that, the CalDAV and video conferencing integrations will likely expand — CalDAV push notifications or two-way Google Calendar sync are the natural follow-ons.
Other CRM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Close CRM or Easy!Appointments.
Twenty 2.50 lets app front components read the host route, filling a gap in its app platform.
folk's MCP connector can now create and update CRM records in bulk for AI agents.
Twenty opens 2.50 by giving sandboxed front components the host route.
GroupOffice ships a fourth 26.0 build in nine days, still with install-only notes.
Corteza 2026.9.0 goes final after a week of single-fix candidates.
Django CRM spends a morning hardening itself against abusive input.
See all Close CRM alternatives → · See all Easy!Appointments alternatives →
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
Both compete on the same themes — security — within CRM. Easy!Appointments is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Easy!Appointments is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other CRM products to evaluate alongside.
Top Close CRM alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Close CRM alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/close-crm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
Top Easy!Appointments alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Easy!Appointments alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/easyappointments for the full list with editorial commentary on each.