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12 Best Online Community Platforms in 2025 (Pros and Cons)

Whether you want to build a social space for customers, a forum for like-minded people, or a support hub for your products, the right community platform can make all the difference.

For example, we have used Facebook for our WPBeginner Engage group, which has 98,000+ members. We have also more recently been experimenting with BuddyBoss for creating social networks and using MemberPress to power our video tutorial site.

This has helped us gain valuable insights into which community platforms work best for different needs. That’s why we now have a deeper understanding of community management and the strengths and weaknesses of different tools.

In this article, we will share our list of the best online community platforms, highlighting their pros and cons.

We have gone out of our way to test lots of different options for all kind of needs so that you can find the best one for your online project.

Best Online Community Platforms (Pros and Cons)

Overview of the Best Online Community Platforms

If you are in a hurry, then take a quick look at our overview of the best online community platforms:

#PlatformBest ForPricing
🥇BuddyBossComplete social networks$299/yr + Free
🥈MemberPressBuilding a small to medium-sized community$179.50/yr + Free
🥉CircleBuilding a small to medium-sized community$89/month
4ThinkificBuilding a community around your online courses$49/month
5BuddyPressCreating a free community in WordPressFree

How We Test and Review Online Community Platforms

To give you the best recommendations, we tested and reviewed popular community platforms.

We wanted to give you a list of well-rounded and reliable tools, so we paid special attention to the following criteria:

Ease of Use: We have prioritized user-friendly community platforms that come with an easy navigation system and allow you to customize your platform according to your community’s needs.

Features: An ideal community platform should include discussion boards, forums, gamification, polls, surveys, and other interactive elements. It should also allow for the easy creation, organization, and sharing of content.

Reliability: We have only recommended tools that we have tested ourselves on real websites. We also examined each platform’s loading speed, uptime, and scalability for growing businesses.

Integration Capabilities: For this showcase, we have explored each platform’s capabilities to integrate with email marketing services, CRMs, social media platforms, and analytics services.

Support: We have investigated the quality of customer support for each community platform. We also checked the tutorials, guides, forums, and knowledge bases offered by each tool.

Why Trust WPBeginner?

At WPBeginner, we have spent over 16 years working with WordPress, SEO, online marketing, hosting, and more.

Along the way, we’ve also built and managed different online communities. From creating a Facebook group where users can ask questions, to offering video courses using MemberPress, we have explored multiple ways to connect with our audience.

Beyond that, we have tested different community platforms extensively, including forum plugins and standalone solutions.

We have tried to find tools that make it easy to build an engaging and supportive space. We thoroughly test and review each option to provide the best recommendations. For details, see our editorial process.

Having said that, let’s take a look at our list of the best online community platforms with their pros and cons.

1. BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss is the best online community platform on the internet. It allows you to transform your site into a social media platform, build forums, create social groups, introduce new activities for users, and more.

In our opinion, it stands out as the best platform for building a social media network. We even have a complete BuddyBoss review that outlines all the reasons why.

Basically, the plugin comes with a comprehensive suite of features to help you create an interactive space for your members.

For instance, users can follow each other in the community, send private messages, and view activity feeds of different members. You can even create private or hidden groups for focused discussions and collaboration.

BuddyBoss Theme preview

In addition, you can create different membership levels in your community, integrate with learning management systems to sell courses, and even sell your merchandise alongside community memberships.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to create your own private community with WordPress.

Creating membership, login, and registration pages for your community portal

We particularly like that it allows you to create a custom-branded mobile app for Android and iOS devices, which can be a game-changer for growing your community.

This, paired with its seamless integration with WordPress, makes BuddyBoss the ideal choice for building thriving online communities.

Pros of BuddyBoss

  • BuddyBoss shows real time notifications to keep members engaged and informed about activity within the community.
  • We appreciate that it allows users to share photos, videos, and other media content.
  • We particularly liked the tool’s gamification elements, such as points, badges, and leaderboards.
  • It allows users to create profiles with their details and images.
  • BuddyBoss supports various membership models, including free, paid, and tiered memberships.
  • The plugin can integrate with tools like WooCommerce for eCommerce capabilities, Zoom for broadcasting and meetings, and page builders like Elementor for customization.

Cons of BuddyBoss

  • The plugin has a free plan. However, to unlock some of the features, you will need the pro version.

