Are you looking to build an online community that thrives with engagement?
Creating a community is easy, but sustaining it tough.
Why?
You must consistently deliver value, nurture connections, and act as a thread that binds the community together.
This may not be possible unless youβre using a robust community platform!
That’s why Iβve used, tested and reviewed top community platforms for you.
Letβs dive in.
Here are the top 5 picks:
Product | Type | Starting price |
Circle.so – Editorβs best pick | Premium | $49/mo |
Skool – Backed by big guns | Premium | $99/mo |
Kajabi community – Best for Course Creators | Premium | $149/mo |
Mighty Networks – Powerful online community + courses | Premium | $39/mo |
Passion.io – Powerful community within the mobile app | Premium | $97/mo |
Circle.so – Top community platform
Circle is an all-in-one community platform for course creators, content creators, founders, and solopreneurs.
Itβs co-founder & CEO, Sid Yadav, has previously worked for Teachable (a leading course platform), which enabled him to fast-track Circleβs growth with his experience.
The best thing about Circle is that it constantly introduces the most important features to start, grow, and engage a community, bringing like-minded people together.
With their recent introduction of Courses and Community AI feature, itβs making it easy for its users to avoid juggling between multiple platforms to learn and engage.
Key features:
- Chat spaces and messaging – Public chat spaces, private DMs, and group chats.
- Courses – Create immersive courses within the community.
- Events and live streaming – Host meetings and webinars with built-in engagement tools.
- Community AI – Enhance content creation and member connections (Business Plan only).
- Workflows – Automate community management tasks (itβs like Zapier within the platform).
- Design customization – Superior design options with features like custom code snippet.
- Analytics – Detailed metrics on member activity and community performance.
When it comes to pricing, Circle’s Basic plan, even at $49 per month, only supports up to 100 members.
βΉοΈ This information is not easily discoverable in their pricing plan. As a result, most people end up choosing the Professional plan to remove this limit and to unlock the course feature.
Most people end up going with the Professional plan or even the Business plan if they want to get access to automation workflows.
π Pros
- Circle offers in-community course creation with structured scheduling.
- It includes live streaming and recording functionalities.
- It has a paywall feature to restrict access to specific spaces.
- Circle offers iOS and Android apps, though the Android app may lack some features.
π Cons
- Circle lacks gamification features such as badges and rankings.
- Is quite pricey
π Bottomline: Circle is one of the most feature-rich platform out there, founded by co-founders of Teachable and their speed of implementation of features is commendable. If you would like to explore more, please refer to my review on Circle.
Skool – Backed by big guns
Skool is a platform founded by Sam Ovens after selling his consultancy.
It was later backed by Alex Hormozi who is a go-to name when it comes to starting your own online business.
Unlike other platforms, it has a significant mission of being a new school for the new world and aims to be a leading resource for online education in the future.
It has grown even more rapidly than Circle in this regard as they are using growth-hacking models like network effect and flywheel to grow their business.
However, the reason why I’ve included it as the second-best product is due to the lack of features presently.
π² It has gamification features, which enables you to assign points to members based on their engagement. These points can be redeemed by unlocking different levels and courses.
In this regard, I have observed that Skool communities have more engagement. For example, while Circle may appear more professional, Skool has a more relaxed, funky vibe.
They also have excellent mobile apps for iOS and Android.
When it comes to pricing, unlike other platforms, Skool comes with only one pricing at $99 per month. You get access to all the features.
π Pros
- Backed by really prominent figures in the industry, Sam Ovens and Alex Hormozi.
- It comes with a discovery feature which is similar to Facebook’s group search engine to get to real good organic leads.
- Skool comes with real good gamification features to enhance engagement from the members.
π Cons
- Doesn’t come with self-hosting for videos; you still need to use Vimeo or Wistia.
- Doesnβt come with live streaming
I believe strong marketing beats the quantity of features any day. So Skool has bright future ahead.
If you are interested in learning more about my experience with Skool and also how it compares to Circle, make sure you refer the blog posts.
π Bottomline: I personally believe in the founders’ vision. In fact, I am using their platform for one of my online communities. Their implementation of features and the mental models they follow for growth, such as the flywheel effect and network effect, is impressive. Additionally, the way they have implemented gamification features to encourage people to develop and add value to the community is really good.
Kajabi community β Best for Course Creators
Kajabi is an all-in-one digital selling platform. Not only does it come with a feature-rich community platform, but it also provides the ability to sell courses, offer coaching, set up your own website, create funnels, and conduct email marketing.
Kajabi recently acquired Vibely to enhance its community functionality.
Now they have reworked their community module to add various gamification features such as challenges, badges, and leaderboards.
Additionally, you now have the ability to create community meetups using Kajabi events and much more.
All these features make Kajabi stack up against specialist community tools very effectively.
