A field type in Bitrix24 (Alaio) is chosen once — at creation — and determines everything that follows: how the value is stored, how it looks in the card, whether filters and reports work on it, what automation can do with it. Pick the wrong type and you'll be recreating the field and migrating data. Let's go through the stock types, their limits, and the part the documentation barely mentions: how to add field types that don't ship in the box.

Which field types does Bitrix24 offer out of the box?

The stock set is the same for leads, deals, contacts, companies and SPAs. Text: String (short text, with a multiline variant). Numbers: Integer and Number with decimals. Money — amount together with currency, the right choice for anything financial. Yes/No — a binary checkbox. Dates: Date and Date/Time. List — a set of predefined values, the only text-like type that filters and reports handle properly. Link — a URL. Address — a structured address with a map. File — an attachment right in the card. And bindings: to an employee, to CRM items (contact, company, deal), to CRM dictionaries, to information block sections and elements; for service bookings there's Resource booking. Almost every type has a "Multiple" flag — several values in one field.

How do I pick the right field type?

Start from how the field will be used. Filtering and reporting — List, not String: with free text, "NYC", "N.Y.C." and "New York" are three different values. Storing money — Money, not a number: the currency gets lost. Doing math in automation rules and workflows — numbers and dates; arithmetic doesn't work on text. Linking entities — a CRM item binding, not an ID in a string: the binding is clickable and automation can traverse it. Two hard limits people discover too late: an existing field's type cannot be changed, and each entity type allows at most 1,016 custom fields.

What are stock types missing?

Stock types store and display data — but display it as text. A card has no progress bar, no colored status, no star rating, no days-to-deadline counter: managers compute all of that in their heads from raw numbers and dates. There are no input masks — phone numbers and tax IDs get typed every possible way. No computed values — "days since last contact" can't be a field. No QR codes, no masking of sensitive values, no colored tags. That's not an oversight but the boundary of the box: Bitrix24 delegates extending field types to apps.

How do I add new field types to Bitrix24?

Through the REST API, apps can register their own custom field types on the portal — after installing such an app, the new types appear next to the stock ones, and the values are stored by Bitrix24 itself. Roboteka adds 20 widget field types — see the field type catalog by category. Visual clarity in the card: Color status, Progress bar, Star rating, NPS scale 0–10, Emoji scale, Tags. Working with dates: Deadline countdown and Days since. Error-free input: Input mask, Checklist, Yes/No toggle. Utilities: QR code, Link button, Masked text, Formatted money, Formula field, Field template, Card note, Counter, Moment capture.

How do I enable and configure a field type from an app?

In Roboteka it's two steps in the catalog: "Enable" registers the type on the portal, "Attach" creates a field of that type in the lead, deal, contact or company card. From there the field lives like any custom field: it shows up in field settings and filters, automation rules and workflows can fill it. Each type has its own settings — counter step, status colors, mask format — opened with the gear right on the field in the card. The values live in Bitrix24 itself — uninstalling the app doesn't delete data, the field just loses its widget rendering.

Frequent questions about field types

Can I change a field's type? No — only create a new field of the right type and migrate the data (field update robots help). Why List instead of String? Filters, reports and automation compare exact list values, not spelling variants. How many fields can I create? Up to 1,016 per entity type, but the card becomes unreadable far earlier — hide the extras and group into sections. What happens to an app field's data if the app is removed? The values stay in Bitrix24 — visible in history and the API, just without the widget in the card.

Summary

Stock Bitrix24 field types cover data storage: text, numbers, money, dates, lists, files, bindings. Their boundary is visual clarity and input control — that's where app field types work. Browse the Roboteka field type catalog — 20 widgets for CRM cards, enabled in two clicks. Missing a type — describe the task, we build it for free and add it to the library.