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Top > Knowledge Creation Laboratory by CRM(xRM) > A comparison of no-code tools: kintone and EMOROCO CRM Lite — Criteria for deciding whether to build from scratch or use a CRM from the beginning.

A comparison of no-code tools: kintone and EMOROCO CRM Lite — Criteria for deciding whether to build from scratch or use a CRM from the beginning.

Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

"We're considering kintone, but how much customization is actually needed to use it as a CRM?"

"To be honest, I don't really understand the difference between kintone and EMOROCO CRM Lite."

I will discuss this comparison honestly from the perspective of a designer.

In conclusion, **kintone and EMOROCO CRM Lite are products with fundamentally different goals.** The choice isn't about which is superior, but rather about what your company needs.

This article discusses the differences in design philosophy, functionality, cost, and practical aspects of using both systems as CRMs, supported by specific data.

The first thing to clarify is the "difference in design philosophy"—this is the key to making a decision.

Before making a comparison, it's important to understand that the two have different definitions of what they "create."

[Differences in design philosophy between kintone and EMOROCO CRM Lite]

kintone:
"Business Application Development Platform"
→ Tools for "building your own" CRM
→ A blank canvas. You can create anything.
→ The user decides what to make.
→ You can create a CRM, but it's not a CRM from the start.

EMOROCO CRM Lite:
"CRM4.0 Platform"
→ A tool designed from the outset as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool.
→ Clients, activities, projects, emotional temperature, and narrative are built in from the start.
→ Created for the purpose of managing customer relationships.
→ It can be further expanded to suit your company's operations without coding.

→ "I want to use CRM with kintone" = Drawing CRM on a blank canvas.
"I want to use CRM with EMOROCO" = Add your company's business processes to a canvas that already has a CRM built in.

This difference in design philosophy leads to the most important selection criterion: "manufacturing costs."

Price Comparison – "Displayed Price" and "Actual Cost" are Two Different Things

First, we'll compare the prices accurately.

[Price Comparison (as of 2026)]

kintone:
Light Course: 1,000 yen/user per month (1,100 yen including tax)
Standard Course: ¥1,800/user per month (¥1,980 including tax)
Minimum contract: 10 users
Minimum monthly fee: Light plan from ¥10,000 / Standard plan from ¥18,000

*Important restrictions on the Light Course:
External service integrations, plugins, and extensions are not available.
Standard or higher is required to use additional features such as GIS and BPF.

EMOROCO CRM Lite (ver2.0):
Monthly fee: 1,500 yen/user
Minimum contract: 3 users
Minimum monthly fee: ¥4,500 and up
Initial cost: 0 yen
Free trial: 30 days

Monthly cost comparison for 5 users:
kintone Lite: 5,500 yen (tax included)
kintone Standard: 9,900 yen (tax included)
EMOROCO: 7,500 yen (excluding tax)

Up to this point, you might think that "kintone Lite is cheaper." However, the real cost comparison starts here.

[Total cost comparison for using it as a CRM]

Additional costs required to create a CRM with kintone:

① When designing and building from scratch in-house:
Design and build of a customer management application: 10-20 hours
Designing and building an activity tracking app: 5-10 hours
Design and build a project management application: 10-20 hours
Designing the integration between the three apps: 5-15 hours
Installation of GIS functionality (external plugin): Additional plugin fees apply.
Implementation of BPF (Business Process Flow): Customization required separately
Total: 30-65 hours (calculated at an hourly rate of 2,500 yen, this amounts to 7.5-16.25 yen)

② When requesting external partners to build the system:
Estimated initial setup costs: 30 to 100 yen
(Design and development costs to create a system similar to CRM)

③ Cost of plugins and extensions:
GIS map integration plugin: Several thousand to tens of thousands of yen per month
Business Process Flow (BPF equivalent) Plugin: From several thousand yen per month
External integration plugins: Additional fees per feature.

Additional setup costs for EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0:
Business partners, activities, projects, emotional temperature, GIS, BPF, LINE notifications:
All features are included as standard (included in the monthly fee of 1,500 yen/user).
Initial setup cost: 0 yen

→ Total cost estimate for "5 users over 3 years":

kintone Standard (Setup cost: 30 yen, Plugin monthly fee: 1 yen):
Monthly fee: 9,900 yen + 10,000 yen = 19,900 yen
3 years: 19,900 yen x 36 months + initial payment of 30 yen = 1,016,400 yen

EMOROCO CRM Lite (No additional configuration, no plugins):
Monthly fee: 7,500 yen
3 years: 7,500 yen x 36 months = 270,000 yen

Difference: Approximately 74 million yen
(For the purpose of "using it as a CRM," EMOROCO is significantly cheaper.)

