Hylo

What Hylo does

Hylo is an open-source coordination platform for purpose-driven communities, operated by Terran Collective, LLC (a fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3) non-profit) and headquartered in Oakland, California. The platform serves neighborhoods, mutual aid networks, civic organizations, bioregional groups, cooperatives, and global mission-driven coalitions by consolidating threaded discussions, real-time chat, events, requests/offers, projects, participatory funding rounds, governance tools (proposals with consent/consensus/ranked-choice voting), and a geographic map with indigenous territories layers into a single system. Built with React, React Native, Node.js, and GraphQL under an Apache 2.0 license, Hylo is maintained by a core team of approximately six people supported by 800+ open-source contributors and 18+ partner organizations, with a distributed engineering footprint spanning Oakland, San Francisco, and Canberra.

The platform's commercial layer combines a permanently free core product with paid stewardship support services (Support Call $300, Pollination $2,500 one-time, Seed $100/month, Blossom $1,000–$1,250/month, Flourish custom) and three subscription products launching in 2026: Hylo Pro (~$60/month per group for expanded storage, video streaming, priority support, and API access), Hylo Assistant (~$20/month per group for AI-powered community stewardship with full-context RAG and Google Drive integration), and Hylo Whitelabel (custom pricing for branded deployments). Revenue is supplemented by Open Collective community donations and grants from NoVo Foundation (Regional Futures Fund), the 11th Hour Project, and Jeff Parrett via the Rising Foundation. Hylo is explicitly structured to prevent capture or sale, with no outside investors or shareholders, and is working toward a permanent cooperative-governed non-profit structure.

Name

Hylo

Legal name

Terran Collective, LLC

Website

https://hylo.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Hylo is an open-source coordination platform that helps communities — neighborhoods, mutual aid networks, nonprofits, bioregional groups, and cooperatives — organize discussions, events, mutual support, participatory funding, and governance in one place, operated by Terran Collective as a non-profit.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Oakland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Free Platform: The full coordination platform is free for every group forever. This includes groups, subgroups, discussions, chat, events, requests/offers, projects, proposals, map/place, member directory, and mobile apps. No ads, no data sales. Revenue comes from paid products and community contributions.
2. Stewardship Support Services: Hands-on community support programs: Support Call ($300), Pollination ($2,500 one-time), Seed ($100/month), Blossom ($1,000-$1,250/month), and Flourish (custom). These fund team compensation, platform development, and the commons. All fees are tax-deductible contributions to Hylo's 501(c)(3).
3. Hylo Pro (Coming Soon): Estimated $60/month per group for expanded storage, video streaming, priority support, and API access. One price includes all members. Launching Fall 2026.
4. Hylo Assistant (Coming Soon): Estimated $20/month per group for AI steward that knows the group's history, people, and purpose. Includes full-context RAG, Google Drive integration, community health guidance, and proactive moderation support.
5. Hylo Whitelabel (Coming Soon): Custom pricing for organizations needing Hylo's coordination infrastructure under their own brand, domain, and visual identity. Includes full visual customization, all platform features, ongoing updates, setup and migration support.
6. Community Contributions: Hylo is funded by the people who use it. Recurring contributions through Open Collective help keep the platform free for everyone. No investors, no shareholders.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Hylo is an open-source, non-profit coordination platform that helps groups organize, communicate, make collective decisions, and run mutual-aid exchanges. It combines threaded discussions, real-time chat, events with calendar sync, requests/offers, proposals and participatory funding, projects, and a place-based geographic map into a single tool with cross-group posting across nested and peer communities. The full platform is free forever, with paid stewardship support services and forthcoming Pro, Whitelabel, and AI Assistant tiers for groups needing deeper capacity.

Product overview

Hylo is a coordination platform for community groups, available as a free core product with optional paid add-ons. The core platform (Hylo Free) is free forever with all essential coordination tools. Paid tiers include Hylo Pro ($60/month, coming soon) for expanded capacity, video streaming, and API access; Hylo Whitelabel (custom pricing) for branded deployments; and Hylo Assistant ($20/month, coming soon) for AI-powered community stewardship. Stewardship support packages (Support Call $300, Pollination $2,500 one-time, Seed $100/month, Blossom $1,000-$1,250/month, Flourish custom) provide hands-on consulting and community management. The platform is open source under Apache 2.0, operated by a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Hylo Free Platform Full coordination platform available free forever for any group. Includes groups and nested subgroups, cross-group posting, threaded discussions, real-time chat, events with calendar sync, requests and offers with completion tracking, projects, proposals and decisions with flexible voting, a place-based geographic map, member directory, custom post types, moderation tools, and unlimited members and groups. No ads, no data sales.
• Support Call

