Who is my contractual counterparty?

Finn Glas, a German sole proprietor based in 72461 Tailfingen, Germany. Address, press contact under §18(2) MStV and every disclosure required by §5 TMG live at /imprint.

Where is the data stored?

On servers we manage, physically located in Germany. Records, attachments, audit log, embeddings - all in the same EU jurisdiction. Backups stay within Germany at other physical locations and roll off on a 30-day window. We deliberately don't name the exact provider or data centre - it doesn't help the customer and would make operator changes a public event.

Which law applies in case of a dispute?

German law, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Mandatory consumer protection rules of your country of residence remain unaffected. Venue is the registered seat of the operator (see /imprint), where legally permitted. No arbitration clause - you have the same legal recourse as with any other German vendor.

Can I get German-language support?

Yes. Both co-founders reply in German and English. No outsourcing, no ticket queue, no bot replies - you talk to someone who wrote the code.

How does the invoice + refund work?

Stripe issues a PDF invoice automatically after every payment, with VAT shown where applicable (the German Kleinunternehmer status under §19 UStG can drop the VAT line - the invoice is still fully bookkeeping-grade). Refund is self-serve in account settings: within the first 30 days of any new paid period you can refund the most recent charge yourself - no email, no exit interview. Full text in /terms §4.

Contact Book

Compare

Contact Book: the German alternative to Monica

Hosted in Germany, German operator of record, German law. Same three pillars, English URL.

German alternative

Personal CRM

Open source

Julia YukovichCo-Founder + CEO

·June 28, 2026·

4 min read

·Updated

Contact Book is the German alternative to Monica: hosted in Germany, German operator of record, German law applies. Three things that travel together for a reason - any one of them on its own is half a promise.

At a glance

Monica is the elder statesman of the personal-CRM space - mature, open-source, actively maintained, and self-hostable. It is a genuinely good product and we recommend it without reservation to anyone who wants to run their own server. Contact Book is the answer to a narrower question: what if I want Monica's idea without running Monica's server? We're younger and lighter, with a sharper UI, live multi-tab updates, hosting in Germany, and a deliberately small surface. Self-host and tinker - pick Monica. Want a clean, fast, bilingual personal CRM you don't maintain, on a hosted plan from €1 a month - that's us. The short version: Monica without the server.

Three pillars together

Three pillars that travel together

Hosted in Germany alone means little if the operator of record is a Delaware LLC - the CLOUD Act follows the seat, not the server. A German operator alone means little if the servers sit in Virginia - the access risk lives there. German law alone means little if both of those are missing - the venue clause cannot solve a data problem. Contact Book brings all three together: dedicated servers in Germany, Finn Glas (sole proprietor) registered in 72461 Tailfingen, German law on the contract. The gap to Monica is usually that one of these three is missing.

Contact Book vs Monica: German-vendor comparison

	Ours Contact Book	Theirs Monica
Self-hostable
Open source
Hosted plan available
Hosted in Germany (EU)		France (EU)
Live multi-tab updates (websocket)
Bilingual UI (EN + DE)		Multiple, EN+DE included
Stay-in-touch cadence
Gifts tracker
Activity / journal log
Debt / loan tracker
Pets
Stated hosting jurisdiction	Germany	Not disclosed (cloud)
Zero server maintenance		Cloud yes, self-host no
Free tier	Yes	10 contacts (cloud)
API + drop-in clients (15 langs)		API only
MCP server for AI agents
Hosted price (per month)	From €1	$9 / €9

When to pick which

Pick Contact Book when

You want a hosted product that's clean, fast, and bilingual out of the box.

Live multi-tab updates matter - you keep two tabs open and want the second to react to the first.

You'd like an MCP server + drop-in clients in 15 languages so AI agents can use the same product you do.

EU jurisdiction, but specifically Germany under German law, with the hosting location stated plainly.

You'd rather never touch Docker, backups, certificate renewals, or version upgrades - hosting is our job, not yours.

Pick Monica when

You want to self-host on your own box and skim the source.

Open-source on principle - you only adopt tools you can fork.

You want Monica-specific features we don't carry - debt / loan tracking, or its denser, journal-first writing surface.

Monica's free cloud tier (10 contacts) is enough, or you'll happily run the unlimited self-hosted build for free.

Common questions

What German-buying teams typically want answered before they switch.

Start with Contact Book

Free plan, no credit card. We host in Germany. Export + delete are self-serve.

Written by

Julia Yukovich

Co-Founder + CEO

Julia is one of the Co-Founders. She handles design, development, product direction, and most of the support replies that arrive in the morning.

julia.yukovich at aicuflow dot comLinkedIn