Why we recommend BuddyBoss: Overall, BuddyBoss is the best online community platform because it’s user-friendly, scalable, and comes with a lot of social features. Plus, the plugin works right in your WordPress dashboard, so you won’t need to set up any integrations.

2. MemberPress

Memberpress' homepage

MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market. It also offers a number of features to build a thriving online community around your membership site.

Over the past few years, we have been using it on our video membership site. It has played an important part in managing our subscription-based model and creating a sense of exclusivity for our members. To learn more, see our MemberPress review.

The plugin lets you create different membership tiers with varying access levels and benefits for members. Once you have done that, you can build an exclusive forum to discuss topics, share knowledge, and build relationships.

Enter membership plan details

You can also allow users to create their own groups within the community to foster engagement.

Additionally, users can view each other’s profiles and remain updated about recent activity, posts, and discussions.

Copy your plan URL

We particularly appreciate the ease of setting up different membership tiers with varying access levels to our video content library.

Plus, MemberPress can be a great option for creating a strong community among subscribers through features like private forums and member directories.

Pros of MemberPress

  • MemberPress can integrate with BuddyBoss to boost the functionality of your community.
  • If you want to earn some money while building a community, then you can restrict community features to paid members only.
  • When working with the plugin, we were impressed by its drip content feature. It lets you release content gradually to members based on their membership level.
  • The tool also comes with different moderation features and lets you create guidelines for community behavior.
  • We appreciate its built-in affiliate management feature to help you run affiliate marketing campaigns.

Cons of MemberPress

  • MemberPress has a free plan, but most of the features are locked in it.
  • It is not a conventional community platform, so it may lack some of the features offered by other tools on the list.

Why we recommend MemberPress: If you already have a membership site and want to boost conversions, then we believe MemberPress is the choice for you. It allows you to create membership levels and an exclusive community for users who join your group. This can encourage free users to become full-time members.

3. Circle

Circle

Circle is another amazing tool for creating online communities in just a few minutes.

We love how it lets you build a huge community and then organize it using ‘Spaces’ for broad topics and ‘Groups’ for more focused discussions within those spaces.

Spaces feature in Circle

Users can also personalize their profiles with bios, avatars, and social media links, fostering a sense of connection. Using the built-in tools, they can create text, images, and video content to share with the community.

Other than that, Circle allows direct messaging and even lets you host live video sessions for announcements, Q&A sessions, or interactive workshops.

Host live sessions with Circle

You can even offer tiered membership plans, subscriptions, and gated content. Plus, you get to charge fees for specific events or offer exclusive events to paid members.

When researching, we found that Circle gives you complete control over the look and feel of your community. You can match your brand’s identity, with options for colors, logos, and more.

Pros of Circle

  • Circle lets you create and manage events, both in-person and virtual, to bring your community together. This is a unique feature not available in many other tools.
  • You can add interactive polls and surveys within your community.
  • The platform creates a centralized activity feed for each user showcasing recent posts, discussions, and events.
  • You can track community growth, engagement, and member activity through detailed reports.
  • The tool lets you add, remove, or edit member profiles and manage their access levels within the community. You can also manage discussions, comments, and content with built-in moderation tools.

Cons of Circle

  • Compared to platforms like BuddyBoss, Circle offers less flexibility for customizing the look and feel of your community.
  • In our opinion, Circle would be better if it had a more powerful chat functionality.
  • It does not integrate with many LMS and membership tools.

Why we recommend Circle: If you prioritize features like live streaming, monetization, and mobile access for a smaller or medium-sized community, then Circle can be a great option.

4. Thinkific

Thinkific

Thinkific is a self-hosted platform that lets you build and sell online courses. However, you can also build, host, and monetize your community with it.

Our testing revealed that it has an intuitive a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to create custom-branded communities and discussion groups for your students.

For instance, you can set up a specific group where users can interact, ask questions, and share insights.

Our favorite feature is the live chat prompt, which allows instructors and students to communicate seamlessly. Thinkific also comes with a course builder that lets you create structured courses with videos, quizzes, PDFs, and assignments.

Once the student completes the course, you can also design a certificate to award them. All these features make Thinkific a great option for online learning websites.

Pros of Thinkific

  • Thinkific has built-in functionalities like user profiles, activity feeds, and private messaging.
  • We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the tool automatically creates discussion forums for each course to facilitate student engagement.
  • The platform creates different tiers of community access based on course enrollment or membership level.
  • It tracks and reports community engagement and performance with detailed analytics.
  • We appreciate that all the courses are fully responsive and accessible across all devices.