Quantifiable outcome

• $700,000+ distributed through participatory funding rounds
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments11 records

Ideal customer profiles7 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability6 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Planetary Health AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGlobal consortium of 210+ organizations across 47 countries committed to understanding and addressing human health impacts of environmental change, based at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Their work shaped Hylo's nested groups, cross-group coordination, and governance tools.
• Prosocial WorldcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOrganization focused on applying Prosocial science to help groups cooperate more effectively. Their framework informed Hylo's governance tools and facilitation practices.
• Salmon NationmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNetwork focused on ecological and cultural resilience in the Pacific Northwest. Their coordination needs shaped key Hylo features.
• Zebras UnitemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational movement promoting ethical and inclusive startup culture. Zebras Unite Global uses Hylo with 925+ members distributed globally.
• Bionutrient Food AssociationmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOrganization working to increase quality in the food supply through biological approaches. Part of the ecosystem supporting Hylo's development.
• HolochainmajorTechnology or IntegrationOpen source framework for distributed peer-to-peer applications. Hylo is working with Holochain for Hylo Local - distributed, peer-to-peer infrastructure built for communities needing coordination tools resistant to institutional surveillance.
• Regen NetworkmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNetwork focused on regenerative economics and ecological monitoring. Part of Hylo's ecosystem of aligned organizations.
• OpenTEAMmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpen source technological infrastructure for agricultural ecological monitoring. Part of Hylo's ecosystem partnership network.
• Pacific IntegralminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOrganization focused on regenerative leadership and systemic change. Part of Hylo's network of aligned organizations.
• New PublicminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOrganization working on digital public infrastructure and civic technology. Part of Hylo's supporting ecosystem.
• Terran CollectivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSmall team based in San Francisco Bay Area that builds and maintains Hylo. Practices the same coordination principles built into the platform. Core team includes Tibet Sprague, Clare Brodeur, Aaron Brodeur, Krisha Subramanian, Tom Watson, and Yasmine El Baggari.
• Common Good MissoulamajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCivic organization in Missoula, Montana working to strengthen community engagement and participatory democracy. Used Hylo to coordinate a successful housing affordability campaign that passed zoning reforms.
• Float (Funding Lab for Agroecological Technology)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipatory funding initiative for agroecological technology. Used Hylo's funding rounds to distribute over $700,000 in 2025, demonstrating community-based resource allocation.
• Collaborative Technology AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlliance that Hylo co-stewards, bringing together builders working on social technology in service to a thriving world. Focuses on interoperability and shared standards.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks is a venture-funded community platform that lets creators and brands launch paid groups, courses, and events — the same core use case as Hylo but with a broader commercial/creator focus and a much larger feature set and team.
• Circle: Circle is a venture-backed community platform offering spaces, posts, chat, events, and courses for paid memberships. It competes head-to-head with Hylo for the same community-coordination wedge with a more polished creator-economy orientation.
• Discourse: Discourse is an open-source forum and community discussion platform used by thousands of communities. It shares Hylo's open-source ethos and similar threaded-discussion and trust-building mechanics, though it lacks Hylo's governance and place-based organizing features.
• NationBuilder: NationBuilder is a platform for civic and movement organizations to organize supporters, run campaigns, and coordinate volunteers. It directly overlaps with Hylo's primary use cases of civic participation and networks/coalitions, though Hylo leans non-commercial and open source.
• Loomio: Loomio is an open-source, cooperative-owned tool for collaborative decision-making in groups. It overlaps with Hylo's proposals, voting, and consent-based governance capabilities and shares the same open-source, mission-driven DNA.
• Geneva: Geneva is a group community platform combining chat, voice, events, and forums. It targets the same small-group/club/community use cases as Hylo with a stronger consumer/social framing and a different visual identity.
• Bevy: Bevy is an enterprise community-event platform used by companies to host events and communities at scale. It targets Hylo's events and networks segments with a B2B sales motion aimed at enterprise customers.
• Mobilize: Mobilize is a community-mobilization platform for organizing events, groups, and supporter engagement, with strong adoption among nonprofits and advocacy organizations — the same mission-driven verticals Hylo serves.

Emerging players

• HumHub: HumHub is an open-source social networking kit used by organizations to build private social networks. It is technically comparable to Hylo's groups, posts, and member-directory model but is more general-purpose and less oriented to governance and place-based organizing.

Broad incumbents

• Slack: Slack is the dominant workplace chat and collaboration platform and is one of the tools Hylo explicitly replaces for communities needing coordination beyond chat. It covers only a fraction of Hylo's feature set but is the entrenched incumbent many prospects already pay for.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/hylozoic/hylo
• Xx.com/hylo
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hylo

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hylo