Tech coops list
A list of tech coops and resources concerning tech coops and worker owned cooperatives in general.
Contributions to this list are very welcome. Just clone this repo, edit this file (README.md) or edit it directly (open it and click on the pencil icon on the upper right) and create a pull request.
What are worker-owned tech cooperatives?
A very general definition:
Worker-owned cooperatives are business enterprises that are owned and governed by their employees. All worker cooperatives have two common characteristics: 1) member-owners invest in and own the business together, and share the enterprise’s profits, and 2) decision-making is democratic, with each member having one vote.
Tech cooperatives are worker-owned cooperatives that operate in the information technology industry. This list focuses on tech coops that are providing software development and consulting services.
Tech cooperatives could be a solution if you feel alienated by big software corporations and startup culture or you feel alone and in search of solidarity as a freelancer.
Table of Contents
- Coops
- Networks of coops
- Resources
- Information on tech coops and coops in general
- Talks
- Mailinglists
- Chat rooms
- Tools
- Products created by tech coops
- Jobs and contracts
Coops
North America
| Coop | Business Areas | Region/Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agaric | Web development, tech consulting | USA / Nicaragua / Germany | Worker-owned collective building online since 2006, lately contributing to the Drutopia platform for grassroots groups. |
| Brierwood Coop | Mobile apps | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | |
| Caravan Web Worker Cooperative | Web design, Software development (Python) | Montreal and Quebec City, Canada | |
| Catalyst Cooperative | Open data engineering / analysis for energy & climate policy | Distributed / Remote, North America | |
| C4 Tech & Design | Web Design, Business IT Services, Computer Repair | New Orleans, USA | |
| CoLab | Ithaca, NY, USA | "CoLab’s mission is to contribute to a new economy of justice and cooperation while bringing clients beautiful, cutting-edge technology." | |
| Cooperatus | Project management, tech consulting, web development, graphic design, virtual assistance | Western US and Georgia, US | Cooperatus is a tech worker collective providing a range of freelance support and services from hybrid book launches and websites to interpersonal communication and cybersecurity consulting. |
| Design Action Collective | Web design and development | Oakland, USA | |
| DWG | Product development and implementation | East Bay, CA, USA | |
| Dojo4 | Web applications and design | Boulder, CO | |
| Electric Embers | Hosting | San Francisco, CA, USA | |
| FullSteam Labs | Web application development, UI & UX Design | USA | |
| Future Club | Game development | USA | |
| Gemify | Software Development, UX Research and Design | San Jose, California, USA | Worker-owned tech co-operative developing affordable solutions for small businesses since 2019. |
| Hypha Worker Co-operative | Digital coaching, (decentralized) web design, and development | Tkaronto (Toronto), Ontario, Canada | Founded in 2019 with the mission to help organizations and communities redesign their relationships with digital technology. |
| Informal Systems | Distribute Systems and Formal Verification | Tkaronto (Toronto), Ontario, Canada | Working towards an open-source ecosystem of cooperatively owned and governed distributed organizations running on reliable distributed systems |
| Interstitial Technology | Full-stack engineering - design, development, firmware, electrical engineering | USA/Canada | Focused on technology with positive social impact |
| KO_OP | Game development | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| Koumbit | Hosting, Websites, Sysadmin | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| Nexodus | Visual Effects (VFX) | Cincinnati, Ohio, USA | |
| NOVA Web Development | Django sites, graphic design | USA / El Salvador / elsewhere | Worker-owned co-op developing LibreOrganize and Business Tracker primarily for unions, labor movement, social justice, etc. |
| Openflows | Web development, CiviCRM | New York, USA | |
| Palante Technology Cooperative | Web development, CiviCRM, Tech support, Training | New York, USA and beyond | Focus on NGOs |
| Plausible Labs | Development, Design | New York and San Francisco, USA | Bylaws |
| Politics Rewired | Political campaigning and organizing tools | USA | |
| Position Development | Software Development | Brooklyn, NY | Focused on independent media, cultural institutions, and socially minded organizations |
