Community

The 17 Best Online Community Platforms for 2024

If community platforms have any longevity, they need to support video. We reviewed the best community platforms with a focus on their video functionality to help you stand out in 2024.
Martine Hammar
March 5, 2024

It’s no secret that as humans, we desire a sense of belonging. Even from a young age, we are encouraged to make friends, share, work collaboratively, take turns, and respect others. 

And as we grow, we naturally gravitate towards people who have similar interests to us. 

Whether we realize it or not, we create our own little community. This “community” serves as an environment where we can share our ideas, and opinions with like-minded people. It can offer us information and partnerships that we might otherwise have missed. 

If you take a moment to think about it, you might notice that you are a member of a few communities already – perhaps a neighborhood committee, your child’s school committee, or an online community for holiday recommendations.

Duncan Elder defines an online community as “a group of people who interact online around a shared interest, challenge, or goal.” 

But how can brands benefit from an online community? And why do brands need to focus their efforts in this way?

The answer is simple – because humans want to be around like-minded people. And if they interact with other advocates of your company, they will already have a lot in common. You’d be surprised how much they want to learn, teach, share, and experience on your community platform.

Why are online communities important?

Branded online communities are a great way to humanize and strengthen your brand. They allow you to share targeted information and create deeper connections with your customers and prospects too. Typically a branded online community is connected to your website, and might include customers, prospects, and team members.

A branded community is described by Chloe West as “a place where people who have an emotional connection to your brand can connect with each other and with your brand.”

The best people to sell your brand are your happiest customers. And an online community is the best way to find these customers, meet them, guide them, and get to know them. And for them to get to know you too!

A brilliant way to truly humanize your brand and engage with customers is with video. Video can be used for conversations, ice breakers, informal greetings and welcomes, and also video testimonials.

How does video boost online community engagement?

Probably the worst-kept secret is that I’m quite obsessed with all things video. 

Everyone knows that video is the future, or they should by now. If community platforms have any longevity and want to avoid the death in engagement that all community managers fear, they need to be adopting video.

Including a video on your landing page can drive engagement and boost conversion rates by up to 80%. The same is true for video content that's posted to your community channels. Your members will be engaged for longer and more likely to take action as a result of seeing the video. And, as community managers, we all know that more engagement = a happier, healthier community!

With video, there’s really no better way to humanize your brand. And companies should not be afraid of doing this, especially if their competitors aren’t using video themselves – what a great way to stand out! 

At StoryPrompt we talk a lot about humanizing your brand. But what does this actually mean? It means showing behind-the-scenes, bringing a friendly face to your company, allowing prospects to see happy customers recommending your brand and engaging with each other. It’s about building trust with your community.

Creating a community on social media

I’m sure you’re thinking, can I create a community on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp? The answer is yes sure, but at what cost? 

The thing you have to remember is that if something is free, you’re paying for it somehow and it’s usually with your privacy. I don’t believe your community members will necessarily appreciate that. 

There’s also the influx of ads, noise, distractions and behavioral targeting that you have to consider. 

Below I have reviewed 17 of the best online community platforms. I have discussed the features, prices, and my overall impression of the platform. And I’ve deeply analyzed their video functionality, if they have any at all. I have then commented on their video efforts so after reading about each platform, you can make the decision for yourself.

The 17 best online community platforms

Now that you’ve decided that creating an online community is beneficial, where do you begin? I’ll give you a clue – not from scratch!

Below are 17 of the best online community platforms that you can use to start creating your own community. 

Swarm

Swarm describes itself as a "video-centric community platform", so I was very eager to see how it differed from the other community platforms. At first glance I could see that Swarm was a platform for creators, coaches, and experts. And not a community for everybody. Swarm really seemed to stand out from the crowd, and weren't afraid to go niche.

The idea of being able to set up a community and get paid for a side-business immediately caught my eye.

Swarm allows you to create a "Space", basically your own community area. You can then add "Topics" which are like different channels or conversation starters within your Space. In short, this means that I can create a community and then have channels for different discussion topics e.g. Introduce yourself, Ask me Anything. These channels felt very organized and likely to be a good experience for my community members.

The best part of Swarm has to be the face-to-face asynchronous video features. It ensures that all communication is essentially human-to-human. It's like having a Zoom conversation with someone but in your own time, so there is no need for lengthy, scheduled meetings. This also means that you're making yourself available to any time-zone 24 hours a day.

Swarm also offers really clever AI integration, with summarized transcriptions, removal of filler words and response assistance. Content can be created using video, audio, text and screen share. Swarm also have Stripe integration so you can basically start collecting payments as soon as you are set up and ready to go.

