About freehug.me

freehug.me is a community kindness platform. Members share a bit of their lives — photographs, albums, a note — and give each other hugs, which are short written messages of encouragement. Some people come because they are having a rotten month; some come because they have a garden they are pleased with and nowhere to put the photographs. Nobody is asked which one they are.

There is also a part of the site for meeting people, which is where members can choose to be introduced to each other. It is optional and it sits alongside the rest rather than above it.

The longer version, written for somebody deciding whether to join rather than for somebody assessing the business, is on What this is and How it works.

Hugs are free and always will be. Nobody having a bad night should ever meet a price, and the free tier is a complete way to use this rather than a trial of it.

The only thing sold is a membership period — one, three, six or twelve months of defined features, paid for in advance, and gating the meeting side of the site only. It is a digital service delivered to the account that paid for it; nothing is shipped. Every price, in both currencies, is on the pricing page.

Nothing renews by itself. There is no stored card and no mandate, so there is nothing anybody can forget to cancel.

• Not a charity, and not donations. Nothing here is solicited as a contribution to a cause, and no part of the site asks for or accepts one. A member pays a stated price and receives stated features in return.
• Not a dating or matchmaking service. People do meet here, and there is a part of the site for it — but nothing is sold on the promise of a match, no outcome is promised or implied, and no tier changes who is shown to whom on merit. A paid boost lengthens the odds of being seen; it never re-ranks people by what they paid.
• Not a helpline, and not counselling. Nobody here is a professional anything, and this is said on every page of the site rather than buried. If today is a hard one, the people who do that properly are here.
• Not an advertising business. There is no advertising on the site, no third-party tracker, and member data is not sold, rented or shared for marketing. The privacy policy is the long version.

Opening gently. freehug.me is open gently — a few people at a time, so that anyone who asks for a hug actually gets one. If you are here, you are welcome; we are still growing carefully rather than all at once.

That is stated here rather than implied, because a site that looks fully open while still inviting carefully wastes the time of exactly the careful person it most wants. The joining page says the same thing to anybody who arrives at it.

freehug.me is owned and operated by Saptarang Ventures (OPC) Private Limited, CIN U43900MH2023OPC413456, a One Person Company registered in India. It is also the company that collects payment for a membership and that issues any refund.

C-102, Acropolis Apartments, Thatte Nagar, Nashik 422005, India

The sole director is Manish Jagdish Thatte, who is also the named Grievance Officer. freehug.me is one of several ventures the company operates; the company’s own site is saptarang.net, and its service level agreement covers this site. Membership payments, when offered, go through PayU for INR under the company merchant ID, and PayPal elsewhere where enabled. Cashfree may still appear on older paths during cutover. Because one payments relationship serves the group, the name on a card statement may be a sibling venture’s rather than this one’s.

care@freehug.me reaches one, and is answered within one working day. If something here has frightened you or somebody has asked you for money, safety@freehug.me is a separate desk and is read first.

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