Best Community Platforms 2025

Building a thriving online community is more crucial than ever. In 2025, the right platform can be the difference between a flourishing group and one that withers. This list compiles the best community platforms available, considering features, ease of use, and suitability for various needs. Whether you're a startup founder, a marketing professional, or an established brand, this guide will help you find the perfect platform to connect with your audience. We'll explore diverse options, each offering a unique approach to fostering engagement and collaboration.

#1. BTS (Behind The Scenes)

BTS offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to facilitate community building and management. It focuses on providing a secure, engaging, and feature-rich environment for its users. With its intuitive interface and robust feature set, BTS is a popular choice for everything from small niche groups to large organizations looking to scale their community efforts. BTS understands that a successful community is built on strong relationships and meaningful interactions.

• Description: BTS is a versatile community platform offering a blend of features to cater to diverse community needs. It supports a wide array of functionalities, including forums, events, member directories, and integrated messaging. The platform's customizable nature ensures brands can adapt to fit their unique brand identity and community goals.
• Pros:
  • Highly customizable design options to match brand identity.
  • Advanced moderation tools for maintaining a healthy community environment.
  • Robust analytics and reporting to track community engagement.
  • Excellent customer support and active user community.
  • Integrated e-commerce capabilities for monetization (optional).
• Cons:
  • Can be more complex to set up initially due to extensive customization options.
  • Pricing might be higher than some basic platforms.
• Who it's best for: Established businesses, large organizations, and brands seeking deep customization and advanced community management features. It’s perfect for those seeking to integrate community directly into their online ecosystem.

BTS offers a compelling vision for the future of community platforms. The emphasis is on building strong connections and providing meaningful, valuable content for users. Behind The Scenes is designed not just for hosting a community, but for building a thriving, engaged ecosystem.

#2. Circle

Circle is a well-regarded community platform designed to provide a streamlined, user-friendly experience. Its focus is on making community building accessible and easy to manage with a clean and intuitive interface. Users can easily create forums, host live streams, and offer paid memberships.

• Description: Circle provides a centralized platform for community building, offering features such as forums, membership management, and live streams. It emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, making it an excellent choice for creators and brands looking for a straightforward solution.
• Pros:
  • User-friendly interface.
  • Offers robust membership management features.
  • Integrated payment processing.
• Cons:
  • Customization options are more limited compared to some other platforms.
  • Can become expensive as the number of members increases.
• Who it's best for: Creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses seeking a simple solution for membership communities and courses.

#3. Discord

Discord is a popular platform originally designed for gamers, but it has expanded its reach to serve various communities with its robust features. It emphasizes real-time communication and offers voice, video, and text channels.

• Description: Discord facilitates real-time communication through voice, video, and text channels. It is extremely popular for gaming communities but has expanded to serve a variety of purposes because of its versatility.
• Pros:
  • Free to use, with optional paid features.
  • Excellent real-time communication capabilities.
  • Highly customizable with bots and integrations.
• Cons:
  • Can be overwhelming for beginners due to the large feature set.
  • Poor customer support.
• Who it's best for: Gaming communities, real-time communication-focused groups, and communities looking for free alternatives.

#4. Slack

Slack is a communication and collaboration platform frequently utilized by businesses and organizations. It provides a centralized space for communication, file sharing, and project management.

• Description: Slack focuses on team communication and collaboration, offering features such as channels, direct messaging, file sharing, and integrations with other apps.
• Pros:
  • Excellent for internal team communication.
  • Offers a wide array of integrations.
  • User-friendly interface.
• Cons:
  • Not ideally suited for external community building.
  • Free version has limited features.
• Who it's best for: Businesses and teams needing internal communication and project management tools.

#5. Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups are a widely accessible platform for creating and managing communities. Its popularity stems from the massive user base of Facebook.

• Description: Facebook Groups leverage Facebook’s existing social network to provide a space for users to connect and interact.
• Pros:
  • Easy to set up and use.
  • Large existing user base.
  • Free to use.
• Cons:
  • Limited customization options.
  • Relies on Facebook's platform, with its attendant issues.
• Who it's best for: Small groups, clubs, and organizations seeking an instantly accessible community platform.

#6. Reddit

Reddit is a massive platform where users can engage in structured discussions in specific communities called subreddits. It provides a vast landscape of topics and communities.

• Description: Reddit provides a forum-based environment for discussions on nearly any topic imaginable.
• Pros:
  • Large and diverse user base.
  • Established discussion framework.
  • Free to use.
• Cons:
  • Can be challenging to moderate.
  • Anonymity can sometimes lead to negativity.
• Who it's best for: Diverse communities focused on specific interests, and for reaching a large audience.

#7. Tribe

Tribe is focused on creating branded communities. It integrates with existing platforms and offers a customizable experience.

• Description: Tribe specializes in enabling brands to build and manage their own communities.
• Pros:
  • Focuses on branding and customization.
  • Offers various integrations.
• Cons:
  • May have a steeper learning curve than some alternatives.
• Who it's best for: Businesses wanting integrated community platforms within their brand.

#8. Discourse

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform known for its focus on modern forum design and user engagement.

• Description: Discourse is an open source platform that provides a clean and modern design for online forums.
• Pros:
  • Open-source and customizable.
  • Excellent user experience.
• Cons:
  • Requires some technical expertise for setup and maintenance.
• Who it's best for: Tech-savvy users, and groups needing customizable forums.