Swarm: Community Platform for Coaches, Creators, & Experts

Best Features

All these features enhance your community:

  • Spaces can be setup in order to engage with groups or as 1:1 environments.
  • Dashboards can be viewed as vertical thread (card layout) or feed according to your preference.
  • Ability to add interactive buttons and text to your videos.
  • Ability to tag community members.
  • Captions added to your videos automatically, these can be edited.
  • Ability to add a poll to your video.
  • When a community member responds to your video, you receive an email and can respond directly from your email or phone.
  • DMs for messaging community members privately.
  • Posts and responses can be video, text or audio.
  • Add gifs to your text messages.
  • Very visual threads so you can easily reply to messages.
  • Recap feature allows you to quickly catch up on what you missed using a transcript of the videos.
  • Pin posts to ensure important posts are noticeable.
  • Set aside videos to respond to a convenient time.
  • Speed up videos and your preferences are saved.
  • Screen sharing capabilities.
  • Stripe integration.
  • Ability to fully white label your community and add your own domain, branding colors, and branded mobile app.

Plans and Pricing

Swarm has three plans currently available, all prices shown are based on a yearly payment and include free 14 day trial:

  1. The Novice Plan – $39/mo, 1 Space, 50 members, unlimited messages, transcriptions and AI, 2 minute video limit.
  2. The Pro Plan – $79/mo, 5 Spaces, unlimited members accept payments, Zapier integration, REST API and SSO.
  3. The Expert Plan – $149/mo, unlimited Spaces, marketplace listing, white label and branded mobile app.

Video Integration

Swarm's video integration is by far the best I've ever seen. The video features really allow you to get to know your community members and interact with them in a truly human way.

While other community platforms have video, it seems like a bit of an after-thought. Swarm puts video on the forefront of the platform.

Summary

I also think Swarm really stand out from the crowd and are the only platform out there that allows anyone with skills to become an expert and get paid for it. There's no excuse not to monetize if you have knowledge and you like interacting with people :)

I think Swarm is ahead-of-the-game and definitely challenging the status quo. It feels like the future of online community!

If your community appreciates the personal, human element, they're definitely ready for Swarm.

Bettermode

My first impression of Bettermode was that it was highly customizable and easy to follow. I was greeted by the CEO, Siavash Mahmoudian, and was shown a quick tour guide which was very helpful.

To get started with Bettermode, you have to select a “Space” template or create a Space from scratch. A space is a place designed for common use cases such as discussion forums, Q&A, events, knowledge base, ideation, roadmap communication, product updates, etc. After that, you can create different types of content and invite members to join your space.

You are also able to fully customize your landing page – from a full-width layout with content from different spaces to a 3-column layout with a content feed. Of course, you can decide how you want the engagement to work, for example by adding reactions or adding upvotes. You can also post updates using audio, video, text, and images. To use video, you can add a link or embed a link to your video. These links can include YouTube and Vimeo.

Best Features

  • Customization tools powered by Blocks
  • Templates to help you get started
  • App Store that allows community admins to add the functionality they need
  • Good integrations with business tools such as Zapier, HubSpot, Zendesk, Salesforce, Jira, and Intercom
  • Intuitive onboarding
  • Ability to add reactions to posts
  • Great customization features
  • Moderation panel – great for keeping an eye on posts
  • Adding tags to your posts
  • Embed tools to integrate into websites and products (both no-code and SDK-based)
  • Developer Portal to create custom apps to add custom features 

Plans and Pricing

Bettermode has two plans and also offers a free 14-day trial.

  1. Advanced Plan – $599/mo, fully white-label, API and webhooks access, customer success manager, advanced apps including Intercom.
  2. Enterprise Plan – For large businesses with complex regulatory requirements. This plan comes with enterprise-grade security, uptime SLA, data residency, audit & activity log, and SAML authentication.

Video Integration

With Bettermode the only way to have video is to upload or embed a video and there is a limit of 500MB on the Advanced plan and unlimited on the Enterprise plans. It’s not really the same experience as recording a video on the platform itself and encouraging an easy two-way video conversation in my opinion. 

Summary

I liked Bettermode, I felt that what it does, it does well. Bettermode is highly customizable and would definitely help you launch a unique community. The pricing is high, there’s no doubt about that but that’s because Bettermode is specifically designed for brand-led communities looking to build stronger customer engagement.

Facebook Groups

Facebook might seem like the natural place to launch your community right? After all, almost everyone you know is probably on Facebook already. 

But as beneficial as that sounds, it’s also the main problem with Facebook groups. Facebook Groups are amazing for small communities who want regular updates and a platform to ask questions and receive feedback. But for larger communities, I’d urge you to consider following flaws:

  • Facebook Groups give you absolutely no control over your data. The algorithm decides who sees your posts, thereby determining their reach, not you
  • Your group won’t show up on Google searches 
  • Not everyone who would benefit from your community is actually on Facebook, despite what you think
  • You might find the novelty of a Facebook group has actually passed
  • People are tired of the endless notifications
  • There’s a lack of privacy – you have no control over the content shared on your group
  • Distractions from other pages and friends
  • The real negative here from a community manager’s point of view is that you don’t own your audience – easy problem to solve using a dedicated community platform like .

