For South African running clubs

Your running club's
home on the internet.

The race calendar, the pace group schedule, the roster, the committee notices, your PBs, your race history, your badges — all in one place. Built by a runner, for the club, with zero cost for clubs that need it free.

Bring your club aboard → See what it does
SA-first
ASA / WPA-aware
Free for small clubs
Your data, your server
No app store needed
The mission

PaceHub is a running club's home on the internet.
Not the app that tracks your runs.
Not the platform that takes your race entry fees.
Not the notice-board hacked into a WhatsApp group.
It's where your club's season actually lives.

Built by
A runner on a real running club committee. Not a startup team guessing at club dynamics from an office overseas.
Built for
South African running clubs operating in the ASA / WPA / provincial federation structure. Club types, ASA licences, pace groups, race calendars — the data model actually matches how SA running works.
Priced at
R0 for small clubs. Always. If you're under 200 members and run on volunteer time, PaceHub is free, forever. Larger clubs and future features stay affordable.
Owned by
The club. Your data is yours. Export it at any time. Walk away if you want. The explicit agreement says so.
Lives at
pacehub.club — a progressive web app. No App Store download. Works on any phone with a browser. Installable if members want, push notifications and all.
The category

Know what we are.
Know what we aren't.

There's a lot of software in this space already. Most of it isn't built for you.

We are NOT

Another running app.

  • Not a GPS tracker (that's Strava, Garmin, Apple Fitness)
  • Not a race entry portal (that's RaceTec, Entry Ninja, Top Events)
  • Not a training coach (that's Runna, Pace to Race)
  • Not generic "club management SaaS" trying to do everything
  • Not a WhatsApp replacement — the social chat stays where it is
We ARE

A digital home for your club.

  • Where the season lives — calendar, schedule, stats, messages
  • Where the committee runs the club without spreadsheets
  • Where coaches manage their pace group without WhatsApp chaos
  • Where members see their runs, races, PBs, badges in one place
  • Where the ASA / WPA structure is native — not a bolt-on
What it does

One platform.
Every role.

PaceHub handles three distinct audiences — each gets what they need and nothing they don't.

For members

🏠

Home feed

Next run, next race, your year's stats — all visible before any tap. Pinned notices sit right below.

🏁

Race calendar

Hundreds of SA races, sorted by month. Tap to RSVP, bell icon for reminders, star for featured club races.

📊

Your stats

Races completed, total distance, PBs per distance. Auto-updated when the committee uploads race results.

📅

Run plan

Coach's planned runs and races you've RSVP'd to, in one schedule. Training and racing together.

🏅

Race history & badges

Every finish kept by the club. Badges unlock automatically — First Steps, 10K Finisher, Half Marathon, Marathon Hero, Century Legs.

💬

Official messages

Committee and coach messages arrive with 🛡 ADMIN or 👟 COACH badges. Members always know what's official.

For coaches

👟

Coach dashboard

Your posts with live RSVP counts — Going, Can't, Maybe. Three tabs cover every daily coaching action.

📝

Five post types

Group Run, LSD Run, Intervals, Race Prep, Message. Each pre-fills the right fields. Thirty seconds to post.

👥

Self-service roster

Add or move a member into your pace group without emailing the admin. Every move logged, every change audited.

📣

Group messaging

One message, every member of your pace group gets it privately with a 👟 COACH badge. Replies stay confidential.

RSVP breakdown

Who's coming on Saturday. Who's not. Who's maybe. By name. Before 5am, when you need to know.

🔔

Push notifications

Your post fires an instant notification to every member's phone. No "did you see my message?"

For the committee

📈

Admin overview

Active accounts, active members, upcoming sessions, last-30-days logins. The whole club, one dashboard.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Member management

Full roster with ASA licence tracking, demographic data, emergency contacts. Search, filter, bulk-import from CSV.

🛡

Broadcast comms

One member, a pace group, or the whole club. Members see the 🛡 ADMIN badge. Every send audit-logged with read receipts.

📊

Attendance tracking

Per-session roster with RSVP, present, absent, cancelled. Reports for AGM prep and coach performance.

📣

Announcements

Three types — Notice, RSVP Event, Poll. Set expiry dates, pin to feed, track responses in real time.

