Introducing WAGroups 2.0: the WhatsApp group directory, rebuilt

Today we are releasing WAGroups 2.0, a complete rewrite of our WhatsApp group directory script. It runs on your own hosting, installs from the browser in a few minutes and includes every feature in one license.

Why we rebuilt it

The first WAGroups was a small CodeIgniter script with one job: let visitors share WhatsApp group invite links and list them by category. It did that well, and directory owners kept asking for more. WhatsApp itself changed too — channels and communities arrived, business chats became common, and spam and expired invites became the biggest problem of every directory.

Instead of adding patches to old code, we started again on Laravel 12 and our BaseKit foundation: a web installer, roles and permissions, a modern admin panel, extensions and a public demo mode.

What is inside

Every kind of WhatsApp link

Groups, communities, channels, business chats (wa.me numbers and short links), product catalogues and call links each have their own colour, icon, button text and page. The More Platforms extension adds Telegram, Discord, Signal and Facebook groups.

Details fetched for you

Visitors paste a link and press Fetch details. WAGroups reads the name, picture, description and member or follower count from the link's public preview page and keeps a copy of the picture on your server. The same link can never be listed twice, even when it is pasted in another form.

Moderation that scales

A review queue with bulk actions, blocked words, daily limits per person, captcha, visitor reports that can hide a link by themselves, and a health checker that finds expired and revoked invites.

Browsing people enjoy

Search, type chips, category, country and language filters, five sort orders including trending this week, and rich link pages with a QR code, share buttons, reviews and related links.

Ways to earn

Sell featured listings with your own plans, place ads in ten slots and offer a public API to partners — all built in.

Fifteen extensions included

Reviews and ratings, featured listings, ad manager, link health checker, import and export, public API, embed widget, more platforms, announcement bar, captcha, live chat, short URLs, visitor history, blog and pages — all bundled, all switchable from the Extension manager.

An Android app

The public API is complete enough to power a native app. The WAGroups Android app, written in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose, browses, searches, saves and submits links on your directory under your own name and icon.

Coming from version 1?

The importer moves your categories, group links, members — with their existing passwords — and blog posts from the old database. Your visitors keep their accounts and your links keep their views and joins.

Try it

Open the live demo, read the installation guide, or choose a license and have your directory online today.

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