Best Features

  • Ability to make groups private or public
  • Easily see community members and network with them
  • View community members Facebook profiles directly
  • Completely free so a great way to start
  • Link to related events from the Facebook group

Plans and Pricing

Facebook is free to use but remember that means you’re going to be shown lots of ads. In my opinion, ads = noise, and don’t we all have enough of that?

Video Integration

Facebook allows you to upload videos onto your group, users can then comment directly on the video. All conversations will be typed in the comments though which means there is no two-way communication via video at all.

Summary

Facebook seems like the obvious place to launch your community, it’s frictionless and already a place your community members are likely to be. Unlike a new platform for them to navigate. 

I think Facebook is a great place for your community to start, but not necessarily scale.

Slack

You might think of Slack as a text-based communication tool, you probably use for employee engagement. But with Slack, you can easily create a community space with your existing Slack account. Similar to Facebook, it's likely your community members might already be using and comfortable with the platform, which means less friction.

When posting to your Slack community, you can upload files, record a video or audio clip. You can also add an emoji as a reaction to a post and tag other community members.

Best Features

  • Organized channels for different topics
  • Slack Connect allows more collaboration
  • Post using text, video, audio
  • Ability to screen share from the platform
  • Searchable transcripts
  • Huddles for quick questions or brainstorming

Plans and Pricing

All these plans include the pricing per active user, per month. It’s important to multiply this amount based on how many community members you have.

  1. Free Plan – posts removed after 90 days, includes 10 integrations (for example: Google Drive, Office), audio and video conversations with screen sharing.
  2. Pro Plan – $7.25/mo per active user, full post history, unlimited integrations, screen sharing up to 50 community members, the full message history, collaboration with outside organizations or guests.
  3. Business+ Plan – $12.50/mo per active user, advanced identity management through SAML-based SSO, 24/7 support.

Video Integration

Slack is probably one of the better video integration community platforms listed here. The reason is because they allow you to record directly from the platform instead of forcing you to record and then upload. This ensures that video communication feels natural and responsive.  

Summary

The one negative of Slack for a community platform is the pricing structure. At first it seems really cheap, and it would be if you had two community members. But imagine your community is growing, and every time it grows it costs you another $7.25 per member. Firstly, that can really add up and secondly, it seems like a bit of a headache. It also could add an element of friction. You might need to justify whether it’s worth adding a community member and if they will bring sufficient value to justify the cost. You could charge for the membership but this is still something to think about.

You have to consider that many of your members might have additional own Slack workspaces which screams out one word to me - distraction! Slack has been known to cause distraction from work because of the constant notifications and multiple Slack channels, so you have to ask yourself, how engaged will my community really be on this platform?

Mighty Networks

My first impression of Mighty Networks was a very simple platform to use. Immediately I was able to create some posts and invite people to join my fictitious community.

Mighty Networks is very visual, which for a busy community manager, I really appreciate. I often feel that too much effort is spent on fluffy, overcomplicated UX, so I really appreciated Mighty Networks’ effort to keep things simple, and easy-to-use.

Once you register, you will be able to create and customize your own landing page with your own domain. 

Best Features

All these can be added to your landing page:

  • An icebreaker question – members can answer when they join
  • Ability to go live on a livestream
  • Hosting events
  • Create and run courses
  • Run premium groups
  • Premium analytics called Mighty Insights
  • IOS and Android applications
  • All plans provide unlimited members

Plans and Pricing

When you set up your community, you can choose whether you’d like your members to pay to join, or access a course. There is a large range of different currencies, and all plans have unlimited members and hosts.

  1. The Community Plan – $33/mo, you get native live streaming and video, chat and messaging, events and Zoom integration.
  2. The Business Plan – $99/mo, you have access to online courses, live cohort course creation, analytics and member data, Zapier APIs and Workflows.
  3. Mighty Pro – contact them for costs, with this plan you will get your own app and branded app notifications.

Mighty Networks offer a free 14 day trial.

Video Integration

With Mighty Networks you can upload a previously recorded video, but it takes about 4 minutes to upload a .MOV 100MB file, and you can’t download it afterwards. You can post a video for your community to see HOWEVER…they can only respond with a photo, file or text. 

That made me sad 😥

Summary

I think this is a great option for creating a community. It’s simple and intuitive. Mighty Networks have a real niche in supporting online courses – this is a great addition to a community platform. 

One slight negative I discovered was the sign in process, I have no doubt this will annoy community members too. After leaving the platform I tried to sign back in. I had to add my email address and then go to my email account to click on a link to sign back in. Felt a bit like I was being punished for leaving. My advice – just don’t leave!

