Best Self Hosted Alternatives to NationBuilder

Hitobito is an open-source web application for managing organizations and communities with complex group hierarchies. It provides contact and member management, event and course administration, mailings, invoicing and role-based permissions in a plugin-oriented architecture. (hitobito.com)

Key Features

• Hierarchical group model with customizable group and role types via a plugin (wagon) system, allowing flexible organisational structures and permission scopes.
• Member and contact management with role assignments, membership data and multi-level access controls.
• Event and course management including registrations, waitlists and organisation-specific qualifications.
• Integrated mailings and communication features for sending newsletters and transactional emails.
• Billing and payment-related features for invoicing and financial tracking tailored to organisations.
• Extensible plugin (wagon) framework to add organisation-specific functionality and integrations.
• Production-ready artifacts and tooling visible in the repository (Dockerfile, JS build tooling, Procfile) and an official public demo environment. (github.com)

Use Cases

• National or regional associations needing federated member and role management across multiple sub-organisations.
• Clubs, youth organisations and sports/music federations managing courses, events, registrations and membership fees.
• Political parties or NGOs that require structured permissioning, mailings and invoicing for large, multi-level membership bases. (hitobito.com)

Limitations and Considerations

• Core Hitobito does not ship predefined group/role types; at least one organisation-specific wagon/plugin is required to define group types and enable a usable configuration for a specific organisation. This demands some developer setup for initial organisation modelling. (github.com)
• Primary user documentation and many architecture/developer docs are available in German; non-German-speaking operators may face additional effort to onboard without translation. (github.com)

Hitobito is community-driven and licensed under an AGPL-family license; it is intended for organisations that need a flexible, extensible membership and event management platform and are able to maintain or adapt plugins for their specific structures. (github.com)

Karrot is an open-source web platform designed to help grassroots initiatives and local groups coordinate face-to-face activities, manage membership and share resources. It focuses on transparent, democratic and participatory group management while providing maps, activity scheduling and contextual chat.

Key Features

• Independent groups: each group has its own settings, logo, membership rules and governance mechanisms.
• Activity scheduling with slots: create time-and-place activities (meetings, pickups, events) with sign-up slots and attendance tracking.
• Offers and local sharing: create offers for items or services and discuss interest in per-offer chats.
• Contextual messaging and notifications: group-wide messages, private messages and activity/place-specific chats; configurable notifications.
• Trust-based role system and membership review: peer-assigned trust levels, application workflow, voting and membership review tools.
• Maps and lists: map-based discovery of groups, places and participants alongside chronological lists of upcoming activities.
• Audit trail and transparency: history logs of actions for accountability and moderation.
• Extensible plugin system: frontend and backend plugin APIs for custom features and integrations; frontend uses a Vite-based build and i18n support.
• Deployment options: published Docker images, Docker Compose guides and a recommended coop cloud/ansible deployment workflow.

Use Cases

• Food-rescue and community food-sharing groups scheduling regular store pickups and coordinating volunteers.
• Local mutual-aid or neighborhood groups organizing events, tasks and resource-sharing with clear membership processes.
• Small community organizations that need lightweight, transparent tools for activity sign-ups, offers and discussion.

Karrot provides a focused toolset for local, volunteer-driven coordination with an emphasis on transparency and community governance. Its plugin architecture and published deployment guides make it adaptable for different group needs while remaining technology-agnostic and community-driven.