The best community platforms in 2026, free and paid

A community platform gives a group of people one place to talk, share and learn together, and for many creators, a way to get paid for it. The best community platforms in 2026 fall into three families: chat apps where conversation moves fast, forums where good answers last, and course-and-community hubs built to sell memberships. Which one fits depends on how your members talk, what you want to charge, and whether they will open an app on their phone or their computer.

This guide compares nine platforms, free and paid, with prices and fees from each company's own page as of September 2026.

The quick answer

• Circle: the best all-round platform for a paid community with courses, events, live streams and phone apps.
• Skool: the simplest way to run a community with courses, a calendar and a leaderboard.
• Mighty Networks: the best for courses and live streaming, with branded apps at the top tier.
• Discord: the best free place for chat, voice and video, especially for gaming and hobby groups.
• Discourse: the best forum, where questions and answers stay easy to find for years.
• Patreon: the best for creators whose fans pay for posts, video and chats.
• Heartbeat: the best budget all-in-one for small communities.
• Barside: the best for small private groups on a Windows, Linux or Mac desktop, with no monthly fee.
• Slack: the best for professional communities whose members already live in Slack.

How we chose

We looked at each platform from both sides, the person running it and the people inside it:

• Member experience. Web, desktop and phone apps, notifications, and how easy it is to join.
• Formats. Chat, forum threads, courses, events, live video, polls and files.
• Money. Payment options, currencies, the monthly price, the transaction fee and who pays card processing.
• Moderation. Roles, reports, pinned messages, slow mode, read-only spaces, AI moderation and other tools against spam.
• Ownership. Custom domains, branded apps, exports and where the data lives.

Prices and fees come from each company's official pages as of September 2026, listed under Sources.

The best community platforms at a glance

The 9 best community platforms, reviewed

1. Circle

Circle is an all-in-one platform for communities and digital businesses. It combines discussion spaces, courses, events and live streams, chat, a member directory, gamification, paywalls and email marketing under your own custom domain, with AI agents on its Scale plan and above. Members use the web, Circle's iPhone and Android apps, or its desktop app for Mac and Windows.

Best for: coaches, creators and brands that sell memberships and courses and want one platform for all of it.

Strengths:

• Nearly every community format in one product, from threads to live streams.
• No cap on members on any plan.
• Branded apps with your own name in the app stores, on Circle Plus.

Limits: it is one of the pricier options for a small group, and the transaction fee only drops on higher plans. Professional includes 3 admins and 10 moderators.

Price (as of September 2026): a 14-day free trial with no card. Professional is US$89 a month billed yearly, with a 2% transaction fee. Business is US$199 (1%), Scale US$419 (1%), and Circle Plus has custom pricing (0.5%).

2. Skool

Skool combines a community feed, a classroom for video and text lessons, a calendar for events and direct messages, with levels and a leaderboard that reward active members. Members use the web or the free Skool Communities app for iPhone and Android.

Best for: creators who want a community and courses in one simple product.

Strengths:

• Gamification that rewards helpful members: each like earns a point, points raise members through 9 levels, and a leaderboard shows how members rank.
• No cap on members, courses, videos or live calls on either plan.
• Fees that already include card processing, because Skool processes the payments itself.

Limits: subscriptions are priced in US dollars only. On Hobby, 10% of every payment goes to Skool, which adds up as you grow.

Price (as of September 2026): Hobby is US$9 a month plus 10% + 30¢ per transaction. Pro is US$99 a month plus 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction (3.9% + 30¢ above US$900). Both include custom URLs and affiliates, and yearly billing gives 2 months free. Read the Skool alternative guide for a closer comparison with Barside.

3. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks brings community, courses, live streaming and an AI Cohost together, on the web and in iPhone and Android apps on every plan. The top tier, Mighty Pro, adds custom branded apps.

Best for: course creators and membership businesses that teach live.

