Why we built Usertally, our personal use-case

We, ivy.mayhem GmbH, built and maintain multiple platforms with growing user bases. Because of that, we wanted a simple way to keep track of our customers - ideally across all of our platforms.

Most CRM tools and similar software we tried were bloated with features we don't need, had bad UI/UX or were too complex. All we wanted was a simple "source of truth" for all of our customer data and connect to services we already used. So we built it.

The only thing that came close to what we were looking for was Airtable. But it still felt bloated at places and the fact that there are multiple third-party scripts tracking things (e.g. Facebook, Google) also felt wrong to us. Platforms should not use certain third-party tracking in backends, especially with possible sensitive data or personal customer information.

Our private CRM was born

In mid 2023 we decided to build our own thing to keep track of customer data. We've improved and extended it ever since. Right now, whenever someone signs up to one of our platforms (e.g. eniston.io, inprivy.io or releasesapp.com), we send them (via API) to our custom CRM.

This works really well so far and it allows us to keep track of all of our customers, in one place, for all platforms. We use projects to differentiate between our platforms and custom fields for revenue, access status (Subscription plan, LTD, etc) and more.

It's definitely not a CRM in the traditional sense as it only focuses on the core part of a CRM, which is keeping track of customer data. That's what we wanted, after all.

Building a SaaS

In early December we decided to ship yet another SaaS platform. We already have a product we use almost daily, it works well for our use-case and we figured others could have a need for it as well.

Most of our platforms were built because of personal needs and it turns out, others need, use and like them too. So why not go that route again.

Usertally is set to launch in late February, early March 2024, with the current feature set. We are currently in the process of making it a little more suitable for others as well, adding different settings, team management and integrating a payment solution.

We already have a variety of ideas and plans for features and integrations. These will be built step by step, one feature at a time, after the initial launch.

We're looking forward to release this new product in a few months. There seems to be demand for a sleek CRM, as not everyone runs big businesses. As with all of our products, we want to serve the smaller companies, startups, solopreneurs and freelancers. That also means keeping pricing affordable while not bloating our software with too many features and options.

See you next year. 👋