Free and open source
A porch for your book club.
Pick a date without the forty-message group chat. Choose the next book together. Keep everyone's reviews, and the story of every book you've read.
Free for every club. No ads, no premium tier, no card.
What Stoa does
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Gatherings
Find the date that works with a Venn poll, then RSVP, add it to your calendar and get a reminder the day before.
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The Shelf
Nominate books with a one-line pitch and choose the next read with a ranked vote. Nobody's favourite loses to a split.
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The Painted Wall
Every book your club has read, with everyone's ratings and reviews. Spoilers stay hidden until you want them.
How it works
Your club, set up before the kettle boils.
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Start your club
Name it, add a line about what you read, and you're the organizer. It takes a minute and an email address.
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Send one link
Everyone joins with the club's invite link. No passwords and no app store: it installs on a phone's home screen.
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Meet and read
Poll for a date, vote on the book, then talk it over on the porch before and after you meet.
The Shelf
Choose the next book together.
- Search Open Library for any book, or add one by hand.
- Each nomination comes with a pitch from the person who suggested it.
- Ranked-choice votes, open or anonymous, with a closing time.
Reviews and talk
Keep what everyone thought.
- Half-star ratings and reviews, with spoilers folded away.
- A thread for every book and gathering: quotes, replies and reactions.
- Announcements from organizers, and email updates if you want them.
Pricing
Free. Not just for now.
Stoa is open source and cheap to run, so there is nothing to sell you. Clubs shouldn't need a budget.
Every club
$0
Forever, for any size of club
- Unlimited members, gatherings and books
- Date polls, RSVPs and calendar links
- Ranked votes, reviews and threads
- Email reminders and sign-in links
- Your club's own colors, name and logo
| Elsewhere | On Stoa |
|---|---|
| Ads beside your discussion | No ads, ever |
| Features behind a paid tier | Everything, for everyone |
| Your reading list sold or mined | No tracking and no data for sale |
| Locked in if the company changes course | MIT licensed. Run your own any time. |
Why “Stoa”?
A stoa was the long, columned porch at the edge of a Greek agora, open to everyone, where people traded, hung paintings and met to talk. Around 300 BCE Zeno of Citium taught under the Stoa Poikile, the Painted Porch of Athens, and his students became known as the Stoics: the people of the porch.
Open the porch for your club.
It takes a minute. Invite everyone with one link.