GlobaLeaks vs WeMoral, what free whistleblowing software really costs once you self-host it
GlobaLeaks vs WeMoral comes down to what free whistleblowing software really costs once you self-host it. GlobaLeaks is open source, so the licence is free for as long as you use it, and your team supplies everything around that licence. WeMoral is the managed route: a 30-day trial of the full PRO plan, then €79 a month, net. What follows is what really differs between the two, one dimension at a time.
What free means for GlobaLeaks and what it means for WeMoral
For GlobaLeaks, free means the licence costs nothing, for good. There is no user limit and no vendor invoice. For WeMoral, free means 30 days of the complete PRO plan. After that the channel costs €79 a month, net. Pay for the year and 20% comes off. These are two different kinds of free, and they suit different teams. An organisation that wants no supplier at all takes the GlobaLeaks route, and accepts the operational work that comes with it. An employer that wants the duty handled takes the paid route, and has WeMoral working well inside the trial period. Neither number is the real figure until you add the hours behind it.
Who installs the software, patches it and keeps it running
Who installs the software, patches it and keeps it running is your own team, on the GlobaLeaks route. That means a server, a certificate, upgrades, backups and monitoring. It also means someone who notices when any of it stops. Plenty of technical teams do this well. The catch is ownership. The task belongs to a person, and people change jobs. A channel nobody has patched since last spring is a liability sitting on your own hardware. WeMoral removes that job. There is no software to put on a server and no machine to look after, because WeMoral runs, secures and updates the system. Updates cost nothing extra, new features included. The WeMoral reporting page is up in under five minutes, and nobody has to file an IT ticket for it.
Where the reports are stored and who can read them
Where the reports are stored is your own server on the GlobaLeaks route, and whoever runs that machine can read them. That is a real advantage if you want no third party near the data. It is a real risk if the box is shared, unpatched, or hosted outside the EU by accident. WeMoral holds every case in Frankfurt, Germany, and the data never leaves the EU. Every report is encrypted as it arrives and while it is stored. Attachments are checked for viruses on the way in. Access is limited to the case handlers you designate. Role-based permissions decide who may read, answer or close a case, and the fields holding personal data can be narrowed to a smaller group. WeMoral treats each report as special-category data, from intake through to deletion. It applies set retention periods, publishes a sub-processor list, and signs a data processing agreement on request.
What the person filing a report sees
What the person filing a report sees is the form the channel puts in front of them. This is where the two routes differ most. A self-hosted GlobaLeaks hands your team full control of that page. Your team also owns its wording, its translations and its upkeep. WeMoral ships a branded page that is live the moment you sign up. The default form is then yours to adapt. Reword any label, add or drop fields, replace the category list, and set each field as required or optional. Staff reach the page by web link, by intranet form, or by scanning a printed QR code. They can type what happened, upload files, photos or video, or leave a voice message in the browser. No app, and no account. The WeMoral form and panel each run in 25 languages, and reporter and handler pick separately. Anonymity is a setting rather than a fixed rule. Out of the box it asks for no name and no email address. Add a required author-name field and the same channel takes identified reports. The reporter leaves with a private link and a one-time code, and that is how they read the reply.
What the case management panel does once a report arrives
What the case management panel does once a report arrives is triage it, move it forward and prove what was done. On the GlobaLeaks route, the panel is whatever your own team has configured and keeps maintained. WeMoral gives handlers one encrypted panel for intake, triage, investigation and closure. Designated handlers are emailed the moment a case arrives. Each case sits at new, in progress or closed. Handlers filter that list by status, by channel, by category, or by who is carrying the load. Replies travel in an encrypted thread. Neither side gives out a personal email or phone number. Every read and every write is stamped in the WeMoral audit log, and the reporter stays anonymous. A corrective-actions registry records what was fixed afterwards. National laws implementing the EU Whistleblower Directive require an acknowledgement within 7 days and feedback within 3 months. They also require you to show it happened, and that record is what shows it.
The cost of a year of each software
The cost of a year of each software is easy to compare once you price the cloud bill and the staff time properly. Self-hosting needs a server, storage, backups and someone to mind them. The going rates are public, so the sum below is one anybody can check.
| Line | Self-hosted, low | Self-hosted, high | WeMoral PRO |
|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS subscription | €0 | €0 | €79 |
| Cloud server, 4 vCPU and 8 GB, EU region (Hetzner) | €17 | €17 | €0 |
| Automated backups, priced at 20% of the server | €3 | €3 | €0 |
| Off-site copy in object storage | €3 | €10 | €0 |
| Managed database node, where the tool needs one, doubled for a standby | €0 | €28 | €0 |
| Monitoring and alerting, free self-hosted or paid hosted | €0 | €30 | €0 |
| TLS certificate, Let's Encrypt | €0 | €0 | €0 |
| Systems administrator, 2 to 4 hours at about €40 an hour | €80 | €160 | €0 |
| Total each month | €103 | €248 | €79 |
| Total each year | €1,236 | €2,976 | €948 |
| Setup, one off, 1 to 2 days of the same person | €300 | €1,000 | €0 |
The staff line is the one that surprises people. Published salary ranges put a systems administrator in Germany between roughly €46,000 and €80,000 gross a year. Employer contributions add about a fifth on top. Take the middle of that range and an hour of that person's time costs the employer close to €40. The work itself is small, and it never stops: patching, upgrades, backup checks, certificate renewal, and the alert that fires on a Sunday. Almost none of that reaches you as an invoice, which is exactly why the free route reads as free.
| Route | Year one, low | Year one, high |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted, running cost plus setup | €1,536 | €3,976 |
| WeMoral PRO, billed monthly at €79 net | €948 | €948 |
| WeMoral PRO, billed for the year with 20% off | €758 | €758 |
Read the two tables together and the answer is not close. The cheapest honest self-hosted month is €103, and a properly run one is nearer €248. WeMoral PRO is €79 a month, net, so the paid channel undercuts the free tool before a single setup hour is counted. Over twelve months the paid line comes to €948, or €758 with the year paid up front. The self-hosted route lands between €1,536 and €3,976 in the same twelve months. WeMoral is the cheaper of the two per year at both ends of the range, and the gap widens as the free deployment is hardened, backed up and monitored the way a compliance system should be.
Then add the cost of getting it wrong. National transposition laws set penalties for employers with no working internal channel, and the amounts differ by country. On the paid side, reports are unlimited and five panel users are covered. Custom forms, analytics, two-factor sign-in, the virus scan, the audit log and the corrective-actions registry sit in the same plan. Installation is not charged, and cancelling costs nothing. WeMoral Enterprise is quoted on request, and adds unlimited users, a reporting page on your own domain, single sign-on, several company accounts and dedicated onboarding.
Which route fits which team
The route that fits your team depends on where you want the work to sit. GlobaLeaks fits an organisation with engineers to spare and a taste for running its own stack. It also fits anyone with a reason to keep every byte on hardware they control. WeMoral fits a buyer who wants to price the channel and start it the same day. The fee is €79 a month, the trial opens the whole plan for 30 days, and a branded page is live in minutes rather than weeks. One compliance officer can keep the channel going. A larger team splits the work through role-based permissions. If a channel already exists elsewhere, WeMoral moves the open cases across without downtime. Free software is never free of work. The €79 line is the price of not doing that work yourself, with the data in Frankfurt, encryption on both legs, 25 languages, and an audit log that shows what was done and when.