| Sassafras Tech Collective | Research, User experience design, Development | Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA | |
| The Glory Society | Games | US | Founded in 2019 |
| the Tech Support Cooperative | POS software, open-source web development, consulting | US + CAN | Maintainers of the CORE-POS / IS4C software project |
| Tierra Común | digital security, sysadmin, web design | Mexico | |
| Vulk Coop | Design, Development | Austin, TX, USA | Worker-owned, Founded 2013, Organizers of Austin Software Co-operatives Meetup |
| Willow Bark | Design, Development, sysadmin, security | Remote, international | |
| Zinc Collective | Development | US |
South America
| Coop | Business Areas | Region/Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animus | Backend / Frontend / Web / Mobile development / UX / UI / Accesibility | Bariloche, Argentina | |
| bantics | Consulting, Cloud Infrastructure Administrator, Hosting, Full-stack Development, FLOSS Development | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Fundanda en 2012 |
| Cambá | Web and mobile Development, Consulting, FLOSS Development | Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
| EITA | Open Source Development | Brazil | Our goal is to deliver open source technologies to social moviments |
| Equality | Web development (Django/Angular) | Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina | |
| Eryx | Full-stack development, Data Science, Operations Research, UX, Consulting | CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
| Fiqus | Web and mobile development | Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
| gcoop | Hosting, Consulting, Web Development, FLOSS Development | Buenos Aires, Argentina | "Transformamos los sistemas." |
| It10 | Software development | Córdoba, Argentina | |
| Lyseon Tech | Web development, Apps and Hosting | Rio de Janeiro, BR | Cooperative of free software developers |
| Matelab | Development | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Founded 2019; 8 associates |
| Nayra | Web development, UX | Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
| Tecso | Development, Information services | Rosario, Argentina | Founded 2002; 150+ associates |
Asia
| Coop | Business Areas | Region/Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albatros Tech Cooperative Initiative | Design, Development | Istanbul, Turkey | Worker-Owners |
| Nilenso | Development (Clojure, Javascript, Ruby, Haskell, Go, Java) | Bangalore, India | |
| Sofi Cooperative | Web development, Design, Vue, Node.js | Jerusalem, Israel | Founded 2018; "Sofi is a workers cooperative of designers and developers, we focus on websites and applications that bring positive value for society and the planet" |
Europe
| Coop | Business Areas | Region/Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24ème | Free open source software development | Paris, France | Governance based on trust and transparency |
| Agile Collective | Web development | UK | |
| Alma | Software development | Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France | Founded 1979 |
| Animorph | Augmented, Virtual & Mixed Reality Applications | London, UK | Founded 2016 |
| Atomised | Web development, mobile apps, UX design | Cupar, Scotland | Founded 2008 |
| Autonomic | Free software infrastructure and bespoke web development | UK, Cypherspace | |
| A Bunch of Hacks | Video game development, software development | Amsterdam, the Netherlands | |
| Black Shuck | Producing moving image, audio and digital projects (websites, apps and installations). | Europe | |
| blinkenbox | Sysadmin, Web Development, Hosting | Berlin, Germany | |
| Camplight | web and mobile development, tech consulting | EU, Bulgaria | A digital cooperative that creates experiences for the web, mobile and beyond |
| Champs-Libres | GIS, Maps, Web applications | Namur, Belgium | |
| Common Knowledge | digital tools for grassroots activists | London, UK | |
| Coopdevs | Development | Barcelona, Catalonia | Non profit association and workers cooperative focusing on non-profit & grassroots social change projects e.g. Open Food Network amongst others |
| Co-operative Web | Web Development, Mobile Development, Web Hosting, legacy software support | Birmingham, UK | |
| Coop IT Easy | ERP development | Brussels, Belgium | Worker coop, we provide Open Source ERPs to other cooperatives. |
| ctrl.alt.coop | Software Development, Consulting | Berlin, Germany | |
| datenkollektiv.net | Hosting, networking, services | Dresden, Germany | |
| Devtopia | Consulting, project management, design and UX, web development, app development, marketing | Spain | Distributed company |
