CRM integrations through open interfaces, not a marketplace

A CRM integration moves data or triggers between your CRM and another system, so nobody copies a deal from one screen into another. Customermates does this through four open interfaces instead of an app marketplace: a REST API, outgoing webhooks, an MCP endpoint for AI clients, and a community node for n8n. They are available on every plan, including self-hosted installations.

That choice has a cost you should know up front. There is no catalog of one-click apps. If you want Customermates to talk to Slack, your accounting tool or a form builder, you either point a webhook at that tool, call the API from your own code, or build the flow in an automation tool such as n8n, Make or Zapier.

The five connection types at a glance

Webhooks, REST and MCP come with Starter at €12 per user per month. The unified inbox starts with Pro at €29 per user per month and includes 1 connected account per user; Business includes 3 per user and shared accounts. Self-hosted installations get REST, webhooks and MCP but no inbox, so messaging events never fire there.

Which route fits which job

Webhooks

Create a webhook under Settings → Webhooks → Add, paste the receiving URL, pick events and choose the list under Records from. You can choose from 16 events: 5 record events (created, updated, moved to Trash, restored and deleted permanently, for any list you choose, your own included) and 11 messaging events, such as a received message or email and a changed calendar event.

The details that matter when you build on them:

• Signatures. Set a secret and every delivery carries an HMAC-SHA256 signature over the request body, so the receiver can reject forged calls.
• Retries. Timeouts, network errors, 5xx responses and 408, 425 and 429 are retried automatically, up to 10 attempts in total. Other 4xx responses are not.
• Delivery log. Settings → Deliveries shows every delivery with status code and payload, and you can resend one from there.
• Custom headers and body templates. Headers let you authenticate against the receiver. A body template replaces the standard JSON envelope with the shape the receiver expects, using placeholders such as {{event}} and {{data.record.ref.recordId}}.
• Changes only. A record.updated event lists each field that changed with its before and after value, and a write that changes nothing sends no event.

Deliveries are not strictly ordered, so treat them as idempotent messages keyed by the event id and order by the payload timestamp and record version. The full catalog and payload shapes are in the webhooks documentation.

REST API

The API is versioned under /api/v1, authenticated with an x-api-key header, and described by an OpenAPI document. The same action endpoints serve every list, the five starter lists and the ones your workspace adds, and address a record by typeId and recordId: POST /api/v1/records/query and /records/search read, POST /api/v1/records/mutate creates, updates, deletes, links and unlinks, and its updateMany and deleteMany actions change up to 100 records per request. POST /api/v1/model/read returns your fields and their option IDs, which you need because the deal Stage is a configurable single choice field, not a fixed value.

An API key inherits the permissions of the user who created it. There is no per-key scope, so create keys from a user whose role fits the integration. More detail on the API feature page.

MCP for AI clients

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI applications to external systems. Customermates runs one MCP endpoint at /api/v1/mcp with 53 tools. Claude and ChatGPT connect as a custom connector with OAuth sign-in, as described in connecting Claude and ChatGPT. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI connect with an API key.

The client and its model are yours. Your AI provider bills its own usage, and MCP calls use no Customermates hosted AI credits. Messaging, calendar and social tools need a Cloud plan with the inbox. The MCP reference lists every tool.

Inside Customermates Cloud there is also Mate, the hosted assistant, which uses hosted AI credits. Mate can create and edit webhooks for you, and its routines can run a saved instruction when a record changes. That covers work that needs reading and judgment; fixed rules belong in webhooks and n8n.

n8n, Make or Zapier

None of these is bundled with Customermates. You run or subscribe to them separately, and they bring the large connector catalogs. Customermates documents the n8n patterns and publishes a community node; Make and Zapier work through their generic webhook and HTTP steps. Customermates publishes this page; the table below describes each tool's billing model from its own pricing page, checked on 8 October 2026.

n8n is fair-code under the Sustainable Use License: n8n describes its source as available and self-hostable. That is a different licence from the AGPL that covers the Customermates core.

If you already pay for one of them, use it. If you start from zero and have someone who can run a container, self-hosted n8n keeps both the CRM and the automation on your own servers. The n8n setup guide shows the webhook trigger, the HTTP Request calls and the x-api-key credential.

Slack: two routes, no native app

Customermates has no Slack app, no Slack channel in the inbox and no Slack settings screen. Slack is reachable through webhooks or n8n.

Route 1, webhook only. Slack's incoming webhooks accept a JSON POST such as {"text": "Hello"} and post it into one channel. A Customermates body template produces exactly that:

1. Create the Slack incoming webhook

   In Slack, create an app, turn on incoming webhooks, add a webhook to your workspace and pick the channel. Copy the URL and keep it secret.

2. Add the Customermates webhook

   Under Settings → Webhooks → Add, paste the Slack URL, select Record created and choose Deals under Records from.

3. Write the body template

   Enter {"text": "New deal: {{data.record.ref.recordId}}"}. Any path under {{data}} works as a placeholder.

4. Test and check the log

   Create a test deal and open Deliveries. A 2xx status code means Slack accepted it.

Route 2, n8n. Use n8n when the message needs logic: alert only when the deal Stage reaches a certain value, post a weekly pipeline digest from a scheduled POST /api/v1/records/query, or turn a Slack shortcut into a new contact through the API. Slack conversations never appear in the Customermates inbox either way.

What is not included

If your team needs hundreds of prebuilt, vendor-maintained connectors that a non-technical person switches on in a settings screen, a CRM with its own app marketplace fits better. Customermates fits teams that are happy to wire a webhook or let an AI client do the calls, and that want the same interfaces whether they use the cloud or self-host. ERP links follow the same pattern; the CRM and ERP integration guide walks through it.

Frequently asked questions

Third-party details checked on 8 October 2026 against n8n pricing, the n8n repository, Make pricing, Zapier pricing, Slack incoming webhooks and the MCP introduction.