Explore the Top 7 Online Community Forums
Building an online community today isn’t just a trend—it’s how people truly connect in the digital world. With over 5.07 billion people active on community platforms and spending an average of 2 hours and 23 minutes every day engaging online, it’s clear that digital communities have become a big part of our lives.
Whether you’re a teacher, creator, or business owner, having your own space where people can share ideas, learn, and support each other can make a huge difference. Think of it like a virtual neighbourhood where everyone shows up because they care about the same thing you do.
What is an Online Community?
An Online Community is a virtual space where members with shared interests interact, collaborate, and support each other. It is more than just a group of followers; it’s a network of people who believe in your purpose, interact with your content, and help each other grow. It brings together learning, connection, and creativity all in one place.
These communities are often built around a specific topic, business, or creator, providing a valuable sense of belonging and direct engagement. Membership sites enable these communities by providing a platform for discussions, content sharing, events, and occasionally monetisation through subscriptions or paid access.
An online community platform can include:
- Social media groups
- Creators platform
- Forums
- Online chat rooms
- Membership sites
A strong community doesn’t just build relationships—it builds trust, loyalty, and long-term growth for your brand and your mission. When people feel a sense of belonging, they engage more, stay longer, and contribute to something meaningful.
That’s why choosing the right community platform matters. The right tool makes it easier to connect your members, share value, and even earn from your content or services.
Community Forums:
Skara
Rating: 4.8/5
Skara’s community offers special videos or behind-the-scenes glimpses just for your dedicated community. It lets you interact directly with your audience through two main features: the post feed and direct messaging. In the post feed, you can share updates, make announcements, or start discussions—just create a post with a title and body, then see replies and likes from your members right there.
The messages section allows you to chat with your subscribers one-on-one, making it easy to build stronger connections and have personal conversations.
Bettermode
Rating: 4.7
Bettermode (earlier known as Tribe) is a tool that lets companies add community spaces to their own websites. It works like a discussion forum where people can post content, ask questions, share blogs, videos, or take part in polls. Members can create their own profiles and be given different roles, making it easier to manage the group. Bettermode is mainly useful for building customer communities directly on a company’s website.
Discord
Rating: 4.4
Discord is a free community platform that started for gamers but now hosts all kinds of groups, with over 150 million users. It’s known for its modern design, easy-to-use features, and tools for chatting, sharing videos, using emojis, and even livestreaming or screen sharing. While great for free communities, Discord isn’t ideal for paid ones. It recently added a paid subscription option available only in the U.S., but it takes a 10% share of earnings and doesn’t offer much flexibility for building a full community business or customising the platform
Circle
Rating: 4.7
Circle lets you organise your community into spaces and space groups, similar to channels in Slack, but with more flexibility. Each space can be used for different purposes, like hosting courses, events, discussions, chats, or sharing videos and other content. It offers great tools for building active and engaging online communities where you can provide exclusive content such as courses, coaching programs, and digital downloads.
With features that support discussions, fun challenges, and live events, Circle is a complete and user-friendly platform for managing a dedicated online community.
Disciple
Rating: 4.6
Disciple is a community-building software designed for businesses, offering features like an activity feed, discussion forums, Q&A sections, and tools to share text, videos, and images. It includes member management, analytics, and an email system to help manage communication. Creators can also earn money through subscriptions or by offering exclusive, members-only content.
A key feature of Disciple is that communities can be launched on a branded mobile app, which includes extra options like livestreaming that the web version doesn’t offer.
Disco
Rating: 4.8
Disco is an AI-based platform for social learning where you can run courses, host community spaces, and earn money through memberships or paid programs. It serves as a single hub for managing learning, engagement, and income. While Disco may seem like a community platform, it’s actually focused on learning first. This means its main goal is to deliver structured lessons, track progress, and handle assessments, with community features added to help learners connect and stay motivated.
In simple terms, Disco works more like a learning management system with AI tools to create content and provide smart answers, rather than a platform built mainly for community interaction.
Mighty Networks
Rating: 4.8
Mighty Networks lets you easily create your own website, build custom member profiles, share exclusive content, and connect with your community. It includes features like discussion forums, live events, private messaging, polls, surveys, and content libraries to keep members engaged. You can also set up membership levels, payment plans, discounts, and custom options. Overall, it’s a powerful platform for building and managing online communities.
Membership sites like these come in many types and price ranges, from free platforms like Discord to advanced tools like Disciple, so the right choice depends on your goals, budget, and the kind of community you want to grow.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What is an online community forum?
It is a private, dedicated virtual space where people with shared interests or goals can interact, ask questions, share content, and support each other, often built around a specific creator, brand, or topic.
- Is it better to use a dedicated platform or a free social media group?
Using a dedicated platform like Circle or Mighty Networks gives you complete control over your branding, content, and member data, and it allows for direct monetisation through paid memberships and courses. Free social media groups (like Facebook or Reddit) are easier to start but offer less control, are often cluttered with distractions, and make it harder to build a sustainable business.
- How do these platforms make money?
Most of the professional platforms operate on a subscription model, where creators or businesses pay a monthly fee for the features. The community owner then typically earns money by selling access to the community, courses, or exclusive content to their members.
