Available
Discussions
Real-time comments with nested threads, votes, @-mentions and live presence – under any content.
Your community platform, privacy-first
Your community. Your courses. Your rules.
Posts, courses, events and discussions under your own name and design. Hosted in Germany, no ad tracking. The lean, fair alternative to bloated community suites.
- Hosted in Germany
- No ad tracking
- Privacy by design
- Modular
Your place, where the sun breaks through.
The clouded web
A real community should belong to you – not to someone else's network.
Circle, Skool and Mighty Networks are powerful – but for small communities often expensive and heavier than you need. Self-hosted forums like Discourse save money but cost you server ops and headaches. Pukalani is the lean middle path: a complete community platform you start without hassle, fully under your brand – with a transparent, predictable price.
The pain
High base prices + transaction fees
How we do it
Fair, predictable price. Free to start.
The pain
Unclear data flows & ad tracking
How we do it
Hosted in Germany, no ad tracking.
The pain
All-or-nothing monolith
How we do it
Modular: switch on only what you need.
The way through
Your own community in 60 seconds.
under 60 seconds- 1
Sign up
Email is enough, log in with a code – no password required.
- 2
Name your site
yourname.pukalani.app is live instantly.
- 3
Pick your blocks
Turn feed, courses, events and discussions on or off. Add your design. Done.
The products
One platform, many blocks. You decide which.
Every block can be switched on or off. No ballast.
Available
Moderation
Reporting, two-phase hiding, AI assistance as a second opinion – the human decides.
Available
Pages & branding
Your own pages, 26 colour worlds, custom fonts – your community looks like you.
Early access
Posts & feed
Member posts in Markdown, polls and questions, a chronological activity feed.
Early access
Courses
Lessons with progress, access free/members/pro – paid access via Stripe.
Early access
Events
Online or in person, single or recurring, with RSVPs and tickets – even embeddable.
Modular, not monolith
Take only what you need.
Just selling courses? Turn on courses. Community around it? Add feed and discussions. Events? One click. With Pukalani the platform grows with you, instead of burying you in features you never open.
- Discussions
- Moderation
- Feed
- Courses
- Events
Privacy & hosting
Privacy is the standard here – not the upgrade.
Your community data lives in Germany, not in some far-away cloud. No ad tracking, no reselling – data-minimal by design.
What matters in the end is your site's actual configuration and your legal texts – we deliberately avoid blanket promises.
- Servers in Germany (Hetzner)
- No ad tracking, no ads, no data selling
- Data-minimal first-party sessions
- Export and deletion flows
- Transport encryption
Who it's for
Built for people building a community – not for corporations.
Four typical paths into your own community. Find yours.
Coaches & trainers
Courses, discussion and meetups in one protected place that you steer.
Learn moreCourse creators
Sell courses with a community around them – at a predictable price.
Learn moreCreators & writers
Your community under your brand, without someone else's ads.
Learn moreClubs & organisations
Members, events and exchange – hosted in Germany.
Learn moreAn honest comparison
Compared honestly. Including where we're (not yet) the answer.
We only compare what we can back up — with sources and a date. Where we're weaker, it says so right here.
| Criterion | Pukalani | Circle | Skool | Mighty Networks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price per month | free | $89 (Professional) | $9 (Hobby) | $79 (Launch) |
| Transaction fee | none | 2% | 10% (Hobby) · 2.9% (Pro) | 2% |
| Hosting / company base | Germany | USA | USA | USA |
| Courses incl. paid access | yes (early access) | yes | yes | yes |
| Blocks can be switched off individually | yes | suite | suite | suite |
| Blocks embeddable in your own website | yes (discussions, events) | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Native mobile apps with push | no | yes | yes | yes |
“n/a” means: we couldn't verify it properly — so we don't claim anything. Spot a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Sources:CircleSkoolMighty Networks
You want native iOS/Android apps with push, or a community with 50,000 members and enterprise SSO? Then the big suites are (still) the better choice. For everyone who wants to start lean, fair and privacy-close, we're the right way.
We use it ourselves
No testimonial theatre. Just sites you can click.
We don't have customer quotes (yet) — so we don't invent any. Instead Pukalani runs where it hurts: on our own sites, in real operation.
- comments.pukalani.app
Discussions, moderation and the embed widget in daily use — including guest comments and live presence.
Visit - demo.pukalani.app
A real pool community: created with one click in the studio, own host, own data space — exactly the path you take.
Visit - portfolio.pukalani.app
The same platform in a completely different design — proof that branding doesn't stop at an accent colour.
Visit - changelog.pukalani.app
What we changed and when, publicly readable. Including the weeks where little happened.
Visit
If real customer quotes ever appear here, they will come with a name, a community and consent — and not before.
Pricing
One fair price for your whole community – not per product.
Start free, cancel anytime, data export included. Currently in early access by invitation.
01 · Free
Basic
€0Free forever
To get going – one community, discussions, pages, theme catalog, and basic moderation.
Get started02 · Popular
Personal
€29.00per month
For coaches and creators – posting feed with polls, custom themes and fonts, embed widget, email notifications, higher limits.
Get Personal03 · Teams
Pro
€149.00per month
For teams – everything in Personal plus team roles, AI moderation assistant, highest limits. Courses and events first.
Get Pro04 · Pukalani Studio
Enterprise
CustomTailored project
Your own instance, your own domain – with consultation, strategy, concept, design, and technical implementation from one hand.
Register interestOur story
A hole in the clouds.
Far out in the Pacific lies Maui. High on the slopes of Haleakalā is a place called Pukalani. Its name is understood as an opening to the sky — a puka in the grey where light breaks through. That's where the idea for this platform was born.
The hole in the clouds.
Today's web is mostly clouded – full of tracking, ads, noise and closed networks where your community never truly belongs to you. Pukalani is the opening where the sun breaks through: a clear, calm place, without all the grey.
The gateway to the sky.
Puka and lani can be read as “an opening to the sky” — a door. And that's how the beginning should feel: you step through, and in sixty seconds your own community stands – no servers, no manual, no detours.
Fertile ground.
Pukalani sits in the highlands, on rich volcanic soil where things have grown for generations. That's our promise: a place where your community grows – your posts, your courses, your events, your people.
A world of its own.
Your community here is its own living world — sovereign, and entirely yours. It doesn't fade into someone else's network. What you build here belongs to you.
Built by someone who wanted this platform to exist: honest, lean, privacy-first – without turning you or your members into the product. Pukalani is a special place. Pukalani.app is meant to be one too.
Common questions
Questions? Here are the most common ones.
Where is my data stored?
In Germany, at Hetzner. No ad tracking, no reselling. Export and deletion are available anytime.
Can I keep my existing site?
Yes. Your community runs under your name and design; individual blocks like discussions can even be embedded into your existing website.
What does it cost?
Basic stays free. Personal and Pro arrive with the public launch, Enterprise is the guided project with Pukalani Studio; right now there's an early access by invitation.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. No minimum term, and you take your data with you via export.
Which languages are supported?
Starting with German and English; more languages will follow.
Do I have to use all blocks?
No – every block can be switched on or off. Start lean and add what you need.
Ready for your own community?
Step through the door – your community stands in 60 seconds. Free, no risk.
„Where the sun breaks through."