For apps that need contacts, deals, and pipelines, Back4app provides a managed database, REST and GraphQL APIs, auth, and real-time Live Queries. Ship a CRM without running your own backend—13+ SDKs included.

Backend Template

CRM App Backend
Schema, API & AI Agent

Q: Why use Back4app for a CRM app?

Back4app is a strong choice for CRM apps: you get a production-ready schema (Contact, Company, Deal, Activity), pipeline stages, row-level security (ACLs), auth and session handling, real-time sync, and an AI Agent that can generate and deploy the app. It fits teams that want a Parse-compatible BaaS or a managed backend without running their own server.

Q: What does the CRM app template include?

The template provides a production-ready backend schema on Back4app: five classes (_User, Company, Contact, Deal, Activity), pipeline stages, REST and GraphQL APIs, an API playground, and an AI Agent prompt. You can connect any of the supported frontends and deploy in minutes.

Q: How is data access controlled in this template?

Deals have an assignedTo pointer to _User; activities have createdBy. Use ACLs and class-level permissions so users only access their assigned deals and related contacts/companies. Class-level permissions ensure only authenticated users can create, read, update, or delete objects.

Q: Can I extend the CRM schema after deployment?

Yes. Back4app uses a flexible schema. Add fields from the dashboard, via the API, or through the AI Agent without running migrations. New fields can be optional so existing data stays valid.

Q: How do I filter deals by stage?

Use the where parameter in REST (e.g. ?where={"stage":"qualified"}) or GraphQL filters. Order by expectedCloseDate or updatedAt. Back4app supports comparison operators, sorting, and pagination.

Q: Does the template support real-time pipeline updates?

Yes. Live Queries let you subscribe to Deal and Activity changes over WebSockets. When a deal or activity is created or updated, subscribed clients receive updates instantly.

Q: How do I add activities to a contact or deal?

Create an Activity with relatedTo set to a Pointer to Contact or Deal. List activities with where={"relatedTo":{"__type":"Pointer","className":"Deal","objectId":" "}}.

A production-ready CRM backend schema and Starter Kit on Back4app: Contact, Company, Deal, Activity, pipeline, ER diagram, data dictionary, JSON schema, API playground, and a one-click AI Agent prompt to deploy in minutes. Choose from 13+ technologies for step-by-step integration guides.

Build with AI Agent Choose Your Technology

Key Takeaways

On this page you get a production-ready CRM schema, a one-click AI prompt, and links to step-by-step guides for 13+ technologies — so you can ship a CRM app without building the backend.

Deploy in minutes — paste the AI Agent prompt and get a running app with frontend, backend, and database.
Secure by default — ACLs and assignedTo so users see only their assigned deals and data.
13+ technology guides — step-by-step SDK integration for Flutter, React, Next.js, Android, iOS, Vue, Angular, and more.
REST + GraphQL — both APIs are auto-generated; no custom endpoints to write.
Five classes — _User, Company, Contact, Deal (pipeline), Activity (tasks/events).

What Is the CRM App Backend Template?

Back4app is a backend-as-a-service (BaaS) ideal for CRM apps: managed database, real-time sync, role-based access, and SDKs for 13+ technologies. The CRM App Backend Template is a pre-built, production-ready backend schema on Back4app. It gives you five classes (_User, Company, Contact, Deal, Activity), pipeline stages, REST and GraphQL APIs, and a one-click AI Agent prompt — so you can connect any frontend and ship a working CRM app in minutes. Pick your technology below for step-by-step SDK integration.

Best for:

Sales teamsCRM buildersRapid prototypingField repsMVP launchesTeams choosing a BaaS for CRM

Overview

A CRM app helps teams manage contacts, companies, deals, and activities in a pipeline. Under the hood it needs user registration, CRUD for Contact/Company/Deal/Activity, pipeline stages, optional real-time sync, and offline support for mobile.

The schema below defines five classes — _User (built-in), Company, Contact, Deal, and Activity — with pointers linking deals to contacts and companies, and activities to contacts or deals. With the Back4app SDK you can interact with this backend from any app — querying by stage, creating and updating deals, logging activities — without writing a custom API layer.

Core CRM Features

This backend template includes the following CRM features out of the box. Choose your technology below for step-by-step integration.

Contact management

Store and manage contacts with name, email, phone, company, and notes. Ideal for CRM apps.

Company management

Track companies with name, website, industry, and address. Links to contacts and deals.

Deal pipeline

Sales pipeline with stages, amount, expected close date, and assignment. Built for CRM backends.

Activity tracking

Log calls, emails, meetings, and notes linked to contacts and deals. Works with CRM SDK.

