Klubraum

The WhatsApp alternative for your whole club

One app instead of a dozen muted group chats: an Area for every team, committee and the board, threaded conversations, and a shared club calendar with RSVPs and carpool seats for every event. Free to start, no ads.

In short

Klubraum is a club app that sports clubs, choirs, scout groups and community organizations use to replace their WhatsApp groups with one organized space for the whole club. Every team, age group, committee and the board gets its own Area with its own members, conversations and events; conversations run in threads; a shared club calendar shows every training, match and meeting, and every event carries RSVPs, optional participant limits with an automatic waiting list, and carpool seats; and a timeline keeps announcements from getting buried in chat. Klubraum runs on iOS, Android, macOS and in any web browser, needs no phone number, shows no ads and charges no transaction fees. The free plan includes unlimited members and Areas. More than 10,000 clubs with over 300,000 members use Klubraum, which is built and hosted in Germany.

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Klubraum in one sentence each

Short, self-contained facts – each one is accurate on its own.

  • Klubraum is a club app that replaces a club's WhatsApp groups with one organized space for the whole club.
  • Instead of a separate group chat per team, a Klubraum club has Areas – sub-spaces for each team, age group, committee or the board, each with its own members, conversations and events.
  • Conversations in Klubraum are threaded, so the question about Saturday's match does not bury the kit-order discussion.
  • Klubraum has a shared club calendar, and every event in it has built-in RSVPs, optional participant limits with an automatic waiting list, and carpool slots where drivers offer seats and passengers join with one tap.
  • Klubraum's free plan includes unlimited members and Areas, chat, the club calendar, surveys and carpooling – with no ads.
  • Klubraum does not collect member dues or payments, so a club pays no transaction fees.
  • Members join Klubraum by email, invite link or QR code – no phone number needed – on iOS, Android, macOS or in the browser.
  • People who join a Klubraum Area later can read what was posted before they joined, and the history stays with the club when someone changes phones.
  • Klubraum is hosted in Frankfurt, Germany, under a GDPR data processing agreement.
  • More than 10,000 clubs, teams and community groups with over 300,000 members use Klubraum.

Klubraum at a glance

The hard facts for your shortlist – every line reflects the product as it is today.

What it is
A communication and scheduling app for the whole club: Areas for teams and committees, threaded chat, a shared club calendar with RSVPs, a timeline for announcements, surveys, carpooling, a member directory and a digital membership card.
Platforms
Native apps for iOS (iOS 14 and later) and Android (Android 6 and later), a desktop app for macOS and a full web app in the browser – same features everywhere, synced in real time, with the core features available offline.
Price
The free plan is free forever, with unlimited members and Areas, all core features and no ads. Optional Plus (currently from €1.80 per user per year for non-profit clubs) and Pro (from €3.60) add more customization and control, billed monthly and cancelable any time.
Hosting & GDPR
Hosted on servers in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, encrypted in transit and at rest, with a GDPR data processing agreement (Art. 28) that the club accepts when it creates its space and a public list of sub-processors.
Joining
No phone number required: members are invited by email, invite link, QR code or a join form on the club's website, and they maintain their own profiles.
Club size
No minimum size and no cap on members or Areas; the technical limit is around 16,000 members, and from about 10,000 members we recommend involving our support team.
Used by
More than 10,000 clubs, teams and community groups with over 300,000 members.
Made by
aucentiq solutions GmbH, Alter Weinberg 5, 76228 Karlsruhe, Germany – ad-free, and member data is never sold.
Pricing in detailSecurity & privacyFull feature overview

Why WhatsApp stops working once a club grows

WhatsApp is the obvious first choice because everyone already has it, and for a single team of fifteen it works fine. The trouble starts when the whole club runs on it – usually in four ways.

One group per team, until there are a dozen

A WhatsApp group is one flat stream. Clubs work around that by opening a group for every team, one for parents, one for the board, one for the summer party – until members sit in twelve groups, mute all of them, and miss the one message that mattered. WhatsApp Communities can bundle groups under one umbrella, but each group is still one main stream.

Organizing still happens somewhere else

WhatsApp group events now support a simple Going / Maybe / Can't go, but there is no shared calendar across all teams, no participant limit with a waiting list, and no carpool list. So the training schedule lives in a spreadsheet, headcounts get chased one by one, and lifts to away games are sorted in yet another chat.

Ads have arrived in WhatsApp

Since June 2025 Meta has been rolling out ads in WhatsApp's Updates tab (Status and Channels). Meta says personal messages, calls and the groups you are in are not used to choose those ads – but the club's official channel now sits inside an ad-funded app.

