# What datool.ru is

datool.ru is a messenger analytics service. Right now it covers **MAX**: we regularly read all public MAX channels and show subscribers, views, reach, engagement, ads, mentions and indexes for each of them. This article is a short introduction: who the service is for, what it offers and where to find things.

## Who it is for

| You are | How datool.ru helps |
|---|---|
| **Marketer, SMM specialist** | Find channels by topic and region, compare their reach and engagement, keep an eye on competitors and brand mentions |
| **Channel owner** | See detailed statistics of your own channel for free, compare yourself with similar channels, get notifications, mark the channel with the blue “verified by owner” badge |
| **Advertiser** | Check a channel before buying an ad: is the audience alive, is growth honest, how many ads it runs and how they perform |
| **Analyst, researcher** | Ratings, collections, statistics of all of MAX by category and region, Excel and CSV exports, an API for your own reports |

## What the service does

- **Channel catalog and search** — by name, link or @handle, with filters by category and territory. Details — [Finding channels](/en/max/find/), [Categories and territories](/en/max/categories/).
- **Channel page** — a dashboard with the key numbers plus tabs: posts, audience analysis, mentions, popular, reach, posting schedule, ads, similar channels, engagement. Details — [Channel page](/en/channel/overview/).
- **Ratings, “Today in MAX” and “MAX statistics”** — who is bigger, who is growing, what is happening in MAX today and overall. Details — [Ratings](/en/max/ratings/), [Today in MAX](/en/max/today/), [MAX statistics](/en/max/stats/).
- **Indexes** — the [quality index](/en/metrics/quality-index/) (is the channel alive and can it be trusted) and the [citation index](/en/metrics/citation-index/) (how often other channels refer to it).
- **“My MAX”** — channels you follow, favorites with folders, keyword tracking, PDF reports and exports, an event feed. Details — [My MAX](/en/my/overview/).
- **For channel owners** — channel verification, the blue badge, your own categories and region, detailed statistics of your channel without a subscription. Details — [Add a channel](/en/max/add-channel/), [Owner verification](/en/max/verification/).
- **Account** — organization and members, subscriptions, balance, API keys, notifications. Details — [Account](/en/cabinet/overview/).
- **API and MCP** — MAX data in your software, spreadsheets and AI assistants. Details — [API reference](/en/api/).

!!! note "Try it without signing up"
    Everything on the channel page is open on the [demo channel](https://max.datool.ru/demo/), with made-up data. It is the quickest way to see what a subscription gives you.

## Service addresses

datool.ru has several subdomains, each with its own job. One account works across all of them.

| Address | What is there |
|---|---|
| [max.datool.ru](https://max.datool.ru/) | MAX showcase: catalog, channel and post pages, ratings, collections, “My MAX” |
| [hi.datool.ru](https://hi.datool.ru/) | Shared account: sign-in and sign-up, profile, organization, subscriptions and billing, balance, API keys, notifications, plans |
| [api.datool.ru](https://api.datool.ru/) | The API: endpoints for software, requests with a key |
| [docs.datool.ru](https://docs.datool.ru/) | This documentation and the API reference in Russian and English |

Dzen, VK and Telegram will come later — the site header marks them “coming soon”.

!!! warning
    The bare address `datool.ru` and `www.datool.ru` are not our site. Use the addresses from the table.

## What data we have

- **All public MAX channels** we have found — more than half a million. Exact numbers are on the [max.datool.ru](https://max.datool.ru/) home page and on the [“MAX statistics”](https://max.datool.ru/stats/) page.
- **The full post history** of every public channel — from its very first post, not just from the day the channel reached us.
- **Subscribers by day** — from the day we started watching the channel: MAX does not provide past numbers.
- **Views and reactions** of posts, links and reposts between channels (they power mentions and the citation index), signs of advertising.
- **Group chats** — only the card and counters: name, number of members, number of messages, time of the last event.

How often everything is updated — see [Where the data comes from and how often it is updated](/en/metrics/data/).

## What we never collect

- **Private conversations** — in no network and under no circumstances.
- **Group chat messages** — a chat has only its card and counters.
- **Comments on posts** — neither the texts, nor the authors, nor their number.
- **Who voted how in polls** — for a poll we keep only the question, the answer options and the total number of votes.
- **Closed channels** — only if the owner has connected the datool.ru bot to the channel. Such a channel is visible only to the owner's organization, and we do not copy its images.

!!! note "Deleted posts are deleted here too"
    If the author deletes a post in MAX, we erase it from our database together with its images and all copies. There is no “deleted” label and no archive of deleted posts.

## What's next

- [Sign-up and sign-in](/en/start/signup/) — how to create an account.
- [How the site works](/en/start/interface/) — header, menu, account.
- [What you see without signing in, after signing in and with a subscription](/en/start/access/).
- [Plans and payment](/en/start/plans/).
- [FAQ](/en/faq/).