Complete Open Source Stack for Digital Agencies 2026

The Agency Software Problem

A typical digital agency uses:

• Project management: Asana or ClickUp ($10-24/user/month)
• CRM: HubSpot or Salesforce ($15-75/user/month)
• Invoicing: QuickBooks or FreshBooks ($15-55/month)
• Client portal: Basecamp or Notion ($6-15/user/month)
• CMS for clients: Webflow ($23-49/month per site)
• Team communication: Slack ($7-12/user/month)

For a 5-person agency serving 10 clients: $500-1,200+/month in software subscriptions.

This guide covers building a complete open source agency stack — from project management to client portals to invoicing — that runs for the cost of a server.

The Open Source Agency Stack

Function	Tool	Alternative to
Project management	Plane or Huly	Asana, ClickUp
CRM	Twenty	HubSpot
Invoicing	Invoice Ninja	FreshBooks, QuickBooks
Client communication	Docmost or Outline	Basecamp, Notion
Time tracking	Kimai	Harvest, Toggl
Design collaboration	Penpot	Figma
CMS for clients	Directus or Payload	Contentful, Webflow
Communication	Mattermost	Slack
Email	Listmonk	Mailchimp

Core Components

Project Management: Plane

Plane (46K+ GitHub stars) is the most mature open source project management tool for agencies. It handles client projects, internal work, and team sprints with a clean interface that non-technical clients can navigate.

Agency-specific features:

• Multiple workspaces (keep client projects separated)
• Issues, cycles (sprints), and modules (epics/features)
• Custom states matching your agency workflow (Discovery, Design, Development, Review, Done)
• Time tracking per issue
• Git integration (link commits to issues)

Self-hosting Plane:

# Single command install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/makeplane/plane/master/deploy/selfhost/install.sh | bash

After setup, create a separate project per client engagement. Use labels for project phase and priority.

Plane for clients: Consider giving clients viewer access to their project. They can see progress without editing anything. This eliminates "where are we on X?" emails.

CRM: Twenty

Twenty (25K+ GitHub stars, MIT) is a modern open source CRM built to replace HubSpot and Salesforce for agencies and small businesses. Clean interface, good API, and actively developed.

Why Twenty for agencies:

• Client and contact management
• Deal pipeline for new business
• Activity tracking (calls, emails, meetings)
• Notes and documents per contact
• Integration with email (connects to Gmail/Outlook)

Self-hosting Twenty:

services:
  twenty-server:
    image: twentycrm/twenty:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      SERVER_URL: https://crm.yourdomain.com
      POSTGRES_URL: postgresql://twenty:twenty@db:5432/twenty
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
      STORAGE_TYPE: local
      APP_SECRET: ${APP_SECRET}
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: twenty
      POSTGRES_USER: twenty
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: twenty
    volumes:
      - pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: unless-stopped

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped

Agency workflow with Twenty:

1. Create a Company record for each client/prospect
2. Add People (contacts) linked to each company
3. Create Opportunities for new business discussions
4. Convert won opportunities to active client records
5. Log all communication history in the contact timeline

Invoicing and Time Tracking: Invoice Ninja

Invoice Ninja (8K+ GitHub stars) is the most complete open source invoicing solution for agencies. It covers the full billing lifecycle: time tracking → invoicing → payment collection.

What Invoice Ninja includes:

• Professional invoices with your branding
• Quotes/proposals (send before work starts)
• Expense tracking (record subcontractor costs, tools, etc.)
• Time tracking with task-level granularity
• Recurring invoices (retainer clients)
• Payment links (Stripe, PayPal)
• Client portal (clients see their invoice history)
• Multi-currency support

