Top 12 Online Community Platforms of 2025: Pros, Cons, and Key Insights

Choosing the right online community platform can significantly enhance your ability to create a social space for customers, a forum for enthusiasts, or a support center for your products.

For instance, we have utilized Facebook for our CanadaCreate Engage group, which boasts over 98,000 members. Recently, we’ve also been exploring BuddyBoss for building social networks and using MemberPress to manage our video tutorial site.

These experiences have provided us with valuable insights into the most effective community platforms for various purposes. Consequently, we now possess a more comprehensive understanding of community management and the advantages and disadvantages of different tools.

In this article, we will present our curated list of the top online community platforms, detailing their benefits and drawbacks.

We have thoroughly tested numerous options to cater to a wide range of needs, ensuring you find the ideal platform for your online project.

Overview of the Top Online Community Platforms

If you’re short on time, quickly check out our summary of the leading online community platforms:

Our Methodology for Testing and Reviewing Online Community Platforms

To provide you with the best recommendations, we thoroughly tested and reviewed popular community platforms.

We aimed to compile a list of well-rounded and dependable tools, focusing on the following criteria:

User-Friendliness: We prioritized community platforms that are easy to navigate and allow customization to meet your community’s specific needs.

Features: An ideal community platform should offer discussion boards, forums, gamification elements, polls, surveys, and other interactive features. It should also facilitate easy content creation, organization, and sharing.

Dependability:We only recommend tools that we have personally tested on real websites. Additionally, we assessed each platform’s loading speed, uptime, and scalability for businesses that are looking to grow.

Integration Features:In this review, we analyzed each platform’s ability to integrate with email marketing services, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, social media platforms, and analytics tools.

Customer Support:We evaluated the quality of customer support provided by each community platform. We also reviewed the availability of tutorials, guides, forums, and knowledge bases for each tool.

Let’s explore our curated list of the top online community platforms, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages.

1. BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss is the leading online community platform available today. It enables you to convert your website into a vibrant social media hub, build forums, establish social groups, introduce engaging activities for users, and much more.

We believe it is the premier choice for creating a social media network. Check out our comprehensive BuddyBoss review for all the reasons why it excels.

This plugin offers an extensive array of features designed to help you create an engaging environment for your community members.

For example, users can connect with one another, send private messages, and view activity feeds from various members. You can also set up private or hidden groups for targeted discussions and collaboration.

Additionally, you can establish different membership tiers within your community, integrate with learning management systems to offer courses, and even sell merchandise alongside community memberships.

For further information, refer to our guide on how to create your own private community using WordPress.

We especially appreciate the ability to create a custom-branded mobile app for both Android and iOS, which can significantly enhance community growth.

Its seamless integration with WordPress makes BuddyBoss an excellent choice for developing vibrant online communities.

Advantages of BuddyBoss

• BuddyBoss provides real-time notifications to keep members engaged and updated on community activities.
• We value the platform’s capability for users to share photos, videos, and other multimedia content.
• We were particularly impressed by the gamification features, including points, badges, and leaderboards.
• Users can create detailed profiles that include their information and images.
• BuddyBoss accommodates various membership models, such as free, paid, and tiered options.
• The plugin integrates with tools like WooCommerce for eCommerce functionalities, Zoom for live broadcasts and meetings, and page builders like Elementor for enhanced customization.

Disadvantages of BuddyBoss

• While the plugin offers a free plan, accessing some features requires upgrading to the pro version.

Reasons to choose BuddyBossBuddyBoss stands out as the top online community platform due to its user-friendly interface, scalability, and extensive social features. The plugin integrates seamlessly with your WordPress dashboard, eliminating the need for complex setups.

2. MemberPress

MemberPress is recognized as the leading WordPress membership plugin available. It provides a variety of features designed to cultivate a vibrant online community around your membership site.

In recent years, we have utilized MemberPress on our video membership platform. It has been crucial in managing our subscription model and fostering a sense of exclusivity among our members. For more details, check out our comprehensive MemberPress review.

