# Guild — Community and Event Management Platform

> Guild is the platform for communities. Attend an Event, catch a Presentation, and follow a Network.

Guild is a community and event management platform that helps organizers create and manage communities (called Guilds), host events, share presentations, and engage members. It is available on web, iOS, and Android.

## Who Guild Is For

- **Meetup organizers** looking for a modern alternative to Meetup.com with better tools and lower fees
- **Developer communities** running regular events, talks, and workshops
- **Professional networks** managing members, events, and content
- **Conference organizers** needing ticketing, speaker management, and attendee engagement
- **Local community groups** that want a free platform to organize gatherings

## Core Concepts

### Guilds (Communities)
A Guild is a community on the platform. Each Guild has its own profile page with a cover photo, logo, description, and customizable settings. Guilds can host Events, maintain a Presentations library, and manage a Member roster. Guilds can also be converted into Networks that aggregate content from multiple member Guilds.

### Events
Events are gatherings organized by Guilds. Guild supports three attendance modes:
- **In-person**: Physical venue with address and map
- **Online**: Virtual events with video conferencing links
- **Hybrid**: Both in-person and online attendance options

Event features include:
- RSVP management with capacity limits and waitlists
- Ticketing with multiple tiers (e.g., early bird, general admission, VIP)
- Discount codes and promotional pricing
- Attendee messaging before and after events
- Custom registration forms with approval workflows
- Multi-host events co-organized by multiple Guilds
- Calendar feeds (iCal/ICS) for subscribing to event schedules

### Presentations
Presentations are talks, workshops, or content shared within communities. Features include:
- Slide uploads and video recordings
- Speaker profiles and portfolios
- Linked to Events where the presentation was given
- Browsable library of community talks

### Members and Roles
Guild has a role-based membership system:
- **Organizers**: Full management access to the Guild
- **Editors**: Can create and edit content (Events, Presentations)
- **Members**: Can attend Events and participate in the community
- Form-based membership applications with organizer approval

## Pricing and Payments

Guild is free to use for organizing communities and events. For paid ticketing:
- Guild charges a 5% transaction fee on ticket sales (on top of Stripe payment processing fees)
- Stripe integration handles all payment processing
- Organizers can also accept donations from community members
- Multiple currency support
- Sponsorship dashboards track sponsor placement performance separately from Stripe payments

## Integrations

- **Bluesky (AT Protocol)**: Automatically post Event announcements to Bluesky
- **Meetup Event Import**: Copy upcoming public Meetup events into Guild; members and full community history do not transfer automatically
- **Google Calendar**: Personal per-user sync for Events a user RSVPs to
- **Calendar Feeds**: iCal/ICS subscription URLs for any Guild or Event
- **Embeddable Widgets**: Embed Guild content (events, guilds, presentations, user profiles) on external websites via SDK
- **Stripe**: Payment processing for ticketing and donations

## Platform Details

- **Website**: https://guild.host
- **Platforms**: Web (https://guild.host), iOS (App Store), Android (Google Play)
- **API**: GraphQL API
- **Founded by**: Guild Host Inc.
- **Contact**: hi@guild.host

## Comparison to Other Platforms

Guild is an alternative to platforms like Meetup, Eventbrite, Luma, and Lu.ma for community event management. Key differentiators:
- Free to create and manage communities (no organizer subscription fee)
- Combined community + event + presentations management in one platform
- Network feature for connecting multiple related communities
- Embeddable widgets for third-party websites
- Multi-platform (web, iOS, Android)
- Built-in speaker and presentation management
- Bluesky and Meetup integrations