Key features
- Live video calls, chats, and feeds: Real-time interaction with built-in video streaming
- Progress tracking: Monitor member progress and identify struggle areas
- Gamification: Challenges, accomplishments, meetups, points, and badges
- Email templates: Customizable notifications for community activities
- Mobile apps: iOS and Android with even push notifications
- Analytics: Community dashboard and Google Analytics integration
You can consider reading my dedicated blog post on Kajabi communities.
Kajabiβs (read full review) basic plan is $149/mo, and it restricts you to create up to 3 products and 3 funnels.
Thatβs it.
Even its highest plan at $399/mo allows you to create only 100 products and 100 funnels.
π§ If you solely need a community platform, it wonβt be worth the money.
π Pros
- All-in-one platform (courses, communities, email marketing, websites, etc.)
- It comes with an automation engine to glue all its features together. For example, when people enroll in a course, you can automatically add them to a community.
- Provides mobile apps for both iOS and Android with push notifications.
π Cons
- Their Basic plan, even at $149/month, only supports the ability for them to sell 3 products and set up 3 funnels.
π Bottomline: Kajabi is an all-in-one digital selling platform that also comes with a feature-rich community feature. This integrates well with their course creation, coaching, email marketing, and webinar functionality. With recent updates, it’s even comparable to specialized community tools. You can refer to these blog posts where I have reviewed Kajabi individually and also Kajabi communities.
Mighty Networks – Some unique features
Mighty Networks is an affordable online course creation & community platform. Similar to Circle, it also comes with the built-in course creation feature.
It has some very unique features compared to other platforms like Circle.
For example, it has the ability to host group chats. interest matching, which can help people connect with each other based on their location. This makes it really good for offline meetups.
Additionally, it has an ambassador program where you can incentivize your members to invite new users, thus growing your community.
Key features
- Community features: Member profiles, messaging, chats, categories, and matchmaking.
- Courses: Create and sell cohort-based or single courses.
- Mobile apps: White-labeled iOS and Android apps with customization.
- Live streaming: Native support and even Zoom integration.
- Custom domains: Host community under your brand
- Mighty Pro: Custom-branded apps with full control (addon).
Their basic Community plan, costs $49 per month. However, it doesn’t come with the courses feature.
For that, you need to opt for their Courses plan at $119 per month. Along with courses, it also comes with additional features like quizzes, assessments, and secure integration.
π Pros
- It has a member matchmaking feature for networking.
- It has a native course builder, so you donβt have to purchase external courses/membership platforms.
- It is possible to create your own custom-branded mobile apps.
- It has one of the most feature-rich mobile apps out there.
π Cons
- The UI/UX of Mighty is not so refined like that of other apps like say Circle
- The Basic Plan of Mighty Networks lacks significant features like Online courses, Analytics, and integrations with Zapier and other apps.
- It lacks gamification features like points/badges/rankings for community engagement.
π Bottomline: Mighty Networks is one of the most established community platforms out there. However, their UI and UX need more refinement. You can read my entire review here.
Passion.io β Mobile-app centric
Unlike other apps I have reviewed in this blog post, Passion is more focused on coaches. It’s primarily aimed at fitness, yoga, and other niches where transformations need to be tracked.
Their features include:
π Unlike other tools in this blog post, Passion.io lacks a few important community features like channels, spaces, direct messaging, or private group features. But, hey, you get a rock-solid mobile app platform
Key features
- Course and Coaching: Unlimited courses/coaching with free selling
- Sequences: Daily activities/exercises with tracking (especially helpful for fitness niches)
- Engagement: Push notifications, exercises, and group challenges
- Live streaming: Built-in feature, no external services needed
- Goal-tracking: Performance monitoring especially good for performance coaches
- Mobile apps: White-labeled iOS and Android apps
Their lowest pricing starts at $119/mo, and it is limited to 100 subscribers, 100 videos, and 1000 push notifications/mo.
It charges a 3.9% fee with PassionPayments. Its ultimate plan costs $297/mo, and it provides the best value.
π Pros
- Creating apps is fun. It is very easy to get started.
- Provides pre-made templates for app creation. The templates include an audio app, fitness app, etc. Or you can build an app from scratch.
- You can design the welcome screens and sales pages using its builder.
- Excellent device compatibility. The apps are compatible and accessible on iOS, Android, laptop, TV, desktop, etc.
π Cons
- There are no channels, spaces, direct messaging, or private group features on Passion.io.
- You can create only one app even in its higher plan at $297/mo.
- They charge a 3.9% fee with PassionPayments.
- It lacks gamification features like badges, scores, and achievements.
π Bottomline: Passion (explore more in my review) is the best choice if you want to take the mobile-centric route and desire features such as exercises and sequences, school tracking, push notifications, and more accountability from your students.
Thinkific – Affordable
Thinkific (review) is an LMS platform to create and sell courses, build and host communities, and monetize through memberships.