Strengths:

• Live streaming built in: 20 hours a month and 100 viewers per stream on Launch, more on higher plans.
• Courses and community in the same place, with automations.
• Flexible payments: subscriptions and one-time payments, several tiers, free trials and promo codes, in hundreds of currencies.
• 200 GB of storage on Launch.

Limits: APIs, MCP access and third-party integrations start on Scale. The transaction fee is 2% on Launch.

Price (as of September 2026): a 14-day trial with no card. Launch is US$79 a month (or US$950 a year) plus 2%. Scale is US$179 (1%), Growth US$354 (0.5%), and Mighty Pro has custom pricing.

4. Discord

Discord is a free chat app for communities, organized in servers with text channels, voice and video channels and roles. Members use apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone and Android, or the web.

Best for: gaming, hobby and fan communities that talk in real time.

Strengths:

• Free for the whole community, with voice channels members can drop into at any time.
• Apps on nearly every device, including Linux and game consoles.
• Server Subscriptions for paid roles, perks and benefits, with creators keeping 90% after applicable deductions.

Limits: Server Subscriptions need a server owner based in the United States, with a US bank account and ID for Stripe. Chat moves fast, so good answers get buried without a forum channel or pinned posts. Members need a Discord account, and your server sits next to every other server they belong to.

Price (as of September 2026): free. Paid access through Server Subscriptions, where Discord keeps 10% of member payments and other fees can apply.

5. Discourse

Discourse is open-source forum software, also sold as a hosted service. Topics, categories and search keep good answers findable for years, and the Pro plan adds chat. Members use the web or the Discourse iPhone and Android apps.

Best for: product communities, open-source projects and support forums where knowledge should last.

Strengths:

• A free hosted plan: 2 staff seats, 10 categories, 5 GB of storage and 500,000 page views a month.
• Completely free and open source if you host it yourself.
• AI features on every plan, with daily credit limits.

Limits: a forum is slower and more structured than chat, which suits some groups and not others. Paid hosting starts at US$100 a month.

Price (as of September 2026): free hosted plan. Pro is US$100 a month (5 staff seats), Business US$500 a month (15 staff seats), and Enterprise has custom pricing.

6. Patreon

Patreon lets fans pay creators through monthly or yearly membership tiers or one-time purchases. Creators post audio, images, text and video, livestream, send email newsletters, and run community chats and direct messages with members.

Best for: artists, podcasters and writers whose audience pays for what they make.

Strengths:

• Free to start: you pay only when you earn.
• Tiers, free trials, discounts and sales tools built in.
• Native video, livestreaming, podcast syncing and RSS.

Limits: Patreon's 10% comes with payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees on top. It is built around one creator and their fans, so conversation between members happens mainly in chats and comments.

Price (as of September 2026): 10% of the income you earn on Patreon, plus processing, conversion and payout fees and applicable taxes.

7. Heartbeat

Heartbeat is an all-in-one community platform with channels, courses, events, documents and voice and video rooms for up to 256 people, plus iPhone and Android apps and a custom domain on every plan.

Best for: small communities that want courses and events without Circle's price.

Strengths:

• A low entry price that still includes courses, events, phone apps and a custom domain.
• Voice and video rooms for up to 256 attendees.
• Automations and landing pages, more on higher plans.

Limits: Build caps you at 350 members and takes 5% of payments. White-label features and API access are on higher tiers.

Price (as of September 2026): a 14-day trial. Build is US$49 a month, or US$40 billed yearly, plus 5%. Grow is US$149 (US$124 yearly), up to 5,000 members, plus 2.5%. Scale is US$849 (US$766 yearly) plus 1.25%.

8. Barside

Barside is a free desktop app for notes, tasks, reading and meetings that keeps your library on your computer. Its Spaces are online rooms for a team or a community, with chat, polls, shared notes, resources and files, and they can be free or paid. Barside runs on Windows, Linux and Mac.

