Whop, Circle, Kajabi, and Discord are just four of the best online community platforms you can use in 2026. But if you want to compare what’s out there, this guide covers 23 other platforms – plus their standout features, pros, and pricing. Members in learning communities engage in collaborative learning, share educational resources, and seek intellectual growth. For example, if you’re hosting a movie night, you need a platform or app that supports high-quality screen sharing. A pixelated picture will put community members off, and they may not wish to participate in future movie nights.
- Your analytics should give you actionable data to see what’s working and what isn’t in your community.
- It’s important for you to be responsive and visible within the community.
- With its focus on delivering an exceptional user experience, Tribe can help you create and maintain a thriving, loyal community tailored to your brand.
- Many people already have an account too and familiarity with their user interface, so there’s little investment or perceived risk involved in joining.
A Case For Using Both Free Social Communities And Branded Communities
Creating a theme for each day of the week is a fun way to keep your community focused on the topics they came for. It’s also a great way to give your members ideas for what to post. Start by setting the tone for your community early and sparking opportunities for members to engage often. If you have a small team or some close friends, try asking them to run through the creation and sign-in process too.
If you are building a branded community, you will need to prioritize branding and customization. Also, ensuring that navigating the community is seamless for your members, will help you eliminate any potential obstacles in their journey. While evaluating your options, it’s easy to overlook the importance of customer support. At LearnWorlds, we understand that reliable support is essential for your success.
However, a successful online community creates space for its members to connect. Connection is the basis of any community, best-dates.io no matter where it’s located. People can find a place of belonging through an online community, potentially in a facet of their lives where they don’t have friends locally with the same interests. Some of the top online community platforms for 2024 are Bettermode, Crowdstack, Website Toolbox, Glue Up, Forumbee, Thinkific, Mighty Networks, and more. Whop is a modern platform that helps creators, educators, and entrepreneurs sell courses, memberships, and digital products while running their community in the same place.
It also comes with document-sharing capabilities, which allow users to securely exchange files via the cloud or upload large data sets directly into a shared workspace. They can also use interactive features such as liking and commenting, much like a social media platform, to gain insight into their peers’ understanding of the course material. Most businesses will need to pay for the pro plan because they’ll need to retain access to company information and communications. For bloggers and online creators, the free plan may not be suitable if you don’t want your messages to expire after 90 days.
Virtual Book Club
Community members tend to recommend products and services to people like them, i.e., qualified leads. As a result, lead generation and nurturing are faster and easier when you build an engaged community. This organization promotes a sense of community and makes it easier for members to navigate and participate in discussions. Its invite-only servers are organized into topic-based channels, allowing users to collaborate, share, and talk about their day seamlessly. This makes Discord perfect for all kinds of communities, from small groups of friends to large fandoms.
Owned platforms give you control and data but require you to drive all discovery yourself. For course creators and membership owners, a community built into your existing course platform eliminates the friction of members managing separate logins. Start on the platform your audience is already comfortable with, and migrate to an owned solution once the community has proven its value. Monthly or bi-weekly live sessions (Q and A calls, workshops, hot-seat coaching, or member spotlights) create calendar anchors that keep members returning on a schedule. Live events are not required, but they are the single most reliable way to convert passive readers into active participants. A member who has attended a live call has a fundamentally different relationship with the community than one who has only read posts.
The best community platform depends on the specific needs and goals of the community manager or organization. For general purposes, Mighty Networks stands out as one of the best overall choices. Community platforms are online spaces where individuals with common interests or goals can gather to communicate, collaborate, and share content.
You can use various tactics to spur engagement, such as hosting live Q&A sessions, creating challenges or competitions, or featuring member contributions on your social media channels. Bettermode differs from the other best online community platforms in that it focuses more on community and relationship management for very large communities and organizations. It has all the features you need to run an online business, plus the added benefit of having built-in community features specifically designed for course creators. However, it may not be the best option if you are looking for a more general online community platform or if you are on a tight budget.
Simply put, an online community is a shared space where members engage with each other. Typically, online communities are built around the common interests, opinions, or goals of the members. You can also ask questions, start discussions, and create opportunities for members to share their thoughts and experiences. Try things like weekly polls, open-ended discussion posts, live events, or group calls. Unlike social media, there are no ads, unrelated content, or distractions. They’re also perfect for creating revenue through paid memberships, online courses, and exclusive events.
There are bound to be some shocking answers that will make the whole team laugh or smile. If you have a paid community, it might be worth looking into your member lifetime value and churn rate as well. This will allow you to calculate and predict your earnings as well as understand how much revenue you are generating from each member. Either your community manager or moderator, can step in to deal with conflicts should they appear inside the community.
Before you start building an online community, you need to be clear about why the community exists (its purpose) and who it is for (its niche). These two things act as the foundation for everything you do, including the kind of people you attract, the content you create, and how your community grows. If you’re looking to start an online business course, share a passion, or bring people with similar interests together, building an online community can be valuable. A well-structured online community platform like CustomerHub gives you full control over how your community looks, functions, and grows. They provide features like custom branding, member analytics, event management, and monetization tools. While social media platforms are accessible, you don’t own the group or its data.
These are your people, your buyers, users, fans, and followers, gathered in one place to connect, ask questions, give feedback, and engage with you and each other. Members ask questions, share breakthroughs, and hold each other accountable. When done well, a learning community doesn’t just support a course, it supercharges it. It’s peer support, social learning, and accountability all woven into one.
