Discourse is the default pick for most large public communities because its hosted Free plan has unlimited members, and Pro costs $100 per month with 5 staff seats and 20GB of storage. Skool is the lowest cost entry point for a subscription community at $9 per month on Hobby, while Circle starts at $89 per month and Mighty Networks at $79 per month, both with annual billing. Transaction fees change the real cost more than the monthly subscription. Skool takes 10% on Hobby and 2.9% on Pro, Circle takes 2% on Professional, and Mighty Networks takes 2% on Launch.
A large community needs clear structure, strong moderation, and a cost model that stays sane as membership grows. Some platforms charge a flat monthly amount, some charge per active user, and some add a percentage of every member payment. The eight options below cover public forums, subscription communities, chat communities, and enterprise member networks.
On this page
Best platform to manage a large online community: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Discourse | Large public forums and support communities | $100 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 2 | Circle | Branded subscription communities with courses | $89 per month | Free trial (14 days) | Visit |
| 3 | Mighty Networks | Creator communities with courses and live events | $79 per month | Free trial (14 days) | Visit |
| 4 | Skool | Low cost subscription communities with gamification | $9 per month | Free trial (14 days) | Visit |
| 5 | Discord | Large free chat communities with voice channels | $0 for core, $2.99 per month for Nitro Basic | Yes | Visit |
| 6 | Slack | Large work and member chat communities | $7.25 per user/month | Yes | Visit |
| 7 | Hivebrite | Alumni networks and associations | $895 per month | No | Visit |
| 8 | Higher Logic Vanilla | Enterprise customer forums | quote only | Free trial | Visit |
The 8 best best platform to manage a large online communitys, in detail
Discourse
Best for: Large public forums and support communities
Discourse is built for long form discussion that stays searchable. Its hosted Free plan includes unlimited members, 2 staff seats, 10 categories, 5GB of storage, 20,000 monthly emails, and 500,000 monthly page views. Pro costs $100 per month and raises the limits to 5 staff seats, unlimited categories, 20GB of storage, and 100,000 monthly emails.
- Business costs $500 per month and adds 15 staff seats, 100GB of storage, 300,000 monthly emails, priority support, events, gamification, and single si
- The trade-off is that Discourse has no built in checkout for subscription memberships or courses, so a community that sells access needs a separate bi
- It also keeps the same 500,000 page view cap on Free, Pro, and Business, which means traffic, not features, can force a move to custom Enterprise pric
- Choose Discourse for a public forum or a product support community.
Pros
- Unlimited members on every hosted plan
- open source software with self-hosting as an option
- strong moderation, categories, tags, and search
Cons
- Hosted plans cap page views at 500,000 a month on Free, Pro, and Business
- single sign-on needs the $500 per month Business plan on hosted plans
Circle
Best for: Branded subscription communities with courses
Circle suits a branded community that sells memberships, courses, and events. Professional costs $89 per month with annual billing, or $99 per month with monthly billing, and includes 3 admins, 20 spaces, 200GB of storage, and unlimited members. Business costs $199 per month with annual billing and raises the limits to 5 admins, 30 spaces, and 500GB of storage, while cutting the transaction fee to 1%.
- Circle Plus uses custom pricing and cuts the fee to 0.5%.
- The cost to watch is the transaction fee.
- On Professional, Circle takes 2% of member payments in addition to card processing, so $10,000 in monthly payments adds $200 in Circle fees.
- Business also adds automation and API access, which makes the $110 monthly jump from Professional a real decision point.
Pros
- Unlimited members on Professional
- courses, events, live streams, and paywalls in one place
- custom domain on Professional
Cons
- Professional takes a 2% transaction fee on member payments on top of card processing
- workflows, API access, and white label branding need the $199 per month Business plan
Mighty Networks
Best for: Creator communities with courses and live events
Mighty Networks combines a community, courses, events, and livestreaming. Launch costs $79 per month with annual billing, or $95 per month with monthly billing, and includes unlimited members and spaces, 3 hosts, 10 moderators, 200GB of storage, 20 hours of livestreaming a month for up to 100 viewers per stream, and a 2% transaction fee. Scale costs $179 per month with annual billing and adds 5 hosts, 15 moderators, 500GB of storage, 30 livestreaming hours, and API access.
- Growth costs $354 per month with annual billing.
- The 14 day free trial runs on the Growth plan, so test Launch limits, not only Growth features, before committing.
- Mighty Networks suits a creator who runs live sessions, courses, and a member feed in one place.
