The free, open-source LMN alternative.
Crewtavo covers the day-to-day work you do in LMN, from estimates and proposals to scheduling, crew time, invoicing and job costing, and it runs in your own Railway account. No office or crew licenses to buy, no onboarding fee, and your data stays in a database you own.
Crewtavo vs. LMN. Both run a landscaping company from estimate to paid invoice. LMN is built around budgeting; Crewtavo around owning your software and paying nothing per seat.
| Topic | Crewtavo | LMN |
|---|---|---|
| Price of the software | Free for any size of business | Monthly subscription by plan, plus a one-time onboarding fee |
| Adding a team member | No extra cost, in the office or the field | Plans include office and crew licenses; more licenses cost more |
| Budgeting with overhead recovery | Not built in: you price from your own price list and formulas | Built in, and estimates are priced from your budget |
| Job costing | Labor, expenses and materials against each job’s total | Estimated against actual, on the higher plans |
| Who hosts it | You, in your own Railway account | LMN |
| Where your data lives | A Postgres database in your Railway account | LMN’s servers |
| Source code | Open source (AGPL-3.0), on GitHub | Closed |
| Changing how it works | Change anything, or hire any developer to | The settings and integrations LMN offers |
| Getting started | One click to deploy on Railway | Book a demo, then onboarding |
| Support | Docs, and bug reports on GitHub | Included, with live training and an online academy |
LMN’s plans and prices change over time; see LMN’s pricing page for current details. Comparison checked October 2026.
Everything you do in LMN, in Crewtavo.
The work your office and crew leads do every day maps over directly, from the estimate to the invoice.
Included, no add-ons. Tools many service businesses pay for separately come built in.
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Satellite map measuring
Measure areas and lengths on the map and feed them straight into quote formulas.
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Equipment maintenance
Service schedules by date, hours or miles, repair history with receipts, and alerts when something is due.
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SOP knowledge base
Procedures with revision history and required reading, so new hires learn your way of doing the job.
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Weather holds
Rain and temperature rules flag visits that shouldn’t go ahead, and shift a rain day in one step.
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Custom roles
Rename the starter roles or build your own, enforced by the database rather than just hidden buttons.
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Claude and ChatGPT
Connect an AI assistant that only does what each person’s role allows, with every call logged.
Is Crewtavo right for you? An honest take.
Crewtavo is a great fit if
- Licenses for every office and crew member add up as you grow
- You price work from a price list and measurements
- You want to own your data and your software
- You’d rather pay for hosting than for licenses
LMN may suit you better if
- You build every estimate from a budget with overhead recovery
- You want live training and onboarding included
- You want a fully managed service with nothing to own
Switching from LMN in five steps.
Most of the work is setting up your price list. Your clients come over in a CSV file.
- 1 Set up Crewtavo and pick your trade Click Deploy on Railway and create a free Railway account. Crewtavo sets itself up and opens; choose your trade so starter services, formulas and checklists load.
- 2 Bring over your clients Export your customer list from LMN as a spreadsheet, save it as a CSV file, then import it on the Clients screen in Crewtavo.
- 3 Set your prices Adjust the starter price list to match what you charge, and add any services that are missing.
- 4 Invite your team Send invitations and give each person a role: general manager, operations manager, foreman, employee or your own.
- 5 Switch over Book new work in Crewtavo while you finish open jobs in LMN. Keep your old invoices and reports on file.
LMN alternative FAQ.
Is Crewtavo really a free alternative to LMN?
Yes. Crewtavo is free for any size of business, with every feature included. There’s no subscription and no per-user fee. It runs in your own Railway account, and you pay Railway directly: its Hobby plan is $5 a month and includes $5 of usage, and a new instance at rest uses about $3.60 of that.
Does Crewtavo do landscape budgeting like LMN?
Not the same way. LMN builds a budget with overhead recovery and prices estimates from it. In Crewtavo you set prices and formulas on your price list, measure on the satellite map, and see each job’s labor, expenses and materials against its total, flagged when it’s under your target margin.
Can I import my data from LMN?
You can import your customer list from a CSV file. Export it from LMN, and if it comes as an Excel file, open it in Excel or Google Sheets and save it as CSV. Crewtavo matches the columns it recognizes, and you match the rest. Jobs, estimates and invoice history don’t transfer automatically, so most businesses finish open work in LMN, keep old invoices on file, and start new work in Crewtavo.
Does Crewtavo work with QuickBooks?
Yes. Crewtavo sends invoices and payments to QuickBooks Online, and it also connects to Zoho Books.
Is there a mobile app for my crew?
Crews use My day in their phone’s browser and can add it to the home screen like an app. It shows the day’s visits with gate codes, checklists, photos, timers, and on my way, start and complete buttons.
How hard is it to set up?
Easy, with no servers to manage. Click Deploy on Railway, create a free Railway account and approve the setup. Crewtavo creates the app, a Postgres database, sign-ins and file storage in your account, then opens when it’s ready, usually within a few minutes.
Is Crewtavo affiliated with LMN?
No. Crewtavo is an independent open-source project. LMN is a trademark of its owner, used here only to describe the comparison.
Keep estimating. Drop the licenses.
Free for any size of business. Deploy it to your own Railway account, bring over your customers, and own the software your business runs on.