Self-hosting Invoice Ninja:

services:
  app:
    image: invoiceninja/invoiceninja:latest
    environment:
      APP_URL: https://billing.yourdomain.com
      APP_KEY: ${APP_KEY}
      DB_HOST: mysql
      DB_DATABASE: ninja
      DB_USERNAME: ninja
      DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
      MAIL_HOST: ${SMTP_HOST}
      MAIL_USERNAME: ${SMTP_USER}
      MAIL_PASSWORD: ${SMTP_PASS}
    volumes:
      - ./public:/var/www/app/public
      - ./storage:/var/www/app/storage
    depends_on:
      - mysql
    restart: unless-stopped

  mysql:
    image: mysql:8
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
      MYSQL_DATABASE: ninja
      MYSQL_USER: ninja
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: unless-stopped

Agency billing workflow:

1. Track time: Log hours per task in Invoice Ninja or Kimai
2. Create invoice: Bill project-based or hourly at month end
3. Send invoice: Client receives email with payment link
4. Payment: Stripe or PayPal integration processes payment
5. Reconcile: Expense tracking shows margin per project

Pro tip: Use Invoice Ninja's quote feature before projects start. Clients approve the quote, which converts directly to a project record. When the project ends, convert to an invoice with one click.

Time Tracking: Kimai

Kimai (3K+ GitHub stars, MIT) is dedicated time tracking software — more granular than Invoice Ninja's time tracking when you need it.

When to use Kimai over Invoice Ninja time tracking:

• Multiple team members tracking time simultaneously
• Complex time sheet reporting by client/project/team member
• JIRA/project tool integration

Self-hosting Kimai:

docker run -d \
  -p 8001:8001 \
  -v kimai_var:/opt/kimai/var \
  -e DATABASE_URL=mysql://kimai:kimai@mysql/kimai \
  kimai/kimai:latest

Export Kimai time reports to CSV → import into Invoice Ninja for invoicing.

Client Documentation: Docmost

Docmost (19K+ GitHub stars) serves as your client-facing knowledge base and internal documentation system.

Agency uses for Docmost:

• Project briefs: Document client goals, target audience, brand guidelines
• Deliverable specs: Detailed specifications for each deliverable
• Meeting notes: Shareable meeting summaries for client sign-off
• Style guides: Maintain brand guidelines for ongoing clients
• SOPs: Internal processes your team follows

Client collaboration tip: Create a Space per client in Docmost. Invite the client's primary contact as a Viewer (or Editor for collaborative documents). Clients see their project documentation without seeing other clients' data.

Self-hosting Docmost:

services:
  docmost:
    image: docmost/docmost:latest
    environment:
      APP_URL: https://docs.yourdomain.com
      APP_SECRET: ${SECRET}
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://docmost:${DB_PASS}@db:5432/docmost
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3000:3000"
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
    restart: unless-stopped

Design Collaboration: Penpot

Penpot (35K+ GitHub stars, MPL-2.0) is the open source Figma alternative. For agencies doing UI/UX design, Penpot provides collaborative vector design with developer handoff features.

What Penpot includes:

• Vector design editor (similar to Figma)
• Real-time collaboration
• Component libraries and design systems
• Prototype interactions and animations
• Developer handoff (inspect mode with CSS/measurements)
• Open design format (SVG-based, no vendor lock-in)

Self-hosting Penpot:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/penpot/penpot/main/docker/images/docker-compose.yaml | docker compose -f - up -d

Agency workflow with Penpot:

1. Create a team per client
2. Designers work in Penpot, clients review via share links
3. Developers access inspect mode for CSS values
4. Export assets directly from Penpot

CMS for Client Websites: Directus

Directus (28K+ GitHub stars, BSL-1.1*) is a headless CMS that wraps any SQL database with a REST/GraphQL API and admin interface. It's excellent for giving clients an editing interface for their websites.

Directus for agency use:

• Deploy one Directus instance per client (or multi-tenant)
• Create a custom data model matching the client's content types
• Give clients an admin login with permission to edit their content only
• Developers build the front-end with any framework
• Client edits go to your Directus instance → shows on their site

Self-hosting Directus:

services:
  directus:
    image: directus/directus:latest
    ports:
      - "8055:8055"
    environment:
      SECRET: ${DIRECTUS_SECRET}
      DB_CLIENT: pg
      DB_HOST: db
      DB_DATABASE: directus
      DB_USER: directus
      DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
      ADMIN_EMAIL: admin@yourdomain.com
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASS}
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: unless-stopped

Note: Directus uses BSL (Business Source License) for v10+. Review license terms for your use case — it's permissive for most agency scenarios but has restrictions for competing commercial products.

