Product BuildDeliveredMaintained

Hip Haus Membership App

We built Hip Haus a single membership product that runs everywhere its community does. A web app and native iOS and Android apps with chat, video meetings, and live-streamed events built in.

Client: Hip Haus
Industry: Membership & Community
Platforms: Web · iOS · Android
Our Role: Product design, build, and ongoing maintenance
Engagement: End-to-end product build
Timeline: Multi-phase build

The Challenge

The problem we set out to solve

Hip Haus needed a membership experience that met its community everywhere, on their desktop and in their pockets, without the cost and complexity of building and maintaining a separate product for each platform. And it had to be a genuine community space, with real-time chat, video meetings, and live-streamed seminars and events, not just a place to log in.

Before

Reaching both web and mobile users meant building and maintaining multiple separate products.
A standalone backend for the mobile apps would add cost and another system to run.
Community programming was scattered across third-party tools members had to leave the product to use.
Features risked drifting out of sync between platforms.

The Objective

One membership product, one source of truth, delivered as a web app and native mobile apps. Rich enough to host live community programming and lean enough for a community venture to sustain.

What We Built

The solution, part by part

Part 1

The web app and the engine behind both apps

Members use the full product directly in the browser, with nothing to install. The same Next.js application also exposes the API that powers the mobile apps, so there is one backend, one database, and one set of business logic to maintain instead of three.

Full member experience in the browser
Serves the API for both mobile apps
One Prisma + PostgreSQL data layer
Member media stored on AWS S3

Part 2

Native iOS & Android, from a single codebase

Built with Expo and React Native, the mobile apps ship to both the App Store and Google Play from one codebase and consume the exact same API and database as the web app. Members get a native experience with no feature drift between platforms.

One codebase ships to iOS and Android
Shares the web app's API, database, and storage
Native performance and feel
Feature parity with the web app by default

Across every platform

Chat, video meetings, and live-streamed events

Membership isn't just a login — it's a community. We built real-time chat, video meetings, and live streaming for seminars and virtual events directly into the product, available identically on web and mobile. A managed real-time media service handles the heavy lifting, so Hip Haus gets broadcast-grade reliability without operating streaming infrastructure.

Real-time member chat
Video meetings for groups and 1:1s
Live streaming for seminars and virtual events
Identical on web, iOS, and Android

The Stack — and Why

The technology, and why we chose it

Every tool here earned its place. The point isn't the logos — it's the reasoning behind them.

Next.js

One app serves the member web experience and the API for both mobile apps — fewer moving parts, lower running cost.

Expo

Ships native iOS and Android apps from a single codebase, on a fast release cadence.

React Native

Native UI and performance on mobile while sharing logic and types with the web app.

TypeScript

Shared types across web and mobile catch breakage at build time, not in production.

Prisma

A type-safe data layer shared by web and mobile. Schema changes propagate without drift.

PostgreSQL

A reliable relational database for members, content, and event data.

S3AWS S3

Durable, low-cost storage for member media and event content.

Tailwind CSS

A consistent design system, rendered fast.

LiveReal-Time Media Service

Broadcast-grade chat, video, and live streaming without operating streaming infrastructure in-house.

The Outcome

What changed for the business

3
Platforms — web, iOS, Android: 1
Shared backend & database: ~55%
Est. build-cost saving

Hip Haus runs a true cross-platform membership product. Members join on the web or download a native app and get the same experience either way, including chat, video meetings, and live-streamed events. Behind it all is a single codebase and one backend, which keeps the product fast to improve and affordable to run.

Reaching members meant choosing between web and mobile — or paying to build and maintain both separately.

One product reaches members on web, iOS, and Android from a single codebase.

Community happened on scattered third-party tools.

Chat, video meetings, and live events happen inside the membership product itself.

Every new feature risked drifting between platforms.

Web and mobile share one backend, so features land everywhere at once.

The Bottom Line

Hip Haus didn't need three apps. It needed one product that happened to run everywhere. By sharing a single backend across web, iOS, and Android, we gave them full reach, live community features, and a codebase small enough for a community venture to actually sustain. That's the difference between software that ships and software that lasts.

Let's build something that performs.

Tell us about your project and we'll map out a clear path to ship it.