Our tech stack is a values statement

While there are a plethora of big tech options to choose from when it comes to running our company, we make a point to seek out open source, EU based, and self-hosting options.

Why? In a nutshell, technology choices matter. They can have profound effects, individually and collectively. 

Such as? 

Data privacy. In the current US political climate, a lack of GDPR level privacy protection means that there’s much greater latitude in regards to your data use, which is of paramount importance to us, and those we work with.

Local matters. While technology can feel amorphous, non geographically specific in this era of cloud hosting and streaming, it in the end does have a physical location where those who run the company are. And in choosing to go with a local, nimble, smaller company, our money is benefitting the individuals that are part of it, and the local economy where they live. 

Cost. In the most pragmatic of senses, there can be considerable savings when choosing an independent, local option. In our case, when switching from Notion to a combination of Planka and Outline, our annual costs have gone from 1600 to nearly zero, with the exception of a bit more team time to get it running as we wish. 

Less bloat, more fit. While many of the major software options offer a seemingly endless buffet of features, choosing ones that more closely fit your needs is not only efficient functionally, it's often beneficial environmentally. 

And when it comes to choosing open source software, the benefits are many:

Quality, quality, quality. While yes, we support the values behind open source software, we do not sacrifice quality or security to do so. Which at times means staying with the status quo option. However, in many cases it’s better, more focused than its status quo counterpart!

Licensing matters. A lot. When we say open source, we mean it in the licensing sense, not just "code you can look at". An open source licence is a legal guarantee that anyone can use, study, modify and share the software, for any purpose, forever. That guarantee matters to us.

No vendor lock-in. The organisations we build for are never dependent on us, or anyone, to keep using and improving their tools. 

Transparency. The code can be inspected and verified by anyone. That means the work contributes to a commons, improvements made by one organisation can benefit the whole community. This mirrors the collaborative, shared resource thinking at the heart of the circular economy that drives and inspires us at HappyPorch.

Flexible usage. The licensing of open source software gives much greater latitude, often allowing you to modify it for your particular use case. Often, you have the option to either self-host your software, or pay for such services, managed by the maker. You can also submit new features you’ve created, which could make their way to the main software offered to the public. 

Cost savings. Though not always the case, open source software often has a cost savings to it. However, we aim to contribute both financially, in the form of paying for open source support solutions or by directly donating, and in kind by making code contributions, as a way of being good citizens. 

So what does this look like, at HappyPorch?

Historically, we’ve relied heavily on the usual big technology suppliers. But for the reasons above, we are on a constant search to diversify and ensure our technology choices reflect our values. Since 2025, we’ve made some big steps forward on this goal, migrating more of our key internal tools to open source, self hosted, and/or UK/EU suppliers. 

Project management + knowledge sharing: While Notion was our platform of choice, its expense and feature bloat proved unnecessary for us. So we pared down to two, self-hosted options: Planka and Outline.

CRM: Twenty is our current choice. It’s open source, and has a strong API for our customisations, automations and integrations.

Scheduling: We moved to Cal.com, but interestingly they’ve recently moved away from their Open Source approach, so we are scanning the horizon for other solutions. 

Web stats: We choose Plausible. As opposed to the big G, it’s open source and privacy first.

App email: When apps we create need to send email, we aim to use Plunk and Resend, where possible. 

Uptime Monitoring: While it’s not open source, StatusCake is a UK company, proximal to your Scotland HQ. 

Hosting: We choose Hetzner. Based in Germany, GDPR compliant, they offer a range of flexible options, privacy intact. We especially appreciate that they have a strong sustainability and circular policy. In tandem with that, we use Coolify to manage the apps and deployments on the Hetzner servers. 

It’s not always simple. But it’s always worth it.

Transitioning from one software to another can be a complicated process. Depending on the software, it takes an assured hand to manage the migration. Which you can do yourself, or get assistance. If you go the self-hosted route, it requires ongoing updates and security management. 

If you have similar values we would love to connect, and if you work in circularity in any way, we can help ensure your values are reflected in your technology. Let’s talk.