Where it runs
Cloud based CRM in your own account
Cloud is a deployment model, not a business model. You can have everything people mean by a cloud CRM, browser access from anywhere and nothing to install, while the database sits in an account with your name on it.
What people actually mean by cloud
Three different things get called cloud, and they have almost nothing in common commercially.
Access from anywhere in a browser. This is what most buyers mean and it is the easy part. Any web application delivers it, whoever owns the server.
Somebody else runs the servers. Also easy, and it is what a hosting provider does for a few tens of dollars a month. It is not the same as handing over your data.
A vendor owns the platform and rents you access per user. This is the commercial model, and it is the one people sign up for when they think they are buying the first two.
Ask one question of any cloud CRM: whose name is on the hosting account. If it is not yours, you are buying the third thing, whatever the first two sounded like.
How ours is deployed
The application runs on standard managed hosting or a small cloud instance, in a region you choose, under an account you own. We deploy to it; we do not hold it. Access is through a browser and a phone view, exactly as any hosted product.
| Vendor cloud | This | |
|---|---|---|
| Browser access anywhere | Yes | Yes |
| Nothing to install | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic updates | On their schedule | On yours, with our support agreement |
| Who holds the hosting account | The vendor | You |
| Where the data physically sits | Their choice of region | The region you pick |
| Cost per extra user | Per seat, monthly | Nothing |
| If you stop paying us | Access ends | It keeps running, and you hire anyone |
| Backups | Theirs, restored on request | Yours, in your account, testable |
Typical running cost is 10 to 60 dollars a month for hosting, paid by you to your provider, plus optional aftercare at 290 a month covering backups, monitoring, security updates and four hours of changes.
Data residency and why it comes up
Three kinds of business raise this before anything else, and they are right to.
Regulated data. Health, legal, financial and children's services all invite a question about where records physically live, and the answer needs to be a place rather than a policy.
Public sector and charity funders. Grant conditions increasingly name a jurisdiction, and a vendor's multi region architecture is harder to evidence than a server in a named data centre.
Businesses with an acquisition ahead. Due diligence asks who controls the customer database. Owning the account turns a long conversation into a short one.
Because you pick the region, this is settled at the start rather than negotiated later: a UK data centre for UK clients, an EU one for Dutch and Belgian clients, Australia for Australian ones. The same logic sits behind our UK and Australia pages.
Open source, self hosted, and the honest comparison
If you have reached this page after searching for open source CRM, the motivation is usually control and cost rather than the licence itself. Worth comparing properly.
A self hosted open source CRM is free to licence and not free to run. You inherit upgrades, security patches, plugin compatibility and a data model designed by somebody else's committee. Businesses with a technical person often do well with it. Businesses without one end up on an unpatched version two years later, which is the worst of both worlds.
A built system removes the data model compromise and keeps the ownership, at the cost of a build price. The maintenance question does not disappear, it becomes a contract you can cancel rather than a job nobody was assigned.
We say plainly which we would pick: if your process is ordinary and you have a capable technical person, self hosted open source is a reasonable and cheap answer. If your process is the reason you are reading this, building removes the fight with the data model permanently. The full comparison of routes is in types of CRM.
Mobile CRM apps: iPhone, iPad and Android
Buyers searching for a CRM iPhone app or an Android CRM usually want one thing: the record in their pocket when they are with a customer. That does not require a separate native app for most businesses.
Every CRM we build runs as one of those mobile CRM applications, a web app that installs to the home screen on iPhone, iPad and Android, opens full screen and works offline for the screens field staff use, such as today's jobs, call notes and photos. It is one codebase, so the phone and desktop never disagree, and there is no app store review between you and a fix.
| Need | Mobile web app | Native app |
|---|---|---|
| Records, notes, photos, tasks | Yes | Yes |
| Works offline on site | Yes, for chosen screens | Yes |
| Push notifications | Yes on iPhone and Android | Yes |
| Barcode scanning, signatures | Yes | Yes |
| Background location tracking | Limited | Yes |
| Cost and upkeep | Included in the build | Separate project, store fees, two codebases |
We recommend a native app only when the business depends on background location or deep device features. For everything else, the CRM cloud application you already have on the desktop is the one in your pocket.
What we build
What a cloud deployment includes
Everything needed to run the system without us, documented, in your account from day one.
Your hosting account
Set up in the region you choose, in your name, with the credentials handed over at launch. We deploy into it and can be removed.
Backups you can test
Nightly database and file backups to storage you control, with a documented restore that we run once together during handover.
Monitoring that tells you
Uptime, error rates and integration health, with alerts to your own inbox rather than only ours.
A documented deploy
Written instructions and scripts so any competent developer can deploy a change without reverse engineering anything.
Questions we get asked
What is a cloud based CRM?
A CRM you reach through a browser from anywhere, with nothing installed on a computer. That describes the delivery, not the ownership. The same experience is possible on a vendor's platform for a fee per user, or on hosting in your own account where the database and backups belong to you.
Can a custom CRM be cloud based?
Yes, and ours always is. It runs on managed hosting or a small cloud instance in the region you pick, under an account in your name, reached through a browser and a phone view. The difference from a subscription product is who holds the account and that extra users cost nothing.
Where is our data stored?
In a data centre you choose, which is normally the country where your customers are. UK clients use a UK region, Dutch and Belgian clients an EU region, Australian clients an Australian one. Because the hosting account is yours, this is settled at the start rather than negotiated with a vendor later.
Is open source self hosted CRM cheaper?
The licence is free and the running of it is not. You take on upgrades, security patches and a data model somebody else designed. With a capable technical person it is a genuinely good and cheap answer. Without one, businesses end up on an unpatched version two years later.
What happens if we stop paying for support?
The system keeps running, because it is in your hosting account and the code is in your repository. You can hire any developer, or nobody, and nothing switches off. That is the practical difference between owning software and renting access to it, and it is deliberate on our side.
Tell us how your business works. We will quote the CRM that fits it.
A 30 minute written brief from you, a fixed price and a two page scope from us within two business days. No call required, no obligation.