Answers

How much does Kirby cost?

A Kirby license for a single website costs $39 or in other words €30
(+VAT where applicable)

It's a one-time fee. No monthly costs or hidden tricks.

Why do you charge for it?

I think 30 € for a software which makes your life easier is a no-brainer and it will help me to keep the development going.

With such a small amount you can easily put it on your client's invoice without them
even noticing :)

How about the security of the Kirby store?

I'm very concerned about selling Kirby in the most secure and comfortable way. That's why I decided to use FastSpring to sell Kirby instead of developing my own checkout site. They are handling the entire checkout, payment and tax collection process for me and are famous for secure eCommerece solutions for software developers.

Companies like http://culturedcode.com/, http://www.codingmonkeys.de/ or http://flexibits.com/ use FastSpring to sell their software. I've purchased loads of apps through FastSpring powered stores myself and trust them 100%.

Though the Buy section of this site has the same design as all the other pages, you will be directed to the Kirby store on the FastSpring server, where they offer highest standard SSL encryption, fraud protection and many additional security features.

If you've got any questions or concerns about the payment process, please let me know: bastian@getkirby.com

How about updates?

Minor updates of Kirby (i.e. 1.1 to 1.2) will be free.
Users with an older license will get a discount for major upgrades (i.e. 1.x to 2.0).

Who should use Kirby?

Kirby is perfect for anybody who knows how to use a FTP client and a text editor. It's awesome for designers, architects, photographers or anybody else interested in building their own website or online portfolio. It gives you great flexibility without having to handle complicated installation steps or fighting with databases. It has a very easy to use template system, so it's perfect for any webdesigner out there with some basic PHP knowledge.

Who shouldn't use Kirby?

With Kirby you can build very complex websites, but it might not be the perfect tool if you plan to build a huge site with hundreds of pages and templates.

It may also not be the best solution if you need to store secret data – like user information, credit card credentials, etc.

There's also no such thing as multi-user support. Everyone with FTP access to the content files can edit or delete stuff.

Even though I have the experience that many clients love the simplicity of a file-based cms, you definitely need to find out if your client feels comfortable with the idea of managing their website this way.

Will my clients be able to understand Kirby?

I've been using kirby for my own clients for the last three years and it always worked great. It totally depends on the clients though. I've been working with designers, architects and photographers and they all knew how to upload stuff via FTP and of course how to handle image files and how to edit text in text editors :) They all found it way easier to use their FTP client and text editor to update their website rather than using a crappy web interface. They also like markdown and kirbytext a lot. It is doable!! Just show them how Kirby works and ask them if they'd feel comfortable with it.

Are there any extensions/plugins for Kirby?

You can find a bunch of plugins and snippets in the Downloads section. All of them are free and open-source. Additionally you can find the source code for all of them on Github

More will be added over time and you are welcome to submit your own plugins or snippets.

What are the system requirements

Kirby runs best on Linux, Apache and PHP 5.2+. Read more about it in the hosting section.

Do you recommend any text editors?

In general every text editor with utf-8 support does the job. Even TextEdit on the Mac or the default Windows text editor is just fine.

If you need better support for Markdown syntax, Mou (http://mouapp.com/) and iA Write (http://iawriter.com) are just awesome.

Do you recommend any FTP-client?

Any decent FTP-client is just fine! I love Transmit for Mac though (http://panic.com/transmit)

What about Stacey?

The concept of how to organize your content is partly similar with another great file-based open-source cms called Stacey. Kirby offers a completely different, jQuery-inspired API, its own core and a new approach to templates and text formatting. It also contains the kirby toolkit, which will help you speed up your development process.

It's up to you, which one you prefer. If you are not sure about it, you should consider comparing their docs and the Kirby docs.