This post is based on notes for a CiviCamp Toronto 2026 panel

As you know, CiviCRM (?) now includes powerful tools such as Searchkit and Form builder. Historically, we leveraged existing tools from either a content management system (ex: Drupal/WordPress) or other third parties. After all, those tools can be products of their own. But that came at a cost. The CiviCRM community was fragmented, the integrations required work to maintain, and it wasn’t clear where those integrations would still exist in 10 years.

We would see forum questions on how to do this or that, and the answer depended on whether you are on WordPress or Drupal.

We were increasingly seeing new users who didn’t know anything about WordPress or Drupal. That makes sense, because the CRM isn’t just a form attached to the website anymore. It’s the heart of the organization, it has different goals and priorities. Organizations compare CiviCRM with services such as Salesforce or Dynamics, or very basic services such as Airtable.

So we wanted a more simple and robust CRM that is easy to install because it’s only one set of tools, and easy to maintain, upgrade and secure, for the same reason.

I blogged about this back in 2020. A year later, the Tor Project reached out and expressed their interest. I did a proof of concept, then Rich (artfulrobot) and Ben (ufundo) took the lead and did 99% of the work, which was admittedly far more than I expected. The first official release of Standalone was in November 2024.

I think it paid off. We are seeing strong adoption within our existing community, which I see as defragmentation, and also we’re seeing new organizations, new partners, and new developers, who are starting with Standalone.

Combined with the new River default theme, we can say that we now have a product that is somewhat consistent and recognizable, where administrators and coders can develop skills that are transferable between organizations. Spark hosting, as well as CiviAcademy, provide the two other building blocks for new adopters.

Our competition is Salesforce and Dynamics. It’s not WordPress or Drupal, and those integrations will always be there because they’re also what make CiviCRM extremely powerful.

What’s next for Standalone?

  • Authentication is a key issue for larger organizations, with support for single-sign-on (SSO). See dev/core#4991
  • For smaller organizations, we need more flexible two-factor authentication options. Standalone supports TOTP (ex: Microsoft/Google Authenticator), but some organizations prefer an email validation, or keypass. Some of this is available in the Login Security extension.
  • Having the possibility to create a simple member portal with Standalone. For example, letting users access a dashboard where they can download their receipts, view their membership status. This is technically already possible, but it could be easier. For example, setting the default home page depending on the user’s role.
  • Better front-end themes. River has been doing a lot of progress, and we have also been working on this in The Island theme (River+Island, dev version).

What are your priorities? Join us on the CiviCRM Standalone chat.

What is CiviCRM?

What’s CiviCRM? CiviCRM is a contact management system for non-profits. It can be a shared address book, handle donations, event registrations, newsletters, case management and much more. It has been around for 20 years, so the odds are good it might be around for another 20 years. It has a robust community, with over 100 organizations contributing to its development, and many partners who offer support and hosting services. More importantly, in a world of Big Tech and AI, CiviCRM lets you control your data, because you can control the hosting, and you can control the code. You can also work with many experienced partners, so you are not dependent on a single company who might be sold, go bankrupt or have stockholders who might decide overnight that the service they provide to you is not lucrative enough. https://civicrm.com