User & permissions

Built-in user model and pointers for ownership and assignment. ACLs out of the box for CRM.

Why Build Your CRM CRM Backend with Back4app?

Back4app gives you a ready backend and a typed SDK so you can build your CRM app without writing REST glue or managing auth yourself.

•SDKs for every stack: Flutter, React, Android, iOS, Vue, Angular, .NET — or use REST / GraphQL from any language.
•Auth & ACLs out of the box: user sign-up, login, session tokens, and row-level access control with no custom middleware.
•Real-time & offline: Live Queries over WebSockets for instant UI updates; supported SDKs offer local datastore pinning for offline-first apps.
•Flexible schema: add fields from the dashboard or API at any time — no migrations, no downtime.

Same schema and APIs for every stack — switch clients later without changing the backend.

Core Benefits

A production-ready CRM backend so you can ship faster and focus on your app.

Ship Faster, No Backend Code

REST & GraphQL APIs and a ready-to-use schema — connect your app and go.

Secure by Default

ACLs and class-level permissions; restrict by assignedTo and createdBy.

Real-Time Pipeline

Live Queries over WebSockets for instant deal and activity updates.

Built-In Auth

User sign-up, login, and session handling out of the box.

Works Offline

Local pinning keeps contacts and deals available offline and syncs when you reconnect.

Deploy in Minutes

Use the AI Agent to create and deploy your CRM app from this template.

Ready to try it?

Let the Back4app AI Agent create your CRM app backend, connect the your chosen technology frontend, and deploy — all from a single prompt.

Build with AI Agent Try the API Playground

Free to start — 50 AI Agent prompts/month, no credit card required

Technical Stack

Everything powering this CRM app template at a glance.

Frontend

13+ Technologies

Backend

Back4app

Database

MongoDB

Auth

Auth & Access Control

APIs

REST & GraphQL

Deployment

AI Agent / Dashboard

ER Diagram

Entity-Relationship diagram for the CRM CRM app data model.

ER Diagram

View diagram source

Mermaid

erDiagram
    _User {
        String objectId PK
        String username
        String email
        String password
        Date createdAt
        Date updatedAt
    }

    Company {
        String objectId PK
        String name
        String website
        String industry
        String address
        String notes
        Pointer createdBy FK
        Date createdAt
        Date updatedAt
    }

    Contact {
        String objectId PK
        String name
        String email
        String phone
        Pointer company FK
        String notes
        Pointer createdBy FK
        Date createdAt
        Date updatedAt
    }

    Deal {
        String objectId PK
        String title
        Number amount
        String stage
        Pointer contact FK
        Pointer company FK
        Date expectedCloseDate
        String notes
        Pointer assignedTo FK
        Date createdAt
        Date updatedAt
    }

    Activity {
        String objectId PK
        String type
        String subject
        String description
        Date dueDate
        Date completedAt
        Pointer relatedTo FK
        Pointer createdBy FK
        Date createdAt
        Date updatedAt
    }

    Company ||--o{ Contact : "has"
    Company ||--o{ Deal : "has"
    Contact ||--o{ Deal : "has"
    _User ||--o{ Deal : "assignedTo"
    _User ||--o{ Activity : "createdBy"
    Contact ||--o{ Activity : "relatedTo"
    Deal ||--o{ Activity : "relatedTo"
    _User ||--o{ Company : "createdBy"
    _User ||--o{ Contact : "createdBy"

Integration Flow

Auth-to-CRUD sequence: how your {tech} app talks to Back4app — login, then query contacts and deals, update pipeline.

ER Diagram

View diagram source

Mermaid

sequenceDiagram
  participant User
  participant App as Your App
  participant Back4app as Back4app Cloud

  User->>App: Login
  App->>Back4app: POST /login (username, password)
  Back4app-->>App: Session token
  App-->>User: Logged in

  User->>App: Load contacts and deals
  App->>Back4app: GET /classes/Contact, GET /classes/Deal
  Back4app-->>App: List of Contact and Deal objects
  App-->>User: Show pipeline

  User->>App: Create deal or contact
  App->>Back4app: POST /classes/Deal or POST /classes/Contact
  Back4app-->>App: Deal or Contact (objectId)
  App-->>User: Updated list

Data Dictionary

Complete field reference for every class in the schema.

Field	Type	Description	Required
objectId	String	Auto-generated unique identifier	auto
name	String	Full name of the contact
email	String	Email address	—
phone	String	Phone number	—
company	Pointer<Company>	Company this contact belongs to	—
notes	String	Free-form notes	—
createdBy	Pointer<_User>	User who created this contact	—
createdAt	Date	Auto-generated creation timestamp	auto
updatedAt	Date	Auto-generated last-update timestamp	auto

9 fields in Contact

Security & Permissions

How ownership, ACLs, and class-level permissions protect data in this CRM schema.

