CRMmigrationcost

Choosing a Minimal CRM Stack for Small Engineering Teams (and Migrating Off Microsoft 365)

UUnknown

2026-01-27

9 min read

Practical guide to replace Microsoft 365 with LibreOffice, lightweight CRMs, and cheap integrations—designed for small engineering teams.

Cut the Microsoft 365 overhead: a minimal CRM stack for small engineering teams

Hook: If your small engineering org is paying for Microsoft 365 mainly for contacts, calendars, and lightweight CRM-style workflows—but suffering high costs, slow onboarding, and vendor lock-in—you can build a lean alternative in 2–4 weeks that saves money and reduces complexity.

Why this matters in 2026

In late 2025 and early 2026 the SaaS market shifted: companies are trimming broad enterprise bundles, prioritizing privacy and cost predictability, and choosing composable stacks over single-vendor lock-in. AI assistants from big vendors increased data gravity and vendor risk for teams that kept everything in one ecosystem. For small engineering teams that need practical CRM functionality—contact lists, simple deal tracking, activity logging, and predictable templates—the full Microsoft 365 suite is often overkill.

What “minimal CRM stack” means

A minimal CRM stack delivers core CRM features with low overhead and easy exportability. It focuses on:

Contacts and companies with CSV export and API access
Deals/Opportunities and basic funnel stages
Activity logging (calls, notes, emails) that’s searchable
Templates for proposals and invoices that you control
Cheap, reliable integrations (API or self-hosted automation)

Opinionated stacks — pick one

Below are three pragmatic stacks with example vendors. Each is tuned for small engineering orgs (2–25 people).

1) Cloud-first low-cost: LibreOffice + HubSpot (Free) + n8n (hosted)

LibreOffice for offline docs and templates (invoices, proposals). Free, open source, good for privacy.
HubSpot Free CRM for contacts, deals, activities. Robust CSV import/export and APIs. No contract lock-in for small teams.
n8n (hosted or DigitalOcean droplet) for light automations (webhooks, Google Calendar sync, email notifications).

Why choose this: near-zero license cost, strong export features, fast onboarding. Good if your team prefers cloud tools but wants to avoid MS365 bundle pricing.

2) Self-hosted open-source: LibreOffice/Collabora + Frappe (or ERPNext) + n8n self-hosted

Collabora Online or LibreOffice for document editing.
Frappe / ERPNext (open-source) as CRM — lightweight, self-hostable, with Python/JS extensibility.
n8n self-hosted on a small droplet for automation.

Why choose this: maximum control and data ownership, predictable infra costs, good for teams with SRE/devops skills.

3) Lightweight SaaS + Airtable: OnlyOffice + Pipedrive/Capsule + Airtable + Make.com

OnlyOffice or LibreOffice for docs.
Pipedrive or Capsule for a focused sales pipeline and simple contacts.
Airtable as a flexible internal data store for templates, onboarding checklists and small automations.
Make.com (or Zapier) for quick integrations.

Why choose this: faster setup, especially if you want spreadsheet-like UIs and low-code automations.

Key selection criteria (checklist)

When evaluating lightweight CRMs and office alternatives, insist on the following:

Exportability: CSV/JSON/ICS export available on demand and via API.
API access: REST API or GraphQL for automation and future migrations.
Data model simplicity: contact → company → deal → activity mapping must be clear.
Cost predictability: per-user costs (or flat fees) and sensible rate limits.
SSO support (OIDC/SAML): SSO support or simple OAuth to avoid identity sprawl.
Local templates: editable document templates (ODT/Docx) you control—no hidden AI training clauses.
Backup/restore: automated weekly exports or snapshot features.

Migration checklist: leaving Microsoft 365 without breaking sales

Make this a project with a one-week pilot and a 2–4 week full migration. Below is a practical, ordered checklist.

