What are tech communities?

If you work in tech or are trying to break in, there are communities for basically every niche you can think of. The mix spans Discord servers, Slack groups, and independent forums, covering everything from general software and startup culture to more specific corners like devops, web dev, and product. Good place to start if you want to find your people in the industry.

Where do most tech communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (24% of 89 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 tech community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 631K members and the median is 3K. 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 (57%). Others that show up often include forum, 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 Tech topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Tech Communities Report: Stats, Platforms, Trends & Data...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 89 tech communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: tech 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: 89
Platforms: 12
Avg members: 631K
Median members: 3K

Where Tech Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
21(24%)
Discord
20(22%)
Slack
19(21%)
Reddit
8(9%)
Facebook
6(7%)
WhatsApp
6(7%)
Circle
2(2%)
LinkedIn
2(2%)

Format mix

Chat communities
46(52%)
Forum / feed-based
36(40%)
Other platforms
4(4%)
Private membership
3(3%)

Chat communities is most common (52%), but forum / feed-based is also well represented (40%).

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

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
5(6%)
Small
20-100 members
2(2%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
16(18%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
25(28%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
11(12%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
2(2%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
6(7%)

22 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (631K vs 3K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Tech Differs From Other Categories

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

Metric	Tech	Hive Index average
Free to join	87%	84%
Median members	3K	25K
Average members	631K	672K
Paid or apply-to-join	13%	16%
Live chat	57%	41%
Discord share	22%	18%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Live Chat
57%
Forum
55%
Online/Offline Events
36%
Newsletter
28%
Job Board
21%
Pairing
19%
Courses
15%
Member Perks
15%

Niche Features

Paid Community
9%
Requires Application
6%
Tools
3%
Token
1%

Live Chat appears on 57% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 376

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	21	24%	18	5%
Discord	20	22%	154	41%
Slack	19	21%	104	28%
Reddit	8	9%	3	1%
Facebook	6	7%	1	0%
WhatsApp	6	7%	54	14%
Circle	2	2%	19	5%
LinkedIn	2	2%	3	1%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Discord gets 41% of clicks but only 22% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
316(84%)
Private membership
32(9%)
Forum / feed-based
22(6%)
Other platforms
6(2%)

Most-clicked features

Live Chat
336(89%)
Online/Offline Events
199(53%)
Newsletter
155(41%)
Forum
130(35%)
Job Board
120(32%)
Pairing
113(30%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Large
147(39%)
Huge
101(27%)
Medium
47(13%)
Tiny
7(2%)
Gigantic
6(2%)

Top-clicked listings

All Things YC
29(8%)
NYCTech
28(7%)
Python Programmers
25(7%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and private membership communities.

Trends

Founded year

2008

2010

2011

2015

2016

2017

2019

2020

2021

2022

65 communities have no founding year on file.

Most listed groups were founded around 2020.

Community Quality & Ratings

Only 4 communities have ratings so far, so read this as a small sample.

4.9 average rating across 4 communities.

Rated examples

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

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

Updated periodically

FAQ

: If you work in tech or are trying to break in, there are communities for basically every niche you can think of. The mix spans Discord servers, Slack groups, and independent forums, covering everything from general software and startup culture to more specific corners like devops, web dev, and product. Good place to start if you want to find your people in the industry.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (24% of 89 listings).
: 87% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 631K members and the median is 3K. 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 (57%). Others that show up often include forum, 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 Tech topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

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