What are small business communities?

Communities for people running their own shops, service businesses, and small companies. Topics range from local marketing and hiring to cash flow management and getting your first clients. A mix of Facebook groups, Reddit subreddits, and Discord servers, with conversation split between practical tactics and the emotional side of running something on your own.

Where do most small business communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (40% of 15 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

87% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical small business community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 253K members and the median is 2K. 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 (93%). Others that show up often include online/offline events, member perks, and live chat.

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 Small Business topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Small Business Communities Report: Stats, Platforms,...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 15 small business communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: small business 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: 15
Platforms: 7
Avg members: 253K
Median members: 2K

Where Small Business Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
6(40%)
Reddit
2(13%)
Slack
2(13%)
Facebook
2(13%)
LinkedIn
1(7%)
Circle
1(7%)
Skool
1(7%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
10(67%)
Chat communities
2(13%)
Private membership
2(13%)
Other platforms
1(7%)

Most listings are forum / feed-based (67%).

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

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
1(7%)
Small
20-100 members
3(20%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
0(0%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
4(27%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
1(7%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
1(7%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
1(7%)

4 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (253K vs 2K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Small Business Differs From Other Categories

Small Business is smaller than typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Small Business	Hive Index average
Free to join	87%	84%
Median members	2K	25K
Average members	253K	673K
Paid or apply-to-join	13%	16%
Live chat	27%	41%
Topic pageviews / mo	374	883

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
93%
Online/Offline Events
47%
Member Perks
33%
Live Chat
27%
Newsletter
27%

Niche Features

Courses
13%
Job Board
13%
Paid Community
13%
Tools
13%
Pairing
7%
Requires Application
7%

Forum appears on 93% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 49

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	6	40%	10	21%
Reddit	2	13%	4	8%
Slack	2	13%	20	42%
Facebook	2	13%	5	10%
Circle	1	7%	2	4%
Skool	1	7%	7	15%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Slack gets 42% of clicks but only 13% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
20(42%)
Forum / feed-based
19(40%)
Private membership
9(19%)

Most-clicked features

Online/Offline Events
34(71%)
Forum
32(67%)
Live Chat
23(48%)
Member Perks
21(44%)
Newsletter
19(40%)
Courses
9(19%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Large
29(60%)
Small
9(19%)
Gigantic
3(6%)
Huge
3(6%)
Tiny
2(4%)

Top-clicked listings

Startup CPG
16(33%)
Private Small Business Society
7(15%)
Local SEO Community
4(8%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and forum / feed-based communities.

Trends

Founded year

2019

2020

2022

11 communities have no founding year on file.

Most listed groups were founded around 2019.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

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

•This is a smaller slice of Hive Index's database, so read trends as directional.

FAQ

: Communities for people running their own shops, service businesses, and small companies. Topics range from local marketing and hiring to cash flow management and getting your first clients. A mix of Facebook groups, Reddit subreddits, and Discord servers, with conversation split between practical tactics and the emotional side of running something on your own.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (40% of 15 listings).
: 87% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 253K members and the median is 2K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (93%). Others that show up often include online/offline events, member perks, and live chat.
: 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 Small Business topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Keep exploring

Browse

All Small Business communities

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