| Diciannove | Consulting, project management, open source development, hosting, web design | Italy | |
| Digicoop | Product company, makers of kantree.io | France | Distributed company |
| dtc innovation | Web development, design and engineering, cooperation, open {data|source} | France, UK, Québec | |
| femProcomuns | IoT infrastructure, Cloud services, Co-op Incubator | Catalonia | |
| fnordkollektiv | software development, infrastructure devop, tech consulting | Siegen, NRW, Germany | Founded 2020 |
| GNU Coop | Open source development, training, e-learning, project management | Italy | |
| Go free Range | Web development | UK | |
| Happy Dev | Anything digital | France | Freelancers network federating tech collectives around France |
| Hostsharing | Hosting | Germany | |
| Hypernova | Web Development, Web Design, Digital | Italy | Freelancers network, part of the Doc Servizi coop network |
| Igalia | Free Software consultancy | A Coruña, Spain; Global | 115+ workers; distributed company |
| infra.run | Development, Support, Training, Video Conference Hosting | ||
| IT Kollektiv | Cross-platform apps, web development, backend development, consulting | GER | Network-type |
| IT Kollektivet | Copenhagen, Denmark | ||
| Itopie | Repairs, workshops, IT services (individuals and companies) | Geneva, Switzerland | |
| Jamgo | Front-end dev, design services, e-commerce, Drupal/WordPress | Barcelona, Spain | |
| Kaleidos | Front-end, mobile, UX/UI design, open source software | Madrid, Spain | |
| Kedu | Software, infrastructure | Barcelona, Spain | |
| Les-Tilleuls.coop | Web development, Tech consulting, Open Source Development | Lille, Paris, Nantes, Lyon (France) | Tech worker-owned cooperative founded in 2011. Creators of the API Platform framework and major contributors to Symfony. |
| Motion Twin | Video game development | Bordeaux, France | |
| MuchDifferent | Game technology, Engineering | Uppsala, Sweden | |
| Outlandish | Web development | London, UK | Sponsored 2016 Outlandish Fellowships |
| Rabotnik | graphic design, web-development, video production and animation, campaign and concept development | Denmark | |
| Reinblau | Web development | Berlin, Germany | |
| Resonate | Music Streaming | Berlin, Germany / Dublin, Ireland | A multistakeholder platform co-operative - with contributors (workers, contractors, volunteers) represented with a 20% ownership stake. |
| Robur | Software Development | Berlin, Germany | |
| Sange | Hosting | Helsinki, Finland | |
| Sociality | Digital Technologies | Athens, Greece | |
| SkuraMobile | App development | Errenteria, Basque Country | |
| Slobodna domena | Web & app development, design, IT infrastructure, consulting and education | Zagreb, Croatia | Worker's non-profit coop founded in 2017. |
| Startin'blox | Web development | Hosting | specilized in federated application |
| TableFlip | Web development. Javascript, Node.js, Meteor. | London, UK | Founded 2013; "We're your technical co-founder." |
| Talaios Koop. | Web development. Vue, Sage, Node.js. Docker, kubernetes. Odoo, Wordpress, Nextcloud, Moodle. Coop consultancy | Errenteria, Basque Country | Founded 2012 |
| UNI:CODE IT Solutions | Web development, IT services | Germany, Remote | |
| WAO Co-op | Digital transformation, elearning, project management | UK / Germany | Making sense of complex problems while spreading the benefits of open. Part of CoTech |
| Webarchitects Co-operative | Hosting, Sysadmin | Sheffield, UK | Multi-stakeholder, including workers, organisations and investors |
| WTF Kooperative eG | Software Development, Hosting, Consulting, less bureaucracy for freelancers in germany | Germany, Remote | eG legal German Coop, founded 2020 |
| Yaal Coop | Web development, open source development, technical investment | Bordeaux (France) | Worker-owned cooperative focused on social impact startups. |
Oceania
| Coop | Business Areas | Region/Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enspiral | NZ | Network-type | |
| Loomio | Online decision-making app | Wellington, New Zealand | Wikipedia |
| Protozoa | Web development | NZ | |
| Root Systems | Consulting | NZ | "Pod" within Enspiral; Inactive. |
Decentralised / Worldwide
| Coop | Business Areas | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| bits.coop | webgl, maps, p2p, offline data replication | |
| ZO | Design, Development, Translation, Copy-editing | |
| Talespinners | Game Writing, Design, Editing, Direction and Consultancy |
Historical / defunct coops
Other lists
- Awesome Tech Cooperatives - A collection of awesome cooperative tech companies and projects
Networks of coops
- CoTech - Network of tech coops in the UK.
