Community Platforms

Building the digital spaces where communities thrive

A community isn't just a group of people. It's a shared identity, a set of values, a reason to come back. The platform you build it on matters — and it needs to be owned by you, not rented from a tech giant.

NW Digital Solutions has been building community platforms on Drupal and Open Social for over a decade — from small local groups to prize-winning folk arts organisations, from mental health communities to sales pipelines and CRM systems. Every platform is built around the community it serves, not the other way around.

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Open Social

Community Platform Built for Purpose

Open Social is a Drupal-based community platform designed specifically for membership organisations, community groups and networks. Unlike proprietary platforms such as Facebook Groups, Mighty Networks or Hivebrite, Open Social gives you complete ownership of your data, your community and your platform.

We've deployed Open Social for a range of organisations, each with their own unique community identity:

MigiDigi — digital community platform
The Hug Club — a positive affirmations and encouragement community built around the belief that positive endorphins are contagious
Wardle Community Band — community music platform for a thriving local band
WABB — community platform for members

Each of these sites features a public-facing landing page with Open Social running as the community platform — giving organisations a professional front door and a fully featured community space behind it.

Bespoke Drupal Community Platforms

Sometimes Open Social isn't the right fit — and that's when bespoke Drupal community development comes into its own.

Our most significant bespoke community platform was built for Oakenhoof at cloggin.co.uk — a community arts organisation whose Drupal platform was central to building what became a large, successful, prize-winning folk arts group. Oakenhoof sadly didn't fully recover from the Covid shutdown, but the platform demonstrated what's possible when technology is built around a community's genuine needs.

We've also built scrum-style community platforms combining project management, CRM and sales pipeline functionality — most recently for Mad Frog Media at scrum.nowo.co.uk. These bespoke builds show the flexibility of Drupal as a community and collaboration platform beyond the traditional use cases.

Why Own Your Community Platform?

Your data, your rules

no algorithm deciding who sees what, no platform selling your members' data

No platform risk

Facebook Groups, Slack and Discord can change their terms, pricing or shut down entirely. Your own platform can't be taken away

Custom to your community

built around how your community actually works, not a generic template

GDPR compliant by design

you control data residency, consent and member privacy

Scales with you

from 50 members to 50,000, Drupal scales without needing to change platform

Integrated

connect your community platform to your website, email marketing, events and more

What We Build

Membership communities and networks
Arts and cultural organisation platforms
Digital inclusion and skills communities
Project management and CRM platforms
Sales pipeline and scrum-style collaboration tools
Any community that needs a proper home on the web

Ready to build your community?

Whether you need Open Social deployed and configured, or a bespoke Drupal community platform built from scratch — let's talk about what your community needs.

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