Best Community Management Platforms to Power Up Engagement & Interaction

Building an online community takes more than just a gathering space—it requires the right tools to keep members engaged and active. That’s why choosing the best community management platform can make all the difference in fostering long-term engagement and growth.

After researching countless platforms, I’ve narrowed down the best options that offer real value. For instance, popular brands like Binance and Bybit have leveraged the BitDegree Mission Builder to streamline their community management, showing just how impactful the right tool can be.

With so many choices available, I’ll break down the top suggestions based on features, usability, and, of course, the pricing plans. Whether you're managing a membership-based group, an educational hub, or a professional network, this guide will help you find the right fit.

Exploring the Best Community Management Platforms

The best community management platform is the backbone of any thriving online user base. It provides tools to facilitate discussions, manage members, track engagement, and even introduce gamification elements to keep the experience dynamic.

Of course, there are various types to choose from. Some can be used for directly managing your audience, while others can be made for keeping the members engaged. No two communities are the same, so finding the right option depends on what you need.

BitDegree Mission Builder – Best for Web3 & Gamified Learning

Ideal For: Web3 enthusiasts & projects who want a gamified approach to online learning and engagement

Price: Free

The BitDegree Mission Builder is one of the best tools for building a community as it solves a huge challenge – keeping members engaged, active, and consistently involved. Unlike traditional platforms that rely on passive participation, Mission Builder helps turn engagement into an interactive, rewarding, and fun experience.

Users don’t just join your community; they take action by completing the Missions you create. They'll get rewarded with Bits, BitDegree's in-game points, and whatever other prizes you want to give, like NFTs, merch, cryptocurrencies, or tangible rewards (the only limit is the sky).

Mission Builder offers flexibility for different types of goals. Projects can design custom Missions to onboard new users, educate them on their platform, and boost their social presence. Instead of relying on static discussions, BitDegree provides a guided experience that helps communities grow in a structured and rewarding way.

Another major advantage is the ability to scale engagement. Since Bits are the driving force for winning rewards, both when it comes to your Missions or other events on BitDegree, your members will be encouraged to grow even without your constant effort.

So, the BitDegree Mission Builder is a tool designed for crypto communities that want sustainable growth and retention, all while making the process fun and interactive. That’s what makes it one of the best community management platforms in Web3 today.

Engagement & Management Features

Here are the overall pros and cons of the BitDegree Mission Builder as a tool for managing your community:

Table: Pros & cons of BitDegree Missions

At the heart of the Mission Builder are Guilds – dedicated homepages where community owners can create Missions, foster engagement, and incentivize participation.

Missions are customizable, gamified challenges you can create to guide your user base toward specific actions.

One of the strongest aspects here, though, is its gamification. It creates a structured experience that makes users want to return daily. Streaks, leaderboards, Degrees, badges, and seasonal airdrop events build a sense of friendly competition. All these additional ways to earn rewards will give a push to your users to play the Missions you create.

Speaking of rewards, apart from Bits, you can include Lucky Draws to make the experience even more exciting.

The Lucky Draw mechanism is automatized, so you won't have to pick out the winners yourself. Yet, it's customizable, as you can set your desired end date or restricted/supported countries to streamline the process. While rewards aren’t required, they help keep users motivated.

Do note, though, that the BitDegree Mission Builder doesn’t offer monetization features like paid memberships or paywalls for your Missions. However, it's still under development, and there are many more tools and features to come in the future, which might help you create a more "exclusive" experience for your community.

Pricing

The BitDegree Mission Builder is completely free to use. However, to launch Missions, you'll have to use Bits, which you can earn by completing other Missions, inviting friends to BitDegree, or doing other bonus tasks. To unlock access to the Builder, you have to:

Once you complete these three tasks, you'll be able to start building your community in no time. Just a tip – if you want to keep your members engaged, create Missions that are truly fun, rewarding, and educational. Don't resort only to stuffing various social actions into them.