Row-Level ACLs

Use ACLs and pointers (assignedTo, createdBy) so users only see and edit their assigned deals and related data.

Class-Level Permissions

CLPs restrict which roles or users can create, read, update, or delete objects at the class level.

Pointer-Based Ownership

Deal.assignedTo and Activity.createdBy link to _User; Cloud Code can enforce visibility and edits by role.

Schema (JSON)

Raw JSON schema definition — copy and use in your Back4app app or import via the API.

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{
  "classes": [
    {
      "className": "Contact",
      "fields": {
        "objectId": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "name": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": true
        },
        "email": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "phone": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "company": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "targetClass": "Company",
          "required": false
        },
        "notes": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "createdBy": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "targetClass": "_User",
          "required": false
        },
        "createdAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "updatedAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "className": "Company",
      "fields": {
        "objectId": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "name": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": true
        },
        "website": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "industry": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "address": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "notes": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "createdBy": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "targetClass": "_User",
          "required": false
        },
        "createdAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "updatedAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "className": "Deal",
      "fields": {
        "objectId": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "title": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": true
        },
        "amount": {
          "type": "Number",
          "required": false
        },
        "stage": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "contact": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "targetClass": "Contact",
          "required": false
        },
        "company": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "targetClass": "Company",
          "required": false
        },
        "expectedCloseDate": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "notes": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "assignedTo": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "targetClass": "_User",
          "required": false
        },
        "createdAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "updatedAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "className": "Activity",
      "fields": {
        "objectId": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "type": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "subject": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "description": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "dueDate": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "completedAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "relatedTo": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "required": false
        },
        "createdBy": {
          "type": "Pointer",
          "targetClass": "_User",
          "required": false
        },
        "createdAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "updatedAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "className": "_User",
      "fields": {
        "objectId": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": false
        },
        "username": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": true
        },
        "email": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": true
        },
        "password": {
          "type": "String",
          "required": true
        },
        "createdAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        },
        "updatedAt": {
          "type": "Date",
          "required": false
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Build with AI Agent

Use the Back4app AI Agent to build a real CRM app from this template: it will create the frontend, the backend (this schema, auth, and APIs), and deploy it — no manual setup. The prompt below describes this CRM stack so the Agent can generate a production-ready app in one go.

Back4app AI Agent

Ready to build

Create a CRM app on Back4app with this exact schema and behavior.

Schema:
1. _User (use Back4app built-in): username (String, required), email (String, required), password (String, required); objectId, createdAt, updatedAt (system).
2. Company: name (String, required), website (String), industry (String), address (String), notes (String), createdBy (Pointer to _User); objectId, createdAt, updatedAt (system).
3. Contact: name (String, required), email (String), phone (String), company (Pointer to Company), notes (String), createdBy (Pointer to _User); objectId, createdAt, updatedAt (system).
4. Deal: title (String, required), amount (Number), stage (String; e.g. lead, qualified, proposal, negotiation, won, lost), contact (Pointer to Contact), company (Pointer to Company), expectedCloseDate (Date), notes (String), assignedTo (Pointer to _User); objectId, createdAt, updatedAt (system).
5. Activity: type (String; e.g. call, email, meeting, note), subject (String), description (String), dueDate (Date), completedAt (Date), relatedTo (Pointer to Contact or Deal), createdBy (Pointer to _User); objectId, createdAt, updatedAt (system).

Security:
- Set ACLs so only authenticated users can access data; use role-based or owner-based rules where appropriate (e.g. assignedTo, createdBy).
- Use Class-Level Permissions so only authenticated users can create/read/update/delete these classes.

Auth:
- Sign-up (username, email, password) and login; support logout/session.

Behavior:
- Full CRUD for Company, Contact, Deal, and Activity.
- List deals with filter by stage and order by expectedCloseDate or updatedAt (pipeline view).
- List activities by relatedTo (Contact or Deal).
- Optional: real-time Live Queries for Deal and Activity for dashboard/pipeline updates.
- Optional: offline pinning for mobile (Contacts, Deals, Activities).

Deliver:
- Create the Back4app app with the schema above, ACLs, and any Cloud Code needed.
- Generate the frontend and connect it to this backend; deploy so the app is runnable end-to-end.

Press the button below to open the Agent with this template's prompt pre-filled.

This is the base prompt without a technology suffix. Choose a technology page below for a tech-specific prompt that also generates the frontend.

Deploy in minutes50 free prompts / monthNo credit card required