What are building in public communities?

Communities for indie makers and founders who share their journey openly, from revenue milestones and product launches to failures and lessons learned. Discord and Circle host most of the action, with a culture of public accountability and mutual support between small-team and solo builders.

Where do most building in public communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (40% of 10 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

70% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical building in public community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 1K members and the median is 117. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.

What do these communities usually include?

Live Chat is the most common (80%). Others that show up often include forum, newsletter, and online/offline events.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Building in Public topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Building in Public Communities Report: Stats, Platforms,...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 10 building in public communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: In this smaller sample, building in public communities are broad and fragmented, with many small groups and a few very large outliers.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated periodically

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Communities: 10
Platforms: 6
Avg members: 1K
Median members: 117

Where Building in Public Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
4(40%)
Slack
2(20%)
Discord
1(10%)
Reddit
1(10%)
Circle
1(10%)
Campfire
1(10%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
5(50%)
Chat communities
3(30%)
Private membership
1(10%)
Other platforms
1(10%)

Forum / feed-based is most common (50%), but chat communities is also well represented (30%).

Independent Platforms leads (40% of listings).

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
0(0%)
Small
20-100 members
3(30%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
4(40%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
2(20%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
0(0%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
0(0%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
0(0%)

1 community has unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (1K vs 117), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Building in Public Differs From Other Categories

Building in Public is less free-to-join, smaller, more chat-heavy, and more paid or gated, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Building in Public	Hive Index average
Free to join	70%	84%
Median members	117	25K
Average members	1K	668K
Paid or apply-to-join	30%	16%
Live chat	80%	41%
Discord share	10%	18%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Live Chat
80%
Forum
60%
Newsletter
60%
Online/Offline Events
50%
Paid Community
30%
Courses
20%
Member Perks
20%

Niche Features

Pairing
10%

Live Chat appears on 80% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 66

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	4	40%	1	2%
Slack	2	20%	2	3%
Reddit	1	10%	1	2%
Circle	1	10%	12	19%
Campfire	1	10%	48	75%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Campfire gets 75% of clicks but only 10% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Other platforms
48(75%)
Private membership
12(19%)
Forum / feed-based
2(3%)
Chat communities
2(3%)

Most-clicked features

Live Chat
64(100%)
Newsletter
62(97%)
Member Perks
60(94%)
Online/Offline Events
60(94%)
Paid Community
60(94%)
Courses
48(75%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Large
49(77%)
Medium
14(22%)
Small
1(2%)

Top-clicked listings

Small Bets
48(75%)
Micro SaaS HQ
12(19%)
Not Another Slack
2(3%)

Most clicks go to other platforms and private membership communities.

Trends

Founded year

2021

2022

2023

1 community has no founding year on file.

Most listed groups were founded around 2021.

Community Quality & Ratings

Only 2 communities have ratings so far, so read this as a small sample.

5.0 average rating across 2 communities.

Rated examples

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Building in Public. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

•We only have a handful of listings so far, so treat these numbers as directional.

FAQ

: Communities for indie makers and founders who share their journey openly, from revenue milestones and product launches to failures and lessons learned. Discord and Circle host most of the action, with a culture of public accountability and mutual support between small-team and solo builders.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (40% of 10 listings).
: 70% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 1K members and the median is 117. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Live Chat is the most common (80%). Others that show up often include forum, newsletter, and online/offline events.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Building in Public topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Keep exploring

Browse

All Building in Public communities

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