Community Coach has compiled a list of the best no-code or low-code platforms and tools out there for community managers to build and engage with their online communities. Here are some great open-source low-code and no-code platforms & tools to consider below.
No or Low-Code Community Platforms
Of course there are free platforms already out there such as Facebook Groups, Discord, Slack etc.
However, if you’re looking to take your community to a new platform (but don’t know how to code or really don’t want to touch code at all) here are some great options to consider:
Edition.so
Pricing: Free plan available up to 10k members (public community), $50/month for 50K members and the option to public/private/paid community, $90/month for the premium plan
Website: Edition.so
Edition.so is a publishing platform that boasts of a “no coding” style when it comes to building and publishing a website online. Think of wordpress, squarespace or weebly and you’ll get the picture on how this works. It also allows you to join or create a public or a private channel that you can use to build a discussion board for your community without the hassles of coding.You can actually set it up to give you an email notification everytime someone wants to join your channel or if you have a new subscriber. Plus, you can integrate your Slack, Zapier or Memberful account in it! Check out my walkthrough video for more details.
Community Coach loves: This works great as an all-in-one platform or you can use it to supplement your community on Discord, Slack, Facebook, etc. The hardest part with communities is finding places for your resources to live, and Edition.so is a compelling offer with the ability to add resources/knowledge base, member directory, newsletter (blog), discussion, and events all in one platform. You can pick and choose what works best for you with the ability to customize the menu with your needs (and zero coding!). Integrations include Zapier, Memberful and Google Analytics, and if you upgrade to premium you get Slack integration too for those who need it.
Glynk
Pricing: Plans start from $499/month (second tier is $999/month and enterprise is $2499/month).
Website: glynk.com
World class community platform that has been tried and tested (and built by a team of community experts who have scaled up a 2 million member online community themselves so they know what they’re doing!). This platform humble brags that the member retention of those who use their platform is 70% with the average time per day spent being 7 minutes (that’s nothing to sneeze at, that’s actually pretty incredible).
Community Coach loves: If you’re looking to build a community for your customers, this is a great option to consider. With Glynk you can WHITE LABEL your community, a huge bonus for those who want the branding experience to feel seamless. You can personalise everything from colors, fonts, landing page layout etc. Support forums are taken to the next level in their platform (looks a bit like Facebook Groups and Reddit combined), but even more importantly you can add your knowledge base to the platform (with categorization, help docs, videos and documents… what a dream!) and even create organized tutorials/courses. Gamification is possible with the ability to reward reputation points and badges. Other incredible features include SEO optimisation and privacy controls (you can even specify access to only your active customers). I haven’t even got to the best part yet, this platform has the ability to integrate with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Slack, Twitter, Youtube, Zapier + more!
Circle
Pricing:
FREE 14 DAY TRIAL
BASIC: $39/MONTH
PROFESSIONAL: $79/MONTH
ENTERPRISE: $199/MONTH)
BASIC: $39/MONTH
PROFESSIONAL: $79/MONTH
ENTERPRISE: $199/MONTH)
Website: Circle.so
Circle is a community platform designed for course creators who want to gather their students and audiences around their content, engage them in discussions and turn them into paying members. This includes membership, course, product, and coaching communities. Circle also allows for newsletter and podcast communities as well. You can organize discussions in public or private spaces when needed. There is also this helpful no-code tutorial by Makerpad on how to connect Memberspace with Circle and Notion if that meets your requirements.
Forem
Pricing: FREE
Website: Forem.com
Forem is an open source software for building communities where people gather and discuss a common topic. Forem provides open-source tools to help you host a thriving, focused, and adaptable community. Each Forem will go live online as its own independent web application with its own standalone databases, authentication mechanisms, configuration, dedicated URL, etc. There are plenty of great features, but make sure to check out some of the current examples of communities using this platform first to see if it’s the right feel for your community.
Discourse
Pricing:
FREE 14 DAY TRIAL
STANDARD: $100/MONTH
BUSINESS: $300/MONTH
ENTERPRISE: Contact them via their website
STANDARD: $100/MONTH
BUSINESS: $300/MONTH
ENTERPRISE: Contact them via their website
Website: Discourse.org
Discourse is open source forum software that has really deep dived into what forums should look like. It shows members discussions that they actually care about based on their participation (and organises threads/comments/replies beautifully), with all the modern social media luxuries to boot like ability to tag members, insert media by pasting URL links, single sign on, mobile responsive etc.
