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A Monica alternative for Mac
Monica is a good personal CRM. It has been open source since 2017, and you can host it yourself. NexxusCRM is for people who would rather it lived on their Mac, read their email and messages for them, and kept everything encrypted. Here is how the two compare, including where Monica is the better choice.
Choose Monica if
- you want open source, or want to host it on your own server
- you use Windows, Linux or Android
- you want rich personal records: relationships, activities, a journal
- you are happy to type things in rather than have them pulled from your email
Choose NexxusCRM if
- you are on a Mac and want your network on it, encrypted, with no account
- you want email, iMessage and WhatsApp history in each contact without typing it
- you want to see who you owe a reply, and a brief before each meeting
- you run your day from Things 3
| NexxusCRM | Monica | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free during the beta. The launch price is not set yet, and the first 50 never pay more than it. | $9 a month or $90 a year, hosted, with a 30 day trial. Free if you host it yourself. |
| Platforms | Mac (Apple silicon and Intel), plus an iPhone app. No Windows, Android or web app. | A web app that works on phones. Native iPhone and Android apps are planned for the next version. |
| Your data | On your Mac, in a database encrypted with SQLCipher. iPhone sync is end to end encrypted. No account. | On Monica's servers, or on yours if you host it. No end to end encryption is claimed. |
| Any IMAP account: iCloud, Gmail (with an app password), Proton, Fastmail and the rest. | No email integration listed. | |
| Calendar | iCloud calendars, read only. Google Calendar is not in the beta. | Not in the stable version. The 5.x beta adds CalDAV subscriptions. |
| Messages | iMessage and WhatsApp history, message text included, read on your Mac. | Not listed. |
| A browser bridge: profiles and messages you open go to the app, without leaving your Mac. | Not listed. | |
| AI | Optional. Local models through Ollama; cloud models only if you add one, and email stays local by default. | None today. The next version plans an MCP server, so you can connect your own assistant. |
| Tasks | Two way sync with Things 3. | Its own reminders. No task app sync listed. |
| Source code | Closed source. | Open source (AGPL 3.0), with more than 25,000 stars on GitHub. |
Where NexxusCRM falls short
- It is not open source. You cannot read the code or host it yourself; you have the privacy page and our word.
- It runs on a Mac, with an iPhone app. Nothing for Windows, Linux or Android, and no web app.
- It is a beta. Monica has years of use behind it.
- It imports contacts from vCard only. Monica also takes CSV.
- Calendars are iCloud only for now.
Facts about Monica were checked on 20 October 2026, from: monicahq.com, Monica pricing, Monica v3, Monica on GitHub. Prices change, so check theirs before you decide. Spotted something out of date? Write to hello@nexxuscrm.com and we will fix it.
Try it on your own Mac
The beta is free. The first 50 shape the roadmap and never pay more than the launch price. The full beta details.