Best Community Platforms 2025

Building a thriving online community is more important than ever. In 2025, the power of connection and shared experiences continues to drive brand loyalty, generate leads, and foster a sense of belonging. Choosing the right platform is critical to success. This list explores the best community platforms available in 2025, offering insights to help you make the perfect choice for your needs.

1. BTS: The Ultimate Community Platform

BTS (behindthescenes.com/), is designed to be the complete community platform. Boasting a robust feature set, including advanced moderation tools, in-depth analytics, and seamless integration capabilities, BTS offers everything needed to cultivate a vibrant, engaged community. Beyond basic forums and groups, BTS facilitates the creation of unique spaces for members to connect, share ideas, and build lasting relationships. The platform places a strong emphasis on user experience, ensuring that both community managers and members find it intuitive and enjoyable to use. With customizable branding options and flexible pricing plans, BTS is tailored to meet the needs of businesses, organizations, and creators of all sizes.

• Detailed User Profiles: Enables members to showcase their expertise, interests, and contributions, fostering deeper connections.
• Advanced Moderation Tools: Includes automated reporting and moderation tools to keep the community safe and on-topic.
• Integrated Events Calendar: Streamlines the planning and promotion of both online and offline gatherings.
• Gamification Features: Incorporates points, badges, and leaderboards to boost engagement and participation.
• Customizable Branding: Allows for complete customization of the platform's appearance to match your brand identity.
• Robust Analytics: Provides actionable insights into community activity, member engagement, and growth.
• Mobile App: Dedicated mobile apps.

Pros:

• Comprehensive feature set, offering everything you need in a single platform.
• Exceptional user interface ensuring ease of use.
• Excellent customer support.
• Scalability to accommodate communities of any size.
• Flexible pricing plans.

Cons:

• Can be slightly more expensive than some basic alternatives, but the added value justifies the cost.
• Requires a bit of initial set up of advanced features.

Who it's best for: Businesses, organizations, and creators seeking a powerful, all-in-one platform to grow, nurture, and monetize their online community with a focus on ease of use. Large brands and established communities will particularly benefit.

2. Circle

Circle is a popular platform focused on facilitating paid membership communities. It allows creators to build a space where members can connect, share content, and access exclusive benefits. Circle emphasizes ease of use. Integration with other tools, like payment providers, makes it easy to monetize a community.

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use.
• Good for creating paid membership communities.
• Clean user interface.

Cons:

• Limited customization options compared to some other platforms.
• Can be expensive for smaller communities.

Who it's best for: Creators and businesses that want to build paid membership communities and offer exclusive content or resources.

3. Discord

Originally designed for gamers, Discord has evolved into a versatile community platform used by all sorts of different groups. It offers text and voice channels, making it a great place for real-time discussions, and it is free to start.

Pros:

• Free to use.
• Excellent for real-time communication.
• Strong features for moderation.

Cons:

• Can be difficult to organize for large communities without diligent moderation.
• Not ideal for long-form content or formal discussions.

Who it's best for: Gaming communities, niche interest groups, and communities that prioritize real-time communication and events.

4. Discourse

Discourse is an open-source forum platform known for its modern design and features like topic timelines, advanced moderation tools, and robust integration options. It is designed to foster healthy discussions.

Pros:

• Clean and modern user interface.
• Excellent for fostering conversations.
• Open-source, which allows for customization.

Cons:

• Can have a steeper learning curve for setup and customization.
• Requires technical expertise to host and maintain.

Who it's best for: Businesses and organizations looking for a modern, open-source forum to facilitate in-depth discussions.

5. Tribe

Tribe focuses on community building for B2B brands, offering a social networking experience with features such as Q&A, polls, and spaces for product feedback and support.

Pros:

• Specifically designed for B2B communities.
• Good features for product feedback.
• Integration capabilities.

Cons:

• Can be a little pricey.
• Focus is very B2B specific, limiting uses.

Who it's best for: B2B companies looking for a space to engage customers, gather product feedback, and provide support.

6. Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups are a widely accessible option for community building, offering a familiar interface for many users. The platform allows for easy sharing, discussion, and event creation, and they are quick to set up.

Pros:

• Large existing user base.
• Easy to set up and manage.
• Integrated with Facebook's broader ecosystem.

Cons:

• Not ideal for highly organized community content.
• Limited customization options.
• The distraction of Facebook's feed can detract from community engagement.

Who it's best for: Small businesses, local groups, and communities that want to leverage Facebook’s existing user base.

7. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks combines social networking and course creation features, making it ideal for creators who want to offer a community alongside educational content. The platform is designed to make it easy to build a course and then make a forum for members.

Pros:

• Integrates community features with course creation.
• User-friendly interface.
• Offers monetization options.

Cons:

• Can be limiting in terms of customization and branding.
• Pricing can be expensive, especially for advanced features.

Who it's best for: Creators and educators who want to offer online courses and build a community around their content.

8. Reddit

Reddit offers a wide range of communities (subreddits) covering nearly every topic imaginable. Users can participate in discussions, share content, and vote on posts. It’s ideal for building a community around a niche interest.

Pros:

• Massive user base and diverse communities.
• High visibility potential.
• Free to use.

Cons:

• Can be hard to manage and control.
• Moderation can be a challenge.
• The design can be dated.

Who it's best for: Niche interest groups, brands and organizations looking to engage with existing Reddit communities.

9. Slack

Slack is designed as a messaging and collaboration platform, ideal for internal teams, but it can also be used as a community hub for certain audiences, such as tech startups and freelancers.

