LocalHero is an open-source platform for community organisations. It gives clubs, associations, and groups the tools they need to manage their members, run their activities, and own their data — without handing control to a commercial software vendor.

The platform is built on WordPress Multisite, combining a modular suite of over 100 purpose-built plugins with proven open-source components: BuddyPress for social and member interaction, GatherPress for events, and native CalDAV and CardDAV servers for standards-compliant calendar and contact sync with any device.

The founding insight is simple: the software that runs a community organisation should serve that community, not extract value from it. Members’ data belongs to the organisation. The platform should be transparent, interoperable, and portable. No lock-in, no surveillance business model, no vendor dependency.

LocalHero is actively developed and maintained by Peter Shaw, and is used in production by Princes Park Touch Association, Victoria’s largest touch football association based Melbourne, Australia. That running instance is the platform’s existence proof — every feature ships because a real organisation needs it.

What LocalHero does

  • Member management and CRM — profiles, roles, relationships, activity history
  • Events — via GatherPress with CalDAV sync to native calendar apps
  • Contacts — CardDAV server for standards-compliant contact sync
  • Community social layer — activity feeds, groups, and messaging via BuddyPress
  • AI integration — MCP server exposing platform data and operations to AI agents
  • Organisation workflows — competitions, memberships, invitations, notifications
  • Data portability — CalDAV, CardDAV, REST API, and MCP all available out of the box

How to get involved

LocalHero is open source. The plugin suite is published on the WordPress.org repository under the shawfactor profile. The platform is available to run on your own hosting or you can sign up for a hosted site on this network.

  • Philosophy — the principles behind the platform
  • Technology — how it’s built
  • Features — full capability list
  • Sign up — get a site on the LocalHero network