Pros
- Unlimited members and spaces on Launch
- courses, events, badges, and gamification included
- livestreaming included on Launch
Cons
- Launch takes a 2% transaction fee on member payments
- API access and deeper automations need the $179 per month Scale plan
Skool
Best for: Low cost subscription communities with gamification
Skool keeps pricing simple. Hobby costs $9 per month and Pro costs $99 per month, and both plans include unlimited members, courses, videos, and live calls, plus a custom URL and affiliates. The only material difference is the transaction fee.
- Hobby takes 10% of member payments, while Pro takes 2.9% on transactions up to $899 and 3.9% above $900, plus $0.30 per transaction.
- Yearly billing gives two months free on either plan.
- The fee math decides the plan.
- Pro costs $90 more per month than Hobby, and it saves 7.1 percentage points on the fee, so the crossover sits near $1,268 in monthly member payments.
Pros
- Unlimited members, courses, videos, and live calls on both plans
- very low $9 per month entry price
- simple two plan structure
Cons
- Hobby takes a 10% transaction fee on member payments
- only one membership tier per community, so a second tier needs a second community
Discord
Best for: Large free chat communities with voice channels
Discord is the cheapest way to run a very large chat community. Creating a server, adding text and voice channels, and inviting members costs nothing on the core plan, and message history, voice calls, and bot access are included. Nitro Basic costs $2.99 per month and adds custom emoji anywhere and 50MB uploads.
- Full Nitro costs $9.99 per month and adds 500MB uploads, higher quality video, and two Server Boosts.
- The limit to understand is that Nitro belongs to one account, not to a server, so buying Nitro does not give every member larger uploads or better vid
- A community that needs structured long form threads, a searchable knowledge base, or course sales will find Discord thin.
- Choose Discord for a gaming community, a fan community, or a large group that lives in live chat and voice.
Pros
- Core servers, text channels, voice channels, and bots are free with no member limit stated on the core plan
- large member base already uses the app
- Server Boosts can add perks to a server
Cons
- Nitro Basic at $2.99 per month and Nitro at $9.99 per month are personal upgrades, not server plans
- long form discussion and search are weaker than a forum
Slack
Best for: Large work and member chat communities
Slack works well for a community that behaves like a workplace, with channels, threads, and huddles. Pro costs $7.25 per user per month with annual billing, or $8.75 with monthly billing, and adds full message history, unlimited apps, and group huddles. Business+ costs $15 per user per month with annual billing and adds single sign-on, data exports, and more admin controls.
- Per user billing is the key risk.
- A group with 1,000 active members would pay $7,250 per month on Pro with annual billing, before any discount, while a flat fee platform would charge t
- The Fair Billing Policy helps, since Slack charges only for members who were active.
- Choose Slack for a professional community where members already use Slack at work.
Pros
- Channels, threads, huddles, and app integrations suit daily work
- Fair Billing Policy charges only for active members
- free plan has no seat limit
Cons
- Pro bills per active user, so 100 active members cost $725 per month on annual billing
- full message history needs a subscription plan, since the free plan keeps 90 days of history
Hivebrite
Best for: Alumni networks and associations
Hivebrite is an enterprise community platform for universities, associations, and nonprofits. Core costs $895 per month with annual billing, about $10,740 a year, and includes a directory, events, memberships, connections, and monetization, with 2 global admin seats and 5 groups. Flex costs $1,995 per month with annual billing and adds 5 global admin seats, 5 group admin seats, and 10 groups.
- Prime and Custom Fit use custom pricing after a discovery call.
- The entry price puts Hivebrite out of reach for most creator communities.
- A branded mobile app, mentoring tools, connectors, and multi-language support are listed as extensions.
- There is no free plan and no self serve trial, so evaluation starts with a sales conversation.
Pros
- Unlimited users on every plan
- member directory, groups, events, and memberships in one system
- built for chapters and structured member organisations
Cons
- Core includes only 2 global admin seats and 5 groups
- mobile app, mentoring, connectors, and multi-language support are extensions, not included features
Higher Logic Vanilla
Best for: Enterprise customer forums
Higher Logic Vanilla is a customer community platform for large support forums and product feedback communities. Its packages are named Basic, Corporate, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus, and the vendor does not publish a price for any of them, so the starting price here is quote only. The Corporate plan includes unlimited users, unlimited page views, unlimited API calls, multi-forum management, single sign-on, integrations, and developer tools.
- The published usage limits show where costs can grow.