Tribe
Pricing:
FREE Option, paid starts from $49/month
Website: Tribe.so
Tribe is a computer software that offers a cloud-based platform for online communities. It integrates with messengers and social media and helps its users to amplify the vibe around their business by allowing them and their customers to create content, and share!
Peerboard
Pricing:
FREE
STARTER: $29/month
PROFESSIONAL: $79/month
ENTREPRISE: CUSTOM PRICING
Website: Peerboard.com
Peerboard is a plug-and-play forum that gives you the tools to build a professional community. You can create a subreddit-like space right on your own website, so your community stays on your site while interacting with the rest of the community.
Outseta
Pricing:
Starts from $29/month
Website: Outseta.com
Outseta is intended for business minded creators to have all the tools they need to launch and grow their business communities. It has an all-in-one platform integrating CRM, subscription billing, customer communication tools such as email marketing, help desk and chat. Outseta gives businesses a single, clear view of your business’ performance that you need to grow your monthly recurring revenue.
Geneva
Pricing: Free
Website: Geneva.com
Geneva is a space for groups and communities to connect, share, grow, and thrive. Groups are called “homes” and each home is managed by a “homeowner”. Each “home” sets their own terms for discussion and engagement. The “homeowner” is free to enforce their own home rules as they see fit.
Flarum
Pricing: FREE
Website: Flarum.com
Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun. It’s simple, fast, and free. All you need to do is sign up, join a community and share insights on topics of your choice!
Mighty Networks
Pricing:
Options start from $23/month
Website: MightyNetworks.com
Mighty Networks is an online platform where you can publish articles, share content, and create an online course platform for your audience. Their SaaS platform serves creators with the purpose of selling experiences, relationships, and expertise to their members via community, content, online courses, and subscription commerce–all offered in one place under the creator’s brand, on every platform.
Cafayo
Pricing:
FREE TRIAL
MONTHLY PLAN: $10
ANNUAL PLAN: $100
MONTHLY PLAN: $10
ANNUAL PLAN: $100
Website: Cafayo.com
Description:
Cafayo is all about simple hosting for your communities. All you have to do is sign up and choose if your members can join your community or if it’s “invitation only”. From there, you can create a topic and connect with others.
No or Low-Code Community Tools
There are also no or low-code community tools that are very useful to enhance the community experience, whether that be helping with member introductions, hosting fun events or improving analytics.
Donut
Pricing:
FREE PLAN
STANDARD PRICING: start at $49 per month (billed annually)
PREMIUM PLAN: start at $99 per month (billed annually)
STANDARD PRICING: start at $49 per month (billed annually)
PREMIUM PLAN: start at $99 per month (billed annually)
Website: Donut.com
Description:
Donut is an app that you can integrate with slack. It helps you build channels and connections while with your virtual teammates and encourages you to “meet up”. When a teammate on your Slack workspace sets up Donut, they can select the channel, frequency of intros (multiple times per week, once per weekly, biweekly, etc), and time zone for your team. Donut tries to introduce people who don’t normally chat with each other by looking at who is in which channel and will create a match on people who aren’t in a lot of channels together. It also keeps track of who has been introduced in the past to avoid frequent repeats.
Meet Butter
Pricing: FREE (Until further updates)
Website: Meetbutter.io
Love hosting workshops and live events? Then try Meet Butter out! This is a platform that lets you create an interactive channel for your community to coach, discuss and share topics. I made a cool walk-through video on how to set your first Meet Butter account for more details.
Athena
Pricing: Contact them for pricing
Website: JoinAthena.co
Description:
Athena is a video sharing platform that lets you build and communicate with your community. You can also share your online courses and your personal insights. Athena lets you create “prompts” or links that you can share with your team or on social media. Unlike other platforms, Athena lets you voice out your thoughts on video rather than chat.
Meetsy
Pricing:
Connect: FREE
Gather: $99 (currently on $0 promo)
Party: Contact them directly
Party: Contact them directly
Website: Meetsy.io
Description:
Meetsy is a social network platform (something like facebook) that allows you to create a community for free on their website. The app notifies you when it detects people with commonalities in the same chat room, allowing you to make meaningful relationships.
CitonHub
Pricing: FREE
Website: Citonhub.com
Description:
Citonhub is a free platform for developers to select and organize resources from YouTube and DevTo so they can merge with their communities. It has features common to all community platforms such as messaging, voice chat, file sharing and many more.