Principles

I want to be someone who provides the products people need at the lowest price in the world, with integrity. No features that aren’t needed, no price increases, no lock-in. And to keep the business going anyway, I want to refine every part of how the work is done.

Every product decision at hodomaru is checked against these words. This page says, for each of them, what is actually done and what is not done yet.

Build what is needed: no features that aren’t needed

A feature is added only when the people using the product need it. Refining what is already there comes before adding more.

  • Hako CMS is focused on one way of working: agencies and engineers build a client’s site, and the client updates it. What it cannot do today is listed on the product site under “What Hako CMS can’t do yet”.
  • tegata does one thing: it creates, rotates and delivers secrets in cloud secret stores.

The lowest price in the world: no price increases

Providing products at the lowest price in the world is hodomaru’s goal. Today’s Hako CMS prices were set by comparing with other services, and they cannot yet be called the lowest. hodomaru is still working toward it: not by cutting prices, but by cutting what it costs to run, and making things cheaper wherever that becomes possible.

  • Environments that are not being used cost almost nothing to keep.
  • CI for development runs on low-cost Spot virtual machines that are started only when needed and deleted afterwards.

The aim is to keep going without relying on price increases. If a price increase ever becomes necessary, it will be announced at least 6 months in advance, and customers on a plan at that time will keep that plan’s price for 1 year. This promise will also be written into the terms of service.

Integrity: no lock-in

The way out is prepared first, so you can leave when you want to.

  • The whole content of a Hako CMS space can be exported at any time from the admin screen. The specification of the export format will be published.
  • tegata’s source is available (FSL-1.1-ALv2; each version becomes available under the Apache License 2.0 two years after release). Secrets are kept in your own cloud secret store and never pass through hodomaru’s servers.
  • What the products cannot do is written down too. Comparisons with other products use facts, with the date they were checked and their source.

Keep going: refine every part of the work

The business is kept going not by cutting price or integrity, but by reducing the effort and cost of building, running and fixing.

The following are automated, so that the service keeps running without waiting for a person:

  • While a space is running, its writes are continuously copied to separate storage. If a server fails, about 1 second of data is lost at most.

  • If a component on a server stops, it is restarted automatically.

  • Operating system updates on the servers are installed automatically.

  • tegata is the tool hodomaru built to manage the secrets of its own service.

  • This site, too, is served as a static site with no server-side code.

If we cannot continue

Even if hodomaru can no longer continue Hako CMS, your sites and content should stay safe.

  • If the service is to be shut down, it will be announced at least 6 months in advance. Until then it keeps working as before, and you can export at any time. This promise will also be written into the terms of service.
  • If you have exported, your content stays with you even if hodomaru stops.