Feature Comparison – "What's Needed to Create a CRM with kintone?"

This article compares what you need to create yourself when building a CRM with kintone with what's included in EMOROCO from the start.

[Feature comparison for use as a CRM]

Features kintone EMOROCO CRM Lite
──────────────────────────────────────────────── ───────
Customer management (customer database): Requires custom creation. Standard feature.
Activity log management requires custom development; standard feature included.
Project management requires custom development; standard feature included.
The concept of emotional temperature management does not exist; it's a standard feature (the core of CRM 4.0).
Narrative memo design requires custom creation; already incorporated into the design philosophy.
Designed as CRM 4.0, where the concept of ICX capture does not exist.
GIS map and route sales external plugin included as standard.
Business Process Flow Plugin/Manual (Standard Included)
Customer portal requires separate setup. Optional (¥2/month)
LINE notifications require external integration; included as standard.
External connectors, plug-ins/APIs are included as standard.
Security role: Yes (Enhanced in ver2.0)
Self-hosting: Not available / Available
Minimum contract users: 10 users / 3 users
Minimum monthly fee: ¥10,000 - ¥4,500

Legend: Standard feature = No additional cost, Custom build required = Design and development costs apply

Let's summarize what we can learn from this comparison.

[Things you need to create yourself to use CRM with kintone]

① Design and create three apps: one for clients, one for activities, and one for projects.
→ Design each field, association, and lookup.
→ Design the system so that data is correctly synchronized between the three apps.
→ This section alone requires a minimum of 20-30 hours of design work.

② If you want to use the GIS map and route sales function
→ Kintone does not have GIS as a standard feature.
→ Find and install an external plugin (additional cost)
→ Standard plan or higher is required (not available with Lite plan).

③ If you want to implement the concept of "emotional temperature"
→ kintone does not have a standard concept of "emotional temperature."
→ Create it yourself as a custom field
→ However, if it changes to "Hot/Warm/Cool/Cold"
The design of "triggering the workflow" needs to be implemented by yourself.

④ If you want to implement a Business Process Flow (BPF)
→ kintone does not come with BPF as a standard feature.
→ Install a process management plugin,
Replace it with the "Status Management" field in kintone.
→ There are limitations to managing and automating conditions when moving between stages.

"Cases where kintone is suitable" - an honest assessment

There are cases where kintone is clearly a better fit than EMOROCO. I'll be honest about that.

[Cases where kintone is the best choice]

✅ I want to create a large number of business applications other than CRM:
Order management, inventory management, schedule management, equipment inspection,
Recruitment management and expense reimbursement—"Tasks other than CRM as well"
If you want to manage everything centrally with kintone,
This is where kintone's high degree of flexibility comes into play.

EMOROCO is specialized in CRM,
Creating a wide variety of business applications other than CRM is
kintone is more flexible.

✅ We have an environment where IT-savvy staff can handle in-house development:
kintone allows for extensive customization using JavaScript and APIs.
"We have engineers, and we want to develop features specifically for our company."
In such cases, kintone's flexibility becomes an advantage.

✅ We are already using kintone for business purposes and would like to add CRM functionality:
I already manage other tasks using kintone.
If you want to add CRM to the same environment,
Continuing to use kintone is the more natural choice.

✅ Large companies have complex customization requirements:
With kintone's API and JavaScript integration
If you want to implement a complex business workflow yourself
The kintone ecosystem (partners and plugins) comes into play.

"Cases where EMOROCO is suitable" — an equally honest assessment.

[EMOROCO is ideal for these cases]

✅ "We want to start using CRM first" - Small and medium-sized businesses:
If you start by "creating a CRM" with kintone,
It takes 1 to 3 months before the system is actually usable for sales.
EMOROCO functions as a CRM from day one of implementation.
Ideal for companies that want to spend their time using products rather than creating them.

✅ Companies with outside sales and route sales:
GIS maps, route sales, and visit history management
It is included in the monthly fee of 1,500 yen per user.
Achieving this with kintone would require adding a plugin and significant design effort.

✅ Companies that want to implement emotional temperature, narrative, and CRM 4.0:
The design philosophy of CRM4.0 (emotional temperature, ICX, narrative inheritance) is
It is integrated into EMOROCO, so no additional design is required.
To achieve this with kintone, you would need to build everything yourself.