Overall, BitDegree Missions blend education with entertainment, making learning about Web3 feel interactive and rewarding. The mix of micro-tasks, Guilds, and incentive-driven learning creates a space where users stay engaged while gaining valuable skills.

📚 Read More: How to Build a Community With BitDegree's Mission Builder

Circle – Best for Membership Communities

Ideal For: Businesses, creators, and educators looking for a customizable yet easy-to-use platform

Price: Starts at $89/month with a 14-day free trial

Circle strikes a solid balance between functionality and usability, which is why I found it to be one of the more polished options in this space. The interface looks modern and well-organized, avoiding the clutter that makes some platforms feel outdated.

Instead of dumping you into an empty dashboard, the onboarding process gives you a structured starting point. Based on the template you select, you get a prebuilt layout tailored for discussions, courses, memberships, or other use cases.

Customization plays a huge role in its appeal. The theme customizer lets you tweak colors and adjust user experience, creating a journey that matches your brand identity. The said platform also enables keyboard shortcuts that make navigation even faster. For example, pressing ALT + G + P will bring you straight to the profile page.

Circle organizes content using Spaces and Space Groups. The former are the core building blocks, allowing you to create dedicated sections for posts, live discussions, courses, and events. They can be set as:

• Open – Accessible to everyone in the community;
• Private – Limited to select members;
• Secret – Completely hidden and invite-only.

There's also a helpful monetization feature that lets you add paywalls to certain spaces, so it’s possible to charge for premium content.

On the other hand, Space Groups bring additional structure, bundling multiple spaces under a common theme. For larger communities, this makes navigation easier and helps members find relevant discussions without wading through unrelated content.

Engagement & Management Features

Now, let's take a look at Circle's pros and cons:

Table: Pros & cons of Circle

As you can see, the platform provides several features to keep conversations flowing. Discussion threads, live chat, and virtual events make it easy to interact with members.

For automation, the Workflows feature helps streamline repetitive tasks. I tested a setup where new members received an automated welcome email, got assigned a role-based tag, and were added to the right Space Group—all without manual input.

Pricing

Circle has four paid plans:

• Professional – $89 per month;
• Business – $119 per month;
• Enterprise – $360 per month;
• Custom Pricing.

There’s also Circle Plus, a white-label option that lets businesses create a fully branded community and mobile app. The pricing for this isn’t publicly listed, but it’s designed for large-scale organizations.

One thing to keep in mind is the transaction fee on paywalled content, which ranges from 1% to 4%, depending on the plan.

In general, Circle offers a smooth experience with a solid mix of engagement, monetization, and customization. While some advanced features are locked behind pricier plans, it remains one of the strong choices for those looking to manage an online community platform with a user-friendly interface.

Slack – Best for Professional & Business Communities

Ideal For: Professional groups or new creators looking for an online community platform

Price: Free plan available; paid plans start at $8.75 per member per month

Slack deserves a mention as one of the best online community engagement platforms, particularly for smaller groups and communities that don’t want to deal with upfront costs.

The free plan is the biggest draw for new communities. There’s no cost to set up a Slack workspace, and it supports unlimited members. For small communities that don’t need advanced features, this makes the platform a tempting option.

Another advantage is familiarity. Since it is already widely used in professional settings, many potential members are likely comfortable with its interface. As a result, it reduces friction and makes engagement easier.

Engagement & Management Features

Before going deeper, for a quicker glance, here is a summary of the platform's strongest and weakest suits:

Table: Pros & cons of Slack

Slack creates an interactive space where members can engage in real-time discussions. The instant messaging format keeps conversations active, while threaded replies help maintain organized talks.

Unlike social media groups, where posts can get buried under new content, Slack’s structure ensures that messages stay visible within respective channels.

Meanwhile, the available moderation tools help keep communities professional and on-topic.^[1] Admins can set channel permissions, manage user roles, and use integrations to automate moderation tasks. Additionally, Slack supports customizable notifications so members can stay updated without being overwhelmed.