Thinkific

Thinkific prides itself on being a platform where you can leverage your online courses. I feel there is a brilliant link with a community platform. Online courses can be a lonely experience, so to combine it with an online community platform will definitely drive engagement, ongoing motivation, and further learning. 

After logging in, I was prompted to take a tour and was shown a video to help me get started. This felt quite personal, with video feedback from their users.

For the purpose of this blog, I’m going to focus on the community features but if you are looking to launch an online course, I would definitely check out these features.

When posting to my community I had the option of adding an image, video URL or file. Unfortunately I was unable to record a video directly on the platform.

Best Features

  • Great link with online courses and members can join a new course directly from the community platform
  • Host live events
  • Tag members
  • Notifications so that updates aren’t missed
  • Option to charge access to your community 

Plans and Pricing

Thinkific offers the following plans:

  1. Free Plan – This includes 1 course, 1 community, 1 administrator and unlimited students. 
  2. Start Plan – $75/mo, this includes unlimited courses and 1 community.
  3. Grow Plan – $149/mo, this includes unlimited courses and 3 communities with 2 administrators
  4. Expand – $374/mo, this includes unlimited courses, 10 communities with 5 administrators

Video Integration

Thinkific allows you to add video to your posts but like many of its competitors (with the exception of Swarm) this has to be recorded outside the platform and uploaded to your community. Once a video is uploaded, team members can like or comment on it.

Summary

I think Thinkific is a brilliant way to link your online courses and your community. Linking a course to your community is a great feature and could generate additional income for the course leader. The posting features might be limited but this is not such a deal-breaker for me. This is because as an add-on to your online course, your members are likely to receive a lot of value without the platform needing to be overly complicated.

But, I need to share my views on the pricing. If we are considering only the community features of Thinkific then the pricing becomes pretty expensive. In order to create a community where you can have 3 communities and 2 administrators, you will need to spend $149/mo (if paid yearly) whereas Swarm will give you 10 spaces with 3 administrators for $79/mo.

Thinkific is a great platform as an add-on to your online course business but would be considered expensive when compared to other stand-alone tools in this list.

Circle

My first impression of Circle was that it felt a bit complicated. I was immediately hit with a lot of information and a video telling me to get started in 25 minutes – um, no thank you! I don’t wish to take 25 minutes to get started with anything.

However, after the initial impression, I began to really like Circle. I was easily able to create a post. They have added in the ability to add a cover image which I think is a great touch. There are options from Unsplash, or you can upload your own.

Best Features

  • Ability to go live on a livestream – only when upgraded to Professional
  • Add your own branding – only when upgraded to Professional
  • Create private and secret groups
  • Use a custom domain
  • Create and run courses
  • Integrates with services like Mailchimp, Slack, and Wordpress
  • iOS app

Plans and Pricing

When you set up your community, you can choose whether you’d like your members to pay to join. Circle offers a free 14 day trial.

  1. Basic – $39/mo, 1000 members, unlimited events, group chats and private messaging, accept payments with Paywalls, access to Circle's own private customer community and training.
  2. Professional – $99/mo, 10,000 members, also includes live streams (100 attendees), can add own branding and CSS customization, advanced analytics, API analytics.
  3. Enterprise – $399/mo, 100,000 members, live streams can have over 1000 attendees, email white labelling, priority email support and a dedicated customer support manager.

Video Integration

With Circle you can upload a previously recorded video. I uploaded the same .MOV 100MB video and was significantly quicker than Mighty Networks and you can download it afterwards. You’re then able to respond to the video with text or a prerecorded video of your own. I think they missed a trick here as it would be amazing if you could respond without having to leave, record, and upload.

Summary

I think Circle is a great option. It’s simple to use, which I appreciated. I like the fact that with Circle you can respond to a video with a video. Unfortunately, they have to be uploaded and not recorded spontaneously but at least the option is there.

Zapnito

Zapnito is an enterprise-grade online community platform providing everything your business needs to design, engage, manage and grow your customer community.

Since 2013, Zapnito has helped global brands to take their community experience to the next level by replacing multiple legacy engagement tools with one fully customized Zapnito platform. Centralizing where customers learn, share and connect creates more impactful engagement, loyalty and advocacy.With open/private rooms, discussions, premium content publishing, content, events, courses, video panels, analytics, notifications and much more - you can build a one-of-a-kind customer community experience.

In addition to providing a leading online community platform, Zapnito also offers expert strategic support and the Zapnito Community brings together 500+ community leaders to learn, share and connect.

My first impression of Zapnito was that it's got a LOT of text-based content, it's pretty much filled to the brim. Zapnito is very different to the other platforms reviewed in this article because conversations happen in the comment section of the blogs.

