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Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

monicahq.com

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Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#31

Post by robinhood »

YPCrumble wrote: post #19

This is very cool! My question is, is this really free? If so, how and why? It seems like it was a ton of work to build and presumably you could monetize it somehow - is that just something you're planning to do later on? If it gets a lot of users, how will you pay the (albeit small) server costs? I'm curious. Thanks again for building it!

It's free for now. I wanted first to see if there is an interest. The product is open source, so it'll be free forever anyway. I like the GitLab approach - free for everyone, but perhaps put some way to monetize this. I just have NO idea how. I honestly didn't think about it, because I wanted to have a side project that would be useful for people, and I don't know if people need this.

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#32

Post by robinhood »

YPCrumble wrote: post #19

This is very cool! My question is, is this really free? If so, how and why? It seems like it was a ton of work to build and presumably you could monetize it somehow - is that just something you're planning to do later on? If it gets a lot of users, how will you pay the (albeit small) server costs? I'm curious. Thanks again for building it!

Oh, and server costs is Linode (love Linode) on their 10$ monthly plan. This kind of product does not need expensive server anyway, it's pretty basic.

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#33

Post by rrggrr »

IMHO: You want to pivot this product, now, to compete with ourfamilywizard.com. OFW is a great concept but the site runs slow, its search and reporting is erratic and basic, and the UI can be difficult. It is, however, the only game in town for managing divorced families and its about $200 per year. It also features:

- Timestamped and hashed communications and records. - Lower price point than OFW. - More intuitive reporting.

This will NOT have widespread appeal under its current use, and will be tough to make money from.

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#34

Post by bshimmin »

YPCrumble wrote: post #19

This is very cool! My question is, is this really free? If so, how and why? It seems like it was a ton of work to build and presumably you could monetize it somehow - is that just something you're planning to do later on? If it gets a lot of users, how will you pay the (albeit small) server costs? I'm curious. Thanks again for building it!

It seems to me like the kind of thing where a 30 day free trial followed by a small monthly fee ($5? I don't know, something in that ballpark perhaps) might work - if people enjoy using it and become dependent on it during the trial, at least a portion of them will be okay with paying afterwards.

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#35

Post by wink »

Call me cynical, but I find the term CRM pretty wrong. Yes, I understand what it does, people have been keeping track of this stuff (if I read the intro page correctly) for ages, and still I find this borderline creepy and overengineered.

Disclaimer: I am using e.g. Facebook's "On this day" feature to reminisce about old stuff with friends, I also keep birthdays in a calendar. Maybe just the professional spin puts me off :)

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#38

Post by joshstrange »

Love this idea, the things that would really make it a no-brainer for me would be ability to upload multiple photos for a contact (or in a note) and a native/hybrid app. I could probably deal with the webapp on my phone but an app with push notifications would be ideal IMHO.

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#39

Post by robinhood »

bastih wrote: post #28

Looks like this is a service only for very young people? Got this wonderful error while trying to add my father. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ijdfvwtua5nwy6p/Screenshot%202017-...

Oops :-D Submit a pull request Thanks for the bug notice, I'll fix this. https://github.com/monicahq/monica/issues/16

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#40

Post by robinhood »

jon_black wrote: post #37

Nice idea. Any chance you could fix the privacy policy link?

Of course. In order to open source the product, I had to separate the marketing app from the code of the main app, and I forgot to update the link. Doh. Thanks for noticing, here is the link: https://monicahq.com/privacy.html
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