Best Community Platforms for Startups

A community turns customers into a moat: they answer each other's questions and tell you what to build next. The choice is mostly about where your users already are, and how much of the space you want to own.

  1. 1
    DiscordFreemium

    Where developer and consumer communities default to — free, instant, and already installed.

    Where communities live.

  2. 2
    Circle

    A paid, owned community space with courses and events; the pick when the community is the product.

    Community platform for creators and brands.

  3. 3
    DiscourseFreemium

    Open-source forums that are indexable by Google — community that doubles as SEO.

    Open-source community forum software.

  4. 4
    SlackFreemium

    Best for B2B customer channels, worst for public communities once history costs money.

    The default place teams chat.

  5. 5

    Build a community business with courses and events.

  6. 6
    Common RoomFreemium

    Reads signals across your community and tells go-to-market who is worth talking to.

    Community-led intelligence for go-to-market teams.