Meta's announcement of ads in the Updates tab

Everything hangs on phone numbers and phones

Every member needs a phone number, and in an ordinary group the other members can see it. Chat history lives on each phone: a new member only sees older messages if someone shares up to 100 of them at the moment they are added, and anyone who changes phones without a backup starts from scratch.

A better messenger, or a club app?

Many clubs start by looking for a messenger that is “like WhatsApp, but better”. That fixes the chat. It does not fix how the club is organized around it.

What a messenger does well

Signal and Threema are end-to-end encrypted, ad-free and close to WhatsApp in how they work. If all you want is a more private chat for one group, they do the job.

  • End-to-end encrypted messages and calls
  • No ads, no tracking
  • Signal is free and donation-funded; Threema is a one-time purchase of about 6 (CHF, EUR or USD)
  • Threema works without a phone number

What a whole club needs on top

Because Signal and Threema work like WhatsApp, they are just as flat. The things that take the most time in a club are not part of a messenger – and Threema groups are capped at 256 members.

  • Areas for every team, age group, committee and the board, each with its own members, roles and events
  • Threaded conversations, so one topic does not drown out the next
  • One club calendar for every training, match, rehearsal and meeting
  • RSVPs on every event, with participant limits and an automatic waiting list
  • Carpool slots on events for away games and trips
  • A timeline for announcements that stay visible instead of scrolling away
  • History that new members can read, on any device and in the browser

Klubraum, WhatsApp, Signal and Threema compared

A fair comparison has rows where the messengers come out ahead. We kept them in.

CriterionKlubraumWhatsAppSignalThreema
Companyaucentiq solutions GmbH, GermanyMetaSignal Foundation, non-profitThreema GmbH, Switzerland
CostKlubraum's optional Plus and Pro plans are priced per user per year, billed monthly and cancelable any time.Free plan, optional Plus/ProFreeFree, donation-fundedOne-time, about 6 CHF/EUR/USD
PlatformsiOS, Android, macOS, webAndroid, iOS, web, desktopAndroid, iOS, desktopAndroid, iOS, desktop
Phone number required to joinKlubraum invites by email address, invite link or QR code.NoYesYesNo
EncryptionKlubraum encrypts data in transit and at rest on servers in Frankfurt, Germany. WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption covers chats and calls; whether a cloud backup is end-to-end encrypted depends on each member's settings.In transit and at rest, hosted in GermanyEnd-to-end in chatsEnd-to-endEnd-to-end
Voice and video callsNoYesYesYes
Ads in the appWhatsApp shows ads in the Updates tab (Status and Channels), not inside chats. Klubraum has no ad-funded business model.NoYes, in the Updates tabNoNo
Sub-spaces for teams and committeesKlubraum Areas have their own members, role-based access and event visibility. WhatsApp Communities group separate chats under one umbrella with an announcements group.Areas with roles and their own eventsCommunities of separate groupsNoNo
Shared calendar for the whole clubKlubraum includes recurring events, an iCal subscription and an embed for the club website.YesNo – events live inside each chatNoNo
RSVPs per eventKlubraum adds participant limits, an automatic waiting list and carpool slots to every event. WhatsApp group events offer Going / Maybe / Can't go.Yes, with limits, waiting list and carpoolsBasicNoNo
History for new membersIn Klubraum, someone who joins later finds earlier announcements and decisions. WhatsApp is rolling out an option for the person adding a member to share up to 100 recent messages at that moment; in Signal and Threema history starts when you join – by design in end-to-end encrypted groups.Includes messages from before they joinedUp to 100 recent messages, if sharedFrom joining onlyFrom joining only
History after changing phonesIn Klubraum the history belongs to the club, not to one phone – sign in on the new device or open the browser, and everything is there.Kept, on every device and in the browserOnly with your own backupOnly with a backup or transfer from the old phoneOnly with your own backup

Last checked: October 2026. Messenger prices and features change – check with the provider if in doubt.

What makes the difference in day-to-day club life

Everything below is included in the free plan. The linked pages show how clubs use each feature.

Club calendar with RSVPs and carpools

One calendar for every training, match, rehearsal and meeting: recurring events for weekly practice, multi-day events, participant limits with an automatic waiting list, sign-ups for children and guests, attachments – and carpool slots where drivers offer seats for away games. Subscribe via iCal in Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar, or embed it on the club website.

See the group calendar

Threaded conversations instead of one group chat

Conversations belong to a topic, a team or an event, with replies in threads, reactions, mentions, voice messages, photos, videos, documents and locations. Each member decides what they get notified about, so nobody has to mute the club.

See all features

A timeline for announcements

Important news goes into a chronological feed for the whole club – with photos, videos, documents, comments and reactions, filterable by Area – so announcements do not get lost between “who has the keys?” messages.