Team Communication: Mattermost

Mattermost (30K+ GitHub stars) is the open source Slack alternative with Enterprise features available in the Community edition.

Self-hosting Mattermost:

services:
  mattermost:
    image: mattermost/mattermost-team-edition:latest
    ports:
      - "8065:8065"
    volumes:
      - mattermost_data:/mattermost/data
      - mattermost_logs:/mattermost/logs
    environment:
      MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL: https://chat.yourdomain.com
      MM_SQLSETTINGS_DATASOURCE: postgres://mattermost:${DB_PASS}@db/mattermost?sslmode=disable
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: unless-stopped

Mattermost's Community Edition includes channels, direct messaging, file sharing, and integrations — sufficient for agencies under 200 users.

Recommended Server Setup

A full agency stack on Hetzner CPX41 (16GB, 6 vCPUs, ~$19/month):

Services running:
- Plane (project management): 300MB RAM
- Twenty CRM: 500MB RAM
- Invoice Ninja: 400MB RAM
- Docmost: 400MB RAM
- Mattermost: 600MB RAM
- Penpot: 1GB RAM
- PostgreSQL: 500MB RAM
- Redis: 100MB RAM
- Caddy (HTTPS): 50MB RAM
---------------------
Total: ~4-5GB RAM used
Available for growth: 11GB

This leaves headroom for additional client-specific Directus instances or Immich for asset management.

Complete Docker Compose Stack

services:
  # ── Project Management ──
  plane-web:
    image: makeplane/plane-frontend:latest
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3001:3000"
    restart: unless-stopped

  # ── CRM ──
  twenty:
    image: twentycrm/twenty:latest
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3002:3000"
    environment:
      SERVER_URL: https://crm.yourdomain.com
      POSTGRES_URL: postgresql://twenty:${DB_PASS}@db/twenty
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
    restart: unless-stopped

  # ── Invoicing ──
  invoiceninja:
    image: invoiceninja/invoiceninja:latest
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3003:80"
    environment:
      APP_URL: https://billing.yourdomain.com
      APP_KEY: ${NINJA_KEY}
      DB_HOST: mysql
      DB_DATABASE: ninja
      DB_USERNAME: ninja
      DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
    restart: unless-stopped

  # ── Documentation ──
  docmost:
    image: docmost/docmost:latest
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3004:3000"
    environment:
      APP_URL: https://docs.yourdomain.com
      APP_SECRET: ${DOCMOST_SECRET}
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://docmost:${DB_PASS}@db/docmost
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
    restart: unless-stopped

  # ── Team Chat ──
  mattermost:
    image: mattermost/mattermost-team-edition:latest
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8065:8065"
    environment:
      MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL: https://chat.yourdomain.com
      MM_SQLSETTINGS_DATASOURCE: postgres://mattermost:${DB_PASS}@db/mattermost
    restart: unless-stopped

  # ── Shared DB ──
  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
    volumes:
      - pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: unless-stopped

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped

  # ── MySQL (for Invoice Ninja) ──
  mysql:
    image: mysql:8
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
      MYSQL_DATABASE: ninja
      MYSQL_USER: ninja
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: unless-stopped

Cost Comparison

Commercial Agency Stack (5-Person Team)

Tool	Monthly
ClickUp Business (5 users)	$60
HubSpot Starter CRM	$15
FreshBooks Plus	$55
Basecamp (client docs)	$25
Slack Pro (5 users)	$40
Figma Professional (5 users)	$75
Total	$270/month, $3,240/year

Open Source Stack

Component	Monthly
Hetzner CPX41 server	$19
Domain (multiple subdomains)	$2
Total	$21/month, $252/year

Annual savings: $2,988. The open source stack provides equivalent or better functionality for 8% of the commercial cost.

Find More Tools for Your Agency

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