ExpressThat
Our principles

Your software.
Your data. Your choice.

We started ExpressThat because we believe developers deserve software they can inspect, own, and deploy themselves—without giving up the convenience of managed hosting when they need it.

Standards for how we build, operate, and sell software.
The decision test

Principles only matter when they shape decisions.

Before we ship a feature, set a price, or choose a technical direction, these are the questions we ask.

  1. 1Does this increase or reduce user control?
  2. 2Are self-hosters being treated fairly?
  3. 3Are we charging for work we perform rather than access we withhold?
  4. 4Can users take their software and data elsewhere?
  5. 5Could we explain this decision openly?
The standards

What we mean in practice.

Each principle is numbered so it can be referenced, questioned, and used—not merely displayed.

PRINCIPLE 01

Open by default

The best way to earn confidence in software is to let people see how it works and help shape where it goes.

What this means in practice

  • Publish the core product source.
  • Keep public changelogs for meaningful product changes.
  • Explain material architectural and product decisions.
  • Welcome useful community issues and contributions.
PRINCIPLE 02

Self-hosting is first-class

Running ExpressThat software yourself is a real product choice, not a deliberately diminished edition.

What this means in practice

  • Provide documented installation and upgrade paths.
  • Preserve the same core behaviour across self-hosted and managed editions.
  • Never make self-hosting worse simply to force cloud adoption.
  • Clearly label features that exist because we operate the infrastructure.
PRINCIPLE 03

Your data stays yours

Your information should remain useful beyond any single product, platform, or commercial relationship.

What this means in practice

  • Provide exports in documented, practical formats.
  • Never charge an exit fee to retrieve your data.
  • Avoid proprietary formats designed to create lock-in.
  • Make deletion and migration paths clear.
PRINCIPLE 04

Pay for operations, not permission

Our cloud should be worth paying for because it removes operational work—not because the software is held hostage.

What this means in practice

  • Keep the core self-hosted software usable without a cloud subscription.
  • Charge for the infrastructure, reliability, and support we provide.
  • Publish understandable pricing without hidden enterprise gates.
  • Explain exactly what additional value a hosted plan provides.
PRINCIPLE 05

Trust must be earned

Trust comes from being clear when things go well, candid when they do not, and predictable when change is necessary.

What this means in practice

  • Communicate incidents honestly and promptly.
  • Explain breaking changes and significant feature removals.
  • Be clear about pricing, data collection, and security responsibilities.
  • Say what is limited today instead of pretending it is complete.
The business model

Same core product.
Different operational responsibility.

You run it

Full control for teams that want to own the entire operational stack.

Your infrastructure, deployment, database, backups, monitoring, and scaling.

We run it

Managed convenience for teams that would rather focus on their product.

Managed deployment, operations, updates, reliability, and support.

Freedom to leave is part of the product.

We want you to stay because you choose to—not because you have to.

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