Cons of Thinkific

  • Thinkific’s core strength lies in course creation. While it offers community features, they might not be as feature-rich as other community platforms.
  • It is not a great option for large communities, which can be a dealbreaker for enterprises and bigger businesses looking to build a forum.

Why we recommend Thinkific: We believe Thinkific is a great option for course creators because of its focus on education. It allows instructors to build a community around their courses.

5. BuddyPress

BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a free WordPress plugin that can convert your WordPress site into a functioning social network or community.

We have thoroughly tested the tool and discovered a lot of great features.

For instance, it lets users create their own profiles and follow each other through friend connections. Users can then share updates, photos, and links, creating a newsfeed-like experience.

BuddyPress allows you to build groups, send private messages, and create forums. It also sends real-time notifications about activity, mentions, and messages.

For details, see our tutorial on how to turn your WordPress site into a social network.

Pros of BuddyPress

  • You can extend BuddyPress’ functionality using different plugins and themes specifically created for it.
  • We like that it offers a responsive design for optimal user experience on mobile devices.
  • One thing we really appreciate about BuddyPress is that it doesn’t cost anything to use. This helps you save money and focus on building a community without worrying about extra fees.
  • It can be used for various community types, such as internal company networks, fan communities, or online forums.

Cons of BuddyPress

  • BuddyPress can sometimes conflict with other plugins, leading to compatibility issues. In our opinion, this can be frustrating for beginners who do not know how to troubleshoot errors.
  • Upon testing, we realized that the tool can sometimes hurt website performance, depending on the number of members and activity.

Why we recommend BuddyPress: If you are looking for a free plugin that lets you build large-scale communities on your WordPress site, then BuddyPress is an excellent choice.

6. MemberMouse

MemberMouse

MemberMouse is a well-known membership plugin for WordPress sites, but it can also be used to build a private community for your members.

We have tested the tool and found it to be super beginner-friendly. To learn more, see our MemberMouse review.

We love that MemberMouse lets you create flexible membership levels like free, paid, and trial memberships with different restrictions.

The plugin has core features like a member directory, private messaging, and the ability to create basic groups where members can interact with each other.

We were particularly impressed by its drip content feature, which allows you to schedule content delivery over time to keep members engaged.

Pros of MemberMouse

  • We found that it can create promotional codes to attract new members.
  • The plugin handles recurring subscription payments easily.
  • We liked that it lets you send push notifications to users based on actions like adding new members, canceling memberships, receiving payments, and more.
  • MemberMouse offers built-in affiliate tracking to grow your membership through referrals.

Cons of MemberMouse

  • It does not have a free plan.
  • We found that it doesn’t have extensive moderation tools, which can be a dealbreaker for some users.

Why we recommend MemberMouse: While MemberMouse is primarily a membership management plugin, it offers a solid foundation for building a community around your paid content.

7. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is a super popular online community platform. It lets you create discussion groups for dedicated topics, host live streaming videos, and allow real-time messaging.

We love how easily the tool lets you create and promote virtual events, live Q&As, and webinars directly within the platform.

Plus, you can create different membership levels and use various engagement tools like gamification, polls, and leaderboards to motivate interaction among members.

You can even sell online courses with multimedia content, quizzes, and live sessions to your community members using Mighty Networks.

Pros of Mighty Networks

  • We found out that Mighty Networks creates a specific section with highlighted tags. This lets you get an idea of topics currently trending within your community.
  • It lets you send push notifications to bring back inactive members.
  • We love its AI feature, which can give you ideas for conversation starters.
  • The platform offers premade themes for your community.
  • You can easily establish community guidelines and moderate the content.

Cons of Might Networks

  • Mighty Networks is more expensive than other community platforms, especially for larger communities.
  • Over the years, some users have reported inconsistencies in customer support quality and response times.

Why we recommend Mighty Networks: If you want to create a medium-sized community, then Mighty Networks can be a good choice. It’s a powerful platform that uses AI-powered features to build a community.

8. Podia

Podia

Podia lets you design online communities around online courses or digital products.

You can create community hubs for different discussion topics and allow members to participate through posts and comments. Other than that, it offers features like user profile customization, direct messaging, and a centralized community feed.