Phase 0 — Plan (1–2 days)

Inventory: list users, mailboxes, distribution lists, SharePoint sites, OneDrive folders, Contacts, Calendars, Teams/Planner usage.
Decide your target stack (pick from the stacks above).
Define rollback criteria and a communication plan for staff and customers.

Phase 1 — Export data (3–7 days)

Export everything now—don’t rely on live sync until you test imports.

Contacts: From Outlook Web or desktop: Export to CSV (People → Manage → Export). Keep one master CSV.
Calendars: Export ICS per calendar (Outlook Web -> Settings -> View all Outlook settings -> Calendar -> Shared calendars -> Export).

Mail: For small teams, use IMAP-to-IMAP sync (imapsync) or export PST and convert. Example imapsync command:

imapsync --host1 outlook.office365.com --user1 alice@example.com --password1 'OLDPASS' --host2 mail.example.org --user2 alice@newmail.example.org --password2 'NEWPASS' --ssl1 --ssl2

OneDrive/SharePoint: Download document libraries as ZIPs via web UI or use rclone to copy files:
```
rclone copy "onedrive:Documents" /data/onedrive-backup --drive-use-team-drive
```
Teams/Planner data: Export chat histories and tasks if required—Teams data is sticky. For minimal teams, document processes and move important attachments to your new files store (Nextcloud, S3).

Phase 2 — Prepare import templates (1–3 days)

Create clean, normalized CSVs that match your new CRM’s import format. Use LibreOffice to clean data.

Minimal contact CSV headers example:

email,first_name,last_name,company,work_phone,mobile,job_title,street,city,state,zip,country,source,notes

Minimal deal CSV headers example:

deal_name,company,contact_email,amount,currency,stage,close_date,owner,source,notes

Phase 3 — Pilot import and automations (3–7 days)

Import 10–50 rows first. Verify fields, tags, and custom properties.
Set up weekly CSV export via API or scheduled job: automate exports so you always have an on-demand full snapshot.
Create minimal automations: e.g., when a contact is created in HubSpot, create a record in Airtable or send Slack notification. For self-hosted, configure n8n workflows.

Phase 4 — Cutover and cleanup (1–2 weeks)

Switch new leads intake to the new CRM forms (update website forms to post to new webhook).
Communicate email changes and calendars to the team. Keep old mailboxes read-only for 30 days.
Monitor data integrity and sync errors. Keep a weekly verification checklist for 30 days.

Practical automation recipes (copy/paste)

1) n8n webhook to insert a contact into HubSpot (JSON mapping)

{
  "email": "{{ $json["email"] }}",
  "properties": {
    "firstname": "{{ $json["first_name"] }}",
    "lastname": "{{ $json["last_name"] }}",
    "company": "{{ $json["company"] }}"
  }
}

Use this as a starting node; n8n has built-in HubSpot node. For self-hosted, run on a small droplet to keep costs predictable.

2) LibreOffice headless convert for templates

libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir /tmp /templates/proposal.odt

This lets you generate PDFs from ODT templates on-demand (e.g., CI job or simple Flask app).

Field mapping and templates — what to standardize

Standardize these fields across tools to make exports/imports trivial:

Contact: id,email,first_name,last_name,company_id,role,phone,source,tags
Company: id,name,industry,website,headcount
Deal: id,name,company_id,contact_id,amount,currency,stage,owner_id,created_at,updated_at
Activity: id,type,subject,note,related_contact,related_deal,timestamp,owner_id

Cost comparison (example math — 2026 pricing signals)

Example annual costs, small team (8 seats):

Microsoft 365 Business Standard: ~$12.50/user/month → ~ $1,200/year
LibreOffice: $0 (or Collabora subscription ~ $120/year for small infra)
HubSpot Free CRM: $0
n8n hosted or small droplet: ~$60–240/year
Pipedrive starter: ~$12.50/user/month → $1,200/year

With a minimal stack (LibreOffice + HubSpot Free + a $6/month droplet for n8n), expect under $300/year infra + domain costs — a >70% reduction vs MS365 per-seat costs. Real savings depend on whether you need paid CRM features or enterprise identity.

