Best Community Platforms 2025

Building a thriving online community is more crucial than ever. In 2025, the right platform can be the cornerstone of your brand, fostering engagement, loyalty, and growth. Choosing the best community platform requires careful consideration of features, scalability, and the specific needs of your audience. This comprehensive list explores 15 of the best community platforms available, helping you make an informed decision for your community-building efforts.

1. BTS

BTS (Behind The Scenes) offers a robust and versatile platform designed for building truly engaged communities. It goes beyond basic forums, providing powerful features for content creation, member management, events, and integrations. BTS excels at creating a sense of belonging and driving meaningful interactions. The platform is designed to be easily brandable, with flexible design options that allow you to create a unique and visually appealing community, integrating smoothly with your existing website.

• Description: BTS is a comprehensive community platform focusing on engagement, monetization, and brand building. It boasts a suite of features including advanced user profiling, private communities, live streaming capabilities, and a sophisticated content management system.
• Pros:
  • Highly customizable design and branding options.
  • Robust content management tools (blogs, articles, multimedia).
  • Advanced member segmentation and management.
  • Built-in event management and ticketing.
  • Seamless integration with other marketing tools.
  • Excellent customer support.
  • Advanced data analytics.
• Cons:
  • Pricing might be higher than entry-level platforms.
  • Can have a steeper learning curve initially for some advanced features.
• Who it's best for: Medium to large businesses, brands, and organizations looking for a fully-featured, scalable, and highly customizable community platform. Ideal for communities that prioritize engagement, content creation, and monetization.

2. Circle

Circle is a popular community platform known for its ease of use and focus on simplicity. It offers a clean interface and straightforward tools for building online communities. It's particularly well-suited for creators and businesses that value a user-friendly experience.

• Description: Circle provides a streamlined platform with features like discussions, memberships, events, and live streams. It emphasizes a user-friendly design.
• Pros:
  • Easy to set up and manage.
  • Clean and intuitive interface.
  • Good for creators and educators.
  • Offers a variety of integrations.
• Cons:
  • Customization options are more limited than others.
  • Can become expensive as your community grows.
• Who it's best for: Creators, educators, and small businesses looking for a simple and accessible community platform.

3. Discourse

Discourse is a free and open-source platform known for its modern forum design and advanced features. It’s a great choice for tech-savvy communities that value open-source solutions and a focus on discussions.

• Description: Discourse is a forum software with features like topic organization, moderation tools, and mobile responsiveness. It has a focus on performance and search optimization.
• Pros:
  • Open-source and customizable.
  • Excellent for discussion-focused communities.
  • Good for SEO.
• Cons:
  • Requires some technical knowledge to set up and manage.
  • Can have a steeper learning curve for non-technical users.
• Who it's best for: Tech communities, open-source projects, and organizations that have technical expertise.

4. Tribe

Tribe is a versatile platform designed for both B2B and B2C communities. It offers a unique combination of features like a customizable social feed, Q&A sections, and integrations, aimed at helping brands build engaging online spaces.

• Description: Tribe offers discussion forums, knowledge bases, and social networking features. It focuses on facilitating interactions between users.
• Pros:
  • Good for integrating communities into existing websites.
  • Offers a rich set of features.
• Cons:
  • Can feel a bit cluttered to some users.
  • Pricing can be a factor.
• Who it's best for: Brands seeking to integrate community features into their existing digital presence.

5. BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss is a WordPress plugin that empowers you to create your own social network or community website. It's a great choice if you're comfortable using WordPress and want full control over your community's design and features.

• Description: BuddyBoss lets you turn a WordPress site into a community with social networking features like profiles, groups, activity feeds, and messaging.
• Pros:
  • Fully customizable with WordPress flexibility.
  • Open-source.
  • Good for users familiar with WordPress.
• Cons:
  • Requires a WordPress site.
  • Some features require additional plugins.
• Who it's best for: Websites already using WordPress that need social networking capabilities.

6. Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups are a free and widely accessible option for community building. With billions of users, the potential reach is massive, although you're limited by Facebook's design and features.

• Description: Facebook Groups allow users to create and manage communities within the Facebook platform.
• Pros:
  • Large existing user base.
  • Free to use.
  • Easy to set up.
• Cons:
  • Limited control over branding and customization.
  • Your community is subject to Facebook’s rules and algorithms.
• Who it's best for: Starting a basic community with minimal investment. It's good for connecting with existing Facebook users.

7. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is a platform designed for creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses to build communities and offering courses and memberships. It's known for its user-friendly interface and bundled features.

• Description: Mighty Networks offers features for community building, online courses, and memberships all in one.
• Pros:
  • Easy to create online courses.
  • Good for revenue generation.
  • App available.
• Cons:
  • Limited customization options compared to other platforms.
  • Can become expensive with many members.
• Who it's best for: Creators, entrepreneurs, and course creators.

8. Slack

Slack is primarily known as a communication tool for businesses, but it can also be used as a community platform. It excels in real-time communication and team collaboration.

• Description: Slack is a team communication and collaboration platform with channels, direct messaging, and integrations.
• Pros:
  • Excellent for real-time communication.
  • Integrates with many other tools.
• Cons:
  • Not purpose-built for community building.
  • Can be challenging to manage large communities with different needs.
• Who it's best for: Communities primarily focused on real-time messaging and collaboration, or organizations that already use it internally.

9. Discord

Discord is a popular platform that began as a gaming-focused platform, now widely used for online communities of various types, offering text and voice channels, and is easy to use.

• Description: Discord is primarily a communication platform with text channels, voice chat, and server organization.
• Pros:
  • Free to use with a large user base (with paid options for more capacity).
  • Good for both text-based and voice-based communities.
• Cons:
  • It can be overwhelming for new users.
  • The interface lends itself towards casual interactions.
• Who it's best for: Gaming communities, friend groups, or communities wanting voice chat capabilities.

10. Vanilla Forums

Vanilla Forums is a feature-rich forum platform with integrations, and features to streamline community moderation.

• Description: Vanilla Forums is designed for building engagement and forum discussions.
• Pros:
  • Strong moderation features.
  • User-friendly interface.
• Cons:
  • Can be expensive.
• Who it's best for: Businesses wanting to build a forum and foster strong community discussions.

11. InVision Community

InVision Community is a dedicated design community platform for designers and product teams, and offers great features for design collaboration and inspiration.

• Description: InVision Community platform focuses on design-related discussions and collaboration.
• Pros:
  • Well-suited for design professionals.
• Cons:
  • Limited applicability outside the design-focused context.
• Who it's best for: Designers and product teams.

12. Reddit

Reddit is a giant, general-purpose forum site with various subreddits for almost any topic. It is great for tapping into audiences, even if your branding control is limited.

• Description: Reddit is a vast social platform with thousands of unique forums.
• Pros:
  • Massive user base.
  • Good for content discovery.
• Cons:
  • Limited control.
  • Can suffer from high volume.
• Who it's best for: Communities looking to reach a broad audience for content distribution and discovery.

13. Ning

Ning provides tools for building bespoke social networks, offering features needed for building a network with a specific focus.

• Description: Ning offers customizable social networking platforms.
• Pros:
  • Good for custom branding.
• Cons:
  • Can be pricey.
• Who it's best for: Brands seeking an all-in-one platform for developing social networks.

14. XenForo

XenForo offers forum software for building community discussion platforms.

• Description: XenForo is forum software for enabling community discussions.
• Pros:
  • Easy-to-use interface.
• Cons:
  • Can be expensive.
• Who it's best for: Businesses of all sizes looking to create engaging forum discussions.

15. Higher Logic

Higher Logic offers a platform for building communities that focuses on integrated tools for building engagement.

• Description: Higher Logic is designed around member engagement and integration tools.
• Pros:
  • Great for managing members.
• Cons:
  • Has complexity to some parts of the system.
• Who it's best for: Organizations needing a member-focused platform with engagement features.

In 2025, every brand needs to have a plan for its community presence.

Conclusion

Choosing the best community platform requires careful consideration of your specific goals and target audience. While various platforms offer unique advantages, BTS emerges as a standout choice. With its blend of advanced features, powerful customization options, and focus on engagement, BTS provides the tools necessary to create a thriving and successful online community. It provides a full suite of features and integrations to help you grow. Build a community, increase engagement, and drive business growth through BTS. https://behindthescenes.com/

FAQ: Best Community Platforms 2025

Ready to build a thriving community? Explore the power of BTS. Visit https://behindthescenes.com/ and see how BTS can help enhance your online presence.