Best features

  • Enterprise content management to engage audiences with high-quality, unique content
  • Professional networking tools to foster meaningful connections between members and your brand
  • Community analytics to understand members’ needs and behaviors
  • Online event tools that can either be standalone for a virtual event or complement a hybrid/physical event
  • Community monetization to diversify your revenue streams into advertising, sponsorship, premium content, and more
  • Custom integrations to seamlessly work as part of a wider tech stack

Plans and pricing

Zapnito do not offer a free trial and all their prices are hidden. You have to contact them for a quote – I'm not always the biggest fan of this unnecessary friction point. Below are the details of the plans.

  1. Corporate Plan - Branded solution for large communities with advanced engagement and networking options, 10 team members, 15,000 registered users, email and live chat support
  2. Enterprise Plan - Fully custom solution for multiple communities, with many integration points, multiple communities, unlimited team members, unlimited registered users, dedicated account manager, in-person support

Video Integration

Zapnito allows you to upload a video and post it to your community. But like many of the platforms reviewed in this article, this is prerecorded and not recorded in the actual platform itself. This feature however is only included with specific privileges.

Summary

I liked Zapnito as a learning community. I did however feel that their engagement features let them down slightly. By only being able to comment or like a post, it does limit engagement in my opinion. To me it seems like a great place to host your content and invite members to read it. Whether that would give rise to an engaged community, I'm just not sure.

Reign theme

Reign theme is a WordPress theme that allows you to create a community website with various features, integrations and customizations. You can build a social network, an online course, an e-commerce store, a job portal or a directory or any other type of community website. It is compatible with many popular plugins such as BuddyPress, PeepSo, LearnDash, LifterLMS, Dokan, WC Vendors, WCFM Marketplace, GeoDirectory, JobMate and more. It also offers multiple header and footer layouts, color schemes, typography options, drag and drop page builder, and RTL support.

Best Features

  • Compatible with multiple plugins such as BuddyPress, PeepSo, LearnDash, LifterLMS, Dokan, WC Vendors, WCFM Marketplace, GeoDirectory and JobMate
  • Multiple header and footer layouts to choose from
  • Customizable color schemes and typography options
  • Drag and drop page builder based on Elementor
  • RTL support for right to left languages
  • Dozens of live demos to kick start your business

Plans and Pricing

Reign theme has three pricing plans: 

  1. Single Site – $69 for Single Site License
  2. 5 Sites – $129 for 5 Site License 
  3. 20 Sites – $199 for 20 Site License

All plans include one year of updates and support, regular updates and one-click demo.

Video Integration

Reign theme supports video integration with various plugins such as BuddyPress Activity Plus, rtMedia for WordPress, BuddyPress and bbPress, PeepSo Videos etc. You can upload videos from your device or embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo and other sources. You can also create video galleries, albums and playlists for your community members. 

Conclusion

Reign theme is a versatile and powerful WordPress theme that lets you create your own community website with ease. It has many features and integrations that make it suitable for different niches and purposes.

It also supports video integration with various plugins and sources but like most of the platforms listed in this articles, these videos cannot be recorded live and within the platform.

I think their flexible pricing plans and 30 day money-back guarantee are nice touches and definitely make you feel that your needs and requirements are being considered.

Disciple

Disciple is very clean and easy to navigate. I did however find it challenging to sign up for a free trial. The free trial is slightly hidden as they prefer you to book a demo, even before seeing the platform for yourself. I’m not really a fan of this because I don’t believe you should be taking up 30 minutes of my time if all I want to do is see the interface.

After putting my detective hat on, I was able to find the sign up button and was pleasantly surprised. It’s simple to create and post. I liked the fact that they send you notifications and that the buttons on the toolbar are vast, including adding GIFs. I was able to set up a poll and attach a video onto my post easily and quickly.

Best Features

  • Live streams
  • Private folders
  • Private messaging
  • Scheduled content
  • IOS and Android app
  • Integrations with services like Slack, Mailchimp and Salesforce

Plans and Pricing

When you set up your community, you can choose whether you’d like your members to pay to join. Disciple’s pricing structure is unique and you can create a plan that works for you specifically. To begin with you can select whether you want web or mobile. Afterwards you select your community size and any additional features.

For the sake of comparison, I have made a selection here:

Disciple offers a free 7 day trial - half the time of their competitors mentioned above.

Video Interactions

I was able to add a video into a post, it was relatively quick to upload too. Users can then view, comment and share the video. They are then able to respond to the video with text or a previously recorded video of their own.

Like Circle, Disciple gives you the opportunity to communicate using video, but because you’re only able to upload a prerecorded video, the spontaneous video-based communication is lacking.

Summary

The pricing on Disciple is incredibly expensive. Considering I have only selected a web-based platform with 1000 members and it’s already coming in at $154 (see image above), whereas Circle would be $39. This came as a bit of a shock. 

