Question 1

Is Madrona really free?

Accepted Answer

The software is. Madrona is released under Apache-2.0 — every application, the API, and the deployment tooling. You can install it, run it, modify it, and deploy it for as many institutions as you like, forever, without paying us anything. What we sell is hosting, support, and services for institutions that would rather not run it themselves.

Question 2

What is the catch? Is part of it held back?

Accepted Answer

There is no held-back edition. There is no feature that unlocks when you pay, no license key, and no telemetry check. The repository is the whole product — the same code we run for hosted customers. If a feature exists in our hosting, it exists in the repository.

Question 3

Then what am I paying for?

Accepted Answer

The work, not the software. Hosting means we run the infrastructure, apply updates, monitor it, back it up, and answer the phone when something breaks. Alongside that we scope migrations off legacy systems, train staff, and build integrations. Institutions with the IT capacity to self-host pay us nothing; most would rather spend their staff time on collections.

Question 4

How does hosting pricing work?

Accepted Answer

One price, set by your institution’s annual operating budget. It covers every application — Collections, Media, Content, and Guide — because there is no smaller edition to sell you. What scales with the price is support: the lower tiers are self-serve, and a named contact with a response commitment starts at the $1M tier. Institutions under a $500k operating budget are hosted free. Self-hosting is always $0, at any size.

Question 5

Are there per-user or per-record fees?

Accepted Answer

No. Hosting includes unlimited users and unlimited records. Add staff, interns, and volunteers without affecting your bill. Self-hosted installs have no limits of any kind.

Question 6

Can we start hosted and move to self-hosting later, or the reverse?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in both directions, and that is the point. It is the same software either way, so moving is a data transfer rather than a migration. We will help you leave our hosting if you decide to bring it in-house.

Question 7

Can we start with just one app?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it costs you nothing extra either way. Each app works independently on the shared data layer, so most institutions switch on Collections first and bring in Media and Content when they are ready. There is no upgrade to buy — hosting is one price with everything included from day one.

Question 8

Why is hosting free under a $500k operating budget?

Accepted Answer

Because the alternative is telling a two-person historical society that modern collections software starts in the five figures, which is how the sector ended up where it is. Institutions that size cost very little to host, and they were never going to become customers at a real price anyway. The trade is honest: free hosting is self-serve, without a support commitment, and offered as capacity allows.

Question 9

What does support actually include?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the tier, and we would rather say so than promise everyone the same thing and quietly under-deliver. Free and $500k–$1M institutions get the documentation, the community issue tracker, and best-effort email. From the $1M tier up you get a named contact and a response commitment in writing. A paid support agreement is also available on its own, including for institutions running their own self-hosted installation.

Question 10

How long does implementation take?

Accepted Answer

Typical implementations run 6–12 weeks. A single-app deployment can go live in 4–6 weeks. Complex multi-site migrations may take 16–20 weeks. We provide a detailed timeline during discovery.

Question 11

Can we migrate from legacy systems?

Accepted Answer

Yes. During implementation, we connect to your existing databases, APIs, and file exports, and configure extraction pipelines and field mapping for your specific systems.

Question 12

What about data security?

Accepted Answer

On our hosting, Madrona runs on AWS with encryption in transit and at rest, managed authentication, role-based access controls, and complete audit logging. Self-hosted, the access controls and audit logging are identical — they are in the code — but the infrastructure is yours to secure. We provide security documentation for procurement and vendor assessments either way, and because the source is public your IT team can audit it directly rather than taking our word for it.

Question 13

Is there a long-term contract?

Accepted Answer

Hosting agreements are annual. We don’t require multi-year commitments, though multi-year agreements are available by discussion. Since the software is Apache-2.0, ending a hosting agreement never costs you access to the platform.

Question 14

What happens to our data if Madrona goes away?

Accepted Answer

You keep running. The software is Apache-2.0 and the source is public, so the platform outlives the company by construction — that is a large part of why we licensed it this way. Data export in JSON, CSV, and JSON-LD is built in, and self-hosting is a documented, supported path rather than an emergency measure.

Annual operating budget	Hosting	Support
Under $500k	Free	Self-serve — docs and community issues
$500k – $1M	$6k/yr	Email, best effort
$1M – $5M	$12k/yr	Named contact, response commitment
$5M – $15M	$22k/yr	Named contact, response commitment
$15M – $50M	$38k/yr	Named contact, priority response

The software is free. Pay us only to run it.

Self-hosted

Hosted, by operating budget

Free hosting under a $500k operating budget

Every hosting plan includes

Services, hosted or self-hosted

Data migration

Staff training

Custom integration

Self-hosting support

Typical implementation timelines

Starting with one app

Collections + Media

All three at once

Frequently asked questions

Let’s scope your project