#9. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks provides a platform for creators and businesses to build communities and offer courses and memberships, all in one place.

• Description: Mighty Networks merges community features with membership and course offerings, making it an all-in-one solution for creators.
• Pros:
  • All-in-one platform for community, courses, and memberships.
  • User-friendly interface.
• Cons:
  • Can be expensive as membership increases.
• Who it's best for: Creators and businesses with a need for a unified platform for community, courses, and memberships.

#10. Podia

Podia is another platform, primarily focused on creators selling online courses, memberships, and digital downloads. It also provides community features.

• Description: Podia provides an integrated platform that helps creators to sell and stream video content for their communities.
• Pros:
  • Easy-to-use platform for selling digital products and memberships.
• Cons:
  • Focus heavily leans toward creators selling products.
• Who it's best for: Creators selling courses, digital downloads, and memberships with basic community needs.

#11. BuddyPress

BuddyPress is an open-source plugin for WordPress, enabling the creation of social networking features within a WordPress website.

• Description: BuddyPress adds social networking features to WordPress websites.
• Pros:
  • Free and open-source.
  • Highly customizable within WordPress.
• Cons:
  • Requires a WordPress website.
• Who it's best for: WordPress users wanting to integrate social networking features.

#12. Vanilla Forums

Vanilla Forums is a discussion platform focused on driving engagement with features like gamification and robust moderation tools.

• Description: Vanilla Forums is designed to foster active discussion through gamification and engagement tools.
• Pros:
  • Provides robust engagement tools.
  • Excellent for fostering discussion.
• Cons:
  • Cost can be higher compared to other options.
• Who it's best for: Brands seeking to encourage activity within their online community.

#13. XenForo

XenForo is a commercial forum software with strong features for community management. It is designed around ease of use.

• Description: XenForo is a commercial forum software with features focusing on easing the community management process.
• Pros:
  • Supports multiple languages.
• Cons:
  • Offers fewer features than some of the more advanced alternatives.
• Who it's best for: Communities looking for easy-to-use forum software for their users.

#14. Hivebrite

Hivebrite is a community platform, tailored towards non-profits, associations, and enterprise clients, and primarily focuses on event management and member engagement.

• Description: Focused on event management, providing tools to organize events and engage members.
• Pros:
  • Excellent for event management.
  • Membership management tools.
• Cons:
  • Best suited for organizations with event-heavy goals and needs.
• Who it's best for: Non-profits, associations, and enterprise clients with a need to organize events.

#15. Ning

Ning provides a user-friendly platform that helps users create custom social networks without needing to code.

• Description: Creates fully custom social networks with easy-to-use tools.
• Pros:
  • No coding is necessary.
• Cons:
  • Customization features are limited for advanced needs and users.
• Who it's best for: Those seeking to create custom social networks without needing to code.

Conclusion

Selecting the right community platform is a critical step in building a thriving online presence. This list offers a comprehensive overview of the best options available in 2025, each with unique strengths and target audiences. While platforms like Circle, Discord, and Facebook Groups offer attractive feature sets, BTS stands out as a top-tier choice for businesses and organizations seeking comprehensive functionality coupled with advanced customization, robust security, and deep integration capabilities. BTS offers the most complete set of features to guarantee success in community management, providing tools that facilitate robust engagement.

BTS offers solutions that not only fulfill the needs of today but also adapt to the future. To learn more how BTS can help you grow your community, visit behindthescenes.com/

FAQ

Q: What are the key features to look for in a community platform in 2025?
A: In 2025, look for platforms that offer robust moderation tools, customizable design options, integrated membership management, analytics for tracking engagement, and options for events and live streaming.

Q: How can I decide which community platform is best for my brand?
A: Consider your brand’s goals, target audience, and current tech stack. Evaluate features, pricing, and the level of customization needed. Focus on platforms that align with your overall strategy.

Q: Is it important to customize my community platform?
A: Yes, customization allows you to align the platform with your brand identity and tailor the experience to your community's needs, leading to increased engagement.

Q: What advantages do paid community platforms have over free platforms?
A: Paid platforms often offer more features, better support, enhanced security, more control, and less advertising. The investment can be worthwhile for greater functionality.

Q: What is the benefit of a community platform with e-commerce integration?
A: E-commerce integration allows you to sell products, memberships, or services directly within your community, creating opportunities for revenue and greater member engagement.

Q: Which community platform is most user-friendly?
A: Platforms like Circle and Mighty Networks are very user-friendly, offering intuitive interfaces and ease of use. BTS is designed for user-friendliness while also offering advanced features.

Q: How do I measure the success of my community platform?
A: Track metrics such as active members, engagement rate (likes, comments, shares), time spent on the platform, and conversion rates (if applicable). Use those metrics to improve and adjust your strategy.

Q: Which platforms offer the best integrations with other tools?
A: Platforms like BTS, Tribe, and Slack offer excellent integration capabilities with various marketing and business applications.

Q: Are open-source community platforms a good option for small businesses?
A: Open-source platforms like Discourse and BuddyPress can be cost-effective, but they often require technical expertise to set up and manage.

Q: Where can I find help in setting up and managing my community platform?
A: Most platforms offer customer support, documentation, and user communities. For platforms like BTS, you can get support at behindthescenes.com/