When we testing the tool, we liked that it allows members to share videos, PDFs, and exclusive content within the community.

Overall, Podia is an all-in-one platform that can also act as a website builder, email marketing service, course builder, page builder, and more.

Pros of Podia

  • Podia lets you offer community membership as an add-on or exclusive benefit for course or product purchasers. You can even sell the membership as a standalone product.
  • We like that Podia creates responsive designs so members can access the community from any device.
  • It has a user-friendly interface, ideal for beginners.
  • We appreciate its powerful analytics feature.

Cons of Podia

  • Podia’s primary focus is on creating and selling online courses and digital products. This means that its community features are built around this core functionality.
  • In our opinion, its management tools are basic compared to dedicated community platforms.

Why we recommend Podia: If you sell digital products and want to build a community around them to create some hype, then Podia is a great choice. You can build a community, create landing pages, and promote the product through email marketing features using just one tool.

9. Bettermode

Bettermode

Bettermode is a versatile platform that empowers you to create engaging and interactive online communities. It offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to build connection, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing among your members.

You can create spaces, build detailed member profiles, send direct messages, add groups, and facilitate open conversations through threaded discussions.

While testing, we found its AI-powered insights on member engagement and community growth super useful. These analytics can help you refine your strategy, boost participation, and create a more engaging community experience.

The tool also offers a live chat option for members, and it can connect with other platforms to boost functionality.

Pros of Bettermode

  • With Bettermode, you can organize and promote virtual or in-person events.
  • We liked that the tool lets you award badges and points and keep scores on the leaderboard to improve engagement within your community.
  • We were impressed that Bettermode uses AI to suggest content ideas to members.
  • It offers while labelling. This means you can have a fully branded community experience without visible Bettermode branding.

Cons of Bettermode

  • Bettermode is expensive, and its free plan has limited features.
  • While Bettermode can handle growing communities to a certain extent, it might face challenges when scaling for very large communities.

Why we recommend Bettermode: If you are looking for a community platform that is super flexible and offers many customization options, then Bettermode is a great choice.

10. Hivebrite

Hivebrite

Hivebrite is an impressive platform designed for building and managing online communities, particularly for enterprises, associations, and alumni networks.

It comes with all the features expected from a community platform, such as discussions, forums, member profiles, groups, and event organizations. However, you can also host live streaming sessions within your community to engage members in real time.

Plus, we love its RSVP tracking and ticketing that can help with organizing in-person events.

Hiverbrite can integrate with existing enterprise systems, complies with strict data policy, and offers custom branding, making it a great choice for large and growing online communities.

Pros of Hivebrite

  • The platform keeps all community members informed by showing personalized activity feeds.
  • It comes with gamification elements and advanced reporting.
  • Hiverbite can easily integrate with third-party tools like Stripe, Mailchimp, and Salesforce.
  • You can create and manage various content types, including articles, documents, and multimedia, directly from Hivebrite.

Cons of Hiverbrite

  • It has a steep learning curve and may not be an ideal choice for beginners.
  • Hivebrite’s main focus is on enterprise clients, which means that some features more suited to smaller communities are less developed.
  • When researching, we concluded that the tool’s customer support isn’t as good as some of its competitors.

Why we recommend Hivebrite: Hivebrite is an excellent choice for organizations looking to build engaging online communities. It is especially ideal for users with specific needs like enterprise-level security, scalability, and customization.

11. Discord

Discord

Discord is a popular communication platform mostly known for its gaming community, but it has evolved into a versatile tool for various groups and interests.

You can easily create a free account and build a Discord community in just a few minutes.

Once you do that, you can embed the widget on your WordPress site so that users can view the total members of your Discord server and join the group using the provided invite link.

For details, see our tutorial on how to embed a Discord widget in WordPress.

Pros of Discord

  • We like that it offers both private and group chat options with various formatting features.
  • When creating a Discord group, we realized that you can also send voice messages and connect with your community members over video calls.
  • Discord lets you create dedicated channels for specific topics. You can also create a separate voice chat channel for different activities.
  • We were impressed upon learning that Discord supports various bots for automated tasks, moderation, and entertainment.

Cons of Discord

  • Discord’s channel-based structure can become overwhelming for larger communities, making it difficult to organize and find specific information.
  • Discord focuses on real-time communication. This means content can disappear quickly, and you won’t be able to archive or reference information later.
  • Managing a large Discord server can be time-consuming and challenging due to the volume of messages and the potential for spam content.

