Coliving Express (software)

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Coliving Express

Developer(s)	Kalle Sintonen and contributors
Initial release	14 May 2026 (2026-05-14)
Stable release	1.2.0 / 18 May 2026 (2026-05-18)
Repository	https://kallesintonen.com/ces/download.html
Written in	PHP (8.1+)
Engine
Operating system	Cross-platform (LAMP / LEMP)
Platform	Web
Size	≈ 200 KB (single ZIP)
Available in	English, Finnish, French, Spanish
Type	Property management software; coliving operations
License	MIT License
Website	kallesintonen.com/ces/

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Coliving Express is a free and open-source web application for the operational management of coliving communities, developed by the Finnish entrepreneur Kalle Sintonen. First released in May 2026, it provides a single self-hosted system through which a coliving operator can run multiple properties — handling resident applications, property guides, shared bicycles and cars, sauna and meeting-room bookings, a shared physical-item inventory, a community wish-list, and a centralised ticket inbox — without dependence on a proprietary platform or third-party SaaS provider.

The software is written in PHP, distributed as a single ZIP archive with no external runtime dependencies, and licensed under the MIT License. It is intended as infrastructure for community-scale sharing economy arrangements.

As of 18 May 2026, the stable release is v1.2.0, a user-interface polish release. An interactive demonstration of the full role-based interface is hosted at the project website.

History

The project originated at Northern Seasons, a coliving community in Outokumpu, North Karelia, Finland, where the author sought an open-source alternative to proprietary property management systems. The first public release, v1.0.0, shipped on 14 May 2026 with six modules — applications, properties, bikes, rooms, inventory and a resident directory.

Successive minor releases broadened scope:

• v1.1.0 (16 May 2026) added shared cars, saunas, a wish-list module, property guides, and a centralised ticket inbox. The interface adopted Google Material Symbols throughout.
• v1.1.1 (17 May 2026) introduced an automatic database migrator, four built-in user-interface languages (English, Finnish, French, Spanish) and a built-in email notification system covering applications, tickets and reported vehicle issues.
• v1.2.0 (18 May 2026) is a UI polish release: a defined shadow system, refined pill badges, focus rings, and cleaner tables. No schema or behavioural changes.

The codebase is approximately 200 kilobytes when packaged and free of external runtime dependencies.

Architecture

Stack

Coliving Express requires PHP 8.1 or later and either MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+. Its internal framework comprises approximately twenty PHP classes — a regular-expression router, a thin PDO wrapper, session-based authentication with per-session CSRF tokens, an auto-migrator, a translation layer, a small mail engine using PHP's built-in mail() function, and a module/theme manager. All HTML is rendered server-side from plain PHP templates; no JavaScript framework is required. A bundled installer wizard performs the initial environment check, database creation and schema execution.

Multi-tenancy and roles

A single installation hosts an arbitrary number of independent coliving organisations. Each organisation has its own selection of enabled modules, theme, branding, members and outgoing email address. Users hold one site-wide account that may carry different roles in different organisations, across four levels: super administrator (site-wide), coliving administrator (one organisation), moderator (day-to-day operations), and resident (bookings, wish-list, tickets).

Auto-migrator

An in-process migrator, introduced in v1.1.1, compares the package version (compiled into the front controller) with the installed_version stored in the database on every request. If the package version is newer, the migrator executes every applicable SQL file under database/migrations/<version>.sql in semantic-version order, using a short-lived advisory lock to prevent concurrent runs by multiple web workers. In practice, operators upgrade by replacing the source files alone.

Features

Module catalogue

Coliving Express v1.2.0 ships eleven modules, three of which are flagged "core" and always enabled:

Modules in Coliving Express v1.2.0

Module	Function	Since	Core
Applications	Public stay-request form with administrator review workflow.	1.0.0	Yes
Properties	Multiple buildings per organisation with separate contact and emergency information.	1.0.0	Yes
Property guides	Per-property handbook with sections, photos, and "important" flags.	1.1.0	No
Tickets	Centralised inbox for maintenance and operational issues, with priorities and threaded notes.	1.1.0	Yes
Bike sharing	Calendar booking with photo-gated PIN release and return photo.	1.0.0	No
Shared cars	Calendar booking with mileage log, fuel-added field, and damage report.	1.1.0	No
Sauna	Slot booking with heat-up reminder and capacity check.	1.1.0	No
Rooms	Co-working desks, meeting rooms and phone booths, with optional administrator approval.	1.0.0	No
Inventory	Catalogue of shared physical items with check-out tracking and quantities.	1.0.0	No
Wishlist	Resident-proposed purchases ranked by community votes; administrator promotion workflow.	1.1.0	No
Directory	Optional resident-visible directory; disabled by default for privacy.	1.0.0	No

Internationalization

Translation strings are stored as flat PHP associative arrays in app/Lang/<locale>.php. A global helper function performs key lookup with placeholder substitution. The resolution order for a request's locale is: explicit session selection, the signed-in user's preference, the active organisation's default, the site default, and finally the fallback locale (English). Missing translation keys fall back to English; missing English keys fall back to the key itself, so partially-translated locales remain functional.