I have to wonder what it is that truly makes it worthy of that golden price tag. However I can see why it’s popular. It has no fluff and no overcomplicated, unnecessary UX. It’s really simple to follow and post to your community.

Insided

Insided has a real community feel. They integrate customer community content with a knowledge base. This means that users can contribute, help others and give feedback within the knowledgebase. They can also react to posts and earn badges. 

Unfortunately I was unable to sign up for a trial without booking a demo. I watched a video which was entitled “a brief look at our platform.” It was overly polished and salesy, and didn’t really give me any idea of what the platform looks like. 

Insided has integrations with tools such as Google Analytics, Zapier, API, Zendesk, Salesforce available with every plan. Integrations increase when plans are upgraded. 

Best Features

  • Great integrations
  • Ability to highlight and prioritize the best content
  • Earning badges
  • User and product insights
  • In-app embeddables – so you don’t need to be disturbed and can respond asynchronously

Plans and Pricing

There are no prices on the website, you will need to contact Insided for a quote. However, these are their plans:

  1. Professional Plan – 3 admins, custom domain, customizable homepage, HTML widgets and custom CSS
  2. Business Plan – 5 admins, user groups, customer success manager, and access to private events
  3. Enterprise Plan – 10 admins, enterprise customer success manager, and advanced CS integration

When you set up your community, you can choose whether you’d like your members to pay to join.

Video Integration

As I was unable to sign up for a trial, I can’t comment on this truthfully. However I went to their knowledge base and saw that someone had asked how to add a video to a post. The response was that you can embed videos from platforms like Figma and Canva. I have some issues with this: firstly, how obvious is this feature if a user had to ask the question? And secondly, it appears that video is an afterthought, and definitely not a focus of their platform.

This question was asked 2 years ago so maybe this has been updated, but as I was unable to see for myself, we will always have to wonder!

Summary

I liked browsing Insided, but “liked” is the only verb I can use here. It feels very hush-hush. I had no access to a free trial or any pricings. I’m not sure if this was to create mystery, or to appear super-premium, but either way it was not a great first impression.

Hivebrite

I can’t tell you my first impressions of Hivebrite because, like Insided, I was unable to log into it without booking a demo. I toyed with the idea of removing Hivebrite as one of my options in this article because quite frankly, this first impression of this platform really infuriated me. 

I understand that they want me to book a demo to see the value of the product, but I don’t feel I should have to give away my time just to see the interface, or the pricing. 

Incase you might have more tolerance than me, I have listed some of information I could find below. 

Hivebrite seems to have four specific community use-cases: 

  • Education – Connecting with your alumni
  • Professional Networks – described as “A LinkedIn on steroids” 🤣
  • Non-profits – Engage with donors, host events etc
  • Corporate Alumni – Connecting with former employees and new business leads

Best Features

  • Impressive data management
  • Full control over moderation
  • Integrated CMS
  • Organize and manage events from platform
  • Social network integration
  • Membership plans
  • Ability to receive charity donations
  • Allows you to create a fully branded community

Plans and Pricing

In truth, I was unable to obtain this information without a demo but after some research discovered that it’s around $500/mo. That’s quite a price! 

Video Integration

I have absolutely no idea how to comment here either. But all I can say is that if video was a massive aspect of their platform, I’d be able to make a comment here despite not seeing the interface first-hand.

Summary

I’m sure that Hivebrite is a great platform with fantastic features and networking opportunities but I have no way of confirming that. And to be honest, Hivebrite annoyed me with the cold, uninformative welcome from the very beginning. Personally I have an issue with hiding information and forcing me to give up my time by having to book a demo just to take a peek. For me a demo is useful for an upgrade, to brainstorm ideas, or to explain challenging features. NOT to see the interface. 

This one isn’t for me. If Hivebrite have in fact produced a truly wonderful dashboard, then we’ll never know that, will we? Bit of a shame :(

Discord

Discord is available in your browser or as a downloadable app. The homepage makes it look fun but in truth, not very B2B. Once I registered, I was asked to “Create a server” and also had the option to use a template. 

It was simple to post to my test community. I was able to post using text, add a file, gif, and react using an emoji. 

There seem to be two types of channels, text channels and video channels. Text channels seem similar to Slack and can be seen in this image below. Video channels integrate with a video platform similar to Zoom. This is useful for video conversations.

Best Features

  • Simple and easy to use
  • Add gifs and emojis
  • Channels can be made private
  • Has text channels and video channels
  • Can create threads
  • Inbox ensures you never miss a notification

Plans and Pricing

Discord is mostly free but the free plan is limited. You can upgrade by adding Nitro which is $9.99/mo. This means that you get better emojis, bigger uploads and HD video with screen share and live streaming.

Video Integration

Discord allows you to have synchronous video conversations and screen sharing conversations. Within the text channel, you can upload a video but this is restricted to 8MB per video, or 500MB after upgrading. That’s quite a difference!

