Frequently asked questions

What if I outgrow Hatchik?

A single Hatchik server comfortably handles an app with several thousand paying users — we've stress-tested. When you need more, the substrate is plain Docker + Postgres + Caddy, so moving to a bigger server (or splitting across several) is a job of hours, not weeks. By that point you've likely hired your first developer; we hand over the keys and help with the migration. No exit fee.

Can I take my code somewhere else?

Yes. The code lives in your GitHub repo, under your own account — not ours. You can git clone it, host it anywhere that runs Docker, point your DNS at the new server, and you're off. Nothing in the substrate is locked to Hatchik's infrastructure (it's a stock Supabase + Caddy + Node stack). If you'd like a walkthrough on moving to a non-Hatchik VPS, email us and we'll write you the runbook — that's free, regardless of whether you're moving away.

Do I really own my app and the code behind it?

Yes. The code repository is created under your GitHub account on day one. The domain is registered in your name (Launch tier). The server is rented on Hetzner, which we resell to you. If you cancel, you walk away with all of it. No obfuscation, no hostage situations.

Specifically: your product code (anything you build in apps/web/src/product/, apps/api/app/product/ and your own database migrations) is yours, no licence inherited. The substrate code Hatchik provides is released under Business Source License 1.1 — see the licence question for details.

What licence is my code under?

Your product code is yours, full stop — licence it however you want. The substrate code Hatchik provides is released under Business Source License 1.1. Plain English: you can use it for your own product anywhere forever, modify it, fork it, share it with your team, hire developers, and sell to your own customers — all fine. The only thing you can't do is offer it to third parties as a competing "Hatchik-like service". After three years the substrate converts to Apache 2.0 automatically — fully open, no strings, no exceptions. The full text lives in the LICENSE file inside your sandbox repo.

What if I want to leave?

Cancel any time. We hand over the server keys, you keep the GitHub repo, the domain stays in your name, and your customers' data is yours. You can keep running everything yourself afterwards for roughly £10–15/month total (a small Hetzner box, the domain renewal, transactional email). No exit fee, no data extraction charges.

Do you have my data?

Yes, in the sense that the Postgres database and file storage run on a server we rent on your behalf. We can technically read it because we have the host's SSH keys. In practice we only do that to help you (e.g. when you email us for support). We are subject to UK data-protection rules and a strict internal policy: no support engineer touches a customer database without a written ticket reference. We don't sell anything, we don't train AI on customer data, and we keep all your data inside the region you picked.

If that's not the right answer for your use case, you can request a Postgres dump at any time — email hello@hatchik.com with subject "Data export" and we'll send you a .sql.gz within one working day. Free, regardless of tier.

Hosting is on Hetzner (Germany / Finland / US East / US West / Singapore). Snapshot backups stay within Hetzner Cloud, in the same region as your server. All encrypted at rest.

Where is my data hosted?

You pick at signup. Hetzner regions: Falkenstein / Nuremberg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Ashburn (US East), Hillsboro (US West), and Singapore — 5 regions across 3 continents. Your server is provisioned in your name, backups go to the same region, and an edge network sits in front so the page loads fast worldwide. If you have rules to meet (GDPR for EU, HIPAA for US healthcare) pick the matching region and we'll send the paperwork.

How do I get help?

Email hello@hatchik.com, or reply to any Hatchik email you've received from us. Email support — typically same business day on Growth, 1 business day on Launch, community-style on Sandbox. Most queries we can answer in one round-trip; trickier ones we'll dig into and get back to you the next day.

What's the difference between hatchik.com/account and my sandbox's login?

Two completely separate sign-in surfaces. hatchik.com/account is the Hatchik account dashboard — billing, lifecycle, account settings. The login inside your sandbox at yoursubdomain.hatchik.com is for your end users — the people using the app you're building. The Hatchik dashboard has one account: you. Your sandbox can have thousands of accounts. They never talk to each other directly.

See Account management → The two logins for a longer explainer.

Why does my sandbox redeploy take ~30 seconds?

Most of that is Docker Compose stopping and restarting the affected service. A typical redeploy: ~2 seconds for the webhook to fire, ~5 seconds for Git pull, ~15 seconds for docker compose up -d --build on the changed service, ~5 seconds for the new container to pass its health check. Total: about 25–35 seconds.

