Best platforms for building an online community in 2026

Building an online community is one of the most compelling things you can do with a website. A genuine community where people come back regularly, connect with each other, and feel like they belong creates value that no amount of content alone can replicate.

The challenge is choosing the right platform. Because “online community” covers an enormous range of things. A private Facebook Group is an online community. So is a Discord server, a Slack workspace, a forum built on bbPress, a Circle space, or a full membership site on WordPress. These are very different products serving very different needs.

This guide covers the best platforms for building an online community, honestly – what each one is genuinely good at, what the trade-offs are, and how to choose the one that fits what you’re actually trying to build, with US and UK pricing shown side by side throughout.

What kind of community are you building?

Before comparing platforms, the most important question to answer is what your community actually is because the right platform depends almost entirely on it.

A private community for paying members – where access is the thing people are paying for, alongside exclusive content. Best served by MemberPress on WordPress or a dedicated membership platform.

A community alongside a course or membership – where the community supports learning or accountability. Circle or Mighty Networks are purpose-built for this.

A forum around a topic or brand – where people come to discuss a shared interest. bbPress on WordPress or Discourse is a strong option.

A real-time chat community – where the value is live conversation and quick interaction. Discord or Slack serve this well.

A social network or professional community – where member profiles, connections, and activity feeds are central. BuddyPress on WordPress or dedicated community platforms.

A public community you want to own and monetise – where display ads, affiliate income, or product sales alongside the community are part of the model. WordPress is the only platform that gives you full control over all of this simultaneously.

Understanding which of these describes your community shapes the platform decision more than any feature comparison.

1. WordPress with bbPress and BuddyPress – best for ownership and control

Cost: Free software – hosting from ~$4.99/month (USA) or ~£3.50/month (UK)
Best for: Forum-based communities, membership sites with community, brands that want to own their platform completely
Display ad compatible: Yes – fully
Self-hosted: Yes

For anyone who wants to own their community completely, the members, the conversations, the data, and the monetisation, building on WordPress is the strongest long-term foundation.

bbPress is a free, open-source forum plugin for WordPress maintained by Automattic (the same company behind WordPress.com). It adds a full discussion forum system to any WordPress site topics, replies, moderation, user profiles, and email notifications.

BuddyPress is a free social networking plugin that adds member profiles, activity feeds, friend connections, private messaging, and groups to WordPress. Think of it as turning your WordPress site into a lightweight social network.

Together, they create a community platform that you host yourself, own completely, and can extend in any direction through WordPress’s plugin ecosystem.

What the WordPress community gives you:

Complete ownership. Your community, your member data, and your conversations are all stored on your hosting provider’s servers. No platform can change its terms, increase its fees, or close down and take your community with it.

Full monetisation flexibility. Display ads, membership subscriptions, affiliate links, sponsored content, and digital products can all exist simultaneously on a self-hosted WordPress community. No platform takes a cut of your membership revenue. Full compatibility with ad networks, including Mediavine and Raptive.

Integration with your existing site. If you already have a WordPress site, adding community features is an extension of what you have rather than a separate product your members need to find and use.

The MemberPress combination. Combining WordPress + bbPress/BuddyPress + MemberPress creates a complete membership community platform with restricted forum access for paying members, unlimited membership tiers, course delivery, and community all on one WordPress installation.

The honest limitations:

bbPress and BuddyPress produce functional rather than beautiful community experiences. The default output requires design work to look polished. The user experience of community interactions, posting, replying, and finding content is less refined than purpose-built community platforms.

Moderation tools, analytics, and community management features are more limited than platforms built specifically for community. Growing a large, active community on WordPress requires more ongoing technical attention than managed alternatives.

Who should build their community on WordPress:

Anyone for whom ownership and monetisation flexibility are the primary concerns. Content creators building a community alongside a blog or content site. Membership site owners who want community as one component of a broader WordPress operation.

Read our guide: How to build a membership website on WordPress →

2. Circle – best purpose-built community platform

Cost: From ~$49/month (USA) or ~£39/month (UK) (Professional plan)
Best for: Course communities, membership communities, creator communities
Display ad compatible: Limited – platform restrictions apply
Self-hosted: No – hosted platform

Circle is the platform most often recommended by experienced community builders who’ve tried multiple options. It was built specifically for online communities not as an add-on to a course platform or a membership plugin, but as a product whose entire focus is making community work well.

The member experience on Circle is notably better than most alternatives. The interface is clean and modern, closer to a social network than a traditional forum. Spaces (Circle’s term for community sections) can mix different content types, such as discussion threads, video posts, course content, events, and live streams, in a way that feels coherent rather than fragmented.

What Circle does well:

The member experience. Joining, posting, replying, and navigating a Circle community feel natural. The learning curve for members is low, which matters because a community where members find it confusing to participate doesn’t thrive.

Spaces and content types. Mix discussions, courses, events, and live streams in an organised structure. A community can have a general discussion space, a specific topic space, a courses space, and a live events calendar all within one Circle setup.

Moderation tools. Circle’s moderation features are more developed than most alternatives. Member management, content moderation, and community health analytics are all available.

