How to Run a CRM on Free Tiers: Firebase + Vercel

The $0 CRM Is Real

Most people assume a production-ready CRM costs at least $50/month per user. HubSpot starts there. Salesforce starts much higher. Even open-source CRMs like Twenty require a PostgreSQL server ($15-50/month) and Docker infrastructure. But with the right architecture, you can run a full-featured CRM for exactly $0/month.

What You Get for Free

ClientFlo runs on six free tiers: Firebase Spark (50k reads/day, 20k writes/day, 1GB storage), Vercel Hobby (100GB bandwidth, 100k function invocations/month), Cloudinary Free (25GB storage, 25GB bandwidth), Resend Free (3,000 emails/month), Google APIs (free within quota), and Sentry Free (5k errors/month). For a solo freelancer or small team, none of these limits are hit in normal use.

Firebase: The Backbone

Firebase Auth handles login (Email, Google, GitHub). Firestore provides real-time sync across devices. Firebase Storage serves as file fallback. The Spark plan is genuinely free — no credit card required. The 50k reads/day limit translates to roughly 3,500 active lead views per day, which is more than enough for teams under 20 people.

Vercel: Zero-Ops Deployment

Every push to GitHub triggers an automatic deploy. Preview URLs for every branch. Edge functions for API routes. The Hobby plan includes 100GB bandwidth and 100k function invocations — enough for thousands of daily requests. Custom domains, SSL, and CDN are included.

The Other Services

Cloudinary handles document uploads with built-in optimization. Resend sends transactional emails with open/click tracking. Google Calendar OAuth enables meeting scheduling and Google Meet creation. Sentry catches errors before your users do. Each has a generous free tier that covers normal usage.

When to Upgrade

If you hit Firebase's 50k daily reads, you're likely serving 50+ active users. At that point, the Flame plan ($25/month) or Blaze (pay-as-you-go) is trivial compared to Salesforce ($1,500+/month for the same team size). Vercel's Pro plan ($20/month) adds 1TB bandwidth and 1M function invocations. Every service scales incrementally — no surprise bills.