Last night I returned from Mumbai after four super eventful Frappe days. As there was a lot of Frappe buzz on social feeds, people reached out to me with many questions about the Frappe ecosystem.
As most people who reached out to me are from the WordPress ecosystem, I will use some parallels between the WordPress and Frappe ecosystems to make it easier to understand. So let’s dive in and understand What The Fuss Frappe is all about!
Software part
Frappe Framework
The Frappe software itself is a framework.
The WordPress equivalent for it can be a project called BackPress. While BackPress did not go mainstream, Frappe is quite popular and, in my opinion, more powerful than frameworks like Laravel and Django.
In fact, I ended up finding Frappe when I was looking for Laravel alternatives where important packages like Spark and Nova are not proprietary licensed.
Another key difference is when you install the Frappe framework alone, you get a fully functional app with a web interface, user management, and a few other bells and whistles. Also, you get an interface to build your custom database tables and UI visually. So it’s truly a no-code framework from the time when no-code was not even a norm. But it has solid documentation and an amazing developer experience.
At rtCamp our SaaS applications GoDAM and EasyEngine Dashboard are built using Frappe on the backend. We also use it to automate business processes and even handle custom web app development client projects (of course, if the client is ok with Python).
ERPNext Application
ERPNext is the only 100% open-source ERP solution out there. It started in 2008 and has been continuously evolving. It started with a vision to become “WordPress for ERPs”.
Over the years it has evolved as a monolith with accounting, sales (CRM), HR & payroll, project management, support desk, e-commerce, asset & inventory management, and more than a dozen modules that support all kinds of businesses, right from service/consulting companies to retail and manufacturing. It is suitable for all sizes of businesses and out-of-the-box support for multinational corporations (MNC).
I came across ERPNext twice earlier in my journey. I think the first time was in the early days of rtCamp (~2011-12), but I did not give it a shot despite having the vision that we would eventually grow to the point that we would need an ERP solution.
The second time was in 2017 when we were setting up our US subsidiary, and I wanted that one to start with an ERP solution again. I installed there what was likely version 7. It was software then as well but lacked the ease of Xero-like accounting software. So basically, to set up and use ERPNext you need to have an accountant, which we did not have. We did all accounting ourselves in the early days right until 2 years back when we hired our first full-time accountant.
The third time I started testing it was in 2021, but I had an accident that was followed by a long recovery period during which I mostly Netflixed and chilled for many months.
While I was in the backseat, rtCamp grew considerably bigger, and from a distance I could see teams having a tough time juggling between multiple systems running in silos or often connected via bridges that were acting as bottlenecks.
Finally, in 2023, we decided to bring all our systems together under an ERP solution, and the only open-source solution available was ERPNext. While it was popular, it fell short of expectations in many areas. Luckily my friend and guide Nirav Mehta knew Frappe (company’s) owner, Rushabh Mehta. They were based in Mumbai. Nirav introduced us to Rushabh, and he was kind enough to allow us to spend a day in his office, where the rtCamp team asked many questions of the Frappe team members, and they were answered patiently.
While we were sold on Frappe company’s value and their commitment to open source, we still wanted to start small, and that is when we started with the Frappe framework by implementing our campus hiring program as an independent portal. The experiment went so smoothly that we made our first hire in the form of Kanchan Chauhan. She led our ERPNext implementation and is now leading the entire Frappe vertical, including client projects powered by Frappe/ERPNext.
Other First-Party Apps
While ERPNext is their biggest success, the Frappe team felt ERPNext grew too big as a monolith and started breaking it. It resulted in Frappe HRMS, which is extracted out of ERPNext, so it works well with ERPNext.
Over the last few years, they launched many new apps with new features and, in some cases, overlapping features compared to their ERPNext modules but loose integration or no integration at all. We did not like this, and this was the main reason that, despite spending more than two years in Frappe, I talked very little about it publicly.
But at the recent Frappeverse, the Frappe team has shown renewed interest in accelerating ERPNext’s development, which is critical for us. While they played their part, it’s important for the community to also contribute back rather than creating another maker-taker situation, something that has been happening in the WordPress ecosystem too. While we can’t speak for others, despite being a new and small player in the community, we decided to increase our Frappe community contribution across the board.
