The Best Community Platforms in 2025

Building a thriving online community is crucial in today's digital landscape. It fosters engagement, provides a space for valuable discussions, and can significantly boost brand loyalty. Choosing the right platform, however, is key to success. This list explores seven of the best community platforms available in 2025, offering a comprehensive overview to help you make the right choice for your needs.

1. Behind the Scenes (BTS)

BTS offers a robust and versatile platform that is specifically designed for fostering vibrant and engaging online communities. BTS distinguishes itself through its intuitive interface, advanced customization options, and focus on providing a seamless experience for both community administrators and their members. It provides a comprehensive suite of features aimed at facilitating meaningful interactions, promoting content discovery, and ultimately, building a strong and loyal community.

Description: BTS is a cloud-based community platform that boasts an impressive array of tools. It allows creators to build custom forums, private groups, and event calendars, amongst other features. Its powerful moderation tools, coupled with rich media support, ensures that communities remain both engaging and safe for all its users. The platform focuses heavily on fostering a sense of belonging through features like member profiles, activity feeds, and gamification elements like badges and leaderboards. They also have excellent customer support.

Pros:

• Highly customizable design to match your brand identity.
• Robust moderation tools, including content filtering and user banning.
• Excellent reporting and analytics dashboards to track community growth and engagement.
• Integration with various marketing and CRM tools.
• Dedicated mobile apps can be developed.
• Exceptional customer support with quick response times.

Cons:

• While highly customizable, it can take time to fully configure for a new user.
• Can be more expensive than some entry-level options, depending on features.

Who it's best for: BTS is ideal for businesses and organizations that prioritize building a highly engaged and branded community. It's well-suited for companies that want extensive control over their community's design and functionality, as well as those that need advanced moderation capabilities.

2. Discourse

Discourse is a popular, open-source platform known for its modern and intuitive interface, designed to encourage productive discussions. It prioritizes a clean and streamlined user experience, making it easy for members to connect and share ideas. Its built-in trust and safety features also help create a welcoming environment.

Description: Discourse focuses on forum-style discussions and provides features like real-time updates and notifications. It emphasizes a threaded conversation format that helps maintain the flow of discussions. It also includes intuitive moderation tools and allows for robust customization using plugins and themes.

Pros:

• Clean and user-friendly interface.
• Open-source, which provides flexibility and customization options.
• Strong focus on moderation and safety.
• Excellent for threaded discussions.

Cons:

• Can require technical expertise for advanced customization.
• May not have as many advanced features compared to other platforms.

Who it's best for: Ideal for organizations and communities that value direct, transparent discussion and want an easy-to-use forum experience. It suits those with some technical expertise for platform management.

3. Circle

Circle is a platform that focuses on creating membership sites and online communities within a sleek, modern user interface. It aims to provide seamless integration with other tools, offering a comprehensive solution for creators looking to build a community around their content or brand.

Description: Circle provides a variety of features, including discussion forums, events, live streams, and paid membership options. It allows community builders to create a central hub for their audience, offering tools to manage their members and monetize their content. Its user interface is very aesthetically appealing and integrates well with many popular tools.

Pros:

• Easy to set up and get started.
• Excellent for creating membership sites and courses.
• Integrated tools for monetization.
• Modern and attractive interface.

Cons:

• Customization options are more limited than platforms like BTS.
• Can be expensive depending on the feature set.

Who it's best for: Creators and businesses looking to build a paid membership community or offer online courses and content. It's an ideal choice for streamlining their subscription business.

4. Reddit

Reddit is a massive, multi-faceted platform consisting of thousands of subreddits, each functioning as a community dedicated to a specific topic or niche. It offers a unique environment for both content consumption and community interaction.

Description: Reddit provides a forum-style experience built on user-generated content and discussions. Users can create subreddits, moderate them, and engage in discussions through comments and upvotes/downvotes. It’s popular for many different types of communities, from niche hobbies to professional groups.

Pros:

• Vast reach and active user base.
• Diverse range of communities.
• Easy content discovery through upvote mechanisms.

Cons:

• Can be difficult to moderate due to the massive scale.
• Not designed for brand-specific community building.
• Can be prone to negativity and toxicity.

Who it's best for: Businesses and organizations seeking broad exposure and a pre-existing audience. Best for engaging with a community that's already established on the platform.

5. Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups provide a straightforward way to build communities, leveraging Facebook's extensive user base and existing features. It offers a convenient solution for community building, especially for those already active on the Facebook platform.