- Corporate includes 2 single sign-on connections, 6 custom webhooks, 1 staging site, and 0 sub-communities, with extra connections at $6,000 per connec
- Choose Higher Logic Vanilla for a large customer community tied to support and product feedback.
Pros
- Unlimited users and unlimited page views on the Corporate plan
- forums, Q and A, ideation, gamification, and analytics in one system
- strong single sign-on and integration options
Cons
- No published price, so budgeting needs a sales quote
- extra single sign-on connections cost $6,000 per connection per year on the Corporate plan, and extra sub-communities cost $3,000 each per year
How we chose
We included only platforms with a live product, an official homepage, and a real use case at large scale. Prices and plan limits come from official vendor pricing pages and plan pages opened on 2026-11-12, and each price is cited in Sources. We did not test any tool hands-on. We ranked by fit for a large community, not by price alone, and we treated a flat fee, a per user fee, and a percentage of member payments as different cost models. Where a vendor did not publish a price, we wrote quote only instead of using a third party estimate. Discourse hosted plans keep a 500,000 monthly page view cap on Free, Pro, and Business, while Skool keeps the same features on Hobby and Pro and changes only the transaction fee, from 10% to 2.9%.
Pick by community size and budget
| Community size | Lowest cost fit | Why it fits | Monthly cost at that size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 100 members, chat first | Discord | Core servers are free | $0 for core |
| Under 100 members, subscription first | Skool Hobby | $9 per month, unlimited members | $9, plus 10% of member payments |
| 100 to 1,000 members, public forum | Discourse Pro | Flat $100 per month, unlimited members | $100 |
| 100 to 1,000 members, courses and events | Mighty Networks Launch | $79 per month with annual billing, unlimited members | $79, plus 2% of member payments |
| 1,000 to 10,000 members, subscription | Circle Professional | $89 per month with annual billing, unlimited members | $89, plus 2% of member payments |
| 10,000 or more members, alumni or association | Hivebrite Core | Unlimited users, directory and chapters | $895 with annual billing |
| 10,000 or more members, enterprise support forum | Higher Logic Vanilla | Unlimited users and page views on Corporate | quote only |
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to run a large online community?
Costs range from $0 on Discord core to $895 per month on Hivebrite Core with annual billing. A typical subscription community starts at $9 per month on Skool Hobby, $79 per month on Mighty Networks Launch, or $89 per month on Circle Professional, plus a transaction fee on member payments.
Which is best for a large public community?
Discourse is the best fit for a large public community that needs searchable long form discussion, categories, tags, and moderation. Its hosted Free plan has unlimited members, and Pro costs $100 per month with 5 staff seats and 20GB of storage. Choose Discord if live chat and voice matter more than written threads.
Which is best for a subscription community with courses?
Circle and Mighty Networks are the strongest fits for a subscription community with courses, events, and live sessions. Circle Professional costs $89 per month with annual billing and takes 2% of member payments, while Mighty Networks Launch costs $79 per month with annual billing and takes 2%. Skool is cheaper at $9 per month, but it takes 10% of member payments.
Can I start a large community for free?
Yes, on Discord and Discourse. Discord core is free with no member limit stated on the core plan, and Discourse hosted Free includes unlimited members, 2 staff seats, 10 categories, 5GB of storage, and 500,000 monthly page views. Slack also has a free plan, but it keeps only 90 days of history.
What is the hidden cost in community platform pricing?
The hidden cost is usually a transaction fee or a per user charge, not the monthly subscription. Skool Hobby takes 10% of member payments, Circle Professional takes 2%, and Mighty Networks Launch takes 2%, while Slack Pro charges $7.25 per active user per month with annual billing. Model the fee at the community’s real payment volume and active member count.
Do I need a sales quote for an enterprise community platform?
Yes, for Higher Logic Vanilla, which does not publish a price for any package, and for the top tiers of Hivebrite, where Prime and Custom Fit use custom pricing after a discovery call. Hivebrite does publish Core at $895 per month and Flex at $1,995 per month, both with annual billing.
Sources
- https://www.discourse.org/
- https://www.discourse.org/pricing
- https://circle.so/
- https://circle.so/pricing
- https://www.mightynetworks.com/
- https://www.mightynetworks.com/pricing
- https://www.skool.com/
- https://www.skool.com/pricing
- https://discord.com/
- https://discord.com/nitro
- https://slack.com/
- https://slack.com/pricing
- https://hivebrite.io/
- https://hivebrite.io/pricing
- https://www.higherlogic.com/
- https://www.higherlogic.com/vanilla-packages/
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.