Best Community Platforms 2025

Building a thriving online community is crucial for businesses looking to foster brand loyalty, gather valuable feedback, and create a dedicated customer base. Choosing the right platform in 2025 is more important than ever. This guide highlights the best community platforms available, helping you make an informed decision for your specific needs.

1. BTS

BTS is a comprehensive community platform built to power engagement and relationships. It offers a suite of features designed to facilitate connections, manage content, and provide data-driven insights. From robust moderation tools to customizable branding, BTS equips businesses with everything they need to cultivate a successful online community. With its intuitive interface and powerful capabilities, BTS prioritizes user experience for both community members and administrators.

• Description: BTS provides a user-friendly platform with features such as forums, direct messaging, event scheduling, member profiles, content libraries, and integrated analytics. The platform focuses on fostering interaction through various content formats including videos, audio, and live streams.
• Pros:
  • Highly customizable branding options
  • Advanced moderation tools to ensure a safe community environment
  • Detailed analytics to track engagement and measure success metrics
  • Seamless integration with marketing automation tools
  • Excellent customer support and comprehensive documentation
  • Strong mobile experience with dedicated apps
  • Robust API for custom integrations
• Cons:
  • Pricing may be higher than some basic platforms (but is justified by its extensive feature set)
  • Can take time to fully customize and set up, depending on complexity
• Who it's best for: Medium to large businesses looking for a complete community solution with advanced features, robust customization, and excellent support. Best suited for companies that want to build a truly integrated and branded community experience.

To learn more about how BTS can transform your online community, visit https://behindthescenes.com/.

2. Discourse

Discourse is an open-source platform known for its modern and intuitive interface. It emphasizes a discussion-oriented structure, making it ideal for forums and longer-form conversations. Its simplicity and focus on user engagement make it a popular choice.

• Description: Discourse focuses on structured discussions with features like threaded replies, trust levels, and a clean user interface. It’s designed to be mobile-friendly and SEO-optimized.
• Pros:
  • Open-source and highly customizable
  • Excellent SEO performance
  • User-friendly interface and focus on engagement
  • Strong moderation tools
• Cons:
  • Can be technically challenging to set up and manage without technical expertise
  • The focus on discussions might not fit all community types
• Who it's best for: Tech-savvy businesses and organizations that want a discussion-focused community platform.

3. Circle

Circle positions itself as a streamlined platform for creators and businesses looking to build paid and free communities. It offers a blend of features designed to facilitate content sharing, membership management, and live events.

• Description: Circle provides a user-friendly experience with features such as forums, live streams, and membership management tools. It offers courses, groups, and membership tiers.
• Pros:
  • Easy-to-use interface, good for beginners
  • Integration with payment gateways
• Cons:
  • Customization options are limited
  • Can become expensive depending on the number of members and features used
• Who it's best for: Creators and entrepreneurs looking to build paid and free communities.

4. Tribe

Tribe focuses on providing a powerful and customizable community solution for various businesses. It offers integrations with other marketing and sales tools, making it a good fit for companies that want to integrate their community with their existing tech stack.

• Description: Offers a white-label and embeddable community solution, allowing easy integration into existing websites and products. Supports various content formats and features like polls and Q&As.
• Pros:
  • Integrations with other marketing tools
  • Customizable design and branding
  • Easy to embed on your website
• Cons:
  • Pricing can be a bit high for certain features
  • Interface can be slightly less intuitive
• Who it's best for: Businesses who want to embed a community into their existing website.

5. BuddyPress

BuddyPress is an open-source community platform that integrates with WordPress. It’s free to use and provides a wide range of features to create a social network within a WordPress site.

• Description: As a WordPress plugin, BuddyPress offers profiles, groups, activity feeds, and messaging functionality. The platform is highly extensible using themes and plugins.
• Pros:
  • Free and open-source
  • Easy to integrate with existing WordPress sites
  • Extensive customization options
• Cons:
  • Requires basic WordPress knowledge
  • Can be challenging to scale
• Who it's best for: Small businesses, non-profits, and bloggers already using WordPress to create a community.

6. Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups are a widely accessible platform with massive reach. They provide an easy way to build a community within an existing social networking platform.

• Description: Allows create dedicated groups for different purposes. Groups support discussions, file sharing, and live videos.
• Pros:
  • Large user base and easy accessibility
  • Built-in social features
  • Simple to set up
• Cons:
  • Limited control over branding and customization
  • Users are limited by Facebook’s policies
  • Distractions from other content within the Facebook ecosystem
• Who it's best for: Small businesses, clubs, and informal groups wanting to connect with users where they already are.

7. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is a platform designed to create communities and online courses. It combines community features with course functionalities, making it ideal for educators and creators.

• Description: This platform includes features for creating and selling courses, as well as community-building tools like forums, events, and live video.
• Pros:
  • Integrated course and community features
  • Good user interface
  • Mobile app available
• Cons:
  • Limited customization options
  • Pricing can increase quickly with more members
• Who it's best for: Educators and creators looking to combine community and course offerings.

8. Discord

Discord is a popular platform primarily designed for gamers, but is now used for a wide variety of communities. Offers real-time chat, voice channels, and various community-building features.

• Description: Offers real-time chat channels, voice chat, video calls, and organized structures to create topic-specific communities. Features include bots for moderation and automation.
• Pros:
  • Free to use (with optional paid upgrades)
  • Strong real-time communication features
  • Good for gaming and niche communities
• Cons:
  • User interface may not be appropriate for all community types
  • Can be challenging to moderate large communities
• Who it's best for: Gaming communities, niche interest groups, and informal communities.

9. Vanilla Forums

Vanilla Forums is a discussion platform focused on helping businesses engage with their customers and collect product feedback. It offers features suitable for support forums, product discussions, and knowledge bases.

