How-to
🧰 Best community platforms & tools
A 2026-verified bucketed guide to community platforms, Circle, Skool, Mighty Networks, Discord, Facebook Groups, Geneva, Discourse, with a prompt that opens live pricing pages and recommends one for your size and budget.
🎯 Why it matters
The platform you pick shapes what your community can do before a single member joins: chat-first vs structured, gamified vs plain, free vs paid. Match the tool to your business model (a free top-of-funnel community, a paid membership, or a support forum), not to whatever is trending. This note's prices were verified against each platform's pricing page in 2026, use the prompt to re-check before you commit.
💬 My take
Best community platforms & tools
AI can open each platform's live pricing page, compare fees against your budget, and recommend one for your size. What it can't do is run the community once you pick, that's you on the platform itself.
Fastest path: one prompt, end to end
🤖 AI prompt — paste into ChatGPT / Claude
You are a community-platform advisor. My community: [free top-of-funnel / paid membership / support forum]. Expected size: [members]. Monthly budget: [$]. What matters most: [e.g. gamification, ownership of data, low cost, SEO-searchable].
1. Open the live 2026 pricing pages and read the real numbers: Circle (circle.so/pricing), Skool (skool.com/pricing), Mighty Networks (mightynetworks.com/pricing), Discord (discord.com), Facebook Groups (facebook.com/groups), Geneva (geneva.com), Discourse (discourse.org/pricing).
2. Bucket them: paid full-featured, free high-reach chat, durable knowledge/support forum.
3. For each candidate, note monthly price AND transaction fee (fees eat membership revenue), and who owns the member data.
4. Recommend ONE platform for my size + budget, plus a free/paid pairing if that fits me better.
Output one markdown table with columns: Platform | Bucket | Monthly price (source) | Transaction fee | Owns data? Then 'My recommendation' in 3 sentences.
Do not guess prices. Every number must come from the pricing page you opened, cite it inline. If you can't browse, leave price/fee blank and tell me which page to open.
Or do it in 5 steps
- Name the job first: a free reach layer for top-of-funnel, a paid structured platform once you monetise, or a searchable forum for support.
- Match a bucket to the job, then shortlist 2-3 tools within it.
- Check transaction fees, not just the monthly price, they range roughly 1-10% and eat directly into membership revenue.
- Pilot on a free tier first. Most paid plans cancel monthly, so prove weekly activity before an annual commitment.
- Before you commit, confirm data portability, can you export your member list and posts if you leave?
Done looks like: one platform chosen against a real price-and-fee comparison, with a data-export path confirmed.
Worked example: 2026 pricing (verified at each platform's pricing page, July 2026)
| Platform | Bucket | Monthly price | Transaction fee | Source |
|---|
| Circle | Paid full-featured | Professional $89 / Business $199 | 2% / 1% | circle.so/pricing |
| Skool | Paid full-featured | Hobby $9 / Pro $99 | 10% / 2.9% | skool.com/pricing |
| Mighty Networks | Paid full-featured | from $79 | not stated | circle.so blog, 2026 |
| Discord | Free chat layer | Free (Nitro $9.99 is a personal perk, not community revenue) | n/a | circle.so blog, 2026 |
| Facebook Groups | Free chat layer | Free | n/a | circle.so blog, 2026 |
| Geneva | Free chat layer | Free | limited monetisation | platform page |
| Discourse | Support forum | Free to self-host / paid hosted | n/a | discourse.org |
Prices move, always open the pricing page and confirm before you commit. Re-check quarterly.
⚖️ Do & Don't
Do
- Match the platform to the job: a free reach layer for top-of-funnel, a paid structured platform once you're monetising the community directly.
- Check transaction fees on paid plans before pricing a paid community — they range from roughly 2% to 10% and eat into membership revenue.
- Pilot on a free platform first — most of these let you cancel monthly, so you can test before committing to an annual paid plan.
Avoid
- Don't pay for a full-featured platform before you have proof of weekly activity on a free layer.
- Don't ignore data portability — check whether you can export your member list and posts before you commit.
💡 Quick tips
- Run two platforms deliberately — free layer to recruit, paid or structured layer to retain — rather than forcing one tool to do both jobs.
🏷️ Tags
communitytoolsd2cb2b
🔗 Related