Key features:
- Branded communities: Create and customize with your brand; sell as subscriptions or individual products.
- Community features: Offer live events, member tags, and notifications.
- Integrations: Extensive product integrations including Zapier, Google Analytics, Zoom, MailChimp, etc.
- White-label customization: Full whitelabeling for courses and communities.
Thinkific has three pricing plans – Basic ($49/mo), Start ( $99/mo) and Grow ($199/mo).
You can create unlimited courses and can invite unlimited students in all the three plans. You can create 1 community with 5 spaces in their Basic plan. If you want to host for more than 5 spaces for your community, go with Start plan.
π Pros
- Includes content dripping, advanced assessments, surveys, and detailed student-level course retention reports
- Offer community as a standalone product or integrate it with courses
- Over 1000 app integrations to compensate for missing native features
π Cons
- Not ideal if community is your primary focus
- Only 5 spaces available in the lowest premium plan
- Absence of gamification features and other community engagement mechanisms
π Bottomline: Thinkific can be a more affordable alternative to Teachable. It comes with a specialized course creation feature and a basic community feature. However, the major downside is the lack of feature-rich mobile apps.
BuddyBoss – Best for WordPress
BuddyBoss is a premium WordPress plugin that helps you build highly engaging online communities. Moreover, it allows you to sell courses, memberships, and digital downloads, all from a single platform.
Key features:
- User profiles: Create detailed user profiles with custom fields, profile photos, cover images, and more.
- Social Groups: Enable users to create and manage their own social groups.
- Memberships: Sell memberships and restrict content based on membership levels.
- Forums: Built-in forum feature for user discussions.
- Private Messaging: Allows users to send private messages directly from their profile.
- WordPress Integration: Seamlessly integrates with WordPress, allowing you to manage everything from your WordPress dashboard.
Pricing:
BuddyBoss App pricing starts at $219/year for a single site license. This includes 24/7 tech support. They also provide done for you service and developer support.
BuddyBoss Web pricing starts at $299/year for a single site license. This includes 1 year of updates and support.
π Pros
- One-time purchase model
- Extensive customization options
- Seamless WordPress integration
π Cons
- Steep learning curve for WordPress beginners
- Higher upfront cost compared to subscription-based platforms
π Bottomline: If you’re already using WordPress and are familiar with how it works, BuddyBoss is a great option. It offers a lot of customization options and integrates seamlessly with WordPress, making it easy to manage your online community from your WordPress dashboard. However, it might be a bit complicated for beginners, and the cost can be a bit high compared to other online community platforms.
Hivebrite – Best for Enterprise Companies
Hivebrite is a comprehensive, fully customizable community management and engagement platform. It’s particularly well-suited for large businesses, associations, non-profits, and other enterprise-level organizations.
Key Features
- Community management: Robust tools for member directories and segmented communication.
- Customization: Tailor your community space to align with your brand identity.
- Engagement tools: Events, forums, and job boards to foster active participation.
- Analytics: Powerful tools to track community growth and engagement metrics.
Pricing
Hivebrite’s pricing starts at $799 per month, making it a pricier option but one that comes with a host of powerful features.
π Pros
- Highly customizable platform for unique community spaces
- Rich engagement tools to boost community activity
- Robust analytics for tracking growth and engagement
π Cons
- Steeper learning curve due to extensive features
- Higher pricing may not suit smaller organizations
π Bottomline: If you’re an enterprise-level organization looking for a robust, customizable community management platform, Hivebrite is worth considering. Its range of features and tools make it a powerful option for managing and engaging large communities.
Bettermode – Ideal for SaaS Companies
Formerly known as Tribe.so, Bettermode is a powerful platform that’s perfect for SaaS companies looking to build a robust online community.
This tool enables you to integrate the community into your product, enhancing user engagement and fostering a sense of belonging.
Key features:
- Deep integration: Seamlessly integrates with your product for a unified experience.
- Customization: Fully tailor your community to match your brand identity.
- Discussion boards: Foster member interaction through engaging forums.
- Analytics: Gain insights into your community’s growth and engagement.
Pricing
Bettermode offers a range of pricing options, starting from a lite plan to more advanced ones, catering to various business needs and budgets.
π Pros
- Provides deep integration with your product for a better user experience.
- Offers extensive customization options to match your brand.
- Features discussion boards for enhanced interaction.
π Cons
- It may be a bit complex for first-time users.
π Bottomline: If you’re a SaaS business looking to build a tightly-integrated online community, Bettermode is a fantastic choice. Its extensive features and customization options make it a standout platform.
Discourse β Best for self-hosting
Discourse is an open-source platform that helps people to manage their communications. It can be used as a mailing list, discussion forum, chat room, and more.
Key features:
- Community features: Dynamic notifications, single sign-on, moderation, one-click upgrades.
