In 2021, I wrote the first blog post for Coliving App, reflecting on my three-year trip around the world and the coliving experiences that inspired the project. Back then, the idea was fresh, fueled by memories of Medellín and shaped by a belief that the future of living would become more connected, digital, and mobile.

Today, I’m excited to announce that Coliving App is now fully open-source.

You can find the source code on GitHub.

🌍 Why Open-Source?

Coliving App is a free, MIT-licensed platform that helps digital nomads, travelers, and hosts discover, list, and manage coliving spaces.

From the start, I wanted the project to be more than just another SaaS tool — it’s meant to be a community-driven effort, a project that grows and evolves alongside the people and spaces it serves.

By making the source code public, I hope to invite developers, designers, and coliving enthusiasts to contribute ideas, features, and improvements.

And by building in public — shaped by real user feedback and real-world needs — the project has a much better chance of becoming meaningful, sustainable, and successful.

Whether you’re fixing a bug, improving the UX, or suggesting how to make the platform better for hosts and nomads, you’re welcome here.

What’s Live Today?

The first beta version of Coliving App is already live at https://coliving.app and currently offers:

• Tools for creating and managing coliving spaces
• In-space (Hub) social features for housemates, including chat, tips, and mates lists
• Discovery features for travelers: explore spaces, leave reviews, and connect globally
• Messaging system between spaces and mates, with join requests and direct messaging between individual users
• Interactive mapping powered by the open-source Leaflet package
• Search functionality across spaces
• Detailed space and mate profiles
• Beta version of the CoMatch score (for matching mates with spaces)

Essentially, all core features are working, and the app is fully functional — but at a very basic level.

It’s still early, and much more will be shaped by community input.

Where It’s Headed

I see Coliving App as a long-term project — there’s no rush, no investor deadlines, and no aggressive monetization plan.

The vision is to build it slowly, learning from real users, open-source contributors, and coliving spaces around the world.

The long-term vision is simple:

• Keep Coliving App running freely for decades with minimal overhead.
• Let the community shape its evolution over time.
• Offer a clean, open alternative to locked-in, closed platforms.

If this resonates, I invite you to join the journey — in whatever way fits you best.

You can find more details about the development roadmap in the GitHub README.

How You Can Help

If you’re interested in:

• Contributing code, ideas, or designs
• Providing feedback on what matters most to coliving communities
• Helping spread the word or test new features

You can jump in here:
Explore the live platform: coliving.app
Fork or clone the repo: GitHub
Add your first space: Create a Space

Feedback, ideas, and feature proposals are welcome in GitHub Discussions.

🌐 Final Thoughts

When I started this journey, I didn’t know if Coliving App would take off — and honestly, I still don’t have all the answers.

There’s still a long way to go, but by building in public, collaborating openly, and focusing on real user needs, Coliving App has the best possible chance of becoming something meaningful, lasting, and useful.

If you believe in open tools, shared living, or want to contribute to the future of coliving, you’re warmly invited to take part.

Explore the live app, fork the repo, or join the discussion — let’s start shaping the future of coliving, together.

---

Coliving App
Experience the Coliving Revolution

I have just finished my trip around the world which took exactly three years. I have visited Asia, North, Central, and South Americas, and now I’m back in Europe.

During the second year of the trip, in 2019, I had a great coliving experience in Medellin, Colombia. That’s where the idea for the Coliving App was born.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 put the travel industry on hold, but I have a strong belief that it will return with a bang, and will be even bigger than before. That’s because the pandemic accelerated the remote work and digital nomadism trends, and the vaccine will re-enable traveling soon.

Currently, while waiting for the vaccine and under various movement restrictions, travel enthusiasts are making plans for new trips to satisfy their increased hunger for new horizons.

The pandemic also accelerated other trends that require apps and digital devices. Because of the lockdowns, many people were forced to work from home, to use remote communication and collaboration tools, and as a result, many became much more digitally literate and free from their physical workplaces. This change will accelerate the digital nomadism trend, which was already big even before the pandemic.

Additionally, travel, migration, and related services also became much more digital.

I remember, before the pandemic, it was quite complicated or simply impossible to fill in various travel forms on the internet. That’s because these online solutions were either old, buggy, or non-existent. In many cases, such services even required a physical visit.

During the lockdown, and because of social distancing, many such things became digital.

This December, I had a long flight home from Medellin through Madrid and Paris with the final destination Vilnius. During this trip, I had a first-hand experience of this global digitalization.

The interesting thing was that all these destinations had easy to fill and well-working digital forms, they also required each passenger to have a QR code, associated with the form which was filled digitally, before entering the country. The system worked very well, and the experience was painless.

Coliving App

Getting back to the Coliving App. First of all, it’s a long-term project, so there is no rush, no pushy investors, no need to make a quick profit.

I already have some interesting ideas that we have brainstormed with my coliving mates and some more ideas that I have developed after my coliving experiences.

Building digital services is what I do on a daily basis. Officially trained as a graphic designer, I have more than 10 years of experience in logo design and branding, and I’m also a self-taught full-stack developer.

There is no doubt that I can design and develop Coliving App, but the more important question is will it fly? By flying, I mean, will it provide value to users, and will there be users in the first place? In the long-run, it also needs to be commercially successful. These are the hard things to achieve, as they depend also on luck, right timing, and other unknowns that are hard to control or predict.

As already mentioned, I’m not rushing with the Coliving App. It is also possible that there will be no app at all, but since I already have a cool domain, a very special coliving experience, and some validated ideas, plus some initial following (which shows the need for such an app), it would be great to give it a good try.

I think that the core principle for the Coliving App development would be to build it with the help of the community by learning from it, getting feedback, and validating new ideas and features with real users, instead of developing everything in advance.

When developing everything in advance, the solution usually is superficial, so it doesn’t work. A better approach is to build the app organically, little by little, learning from real-life use cases…

To follow the further Coliving App news, join our mailing list, available on the Coliving Blog. Also, follow Coliving App on Twitter.

If you have ideas, suggestions, or want to be a part of the Coliving App team and have a good reason for this, contact me by email.

Coliving App
Manage your coliving experience easily and efficiently