Enthusiast Edition

Kallax.io has been operating as a free hobby project for almost 5 years now, our anniversary is coming up on the 23rd of March. What started as a collection viewer tool with a few users has grown into a small community platform used to manage more than 1.3 million copies and arrange board game nights by over 12.000 board game enthusiasts.

Thank you for that! 🙏
Our goal has always been simple: we want people to play more board games together. The next step toward that is doubling down on what brings people to the table; Board gaming groups, local cafés, and easier event discovery.

Grouped Collection View ✨

Two weeks ago we annouced the beta of a new collection view, this has now been enabled for everyone. The view groups your games together, such that expansions and other games that integrate with the base edition, appears as one group.

It also combines the meta data, meaning that e.g. Blood Rage will appear when you search for 5-player games, if you own the 5th Player Expansion.

See with your collection! 👈

Enthusiast Edition 🚀

Over the years we've received a growing number of requests for more advanced and specific features. We aim to exist in the spot between casual board gamers and dedicated collectors; satisfying enough for the enthusiastic crowd, yet simple enough that your friends are actually willing to use it.

To accommodate these requests without cluttering the experience for casual users, we're introducing a new account tier Enthusiast Edition. Designed for enthusiastic collectors, event organizers, and café owners. Our current accounts are being renamed Hobbyist, and they will always remain free.

Enthusiast Edition will launch as a Pay What You Want subscription.

A Note on Monetization 💸

In the lifetime of the project we have managed to raise €517.06 (~US$600) in donations, with recent months averaging about €40/month (46 USD). That is honestly amazing and I am surprised by the generousity of our supporters, especially considering that you get nothing tangible in return.

In order to grow into a fully functional community platform for board game enthusiast, we need to start integrating some paid services. Essential features like email validation, notifications, and interactive maps that we have been holding back on to keep the cost low. Ideally, we need around €100/month.

The response to our donations appeals shows that the support is there, which is amazing. However, we don't want to become a site that constantly asks for help. It eventually becomes just as intrusive as ads, and we’d rather spend our energy building great features.

The Enthusiast Edition is an attempt at keeping the site clutter and ad-free while staying sustainable. Since these features are designed for those who use the site most, it seems like a good moment to ask if you are willing to chip in to keep things running. At which point you can choose $0, the choice is entirely yours.

Upgrading to Enthusiast 🖖

We are still actively developing and improving the Enthusiast Edition. If you want an early preview then you can upgrade your account here. For now, think of it primarily as a way to support the project, rather than unlocking features.

You can also set your price as 0$ to see the features. If you decide later that you’d like to contribute, you can always return and select a non-zero amount.

Minor changes 🤏

• Adjusted margins in footer
• Added explicit Terms of Service acceptance
• Added option to remove/add to game plan from hauling list
• Added various security enhancements and hardening measures
• Added option to choose a 'community' as the location of an event
• Updated side navigation menu
• Updated Stripe integration
• Updated thank you page for donations
• Fixed critical issue that caused some browser to not render /search
• Fixed issue where new collection view would render empty location
• Fixed issue that caused nicknames to not be clearable
• Fixed issue that caused game plan not to re-render on change
• Removed free-text option from event search
• Removed embeds feature due to low usage

Questions -

I have already donated. Will I automatically get Enthusiast Edition?

No. Enthusiast is considered a Software-as-a-Service subscription, while donations are voluntary support and not a purchase. Because of taxation regulations, we’re not allowed to provide subscription benefits in exchange for donations.

That said, nothing stops you from choosing $0 as your price for the Enthusiast tier if you’d simply like to access the features.

How do I cancel my subscription?

Under Subscription & Payments in settings.
The section appears after you have attempted to make a purchase.

What happens if I cancel my subscription?

Since there is no minimum price, we treat cancellation the same as switching to $0/month. You’ll continue to have full access to the Enthusiast features.

Contact admin@kallax.io, if you prefer your access to be revoked entirely.

Why did you choose a Pay-What-You-Want model?

Our goal isn’t to limit access, but to encourage the people who get the most value from the site to contribute to keeping it running.

Different users benefit from the platform in different ways. A small group of friends and a café hosting regular events use the site very differently.

Instead of creating complex pricing tiers and spending time managing them, we chose a Pay What You Want approach based on an honor system. This keeps things simple and allows everyone to decide what feels fair for their situation.

If contributing isn’t something that makes sense for you right now, that’s completely fine too, even for commercial usage. We believe board gaming should be inclusive, and we want the site to reflect that.