- Engagement: Badges, emojis, social logins, topic summarization (like Circle.so‘s weekly digest).
- Security & Spam: Two-factor auth, Akismet spam protection.
- Mobile apps: iOS and Android for on-the-go discussion management.
- Integrations: Connect with Slack, Telegram, Rocket.chat for community activity notifications.
- Monetization: Ad integration (Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliates, Google Ad Manager) for passive income.
Pricing
Discourse has three premium plans, with the lowest costing $50/mo. It limits to
- 50k monthly page views
- 10GB storage
- 50k monthly email
If you go with Discourse premium (pricing starts at $50/mo), you will get many integrations like chat integration, Github, subscriptions, canned replies, etc. You also get a mobile app with all premium plans.
π Bottomline: Although Discourse’s user interface is quite outdated and it lacks a channels or spaces feature, it has decent features like spam protection, community moderation, and other single sign-on features.
Slack – Best for Professionals
Slack is the most popular new-age platform for work-related communication among online professionals and startups. Its user experience and interface are so refined that even Microsoft copied their entire design model with Microsoft Teams.
You can create your own community on Slack and, with the help of their threads feature, it combines the best of both community and chat platforms. This enables you to not only organize your community content but also encourage proactive participation from members.
The greatest challenge for community managers is to help members break the ice when engaging in the community, which can be easily done with Slack as it’s quite familiar.
Discord β Best for Techies and Individuals
Discord is an online chat platform for gamers, techies, individuals, and teams to connect with their fellow members. Previously, it was a gaming platform. Later, it extended towards tech niches like Bitcoin, education, businesses, etc. Whatever your niche is, you can get started with Discord for building communities free of cost.
It has servers (similar to spaces) with channels to collaborate with other members. Using its voice, video, and text channels, you can connect and talk with other members sharing similar interests.
It also comes with direct message and group message features. Discord has its premium subscription server called Nitro. With this, you can customize your Discord tag, use custom emotes, upload large files, and get discounted Server Boosts.
Pricing:
The Discord Nitro Basic costs $2.99/mo, and it comes with features like profile badges, custom emojis, bigger uploads, and much more.
π Bottomline: If you want video and voice channels with community moderation features Discord is the best platform to get started for free. If you are in a gaming or tech niche, it suits you best. Nowadays, people prefer Discord communities to Facebook groups as it is distraction-free, and you can organize all the conversations on servers as separate channels.
Telegram
Telegram is one of the highly secured messaging apps that is making users switch to it from other messaging platforms like WhatsApp.
For communities, it has groups, channels, screen sharing, audio & video chats, group calling, secret chats, direct messaging, etc. The best part is you can add up to 200,000 members to its channels. You can make the groups/channels private/public. For community moderation, you can add multiple admins and restrict what access they have.
There are no spam filters in Telegram. Some keywords and external links can be blocked to prevent spam, but little can be done. So you need to put in more effort to monitor the community to avoid the spam content.
π Bottomline: Telegram, while potentially a powerful community platform, has recently faced intense scrutiny from various governments worldwide. Some countries have imposed bans on the app, and the CEO was even arrested for allegedly failing to effectively combat spam and content piracy.
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are widely used and easy-to-use community platforms. With most people having Facebook accounts, it’s simple for users to find and join groups.
Major brands like Kajabi and Thinkific host private communities on Facebook, allowing customers to interact and get solutions from company owners or other users.
However, there are significant drawbacks to using Facebook groups:
- Limited control: You can’t organize posts or customize group appearance.
- Distractions: Facebook’s algorithm introduces ads and unrelated content, potentially reducing community engagement.
- Trouble switching platforms: If you’re using a separate platform for courses or memberships, users may find it cumbersome to switch between platforms.
π Bottomline: As Facebook has more distractions and very few community features, you can consider hosting your communities on other platforms. If you want a free solution, you can consider Discord or Telegram, as there will be fewer distractions. Use Facebook groups as a part of lead generation and later invite your users to your communities hosted on other platforms.
Conclusion: Which to choose? π
For most people, I would recommend Circle as it is a more comprehensive platform. It not only comes with community and courses features, but also includes an inbuilt live streaming feature and automation.
However, if you are a coach or course creator and want to start a course-centric platform, you may want to go with Skool. Skool was founded by Sam Ovens and backed by Alex Hormozo, both big players in the industry. Some features that I particularly like are their discovery feature and the intuitive UI and UX.
I’ve observed that Skool has really good engagement compared to other platforms out there.
However, go with Kajabi, if you’re a non-techie and want an all-in-one platform where you don’t need to worry about integrating multiple features together through Zapier, and you want all features like website building, funnels, courses, communities, and email marketing all in one tightly integrated platform.
Personally, I use Skool because I have strong conviction and I believe that since the founders are really good at marketing, good marketing beats features any day.