🏁

Race calendar editor

Add races, import CSVs, mark featured, track member interest. Your club's season, curated by the committee.

Where we're ahead

What makes PaceHub
different.

Seven things no other platform in this space offers SA running clubs. These are the reasons PaceHub exists.

01 · Federation-native
Built for ASA / WPA / provincial structure.
ASA licence numbers, club types (club/social/new member), athlete roles (athlete/coach/technical officer/office bearer), provincial affiliation — these aren't custom fields bolted onto generic software. They're native to the data model. International platforms can't replicate this without rebuilding from scratch.
02 · Coach as first class
Your coaches get their own dashboard.
Other platforms have "admin" and "member." PaceHub has admin, coach, and member — three role levels, each with the right permissions. The coach experience is substantially richer than anywhere else: their own dashboard, their own feed, their own roster, their own broadcast channel.
03 · The SA race calendar
Every race. Sorted by month. Curated.
Hundreds of South African races loaded and filterable by month, distance, and province. Each with entry URL, organiser details, and a featured flag for club priority races. Growing with every season. Nothing else in the SA market even attempts this.
04 · Race results import
Upload a CSV, everyone's PBs update.
Admin uploads race results, platform matches finishers to members by ASA licence or name, inserts into race history, recomputes PBs across distances, awards new badges, posts a summary to pace group feeds. What used to be Sunday-evening manual work now takes 30 seconds.
05 · Official messaging with badges
Members always know what's from the club.
When an admin or coach messages you, the message arrives with a visible 🛡 ADMIN or 👟 COACH badge above the bubble. You always know whether it's official or a peer chat. No platform anywhere else has this. It's a small detail with a big trust impact.
06 · No app store required
Works on any phone, any browser.
Progressive web app. Installable with one tap, push notifications work, offline caching for known pages. No iOS developer account needed, no Android review queue, no "my phone is too old" excuses. Every member can use it, regardless of their device.
07 · Built by a member
Free for small clubs. Forever.
This isn't a SaaS. There are no investors demanding revenue. PaceHub is built by a runner who sits on a club committee, understands the constraints, and wants to give back to the running community. Small clubs run free, always. The code is (going) open-source. The club owns its data. The agreement is explicit.
How we compare

PaceHub vs the alternatives.

Honest comparison with the platforms you might evaluate alongside PaceHub. We're not ahead on everything — but on the things that matter for SA clubs, we're the only option.

Feature PaceHub Pace (UK) ClubPal Strava Clubs Springly
Pace group management
Coach role with dashboard partial
Self-service coach roster
Run session RSVP limited
ADMIN / COACH message badges
SA race calendar (100+ races)
Auto-tracked PBs per distance via Strava
Race results CSV import Phase 2via Strava API
ASA / WPA licence tracking EA equiv
Member directory + follow activity-based
Online membership payments Phase 3
Club discovery map Phase 5+
Progressive web app nativenativenativeweb
Open-source code Phase 3
POPIA-aware Phase 2GDPRGDPRgenericgeneric
Price for small SA clubR0Free + paidFree / 2.5% feeFreeFree + paid

Features marked "Phase N" are on the roadmap — see below. Platforms compared are accurate as of April 2026 based on their public documentation.

Where we're going

Roadmap in the open.

No marketing fluff. Here's exactly what's shipped, what's shipping, and what's coming.

Live now · Phase 1

Foundation — member, coach & committee platform

Member directory, pace group feeds, race calendar, run schedules, RSVPs, stats & PBs, race history, badges, coach dashboard, admin management, official messaging with role badges, announcements (notice/poll/RSVP), attendance tracking. Progressive web app. Live for pilot club.

Phase 3 · Q4 2026

Online membership payments

Collect annual fees via South African payment rails — PayShap, Ozow, Yoco, SnapScan. Bulk renewal reminders, automated receipts, payment tracking per member. Optional feature — clubs who prefer manual EFT can keep doing that.

Phase 3 · Q4 2026

Open-source release

Code published under permissive license. Clubs can self-host if they want. Community can contribute. Not a single point of failure tied to one maintainer.