Marketplace with Third-Party Apps
These are apps built by third parties. Mostly by agencies. Unlike WordPress, the Frappe ecosystem doesn’t have dedicated app (product) companies.
In the last 4 days, I talked to many Frappe community stakeholders and understood their concerns. There were misconceptions around using open-source licenses for their third-party apps. Like wp.org, the Frappe marketplace lists only open-source apps. Then there are concerns if people pay for open-source software.
Then there is a classic chicken and egg problem. The user base is too small to invest in marketplace apps. But as the marketplace is small, especially small businesses find hiring agencies for all their needs to be cost prohibitive.
I managed to convince the community members that the marketplace needs to grow. While the WordPress directory has 60,000+ plugins, the Frappe marketplace has around 200+ apps, and some of them are already abandoned by their creator.
While the WordPress.org directory works with any WordPress hosting, Frappe’s marketplace has one-click install integration with Frappe’s hosting. Self-hosted Frappe instances have to run commands from the terminal to install apps.
Frappe UI Framework
Frappe UI framework is built using Vue.js. Frappe has a UI library ready to use, which we highly recommend when building Frappe apps. It ensures end-user experience stays consistent across apps.
As rtCamp prefers React over Vue, our early apps did not use Frappe UI. Something that will change soon as rtCamp will be releasing a Frappe UI React fork hopefully next month.
Community Part
Frappeverse Events
Frappeverse events are like WordCamps. The Indian Frappeverse event is more like earlier WordCamp US, where Matt used to do “State of the Word” before it became a separate event.
The Indian event is a key one because the Frappe company is headquartered in India (Mumbai), and the Frappe company is mostly a work-from-office company.
Frappeverse India is where annual Frappe project and first-party app announcements are made in the opening keynote. Then it opens to multiple tracks where community members and partners present their work.
Like WordCamps, you can talk about only open-source solutions at the Frappeverse stage.
They also have developer events called Frappe Builds. More like LoopConf, but Frappe Build has been more frequent.
They have regional Frappeverse events. I believe in Frappeverse Africa. They don’t have city-level Frappeverse events as far as I know. But then they have meetups. I am unable to recall if they carry similar names. I attended one in Pune. These are like WordPress meetups but less frequent and organized by Frappe partner companies. Frappeverse is completely managed by the Frappe company. Not sure about Frappe Builds. Since most work is done by the Frappe company, the number of events is limited.
This is where there is a big difference compared to WordCamps. I explained to the Frappe community how WordCamps are more community-driven, how a journey progresses from a local meetup to WordCamp, how Automattic plays more of an enabler role than a controller role, and how WordCamp Central is structured and has people from the community taking a bigger role in overseeing community growth.
The Frappe community liked the idea of how WordCamps and WordPress meetups are run and is planning to experiment with some similar structure.
Frappe Org on GitHub
All Frappe projects are open source and developed under the Frappe GitHub org at github.com/frappe.
The key repos are the framework itself, github.com/frappe/frappe and github.com/frappe/erpnext. But you can contribute to any.
Third-party apps are hosted mostly on GitHub under their respective orgs and users. e.g., rtCamp’s public Frappe apps are here: https://github.com/orgs/rtCamp/repositories?q=frappe. We are yet to list out all our apps in the marketplace, which we will do soon.
Frappe on YouTube
Most popular channels for the Frappe ecosystem are Frappe’s official channel and Build With Hussain. You will find any helpful videos there.
Build With Hussain is by Nagaria Hussain, who started as a Frappe employee and more recently started a Frappe business with the same name. Their website, buildwithhussain.com, has a better listing of most YouTube videos topic-wise.
Hussain is currently the maintainer of Frappe’s marketplace (sponsored by the Frappe company). During Frappeverse, I volunteered to work with him on improving marketplace experience and increasing distribution potential.
Frappe School
Frappe School hosts courses and certification programs by the Frappe company. Courses are more like learn.wp.org.
Many courses are free and offer optional paid certification.
The certification program is mandatory for Frappe partners.
