What are community building communities?

Communities for people who build and manage communities, covering engagement tactics, moderation, platform selection, and monetization. Slack and Discord host active practitioner communities, with discussion spanning online community design for brands and startups to managing large Discord servers and growing Skool communities.

Where do most community building communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (38% of 32 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

81% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical community building community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 2K members and the median is 498. 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?

Forum is the most common (69%). Others that show up often include live chat, online/offline events, and newsletter.

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 Community Building topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Community Building Communities Report: Stats, Platforms,...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 32 community building communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: community building 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: 32
Platforms: 12
Avg members: 2K
Median members: 498

Where Community Building Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
12(38%)
Discord
4(13%)
Slack
3(9%)
Facebook
2(6%)
Reddit
1(3%)
Nas.io
1(3%)
WhatsApp
1(3%)
Disco
1(3%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
15(47%)
Other platforms
8(25%)
Chat communities
7(22%)
Private membership
2(6%)

Forum / feed-based is most common (47%), but other platforms is also well represented (25%).

Independent Platforms leads, but Discord and Slack also represent meaningful shares.

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
1(3%)
Small
20-100 members
1(3%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
10(31%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
9(28%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
1(3%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
0(0%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
0(0%)

10 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (2K vs 498), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Community Building Differs From Other Categories

Community Building is smaller, more platform-diverse, and more chat-heavy, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Community Building	Hive Index average
Free to join	81%	84%
Median members	498	25K
Average members	2K	673K
Paid or apply-to-join	19%	16%
Live chat	69%	41%
Discord share	13%	17%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
69%
Live Chat
69%
Online/Offline Events
69%
Newsletter
53%
Job Board
34%
Member Perks
31%
Paid Community
19%

Niche Features

Courses
13%
Pairing
9%
Token
3%
Tools
3%

Live Chat appears on 69% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 33

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	12	38%	4	13%
Discord	4	13%	14	44%
Slack	3	9%	1	3%
Facebook	2	6%	1	3%
Nas.io	1	3%	1	3%
Disco	1	3%	1	3%
Skool	1	3%	4	13%
YourKind	1	3%	1	3%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Discord gets 44% of clicks but only 13% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
15(47%)
Other platforms
7(22%)
Forum / feed-based
5(16%)
Private membership
5(16%)

Most-clicked features

Live Chat
25(78%)
Forum
14(44%)
Online/Offline Events
14(44%)
Member Perks
7(22%)
Newsletter
7(22%)
Courses
6(19%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Medium
21(66%)
Large
4(13%)
Small
1(3%)

Top-clicked listings

Talklean
10(31%)
Community Empire
4(13%)
Turf
4(13%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and other platforms communities.

Trends

Founded year

2011

2014

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

18 communities have no founding year on file.

Most listed groups were founded around 2020.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

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

Updated periodically

FAQ

: Communities for people who build and manage communities, covering engagement tactics, moderation, platform selection, and monetization. Slack and Discord host active practitioner communities, with discussion spanning online community design for brands and startups to managing large Discord servers and growing Skool communities.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (38% of 32 listings).
: 81% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 2K members and the median is 498. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (69%). Others that show up often include live chat, online/offline events, and newsletter.
: 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 Community Building topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

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