The CMX Guide To Community Platforms

M
THE CM X
GUIDE TO
CO M M UNITY
PLATFO RM S
CARRIE M ELISSA JO NES

YRJA O FTEDAHL LO THE
DAVID SPINKS
Dedication
We dedicate this book to anyone who brings people together at work or for family,
friends, local communities, and to make the world a better place. We know how
powerful you are. Youre doing an amazing job, no matter how far youve come or how
far you have to go.
You dont do this for the glory, but were giving it to you anyway.
About CMX
Were on a mission give community professionals the
opportunity to thrive.
We host the largest gathering of community professionals in
the world and run workshops, local CMX Series events around
the world, and publish the most comprehensive communitybuilding content on the web at CMXHub.com.
About the Authors

This book is brought to you by the CMX team: Carrie Jones, Yrja Oftedahl Lothe, and
David Spinks.
You can read more about each author at CMXHub.com/meet-team-cmx/.
Weve spent over 500 cumulative hours researching, writing, gathering insights, and
fact-checking everything in this book so you can make the best platform decision
possible. Thats not to mention the incredible contributions of our community members,
without whom this would have never come to fruition.
Over 100 of you shared your platform experience with us, and weve done our best to
distill the information down to digestible chunks. Having said that, we want to hear how
we can do better. Send us a note at info@cmxhub.com if you want to see something
improved in the next edition.
Acknowledgements
Technical Editors
Chizzy Igbokwe
Chris McCann
Nicolas Gregoire
Robin Spinks
Copy Editor
Christian Carvajal
Cover Designer
Vivek Mayasandra
Contents
So Youre Stuck Choosing a Platform for Your Community... .................................. 8
Introduction to Platform Decisions.............................................................................. 9
The Nine Key Questions You Should Ask Before Even Considering a Community
Platform........................................................................................................................ 10
Creating a Review Spreadsheet ................................................................................. 13
Community Platforms We Discuss and Why ............................................................ 14
Definitions of Community Platforms ......................................................................... 15
Forums
Enterprise Platforms
Community Feedback and Support Platforms
Group Platforms
Content Management Systems
Community Relationship Management
Internal Community
Community Platforms That Exist on Outside Platforms
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In-Depth Analysis of All Platforms............................................................................. 19

Forums
BbPress
Discourse
IP (Invision Power) Boards
MyBB
NodeBb
phpBB
Vanilla forums
vBulletin
Xenforo
Enterprise Software
JiveX
Lithium
Salesforce Community
Standing on Giants Platform
Zimbra
Community Feedback + Support Platforms
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Get Satisfaction
UserVoice
Zendesk Communities
Group Platforms
CMNTY
GroupAhead
Hoop.la
Mightybell
Muut
Ning
Place
Small World Labs
Switchboard
Content management systems
Drupal
Evoq by DNN
Higher Logic
Pluck
SocialGo
Socious
Telescope.io
FUEL by Passenger
Mobilize
NationBuilder
SocialEngine
Internal Community
HipChat
Honey
Igloo
Salesforce Chatter
Slack
Yammer
Community Platforms that Exist On Outside Platforms
G+ Communities
LinkedIn Groups
Meetup
reddit
Stack Exchange
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TL;DR Quick Suggestions to Get You Started ........................................................ 106

6
If Youre Not Tech-Savvy and Dont Have Anyone Technical on Your Team, Skip
These
106
If You Want Something that Focuses on Content Curation and UGC Creation 106
If Youre Not Tech-Savvy and Just Want to Get Started ASAP
106
If You Want Something Full Customizable and Technical Know-How Is Not an
Issue
106
If Gamification Is Important to You
106
Further Reading......................................................................................................... 107
Platforms to Watch.................................................................................................... 107
Glossary ..................................................................................................................... 107
Appendix .................................................................................................................... 108
Community Priority Checklist
Community Platforms that Fit Each Priority Best
Create user-generated content beyond conversations
Give feedback (product- or content-related)
Reply to user-generated content
Ask customer support-related questions
Crowdsource ideas for your product
Private message one another
Plan events together
Report bugs
Discuss topics
Follow each other to deepen relationships
Search past discussions to use as a knowledge base
Serve as a tiered engagement ladder
Serve as ambassadors for your product
Facilitate collaboration on projects or documents
Community Platform Review Sheet
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So Youre Stuck Choosing a Platform for Your