✅ I want to start with a small team of 3-10 people:
The minimum contract for kintone is 10 users (starting from 1 yen per month).
EMOROCO can be started with 3 users (from 4,500 yen per month).
We cater to small-scale starts, such as those who want to begin with 3 to 5 people.

✅ Companies that require self-hosting to protect confidential information:
This includes professions with confidentiality obligations, such as lawyers, tax accountants, and medical institutions.
kintone does not support self-hosting.
EMOROCO supports self-hosting in your own Azure environment.

✅ Companies that want to share CRM with agents and external partners:
With security roles, form permission management, and a customer portal,
It's possible to design the system so that agents can only access "the projects they are in charge of."

The reality of "customization costs"—estimated man-hours for creating a CRM with kintone

This provides a realistic estimate of the effort required to build a CRM system (integrating three apps: customer, activity, and project) from scratch using kintone.

[A realistic estimate of the effort required to build a custom CRM using kintone]

Phase 1: Design (10-15 hours)
- Field design for what kind of information to manage
Designing how the three apps will work together.
・Permission design (who can see which data)

Phase 2: Construction (20-30 hours)
• Building a client application: 5-8 hours
• Building an activity tracking app: 3-5 hours
• Building a project management app: 5-8 hours
- Lookup and related record setup across 3 apps: 5-8 hours
Workflow and notification settings: 2-5 hours

Phase 3: Testing and Revision (5-15 hours)
- Try entering data and adjust the layout.
- Check if the integration works correctly.
- Providing explanations and feedback to on-site staff

Total: 35-60 hours (calculated at an hourly rate of 2,500 yen, this amounts to 8.75-15 yen)

Note: This is the minimum effort required for a system to function as a CRM.
Emotional Temperature x Workflow Integration, GIS Map, BPF
Adding LINE notifications and a customer portal will further increase the workload.

The going rate when outsourcing to an external partner:
The request was, "We want you to create a CRM using kintone."
The going rate for outsourcing costs is between 30 and 100 yen.
The more features you add, the higher the cost.

→ The kintone CRM, which was completed with this amount of effort and cost,
It can achieve about 8% of the functions that EMOROCO comes standard with.
The remaining 2% ​​(deep emotional connection, CRM 4.0 philosophy, self-hosting, etc.)
This is difficult to achieve with kintone.

"Operating costs after initial setup" - often overlooked maintenance costs

[kintone's "operational costs after initial setup"]

Responding to changes in business operations:
kintone allows you to add fields and modify screens to accommodate changes in business processes.
It's relatively easy (this is one of kintone's strengths).
However, modifying the custom parts that have been meticulously built in will require a significant amount of work.

Staff training:
The CRM built with kintone is a "custom-made application,"
We need to create our own user manual.
EMOROCO has a "standard CRM usage guide,"
External blogs, manuals, and support resources are available.

Person in charge resigns or changes:
When the person in charge who understood kintone's settings and customizations leaves the company,
There is a risk that you will not be able to change settings or troubleshoot problems.
The problem of "kintone apps whose creator is unknown"
This is happening in many companies.

Support for updates:
The kintone update will affect existing customizations.
It may stop working correctly.
The more customizations you add, the higher the cost of updates.

→ Not only "development costs" but also "maintenance and operation costs"
It's important to include these factors in the comparison.
EMOROCO is maintained by the SaaS provider.
The user's maintenance costs are low.

A flowchart for deciding which option to choose.

[kintone vs EMOROCO Decision Flowchart]

Q1: "What is the main purpose?"

A: "The main purpose is customer relationship management (CRM)."
→ Consider EMOROCO

B: "I also want to create a variety of business applications other than CRM."
→ Consider kintone (but check the following)

Q2 (If you selected A): "Do you need the following features?"

GIS maps and route sales are necessary.
→ EMOROCO (standard feature) / kintone (requires additional plugins)

Emotional temperature and narrative design are necessary.
→ EMOROCO (integrated into the design philosophy) / kintone (completely custom-made)

Self-hosting is required.
→ EMOROCO (supported) / kintone (not supported)

→ If you need any of the above: EMOROCO is the best option.

Q3: "What is the size of the team?"

3-9 users: EMOROCO only (kintone requires a minimum of 10 users)
10 or more people: Both options available.

Q4 (If you selected B): "Are you willing to invest in developing the CRM functionality?"

"We have IT staff who can handle it in-house / We have a budget for outsourcing."
→ You can take advantage of the flexibility of kintone.

"We don't have IT staff / Our outsourcing budget is limited."
→ The effort and cost involved in developing this using kintone could become a problem.
→ If you only need CRM, EMOROCO is likely to be faster and cheaper.

