What are cooking communities?

Communities for home cooks to share recipes, ask technique questions, and improve their skills. Reddit has some of the most active cooking communities, from beginner-friendly advice threads to challenge-based cooking groups where members cook through specific cuisines or cook-book projects.

Where do most cooking communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (43% of 30 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

90% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical cooking community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 1.5M members and the median is 105K. 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 (87%). Others that show up often include 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 Cooking topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Cooking Communities Report: Stats, Platforms, Trends &...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 30 cooking communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: cooking communities are broad and fragmented, with many small groups and a few very large outliers.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated 2026-06-22

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Communities: 30
Platforms: 5
Avg members: 1.5M
Median members: 105K

Where Cooking Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
13(43%)
Reddit
10(33%)
Skool
3(10%)
Quora
2(7%)
Facebook
2(7%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
27(90%)
Private membership
3(10%)

Most listings are forum / feed-based (90%).

Independent Platforms leads, but Reddit and Skool also represent meaningful shares.

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
2(7%)
Small
20-100 members
0(0%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
0(0%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
4(13%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
5(17%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
4(13%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
8(27%)

7 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (1.5M vs 105K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Cooking Differs From Other Categories

Cooking is larger than typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Cooking	Hive Index average
Free to join	90%	85%
Median members	105K	25K
Average members	1.5M	669K
Paid or apply-to-join	10%	15%
Topic pageviews / mo	259	714

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
87%
Newsletter
17%

Niche Features

Live Chat
13%
Paid Community
10%
Member Perks
7%
Online/Offline Events
7%
Courses
3%
Requires Application
3%
Token
3%

Forum appears on 87% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 16

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	13	43%	9	56%
Reddit	10	33%	6	38%
Quora	2	7%	1	6%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Independent Platforms hosts 43% of listings and 56% of clicks, so supply and interest line up.

Most-clicked features

Forum
14(88%)
Member Perks
3(19%)
Newsletter
3(19%)
Courses
2(13%)
Online/Offline Events
2(13%)
Paid Community
2(13%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Gigantic
7(44%)
Huge
5(31%)
Tiny
2(13%)

Clicks by access model

Free to join
14(88%)
Paid or apply-to-join
2(13%)

Top-clicked listings

Discuss Cooking
3(19%)
The Chef Heart Friendship Pod
2(13%)
r/cookingforbeginners
2(13%)

A few listings get most of the clicks; the rest split what is left.

Trends

Founded year

2004

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2016

2022

15 communities have no founding year on file.

Most listed groups were founded around 2011.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

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

•Last updated 2026-06-22

FAQ

: Communities for home cooks to share recipes, ask technique questions, and improve their skills. Reddit has some of the most active cooking communities, from beginner-friendly advice threads to challenge-based cooking groups where members cook through specific cuisines or cook-book projects.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (43% of 30 listings).
: 90% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 1.5M members and the median is 105K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (87%). Others that show up often include 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 Cooking topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Keep exploring

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All Cooking communities

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