Finally, the ability to integrate third-party apps enhances engagement further. Community owners can add tools like LaunchPass for paid memberships, Zoom for live events, and workflow automation to simplify repetitive tasks. These integrations help streamline management while giving members valuable ways to participate.

Pricing

It's good that the platform offers a free plan. However, message history is restricted to 90 days, so older conversations disappear unless you upgrade. You’re also limited to 10 app integrations, and audio/video calls are one-on-one only.

The paid plans are expensive, which is where Slack becomes less appealing for large communities. At $8.75 per member per month on the Pro plan, a 500-member community would cost $4,375 per month (though it does release discounts from time to time).

The Business+ plan jumps to $15 per member per month, making this option a costly choice compared to dedicated platforms.

To sum up, Slack offers a strong real-time communication experience. The pricing, however, makes it a less practical option for large communities—unless there’s a budget to support it.

Skool – Best for Course Hosting

Ideal For: Digital business owners and beginners looking for an easy-to-use community platform

Pricing: $99/month with a 14-day free trial

Unlike complex learning management systems (LMS), Skool strips away unnecessary features, keeping things simple and intuitive. With this platform, you can build unlimited courses, control access based on the members' levels, and drip-schedule lessons to encourage participation.

Engagement & Management Features

Skool has a leaderboard system that rewards members with points when they contribute to discussions or receive likes on their posts. Higher rankings unlock additional content, incentivizing learning and participation. Polls and interactive media like videos and GIFs also enhance engagement.^[2]

Managing a community here is pretty straightforward. Simply invite or approve members through a controlled onboarding process and then monitor their activity using built-in insights. Group leaders can then track ongoing discussions, course progress, and user engagement. Removing inactive or disruptive members is equally easy through the admin dashboard.

Aside from understanding the pros, to gain a balanced view, let's also weigh the cons:

Table: Pros & cons of Skool

Truthfully, Skool’s approach to online course hosting is a bit of a letdown. While you can create unlimited courses, the platform doesn’t support native video hosting. Instead, you need to embed videos from third-party sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, or Loom. There will be additional costs for premium storage if you want to keep your content secure.

Moreover, YouTube’s unlisted videos aren’t truly private, so your course material can be shared with unintended users. For those running paid courses, this can be an issue you need to take note of.

Another drawback is the lack of student assessment tools. There are no quizzes, surveys, or certificates, which might be a dealbreaker for creators running certification programs or structured learning experiences.

Pricing

Skool keeps its pricing transparent and simple. For $99 per month, you get access to unlimited courses, unlimited students, and all community features. These include email broadcasts, chat, and analytics—without hidden fees or paywalled features.

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Bettermode – Best for AI-Powered Community Engagement

Ideal For: Businesses looking to build branded customer communities with strong engagement and analytics features

Price: Free plan available; paid plans start from $59/month

Bettermode (formerly known as Tribe) is one of the best community management platforms for businesses focused on branded customer engagement. Uniquely, it uses a structured approach with Spaces and Collections.

These features make it easy to organize discussions, knowledge bases, and product updates. The former functions as dedicated hubs where members can interact around specific topics, while the latter groups related Spaces together for a more streamlined experience.

Additionally, Bettermode allows adjustments to profile fields, typography, colors, and even custom domain hosting, ensuring a branded feel. Contrary to many online community platforms that offer limited branding options, it provides a high level of control over your project's appearance.

Engagement & Gamification Features

So, what are the pros and cons of Bettermode, in general? Here they are:

Table: Pros & cons of Bettermode

Keeping members engaged is key for any online community management platform, and Bettermode includes badges, points, virtual currency, and a leaderboard system to encourage participation. The ability to react with emojis, GIFs, and mentions adds a social media-like experience, which I found useful for sparking discussions.

While many other options focus on basic analytics, Bettermode takes reporting further with detailed insights into group activity, engagement trends, and space performance.

