Can you give us some insight into MaadiX as a company and its founding story?
Concerns about privacy and the use of our data kept growing, especially after the Snowden revelations. Still, there was no real technological solution that offered a viable alternative to the business models of large companies based on the exploitation of our data. At the time, I was managing the infrastructures of several organisations that did not want to surrender to that model. But to be honest, I’m lazy, I couldn’t take on more workload and I didn’t want to have access to the data of so many organisations. So I thought: why not create a system that would allow them to manage their own tools without depending on third parties, not even on me? And so MaadiX was born.What popular services and platforms does MaadiX offer alternatives to?
A bit of everything. We started with the most obvious and in-demand alternatives, such as email, cloud storage, and real-time collaborative editing, and gradually expanded the available options. Currently, we offer alternatives to practically the entire Google suite (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Classroom, Meet, etc.), as well as applications for decentralized social networks like Mastodon (an alternative to Twitter) or PeerTube (an alternative to YouTube), and privacy-focused tools such as VPN and Tor. We have a table where all available applications can be checked: maadix.net/en/how-it-works Additionally, we can add more applications based on the community’s needs. In fact, many of our new additions have come directly from user suggestions.How does MaadiX actually work?
MaadiX offers an intuitive control panel that allows all these applications to be enabled at the click of a button. This makes it easy for anyone, even non-technical people, to deploy and manage their own digital tools on private servers, quickly, easily, and without relying on third parties. In a matter of minutes, you can set up a complete online office, optimising both time and costs. In addition, the system includes regular security updates to ensure that your environment is always protected.Above all, no one but the users has access to their data. The MaadiX architecture is designed so that these automations are carried out without the need for us to access the servers. We do not act as system administrators but as developers of the platform that facilitates its management. However, users with more technical knowledge can still manage the system without using the graphical interface and even manually install applications that are not yet on our list. This full access to the system not only ensures maximum transparency but also allows users to observe in real time how MaadiX works from the inside.
How do you ensure that your platform is easy to use?
Ease of use is one of the main objectives of the project. To achieve this, we have developed an intuitive graphical interface that allows users to manage practically every aspect of the infrastructure, such as the installation and uninstallation of applications, the management of users and permissions, or the administration of email accounts. From this same interface it is also possible to manage more advanced features related to security, such as key and port for SSH configuration, supported TLS versions or rkhunter alerts, among others. In addition, we offer technical support in case of doubts and we have a very complete documentation that explains in detail the meaning of each option and how to use it. It can be accessed here:en.docs.maadix.netWhat pricing plans do you offer and what are the differences between them?
The price of our plans does not depend on the number of applications but on the space and resources allocated to the servers. Our hosting service offers virtual or dedicated servers with MaadiX already enabled and ready to use in which all available applications can be enabled, without additional costs. We offer different storage capacities depending on your needs. The smallest plan has 10 GB and is intended to be combined with object storage, ideal for Mastodon or Peertube applications. The largest is 200GB, but in reality, we can offer any size of server. In fact, we have customers who have started with the smallest plan and have grown to the point where we have expanded the infrastructure to custom plans tailored to their needs that are not even advertised on our website. MaadiX can also be set up on servers hired from another service provider or located in your own home or office. In this case ,we only charge a very symbolic one-off fee for the installation.Is there anything else about your work that you’d like to share that we haven’t covered?
Well, our project exists thanks to the free software culture. We wouldn’t be able to offer these applications if there wasn’t a community to develop and maintain them. We believe that free software is the key to preserving our autonomy in the digital sphere and avoiding vendor lock-in, a model that implies, from the customers’ point of view, a serious difficulty, or even impossibility, to switch to alternative providers. For this reason, we also publish all our code.To learn more about MaadiX, you can visit maadix.net