- CoTech Wiki
- CoTech Forum - active tech cooperatives forum from CoTech
- FACT[TIC] - Federation of tech worker-cooperatives in Argentina.
- Tech Co-op Network - North American Technology Worker Cooperatives.
Meetups
Resources
Information on tech coops and coops in general
Handbooks / Guides
- A Technology Freelancer's Guide to Starting a Worker Cooperative, 2009
- A Document To Help You Start A Tech Cooperative - By Feel Train.
- Crisp DNA - Handbook for Crisp, a Swedish network of consultants.
- The Loomio Co-op Handbook
- Discussion on Hacker News.
- Enspiral Handbook - More information about the Enspiral network.
- Root Systems Handbook - Defunct livelihood pod within Enspiral Network.
Books
- Patterns for Decentralised Organising by Richard D. Bartlett - Practical guidance for teams, organisations and networks to manage without hierarchy.
- Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet By Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider
Articles
- Can Coops Revolutionize the Tech Industry?
- Co-op of digital co-ops – arise, er, Megazord?
- The Argument For Worker-Owned Tech Collectives (Fastcompany)
- The Case for Technology Worker Coops from a Former Freelancer
- Post-Capitalist Solutions: How Worker-Owned Tech Co-ops Are Boosting the Solidarity Economy (occupy.com)
- Incorporating Notes: On Cooperatives, Nonprofits, and Better Accountability by the Collective for Liberation, Ecology, and Technology
- Tales from a digital cooperative and friends that are evolving human collaboration (by Camplight)
- Tech co-operatives are leaving the startup rat race behind
Financing / Salaries
- A new financial model for consulting - How we’re making our salaries fair and transparent
- Coopensation - Worker-Owned Incentive System.
- How a Worker-Owned Tech Startup Found Investors—and Kept Its Values
- "Loomio Points" - A system to acknowledge the work people did for free to get the project off the ground.
- "How to Co-op: Salaries & Reviews" - Overview of how reviews happen and how salaries are decided at nilenso, a worker-owned IT co-operative.
Legal
Conflict
Other links
- Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives? - Interesting discussion with lots of links.
- /r/cooperatives - Subreddit about cooperatives.
Videos / Talks
- Applying the Advice Process to a Software Service Co-op
- Cooperative Codes
- Ela Kagel on Platform Co-ops in Berlin
- Grow Your Own Economy in a Company, Don’t wait for the system out there to change — make your own rules and live in the economy you want, right now.
- Two Years Wiser, The Nilenso Experiment - Steven Deobald
Mailinglists / Forums
- tech-coop listserv - Main mailinglist about tech coops. Check out the archive for interesting threads in the past.
- Cooperative Technologists Community - CoTech (UK) community forum.
Chat rooms
- #cooptech:autonomic.zone (Matrix chat for CoTech)
Tools
- Cobudget - Crowdsource and fund projects within an organization. Developed and used by Enspiral.
- Loomio - Online decision-making
Software/Products created by tech coops
- API Platform - REST and GraphQL framework on top of Symfony and React.
- Canaille - Simple account manager and an OpenID Connect provider based upon a LDAP database.
- Cobuy - Group wholesale purchases as a consumer co-op (by Root Systems).
- CoopHub - Git repos from cooperatives around the world!
- Up & Go - Cooperative Home Cleaning Services (by CoLab).
- Moodlight - Emotional intelligence for teams (by Camplight)
- Assista - Effortless time tracking for Trello (by Camplight).
- CoopCycle - A federation of bike delivery co-ops with an open-source logistics platform.
Jobs and contracts
- Tech coops growing - Tech coops forming or looking for new members.
- CoTech Jobs - Jobs category on the CoTech Network (UK) community forums.
License
This work and all contributions to it are released into the public domain under the terms of the CC0 1.0.