Gwerin

gwerin (GWEH-rin) · Welsh: the folk, the ordinary people

Your community's messaging, run by your community.

Gwerin is a private space for one community at a time, with the channels, direct messages, events and swaps you'd expect, and it all runs on a computer your community owns. Your messages live in your village, not in someone's cloud, and there's no outside platform that can read them or shut you down.

Get Gwerin for your community Have a look around the demo
The Gwerin dashboard on a summer morning: a frost warning from local reports, a help request for shearing day, and the next community gathering

This isn't a pitch for an idea

I built Gwerin for my own community, a group of growers, smallholders and foragers here in Wales, and they use it every single day. A good few of them have now fully moved over from WhatsApp and Telegram. The whole thing runs on a machine I host myself, so nothing ever leaves the community.

That's the idea in one line really. Modern tech without big brother. I write up how it's going, what breaks and what I learn in the field notes.

How it works

  1. One person hosts it Any computer left switched on will do, an old laptop is fine. Or you get a small preloaded box from me and plug it into your router.
  2. Everyone else joins with a link or QR code It works like the apps people already know, on any phone or computer, so there's nothing new to learn.
  3. Everything stays yours Messages, photos and files live on the host's machine. If you ever want to stop, you keep the lot.

Get Gwerin for your community

One host per community. Prices are one-off unless marked.
Starter (DIY) £49 A USB stick that installs Gwerin on any computer. For communities with a technical person who's happy to run it themselves.
Setup + Support £99 The same stick plus a setup guide and 30 days of help from me getting you live. Right for a community with one semi-confident volunteer host.
Plug-and-Play Box £199 A small dedicated computer, preloaded. Plug it into your router, scan a code and you're live. This is the one I'd recommend if nobody in your community is techy.
Keeping it running £6/mo Updates, secure remote access so members can reach it from anywhere, and automatic backups. Optional if you went with a stick, free for the first month if you got the Box.

Running more than one community, or want to resell it? Email me and we'll sort something that works for your setup.