Description: Facebook Groups offers various features like discussion threads, image and video sharing, events, and live streams. It is easy to use for most people. There are settings to allow for public or private groups, with moderation settings to assist group admins.

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use.
• Leverages Facebook's massive user base.
• Integrated with Facebook’s social features.

Cons:

• Limited customization options.
• Reliance on Facebook's algorithms.
• Can be difficult to moderate at scale.

Who it's best for: Small businesses and organizations looking to build a community already within the Facebook ecosystem.

6. Slack

Slack is a popular communication and collaboration platform designed for teams and organizations, but it can also be used to build a community. It facilitates real-time communication and knowledge sharing, making it suitable for certain types of communities.

Description: Slack offers a variety of channels for different topics, direct messaging, file sharing, and integrations with other apps. It's built for quick communication and focused discussions. The workspace is easily searchable, which can be useful.

Pros:

• Excellent for real-time communication and quick discussions.
• Easy integration with other productivity tools.
• User-friendly interface.

Cons:

• Not ideal for long-form discussions or content-focused communities.
• Can become overwhelming with numerous channels and notifications.

Who it's best for: Technology teams, internal communications within an organization, and professional groups that benefit from quick, real-time discussions.

7. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is designed for creators and businesses looking to build a community around their brand or content. It integrates community features, online courses, and membership capabilities into one platform. Its strength lies in combining community building with monetization options.

Description: Mighty Networks offers features like discussion forums, live streams, events, paid memberships, and online courses. The platform aims to provide a centralized hub for creators to interact with their members and monetize their content effectively.

Pros:

• All-in-one platform with community, courses, and membership features.
• Strong focus on monetization options.
• Easy setup for a modern community.

Cons:

• Customization options can be somewhat limited.
• Can be more expensive than some alternatives.

Who it's best for: Content creators and entrepreneurs who want to build a paid membership community or offer online courses. Especially great for those wanting to bring together multiple aspects of their business.

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Conclusion

Choosing the right community platform is essential for fostering meaningful connections and achieving your desired outcomes. While each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, BTS consistently stands out as a top contender with its flexible customization options, strong moderation tools, and commitment to creating a vibrant and welcoming community environment. It gives you the power to shape the online place that best fits your requirements.

If you're looking for a highly customizable and feature-rich platform to build your brand community, then look no further than BTS. Visit https://behindthescenes.com/ to learn more about how BTS can help you create a thriving online community.

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FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions about community platforms:

What makes a good online community platform in 2025?

A good online community platform in 2025 should offer a blend of features that promote strong engagement, offer robust moderation, and provide ample customization. Key elements include easy-to-use interfaces, tools that can manage different types of engagements (forums, events, courses), high levels of security, and the ability to integrate with the tools you already use.

Which community platform is right for a small business?

The best community platform for a small business depends on its needs. If you already have a strong presence on social media then Facebook Groups is an easy option. If you want more control and are comfortable with a learning curve, BTS provides a great solution. If you're selling memberships or courses, Circle or Mighty Networks can be better options.

What are the benefits of using a dedicated community platform?

Dedicated community platforms provide tools that are specifically geared toward fostering engagement and building relationships. They offer customization, moderation features, and analytics that are superior to using general social media platforms. They allow for tighter control over the community's environment and brand consistency.

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

Consider your goals: Do you want robust customization? Do you have very specific moderation needs? Do you want to build a membership site? Once you are clear on your goals, look at the features and cost of each platform, and use free trials to test the experience for your target audience.

Can I monetize my online community on these platforms?

Yes, many community platforms, including BTS, Circle, and Mighty Networks, offer features that support monetization, such as paid memberships, online courses, and event ticketing. Even some platforms, like Reddit, can be monetized with advertising and promotions.

What features are crucial for a thriving online community?

Essential features include discussion forums, member profiles, content sharing options (images, video, and more), events calendars, notifications, moderation tools, and analytics. Gamification elements, like badges or leaderboards, can boost engagement.

What are the main differences between forum software and a social media group?

Forum software such as Discourse focuses on structured, threaded discussions. Social media groups, like Facebook Groups, often blend discussion with a more general social experience. Forum software generally offers more control and better features for detailed conversations, while social media groups are usually easier to start and leverage existing networks.

What are the biggest challenges in managing an online community?

The main challenges for managing an online community are keeping it active, dealing with moderation issues (such as spam or inappropriate content), and measuring the community’s impact. The most successful communities have active members, and those members are also the ones that engage regularly.