Self-hosted photography CRM
Your clients. Your data. Your website.
Mankai is a self-hosted photography CRM: a WordPress plugin that keeps your clients, contracts, invoices, payment records and gallery photos on your own website and hosting. You own all of it, and you look after the site it runs on.
- Free to install
- No credit card
- No fee on your payments
Works with the WordPress setup you already have
What lives in your WordPress
Everything Mankai keeps is on your own site: in your WordPress database, or in a private folder on your hosting. None of it is stored on a Mankai server.
-
Clients and their logins
Names, emails, phone numbers and notes. Each client's portal login is a user account on your own WordPress site.
-
Sessions and bookings
Every session with its date, place, price and status, plus your studio hours and the days you blocked off.
-
Invoices and payment records
Every invoice, retainer and payment, including the cash, checks and transfers you record by hand.
-
Contracts and signed copies
The contract as it was signed, who signed it and when, and a fingerprint that shows whether the text has changed since.
-
Gallery photos and picks
The photo files sit in a private folder on your hosting. Each client's hearts and notes sit in your database.
-
Messages and sent email
Every thread with a client, the private notes you keep beside it, and a log of the emails Mankai sent.
-
Form and questionnaire answers
What people type into your contact form, and what clients answer before their session, kept on that session.
-
Client files
Files you share with clients and files they upload go to the same private folder, not the public uploads folder.
-
Settings and activity
Your studio settings, document templates and email wording, and the Activity log of bookings, payments and signatures.
Payments and the client portal
Clients pay on your site, and the money goes to your account
Clients sign in to a portal on your own domain to see their session, sign the contract and pay. Card payments run on your own Stripe or PayPal keys and land in your account, with no Mankai account in the middle.
- The client portal and sign-in page sit on your own domain
- You paste in your own Stripe or PayPal keys
- Cash and checks go in the same payment records
0%Taken by Mankai from what your clients pay you.
Galleries
Gallery photos stay on your own hosting
When you upload a gallery, the photos are saved in a private folder on your hosting, usually next to your website folder rather than inside it. Clients view them through your site, and you decide when they can download.
- Original files kept out of the public uploads folder
- Client picks and notes saved in your database
- Download the picks as a ZIP, or copy them as file names
mankai-privateThe folder on your hosting that holds your gallery photos.
Getting your data out
Download what you need, when you need it
Lists and records in Mankai have their own downloads, for your accountant or your files. There is no single export-everything button. A backup of your WordPress database and the private gallery folder is the full copy of your studio.
- Payment records, Activity and money reports as CSV files
- Invoices, signed contracts, questionnaires and message threads as PDFs
- Gallery picks as a CSV, a ZIP or a list of file names
CSV and PDFSpreadsheets for your accountant, documents for your records.
What self-hosting asks of you
Owning the software means looking after the site it runs on. Here is the whole list, and your host can do most of it for you.
-
Hosting
You choose and pay for WordPress hosting with SSL. Mankai needs WordPress 6.4 or newer and PHP 8.1 or newer, and runs best on PHP 8.2 or 8.3.
-
Backups
Ask your host for daily backups kept for at least two weeks, and check that they include the mankai-private folder next to your website folder.
-
Updates
WordPress, your theme and your plugins all need updating, Mankai included. Take a backup before you update, the same as for any plugin.
-
Email
Mankai sends from your own email account through a mail plugin such as FluentSMTP. No email passes through a Mankai server.
-
Scheduled jobs
Reminders run on the WordPress schedule, which waits for visitors. On a quiet site, ask your host for a real cron job so reminders go out on time.
-
Checking on it
Diagnostics in Mankai shows your PHP version, whether email is connected, where the private folder is and how scheduled jobs run.
Rented or owned: what actually changes
A hosted studio app is quicker to start, and someone else runs it. With Mankai it all lives on your site, and the site is yours to look after.
| What you get | Hosted studio app | Mankai on your WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Where client records are stored | Their servers | Your database |
| Where gallery photos are stored | Their servers | Your hosting |
| Client portal on your own domain | Partly | Yes |
| Card payments into your own Stripe or PayPal | Partly | Yes |
| A full copy in your own site backups | No | Yes |
| Records kept if you stop paying | Their terms | Yes, on Free |
| Servers, backups and updates handled for you | Yes | No |
Feels built for how we already run the studio.
Frequently asked questions
What is a self-hosted photography CRM?
It is studio software that runs on your own website hosting instead of on the vendor's servers. Mankai is one: a WordPress plugin that keeps your clients, sessions, contracts, invoices and gallery photos on your own site.
Who owns my client data in Mankai?
You do. It sits in your WordPress database and a private folder on your hosting, and none of it is stored on a Mankai server. The license check sends your site address and your PHP and WordPress versions, not your clients.
Can I export my data from Mankai?
Yes, piece by piece: payment records, Activity and money reports download as CSV files, and invoices, signed contracts, questionnaires and message threads as PDFs. There is no single export-everything button, so for a complete copy, back up your WordPress database and the mankai-private folder.
What happens to my data if I stop paying or uninstall?
Nothing is deleted. If Pro runs out, Mankai goes back to the free version and your booking page and client portal keep working. Deleting the plugin keeps your records too, unless you turn on Delete all CRM data too first.
Do I need to be technical to self-host Mankai?
No, but you need WordPress hosting with daily backups, WordPress 6.4 or newer and PHP 8.1 or newer. If you would rather not set it up yourself, Setup and migration is an optional $799.99 one-time service that installs and brands Mankai for you.
Is there a WordPress alternative to HoneyBook?
Mankai is one. It runs clients, booking, contracts, invoices, payments and galleries inside your WordPress, where HoneyBook is a hosted app. You can import your clients from a CSV file, and Setup and migration helps move what you use now.
Keep your studio on your own site.
Install the free plugin today. Everything you add stays in your WordPress, with Pro or without it.