# Towncenter > Towncenter is free software for field sales on foot: draw a sector on a map, it fills with every business registered inside it, and each one carries two numbers — what it would earn you, and what stands between you and the signature. Self-hosted, AGPL-3.0, France only. Site: https://town-center.co/ Source code: https://github.com/fberrez/towncenter Licence: AGPL-3.0 Country covered: France only. Filling a sector depends on the SIRENE register and the IGN geocoder, neither of which covers anything outside France. ## What the product does You draw a sector freehand on a map. Towncenter queries the French national business register and drops every business declared inside the outline onto the map. Each business becomes a target carrying two numbers: the loot, meaning what the job would earn if signed, computed against the user's own price grid, and the resistance, meaning what stands between the user and that signature, on five bands from "easy" to "impregnable". ## Who it is for Freelances and small web agencies selling websites to neighbourhood shops in France. One user per instance. ## What the product is not Towncenter is not a CRM and is not going to become one. There is no pipeline, no email sequencing, no team reporting and no sync with an existing CRM. ## Business model Free software under the AGPL-3.0 licence, self-hosted. There is no billing, no subscription and no hosted plan today. A hosted version is a longer-term ambition, with no date and no price announced. ## Data sources - SIRENE register (French state · no key) — free - IGN geocoder (data.geopf.fr) — free - Basemap tiles (OpenFreeMap) — free - Site audit (built in) — free - Google Places (reviews, hours) — optional Towncenter does not scrape Google Maps. Fields obtained from Google Places are purged after 30 days, as the terms of service require. ## Technical requirements - Node.js 22 or later - PostgreSQL 16 - One mandatory variable: AUTH_SECRET (32 characters minimum, checked at boot) - One optional variable: GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY, for reviews, hours and phone Single tenant: the first account created owns the instance and closes signups behind it, on the Miniflux, Gitea and Vaultwarden pattern. ## Free tools Open calculators, no account and no collection: everything is computed in the visitor's browser. - [What should you charge for a small business website?](https://town-center.co/tools/website-pricing) — A range built from your own day rate and the real parts of the job, rather than from a market average that does not pay your days. - [What is this neighbourhood worth?](https://town-center.co/tools/territory-value) — The theoretical ceiling of a sector, and what an honest close rate actually leaves of it. - [Is this shop findable online?](https://town-center.co/tools/online-presence-audit) — Nine checks you can run from the pavement, scored out of 100, with the one thing to pitch first. ## Comparisons - [Towncenter or Badger Maps?](https://town-center.co/comparisons/badger-maps) — One optimises the route of a rep who already has accounts. The other finds the accounts. Those are not the same day. - [Towncenter or SPOTIO?](https://town-center.co/comparisons/spotio) — SPOTIO equips a door-to-door team with a manager above it. Towncenter equips one person. - [Towncenter or a Google Maps scraper?](https://town-center.co/comparisons/google-maps-scraping) — The question is not technical, it is contractual — and the answer changes what you are allowed to keep. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is Towncenter? Towncenter is free software for door-to-door sales, aimed at freelances and small web agencies who sell websites to neighbourhood shops. You draw a sector on a map, it fills with every business registered at those addresses, and each business carries two numbers: the loot, meaning what the job would earn you, and the resistance, meaning what stands between you and the signature. ### Where do the businesses on the map come from? From SIRENE, the French national business register, queried through the state's public API at recherche-entreprises.api.gouv.fr. That API is free and needs no key. Towncenter does not scrape Google Maps. ### Is Towncenter free? Yes. Towncenter is free software under the AGPL-3.0 licence, self-hosted on your own server. There is no billing, no subscription and no hosted plan today. ### What does it take to run it? Node.js 22 or later and a PostgreSQL 16 database. Exactly one variable is mandatory at boot, AUTH_SECRET, and the application refuses to start without it. A Google Places key is optional and only enriches business sheets with reviews, opening hours and a phone number. ### Is Towncenter a CRM? No, and it is not going to become one. Towncenter answers one question: where do I start this morning, and what is it worth. There is no pipeline, no email sequencing, no team reporting and no sync with an existing CRM. ### Does Towncenter work outside France? Not today. Filling a sector depends on the SIRENE register and on the IGN geocoder, and neither covers anything outside France. The rest of the product — the map, the loot calculation, the resistance calculation — depends on no French data at all, so another country is a matter of another register rather than another product. ### How many people per instance? One. Towncenter is single-tenant: the first account created owns the instance and closes signups behind it, on the Miniflux, Gitea and Vaultwarden pattern. Equipping a second person means deploying a second instance. ### Will there be a hosted version? It does not exist yet. A hosted instance is the longer-term ambition, and nothing more than that today: no date has been set, no price has been decided, and none is being promised here. Self-hosting is the answer for now — the install prompt on this page hands the whole setup to a coding agent, and the software is free under the AGPL-3.0 licence either way. If you would rather wait for the hosted version, leave your address in the hosted instance block and you will know the day it opens.