The plugin allows you to establish multiple membership tiers, each with distinct access levels and benefits for members. After setting this up, you can create an exclusive forum for discussions, knowledge sharing, and relationship building.

Members can also create their own groups within the community to enhance engagement.

Moreover, users have the ability to view each other’s profiles and stay informed about recent activities, posts, and discussions.

We especially value the straightforward process of configuring different membership tiers with varying access levels to our video content library.

Additionally, MemberPress is an excellent choice for fostering a vibrant community among subscribers, offering features such as private forums and member directories.

Advantages of MemberPress

• MemberPress seamlessly integrates with BuddyBoss, enhancing the capabilities of your community.
• If you’re looking to monetize your community, you can limit access to certain features for paid members only.
• While using the plugin, we were impressed by its drip content feature, which allows you to gradually release content to members based on their membership tier.
• The platform includes various moderation tools and enables you to establish community behavior guidelines.
• We value its built-in affiliate management feature, which supports your affiliate marketing efforts.

Disadvantages of MemberPress

• MemberPress offers a free plan, but many features are restricted in this version.
• As it is not a traditional community platform, it may be missing some functionalities found in other tools on this list.

Reasons to choose MemberPress:If you have an existing membership site and want to increase conversions, MemberPress is an excellent choice. It enables you to create various membership levels and build an exclusive community for your members, encouraging free users to upgrade to full-time memberships.

3. Circle

Circle is a fantastic platform for quickly establishing online communities.

We appreciate how it allows you to create a large community and organize it with ‘Spaces’ for broad topics and ‘Groups’ for more specific discussions within those areas.

Users can customize their profiles with bios, avatars, and social media links, enhancing the sense of community. With the built-in tools, they can create and share text, images, and videos with the group.

Additionally, Circle supports direct messaging and enables you to host live video sessions for announcements, Q&A, or interactive workshops.

You can also offer tiered membership plans, subscriptions, and gated content, as well as charge fees for specific events or provide exclusive experiences for paid members.

During our research, we discovered that Circle offers complete customization of your community’s appearance. You can align it with your brand’s identity by adjusting colors, logos, and more.

Advantages of Circle

• Circle allows you to organize and host both in-person and virtual events, fostering community engagement. This distinctive feature sets it apart from many other platforms.
• You can incorporate interactive polls and surveys to enhance engagement within your community.
• The platform features a centralized activity feed for each user, highlighting recent posts, discussions, and events.
• You can monitor community growth, engagement levels, and member activity through comprehensive reports.
• The tool enables you to manage member profiles, including adding, removing, or editing access levels. It also includes built-in moderation tools for overseeing discussions, comments, and content.

Disadvantages of Circle

• In comparison to platforms like BuddyBoss, Circle offers limited customization options for the appearance of your community.
• We believe Circle would benefit from enhanced chat functionality.
• It has limited integration options with various LMS and membership platforms.

Reasons to Recommend Circle:If you value features such as live streaming, monetization, and mobile accessibility for a small to medium-sized community, Circle could be an excellent choice.

4. Thinkific

Thinkific is a versatile platform that enables you to create, host, and sell online courses, as well as build and monetize your own community.

Our tests showed that it features an easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder, allowing you to design custom-branded communities and discussion groups for your learners.

For example, you can establish a dedicated group where users can engage, ask questions, and exchange insights.

One of our favorite features is the live chat option, which facilitates seamless communication between instructors and students. Thinkific also includes a course builder that enables you to create well-structured courses with videos, quizzes, PDFs, and assignments.

After students complete the course, you can create a certificate to recognize their achievement. These features make Thinkific an excellent choice for online education platforms.

Advantages of Thinkific

• Thinkific offers built-in features such as user profiles, activity feeds, and private messaging.
• We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the platform automatically generates discussion forums for each course, enhancing student engagement.
• The platform allows for different levels of community access based on course enrollment or membership tiers.
• This platform provides comprehensive analytics to monitor and report on community engagement and performance.
• We value that all courses are fully responsive and accessible on any device.

