Behind Kirby

Est. 2012

Kirby started in 2012 as Bastian’s side project. Over the years, the team has grown from within our community. Together, we move Kirby forward.

Company form

Kirby is maintained by the Content Folder GmbH & Co. KG. Our company is entirely owned and operated by our team with no outside investment.

Kirby’s funding

Kirby is 100% self-funded. We have been profitable for over a decade with our commercial licensing model. Since 2023, our partner network has supported us with a secondary revenue stream. Our revenue is directly reinvested in the development of Kirby and its ecosystem.

Fully remote

We are a fully remote operating team, split between Germany and Turkey. We don’t own a company office. Our office is online.

You can contact us directly via email: [email protected] or find us on in the Forum or on Discord.

Small & caring

We like to be a small team. We have been working together in the same formation for many years and believe in the power and efficiency of this small group. We are not just an anonymous company. We express our personal values through our actions as a company. We believe that technology is always political and that we need to be careful about our decisions and our impact.

Longevity

We have been around for more than a decade, and we plan to be around for years to come. We really believe in stability and longevity. We also truly love our long-term relationships with our customers. We have known many of you for many, many years – some of you since Kirby’s beta in 2011. That’s beautiful.

Community

The Kirby community is known for being open and welcoming, and we take great pride in that. We know that’s not something that can be taken for granted on the web, and especially in the tech industry. We want people to feel safe when interacting with us or our community, and we will do everything we can to keep this place friendly and open for everyone.

Responsibility

We feel a personal responsibility to keep Kirby safe and thriving. But we also care about a better society and the future of our planet. We offer free licenses to students, selected educational projects, social and environmental organizations, charities and non-profits with insufficient funding. We also donate a significant amount each year to a variety of causes, such as protecting people from malaria and protecting our democracy.

Partners

Kirby is supported by a network of reliable partner agencies and freelancers. Our partners build a solid foundation to help you with your next project.

Contributors

We have received hundreds of voluntary code contributions over the years from more than 60 contributors in the community. Their help with issue reports and pull requests is invaluable to us as a team.

Translators

Kirby’s interface is translated by an amazing team of community translators from all over the world.

Peers

While we are constantly around on Discord, GitHub and in our forum, our community has turned into a really friendly, self-regulating little society. We are more than thankful for all the help and guidance that Kirby users provide for each other.