Slack

Forum software you can host yourself

NodeBB is forum software built for a public community rather than a team chat, self-hostable, with a free tier before a $20 plan.

Forum software you host yourself

Flarum costs nothing and is built to be self-hosted, one flat piece of software rather than Slack's per-seat pricing that grows with a free community.

Forum software, hosted or run yourself

Discourse keeps every post searchable forever with no history limit, and can be self-hosted, with a free tier before a $100 plan, where Slack's free plan drops messages after ninety days.

A branded social network for one community

Honeycommb builds a branded social network around one community rather than channels inside a shared app, starting at $24.99 with no free tier.

Community, courses and a calendar in one paid space

Skool adds a course player and a calendar around the discussion, starting at $9, a bundled space rather than the channels-and-threads shape Slack repurposes for a community.

Community, courses and memberships

Mighty Networks bundles memberships and courses around the discussion space itself, starting at $79 with no free tier, built for a paid community from the ground up rather than adapted from team chat.

Community software that looks like yours, not ours

Circle is built as a branded community space from the start, not a repurposed team chat, starting at $89 with no free tier.