Payments built in. Circle handles membership subscriptions natively; you can charge for access to your community without a separate membership plugin or payment system.

Mobile experience. Circle has a genuine mobile app for both iOS and Android. Members can participate in your community on their phones in a way that feels native, rather than a scaled-down web experience.

The honest limitations:

Circle takes a percentage of membership revenue (1–4%, depending on plan), a meaningful cost for high-revenue communities.

At ~$49/month (USA) or ~£39/month (UK) for the entry plan, Circle is more expensive than building on WordPress. You’re paying for the refined community experience and managed infrastructure.

You don’t own the platform. If Circle changes its pricing, terms, or shuts down, your community will be affected. Member data export is available, but migrating an active community is disruptive.

Display advertising is limited. Circle is designed for membership revenue, not ad-supported communities.

Who should use Circle:

Course creators who want a community alongside their courses. Membership site operators who want a polished community experience without the technical complexity of a WordPress community setup. Coaches, educators, and professional community builders where the member experience is central to the value.

3. Mighty Networks – best for course and community combination

Cost: From ~$33/month (USA) or ~£26/month (UK) (Community plan)
Best for: Combined course and community platforms, branded communities
Display ad compatible: Limited
Self-hosted: No

Mighty Networks is a platform for building branded communities with courses, events, and membership all under your own brand name rather than on Mighty Networks’ domain.

The key positioning is the branded experience. Your community lives at your own domain (yourcommunity.com), your members use a branded iOS and Android app with your name and branding, and the whole experience feels like your product rather than a Mighty Networks product.

What Mighty Networks does well:

Branded native apps. Your members download an app with your name and branding from the App Store and Google Play. For communities where the mobile experience matters, fitness communities, learning communities, and local groups, a native branded app is a meaningful advantage.

Community and courses combined. Mighty Networks handles both community discussions and structured course content on a single platform. The integration between the two is clean, with course content and community discussion sitting side by side naturally.

Member profiles and connections. Member profiles, direct messaging, and the social network layer are more developed than in some alternatives.

The honest limitations:

Mighty Networks is showing its age compared to Circle in terms of interface quality. The user experience has improved, but remains less refined than Circle.

Revenue share applies. Mighty Networks takes 3% of membership revenue on most plans.

The course functionality, while capable, is less powerful than dedicated LMS platforms for complex course structures.

Who should use Mighty Networks:

Creators who want a branded native app experience for their community. Fitness, wellness, and lifestyle communities where the mobile-first experience is central. Creators who want courses and community in one platform without WordPress complexity.

4. Discord – best for real-time community and younger audiences

Cost: Free – Discord Nitro (premium features) from ~$10/month (USA) or ~£8/month (UK)
Best for: Real-time chat communities, gaming, tech, creator audiences, and younger demographics
Display ad compatible: No
Self-hosted: No

Discord started as a gaming communication platform and has evolved into one of the most popular community platforms across many niches – particularly for technology, crypto, gaming, and creator audiences.

Discord is fundamentally different from the other platforms on this list. It’s a real-time chat platform with channels, voice calls, and video rather than an asynchronous discussion forum. The experience is closer to Slack than to a traditional community forum.

What Discord does well:

Real-time engagement. For communities where live interaction matters, gaming sessions, launch events, study groups, and live Q&As, Discord’s real-time nature creates a different kind of community energy than asynchronous forums.

Free. Discord is free for both community owners and members. There are paid features (Nitro, server boosts), but the core platform costs nothing to run.

Voice and video channels. Persistent voice channels that members can join and leave freely are useful for virtual coworking, live events, and impromptu conversations.

Bot ecosystem. Discord’s bot ecosystem allows extensive automation and custom functionality moderation bots, music bots, custom commands, and integrations with other platforms.

The honest limitations:

Discoverability is poor. New members can only join via an invite link. There’s no public directory of Discord servers, the way there are public forums or searchable community spaces.

Organisation becomes difficult at scale. A large, active Discord server with many channels can feel chaotic and overwhelming for new members.

Monetisation through Discord is limited; it’s primarily a communication tool rather than a membership platform.

Not right for every audience. Discord skews younger and more tech-savvy. For professional, business, or older-demographic communities, Discord’s interface can be confusing and off-putting.

Who should use Discord:

Creator communities with younger or tech-savvy audiences. Gaming and technology communities. Communities where real-time interaction and voice/video are central. Creators who want a free community platform alongside a paid membership elsewhere.

5. Slack – best for professional and team communities

Cost: Free (limited) – paid plans from ~$8/month (USA) or ~£6/month (UK) per member
Best for: Professional communities, B2B communities, peer groups, mastermind groups
Display ad compatible: No
Self-hosted: No

Slack is a workplace communication tool that doubles as a community platform for professional peer groups, masterminds, and B2B communities.

The professional positioning is genuine. Slack feels more serious than Discord, more organised than Facebook Groups, and more focused than most community platforms. For professional peer communities, founders, freelancers, and industry professionals, the Slack experience meets their expectations.

What Slack does well:

Professional feel. The interface and culture feel appropriate for professional communities in a way that Discord and many other platforms don’t.

