Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about Contact Horse

General

What is Contact Horse?

Contact Horse is a self-hostable contact management system that you can deploy on your own server. Use it to allow your contacts to manage their own contact information, including phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and mailing addresses.

What precipitated this?

Well, now. Visit contact.gruen.us and read "What is this all about?" to read more about the motivation.

Who is Contact Horse for?

Contact Horse is for individuals who want to manage their contacts without recurring fees or giving their data to third parties. We suppose solopreneurs, influencers, and small businesses can use it too, but that’s not our target audience right now.

Aren’t you leaving money on the table?

Yes. Yes we are. And that’s ok.

To us, stakeholder value is more important than shareholder value. Stakeholders include the people who buy and use Contact Horse, but all of their contacts as well. We built this because we respect our contact’s data and their privacy. Most services are profit-motivated. We are privacy-motivated.

We will not sell your data to third parties. Never. Never ever. Because it is our data as well.

It’s a simple service—shouldn’t this be free?

Long term, yes. The goal is to make the application and hosted service free (or stupidly-low cost) for most use cases, and charge users a bit more who need more oomph. Or, who want to take advantage of convenience and bonus features we have planned for the future.

The reality is that consumer CRM is a difficult business. Not technically, but economically. While we could raise Venture Capital (and some folks working on similar projects have—much to their detriment say nothing of their users’), we would prefer not to have external pressures or investors who want to dictate our direction, when we’re profitable, or when they want their capital back for their LPs. Or, being forced to do things that compromise our values or commitment to privacy and data ownership.

We are far more patient than external capital.

Our business model is structured to ensure that our service never goes down. And, if for some reason we get it wrong and can’t keep the lights on, there’s a graceful path for service continuity for those who want it.

Users will always be able to self-host. Migration between self-hosted and hosted by the Horse will always be as easy as possible. We are building for permanence.

Anyway—thanks for asking.

Technical

What are the system requirements?

Contact Horse runs on any system that supports Docker. Minimum requirements for now are 1GB RAM and 1 CPU core for small setups (up to 100 contacts trying to update their contacts concurrently). We are actively working to drive system overhead to the floor.

How does deployment work?

Contact Horse is packaged as a Docker container for easy deployment. We provide a single-command installer that handles everything: Docker setup, SSL certificates, database configuration, and initial setup. You can also deploy manually if you prefer.

Can I customize the code?

Not right now, but hopefully soon! Our launch special is packaged into a Docker container, making it easy to deploy and manage. There are opportunities to modify and customize look, feel, and vibe. We are hoping to open-source the codebase soon; it’s just not ready for that yet while maintaining easily upgradeability.

Can I pay you to build a feature I really want or to accelerate development?

Yes. Yes you very much can and we will very happily take your money.

Send us a Support Ticket with what you’re thinking, your budget, and your timeline.

Important! For now, we won’t be building things that are outside of our core mission or our (private, non-public) roadmap. Your accelerated or added feature will also be made available (either immediately or eventually) to our users, for free or as an add-on.

In any case, for inquiries budgeted under $500 USD, please send us a feature request instead as we really can’t refocus our efforts at this time for less than five bens.

What database does it use?

Contact Horse uses SQLite, but can be configured to use PostgreSQL, MySQL, or any ActiveRecord-compatible relational database. All data stays under your control.

Is it secure?

Yes. Contact Horse is built with security best practices including proper authentication, authorization, data encryption, and protection against common vulnerabilities. You control all security and access policies since, well, you host it! If you are super-paranoid, run it in a zero-trust environment. Could be fun. We’d pay to see that!

Pricing & Licensing

What’s included in the $49 price?

You get the complete Contact Horse application, Docker container, installation scripts, basic documentation, some support, and updates for life (for Launch Special v0.1.0-beta). Future editions will be generous, but not that generous!

What is the setup service?

For an additional $50, we’ll get on a call with you to complete setup including server configuration, domain setup, SSL certificates, and some light training. (Common or turnkey hosting services only, please!)

What license is the code under?

Contact Horse uses a proprietary license that allows you to use, modify, and customize the software for your own purposes. You cannot redistribute or resell the software. Full license terms are provided with your purchase, and on our License page.

Can I use this commercially?

Yes, you can use Contact Horse for commercial purposes for your own organization. As companies are essentially people according to US Law, we consider one license is good for one company. Employees working on behalf of the company are covered under the license. Employees using it for personal purposes are not covered under the license. (If they do, they should buy their own License. They’re super-cheap. Help us out here!)

Are there any recurring costs?

Not from us, unless you ask us to host Contact Horse for you later when we offer that service. Even then, recurring costs are planned to be nominal. (Assuming you don’t take advantage of our Launch Special, in which case hosting is on us forever!) You only pay for your own hosting infrastructure (server, domain, etc.). There are no monthly fees, per-user charges, or subscription costs from us. You can run it on a raspberry pi, cloud provider of your choice, or from your own laptop if you want to. The latter isn’t the best idea, but neither is our business model. So, take advantage.

Support

What support is provided?

Basic email support is available for installation help, configuration questions, and bug reports. We can’t troubleshoot complex custom modifications or provide extensive consulting, but we’re happy to help as we can with standard usage. Expect responses to be slower than a normal help desk as we are a couple of independent developers, not a 24/7 service organization. We will do our best to provide ample documentation that your favorite LLM can probably figure out faster than we can respond!

How do I get help?

Please reach out to Support with your question. Include the e-mail you used and/or the license key, a clear description of the issue (what you did, what you expected, and what happened), and your system details. We will respond as soon as we can.

Can you set it up for me?

Yes! Our setup service ($50 additional) includes complete installation, configuration, and basic training. Once you get your key, reply back and we will schedule a time to get Contact Horse running on your server and make sure you’re comfortable using it.

Do you offer training?

Not exactly, but yes. If you want training, reach out to Support and we can discuss some bespoke options. We will grossly overcharge you for our time; but, know that every dollar goes back to funding our development. So, yes, we offer very expensive training. Benchmark $500/hour in USD.

Still have questions?

Can’t find the answer you’re looking for? Reach out to us and we’ll get back to you.

Reach out to Support