RED SCARF SuiteThe only complete business software suite made up entirely of free and open source software
We are in pre-release testing stage
RED SCARF Suite stands for “Radically Enhanced Digital Security Control Autonomy Reliability and Flexibility Software Suite.”
We selected the best free and open source applications and we developed the missing components, in order to create a complete software suite made up of programs unmatched in quality, yet gratis, that can assist any small company in all the common digital activities. This software suite can be also used by any nonprofit organization or private individual. RED SCARF Suite offers real control over your data, real freedom and real privacy, since all the components are installed on your own VPS or dedicated server. To access all the applications, you only need a device connected to the Internet and a browser. You can have a completely paperless and completely mobile office, allowing web-based collaboration and teamwork. With RED SCARF Suite, you can offer yourself the following services:
 | Website hosting, including an e-commerce platform and forum CMS |  | Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) |  | Web traffic monitoring |  | Email hosting |
 | Mailing list management and mass email sending services |  | File sync and share and project management with tasks, calendars, forms, polls |  | Web-based collaborative document editing |  | Web video/audio/text communication, including video conferences |
 | Private Branch Exchange (PBX) services |  | Web SMS services |  | Web Fax services |  | Decentralized social network |
 | Domain Name System (DNS) services |  | System security services |  | Virtual Private Network (VPN) services |  | Data backup services |
The whole software suite can be installed on a $10/month VPS (Eg: Linode’s 1 CPU core, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD VPS).
For a company with 50 employees, the price differences between using the “classic” services offered by the “classic” companies and the corresponding services offered by RED SCARF Suite installed on your server, are detailed below:
| Service | Monthly ongoing cost of “classic” services, for 50 employees | Monthly ongoing cost of similar services, when using RED SCARF Suite, for 50 employees |
| Google Workspace (Business Standard): $12/user/month | $600 | $0 |
| Shopify | $29 | $0 |
| Quickbooks for 3 users | $20 | $0 |
| Mailchimp Standard for 5000 subscribers | $79.99 | $0 |
| VPN (ExpressVPN billed yearly) | $8.32 | $0 |
| VPS hosting | $0 | $10 |
| Domain name renewal (.com domain from Namecheap) | $1.10 | $1.10 |
| Phone number for voice and SMS | $0 | $1.10 |
| Fax enabled phone number | $2 | $2 |
| Total monthly ongoing cost in US dollars | $740.41 | $14.20 |
This means that you will have a monthly ongoing cost of $14.20 when using RED SCARF Suite installed on your server, if you choose a VPS with minimum hardware resources and install and maintain all the applications by yourself. This is not difficult if you have basic Linux administration knowledge and the proper documentation. However, if you cannot or don’t want to install and maintain RED SCARF Suite by yourself, you can have a company specialized in remote system administration do the installation and maintenance for you at very reasonable monthly prices. There are even companies that offer software installation, maintenance and hosting. Therefore, they can install and maintain the suite for you and also host it. You can even use the services of a freelance system administrator for installation and maintenance, at even lower prices. The key point is that all the companies and freelancers that we recommend on www.doublebastion.com will sign a contract that will give you the guarantee of real control over the server, in the form of root access and the permission to modify or delete anything at any moment, after sending a formal request to the maintainer.
Even if you entrust the installation and maintenance of RED SCARF Suite to a company, you will still have lower ongoing monthly costs than when using the “classic” services. In addition, you will have real control over your computing, real flexibility and real privacy. We consider that the digital freedom and privacy that RED SCARF Suite offers are priceless.
If you already have websites hosted in a shared hosting environment, you can easily port them to RED SCARF Suite. If your websites are hosted on a VPS or dedicated server with minimum system requirements, you can install RED SCARF Suite on the same VPS or dedicated server.
To find out more about the structure and features of RED SCARF Suite, as well as about the minimum hardware resources needed to install it, you can read the ‘Introduction’ to our Complete Guide.
You can install RED SCARF Suite by following our complete and detailed guide.