Explore CiviCRM before installing

Demonstration sites

CiviCRM hosts several demo sites—at least one for each of the supported Content Management Systems (CMS): Backdrop, Drupal 7, Joomla, and WordPress. The demo sites present a working copy of the latest master of CiviCRM with sample data.

You can use them to explore CiviCRM, but they are publicly viewable, so do not enter personal data.

Note

These sites run on master for the most part (some CMSs are harder to automate!). The code is bleeding edge, and the "official" demo sites are intended for issue reproduction and testing. Although they demonstrate CiviCRM functionality, that is not their primary purpose: consider them sandboxes rather than demos.

A list of available demos is at https://civicrm.org/demo.

Other users may change these public sites, so you may find unexpected configurations, missing functionality, or different languages. You cannot send emails from the demo sites, set permissions for Drupal users, or fully explore online payment options.

If you have trouble using a demo site, contact the CiviCRM Core Team. For a more controlled environment, consider your own test site.

A local test installation

You can download and set up CiviCRM on your local computer rather than on a server on the Internet. You will still access it through a browser, but it will be visible only on your computer.

A test installation lets you configure CiviCRM and experiment with your data. This option works if you are familiar with configuring a webhosting environment, but it requires some technical knowledge.

CiviCRM Spark

If you are not comfortable setting up a webhosting environment, you can sign up for CiviCRM Spark. This hosted CiviCRM platform is provided by CiviCRM LLC and helps sustain CiviCRM development.

Contact a supplier

If you would prefer guidance at this early stage, consider contacting a CiviCRM provider who can advise you on how to achieve what you need. The CiviCRM website has a find an expert feature to help you find people to work with.