What really caught my attention was the AI-powered user analytics. The integration with SearchUnify’s GenAI helps businesses understand user behavior, making it easier to refine content strategies based on real-time data.

The platform connects with apps like Zapier, Slack, and Hotjar, but the number of available integrations is smaller compared to some competitors. For businesses that need more flexibility, it offers API and webhook access for custom integrations.

One area where it could expand is educational content delivery. It does not include a built-in online course builder or native live streaming, which may be a drawback for those who want to offer structured learning experiences within their communities.

Pricing

Bettermode’s pricing places it in the premium category. Though there's a free version, its functionality is widely limited and better suited to individuals. Meanwhile, the Advanced Plan starts at $59 per month, which is higher than many alternatives. Businesses seeking a cost-effective solution may want to explore other options before making a commitment.

That said, Bettermode works for those seeking a community management platform that is focused on customer engagement, branding, and AI-driven analytics. Nevertheless, the pricing and lack of educational tools might not suit every use case.

Mighty Networks – Best for Course Creators & Coaches

Ideal For: Creators, educators, and businesses that want an all-in-one platform combining courses, memberships, and community discussions

Price: Starts at $49/month with a 14-day free trial

Mighty Networks stands out for its flexibility in structuring a community engagement platform. Different from others that separate discussions, courses, and memberships into distinct areas, it lets you blend them within the same space. I found this particularly useful for cohort-based learning, where social interaction and real-time discussions are key to engagement.

It also organizes content into Spaces and Collections. The former are individual sections where discussions, courses, events, and other activities happen. The latter bundles multiple spaces together, offering controlled access for different membership levels.

For monetization, the platform integrates with Stripe, enabling direct payments for memberships, courses, or one-time purchases. The ability to gate access to individual spaces or collections means you can structure multiple membership tiers without using third-party tools.

One of my favorite automation features here is progress-based access. You can set up rules that automatically move members into new spaces after completing a course, reaching a certain engagement level, or upgrading their subscriptions. This ensures a dynamic experience without requiring manual intervention.

Engagement & Management Features

When it comes to Mighty Networks's strengths and weaknesses, here they are:

Table: Pros & cons of Mighty Networks

Engagement tools are a strong point for Mighty Networks. You can create community posts, long-form articles, and multimedia-rich content with images, videos, and GIFs. There’s also built-in live streaming, letting you go live inside any space for interactive discussions.

Polls and quizzes add an extra layer of interactivity, though I noticed the lack of a dedicated leaderboard system. While it’s possible to create workarounds, platforms with built-in leaderboards make the content more interesting.

Nevertheless, Mighty Networks compensates with other gamification elements, including streaks, milestones, challenges, habit tracking, badges, and an ambassador program. These tools provide a structured way to reward participation, even without a traditional leaderboard.

Pricing

Mighty Networks is one of the more affordable online community platforms. Here are the details:

• Community Plan – $49/month (no course builder, quizzes, or advanced analytics);
• Courses Plan – $119/month;
• Business Plan – $219/month;
• Path-to-Pro Plan – $430/month;
• Mighty Pro – Custom pricing (white-label mobile app & branding options).

The entry-level plan works well for general social building, but those looking to offer structured courses will need to upgrade. The lack of a course builder in the most affordable plan may be a drawback for educators who want everything under one roof.

As seen here, Mighty Networks is one of the best community engagement platforms for those who want to utilize built-in tools in their course or membership experience. It provides flexibility, automation, and monetization features that make scaling your user base easier, though gamification tools could be expanded further.

