The messenger
that's yours

We built a setup wizard that walks you through every step. No programming knowledge required — just follow the instructions. If anything goes wrong, detailed documentation and support are available.

A basic VPS is enough for a family of 5–10 people — typically $5–7 a month. We've prepared a list of vetted providers with the best price-to-performance ratio.

Yes. A Circlus circle can run on the owner's own VPS, on a rented VPS, on a home computer with a stable public IP address and HTTPS domain, or on a server administered by another person. The server administrator affects infrastructure matters such as uptime, updates, backups, logs, and help with migration. Message and file contents are designed to remain end-to-end encrypted, but the server still processes operational metadata needed for delivery and administration.

While the server is offline, messages won't be delivered — the same as any messenger. Once it's back, everything resumes normally. Major VPS providers guarantee 99.9% uptime, which is under 9 hours of downtime per year.

The server stores the data needed to operate the circle: identities, devices, membership, invites, delivery state, call and sync metadata, encrypted messages, encrypted files, encrypted vaults, and related technical records. Message and file contents are designed to stay encrypted, but the server still sees operational metadata needed for delivery and administration.

This does not depend on the server code promising not to read private content. Sensitive content is protected by the Circlus app: it does not send message or file contents in plaintext, and it does not send the encryption keys that would let the server decrypt them.

Circlus also includes Circle Inspector: a transparency tool that lets the circle owner grant temporary access to view what server-side records exist for that circle. We expect owners to use it mainly for their own audits, but they can also grant temporary access to another circle member or to a technical specialist troubleshooting the circle.

Even with end-to-end encryption, Signal and WhatsApp servers belong to companies. They see metadata, know who talks to whom, and store your contacts. With Circlus, the server is chosen and controlled by the circle owner, and Circlus does not have administrative access to it. Circlus is also a closed environment — outsiders simply cannot enter your circle.

Yes. Invited users simply install the app and accept the invite link. No server configuration, no technical steps. The interface is intentionally kept simple and familiar.

One-to-one calls are fully supported. Group calls are in active development and will arrive in upcoming releases. Group text chats already work completely.

The TURN server enables calls in networks where a direct connection between devices is impossible — which covers most home and mobile networks. Without it, calls won't always work. The messenger itself — chats, files, contacts — works fully without TURN.

For testing purposes, we provide managed TURN access for the first test circles. Later, we may be able to provide ongoing access for a modest fee.

You can also configure your own TURN server free of charge. If you run into problems, you can contact us for guidance.