If you've changed a dependency (Python or Node), add another 30 seconds for the install step. If you've touched the Dockerfile, the entire image rebuilds from scratch — could be two minutes.

It's slower than Vercel (which is sub-second for static and a few seconds for serverless) because Hatchik runs the whole substrate in containers, not edge-deployed functions. That's what makes the database, Studio, mail and storage all live in one place — at the cost of redeploys being a bit longer.

Can I bring my own domain?

Yes, on the Launch tier (£89 one-off then £14/month). You either bring an existing domain (point its nameservers at Cloudflare and we'll wire the rest), or we register a new one in your name (year 1 included* in the £89). The free Sandbox tier always lives at yoursubdomain.hatchik.com — we don't offer custom domains on the free tier.

* Which TLDs are covered? Year 1 free for the popular TLDs (.com .co .net .org .uk .co.uk .app .dev .tech .online) — anything ≤ £14/yr at retail. Premium TLDs we still register on request — you cover the balance above £14/yr at checkout. Current passthrough list (ballpark 2026 retail, verified live at checkout): .ai ~£90/yr (you cover ~£76), .io ~£30 (~£16), .tv ~£30 (~£16), .gg ~£70 (~£56), .so ~£25 (~£11), .me ~£15 (~£1), .xyz ~£20 (~£6). Want something outside both lists? Email hello@hatchik.com and we'll quote it.

What happens if I stop using my sandbox?

On the Sandbox tier: after 7 days of no traffic and no commits, we archive your sandbox automatically — the Docker stack is stopped, volumes are tarred up, and the subdomain becomes available again. You'll get an email a couple of days before so you have a chance to keep it active. After another 7 days in archived state with no restore request, the archive is purged.

To restore an archived sandbox, go to hatchik.com/restore-sandbox, sign in, and click "Restore". The sandbox is unpacked and brought back to its previous URL within a couple of minutes. Code, data and customers come back intact.

On Launch: your sandbox is never auto-archived. It runs until you cancel.

What if I'm not a developer?

Hatchik is built for you. The product owners we have in mind are lawyers, restaurateurs, consultants, designers — people with a clear app idea but no infrastructure background. You'll drive an AI helper (Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, Cline, Codex, Antigravity or similar) to build the actual features, and we make sure that experience is safe — your AI can't accidentally break the substrate. If you've never used an AI coding tool before, see AI tool setup.

Does it work with GPT, Gemini, Grok? What about Copilot, Codex, or Antigravity?

Yes to all. Hatchik gives you a normal GitHub repo and a file called AI_CONTEXT.md that explains your stack — any AI coding tool can read that file and start helping.

Named and tested (these open the repo folder and edit files autonomously): Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, Cline, Codex (OpenAI's CLI), Antigravity (Google's IDE). Continue, Aider, and Copilot agent mode also work via the standard MCP config — see install.

Browser AIs work too: ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude.ai, Perplexity Comet — you copy-paste between the chat and your editor instead of letting the AI edit files directly. Comet can also run shell commands and git push for you if you grant access.

And the AI inside your app (for features like chatbots or summaries) is a separate question — that can use any provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI (Grok), Mistral, OpenRouter, or open-source models. Drop your provider key in your app's .env file and the substrate routes calls there.

If your tool isn't on this list, try it anyway — most of them just work. If it doesn't, email us at hello@hatchik.com and we'll add wiring instructions.

Will you submit my app to the App Store or Google Play?

No — and this is the same on every tier. We build the iOS and Android shells from your code, ready to submit. You handle the submission itself, because the apps live on your store accounts under your legal identity. That means an Apple Developer Program account (~£99/year), a Google Play Console account (~£25 one-time), and you take responsibility for listing metadata, review responses and store compliance. We're happy to advise on common rejection reasons; we don't press submit.

Why does my statement say "Paddle.com Market Ltd · Hatchik"?

Hatchik uses Paddle as our Merchant of Record — a well-trodden model used by many global SaaS products. Paddle is the legal seller, which means they handle all the global tax compliance so we don't pass that cost or complexity on to you. The practical effect: your bank statement reads "Paddle.com Market Ltd · Hatchik". Your subscription, login, app and support all stay with Hatchik — only the billing entity differs. Refunds run through Paddle and usually land within 5–10 days.