Migration pitfalls and how to avoid them

Hidden Teams data: Chats and channel files can be hard to extract. Move important artifacts to Nextcloud or object storage before cutting over.
Broken automations: Update webhooks in staged deployments and test end-to-end flows.
Email deliverability: When moving mail providers, update SPF/DKIM/DMARC DNS and monitor bounce rates.
Identity mismatch: If you retain Azure/AD, plan user deprovisioning. For small teams, consider switching to a simple SSO like Google or Auth0 for cost predictability.

Backup and exit strategy (non-negotiable)

Always build a recovery plan:

Weekly full CSV/JSON exports of contacts, deals, activities via API.
Daily incremental backups of storage (rclone to S3 or DigitalOcean Spaces).
Store templates in Git (ODT or DOCX checked in alongside rendered PDFs).
Automated smoke tests: synthetic lead creation and follow-through workflow to ensure staging works.

Case study: 8-engineer SaaS team — 30-day migration

In my experience advising small teams, one 8-engineer SaaS org moved off Microsoft 365 in 30 days. They used LibreOffice for documents, HubSpot Free for CRM, and n8n on a $6/mo droplet. Outcome:

Monthly software spend fell by ~78%.
Time to onboard new hires for CRM tasks dropped from 3 days to 1 day due to simplified templates.
They kept exports automated and scheduled; after 6 months, they shifted to a self-hosted Frappe instance for a custom field without losing data portability.

"We wanted less vendor overhead and more control. The small upfront migration cost paid back in under two months." — Engineering lead, 8-person SaaS

Advanced strategies and 2026 predictions

Trends to leverage in 2026:

Composable data layer: Keep contact and deal data in a canonical CSV/JSON store (or Airtable) and treat CRM UI as a presentation layer.
AI cautiously: Use AI features that run locally or that allow opt-out for model training. Large vendor AI features increased lock-in in 2025–26.
Self-hosted automation: Tools like n8n are maturing and reduce long-term costs vs. Zapier for non-enterprise teams.
Predictable infra: Prefer small VPS or managed DB with automatic backups and simple scaling instead of opaque enterprise plans.

Quick decision guide

If you need 0 cost, fastest setup: LibreOffice + HubSpot Free + a hosted automation service.
If you prefer full control and can run infra: LibreOffice/Collabora + Frappe/ERPNext + self-hosted n8n.
If you need fast UX and don’t mind small fees: OnlyOffice + Pipedrive + Airtable + Make.com.

Actionable takeaways — what to do this week

Export your Outlook contacts to CSV today and open them in LibreOffice to inspect and clean duplicates.
Spin up a one-week HubSpot Free account and import a 20-row sample to validate field mapping.
Set up a scheduled CSV export from HubSpot and store it in a Git repo or S3 bucket for versioned backups.
Draft one ODT invoice/proposal template, render it using LibreOffice headless, and automate PDF generation with a simple script.

Final checklist before cutover

All contacts/devices mapped and exported
Email SPF/DKIM/DMARC ready for new provider
Lead intake forms point to new CRM webhook
Weekly export automation in place
Rollback plan documented and shared

Conclusion — pragmatic, reversible, and engineer-friendly

For small engineering teams in 2026, moving off Microsoft 365 doesn’t mean losing CRM capability. A focused stack—LibreOffice for documents, a lightweight CRM with strong exportability, and cheap automations—gives you control, saves money, and keeps future migrations easy. Start with a pilot, automate exports, and keep templates in Git. The right stack is opinionated but reversible.

Call to action: Ready to pilot a minimal CRM stack? Try the one-week experiment: export contacts, spin up HubSpot Free, and automate one template with LibreOffice. If you want a migration checklist tailored to your environment, reach out to simplistic.cloud for a hands-on pilot and a 30-day migration plan.

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