Pros

• Easy to use with a learn-by-doing approach
• Offers quality content
• Gamified in-browser coding experience

Main Features

• Free certificates of completion
• Focused on data science skills
• Flexible learning timetable

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Pros

• High-quality courses
• Nanodegree programs
• Student Career services

Main Features

• Nanodegree programs
• Suitable for enterprises
• Paid certificates of completion

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Pros

• A wide range of learning programs
• University-level courses
• Easy to navigate

Main Features

• University-level courses
• Suitable for enterprises
• Verified certificates of completion

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Kajabi – Best for Scalable Coaching Programs

Ideal For: Course creators who want structured learning tools and a built-in community without relying on third-party platforms

Price: Starts at $89/month

Kajabi gives a lot of flexibility. You can launch a course on its own and later expand into memberships or coaching. Some platforms force a community aspect from the start, but here, that’s entirely up to you.

If a structured learning experience matters to you, Modules and Lessons help organize content neatly, with Submodules available for breaking down complex topics into smaller, digestible sections.

The AI course outline generator is a helpful starting point. Just type in a course title and description, and it builds a full structure with modules, lessons, and descriptions.

Once that’s set, you can upload videos, PDFs, and other materials.

Meanwhile, customization helps shape the learning experience. It provides six-course player templates, where you can adjust the layout, colors, and typography. Even more, add gamification badges to recognize student progress. Interactive learning features like quizzes, assessments, and completion certificates also help students stay engaged while giving them a sense of achievement.

Engagement & Management Features

Why is Kajabi recommended? What are its areas of improvement? Let's see:

Table: Pros & cons of Kajabi

A strong community keeps students active, and Kajabi has the right tools to encourage participation. Discussions, group chats, and live events help members connect, while leaderboards create a fun way to boost engagement.

The Challenge feature is something I find useful. It lets you set structured tasks or goals for members, keeping them motivated and involved in the learning process.

The platform's Live Rooms also add a dynamic element. Whether you screen share, chat, create breakout groups, or record sessions, it's relatively easy to host interactive events. There’s a 200-participant limit, which works fine for small to mid-sized communities but might feel restrictive for larger groups.

Keeping track of member activity is also quite simple. Kajabi provides insights on engagement, course progress, and overall participation. You can also remove inactive members if needed, keeping the community focused and active.

Pricing

The platform takes a premium approach, but every plan gives full access to its course and community features. Here is the breakdown:

• Kickstarter – $89/month (up to 250 contacts);
• Basic – $149/month (up to 10,000 contacts);
• Growth – $199/month (up to 25,000 contacts);
• Pro – $399/month (up to 100,000 contacts).

The pricing might feel high, but the control over courses, customization options, and interactive features can justify the cost. After all, Kajabi suits coaches, educators, and entrepreneurs who want structured learning tools with built-in engagement features.

Comparing the Best Community Management Platforms

Each platform has its strengths depending on the type of community you want to build. Here’s a quick breakdown of the best options based on different needs:

Table: An overview of the best community management platforms

Choosing the right option depends on your goals, audience, and the level of interaction you want to encourage. Whether you're running a Web3 guild, a private membership site, or a brand-focused customer community, finding the one that aligns with your vision will set the foundation for long-term success.

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Key Features to Look for in a Community Engagement Platform

The best community management platform should provide the tools to grow, engage, and manage your audience effectively. Here are five key features to consider:

These features set the foundation for a strong, interactive community. With the right choice, managing engagement becomes a smoother process, allowing you to focus on delivering value to your members.

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Conclusions: Which One to Choose?

A strong online user base needs the right foundation to grow, and the best community management platform provides the tools to keep members engaged. From gamification to analytics, the options laid out here help businesses, educators, and Web3 projects foster deeper connections and long-term loyalty.

Every community has unique needs, so exploring different options is key. Some platforms focus on professional networking, while others offer interactive learning or large-scale engagement features. Finding the right one can set the stage for lasting success.

Scientific References

1. Schluger, C., Chang, J. P., Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, C., & Levy, K.: 'Proactive Moderation of Online Discussions: Existing Practices and the Potential for Algorithmic Support';

2. Langford, B. J., Laguio-Vila, M., Gauthier, T. P., & Shah, A.: 'Go V.I.R.A.L.: Social Media Engagement Strategies in Infectious Diseases'.