Notifications

The software includes a built-in email notification engine using PHP's built-in mail() function to send multipart text and HTML messages. Five built-in events trigger notifications: new application, application status change, new ticket, ticket comment (with separate handling for internal notes), and reported bike or car issue. Notifications are per-user opt-in (enabled by default), locale-aware, and per-organisation brandable through a custom from-address. Every send is recorded in a dedicated audit log for later review.

Themes

Four themes ship by default: Nordic (a light, institutional green inspired by Finnish public-sector design), Forest (deep emerald on cream), Sunset (terracotta and amber) and Midnight (dark mode). Additional themes can be added by dropping a CSS file into the themes folder; all themes share design tokens defined in the base Nordic file. Iconography uses Google Material Symbols.

Distribution and licensing

Coliving Express is distributed under the MIT License as a single ZIP archive, with no requirement for Composer, Node.js or any front-end build step. The author has stated that the dependency-free packaging is a deliberate constraint intended to keep the software runnable on inexpensive shared hosting and approachable for developers unfamiliar with modern PHP tooling.

Background

Commercial property management systems aimed at conventional rental housing typically charge per-unit fees and offer narrow support for the operational realities of coliving, where significant value is generated by shared resources beyond housing itself. Existing coliving-specific commercial software is distributed on a SaaS basis.

The operational surface of a coliving community is broader than any single conventional product addresses. A typical European coliving operator manages, in addition to housing applications and tenancies, some combination of shared bicycles, shared vehicles, a sauna (in Nordic countries essentially universal), one or more co-working or meeting rooms, a shared kitchen and shared physical inventory, and a continuous flow of maintenance issues requiring triage. Operators that fail to coordinate these resources often default to ad-hoc tooling such as group messaging apps, spreadsheets and paper sign-up sheets — an approach that scales poorly and produces no operational record.

Sharing economy context

The sharing economy is an economic system in which assets, services or skills are shared between individuals — either for free or for a fee — typically with the support of internet-based coordination. Commonly cited large-scale examples include ride-hailing services (such as Uber and Lyft), short-term accommodation marketplaces (such as Airbnb), peer-to-peer lending and tool libraries.

A parallel strand — variously described as the commons-based sharing economy, platform cooperativism, or community-led sharing — emphasises locally-owned and locally-governed sharing arrangements rather than venture-backed marketplaces. Coliving sits in this second strand, along with bicycle libraries, tool libraries, neighbourhood carsharing and shared workshops or hackerspaces. Open-source, self-hosted software tailored to the multi-resource, multi-property reality of community-scale sharing has remained scarce.

Significance for community-scale sharing

Coliving Express is positioned as infrastructure for community-scale sharing, in a similar role to that played by WordPress for publishing or Mastodon for federated micro-blogging.

Design properties relevant to that role include:

• No central platform. Each installation is owned and operated by the community using it; there is no marketplace, no commission, and no central database operated by the software's author.
• Multi-resource by default. Bicycles, cars, sauna, rooms, inventory and tickets are bundled into one system, reducing the operational overhead of running multi-modal sharing.
• Resident-led inputs. The wish-list and ticket modules give residents structured, auditable channels to propose purchases and report problems.
• Low cost of entry. With no Composer or Node.js dependency and an approximately 200 KB footprint, the software runs on the cheapest tier of commodity shared hosting.
• Forkable and modifiable. The MIT licence permits commercial use, modification and redistribution, including sector-specific forks for cohousing, retirement communities, hackerspaces and intentional communities.
• Localised. Built-in support for four European languages lowers the language barrier for European operators.
• Auditable. Photo-gated bike PINs, mileage logs and a centralised ticket inbox produce a record of how shared resources are actually used and maintained.

The project is intended to make it easier for non-technical operators to start and run community-scale sharing economy ventures without the recurring software costs that can dominate the budgets of small operators, and without the data-extraction dynamics of large platform intermediaries.

See also

• Coliving
• Cohousing
• Property management system
• Sharing economy
• Platform cooperative
• Commons-based peer production
• Free and open-source software
• Self-hosting (web services)
• Bicycle-sharing system
• Carsharing
• Tool library
• Northern Seasons

External links

• Official website
• Features overview
• Requirements and installation
• Changelog
• Download (current stable release)
• Live interactive demo
• Kalle Sintonen — personal homepage
• Northern Seasons — the coliving community where the software was first deployed

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