Why we recommend Discord: It can be an ideal choice if you want to build a gaming community or promote real-time communication among your members.

12. Patreon

Patreon

Patreon is a community platform designed to help creators build an income by offering exclusive content and experiences to their supporters, known as patrons.

It allows you to create multiple membership tiers with varying benefits and pricing to cater to different patron support levels.

You can then schedule posts in advance to consistently provide new content to your community members.

Patreon also comes with features like direct messaging, live streaming, discussion groups, and Discord integration.

Pros of Patreon

  • When testing, we liked the Creator Dashboard feature where you can easily manage membership levels, posts, patron communications, and earnings.
  • Patreon lets you sell physical and digital merch to community members.
  • It also provides insights into patron behavior, demographics, and revenue.

Cons of Patreon

  • The platform’s emphasis on financial support could create an environment where community members feel pressured to contribute financially to access your content and participate in discussions.
  • While Patreon can be a great platform for established YouTubers and influencers, building a following from scratch on the platform can be challenging.
  • It offers limited customization options, so you may want to look at Patreon alternatives.

Why we recommend Patreon: It is a good choice if you already have a following and want to build a community to earn extra money by sharing exclusive content with patrons.

Which Is the Best Online Community Platform?

In our opinion, BuddyBoss is the best online community platform on the market. It allows you to build a social media site in WordPress, create a forum, set up activity feeds, and so much more.

Alternatively, if you want to create a community with exclusive content based on membership levels, then you can opt for MemberPress. It is the best membership plugin that lets you build a thriving online community around your membership site.

On the other hand, if you sell courses and want to build a community for your students, then we recommend Thinkific.

Similarly, to build a large-scale community with no platform costs, you can go for BuddyPress.

Frequently Asked Questions About Community Platforms

Here are some questions frequently asked by our readers about community platforms.

What is an online community platform and its key features?

An online community platform is a software application that lets people with shared interests, goals, or experiences connect and interact with each other.

Key features for an ideal community platform include user profiles, forums, groups, private messaging, live chat, events, and analytics.

What is the best online community platform for businesses?

If you have a small business site, then you should consider platforms like Circle, Mighty Networks, or Hivebrite.

These tools offer features such as membership management, analytics, and integration capabilities that can help you grow your community.

How do I choose the right online community platform for my needs?

When choosing an online community platform, you should prioritize factors such as community size, desired features, budget, and technical expertise.

This will help you make an informed decision according to your business needs.

Related Guides for Community Platforms

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

4 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Dennis Muthomi

    You’re spot on about BuddyPress and performance issues. I’ve managed several growing communities, and here’s the thing I picked up – once you hit about 500 active members, you really need to keep an eye on those server resources. I actually just moved a client from BuddyPress to BuddyBoss. What a difference! The performance boost was huge, especially since they share tons of media.
    Quick tip for anyone starting out: Set up those performance monitoring tools early. Trust me, it’ll make your life so much easier when it’s time to make decisions about scaling up.

  2. Mrteesurez

    I appreciate the detailed comparison of alternatives for building an online community. I was initially interested in the BuddyPress but now BuddyBoss stands out to me as the best choice for its specialized features tailored to creating an engaging community. I’ve experience of some of these platforms, but none seem to match the comprehensive tools BuddyBoss offers for fostering interaction around products or services including woocomerce and LMS integration. I’m excited to give it a try for my next project. Thanks, WPbeginner, for the thorough breakdown!

  3. Jiří Vaněk

    I like that you’re not afraid to test even free plugins that might not have as many features. That’s why I’m interested in the BuddyPress plugin, which I definitely want to try on my smaller websites. On the main one, I have MemberPress, which I am still getting to know.

    Also, Patreon is a great tool for content monetization. While there is a downside with relatively high fees, on the other hand, you only pay for what you actually receive. I’ve had Patreon for six months, and I can recommend it as a content monetization method because it suits me very well in many ways.

  4. Moinuddin Waheed

    Given the details of all the alternatives and their features, it seems that buddyboss which is exclusively made for making online community is best.
    it has all the features that make it stand out for making an online community to make engaging around the product and or services.
    other alternatives are good and can be utilised for making forums and community but as for the best of these is concerned, I think I will definitely try out buddyboss.
    Thanks wpbeginner for comprehensive detailing about each of the alternative for making online community.

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