The all-in-one Capsule CRM alternative — flat price, never per seat
Nanobox is an all-in-one suite — CRM, finance, HR, and support — at one flat price with unlimited users, never per seat. Run it in the cloud (we host it, from $29/mo) or self-host and own the source (from $399, one-time). Capsule is a clean, approachable CRM out of the UK, and it earns its fans: a real free tier for tiny teams, GBP billing so UK buyers skip exchange-rate surprises, and an interface that doesn't try to do everything. The model underneath is still per user, per month, climbing through tiers as you grow, and your data lives only in Capsule's cloud.
Capsule CRM vs. Spodus CRM
5-year cost
Capsule CRM: Per user, per month, rising through paid tiers as you add contacts and features, renewing forever
Spodus CRM: Flat $29/mo hosted, unlimited users, or $399 one-time to self-host ($1,999 agency). No renewal, no seats, either way
Per-seat pricing
Capsule CRM: Yes. Paid plans are billed per user, so cost scales with headcount
Spodus CRM: No seats, ever, cloud or self-host. One flat price covers the whole team
Data ownership
Capsule CRM: Your records live in Capsule's cloud; you export on their terms
Spodus CRM: Cloud: your data on our infrastructure, exportable anytime. Self-host: your own Postgres database, full export and SQL access
Source access
Capsule CRM: Closed source SaaS
Spodus CRM: Full source code ships with the self-hosted license
Hosting
Capsule CRM: Cloud only; there's no self-hosted edition
Spodus CRM: Cloud (we run it, flat $29/mo) or self-host with Docker from $399 one-time — your call
Contact & feature limits
Capsule CRM: Free and lower tiers cap contacts and pipelines, nudging you to upgrade as you grow
Spodus CRM: No artificial caps on either plan; the cloud plan is fair-use, self-hosted you're limited only by your own server
AI markup
Capsule CRM: AI features appear on higher tiers
Spodus CRM: No AI features and no AI premium, by design
Free tier & onboarding
Capsule CRM: Genuinely useful: a free plan for up to two users and a polished, easy onboarding
Spodus CRM: No free tier, but Nanobox Cloud starts at $29/mo flat with nothing to install; self-host later from $399 if you'd rather own it outright
Why teams switch
- One flat price — cloud or self-host — covers CRM, finance, HR, and support, with unlimited users and never a per-seat fee.
- Adding users and contacts costs nothing extra on either plan; the bill doesn't grow with the team.
- Start in the cloud with nothing to install, then self-host later and own the source and database if you want to.
- No AI markup and no tier ladder, in the cloud or on your own server.
A tidy CRM, on a meter that never stops
Capsule gets a lot right by doing less. It's quick to learn, the pipeline view is clean, and the free tier is a real on-ramp rather than a crippled demo. For UK buyers, billing in GBP is a small but genuine kindness. None of that is in dispute. What the comparison turns on is the model: once you outgrow the free plan, you're paying per user, per month, and the contact and feature caps on the lower tiers are designed to walk you up the ladder as you grow. Your data, meanwhile, lives only in Capsule's cloud and exports on their terms.
Nanobox is an all-in-one suite — CRM, finance, HR, and support — at one flat price with unlimited users, never per seat. Run it in the cloud from $29/mo, and there's nothing to install; we handle hosting, updates, and backups. Prefer to own it outright? Self-host from $399 one-time for a single domain ($1,999 for the agency license), get the full source code, and run it on your own VPS with Docker for a few dollars a month. Either way, there are no per-seat charges, so your third user and your thirtieth cost the same, and there are no artificial contact caps. There are deliberately no AI features, so nothing to mark up.
Where Capsule still wins
We'll be fair about the on-ramp. Capsule's free tier and smooth onboarding make starting genuinely easy in a way many products can't quite match, and a non-technical team can be up and running in minutes with no server to think about. Nanobox Cloud narrows that gap, flat $29/mo, nothing to install, but there's still no free trial tier. If you'd rather self-host instead, Nanobox asks more of you upfront: stand up a Docker container yourself, or take the done-for-you launch for $1,500 if you'd rather we do it. The trade is clear. Capsule rents you a tidy CRM on a per-seat plan with caps that grow your bill. Nanobox is a flat-priced, all-in-one suite you can run in the cloud or own outright, and never pay per seat.
See the full Spodus CRM overview and our one-time pricing. Running a specific workflow? Browse industry presets for real estate, clinics, and field service.
Spodus CRM
Run your whole company in one workspace, CRM, finance, HR, and support, at one flat price.
from $399 · one-time
See Spodus CRMBuy a licenseQuestions, answered.
- Over a multi-year horizon, almost always. Capsule's paid tiers are per user per month and renew indefinitely, with contact caps pushing growing teams up the ladder. Nanobox is $29/mo flat for the whole suite, unlimited users, or a one-time purchase plus your own hosting if you'd rather self-host. Either way, the crossover arrives fast for any team past Capsule's free tier.
- The on-ramp, a little less than it used to be. Capsule's free plan for up to two users and its polished onboarding make it dead simple to start, and UK buyers get clean GBP billing. Nanobox Cloud closes some of that gap (flat $29/mo, nothing to install), but there's still no free tier. If frictionless, no-commitment start-up matters most, Capsule wins there.
- Yes. Export your contacts, organisations, and opportunities from Capsule as CSV and import them into Nanobox, cloud or self-hosted. If you self-host, you own the Postgres database directly, so a deeper scripted migration is also possible.
- No, and that's deliberate. AI add-ons are a common reason subscription CRMs creep up in price. Skipping them keeps Nanobox flat and simple, in the cloud or self-hosted. If you self-host, you have the source to wire in your own model.