7 fantastic alternatives for Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups have been the most popular way to engage with your customers, establish brand trust, and grow your company. But the problem is that Facebook isn't the owner of your Facebook Group. Facebook is the owner.

It's time to look into why the content creators are searching for alternatives to Facebook Groups. And which are the ones that made it onto our top seven list.

What are the reasons online creators are looking for alternatives in Facebook Groups?

With 2934 active users per month -- and over 1,8 billion are active in groups every month -- Facebook is definitely a wonderful place to connect with your target audience.

However, although Facebook Groups used to be a great option to get your business in touch with your customers, recent scandals regarding privacy of users, and a myriad of other concerns, are causing a lot of frustration and may even the business owners that rely on the social giant.

The result is that many seek alternatives for Facebook Groups.

What are all these issues You may ask?

In the first place, even though Facebook Groups are quick to create, the they are not customizable in any way. Everything from the font as well as the user interface manner your users interact with you is controlled by Facebook, and you have nothing to say about it.

This takes us to the following point: your Facebook Group isn't owned or managed by you--it's the Facebook's. It means you'll be in a position to not promote certain types of content or communicate with your friends in the manner you'd prefer. This also means that you're relying on Facebook to ensure that its platform is operating well, but that's not always the scenario. May we remind you of the social media outage in 2021?

A further drawback that Facebook Groups suffer from is visibility. Facebook Groups is visibility and revenue. If you don't upgrade your advertising budget, unpaid posts typically receive approximately 2.2% of views. In other words, if your Facebook Group has 1,000 followers but only 22 will see your posts!

Facebook's algorithm also prioritizes posts by friends and relatives in preference to posts from companies, making it more difficult to connect viewers with your posts, awesome as it may be.

Additionally, running a Facebook Group can be hard task. Apart from dealing with unpleasantness caused by spam accounts and trolls, you can't customize your administrative controls, meaning that you'll need to utilize Facebook's system to let people in, post and manage.

What Facebook Group alternative is best for the needs of an artist?

It is a question that you must answer by yourself, as what is effective for other businesses might be a bad fit for yours. However, we created this article to give you an understanding of the right choice for you.

The most important thing to be aware of when choosing an alternative to Facebook Groups:

  Features  

Do you have the ability to modify the system? Is it easy to use? Can you set everything up in a short time and efficiently? Are you pleased with how it works with the rest of your business?

If you're choosing a platform it is important to ensure that it has the right features for you and your business. This will be discussed further in the next section as we examine specific platforms in the next section.

  Platform Interface  

What do you think of the interface? Do you feel comfortable setting it up, customizing your preferences, and making use of it? Do you find yourself at a loss or overwhelmed by it? If so, are there great support options to help you get on the right track and resolve issues? If the platform you're using is unclear and you aren't getting the assistance you require you should look into alternatives.

  User experience  

Your community online thrives when your audience is engaging with the platform, which is why it is crucial to think about what experience users experience when they use the site.

What does it look at from a users perspective? Does it seem easy to navigate and interact with?

If it is difficult to grasp, that your neighbors will as well.

Test it using your viewers' point of perspective and determine if it's something they're content with or if it can be improved.

  Budget  

A few Facebook Group alternatives are more expensive than others and it's important to find the one that is within your budget.

More expensive doesn't always mean better--check the above factors before deciding between one or another.

One of the worst things you can do is to end up with an expensive platform , whose user interface and experience is complicated to understand.

What are the most effective alternatives for online communities that aren't Facebook Groups?

There are numerous options on the market that let you create your own online community outside of Facebook We present the seven options for Facebook Groups.

Let's dig in!

1. DISCORD

It was originally a gaming platform to play games has grown into the most popular social-networking platform.

Discord offers a variety of great tools to nurture your online community outside of Facebook like safe public and private channels, customized bots for interaction with your members and admins, instant messaging between admins and members videos and audio calls as well as custom-designed permissions that differentiate between administrators and users.

You can also download the software and utilize it free, or upgrade for $99.99 per year for other options.

But, creating a Discord community isn't an easy process, and you'll be facing a long learning curve which could delay your online community-building process.

