Hi! We have to build a database for users/members and different organizations of a network. That database will be the core of a big non profit project that is very important to us. At first we were thinking on designing the database and developing its interfaces from scratch, but we are now considering using a CRM. It has to be open source (we are considering suiteCRM, CiviCRM, Odoo, ERPNext/FrappeCRM, EspoCRM, Krayin/LaravelCRM, and Dolibarr, but we have yet to study them).

The thing is that we would then use the database of the CRM to hold the members/clients of the network, so we would need a very flexible database, and it being easily connectable via API to different other web services. I know this should be feasible, but would you recommend doing something like that?

The other way would be to make our own database and connect it via API with a CRM so the CRM database stays in sync with our core client/member database.

For you guys experienced in this CRM lands... does any of the proposals sound more practical than the other? or a third idea?

thanks!