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It Starts With A Message Node
Your message node sits behind your phone app, making sure there's always something there to receive messages. If the international network goes down, issue family and friends with accounts and keep talking on infrastructure that's entirely GB-powered.
How it works
Four parts, one system.
The app
The Comms Kitchen app on your phone is the interface you talk through — same as WhatsApp, just connected to your own network instead of theirs.
Your node
Your message node is the always-on device sitting behind the app, ready to receive your messages whether or not your phone is.
The sync servers
The sync servers connect every node together and route each message to the right place.
Your licence
A licence connects your node to the sync servers, and through them to everyone else's node.
- The lower-cost option — you're covering your network connection, not full hosting
- Runs on hardware you already own and control
- Nothing leaves your house
- Set up in minutes with the desktop app
- Still reachable over your own network even if your internet drops
- Only as reliable as your home broadband and a computer left switched on
- No professional monitoring or power backup — that's on you
- You're the one who restarts it if something goes wrong
Best if you're comfortable owning a bit of hardware and want the lower-cost option.
- Always on — professional power, network and monitoring
- Nothing to install or maintain yourself
- Still 100% UK-only infrastructure — same promise as hosting it yourself
- We handle backups and keeping it patched
- Higher monthly cost than hosting it yourself
- You're trusting us to run the server, not your own hardware
Best if you want it always-on and don't want to think about it.
Still deciding?
A few things worth knowing before you choose.
Is my data still private in a datacenter?
Yes — same closed account either way.
Paying us to run the server doesn't change what it is: your own closed Comms Kitchen account, on UK-only infrastructure, reachable only by the people you've added. We can't read your messages any more than someone hosting their own server could read a stranger's.
Can I switch later?
Yes, in either direction.
Every Comms Kitchen server can back up and restore its entire account — users, messages, attachments and all — as a single file. That's the same mechanism that lets you move from a home server to a datacenter one, or back again, without starting over.
Why does hosting it myself still cost anything?
You're still on the network, not off it.
The server itself runs on your own computer for free — what the fee covers is your connection to the wider Comms Kitchen network: the directory that makes you reachable, cross-server messaging, and remote/mobile access. That part isn't optional infrastructure either way, so hosting it yourself is priced lower, not zero.
Which one do most people pick?
Depends what you want to think about.
Hosting it yourself is the lower-cost option, but makes you the one keeping the lights on. The datacenter option costs more but means you never have to think about it again. Neither is the "serious" option — they're the same product, just who's minding it.
Ready?
Pick your server, register your interest.
We'll be in touch the moment Comms Kitchen opens, at founder pricing — for whichever option you choose.
Buy now