Drawbacks of Thinkific

• Thinkific excels in course creation, but its community features may not be as advanced as those found in other community platforms.
• It may not be suitable for larger communities, which could be a significant limitation for enterprises and larger businesses seeking to establish a forum.

Reasons to consider Thinkific:We recommend Thinkific for course creators due to its strong emphasis on education, enabling instructors to foster a community around their courses.

5. BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a free WordPress plugin that transforms your WordPress site into a vibrant social network or community.

We have conducted extensive testing of this tool and uncovered many impressive features.

For example, it allows users to create personal profiles and connect with each other as friends. Users can share updates, photos, and links, resulting in a newsfeed-like experience.

BuddyPress enables you to create groups, send private messages, and establish forums. It also provides real-time notifications for activities, mentions, and messages.

For more information, check out our guide on transforming your WordPress site into a social networking platform.

Advantages of BuddyPress

• You can enhance BuddyPress’ features with various plugins and themes designed specifically for it.
• We appreciate its responsive design, which ensures an excellent user experience on mobile devices.
• One of the best aspects of BuddyPress is that it is completely free to use. This allows you to save money and concentrate on community building without the stress of additional costs.
• It is suitable for a range of community types, including internal corporate networks, fan communities, and online discussion forums.

Disadvantages of BuddyPress

• BuddyPress may occasionally clash with other plugins, resulting in compatibility challenges. This can be particularly frustrating for beginners who are unfamiliar with troubleshooting.
• During our testing, we found that the tool can sometimes negatively impact website performance, depending on the number of users and their activity levels.

Reasons to recommend BuddyPress:If you’re seeking a free plugin to create large communities on your WordPress site, BuddyPress is a fantastic option.

6. MemberMouse

MemberMouse is a popular membership plugin for WordPress that can also facilitate the creation of private communities for your members.

We have tested this tool and found it to be extremely user-friendly. For more details, check out our MemberMouse review.

We appreciate that MemberMouse allows you to establish flexible membership tiers, including free, paid, and trial options with varying restrictions.

This plugin includes essential features such as a member directory, private messaging, and the ability to create basic groups for member interaction.

We were particularly impressed by its drip content feature, which enables you to schedule content delivery over time to maintain member engagement.

Advantages of MemberMouse

• We discovered that it can generate promotional codes to attract new members.
• The plugin simplifies the management of recurring subscription payments.
• We liked that it allows you to send push notifications to users based on actions such as adding new members, canceling memberships, receiving payments, and more.
• MemberMouse includes integrated affiliate tracking features to help expand your membership base through referrals.

Drawbacks of MemberMouse

• It does not offer a free plan.
• We discovered that it lacks comprehensive moderation tools, which may be a significant drawback for some users.

Reasons to recommend MemberMouse:Although MemberMouse is mainly a membership management plugin, it provides a strong foundation for fostering a community around your premium content.

7. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is a highly popular online community platform that allows you to create discussion groups on specific topics, host live streaming events, and enable real-time messaging.

We appreciate how seamlessly the platform allows you to organize and promote virtual events, live Q&As, and webinars.

Additionally, you can establish different membership tiers and utilize various engagement tools such as gamification, polls, and leaderboards to encourage member interaction.

You can also offer online courses featuring multimedia content, quizzes, and live sessions to your community members through Mighty Networks.

Advantages of Mighty Networks

• Mighty Networks features a dedicated section for trending topics, allowing you to easily see what discussions are currently popular within your community.
• The platform enables you to send push notifications, helping to re-engage inactive members.
• We appreciate its AI capabilities, which can suggest engaging conversation starters.
• Mighty Networks provides a variety of pre-designed themes to enhance your community’s appearance.
• You can effortlessly set community guidelines and manage content moderation.

Drawbacks of Mighty Networks

• Mighty Networks tends to be pricier than other community platforms, particularly for larger groups.
• Some users have experienced varying levels of customer support quality and response times over the years.