How it works:

1. Open Spaces in the sidebar and sign in with Google or an email code. The sign-in is free.
2. Choose Create a Space and give it a description of up to 500 characters. Members see it under the Space's name, and people you invite see it on their invitation. Spaces you create are private: people join by invitation or ask to join. (Public Spaces, which any signed-in user can discover, are created by Barside itself.)
3. Invite someone by email, even before they have Barside, or by handle or user ID. Invitations expire after seven days, and you can revoke them. To reach people you do not know yet, make a Share link in Manage Space: anyone who opens it sees the Space's card on barside.space and can Ask to join, and you or a moderator approve each request in Join requests. With Invitations from members need approval, on by default, invitations from members wait for your approval too.
4. To charge, open Manage Space → Pricing & payments, choose Connect Stripe, and set an access price: Free, One-time payment, Monthly subscription or Yearly subscription, from 1 to 10,000 CAD or USD. People you invite, or approve, pay by card on Stripe's page when they accept the invitation, so nobody pays before approval, and the money goes to your own Stripe account.
5. Keep it calm with Manage Space → Moderation: slow mode (5 seconds to 1 hour between posts), or make the Space read-only for members. A flood guard is always on. Owners can also turn on Manage Space → AI moderation, described below.

Strengths:

• No monthly platform fee. Barside keeps 8% of each payment, renewals included, or 5% while you have Barside Plus. The fee is part of the price, so it does not add to what members pay.
• Chat with replies, reactions, mentions and polls, plus shared notes that keep their formatting and media, bookmarks and files. In a paid Space, only members can open the files, and access ends when a membership ends. See file sharing for teams and communities.
• Pinned messages keep the rules and the best answers in reach. Owners and moderators pin a chat message or a poll with the Pin button under it, and a slim "Pinned" bar at the top of the chat lists up to 50 of them. Choosing one jumps to it in the chat. The owner can let everyone pin.
• AI moderation (owners only) checks new messages from members with the AI you connected in Settings → AI, for spam and scams, harassment and hate, sexual content, threats and violence, sharing someone's private information, and your own rules. It reports problems to your moderators, or also removes clear cases if you choose, and every member sees a note that it is on. Barside has no AI of its own, so your AI company bills you for each check.
• The Space helper answers member questions with the AI you connect, using only what the Space has shared plus one workspace if you choose. Ask me first is the default, so drafts wait for your approval. See the AI helper that answers community members.
• Owners and moderators see member numbers: new and active members, messages per day and top contributors. In Space settings, the owner can turn off Show the member count, so only owners and moderators see how many members there are, and Show the members list, so members see only the owner, the moderators and themselves. Owners and moderators always see everyone, and people still show with their own messages.
• Members get Memberships & billing to stop a renewal and open Stripe for receipts and cards.
• For live calls, the Meetings tab holds free video meetings for up to 6 people.

Limits: members need the Barside desktop app on Windows, Linux or Mac. There is no phone app and no web version of Spaces, which rules it out for communities that live on phones. There are no courses, event calendars or live streams, and no public directory where strangers can find your Space; a share link reaches only the people who see it where you post it. Payments are by card only, with no coupons or free trials, in CAD or USD. Each member can upload 250 MB of files in total, 20 MB per file. Only chat messages and polls can be pinned, not notes, links or files. Spaces are hosted on Supabase and are not end-to-end encrypted. The Space helper and AI moderation run on the owner's computer, so they work only while the owner's Barside is running.

Price: free to create and join. Paid Spaces: Barside keeps 8% (5% with Barside Plus, US$20 a month plus sales tax), and Stripe charges its own processing fees to your Stripe account. Barside itself gives no refunds; you can refund a member from your Stripe account, and Barside keeps its fee on a refunded or disputed payment. The rules are in the Terms and the paid Spaces privacy notes.

9. Slack

Slack is a workplace chat app that many professional communities also use, with channels, threads, huddles and a large app directory. Members use the desktop, web and phone apps.