Communication
The public forum is hosted at discuss.frappe.io and is a one-stop shop for all discussion. This is more like the wp.org forum.
There is a Telegram group also, which I feel has outgrown community size. So if you are joining the Frappe community, better put all your questions and concerns at discuss.frappe.io.
Economics Part
Hosting Part
Every open-source web-based software needs a web hosting service. Frappe company operates frappecloud.com, which is more like WordPress.com. Unlike the WordPress ecosystem, there are no known alternative hosting companies for Frappe-based solutions.
Although self-hosting Frappe is doable to the point that the frappecloud.com codebase itself is open source.
To make self-hosting simpler, when we entered the Frappe ecosystem, we started a project called Frappe Manager.
There is also an official Frappe Docker and Helm Chart repo for more fine-grained control for your self-hosted setup maintained by Revant Nandgaonkar.
FrappeCloud.com shares revenue with third-party app developers even if apps are free. The math is explained somewhere, but due to the overall size of the user base, shared revenue as of now is not enough to sustain. Hopefully this will change.
One thing I noticed that is very different is that there are many “SaaS”-based ERP companies running white-labeled ERPNext-based solutions.
As ERPNext is GPL software, these SaaS companies keep milking the Frappe ecosystem without contributing back.
This is a reminder to the WordPress ecosystem, especially to a few who disagree with Matt’s handling of the maker-taker problem in the WordPress ecosystem. The problem is real. When most takers just keep taking without contributing back, the whole ecosystem suffers.
Sometimes you need to go to war for peace (and prosperity of the commons).
ERP as a software category is bigger than the CMS economy. And unlike CMS space, where there are open-source alternatives to WordPress, in ERP, ERPNext is the only 100% open-source solution in active development for more than 17 years now.
There are companies making tons of money with ERPNext, but by not contributing, they slowed down the growth of this wonderful community.
One way the Frappe team is solving this is by releasing new apps under the AGPL license that forces any SaaS-based GPL fork to release their customization back into open source.
Agency Partners
Frappe company has 200+ agency partners. Unlike WordPress, where the domain is relatively narrow, ERP implementation varies a lot by industry and requires domain-level expertise.
rtCamp got itself listed as an entry-level partner, but being engineering-heavy, we only used Frappe frameworks as part of custom web app development projects and ERPNext as a Laravel Spark alternative.
Many of these partners meet annually at Frappe’s office. As partners, we also had a chance to attend our first partner meetup.
We were nervous going into Frappe’s partner meetup, as we have absolutely zero contribution so far to the Frappe company’s revenue so far, but I was surprised that we have been encouraged to share our learnings from the WordPress ecosystem there.
A further surprise was the way other Frappe partners welcomed us. This is the same as the WordPress ecosystem, where agencies prefer to collaborate over compete. 🙂
Product Companies
This is a missing piece in the Frappe ecosystem. There are some companies building products dedicated to the Frappe ecosystem, such as Raven Chat which is a Slack alternative. Again, it’s open source.
I hope with renewed focus on Frappe’s marketplace growth, the Frappe ecosystem will see its own awesomemotive.com or brainstormforce.com in the coming year. Or maybe some WordPress product leaders will try their hands in the Frappe ecosystem. I met many WordPress businesses at this year’s as well as previous Frappeverse events. This was my third Frappeverse.
Wrapping up!
Four days ago, when I was driving to Mumbai, I had an idea of how I wanted to navigate Frappeverse (Frappe’s annual conference), but not in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would return with playing a contributor role to an open-source community full of inspiring people. Thanks Rushabh for trusting me with this responsibility. 🙏
As with most things in my life, this privilege I am bestowed upon by the Frappe community is because of my involvement in the WordPress community. So thanks again, WordPress, for still opening doors for me! ❤️
I will do my best to live up to the expectations of the Frappe community.
One article is not enough to cover such a big and old ecosystem. It’s almost like a civilization!
I will be happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have.
You can comment below, write to me at my work email [email protected], reach out via my social handles, or start a topic in the official forum (and tag rahul286 if you want an answer from me).
Finally, as we say at rtCamp, Open-Source FTW! ✊
(me at Frappeverse 2025. Thanks Ajit for featured image)
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