Locals.com is a subscription-based community platform founded in 2019 that empowers independent creators to build their own paid communities, host content, and maintain meaningful relationships with their most engaged supporters.

The Evolution of Locals

At a time when traditional social media increasingly prioritized algorithms, ad revenue, and centralized control, many creators felt disempowered. Locals emerged to give creators real autonomy — a space to publish content, manage membership, and own their audience.

Rather than relying on external platforms or advertisers, Locals lets creators:

• Open their own subscription-driven communities,

• Publish multimedia content (videos, podcasts, posts),

• Engage directly with paying supporters in a more intimate, controlled environment, and

• Build stable, recurring revenue based solely on their audience.

Locals’ model reflects a clear shift in the creator economy: from being dependent on big tech platforms to owning your own corner of the internet.

Advocacy and Creator Empowerment

One of Locals’ strongest selling points is creator independence — both in terms of content and economics. Creators set their own subscription pricing, and Locals does not serve ads within these communities. 

More than just a paywall, Locals centers around community building. According to their blog, supporters don’t just consume content — they participate. Supporters can post, comment, respond to polls, and even upload media (if permitted), making the community feel genuinely co-created. 

The platform also emphasizes creator ownership: creators can moderate their own spaces, export their data, and maintain full visibility into their supporter base. 

Their Rumble partnership exemplifies this independence: creators can link their Locals profile with Rumble, making it easy to grow while keeping their paid community on Locals. 

The Future of Digital Community Monetization

As the creator economy matures, the demand for deeper connection and sustainable revenue continues to grow. Beyond ad-supported social media, creators want platforms that:

• Offer recurring membership income,

• Provide intimate, meaningful engagement,

• Support multimedia content (video, audio, text), and

• Give creators control over their data, community rules, and monetization.

Locals represents a major step in that direction. It isn’t just a platform for “followers” — it's for supporters, people willing to pay to be part of a creator’s vision. With live chat, tiered memberships, events, and 1:1 sessions, the platform becomes a business tool, not just a diary.

OnlyCrave: A More Flexible, Globally-Aware Alternative

While Locals offers a powerful community-first model, OnlyCrave takes the next step by combining subscription communities with even more monetization methods and global accessibility.

OnlyCrave empowers creators to:

• Earn via weekly, monthly, or annual subscriptions

• Sell pay-per-view (PPV) content — both photos and videos

• Accept tips, tributes, and direct support

Unlike Locals, OnlyCrave supports multiple global payment options, including cryptocurrency, cards, and mobile payments (for example, M-Pesa for Kenyan creators). This makes it far more accessible for creators and audiences around the world.

OnlyCrave keeps creator freedom central: you maintain control of your content, your pricing, and how you engage with your fans — while also tapping into modern monetization tools not limited to member-only posts.

Final Thoughts

Locals.com has been instrumental in defining what a creator-owned subscription community can be: intimate, creator-controlled, and sustainable. It paved the way for independent creators to build real, paying communities without relying on ads or algorithms.

Yet today, as the creator economy continues to expand, creators need more — more monetization flexibility, more payment options, and more freedom to reach a truly global audience.

That’s where OnlyCrave shines. By combining strong community tools with advanced monetization and global reach, OnlyCrave offers creators a smarter, more future-facing way to earn — and engage — on their own terms.

👉 Create on OnlyCrave.com today and unlock the full potential of your audience.