Summary

While Discord looks fun, I question whether this is the correct platform for a business community. I imagine it’s more a platform for gamers to chat while they play together. This type of user would probably be happy to spend money on avatars and emojis. 

In my opinion it seems like you would choose between Discord and one of the social media platforms, all are easy-to-use and a great starting point, but seem more geared towards consumers than businesses.

Uscreen

Uscreen is primarily a platform for creators to sell, grow, and scale their business using video. By adding community features, Uscreen are taking engagement to the next level. This feels quite similar to Thinkific where the community can engage on a dedicated platform after receiving value from the online courses (Thinkific) or the video features (Uscreen). 

Just like Thinkific, I am only going to focus on the community features for the sake of a direct comparison with the other community platforms in this article. 

I have to note here that my first impression with Uscreen was that it was a tad pushy. They kept encouraging me to book a demo, over and over again. To watch a recorded demo of the platform, I had to add in my contact details. Not sure I love that if I’m honest. In a world where competitors offer so much ungated content and make me feel respected and valued, I found this to be a bit of a sticky point.

Creating a community is very simple and creating a post is too. 

But then I noticed something missing and my heart was sliced into two!!! You cannot post a video to your community! Huh??? 😥

Uscreen specialize in all things video, but you can only post a .jpg and .png? Disappointed is an understatement!  

Best Features

  • Fully customizable
  • Built-in monetization and billing
  • Community accessible on mobile devices
  • Ability to schedule posts to your community

Plans and Pricing

Uscreen have 2 main plans, with a free 14 day trial, and an enterprise plan.

  1. Basic Plan – $79/mo + $0.50 per subscriber per month, this includes 50 hours of video storage and 1 admin user.
  2. Growth Plan – $159/mo + $0.50 per subscriber per month, this includes 150 hours of video storage and 10 admin users. This plan allows access to the community, over 1000 integrations via Zapier and affiliate integrations.
  3. Uscreenplus – Contact them for details, this includes access to mobile apps, live streaming, white-labeled branding and dedicated support.

Video Integration

As I mentioned above, I had such high expectations for the video integration on Uscreen and now I feel a bit foolish. To only be able to post a photo or a file to your community means that Uscreen, a platform of massive video users, have missed the mark completely for me.

Summary

I understand what Uscreen are trying to create with their community features. They want it to be a place where members can engage, network and continue learning. I get that. But what I don’t get is why such huge video advocates would eliminate video from the community altogether?

Like Thinkific, the community features are an add-on to the primary video related features Uscreen offer. If you’re considering Uscreen as a standalone community tool, you need to see if you can justify the higher price tag over one of the other dedicated community applications like Swarm.

Guild

On Guild’s About page they specify, “Not owned by Facebook, Google, Amazon or Microsoft” I totally love this and support this 100%.

Creating a community with Guild was very simple and quick. I liked that I had the choice whether I wanted my group to be discoverable or private.

Guild allows you to add a photo, video, file and Gif to your post. Unfortunately the video has to be created outside of Guild and uploaded into the community. This obviously prevents a natural-feeling video conversation from taking place.

Best Features

  • Great mobile app - for iPhone and Android
  • Ability to send direct messages to members
  • Poll feature for voting
  • Discover groups that you might be interested in

Plans and Pricing

  1. Basic Plan – Free, 1 group and 100 members
  2. Pro Plan – $29/mo, 3 groups and 500 members, 3 moderators, brand customization and Zapier integration
  3. Business Plan – $220/mo, unlimited groups, 5000 members, API access, video including live streaming, unlimited admins and moderators
  4. Enterprise Plan – Custom pricing, custom number of members

Video Integration

Guild supports video but it’s pretty limited. All videos must be created elsewhere and then uploaded to your post.  

Summary

Guild was a great community platform, it’s simple to use and delivers exactly what it promises. No bells or whistles but in the current climate of overly complicated community platforms, I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing.

I do however think their dedicated phone apps set them apart and are very helpful for mobile community managers and members.

MeltingSpot

When I first setup my Spot, I must admit I was a bit confused. I do think MeltingSpot is a great place to host a live stream and engage with your community, but I found it very different, and significantly more confusing, than setting up a community in Swarm.

Best Features

  • Built-in studio to stream easily and quickly any type of lives (webinars, conferences, workshops, roundtables, physical events)
  • Multistream to Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, Twitch, Twitter, Telegram, Trovo and more.
  • Member connections and interactions with 1:1 or group discussions
  • Fully customizable to your brand: logo, colours, name, resources: customise your spot to your image
  • Analytics & dashboards to track all your members’ activity
  • Audience management tool with smart groups and tags to share the right content with the right people
  • Public and private collections
  • Automations and integrations with more than 1,000 external apps
  • The ability to build your community as you go activating or deactivating each and every menu of your Spot: Homepage, Lives, Discussions, Collections, Members.
  • Content marketplace (they call “Kiosk) with lives to broadcast, Experts, Speakers to organize events with, or articles and white papers to share
  • The support they provide for free or with their studio to externalise growth, design, content production or event organization

Plans & Pricing

MeltingSpot offer 3 different plans depending on the community size (active members) and specific plans for start-ups, nonprofits, and agencies.