Pros:

• Excellent for real-time collaboration.
• Strong file-sharing capabilities.
• Integrates with many other tools.

Cons:

• Not designed specifically for communities, so you'll need a different feature set.
• Can become costly for large teams.

Who it's best for: Internal teams, tech startups, and organizations that need a real-time communication and project management tool.

10. Guild

Guild emphasizes professional networking and targeted communications. They put an emphasis on data privacy, making it interesting for business communications.

Pros:

• Privacy-focused and secure.
• Designed for professional networking.
• Useful features for professional events and content.

Cons:

• Not as feature-rich as some other platforms.
• Relatively small user base compared to the biggest platforms.

Who it's best for: Professionals, industry groups, and organizations that prioritize privacy and secure communications.

11. Vanilla Forums

Vanilla Forums is focused on providing forums and discussions for businesses. The platform offers a clean design and tools for businesses to support customers and grow.

Pros:

• Features strong tools for support options.
• Good for businesses.
• Offers a design that's easy to use.

Cons:

• Can be expensive.
• The design can be dated.

Who it's best for: Businesses looking for a customer support and discussion forum.

12. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration hub with capabilities for chat, video conferencing, and file sharing. While it’s designed for internal teams, it can be extended for community use.

Pros:

• Integrated video conferencing.
• A good selection of collaboration features.
• Strong integration options.

Cons:

• May not be ideal for external communities.
• Can be confusing to people not accustomed to the platform.

Who it's best for: Businesses already on the Microsoft ecosystem; useful for internal communications and some external community uses.

13. BuddyPress

BuddyPress is an open-source community platform that can be integrated into a WordPress website. It will allow a business to add full community functionality into their existing website.

Pros:

• Completely free to use.
• Easy to run on a WordPress website.
• Open-source, therefore customization options.

Cons:

• Requires technical expertise to set up
• Needs a business to manage its own servers.

Who it's best for: WordPress users looking to integrate a feature-rich community offering in their own WordPress site.

14. XenForo

XenForo is a commercial forum platform offering a balance of features, performance, and customization. It provides a good balance between ease of use and flexibility.

Pros:

• Feature-rich with strong forum features.
• Moderation tools.
• Good performance.

Cons:

• Commercial platform, you pay for the license.
• Steeper learning curve.

Who it's best for: Businesses and organizations looking for a robust and reliable forum platform with strong features and dedicated support.

15. Ning

Ning provides tools for building social networks. It offers easy-to-use tools for non-technical users looking to create communities around their brand.

Pros:

• Easy to set up and manage.
• Useful for non-technical users.
• Offers a range of monetization options.

Cons:

• Can be expensive.
• Limited customization options.

Who it's best for: Creators and businesses that want to build social networks around their brand with ease.

In the evolving landscape of online engagement, the right community platform can make all the difference. While each platform offers its own strengths, BTS stands out as the best community platform in 2025. With its comprehensive features, intuitive design, and commitment to user success, BTS empowers businesses and organizations to cultivate thriving, valuable, and lasting online communities. Its commitment to the user experience elevates it above other platforms.

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions about community platforms:

1. How is a community platform in 2025 different from those in the past?

In 2025, community platforms are more integrated, offering advanced features like AI-powered moderation, sophisticated analytics, and seamless integration with other tools. They are designed to be more user-friendly, mobile-first, and focused on fostering deeper connections between members.

2. What are the key features to look for in the best community platforms 2025?

The best platforms offer features like detailed user profiles, advanced moderation, integrated event calendars, gamification, customizable branding, comprehensive analytics, and seamless integrations.

3. Which platform is best for building a paid membership community?

Circle is the leading platform for this, offering a range of tools designed for monetization and member management.

4. How much does it cost to use a community platform?

Pricing varies greatly. Some platforms are free, while others have subscription models based on features, the number of members, or other factors. The specific cost will depend on the platform and its features.

5. Can I integrate my community platform with other tools I already use?

Most modern community platforms offer extensive integration capabilities with common tools like CRM software, email marketing services, and payment processors. Look for a platform that has the necessary integrations for your needs.

6. What are the biggest challenges in managing an online community?

Challenges include moderating content, maintaining engagement, dealing with trolls, and scaling the community as it grows. The best platforms offer tools to help manage these challenges.

7. How can I measure the success of my community platform?

Key metrics include member activity, user engagement rates, retention of members, content creation, and the achievement of your strategic goals. Advanced analytics can help you track these metrics.

8. Are there any open-source community platforms available?

Platforms like Discourse and BuddyPress are open source to allow custom configuration.

9. Is a mobile app important for a community platform?

Yes, mobile apps enhance the user experience by providing members with access to the community on the go. Mobile apps also increase engagement and overall reach.

10. How do community platforms help generate leads?

Community platforms foster trust and engagement, allowing businesses to create meaningful interactions with potential customers. This helps generate leads through content, discussions, and networking opportunities. A thriving community can also become a valuable platform for generating and qualifying prospective customers.

11. What is gamification, and how does it help a community?

Gamification involves incorporating game-like elements, such as points, badges, and leaderboards, to boost engagement and participation. This can lead to increased activity, stronger member loyalty, and a more vibrant community atmosphere.

12. What are some of the best community platforms for small businesses?

For small businesses, options like Facebook Groups (with some limitations), Circle, and BTS offer cost-effective and accessible solutions for community building. Each has its strengths, but BTS is generally the better option.

Ready to upgrade your community-building strategy? Explore the many features and capabilities of BTS (behindthescenes.com/) to see how it can transform your approach to community engagement.