Best for: professional and industry communities whose members already have Slack open all day.

Strengths: channels, threads, huddles and app integrations in a tool many members may already use at work, so joining takes one invitation.

Limits: the free plan shows only the last 90 days of messages, allows up to 10 apps and limits huddles to two people. Paid plans are priced per user, which gets expensive for a large community. There are no built-in memberships or payments.

Price (as of September 2026): free. Pro is US$8.75 per user a month, or US$7.25 billed yearly. Business+ is US$18, or US$15 billed yearly. The Slack alternative guide compares it with Barside Spaces.

What a paid community really costs

Headline fees are hard to compare, so here is one example. Say 50 members pay US$20 a month: US$1,000 a month in payments. This is what each platform takes, from the prices and fees on their pages as of September 2026:

Card processing is not the same everywhere. Skool's fees already include it. On Barside it is extra: Stripe's own rate, charged to your Stripe account (Stripe's standard rate for domestic cards in Canada, for example, is 2.9% + CA$0.30 per payment). Patreon adds processing, conversion and payout fees to its 10%. For the other platforms, check how they bill card processing before you compare. Once you do, the platforms are closer at this size than their headline fees suggest.

The picture changes as you grow. At US$10,000 a month, Barside's 8% is US$800, while Circle Professional's US$89 plus 2% is US$289. A percentage-only fee is kind to a small group; a flat price with a small percentage is kinder to a large one.

Chat, forum or course hub: pick the shape first

Most regret about community platforms comes from choosing the wrong shape, not the wrong brand.

• Chat (Discord, Slack, Barside Spaces) feels alive and personal. It suits groups that talk every day. Its weakness is memory: last month's best answer is hard to find. Pinned messages help: a Barside Space keeps up to 50 of them in a bar above the chat.
• Forums (Discourse) are slower but durable. They suit support, product and knowledge communities, where the same questions come back.
• Course-and-community hubs (Circle, Skool, Mighty Networks, Heartbeat) wrap chat and posts around lessons, events and payments. They suit creators who teach and sell.
• Fan memberships (Patreon) center on one creator's work, with the community around it.

Ask yourself where your members will be when they open it. If the answer is "on their phone," pick a platform with strong phone apps. If it is "at work, on a computer," a desktop app next to their notes and tasks, like Barside, keeps the community one click from the work it is about.

How to choose a community platform

• You sell courses and memberships: Circle, Skool or Mighty Networks. Choose Skool for simplicity, Circle for breadth, Mighty Networks for live teaching.
• You want free chat for a big group: Discord.
• You want answers that last: Discourse.
• You are a creator with fans: Patreon.
• You run a small community on a budget: Heartbeat, or Barside if your members work on a Windows, Linux or Mac desktop.
• You run a private team room, a mastermind or a study group of a few dozen people: Barside, with shared notes, files, polls and meetings in the same app, and no monthly fee.
• Your members already use Slack at work: Slack, if 90 days of history on the free plan is enough.

Moving your community to Barside

There is no one-click importer for communities, so plan the move like a small launch:

1. Create the Space with a short description, which people see on their invitation. Share a welcome note into it with the rules and what members get, then post a short welcome message that points to the note and pin it.
2. Share your key resources: notes (formatting and media come along), links and files.
3. If it is paid, connect Stripe and set the price before you invite anyone, so everyone you invite pays when they join. Members who joined while a Space was free keep free access.
4. Invite members by email from Invite someone. They get an invitation email even before they install Barside. Or post the Space's share link in your old community, and approve each person who asks to join.
5. Keep the old space open for a few weeks with a pinned message pointing to the new one, then archive it.

For the full picture of Spaces, read team chat and paid communities (Spaces). If your group also meets on video, see how Barside's meeting follow-up turns a call into tasks, and compare meeting tools in the best AI meeting assistants.