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 (38% of 16 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

88% 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 234K 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 (94%). 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 16 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: 16
Platforms: 8
Avg members: 234K
Median members: 2K

Where Small Business Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
6(38%)
Reddit
2(13%)
Slack
2(13%)
Facebook
2(13%)
LinkedIn
1(6%)
Circle
1(6%)
Skool
1(6%)
Mighty Networks
1(6%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
10(63%)
Private membership
3(19%)
Chat communities
2(13%)
Other platforms
1(6%)

Most listings are forum / feed-based (63%).

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

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
1(6%)
Small
20-100 members
3(19%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
1(6%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
4(25%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
1(6%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
1(6%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
1(6%)

4 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (234K 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, and more platform-diverse, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Small Business	Hive Index average
Free to join	88%	84%
Median members	2K	25K
Average members	234K	670K
Paid or apply-to-join	13%	16%
Live chat	25%	41%
Topic pageviews / mo	607	1K

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
94%
Online/Offline Events
44%
Member Perks
31%
Live Chat
25%
Newsletter
25%

Niche Features

Courses
13%
Job Board
13%
Paid Community
13%
Tools
13%
Pairing
6%
Requires Application
6%

Forum appears on 94% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 82

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	6	38%	22	27%
Reddit	2	13%	13	16%
Slack	2	13%	21	26%
Facebook	2	13%	7	9%
LinkedIn	1	6%	4	5%
Circle	1	6%	2	2%
Skool	1	6%	13	16%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Independent Platforms hosts 38% of listings and 27% of clicks, so supply and interest line up.

Most-clicked formats

Forum / feed-based
42(51%)
Chat communities
21(26%)
Private membership
15(18%)
Other platforms
4(5%)

Most-clicked features

Forum
63(77%)
Online/Offline Events
47(57%)
Live Chat
28(34%)
Member Perks
27(33%)
Newsletter
27(33%)
Courses
15(18%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Large
41(50%)
Small
9(11%)
Gigantic
8(10%)
Massive
5(6%)
Huge
3(4%)

Top-clicked listings

Startup CPG
19(23%)
Private Small Business Society
13(16%)
r/smallbusiness
8(10%)

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

Trends

Founded year

2019

2020

2022

12 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 (38% of 16 listings).
: 88% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 234K 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 (94%). 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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