Phase 4 · Q1 2027

Multi-tenant — more clubs onboarded

One platform, many clubs. Proper data isolation. Club-level branding. Ready for wider SA rollout.

Phase 5+ · 2027

Club discovery + website builder

Public map where runners can find clubs near them. Lightweight website builder so clubs can have a public-facing landing page without a web designer. Merchandise shop for selling vests and caps.

The pricing promise

Free for small clubs.
Always.

If your club has fewer than 200 members and runs on volunteer time, PaceHub is free, forever. No trial period. No card required. No "we reserve the right to change this." Larger clubs pay a modest fee when you grow. Transactional features (when they arrive) take a small percentage, only when money actually flows through the platform. The promise is written into the code and the agreement.

Bring your club aboard
Questions

Common questions.

The ones every committee asks before committing.

Is this really free for our club?

Yes. If you're under 200 members and volunteer-run, PaceHub is R0 — no trial timer, no credit card, no "free tier that quietly deprecates." This isn't a marketing tactic; it's a commitment written into the platform agreement. Larger clubs (250+) will have a modest monthly fee when Phase 3 ships, but every SA running club under 200 members will stay free.

What about POPIA compliance?

Taken seriously. All member data is hosted in South Africa on infrastructure we control. Phase 2 (Q2-Q3 2026) introduces the full POPIA compliance layer — consent at signup, data export on demand, right-to-erasure, written Privacy Policy, Information Officer designation, breach notification process. The club remains the responsible party for its members' data; PaceHub is the processor. Proper data-processing agreement provided.

Who owns the data?

The club does. Always. Every member record, every race result, every photo. The agreement says so explicitly. If you ever want to leave the platform, you can export everything to CSV with one click and walk away. No hostage-taking. No "our way of doing things." It's your club.

What if Fagmie (the developer) stops maintaining it?

Fair question. Three mitigations: (1) The code will be open-source from Phase 3, so any technical person on any club can self-host or contribute. (2) Full handover documentation is maintained alongside the code. (3) Data is always exportable. If PaceHub ceases to exist tomorrow, your club loses the platform but keeps the data.

Can we try it before committing?

Yes. Onboarding is a conversation — we talk, you see the platform, we run a pilot for 60-90 days with a subset of members or a specific pace group, committee reviews, decision time. Nothing locks in until you're sure. And even then, everything is exportable — leaving is always an option.

Does it replace our WhatsApp group?

No — and that's deliberate. WhatsApp is where your club's social life lives and it should stay there. PaceHub is for the things WhatsApp is bad at: structured notices, RSVPs you can count, a race calendar that doesn't get lost, a member roster that isn't on one person's laptop. Think of them as complementary, not competitive.

How does the race calendar get populated?

Today: curated by the maintainer, covering WPA and major national races. Phase 2: open for committee additions per club. Future: RSS / scraping from ASA / RaceTec / Top Events / Endurance Time feeds. Your club can also add its own hosted races at any time.

What about ASA licence updates each year?

Bulk update flow in the admin panel — upload a CSV of current ASA licences, platform matches by member name and updates en masse. Annual ASA renewal becomes a two-minute job for the secretary instead of a two-week chase.

Can coaches who aren't tech-savvy use it?

That's the design goal. Posting a run takes 30 seconds. Adding a member takes a search + tap. The coach dashboard has three tabs (Feed, Members, New Post) — that's the entire surface area they need. Tested with real coaches on real phones, not engineers in a demo environment.

We're a tiny club. Is this overkill?

Probably not. If you have pace groups, a coach, a race calendar, and a committee, PaceHub saves your committee hours per month from day one. If you're a group of five friends meeting Saturday mornings, WhatsApp is fine — come back when you grow.

How do we actually get started?

Get in touch via the link below. We'll have a conversation, understand your club, and decide together whether it's the right fit. If it is, onboarding is typically a week — CSV import of your roster, pace group setup, coach training for your committee, pilot period. See you on the roads.

Ready to bring your club aboard?

Let's talk about your club. No pitch, no pressure. If PaceHub is the right fit, we'll plan onboarding. If it isn't, we'll both know and I'll wish you well.

Email Fagmie → WhatsApp →