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 dedicated servers we operate ourselves, 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 Obsidian vault

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

German alternative

Personal CRM

Obsidian

Finn GlasCo-Founder + Engineering

·March 4, 2026·

1 min read

Contact Book is the German alternative to Obsidian vault: 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

An Obsidian contacts vault is appealing for the same reason a paper notebook is: portable, private, never going away. The cost is everything that requires active prompting - cadence reminders don't fire, life events don't surface, the Sunday review doesn't have an overdue list. Contact Book is what you reach for when the vault stops doing the work.

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 Obsidian vault is usually that one of these three is missing.

Contact Book vs Obsidian vault: German-vendor comparison

	Ours Contact Book	Theirs Obsidian vault
Hosted in Germany		Local
Local plain-text storage
Reminders that fire on time
Overdue dashboard
Mobile UX		Limited
Cross-device sync		DIY
Markdown export

When to pick which

Pick Contact Book when

You want a system that nudges you, not just stores what you wrote.

Pick Obsidian vault when

Plain-text local-first is non-negotiable.

You enjoy designing your own template + script suite.

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

Finn Glas

Co-Founder + Engineering

Finn is one of the Co-Founders. He owns the engineering side, the infrastructure, and most of the late-night fixes that ship before anyone notices.

finn.glas at aicuflow dot comLinkedIn Website