CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Haverman,

I heard a lot of CiviCRM at the USSF2007, however surfing around on the site resulted in a lot of questions:

1. how do you install it and get it working?
2. where is the installation guide for dumies
3. after you have downloaded the ZIP file, what file to click on the get it started?

Answers to these questions can be found on http://documentation.civicrm.org/.

4. what are the costs for using CiviCRM, is it free for an NGO (we are www.virtualworldparliament.org)

CiviCRM is free software provided under AGPL license - you might want to check the consequences of this fact here: http://www.affero.org/oagpl.html and here: http://www.affero.org/oagf.html
In short - you don't need to pay any license fees. You will probably need to hire a technical person to install it for you, and pay for web hosting space where it will be kept.

5. how many users do you have now?

We estimate our current user base to be something in between 4000 and 5000 active installations.

6. we are using ZoHo.com at the moment, is CiviCRM a better solution for us, especially when we need to start doing email blasts?

Sorry, not a ZoHo user, can't help with comparing.

7. where is the data stored, on the internet or on the hard-disc?

It always ends on the hard drive, either on your computer or on the server. But in general, data will be stored in the place where you will have your CiviCRM installed, and it will usually be a server somewhere on the Internet, or in your office - choice is yours.

8. can people access it from different places and add new items?

Yes, if you install it on a server accessible from those different places.

9. is says you need Joomla or Druple, in what kind of sense, how is it supporting the CiviCRM?

You'll find more about it here http://documentation.civicrm.org/

10. can we run this without Joomla or SDruple and if not how do we get a Joomla site?

Re first part - currently not, however CiviCRM Standalone is under intensive development. Re second part of the question, please check http://www.joomla.org/

11. and if so which one (Joomla / Druple) would be better?

CiviCRM's Drupal integration is generally considered to be more stable and better tested.

Thx,
m