Buy local, together
A localmarket, not a supermarket.
helyi (hey-ee) means local in Hungarian. It is your neighbourhood's farmers market: buy directly from the farmers, bakers and makers nearby, organised by people who live there.
Built in South Africa · Independent and self-funded · ~20% organiser margin, half of most supermarkets
Why helyi exists
Cut out the supermarket. Put your community in its place.
Food systems are increasingly run by large centralised chains that sit between producers and communities, taking a cut at every step. Supermarket markups average around 40%. helyi puts control back at the neighbourhood level: shorter supply chains, fairer prices, and money that stays local.
Read the full story →How a Local works
One neighbourhood, one order, one delivery.
01
A Local forms
Someone in your neighbourhood starts a Local and signs up nearby producers: farmers, bakers, fishers, makers.
02
An order cycle opens
Members browse the week's produce and order before the deadline. Every order is consolidated into one.
03
Producers deliver once
One drop-off instead of fifty. Less driving, less waste, fresher food.
04
You collect
Pick up from the Local's collection point. The organiser earns a fair ~20%, about half a supermarket's markup.
Recipes and meal planning
Plan your month, not just your shop.
Community recipes
Recipes shared by members of your community, built from the local products you can actually buy.
Meal planning
Plan a week or a few months of meals and see the cost as you go, making the most of one big monthly shop.
One click to your basket
Add a whole meal plan to your basket in a single click, with every ingredient ready to order.
Fair by design
We charge a fixed fee, not a cut of your community.
Computers don't work harder whether you order 10 things or 100, but the Local Organiser does. So helyi takes a flat fee to keep the platform running, never a percentage that grows with every order. Growth benefits your community, not us.
And there is no idle monthly subscription. You pay when your Local runs an event, not just for existing.
See how helyi compares →Three ways to take part.
Members
Fresh food direct from the people who grow and make it. Order by the weekly deadline, collect locally, and know exactly which farm your veg came from.
Join a Local →Organisers
Run your neighbourhood's Local with proper tools: ordering cycles, supplier management, consolidated orders, and a fair fixed fee. Earn ~20% for real work.
Start a Local →Suppliers
Sell direct to local communities with consolidated orders, predictable demand, and no middleman taking 40%.
Supply a Local →Every paid Local helps fund a free one.
Our long-term plan is to use community-run markets to fund free Locals in underserved communities, reducing food insecurity and creating income for organisers where it is needed most.
Read about our mission →How we run helyi
Built to last, not to extract.
Sustainably built and run
helyi runs on solar-powered servers, with no wasteful AI in the loop. Small, efficient technology, built and maintained by hand.
Private by default
No third-party trackers, no ads, no data harvesting. We are funded by a simple fee, not by selling what we know about you.
Independent
Built by a small South African studio, for the people who use it, not for investors. No backing from big food, retail chains, or industry lobbies.
Common questions
Follow our story.
We are building helyi in the open. Subscribe to our newsletter to follow along as we grow.
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