"Reasons for migrating from kintone to EMOROCO" — Common patterns

Common reasons why companies that used kintone migrated to EMOROCO

Pattern 1: "We created a CRM using kintone, but it wasn't used."
I created three apps in kintone: one for clients, one for activities, and one for projects.
However, there were numerous comments saying, "I don't know where to enter it."
In the end, I went back to Excel.

the reason:
The difficulty of designing a "UX that functions as a CRM" from scratch ourselves.
The design, which allows the main operation to be completed in 3 clicks or less,
This would be difficult without expertise in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction).

Pattern ② "I wanted to implement the concept of emotional temperature in kintone, but I failed":
"We were able to create hot/warm/cool/cold fields."
However, designing the workflow when it changes coolly is complex.
We have abandoned the idea of ​​linking it with GIS maps."

Pattern 3: "The person in charge of customizing kintone has left the company, and no one can access it anymore."
An employee who knew how to customize kintone has left the company.
I was in a situation where I couldn't change settings or fix any problems that arose.

→ EMOROCO is "designed from the start as a CRM,"
If the purpose of implementation is CRM, no customization is required.
The design is intended to minimize the occurrence of the above patterns.

Summary of criteria for deciding whether to choose kintone or EMOROCO

[In a nutshell, it boils down to this]

Companies that should choose kintone:
"We want to create various business applications in addition to CRM."
"We have staff who are knowledgeable about IT, so we can do in-house development."
"We are already using kintone and would like to add CRM as well."

Companies that should choose EMOROCO:
"First, we want to get our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system working."
"GIS management is necessary for outside sales and route sales."
"I want to implement emotional temperature, narrative, and CRM 4.0."
"We want to start with a small team of 3 to 9 people."
"I want to start using it right away without any setup."
"Self-hosting is required due to confidentiality obligations."

If you can't decide either way:
"First, try it out with the 30-day free trial and decide for yourself."
EMOROCO can be tried for 30 days with no initial fees.
kintone also offers a free trial period.
We need to actually input our own customer data to see if it's "usable".
I recommend checking before making a decision.

To be honest, kintone is an excellent product. The value of being able to freely create apps without coding is genuine.

However, if your sole purpose is to "use it as a CRM," then kintone is a "tool for creating a CRM," not a "tool that functions as a CRM from the start."

EMOROCO CRM Lite is a platform designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to start using CRM from scratch, incorporating the principles of CRM 4.0 into its design. For SMEs solely focused on CRM implementation, EMOROCO is more suitable in terms of development costs, maintenance costs, and ease of use.

Try it today for just ¥1,500 per user per month, with no initial fees and a 30-day free trial.
EMOROCO CRM Lite Product Page

Related article: [Series: EMOROCO CRM Lite ver2.0 Part 4 (Final Part): Competitor Comparison, Pricing, and Getting Started Today—Why EMOROCO CRM Lite is the Optimal Solution for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses]

Related article: [Migration Guide from Excel to EMOROCO CRM Lite - Complete Steps to Import Existing Excel Lists and Get It Up and Running in the First 30 Days]

Related article: [Implementing EMOROCO CRM Lite with the Digital AI Introduction Subsidy 2026 - A Complete Guide to Application Procedures, Subsidy Amount, and Eligibility Requirements]

 

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Person who wrote this article
Shinsuke Matsubara

Arcus Japan Representative Director / CRM Consultant
Click here for detailed profile
He has worked as a system engineer, architect, and consultant at Accenture and other companies, an evangelist at Infragistics (Microsoft MVP for Dynamics CRM (now Microsoft MVP for Business Solutions)), and a solutions specialist at Microsoft (in charge of Dynamics CRM products).He currently leads a service team specializing in CRM, supporting CRM implementation and business launches for companies of all sizes.At the same time, he works as a CRM evangelist, spreading the idea of "true" CRM through events and article contributions.
Having learned CRM at Accenture, and having advocated and globally popularized CRM 2.0 (platform-based CRM) at Microsoft, he is a legitimate successor to CRM and the longest-serving active CRM expert (CRM consultant/CRM doctor), having received an award at Worldwide.
Since then, as a leading expert in CRM who advocates CRM 3.0 (Personalized CRM) and CRM 4.0 (Creative CRM), he has been interviewed and received numerous awards both domestically and internationally from publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, TIME, WORLDCOM, Mainichi Shimbun (Weekly Economist), and Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. He has also been selected as a representative company of the Kansai business community by "Keizaikai" for four consecutive years.
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