Twenty
Twenty 2.53 lets apps lock field permission actions, a day after role-aware relation pickers.
Comparison · CRM
Phorest vs Twenty
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Phorest and Twenty — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Phorest vs Twenty: at a glance
What is Phorest?
Phorest keeps handing salon owners the settings they used to phone support about
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
What is Twenty?
Twenty 2.52 lets apps run their own account-connection flows and adds inbox sharing.
Twenty 2.52.0 has a breaking change: apps can now connect accounts through their own authorization flow, and members manage personal app connections from preferences. The release also adds inbox thread sharing, global chat commands, email approval review, and weekly AI credits shown in chat. Much of the rest rebuilds record-form editing for emails, phones, links, files and addresses, and brings back table and toggle controls lost in 2.51's TipTap switch.
Phorest vs Twenty: editorial side-by-side
Phorest
5.0CRM
Phorest keeps handing salon owners the settings they used to phone support about
◆ Current state
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
◆ Where it's heading
The through-line is decentralising configuration to the salon and making the booking model match how these businesses actually run. Nearly every recent release either removes a support ticket or lets one staff member be treated differently from another — different price, different online availability, different qualifications. The multi-service booking flow extends the same thinking to the client-facing side, where a visit involving two practitioners was previously modelled as an edge case.
◆ Prediction
Per-staff settings have now landed for price, online visibility and qualifications separately; the obvious next step is a single staff-level view that shows all three together, since the release notes already admit owners are hopping between screens to check them.
Twenty
5.0CRM
Twenty 2.52 lets apps run their own account-connection flows and adds inbox sharing.
◆ Current state
Twenty 2.52.0 has a breaking change: apps can now connect accounts through their own authorization flow, and members manage personal app connections from preferences. The release also adds inbox thread sharing, global chat commands, email approval review, and weekly AI credits shown in chat. Much of the rest rebuilds record-form editing for emails, phones, links, files and addresses, and brings back table and toggle controls lost in 2.51's TipTap switch.
◆ Where it's heading
Twenty is pushing its app platform outward: third-party apps now own their auth and channels, and SDK packages ship in lockstep with core. Alongside it, the product is building a shared inbox and an AI chat with metered credits and human approval steps. The editor and form work shows a team still paying down 2.51's TipTap migration.
◆ Prediction
Expect a 2.52.x patch round for the new connection flow and record-form bricks, and more approval-gated AI actions in chat. Removal of the deprecated blocknote sub-field is still pending.
Alternatives to Phorest and Twenty
Other CRM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Phorest or Twenty.
IntegCRM
IntegCRM keeps building out invoicing, bookings, forms and email for service businesses.
Folk
folk ships a French interface weeks after moving its data storage to Europe.
GroupOffice
GroupOffice patches its current 26.0 line and the older 25.0 line on the same afternoon.
Close CRM
Close takes Chloe Chat out of beta for every customer, a month after OIDC SSO.
Corteza
Corteza 2026.9.0 goes final after a week of single-fix candidates.
See all Phorest alternatives → · See all Twenty alternatives →
Recent activity from Phorest and Twenty
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoTwentyTwenty 2.53.1: apps can lock permissions on their own fields
- 1d agoTwentyTwenty SDK 2.53.1: apps can lock field permission actions
- 1d agoTwentyTwenty 2.53.0: docs translation update only
- 1d agoTwentyTwenty SDK 2.53.0: docs translation update only
- 2d agoTwentyTwenty 2.52: app-owned account auth, inbox sharing, chat commands
- 2d agoTwentyTwenty SDK packages npm publish run (2.52.0)
- 1mo agoPhorestBooking multiple services with multiple staff? Now way easier to mix up who's doing what 💇
- 2mo agoPhorestChoose which team members show up for online bookings — service by service
- 2mo agoPhorestPermissions to change service / retail prices
- 2mo agoPhorestAdd New Brands
- 2mo agoPhorestPricing just got personal
- 2mo agoPhorestGeofencing Clock In/Out on Phorest Go
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Phorest and Twenty?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Phorest and Twenty are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Phorest better than Twenty?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Phorest and Twenty are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other CRM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Phorest?
Top Phorest alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Phorest alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/phorest for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Twenty?
Top Twenty alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Twenty alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/twenty for the full list with editorial commentary on each.