Members-only communities on WhatsApp, paid or free
Your members-only WhatsApp community that runs itself
Socialground Communities is a platform for setting up paid, gated communities. People join, pay, get verified and land in the right rooms on their own. You set the rules once and the software holds them, at three in the morning as readily as at noon.
It fits anyone who already has an audience on WhatsApp: a founder with a following, a trade group, a school year, a neighborhood, a professional network that outgrew a single group.
Request a demo
Give it a test drive!
It works while you sleep
Here is a join at three in the morning, start to finish, with nobody awake for it.
- 01Customer joins through your site
- 02They receive an email and message the code to a number on WhatsApp
- 03They tap a link and get added into all the groups you want them to be added into in the community.
What a plain WhatsApp group cannot do
A group chat is free and it works, right up to the day you want to charge for it, keep someone out of it, or find out who left.
Charge for it, if you want to
Membership can be free or paid. If you charge, renewals run on their own, and a payment that lapses closes the door without you having the conversation.
Control the door
Entry runs on a code tied to payment, or some form of membership. No forwarded invite links, no screenshots of a QR code, no wondering who added a stranger.
Split it into rooms
One community, many groups: by topic, by city, by tier. People land only in the rooms their membership covers.
Give members something to hold
A member card with their name and standing on it, checked by a partner in a couple of seconds.
Credit the people who bring people
Referrals are tracked and rewarded by the system, not remembered by whoever happened to see the message.
Show you who is leaving
Joins, renewals and cancellations sit in one panel, so a drop is something you notice while you can still act on it.
Member benefits
Partners give your members a reason to keep the card in their wallet. The card is the proof of standing, so a partner can honor it on the spot instead of checking a list. The three below are placeholders. Yours would be real businesses you choose.
- Example
Paperlark Studio
Two free classes a month
- Example
Northwind Coffee
15% off, any day, no card needed
- Example
Halcyon Dental
A free checkup for members and their kids
How it works
- 01
You set the rules once
Price if you charge one, rooms, who belongs in which one, the welcome message, the house rules.
- 02
People join on their own
They sign up, pay if you charge, verify their number and get placed. Nobody is behind a curtain adding them by hand.
- 03
You run it from one panel
Members, groups, referrals, churn and benefits, with the levers to act on any of them.
The admin side
The panel is the part you would live in.
- Every member, searchable, with their membership status, their rooms and their history.
- Groups you can create, fill and retire, with the sends paced so the number stays healthy.
- Churn and renewals as figures you can read in ten seconds.
- Referrals, so you can see which members are worth more than their own membership.
- A connection view for the WhatsApp number itself: what is linked, what is sending, what is stuck.
The panel you see here is read only. Your own community's panel is yours to run.
Frequently asked questions
- Do members need a new app?
- No. It is WhatsApp, the one they already have open.
- What happens when someone stops paying?
- If you charge for membership, it lapses and they are removed automatically. If they come back, the system still knows who they were.
- Can I run more than one group?
- Yes. As many groups as you like, and different members can also be in different groups (for example, a different membership tier, a location, or any other factor you decide).
- Do you read our chats?
- No. The software handles the door, the rooms and the announcements. Moderation tools exist if you want them. Talk to us about it.
- Whose number runs the automation?
- Any number that you choose. We recommend a separate number on its own phone, connected to wifi for a constant, stable connection. You own the numbers and the member list.
- How long does setup take?
- 1-2 weeks. Most of the time goes into your decisions: price, rooms, rules, the welcome message, and similar. We build the entire system into your website, or a separate one if you prefer.
- What is Socialground Communities?
- A real community running on this software. The members joined the way yours will.
- What happens after I request a demo?
- We review your request, then send a code to your WhatsApp. Type your email on this page, enter the code and you are in.
- What does it cost?
- It depends on what your community needs. Request a demo and our team will walk you through the options.
Want one for your own audience?
Request a demo and we will show you what your community would look like.
Request a demo