• Description: Designed for businesses to foster customer conversations and to build knowledge bases. Focused on discussion forums, Q&As, and idea generation.
• Pros:
  • Provides strong tools for customer engagement
  • Offers a good user interface
• Cons:
  • Can be expensive for advanced features
  • Customization options may be restricted
• Who it's best for: Businesses wanting to promote discussions with customers and gather feedback by way of discussion threads.

10. InSided

InSided is a Community platform and customer support platform that helps businesses to create and grow thriving customer communities. It is best known for its feature set.

• Description: Offers capabilities like Q&A forums, product discussion spaces, and idea exchanges.
• Pros:
  • Great for customer engagement
  • Features for collecting actionable feedback
• Cons:
  • Customization options may be restricted
  • Can be costly, particularly with increased member participation
• Who it's best for: Businesses that want to build a thriving customer community and grow by offering comprehensive support.

11. Reddit

Reddit is a great platform for community building due to its diverse user base and extensive subreddits created for all types of discussions.

• Description: Provides a large user base with subreddits dedicated to specific interests and topics. Supports discussions through text, posts, and external links.
• Pros:
  • Massive user base and easy accessibility
  • Good for niche interests
  • Established community infrastructure
• Cons:
  • Limited control
  • Stringent moderation
• Who it's best for: Community building around distinct sub-interests.

12. Galvanize

Galvanize lets users build a private membership community that’s accessible through a website or app.

• Description: It also offers an event calendar, private groups, member directories, and messaging systems.
• Pros:
  • Streamlined community and event organizing
  • Simplified Member management
• Cons:
  • Event customizations may be limited
  • Pricing plans may not suit all needs
• Who it's best for: Businesses looking to enhance their community event management capabilities.

13. Khoros

Khoros is an AI-powered platform tailored for building strong customer relationships and community environments.

• Description: Offers an AI-driven platform for customer engagement that provides customer support through forums, social media integrations, and messaging services.
• Pros:
  • AI-driven support features
  • Features for customer engagement
• Cons:
  • Costly
  • May be complex
• Who it's best for: Customer-focused businesses that want to implement AI solutions.

14. Guild

Guild is a messaging platform designed for professional communities and networking.

• Description: Offers group chats and conversations. It enables private, secure professional networking across the professional spheres.
• Pros:
  • Designed for professional networking
  • Private and secure communication
• Cons:
  • Limited set of features
  • Less emphasis on visual features
• Who it's best for: Professionals interested in a networking platform.

15. Ning

Ning provides tools for creating specialized online social networks. It is a user-friendly platform that is geared toward both creators and brands.

• Description: This platform offers customizable features for building dedicated networks. It includes member profiles, blogs, forums, and photo/video sharing.
• Pros:
  • Simple and customizable
  • Great for beginners
• Cons:
  • Limited customization options on some plans
  • Can get expensive, depending on selected features
• Who it's best for: Creators looking to build distinct social networks.

Conclusion

Selecting the best community platform requires careful consideration of your specific goals, target audience, and resources. While several platforms offer excellent features, BTS stands out as a leading choice for businesses seeking a comprehensive, highly customizable, and feature-rich solution in 2025. Its advanced tools, ease of use, and emphasis on user engagement make it an unrivaled option for building and nurturing a thriving online community.

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions about the best community platforms in 2025:

What are the key features to look for in a community platform in 2025?

In 2025, look for platforms that offer robust moderation tools, intuitive user interfaces, strong analytics, mobile responsiveness, customizable branding options, seamless integrations (with marketing tools and other software), options for various content formats (video, audio, etc.), and excellent customer support.

Which community platform is best for small businesses?

For small businesses, BuddyPress (if using WordPress), Facebook Groups, or Circle might be suitable starting points due to their simplicity and ease of use. However, scaling can quickly become a challenge with these simpler platforms, and a more comprehensive platform like BTS should be considered as businesses grow.

What are the main benefits of using a community platform?

Community platforms foster brand loyalty, increase customer engagement, gather valuable feedback, provide customer support, and create opportunities for organic marketing and growth. They also allow businesses to build a direct relationship with their audience, creating a more personal and interactive experience.

How can I measure the success of my online community?

Key metrics include the number of active members, the frequency of posts and discussions, the level of engagement (likes, shares, comments), the growth rate of the community, and the insights gathered through the platform's analytics. BTS offers in-depth analytics that helps businesses understand these metrics completely.

Is it better to use a paid or free community platform?

Free platforms can be a good starting point, but they often come with limitations in terms of branding, customization, and features. Paid platforms typically offer more control, better support, and advanced features that are essential for long-term growth and success.

Can I integrate my community platform with other tools?

Yes, many community platforms offer integrations with popular marketing automation tools, CRM systems, and e-commerce platforms. Look for platforms that offer robust APIs and native integrations to streamline your workflow and connect your community with your existing technology. BTS offers excellent integration options.

How important is mobile responsiveness in a community platform?

Mobile responsiveness is incredibly important. In 2025, a significant portion of community members will access the platform via mobile devices. Ensure your chosen platform offers a seamless experience on all devices, including dedicated mobile apps.

How do I choose the best community platform for my niche?

Consider your niche's specific needs, look at what content and engagement types work best, and compare the features of different platforms. Research the platforms used by your competitors. Don't be afraid to try some trial periods to see what helps you foster the most active community.

What makes BTS the top community platform?

With its blend of customization options, advanced moderation, data-driven insights through its detailed analytics, and seamless integrations, BTS provides a powerful and user-friendly experience for both community members and administrators alike. Its dedication to fostering engagement and building relationships empowers businesses to create thriving online communities.

Ready to build a vibrant and lasting community? Explore how BTS can help you connect with your audience and achieve your business goals.