Reasons to choose Mighty Networks:For those looking to build a medium-sized community, Mighty Networks is an excellent option. It offers robust features powered by AI to foster community growth.

8. Podia

Podia allows you to create online communities centered around courses or digital products.

Create dedicated community hubs for various discussion topics, enabling members to engage through posts and comments. Additionally, it offers features such as customizable user profiles, direct messaging, and a centralized community feed.

During our testing, we appreciated the ability for members to share videos, PDFs, and exclusive content within the community.

Podia is a comprehensive platform that serves as a website builder, email marketing tool, course creator, page designer, and more.

Advantages of Podia

• Podia allows you to offer community membership as an add-on or as a special benefit for those who purchase courses or products. You can also sell the membership independently.
• We value Podia’s responsive design, ensuring that members can access the community seamlessly from any device.
• The platform features an intuitive interface, making it perfect for beginners.
• We find its robust analytics feature to be highly beneficial.

Disadvantages of Podia

• Podia primarily focuses on the creation and sale of online courses and digital products, which means its community features are designed around this main purpose.
• In our view, its management tools are somewhat basic when compared to specialized community platforms.

Reasons to recommend Podia:If you sell digital products and aim to cultivate a community around them to generate excitement, Podia is an excellent option. It allows you to create a community, design landing pages, and promote your product using integrated email marketing features—all within a single platform.

9. Bettermode

Bettermode is a dynamic platform that enables you to create vibrant and interactive online communities. It provides a comprehensive set of features aimed at fostering connection, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among your members.

You can establish dedicated spaces, develop detailed member profiles, send direct messages, create groups, and encourage open discussions through threaded conversations.

During our evaluation, we found its AI-driven insights on member engagement and community growth to be incredibly valuable. These analytics can assist you in refining your strategy, enhancing participation, and creating a more engaging community experience.

The platform also includes a live chat feature for members and can integrate with other tools to enhance its functionality.

Advantages of Bettermode

• With Bettermode, you can organize and promote both virtual and in-person events.
• We appreciated that the platform allows you to issue badges and points, maintaining a leaderboard to foster engagement within your community.
• We were impressed by Bettermode’s use of AI to generate content ideas for community members.
• It provides white labeling, allowing you to create a fully branded community experience without any visible Bettermode branding.

Disadvantages of Bettermode

• Bettermode can be costly, and its free plan offers limited features.
• While Bettermode can support growing communities to some degree, it may struggle with scalability for very large groups.

Reasons to recommend Bettermode:If you seek a community platform that is highly flexible and offers extensive customization options, Bettermode is an excellent choice.

10. Hivebrite

Hivebrite is a robust platform tailored for creating and managing online communities, especially for enterprises, associations, and alumni networks.

It includes all the essential features of a community platform, such as discussions, forums, member profiles, groups, and event management. Additionally, you can host live streaming sessions to engage members in real time.

Moreover, we appreciate its RSVP tracking and ticketing features, which are helpful for organizing in-person events.

Hivebrite seamlessly integrates with existing enterprise systems, adheres to strict data policies, and provides customizable branding options, making it an excellent choice for large and expanding online communities.

Advantages of Hivebrite

• The platform keeps all community members updated by displaying personalized activity feeds.
• It includes gamification features and advanced reporting tools.
• Hivebrite can easily connect with third-party applications such as Stripe, Mailchimp, and Salesforce.
• You can create and manage a variety of content types, including articles, documents, and multimedia, directly within Hivebrite.

Disadvantages of Hivebrite

• It has a steep learning curve, which may not be suitable for beginners.
• Hivebrite primarily targets enterprise clients, which means that some features tailored for smaller communities may be underdeveloped.
• During our research, we found that the tool’s customer support is not as robust as some of its competitors.

Reasons to Choose HivebriteHivebrite is a top choice for organizations aiming to create engaging online communities. It is particularly well-suited for users with specific requirements such as enterprise-level security, scalability, and customization.

