Two Birds Code · why this exists
We built an app for our community. Now you can have one too.
A native app for Fluent Community, with the WordPress plugin and the build dashboard we wished someone had made. In both stores under your own name, on your own accounts — and it keeps working whether you keep paying or not.
The story · how we got here
We were the customer before we were the company.
Where we started
Years on the old stack
We’ve been running an online community for years. Started back with BuddyPress, grew with BuddyBoss — the whole journey. Forums, groups, member profiles, the works. And for a while, it was fine.
But we always knew the tech was dated. And when we started looking at our options for a mobile app, it got worse. Webview wrappers that felt slow. Generic white-label apps you couldn’t really customize. Expensive SaaS platforms where you had zero access to the actual code. And the ones that did give you “dev access”? Limited. Locked down. Basic.
Stop paying, and you lose “your” app. The one your members use every day. The one with your brand on it. Gone.
That was the thing that kept us stuck. Our members lived in the app, and every option had the same catch. The cost added up fast for a small community like ours. So we started asking ourselves — what if we just… built our own?
The switch
Fluent Community clicked
When we found Fluent Community, it clicked. Modern. Fast. Actually maintained. Built on a clean codebase by a team that ships. It was everything the others used to promise but never quite delivered.
But there was no native app for it. Not one we could actually own. There were options — managed services that build and deploy an app for you. They’ll put your colours and logo on it, sure. But you don’t get the source code. You don’t control the builds. You’re back to renting someone else’s platform. We hadn’t left one locked-in setup to sign up for another.
What we built
Not just an app — the tools to run it
So we spent months planning and building. Not just an app — an app we could actually manage ourselves. One that matched our Fluent Community site feature-for-feature. Feed, messaging, spaces, profiles, courses, push notifications — all native. Not a webview wrapper. A real React Native app.
Along the way we built the tools we wished we had — a dashboard to manage everything from the browser, instant updates we could push without waiting on App Store review, a way to add new features without breaking the core, and a plugin that lets you reshape the app from WordPress while watching it change. We built all of it because we use all of it. Every day. For our own community.
This isn’t a product someone dreamed up in a boardroom. It’s a tool we needed, and we made it good enough to share.
The difference · in one table
Renting an app, or owning one.
A native app used to be the expensive choice — tens of thousands for a custom build. Branded-app platforms brought that down, but not far, and not without a catch.
Renting
- $1,000 to $4,000 a year, every year
- Your colours and logo, on their platform’s terms
- Stop paying and the app your members use stops working
- “Dev access” that is limited, locked down, basic
Owning — this
- Managed for $33 / month with no setup fee — or the full source for $399, once
- Published on your own Apple and Google accounts, under your name
- Shaped from WordPress, extended with modules
- Stop paying and it keeps working — you only stop getting updates
Who it’s for · pick the one that sounds like you
It’s for people like you.
Two kinds of people buy this. The app is the same for both — what changes is who does the building and who pays for it.
Community owner
Your members keep asking “where’s the app?”
You run a community on Fluent. You don’t want another subscription that disappears if you stop paying. You want something real — an app with your brand, in your App Store listing, that you actually own.
- Managed: we build it and submit it under your accounts, monthly, cancel anytime
- Or buy the source once, set it up with the dashboard, and ship it yourself
- Either way, a link on your site and your cards that says “Download on the App Store”
What you get
An app with your brand, in your store listing, that keeps working whether or not you ever pay us again.
Everything the app does is on The App page. How you shape it without a developer is on The Plugin.
Developer
Clients with communities, all wanting apps
Instead of building from scratch every time, grab a license per client, white-label it, customize it with modules, and charge them for setup and ongoing maintenance. Their builds, their updates, their dashboard — you manage it all.
- The license is a one-time cost per client site
- What you charge on top of that is up to you
- Every client app on one dashboard, each with its own build-service login
What you get
A product you can resell, a fleet you can run from one screen, and margin that is yours to set.
The fleet view and the build tooling are on The Dashboard. The add-on modules are listed in the shop.
No lock-in
Stop paying, and it keeps working.
Managed or Dev Bundle, the app is published on your own Apple and Google accounts. Cancel and it stays in the stores and keeps working for your members — you only stop getting updates. You pay to stay current, never to keep what you already have.