Channels and threads. Clear channel organisation with threaded replies keeps conversations structured in a way that scales better than Discord’s more chaotic channel approach.

Integrations. Slack integrates with almost every business tool, valuable for professional communities that want to share resources, updates, or workflows from other platforms.

The honest limitations:

Paid plans are priced per member per month at scale; Slack becomes expensive. A community of 500 paying members at $8/month (USA) or £6/month (UK) per member is $4,000/month (USA) or £3,000/month (UK). This pricing model makes Slack unworkable as a general community platform at a meaningful scale.

Free plan limitations are significant: message history is limited to 90 days, so older conversations disappear. This undermines the community’s archive of knowledge over time.

Slack is designed for teams, not communities. Some of the default behaviours and expectations of direct messaging, status, and notification patterns feel more like a workplace tool than a community space.

Who should use Slack:

Small professional peer communities, mastermind groups, and B2B communities where the professional feel justifies the cost. Communities where the member count is small enough to keep per-seat pricing manageable.

6. Facebook Groups – the free but owned-by-someone-else option

Cost: Free
Best for: Reaching an existing Facebook audience, testing a community concept
Display ad compatible: Your ads: No. Facebook’s ads: Yes, on your community
Self-hosted: No

Facebook Groups are free, familiar to most people, and easy to set up. For a community targeting an older demographic who are already active on Facebook local groups, hobby groups, family groups they remain genuinely useful.

The significant limitations:

You don’t own anything. Facebook owns the platform, the algorithm, and the relationship with your members. Facebook can change its algorithm, reduce your group’s visibility, shut down groups, or simply make decisions that affect your community without your input.

Facebook shows its own ads in your group on the content you’ve created and the community you’ve built. You don’t earn from these.

Young audiences are leaving Facebook. For communities targeting under-35s, Facebook Groups increasingly feel dated.

Who should use Facebook Groups:

Testing a community concept before building an owned product. Reaching an established Facebook audience. Low-stakes community building where ownership doesn’t matter.

For any serious, long-term community where ownership matters, Facebook Groups are a starting point at best.

How to choose – a decision framework

Situation	Recommended platform
Want complete ownership and monetisation control	WordPress + bbPress/MemberPress
Want polished community experience, willing to pay	Circle
Want branded native apps for community	Mighty Networks
Real-time chat community, younger audience	Discord
Professional peer community, small group	Slack
Testing an idea for free	Facebook Groups
Course + community combined	Circle or Mighty Networks
Community alongside existing WordPress site	WordPress + bbPress

The monetisation question

For anyone building a community as a business where the community itself generates revenue the platform choice has direct financial implications.

WordPress + MemberPress: No platform revenue share. No transaction fees beyond payment processing. Full ad network compatibility for display advertising alongside membership revenue. Complete control over pricing and monetisation model. Best long-term economics for a monetised community.

Circle: 1–4% revenue share depending on plan. No display advertising. Membership revenue only.

Mighty Networks: 3% revenue share. No display advertising.

Discord/Slack: Not designed for direct monetisation through the platform.

Facebook Groups: Facebook monetises your community, not you.

For a community where the business model is membership subscriptions plus display advertising the only platform that supports both fully is self-hosted WordPress.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best platforms for building an online community?
It depends on what you’re building. WordPress with bbPress, BuddyPress, and MemberPress is the best choice for complete ownership and monetisation flexibility. Circle is the best purpose-built option if you want a polished member experience and are willing to pay for it. Discord and Slack suit real-time chat communities, and Facebook Groups work for low-stakes or testing purposes. See the full breakdown above for which fits your specific situation.

Which community platform is easiest to set up?
Circle and Mighty Networks are the easiest to set up; both are managed platforms that guide you through setup in under an hour. Facebook Groups take five minutes. Discord is quick to set up but takes time to organise well. WordPress with bbPress and BuddyPress takes the most setup time, but gives you complete ownership.

Can I move my community from one platform to another?
Moving an active community between platforms is always disruptive; members need to re-register, conversations don’t migrate, and some members don’t follow. The best time to make a platform choice is at the beginning. If you do need to move, the most common migration path is from a less-owned platform (Facebook Groups, Circle) to a more-owned platform (WordPress).

Which platform is best for a paid community?
For a paid community where you want maximum revenue and minimum platform fees, WordPress with MemberPress gives you the best economics no revenue share, no transaction fees beyond payment processing, and full display ad compatibility. For a paid community that wants a polished member experience without technical setup, Circle is the strongest alternative.

Do I need a community platform if I already have a WordPress site?
Not necessarily, bbPress adds forum functionality to any WordPress site for free, and MemberPress adds membership and content restriction. If your community’s needs are straightforward, extending your existing WordPress site is the simplest path. If you want a more polished, dedicated community experience, Circle or Mighty Networks alongside your WordPress site is worth considering.

Which platform is best for a local community?
For a local business or local interest community, a Facebook Group often works well, as local demographics tend to be active on Facebook, and the familiarity reduces barriers to joining. For a local business community that also wants to monetise through membership or advertising, self-hosted WordPress gives you more long-term options.