Your Discord server can also be found with other online communities using this platform, meaning you'll need to ensure that you are distinct so that your audience engages with your content instead of your rivals.

For branding, Discord employs a black and white theme that may or not work the aesthetic of your company. Unfortunately, this can't be altered.

Additionally, you aren't able to cost your customers for the use of your Discord server. If you want to do this, you need to set up a payment page separately.

In the end, Discord is a great alternative to Facebook community groups, offering more features and functionality. But if the goal is to monetize your audience and build your company, Discord may not give you all the tools you require.

  2. Reddit

With more than 50 million people using Reddit each day, the Reddit platform is a big contender for building an online community outside of Facebook.

Reddit has a forum-like design that allows each topic to be classified into a subreddit or a subreddit.

The best thing about Reddit is that it's completely cost-free, and you can set up an open or restricted subreddit, and it's straightforward to create and utilize .

But, like Discord the platform isn't equipped with customization options for your brand and monetization options for your members. Like Facebook the platform isn't completely own the subreddit you have created.

The subreddit could be removed if the platform's admins believe that you -- or one of your users have violated guidelines by making comments or postings.

The amount of subreddits on the platform is very large, and therefore making content that engages your audience can become an effort.

While the platform is free, you have to purchase an advertising-free version.

Reddit is an excellent option to build a completely no-cost online community. But, similar to Discord however, it's not the best option if you're seeking to create a revenue stream for your community online.

  3. MIGHTY NETWORKS

Mighty Networks allows you to build an online community and sell your courses in the same space.

On this platform, you can make free or paid community for your users, employ personal branding, provide the mobile version of your app as well as create private zones where your followers can interact.

Mighty Networks also allows for live streaming, group or private chat messaging, and an unlimited number of moderators and members.

The platform does not provide a no-cost plan and transactions are charged in addition to the monthly fee.

If you're looking for online courses features, you'll have to join Their Business planfor $119 per month, and should you require any other equipment, such as payment processing email marketing, an effective website builder, or a landing page maker--you might have to pay extra to get them.

Mighty Networks plans--and the transaction costs that go with them -- are their Free Trial ($0/month and the transaction fee is 5%), Community Plan ($39/month and 3% transaction cost) as well as their Business Plan ($119/month with the transaction fee of 2%), and Mighty Pro (custom pricing).

It's a fantastic tool to create an online community. However it's important to take note of transaction charges because they could quickly add up as your community gets bigger.

  4. TRIBE.SO

Tribe is an online community building tool designed to be used via websites for businesses or by phone applications.

One of the advantages of Tribe include the ability to decide to create a private or private community, integrate it with various other applications (such like Slack, Google Analytics, or Intercom, to name some) or customize it to fit the style of your business. Plus, you get an array of community management tools.

Tribe is also a platform for members to upload content to Tribe using various category tags.

The Tribe app is available for purchase Tribe at no cost to the first 100 users.

Once you've completed that, you'll have the option to choose among the Plus plan($59/month) to allow up to 2,500 members , and extend your selection of applications; or their Premium Plan($299/month) that permits you to eliminate the Tribe branding and increase membership up to 25,000 members.

A major drawback is that Tribe doesn't allow for instant messaging. This makes it harder for administrators and members to get in touch with each the other.

Similar to the options above, Tribe doesn't offer any ways to pay for membership in your online community or selling digital goods to members.

This means the monetization options Tribe offers require you to work around this issue and create payments that are not part of Tribe's platform. Yikes! Yet another tool to add to your tech stack.

Tribe is an excellent alternative for companies that are already established and are looking to grow their community online because it's focused on nurturing brand loyalty.

However, it's not as well suited to reaching out to your target audience and can hamper the process of building a community if you're just starting up.

  5. PODIA

Podia can be described as an online marketplace that allows creators to share their work as well as a fantastic alternative to Facebook Groups.

With Podia it is possible to control how you interact with the members, provide free or paid membershipsand also make sales of digital items.

Podia can also be used to support direct messaging web development, direct messaging, as well as email marketing, making it simpler to build connections and integrate your business in your online community.

