One-time license
Lifetime usage
E2EE calls · encrypted at rest
Self-hosted
HIPAA & GLBA support
AI only if you want it
Healthcare, finance, legal — where "where is our data?" has to have a real answer
Shack is built to sit inside a HIPAA programme: a tamper-evident access log recording who read what and when, six-year retention by default, per-organization roles, enforced second factor, and IP allowlisting. We support your compliance — the controls are yours to operate, on infrastructure you hold.
Everything runs on hardware you choose — your cloud account, your datacentre, your rack. Messages, files and call history live in your database. There is no copy on our side to subpoena, breach or hold hostage, because there is no copy.
Your data is already in your own database, in a documented schema, on a machine you control. Leaving means switching off a container — not negotiating an export with a vendor who would rather you didn't.
The four promises Shack is built on
One-time license per user with lifetime usage. No renewals, no meters, no "we've updated our pricing" emails. Your cost is known on day one.
Shack runs on your own servers — calls end-to-end encrypted, attachments encrypted at rest. Built to support HIPAA and GLBA programmes: data remains on your server and you control who has access. Nothing touches our infrastructure.*
Until you need one. AI assistance ships switched off and stays off until an admin turns it on. Your conversations are never used to train anything.
Planning a bigger rollout? We work directly with partner organizations — volume licensing, deployment help and a direct line to the developers. Get in touch for further information.
We take security seriously, and the simplest way to protect your data is to stay out of it. Shack is built so that your conversations belong to you, not to us.
Run Shack on your own server and your own database. We get no account on it, no key to it and no back door into it. A self-hosted server doesn't phone home: no telemetry, no usage reports, nothing about your people or your messages ever reaches us.
No ads, no profiling, no scanning your conversations for insights. Your messages are never used to train AI, ours or anyone else's. We make money from licences and hosting, never from your data.*
Every app talks to your server over HTTPS only. The apps refuse a plain-http connection, even on your own network. Attachments are encrypted at rest, and calls are end-to-end encrypted between the people on them.
Two-factor sign-in, single sign-on, IP allowlists and an access log of who opened what. New people prove their email address and choose their own password. The keys to your workspace sit with your admins, not with us.
Prefer we run it? Your workspace gets its own isolated stack: its own database, files and keys, never shared with another customer. We keep it running. We don't look inside it.*
Your owner can export the whole workspace (messages, files and the access log) in one download, whenever they like. Leave, and it's deleted. No lock-in, no copy left behind.
1. A monthly subscription — Shack plus the infrastructure, run by us.
2. A one-time lifetime license per seat — bring your own cloud or server.
Same apps, same address either way:
yourcompany.shackchat.app.
A monthly subscription for Shack usage — we provide and run the servers, storage and backend. No IT team, no hardware, no patching: your organization is live at yourcompany.shackchat.app in minutes. Your workspace runs as its own isolated stack — its own database, files and keys — that we operate but do not look into.*
A one-time license per seat, forever — you run Shack on infrastructure you control: a cloud VPS, an office server, even a spare machine. You own the hardware, the data and the uptime; hosting costs whatever your server costs. No subscription, ever.
San-jay — peer-to-peer remote desktop: enter another computer's ID and PIN, see its screen and take control. It's in early access, and it's included with a Shack subscription hosted by us. Self-hosted and pay-once licences can add it as its own subscription.
Virtual offices — coming soon: a new, fun way of connecting with people.
Rolling Shack out to a large organization, or building something bigger on top of it? We work directly with a small number of partners. Reach out and tell us what you have in mind — we'll take it from there.
Install the app, type your organization ID — yourcompany.shackchat.app — and you're in.
iPhone, iPad and Android apps ship with your organization's onboarding email. Desktop downloads are direct from our servers — no store account needed.
Our macOS build isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS will refuse to open it and say the app is damaged. It isn't. Drag Shack to Applications, then run this once in Terminal:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Shack.app
Then open it normally. You can verify the download first — every file's SHA-256 is published at SHA256SUMS.txt.
Windows and Linux need no extra step. We're completing Apple notarization; when it lands, this step disappears and existing installs keep working.
Straight answers — fine print included, in plain English
You buy a license for a user once, and that user can use the version of Shack you purchased forever — no renewal, no subscription, no expiry. New features and future versions are optional, per-license upgrades; you're never forced to move. If you add people later, you just buy licenses for the new seats.
Self-hosted: on your servers. Messages, files and keys stay inside your infrastructure and never reach us — we could not read them if we wanted to. Hosted by us: in your own isolated stack on our infrastructure, with its own database, files and keys, which we operate but do not look into.*
Shack is built to support your HIPAA or GLBA programme: a tamper-evident access log with six-year retention, per-organization roles, an enforced second factor, IP allowlisting, attachments encrypted at rest and end-to-end encrypted calls. Self-hosted, the compliance boundary stays inside your organization. Compliance itself is an organisational posture — the controls are yours to operate, and we will sign a BAA for hosted customers.
Not unless you turn one on. AI assistance is disabled by default and only an admin can enable it, when your team actually needs it. Your conversations are never used for training.
No — only per user. Run Shack on one box or a cluster, one workspace or many; the license simply counts the people using it.
Yes. The one-time, no-subscription pricing applies when Shack runs on your own server. If you'd rather not run infrastructure, we can host it for you on Shack's servers — the hosting is billed as a subscription that covers server space and infrastructure only. The software license itself stays one-time either way.
With a Shack subscription hosted by us — managed hosting at yourname.shackchat.app, monthly or yearly — yes, San-jay is included at no extra cost. Self-hosted Shack and pay-once licences don't include it; you can add a San-jay subscription, billed per technician, monthly or yearly. San-jay is in early access — see how it works.
Checkout runs through Stripe. After payment you'll receive your license keys and activation instructions by email, typically within one business day.
Anytime. Buy more seats through the same checkout and your admin panel picks up the new count. Seat limits are enforced in the admin app so you always know where you stand.
Host it yourself and pay once — or let us run it while you keep the keys.
Card checkout through Stripe is coming soon; until then we set you up by invoice.