Loxya (formerly Robert Manager) is a French open-source tool for technical event rental, community-maintained since 2017. Free, self-hosted. Flip side: you manage hosting, updates, backups, support. For an SME without IT, ark.stock provides similar scope + Swiss hosting + human support — as SaaS.
French open source. Free — but you self-host and self-support.
Loxya (formerly Robert Manager) is the most active French-speaking open-source AV rental tool. Developed by Pulsanova, a French company based in the Alps, the product has been around for 13+ years. Open source under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 (commercial use and modification allowed, for-profit redistribution prohibited). Two deployment options: self-hosted on your infrastructure or SaaS operated by Pulsanova. France hosting, GDPR.
Open source (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0) + managed SaaS if you don't want to self-host.
AV/technical event rental oriented — tailored terminology and workflow.
Active French-speaking community — forums, Discord, regular contributions.
Self-hosted on your infra — full data control.
The free version is self-hosted — you handle uptime/backups/security/updates. Pulsanova's managed SaaS is the paid alternative.
No native Swiss QR-bill — adapt/build a third-party module.
Community support (best-effort) — no SLA, no hotline.
Technical stack to maintain (PHP/MySQL) — hidden admin-time cost.
| Feature | ark.stock | Loxya (Robert Manager) |
|---|---|---|
| Items + flight cases | Yes | Yes |
| Rental projects + conflicts | Yes | Yes |
| Quotes + invoicing | Via ark.plan | Yes |
| Swiss invoicing via ark.plan (SIX / ISO 20022 QR-bill) | Yes | No |
| E-signature (via ark.plan) | Yes | No |
| Open source (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) | No | Yes |
| Turnkey SaaS (no self-hosting) | Yes | Partial |
| Pulsanova operates an optional managed SaaS — pricing on robertmanager.org. | ||
| Direct support (email, phone) | Yes | Partial |
| Planned maintenance | Yes | Partial |
| Swiss hosting (Infomaniak Geneva, ISO 27001) | Yes | You self-host |
| Swiss nFADP + GDPR compliance | Yes | Your responsibility |
| Full CSV / Excel / PDF export anytime | Yes | Yes |
What the matrix above asserts, here's how it looks inside ark.stock. Previews faithfully rebuilt from the app.
SIX QR-bill embedded on every invoice. ISO 20022 standard, native IBAN, scanned and paid by any Swiss bank.
Versioned quotes with immutable snapshots. Each send freezes prices and terms — 100 % traceability without guessing what was on the table 6 months ago.
Fast loan in three steps: QR scan, pick borrower, validate. 80 % of loans are routine — the app removes the friction on those 80 %.
The open-source version (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0) is free to self-host. Pulsanova also offers a paid SaaS tier for teams that prefer managed hosting — pricing on robertmanager.org. For self-hosting, plan for a VPS (~€30-100/month) plus admin time for updates and backups.
Open source contributions stay public on GitHub. Your Loxya instance can keep running during migration. ark.stock doesn't oppose open source — we also use open stacks (Go, PostgreSQL, Astro). We offer a commercial SaaS complementary to OSS for SMEs wanting turnkey.
Since the code is open, you have full access to the DB schema and can export via direct SQL or the Loxya API. A conversion script to ark.stock import format takes a few days for a typical instance. Migration assistance available in onboarding on Pro/Enterprise.
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A few slots reserved before the public launch. Tell us about your needs — we reply within 2 business days.
