---
title: Monica alternative: a local personal CRM · PeopleBlade
description: Monica is an AGPL personal CRM you self-host or rent, now being rebuilt. PeopleBlade is a free contact book on your computer that your agent can search.
canonical_url: https://peopleblade.com/compare/monica
last_updated: 2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z
---

# PeopleBlade compared with Monica

Monica is an open-source web application for recording your relationships, which you self-host or rent as a hosted service. PeopleBlade is a free, MIT-licensed contact book in a SQLite file on your computer, built from accounts you already use and made to be searched by your agent. Both are personal CRMs meant to keep relationship details away from advertising platforms. The biggest practical difference today is timing: Monica's last stable release is from May 2024, and a ground-up rebuild is under way.

## What Monica does

Monica is an open-source personal CRM started in 2017. It gives each person a record with notes, journal entries, activities such as meals and calls, reminders, relationships to other people, gifts and debts, and custom fields. The code is AGPL v3: run it yourself with Docker or a PHP setup, or pay for the hosted version at $9 a month or $90 a year, both with unlimited contacts.

Monica imports vCard and CSV files and flags duplicates before merging. Each contact page offers a vCard export, a CardDAV endpoint can serve the whole address book to a compatible client, and a full account export is available. Monica's pricing page presents export as a right, not a paid feature.

The main thing to weigh is timing. The newest stable release, v4.1.2, shipped in May 2024. Monica's own site announces a rebuilt Monica expected before the end of 2026, and the repository's newest tags are 5.0.0 beta pre-releases. Choosing Monica today means running the 4.x line as it is or waiting for the rebuild; Monica says a migration path for existing accounts is planned.

[Monica's own site](https://www.monicahq.com) · [monicahq/monica on GitHub](https://github.com/monicahq/monica)

## What PeopleBlade does

PeopleBlade keeps the contacts you already have in one SQLite file on your computer. It imports macOS Contacts, Google Contacts, Beeper, WhatsApp, iMessage interaction metadata without message text, and your official LinkedIn, Instagram, and X exports. Each detail records where it came from. Two records join only on a matching email, phone number, or account ID, and only when you approve the join or run an opt-in pass that accepts exact matches.

You keep private Markdown notes beside each person, with history, and they are never synced or uploaded. Your agent works the book through `peopleblade` commands that all print JSON. A Soulscrape packet, a file with one person's background, hands that person to an agent without exposing your other contacts. An optional cloud sync copies a listed set of contact details to a private dashboard, and optional hosted research costs prepaid credits per contact.

Public CLI · npm 0.6.0. Install it with `bun add --global @hraness/peopleblade@0.6.0` on macOS or Linux.

[Read the contact-book guide](https://peopleblade.com/guide) · [See every supported source](https://peopleblade.com/sources)

## How they compare

Monica holds what you enter about people. PeopleBlade builds its book from the accounts and archives where your contacts already are. The table compares them point by point.

| Aspect | Monica | PeopleBlade |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | An AGPL v3 web application for remembering the people in your life: notes, a journal, reminders, activities, and relationships | A personal CRM on your computer that combines the people in the accounts and exports you already have |
| Where it runs | Your server through Docker or a PHP environment, or Monica's hosted service | A SQLite file on your Mac or Linux computer, plus a local browser workspace |
| Cost | Free to self-host; the hosted plan is $9 a month or $90 a year with unlimited contacts | Free and MIT licensed; optional hosted research is prepaid per contact |
| Where contacts come from | vCard and CSV import, CardDAV contact sync, and manual entry | macOS Contacts, Google Contacts, Beeper, WhatsApp, iMessage interaction metadata, and official LinkedIn, Instagram, and X exports. There is no generic CSV or vCard import |
| Relationship memory | Journal entries, activities, reminders, gifts, debts, and links between people | Private Markdown notes beside each person, plus interaction counts where a source reports them. No reminders or journal |
| Working with an agent | An HTTP API today; the rebuild plans an MCP server | JSON CLI commands, one-person packets for an agent, and an approved-device API over synced contacts |
| Deduping people | Imports show duplicates for review before merging | Suggested joins show the matching email or phone and you decide each one; an opt-in pass accepts exact matches, and any accepted join can be undone |
| Release state | Latest stable v4.1.2 from May 2024; a from-scratch rebuild is in beta and announced for before the end of 2026 | Public CLI · npm 0.6.0; the CLI, imports, identity review, and notes work today |
| Away from the desk | A responsive web app on any phone; native iOS and Android apps are planned after the rebuild | No phone app; an optional private web dashboard shows synced contact details |

## How to move your contacts from Monica

PeopleBlade has no Monica importer, and there is no generic CSV or vCard import either. The route that works goes through macOS Contacts: get your Monica contacts into the Mac's address book, then let PeopleBlade sync it. Names, organizations, job titles, birthdays, email addresses, and phone numbers carry over. Journal entries, activities, reminders, relationships, gifts, debts, and Monica's notes do not; they exist only in Monica's own export.

