LocalMeet is an open source meetup platform built as a WordPress plugin. It turns a WordPress site into a full-featured, self-hosted alternative to Meetup.com — with groups, events, RSVPs, email notifications, and a single-page app frontend.

Note: LocalMeet takes over the entire frontend of your WordPress site. Only install on a dedicated WordPress instance.

Groups

• Create and manage meetup groups with Markdown descriptions and custom slugs
• Invite-based group creation — admins send invites with a group allowance, recipients can start their own groups
• Member directory with join/leave tracking and CSV export
• Per-group email notification preferences (members can mute notifications or one-click unsubscribe)
• Configurable reply-to address for group emails
• Search across all groups

Events

• Create events with name, date/time, end time, location, description, and cover image
• Recurring events — weekly, biweekly, or monthly with automatic instance generation
• Event capacity limits with RSVP enforcement
• Cancel events with member notifications
• Event search within a group
• Markdown support for descriptions and summaries
• iCal calendar attachments via spatie/icalendar-generator

RSVPs

• Logged-in users toggle going/not going instantly
• Anonymous users RSVP via email verification — no account required upfront
• Capacity checks enforced at RSVP time for both flows

Comments

• Members can post, edit, and delete comments on events (Markdown supported)
• Comment moderation — organizers can approve or reject comments
• Organizer notifications on new comments

Email notifications

• Event announcements to group members
• Freeform group notices
• Organizer alerts when members join, leave, or comment
• Member notifications when a group is deleted
• All verification flows (RSVP, join group, create group) use secure email tokens

Saved locations

• Groups can maintain a library of reusable locations (name, address, notes)
• Select from saved locations when creating events

Media

• Organizers can upload cover images for events
• Per-user media library

Accounts

• Email-based signup with automatic account creation
• Password set/reset flows
• Profile management (name, email, avatar via Gravatar)
• First-time password prompt for users created through email verification

Security

• Parameterized SQL queries throughout (no raw string interpolation)
• Rate limiting on login, password reset, RSVP, group creation, announcements, and join requests
• Explicit permission callbacks on every REST endpoint
• Proper HTTP methods (POST for mutations, DELETE for deletions)
• Secure token generation with random_bytes()

Frontend

• Single-page app built with Alpine.js
• Server-side prerendering for SEO
• Responsive design with mobile support
• Paginated groups, events, and comments

• PHP 7.4+
• WordPress 5.0+
• A dedicated WordPress installation (LocalMeet overrides the site frontend)

1. Upload the localmeet folder to /wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin through the WordPress admin
3. Run the database migration: LocalMeet\DB::upgrade()

MIT