How to Self-Host Monica: Personal CRM 2026

TL;DR

Monica (AGPL 3.0, ~21K GitHub stars, PHP/Laravel) is a personal CRM for managing your relationships — not business leads, but friends, family, and acquaintances. Track contact info, birthdays, important dates, notes from conversations, activities you've done together, gifts, and reminders. Monica Cloud starts at $9/month. Self-hosted Monica is free.

Key Takeaways

• Monica: AGPL 3.0, ~21K stars, PHP/Laravel — personal relationship manager
• Not a business CRM: Designed for personal contacts, not leads/pipelines
• Contacts: Full profiles with birthdays, relationships, social profiles, photos
• Reminders: Get email/notification reminders for birthdays, anniversaries, follow-ups
• Activities: Log conversations, dinners, and shared experiences
• Journals: Keep a private journal attached to contacts
• Requirements: PHP/MySQL — Docker makes this easy

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Monica vs Business CRMs vs Contacts App

Feature	Monica	Salesforce/HubSpot	Phone Contacts
Purpose	Personal relationships	Business leads	Basic contact storage
Cost	Free (self-hosted)	$20–$100+/user/mo	Free
Relationship context	Yes	Limited	No
Activity logging	Yes	Yes	No
Reminders	Yes	Yes	Birthday only
Notes per contact	Yes (detailed)	Yes	Basic
Gift tracking	Yes	No	No
Journal	Yes	No	No
Privacy	Yours	Vendor's	Apple/Google

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Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  app:
    image: monica:latest
    container_name: monica
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    depends_on:
      - db
    volumes:
      - monica_storage:/var/www/html/storage
    environment:
      APP_ENV: production
      APP_KEY: "${APP_KEY}"    # base64:<32-random-bytes>
      APP_URL: "https://crm.yourdomain.com"
      DB_HOST: db
      DB_DATABASE: monica
      DB_USERNAME: monica
      DB_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
      MAIL_MAILER: smtp
      MAIL_HOST: "smtp.yourdomain.com"
      MAIL_PORT: "587"
      MAIL_USERNAME: "noreply@yourdomain.com"
      MAIL_PASSWORD: "${SMTP_PASSWORD}"
      MAIL_ENCRYPTION: tls
      MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS: "monica@yourdomain.com"
      MAIL_FROM_NAME: "Monica"

  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    container_name: monica-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: monica
      MYSQL_USER: monica
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}"

volumes:
  monica_storage:
  mysql_data:

# Generate APP_KEY:
echo "base64:$(openssl rand -base64 32)"

docker compose up -d

# Run initial setup:
docker exec monica php artisan setup:production --pretend
docker exec monica php artisan setup:production

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Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

crm.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Visit https://crm.yourdomain.com → register your account.

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Part 3: Add Your First Contact

1. Contacts → + Add Contact
2. Fill in:
   • First and last name
   • Nickname
   • Birthday (with reminder option)
   • How you met
   • Photo
3. Social profiles: Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram handles
4. Phone numbers, email addresses, addresses

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Part 4: Relationship Mapping

Define relationships between contacts:

1. Open a contact → Relationships
2. + Add relationship → type + contact
3. Types: Partner, Sibling, Parent, Child, Friend, Colleague, Boss
4. Monica shows the relationship from both contacts' perspectives

Example: Mark "John Smith" as "Friend of" → the contact auto-shows in John's profile too.

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Part 5: Activities

Log shared activities with contacts:

1. Contact → Activities → + Log Activity
2. Date: when it happened
3. Activity type: Call, Dinner, Coffee, Trip, etc.
4. Description: notes from the conversation
5. Duration: optional

Dashboard shows your recent activity timeline across all contacts.

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Part 6: Reminders

Never miss an important date:

Automatic Birthday Reminders

When you add a birthday to a contact → Monica automatically creates a yearly reminder.

Custom Reminders

1. Contact → Reminders → + Add Reminder
2. Title: "Call to check in about job application"
3. Date: specific date or interval (e.g., "in 2 weeks")
4. Frequency: one-time, monthly, yearly
5. Reminder sent via email

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Part 7: Notes

Log thoughts and context about contacts:

1. Contact → Notes → + Add Note
2. Write anything: impressions, important info they shared, things to follow up on
3. Notes are timestamped and searchable

Emotionally tagged notes: tag notes as positive, neutral, or negative — useful for tracking relationship dynamics over time.

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Part 8: Gift Tracking

Track gift ideas and given/received gifts:

1. Contact → Gifts → + Add Gift
2. Name: "Blue ceramic coffee mug"
3. Status: Idea → Given / Received
4. URL: link to the product
5. Optional: occasion (Birthday, Christmas, etc.)

See at a glance what gifts you've given someone over the years.

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Part 9: Journal

Keep a private journal with Monica:

1. Journal → + New Entry
2. Date (defaults to today)
3. Write your entry
4. Optional: rate your day (1–10)

The journal is separate from contacts — for general reflections. Or create journal entries linked to a specific contact for private notes about your relationship.

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Part 10: Import Contacts

Import existing contacts from vCard (.vcf):

1. Settings → Import → Import vCard
2. Export contacts from iPhone/Android/Google Contacts as .vcf
3. Upload → Monica imports name, email, phone, birthday

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Maintenance

# Update Monica:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Run migrations after update:
docker exec monica php artisan migrate --force

# Backup:
# Database:
docker exec monica-db mysqldump -u monica -p${DB_PASSWORD} monica | gzip \
  > monica-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

# Attachments and photos:
tar -czf monica-storage-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect monica_monica_storage --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f app

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See all open source productivity and personal tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/productivity.