Overview:
erxes is an open-source Experience Operating System (XOS) designed to unify marketing, sales, operations, and support workflows within a single platform. It is built for SaaS providers and digital marketing agencies or developers who need a secure, self-hosted infrastructure to create customized business experiences. The project is structured as a monorepo with a plugin-based architecture, allowing users to extend core functionality through a marketplace of optional plugins. It is positioned as an alternative to tools like HubSpot, Zendesk, Linear, and Wix.
Core Features:
Plugin Architecture: The system is composed of a Core (inbox, contacts, products, segments, automation, documents) and a set of optional plugins for sales, content, accounting, tourism, property, team, and finance functions.
Self-Hosted Deployment: erxes is designed for self-hosting, giving organizations full control over their data and infrastructure, with no third-party monitoring.
Omnichannel Communication: The Frontline plugin provides seamless omnichannel conversations, tickets, and tasks for customer-facing teams.
GraphQL Federation & Microservices: The backend uses GraphQL Federation and tRPC microservices (Node.js, TypeScript, MongoDB, Redis, BullMQ), supporting scalable service communication.
Module Federation Micro-Frontends: The frontend is built with React 18, Rspack, and Module Federation, allowing independent deployment of UI components.
Custom Plugin Development: Developers can create custom plugins with backend (GraphQL schema, tRPC endpoints) and frontend (React components, Module Federation remotes) boilerplate auto-generated via Nx.
Use Cases:
SaaS providers replacing multiple tools: Teams can replace separate marketing, support, and project management tools with a single self-hosted platform.
Digital agencies building custom experiences: Agencies can create tailored headless websites, forms, landing pages, and knowledge bases for clients using the Content plugin.
Developers extending platform functionality: Developers can build custom plugins with auto-generated boilerplate, integrating specific business logic and UI components.
Operations teams managing projects and resources: The Operation plugin enables tracking tasks, team resources, and cycles in one workspace.
Why It Matters:
erxes offers a self-hosted, plugin-based alternative to a stack of commercial tools (such as HubSpot, Zendesk, and Linear) while providing full control over sensitive business data. Its modular architecture—built with GraphQL Federation and Module Federation—enables teams to adopt only the functions they need or build custom extensions. Because it is designed for self-hosting and does not rely on third-party monitoring, organizations can retain data privacy without being locked into a single SaaS vendor.