1. In Monica's settings, download the full data export and keep it somewhere safe. It is the only complete copy of your journal, activities, reminders, and relationships.
2. Bring the contacts into macOS Contacts. For a small book, open each Monica contact, use Export as vCard, and open the resulting .vcf files on the Mac. For a larger book, add Monica's CardDAV account in Contacts instead: the base URL Monica shows under Settings, DAV Resources (`https://app.monicahq.com/dav` on hosted Monica), your Monica email as the username, and an API token from Settings, API as the password.
3. Run `peopleblade contacts sync --json` to read the local address book into PeopleBlade, then `peopleblade stats --json` to see what landed.
4. Run `peopleblade identity suggest --limit 25 --json` to review likely duplicates, decide each one with `peopleblade identity decide TOKEN accept --note "reason" --json`, and reverse any accepted join later with `peopleblade identity separate DECISION_ID --json`.
5. Rewrite whatever you still need as PeopleBlade notes: reminders to call someone, the context of past conversations, or anything else that lived in Monica's journal.

This route needs a Mac, because `contacts sync` reads the macOS address book. PeopleBlade does not import a vCard file on its own, so on Linux your Monica contacts can reach PeopleBlade only through a supported live source such as Google Contacts.

[Review identity joins](https://peopleblade.com/guide#identity) · [Monica's CardDAV guide](https://github.com/monicahq/monica/blob/4.x/docs/user/carddav.md)

## Which to choose

Choose Monica if you want a self-contained web app for documenting relationships, with journal entries, call logs, reminders, and records you keep by hand, on a server you control or at $9 a month hosted. Weigh that the stable release predates the current rebuild.

Choose PeopleBlade if your contacts already exist across your phone, messaging apps, and export archives, and you want them in one free, private book that you and your agent can both work with. If the wait for the rebuild is why you are looking, the route above moves your address book, and your relationship history stays in the full Monica export you keep.

## Questions

### Is PeopleBlade a replacement for Monica?

For the address book, yes. PeopleBlade has no journal, activities, reminders, gifts, debts, or relationship linking, so if you used Monica to record your life with people, you will miss those features.

### Does PeopleBlade import vCard or CSV files?

No. Imports come through named sources: macOS Contacts, Google Contacts, Beeper, WhatsApp, and the official LinkedIn, Instagram, and X exports. Leaving Monica means going through macOS Contacts by vCard or CardDAV, then running `peopleblade contacts sync`.

### Can I run Monica and PeopleBlade at the same time?

Yes. Adding Monica's CardDAV account to macOS Contacts keeps the same people in both places: you edit in Monica, and `peopleblade contacts sync` picks the changes up on the next run.

### How do the licenses differ?

Monica's source is AGPL v3 on GitHub, so you can inspect, modify, and host it. PeopleBlade's public CLI is MIT-licensed on npm; you can inspect the published package but there is no public source repository.

### Which is more private?

It depends on where you want the data. Self-hosted Monica keeps it on a server you administer, and hosted Monica keeps it on Monica's servers under a pledge not to sell it. PeopleBlade keeps the whole book on your own computer and sends nothing anywhere unless you turn on sync or hosted research.

## Sources

Compared facts were read from each product's own pages on September 26, 2026.

- [Monica: the open-source personal CRM](https://www.monicahq.com), Monica, checked 2026-09-26
- [Monica pricing: $9 a month or $90 a year hosted, free self-hosted](https://www.monicahq.com/en/pricing/), Monica, checked 2026-09-26
- [Monica's rebuild announcement and what changes](https://www.monicahq.com/en/v3/), Monica, checked 2026-09-26
- [monicahq/monica releases: v4.1.2 marked latest, 5.0.0 betas as pre-releases](https://github.com/monicahq/monica/releases), GitHub, checked 2026-09-26
- [Monica's CardDAV and CalDAV guide](https://github.com/monicahq/monica/blob/4.x/docs/user/carddav.md), GitHub, checked 2026-09-26