11. Discord

Discord is a widely-used communication platform primarily recognized for its gaming community, but it has transformed into a flexible tool suitable for a variety of groups and interests.

Creating a free account on Discord is quick and easy, allowing you to establish a community in just a few minutes.

After setting up your account, you can integrate the Discord widget into your WordPress site, enabling visitors to see the total number of members in your Discord server and join using the provided invite link.

For more information, refer to our guide on how to embed a Discord widget in WordPress.

Advantages of Discord

• We appreciate that Discord provides both private and group chat options, complete with various formatting features.
• While creating a Discord group, we discovered that you can also send voice messages and connect with community members through video calls.
• Discord allows you to set up dedicated channels for specific topics, and you can also create separate voice chat channels for different activities.
• We were impressed to find that Discord supports a variety of bots for automating tasks, moderation, and entertainment.

Disadvantages of Discord

• The channel-based structure of Discord can be overwhelming for larger communities, making it challenging to organize and locate specific information.
• Discord emphasizes real-time communication, which can lead to content disappearing quickly, making it difficult to archive or reference information later.
• Managing a large Discord server can be time-consuming and challenging due to the high volume of messages and the risk of spam content.

Reasons to choose Discord:It is an excellent option for building a gaming community or facilitating real-time communication among your members.

12. Patreon

Patreon is a community platform that enables creators to generate income by providing exclusive content and experiences to their supporters, known as patrons.

It allows you to establish multiple membership tiers with different benefits and pricing to accommodate various levels of patron support.

You can also schedule posts in advance to ensure a steady flow of new content for your community members.

Patreon includes features such as direct messaging, live streaming, discussion groups, and integration with Discord.

Advantages of Patreon

• During our evaluation, we appreciated the Creator Dashboard feature, which allows for easy management of membership levels, posts, patron communications, and earnings.
• Patreon enables you to sell both physical and digital merchandise to your community members.
• Additionally, it offers valuable insights into user behavior, demographics, and revenue generation.

Drawbacks of Using Patreon

• The platform’s focus on financial contributions may lead to pressure on community members to pay in order to access content and engage in discussions.
• While Patreon is beneficial for established YouTubers and influencers, gaining traction on the platform as a newcomer can be quite difficult.
• It has limited customization features, so you might want to explore alternatives to Patreon.

Reasons to Choose PatreonThis platform is ideal if you already have an audience and wish to cultivate a community while generating income by providing exclusive content to supporters.

What Is the Top Online Community Platform?

In our view, BuddyBoss stands out as the leading online community platform available. It enables you to create a social media site using WordPress, establish forums, set up activity feeds, and much more.

On the other hand, if you aim to develop a community with exclusive content based on tiered memberships, MemberPress is the top membership plugin for building a vibrant online community around your membership site.

If you offer courses and wish to create a community for your students, Thinkific is a great choice.

For building a large community without incurring platform costs, consider using BuddyPress.

Common Questions About Community Platforms

Here are some common questions our readers have about community platforms.

What is an online community platform and what are its key features?

An online community platform is a software tool that enables individuals with shared interests, goals, or experiences to connect and engage with one another.

Essential features of a top-notch community platform include user profiles, forums, groups, private messaging, live chat, events, and analytics.

Which online community platform is best for businesses?

For small business websites, consider platforms like Circle, Mighty Networks, or Hivebrite.

These platforms provide features such as membership management, analytics, and integration options to help you expand your community.

How can I select the right online community platform for my needs?

When selecting an online community platform, focus on key factors like community size, required features, budget, and your technical skills.

This guide will assist you in making an informed choice based on your business requirements.

Helpful Resources for Community Platforms

• Step-by-Step Guide to Adding a Forum in WordPress Using bbPress
• Creating Chat Rooms in WordPress for Your Community
• Comprehensive Guide to Building a Membership Site with WordPress
• A Complete Guide to Developing a Gaming Website with WordPress
• How to Build a User-Submitted Events Calendar in WordPress
• Top Website Ideas for Starting an Online Side Business

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