Since Podia integrates payment platforms so you do not have worry about the need to create them independently. This helps you monetize your blog and make the most of your online community.

Since you are able to create your site in Podia from the ground up and you can have a 100 percent customizable platform, which can match your branding.

With Podia You can avail their no-cost plan however, you get charged an 8percent fee for any transactions you make on their platform.

Paying plans aren't charged a transaction fee and currently include plans like the Mover Plan ($39/month), Shaker Plan ($75/month), and Earthquaker Plan ($166/month).

If you'd like to gain access to webinars, affiliate support and more You must change to the Shaker Plan.

Another downfall of Podia is that it only offers a basic product template that has limited customization options therefore you'll be required to spend a considerable amount of time creating resources from scratch.

Podia doesn't offer an overview of the progress users are making with your courses either--you can check users' progress individually, which is mega time-consuming--making it harder for you to see at a glance whether your audience is engaging with your training.

If you need help in gaining the most of Podia be aware that you'll only have an hour of Q&A every week, which may not be enough to aid you to set up your online community to harness all its potential.

  6. HIVEBRITE

Hivebrite is a community-building platform which allows for a large variety of people to join it.

This platform gives you a high level of customization including live feeds, various access rights to your members, either paid or free memberships. You also have the ability to turn on additional features as your group grows and changes.

More than 500 companies are currently using Hivebrite, and their customer service has been reported as fantastic.

But, Hivebrite doesn't display its pricing on its site, but reportedly starts at $500/month. To find out more specific pricing information as well as other important information, you have to sign up to try a trial.

Hivebrite can be a great alternative for large-scale enterprises looking to create an online community that they can make money from, however due to the high cost and technical complexity, it might not be the ideal option for creators who are independent and smaller companies.

  7.

It lets you build safe community spaces, both private and public. You can customize the platform to match your branding as well as set up pay-per-use subscriptions. And since its recent acquisition of the best-in-class community-building platform Vibely It will shortly include live chats, challenges, leaderboards, accountability tools live chat in real-time, and more!

Y You can link your company to an web-based communitiesthanks to 's custom web-based website tool and domain. They allow you to create background videos as well as sales pages or pop-up forms, among many different elements.

centralizes all the different integrations you need to create, grow and then monetize an effective online community. This will help you save costs while also enabling you for a quick increase in your income.

With , the monthly fee is all that you require to manage your business as well as manage your online presence, which means you don't have to use different platforms to run and expand your business.

offers three different payment plans:

• The Basic Plan($119/month) includes one website that can sell at least three products, and three pipelines. You get an unlimited number of landing pages and marketing emails. Additionally, you could have as many as 1,000 active members.
• The Growth Plan($159/month) includes one website which can sell up to 15 products and pipelines. It also increases the active user count to 10,000. Additionally, you can establish 10 administrators and remove the's brand.
• The Pro Plan($319/month) comprises three websites, which can offer up to 100 products and pipelines. You can also get at least 20,000 active customers, and 25 admin users.

It's a great alternative an excellent alternative Facebook Groups for community owners as well as course creators and coaches. Additionally, it's an affordable way to run your own business since it only requires a single monthly fee for a full suite of software for business growth.

Which is the best alternative for Facebook Groups?

Community forums are a great way for you to consolidate your brand identity, share relevant content that is geared towards the audience, and demonstrate to your customers and prospects that you're keen on what they have to say.

Being aware of your audience's needs and opinions could help you create a strategy that works for your business. They're a gateway into the mind of potential customers that means you'll be able to make sure that your products and content are aligned with your target audience more effectively.

It is your own personal decision as to what you want and need for a community-building online tool. But becoming familiar with options is a great way to ensure that you're making the right selection.

The majority of entrepreneurs love the fact that they have a complete set of instruments to build and make money from a group all in one place and with zero hidden costs.

The package includes a variety of digital business tools in one neat package and a wide range of resources like the templates for your products as well as webinars for free that will make your experience even easier.

What's the most exciting part? You can trial it absolutely free for 14-days to determine if this is the best solution for you.

Try free for 14 days

It has everything your online business needs. Everything you need in one location.        Yes! Let's go