One of the most important aspects of a healthy community is a clear platform for communication. In the past, this limited communities to physical locations. In 2023, however, communities have a pool of community apps to pick from. There are so many that finding the right one can be quite an endeavor. But how do you sort through the noise? It’s not enough to just poke a friend on Facebook and call it good. To operate in a community, you need an innovative and modern way to communicate. No more smoke signals and carrier pigeons. Here we have the list of the top 10 best community apps for you to use in 2023 (in no particular order).
1. Thinkific
Thinkific is a community platform that allows its users to build and promote online course content for its members. The spread of knowledge is a core function of community growth. With Thinkific, entrepreneurs can design, market, and share their full course content across the world. With easy-to-use design templates, live lesson hosting, and learner profiles, communities can learn and grow together with streamlined ease.
2. Discourse
Discourse is an open-source community app that allows community creators to build their own perfect platform. While this means you may need a bit of background knowledge with open-source tools, it also means that your community will look and feel exactly the way you want it to. It also promotes a self-regulated community trust system that requires fewer moderators and allows for more genuine community engagement. Discourse runs on all the major browsers so that everyone in your community can participate and grow together, regardless of their preferred method of browsing.
3. Slack
Slack is a well-known community app designed to be an all-in-one business headquarters. It allows for topics to be specified in different channels to give community members an organized way to choose which conversations are most important to them. As a community creator, you will have the ability to create any and all the channels you need to facilitate a productive community environment that doesn’t sacrifice some fun team building as well.
4. Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is a community platform that allows local communities a way to ensure their voice is heard without feeling like they are interrupting the rest of the members’ days. Mighty Networks gives each member a platform to interact and grow with multiple communities. With a long list of customization options, Mighty Networks might be one of the best community apps to scale with a growing community. It allows for unlimited members and a familiar design that your users will be able to figure out easily.
5. Tribe
When it comes to scalable community management software, Tribe utilizes common social media formats to provide a familiar feel to your community platform. Built for creators and brand-led communities, Tribe offers a powerful way for members to communicate on both web browsers and mobile devices to contribute and connect with their communities.
6. Discord
Discord is another community chat app similar to Slack but with a little more emphasis on the fun. It allows for customization options that work to match branded themes and grow your community with style. They offer some exciting new ways for moderators to award badges and special powers for community engagement or meeting community goals. Discord has two paid options for users to enjoy larger file upload capabilities and custom avatar features that the free version doesn’t offer.
7. Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are a common and free option to gather and grow a community of like-minded people. Whether you’re a business or a creator, Facebook Groups can get your community in front of more people than almost any other community platform. With almost everyone on Facebook, your members will navigate the platform easily and with a minimal learning curve. The problem here is that the algorithm may make it hard for your members to get their messages seen regularly. Maybe they should consider bringing the “Poke” feature back.
8. Heartbeat
Heartbeat is another community app that prides itself on its customization capabilities. It is built for scalability, offering mass update capabilities and the import and export of member data whenever necessary. With powerful search and targeting features, members can be actively recruited with ease and accuracy. Heartbeat allows for content management and efficient event management. Community creators can build an active community with collaborative calendars and social media integration so that every message makes its way to the people who need to see it the most.
9. Circle
Circle is a community platform that offers a bit of everything. Customer communities, education course communities, start-ups, or clubs can all get what they need to start their communities. Circle offers a way for community creators to build a well-organized community and engage any number of members. It can support monetization plans and the newest trends in community engagement, like live streams and branded content. Building a thriving community comes down to the creators, and the customizable Circle platform can offer a lot to an experienced community creator.
10. Burb - RIP
Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Burb takes the best aspects of all the community platforms above to create the best community app available. Burb can support any community building platform you choose to utilize and integrate it with all other avenues of communication you use to grow and manage your community. Burb brings everything together in one place, so you can manage your community tools seamlessly and efficiently.
Automate messages and plan events with ease, getting the relevant information out on all of your platforms without having to continuously copy and paste between apps. With Burb’s powerful insights and data reporting, you will be able to monitor every aspect of your community, no matter how many integrated apps you need. Add in the multiple pricing options so that a creator of any size can have access to Burb’s platform, and you’ve got yourself a winner in the top 10 best community apps.
While earlier I said this list was in no particular order, I couldn’t help but save the best for last. Check out our website to start using Burb for free.
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