  1. Starter Plan – Free up to 20 members, 3 admin seats, customisation and email support, and access to their content marketplace
  2. Advanced Plan – Starting at $109/month for 100 members and ending at $419/month for 2000 members: dedicated community success manager, access to the training academy & their content marketplace
  3. Business Plan – Starting from $599/month, more than 2000 members: VIP customer success manager, access to the training academy & their content marketplace, APIs & webhooks, advanced dashboards

Video Integration

With their built-in studio, you can go live directly on MeltingSpot, they also integrate with popular external solutions like YouTube, Twitch or LinkedIn, allowing you to stream using your preferred tools. Additionally, their platform automatically generates a replay of your live stream, within 1 minute of the live ending. And if you have pre-recorded videos on YouTube, you can easily upload them to the platform.

Summary

I think MeltingSpot is a good platform for hosting your live event, but I do think that this is their main focus. The lack of video integration as a form of community engagement is a bit of a disappointment for me. However, MeltingSpot is a great platform to fully customize your Spot, share content, and grow your community.

Podia

I must admit Podia was a very new platform to me so I was eager to check it out. They have 4 main categories: Start (website and email list), Build (downloads, coaching and community), Grow (courses and webinars), and Scale (affiliate and teams). I like the simplicity of this and it also seems that you will be able to use a number of Podia's features for free.

I easily set up a community to test the features. It was simple to setup but quite honestly a bit bland and uninspiring. Straight away I was alerted to those words that send shivers down my spine "Upgrade your plan to add videos to posts."

So that obviously forced me to go to their pricing page which honestly didn't make me feel any happier. The way their plans work is that on the Free plan, you pay 8% fees. This means that Stripe or Paypal (passing the blame) will charge you 2.9% + 0.30¢ per transaction.

Plans and Pricing

  1. Free – 8% fees, full website (using Podia domain), full community, 1 download, 1 coaching product
  2. Mover – $39/mo, no fees, full website (can use custom domain), unlimited downloads, unlimited coaching products, unlimited courses, chat support, Google analytics
  3. Shaker – $89/mo, no fees, unlimited webinars, affiliates, third party code, Zapier integration, ability to add own branding

Best Features

  • Easily create webinars, courses, and coaching sessions
  • Create and launch your own website
  • Built-in affiliate marketing system
  • Numerous integrations including Drip, HotJar, Google Analytics, Sumo

Video Integration

Podia only allows you to upload videos on one of their paid plans. This means that you cannot record any videos on the platform, only upload prerecorded ones.

Summary

I thought Podia was ok, I was a bit underwhelmed about using it as a community platform. I also don't really like the fee structure of the Free plan as I believe it's very difficult to budget that way. I do however love the "mover and shaker" terminology, really made me chuckle. I think it's a great platform if you are wanting to create many different aspects of your business, community being just one. However you can't really compare to one of the other platforms where community and video are the foundation of the business.

Conclusion

When I started to write this article, I had clear areas I wanted to focus on: features, UX, branding, and the prices of all these platforms. However my main focus was to analyze how they were using video as a means of community engagement. 

As a strong advocate of video, I think the best way to truly utilize video is spontaneously. I appreciate that most of the tools like Circle and Disciple, allow you to upload a previously recorded video. But in my opinion when using video as part of your community’s communication, a response should be natural and spontaneous. 

If the respondent has to go out of the platform to record a video and then upload it, it adds unnecessary friction, which is a real shame. If asynchronous video communication were to even take place after leaving the platform, it would feel unnatural, overly formal and not very community-spirited.

When reviewing 17 platforms, it’s very easy to see the outlier. Out of all these platforms, Swarm was the only one to embrace video and branding to the degree I was hoping for.

Swarm allows you to respond to a video, with - you guessed it…another video! It’s like being on a live video call, but it’s not live so therefore not taking up a huge chunk of your day! Because Swarm is an asynchronous video-first platform, you can watch and respond to a conversation at a time that suits YOU. Not your already jam-packed calendar! And you can do all this in your own branded white-label version of the platform.

In conclusion, I’d like to add that the time really has come for community members to get to know each other better. And to stop hiding behind text and overly polished unnatural videos.

I think our communities are ready for a change and it's refreshing to see a platform like Swarm finally encouraging it.

Start truly engaging with your community and sign up to Swarm to experience what a face-to-face, video-first community platform truly feels like.

Martine Hammar

Chief Storyteller at StoryPrompt

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