About ArgusTAK
We make the Team Awareness Kit usable by teams that do not run data centers.
TAK is genuinely good software. It came out of the defence world, it is battle-tested, and the clients — ATAK, iTAK and WinTAK — are free. The obstacle was never the client. It was that using any of it meant standing up and operating a server, a certificate authority and a federation configuration.
That is a reasonable ask of a signals unit. It is an unreasonable ask of a volunteer fire department, a county sheriff’s office, a private security firm or a hunting party.
ArgusTAK is that server, operated for you. Bring the devices you already own, connect them in minutes, and get on with the actual work. When policy dictates where the data has to live, the same thing runs as a private server in the region you name.
What we actually do, and what we do not
We run the server. That means the certificate authority, the TLS, the hostnames, the patching, the scaling and the console you administer it from. It also means being the people who get woken up when any of that goes wrong, which is most of what is being bought.
We do not make the clients. ATAK, iTAK and WinTAK come from tak.gov, they are free, and we use them unmodified. There is no ArgusTAK app, no fork to keep current, and nothing extra to install on a device. That is deliberate — a hosted server that required its own client would be a worse product and a trap for anyone who later wanted to leave.
Why the free tier is permanent
The teams this was built for are the ones least able to start with a purchase. A volunteer fire department, a two-person security firm and a search and rescue team all have the problem TAK solves and none of them have a budget line to explore it with.
So five devices are free, with no card, no clock and no downgrade at the end of a month. It is not a lead-generation trial. It is there because the alternative — asking people to pay before they know whether it helps — filters out exactly the teams that would benefit most.
What we will tell you not to buy
There are two situations where we are the wrong answer and we would rather say so on a web page than after an invoice.
If you already run Linux services in production, already operate a PKI and already have somebody accountable for patching, then running TAK Server yourself costs you nothing in licence fees and works. Paying us for machinery you already own is a bad trade.
And if two people who can see each other want to share a location, this is more apparatus than the problem deserves. TAK starts earning its place when a group is spread out, out of sight, and needs to share more than dots.
Saying that costs us some sales and we think it is worth it. The teams we want are the ones still using the product in a year, and the fastest way to not be one of those is to have been sold something that was never going to fit. Everything on this site is written on that basis, including the parts that argue against buying.
Common questions
Who is ArgusTAK for?
Teams that need a shared operating picture and do not run data centers. That covers a lot of ground: sheriff’s offices, volunteer fire departments, search and rescue teams, security firms, and groups of people who go into the backcountry together.
Are you affiliated with TAK.gov or the US government?
No. TAK is a government-originated programme and the clients come from tak.gov. ArgusTAK is an independent hosted server that those clients connect to.
Do you modify the TAK clients?
No. ATAK, iTAK and WinTAK are used unmodified. There is nothing ArgusTAK-specific to install on a device, and nothing that has to keep pace with a fork.
Why is there a free tier?
Because the teams this was built for are exactly the ones who cannot start with a procurement conversation. A volunteer fire department should be able to try this on a Tuesday without asking anyone for money.
The server was the only thing in the way
Five devices, free, with no card and no clock. Put your team on one map for a weekend and find out properly.