Implement gamification elements to make the community experience more enjoyable and rewarding. We’re seeing recommendations from micro-communities become as trustworthy as personal ones. The technology has evolved too, with AI-enhanced engagement tools and comprehensive platforms making it easier than ever to launch and scale a community. We’ll round out this list with LearnWorlds–a great course platform with a basic community platform attached.
The Top 10 Best Online Community Platforms For Engagement And Growth
The best solution for many creators is to create paid online communities instead of free ones. These offer the same variety of benefits while providing an additional, steady stream of resources to your business. An online community is a group of individuals who connect through digital platforms in order to communicate with one another.
In this article, we’re talking about the 18 online community-building tools that are worth a try. We’ve mixed the list pretty evenly between the 10 tools that an online community platform should give you, followed by 8 actual software options that are worth checking out. Offers solid community organization, and membership management tools. Supports native events hosting, full community white-labeling, branded mobile apps, and built-in marketing tools. After testing 30 apps, the best online community platforms of 2026 are Circle, Mighty CupidFeel Networks, Bettermode, Heartbeat, Kajabi Communities, Swarm and GroupApp. Once you choose the right online community platform, consider the next steps to create and nurture a thriving online community through community management.
Keep Engagement Active
As you’re launching your community, I highly recommend engaging live with your members (be it one). Live interactions such live workshops, Q&As, or casual group calls, create energy and connection that pre-recorded content just can’t match. But the truth is several steps in the process depend on the platform you choose.
Make sure everyone knows they don’t have to participate if they don’t feel comfortable sharing pictures. Create a sense of belonging within your community with movie nights. These can be a regular occurrence – set them up weekly, fortnightly, or even monthly.
Now let’s go over their most important features and capabilities, to help you decide which factors to focus on when choosing one. Request a quote from its official website to get pricing plans for Glue Up’s Community Management Suite. It also gives your members a chance to get to know each other a bit more privately than on the main forum, and gives you the foundation to foster real friendships in your community. Spaces allow you to gather smaller groups of community members around shared interests. Another tool that’s a cousin of the forum (but also great to have) are Spaces. This skill-sharing fest enables members to pool their talents and help one another.
People who wanted to go deeper on each of those things could join those groups and get more tailored content. Community-building for remote teams requires good communication. Building a community at work helps create a strong sense of camaraderie. In addition, operating as a community makes employees perceive their team as a family and the workplace as a home. Virtual games provide exciting challenges for remote workers to have fun, share ideas, and learn.
- You need to know your way around WordPress, plugins, and all the other technical stuff.
- Learning communities are dedicated to education and knowledge sharing.
- Whether you’re looking to create a small group of friends or a large, global network, these platforms have everything you need to build and manage a thriving online community.
If you purchase through our partner links, we may get paid for the referral (at no additional cost to you). They offer a platform for sharing tips, personal stories, and advice relevant to a particular lifestyle. These communities are characterized by their relatability and the personal value they add to their members’ everyday lives. Centered around specific lifestyles or life stages, these groups cater to individuals sharing similar life experiences or interests. Examples include parenting forums, fitness, wellness and healthcare-related groups, and travel enthusiasts’ communities. Friends of the Earth engages with communities, individuals, and organizations to build a global movement for environmental justice and sustainability.
For example, you could ask how the community helps solve a problem, whether their expectations have been met, what features they would like added, and more. They’re paying for exclusivity, such as bonus or early-release content. You must think about what added value you can offer to justify the charge.
This ultimate guide to building an online community will teach you what you need to know to get started, from the spark of an idea to your first (paying) members. “I would recommend having a detailed promotion plan before you launch to ensure you understand how you’ll get folks into your community. If you build it, people won’t just show up, you need to find the right folks, introduce the value to them, and then really double down on building trust with them,” says Sowyrda. A few tools and resources I recommend to learn more about your audience are market research, social media analytics, and customer surveys. Utilizing effective moderating tools and the best community software is crucial in assisting community managers in promptly addressing and managing any offensive content. It’s critical to weigh each platform’s benefits and drawbacks to ensure they support your community-building objectives.