See all features

Areas for every team and committee

Your club is mapped as Areas with groups and sub-structure: sections, teams, age groups, the board, project groups. Access is role-based per Area, and you decide which events each Area sees. Members and Areas are unlimited.

See all features

Surveys and polls

Find a date or take a vote right in the conversation – anonymous or open, with a deadline and live results. Surveys can target the whole club or specific Areas.

See all features

Want to see it in a real club? Two stories from clubs using Klubraum:

Moving your club off WhatsApp

The switch works best step by step. Five steps that have proven themselves in practice.

  1. Start with one team

    Let one team or section try it first, not the whole club at once. Pick a group that is open to new tools.

  2. Set up Areas and the next events

    Create Areas for your teams, committees and topics and add the upcoming events – so new members find something useful the first time they log in.

  3. Invite everyone

    Paste a whole list of email addresses at once, or share an invite link, a QR code for the clubhouse, or a join form on your website.

    Guide: inviting members

  4. Share the link where everyone still is

    Post the invite link in your existing WhatsApp groups. Explain openly why you are switching, and name one person in the club who helps with setup.

  5. Move the official stuff

    From now on, announcements, events and RSVPs run through Klubraum. The WhatsApp groups can run in parallel for a while until everyone has moved – or you make a clean cut.

Where Klubraum fits in your club

Klubraum is the communication layer for the whole club

Calendar, chat, timeline and everything that keeps club life together: events with RSVPs and carpools, Areas for teams and committees, announcements, surveys, a member directory that members keep up to date themselves, and a digital membership card.

Membership records and dues stay in your admin tool

Collecting dues, bookkeeping, invoicing and official membership records are handled by dedicated club administration software today – not by Klubraum. The member directory in Klubraum is a contact list each member maintains for themselves.

Klubraum works alongside your existing tools

Clubs that use a tool for dues and accounting keep it and add Klubraum for communication and scheduling. The two run independently of each other.

Questions about replacing WhatsApp in your club

What is the best WhatsApp alternative for a whole club, not just one team?

For a single team, a messenger is often enough. For a whole club with several teams, age groups, a board and committees, a club app such as Klubraum fits better: every team and committee gets its own Area with its own members, conversations and events, conversations are threaded, and one shared calendar covers the whole club, with RSVPs and carpool slots on every event. Members only follow the Areas they belong to, so nobody has to sit in a dozen group chats. The free plan includes unlimited members and Areas, and there are no ads.

How much does a WhatsApp alternative for a club cost?

Klubraum's free plan is free forever and includes chat, the club calendar, surveys, carpooling, the timeline and unlimited members and Areas, with no ads. Clubs that want more customization and control can add Plus or Pro; for non-profit clubs Plus currently starts at €1.80 per user per year, billed monthly and cancelable any time. Klubraum does not collect member dues or payments, so there are no transaction fees. Signal is free, and Threema is a one-time purchase of about 6 CHF, EUR or USD per person.

Isn't Signal, Threema or WhatsApp Communities enough?

If you only want a more private chat, Signal or Threema are good choices: both are end-to-end encrypted and work much like WhatsApp. WhatsApp Communities can bundle several groups under one umbrella. What none of them provides is a shared calendar for the whole club, RSVPs with participant limits and a waiting list, carpool slots on events, or threaded conversations – the things that take the most time in a club. Threema groups are also capped at 256 members.

How do we move our members from WhatsApp groups to a new app?

In five steps: let one team try the app first; set up Areas for your teams and committees and add the next events; invite everyone by email list, invite link, QR code or a join form on your website; share the invite link in your existing WhatsApp groups and name one person who helps with setup; then move announcements, events and RSVPs to the new app. The WhatsApp groups can run in parallel until everyone has switched.

Do members need a phone number or a smartphone?

No. Klubraum does not need a phone number; members are invited by email address, link or QR code. There are native apps for iOS and Android, a desktop app for macOS and a full web app in the browser, all with the same features, so members without a smartphone can take part from a computer. WhatsApp and Signal both require a phone number.

How is Klubraum different from Spond?

Spond is a free app built around organizing teams and groups, with payment requests for dues and fees that carry a fee per product paid, and Spond Club adds membership administration. Klubraum is a communication hub for the whole club: Areas for every team and committee, threaded conversations, a timeline, and events with RSVPs and carpool slots. Klubraum does not collect member dues or payments, so it charges no transaction fees, and it shows no ads.

Is Klubraum GDPR-compliant?

Yes. Klubraum is made in Germany and hosted on servers in Frankfurt am Main, data is encrypted in transit and at rest, the app is ad-free, and the club accepts a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR when it creates its space. The list of sub-processors is public.

Ready to bring your whole club into one app?

The free plan is free forever, ad-free and set up in minutes. You can also try Klubraum first without signing up.

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