Community...
We know what a challenge this can be. Whoever gave you this task didnt know how
much they were asking of you, or perhaps you didnt know what you were quite getting
yourself into.
We hope you havent been going this alone so far, but if you have, you can now breathe
a sigh of relief.
Youve got some friendly community builders by your side.
The good news is there are more tools available for community-building than ever
before. The bad news is all this variety makes it pretty darn tough to select the right
one.
So consider this your ultimate guide-book to the community platform world. Well do
most of the work for you.
In this e-book, youll get:
Guiding questions that will anchor your thoughtful selection of a platform
A thorough, in-depth analysis of every community platform out there worth
consideration, broken down by things like cost, purpose, time to launch, feature
sets, examples and more. We even have the up-and-coming platforms that are
still defining themselves.
Links to additional articles and case studies that showcase some of these
platforms in action.
Introduction to Platform Decisions
Choosing a community platform can be a daunting task, a long, drawn-out process with
lots of different demos, options, ideas, and approaches.
Whether youre a community manager making this decision or a founder, CEO,
marketing manager, or engineer curious how the platforms may integrate with the
overall site experience, weve got you covered.
Weve also been in your shoes before. Weve built communities at companies weve
worked for and consulted with, and we bring the experience of having worked with
many, many of these platforms firsthand from the ground up.
We wrote this guide thinking, What would I have wanted as a resource when I picked
Platform X? Its all written from that perspective of empathy.
But we didnt write this guide alone. Why would community builders think any work
should be done in a vacuum? Instead, we pulled together the knowledge of some of the
best and brightest in the field -- maybe you even gave us feedback on an early draft or
on a community platform you loved or hated.
This guide is a community effort and all the stronger for it. You wont find anything as
comprehensive or as well-vetted out there as this.
Other lists of community tools arent exhaustive. This is as close as it gets. We really
scoured the edges of the internet to find even the unique and niche platforms. If a
community platform out there is good enough to matter, its in here.
So lets get started!
The Nine Key Questions You Should Ask Before Even

Considering a Community Platform
First, make sure you have the answers to these nine key questions. Dont even think
about moving forward until you know what you want to do.
If you dont yet have the answers to those nine questions, now you know what you need
to do to move forward in your community-building efforts.
Here are some questions you should be thinking through:
1.
Have you already developed a community or are you starting from scratch?
This is an insanely important question and is the crux of whether or not a community will
be successful. This platform should not be the start of your community building efforts.
You should already have relationships in place.
If you have nothing started, you may want to start small and cheap. (It could even be
free. We include a list of platforms on other platforms. Theyre a great way to start!)
There isnt much logic in launching a massive, expensive community platform when you
still havent even verified that people are interested in the community.
As Chris McCann, who runs community for Greylock Partners, explains, A lot of people
think a community tool will create a community; but the community has to come first,
then the tool second. Dont skip the real hard work and go straight to a platform. The
platform wont solve your adoption problems. Dont invest money before youve invested
time in cultivating relationships and trust.
2.
How large is your community?
Some platforms are great for smaller communities but dont scale very well.
As community builder Chizzy Igbokwe explains, If your community is less than 500
people and you plan to keep it intimate, we will share with you the best platforms for
small communities. But if you have 500 members, are experiencing rapid growth, and
have a goal of 10,000 members, then you should plan for a large platform early in the
game instead of waiting until you reach 10,000 members.
Here, for ease of discussion, we will define small communities as less than 500
members. Mid-size is 500-5,000. Large communities are anything beyond that.
3. How much growth do you anticipate in the next year or two?
Plan for growth. You dont want to invest in a platform ideal for small communities if you
anticipate massive growth. Well point out which community platforms are great for
growing communities and which are better for more intimate groups.
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4.
What will community members do?
Is it enough to just have a message board? How important is it that your members can
post pictures, follow each other, post polls, or engage in other community interactions?
Fill this out and decide which are your top priorities. Then create a review spreadsheet.
As you go through the platforms, decide which meet your priority needs.
Community Priorities Checklist
create user-generated content beyond conversations
give feedback (product- or content-related)
reply to user-generated content
ask customer support-related questions
crowdsource ideas for your product
private message one another
plan events together
report bugs
discuss topics
follow each other to deepen relationships
search past discussions to use as a knowledge base of some sort
serve as a tiered engagement ladder
serve as ambassadors for your product
facilitate collaboration on projects or documents
For a quick overview of the best platforms to meet each of these needs, see the
appendix.
5.
What is your budget?
Some of these platforms are awesome but very expensive. So budget can be very
restrictive.
Sit down with your team to talk about budget. Pick a low-end number and a high-end
number. Remember to consider the value and ROI of these tools. If you invest $200 per
month in the license for software that secures loyalty in 200 customers, each of whom
spends at least $1 per month, youve broken even. If they each spend $10 per month,
youre on the winning side of the equation.
6.
How important is privacy?
Some communities need to be extremely secure, and others are actually better off
being open. Security costs money, so make sure its a priority before investing here.
Some platforms give you options and degrees of privacy, others dont.
7. What is the value proposition of your community? Why would you want to be a
member?
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We always ask clients this question. Lots of companies cant answer it--yet. In a lot of
ways, this goes back to question 4: what do you expect members to do? Just because
you expect them to do things, that doesnt mean they see the value in doing them.
With clients, we break down a value proposition into the following:
Who is the exact group youre serving?
What youre helping them do? What will they do/build/discuss together? (See
question 4.)
Where do they most want to connect (online platform, offline events, outside
platforms, or some combination)?
Why are you connecting them? Why would they want to do the What above,
and do you know they want to connect from your information-gathering youve
done via conversations/surveys?
If you know the value proposition, our defined focus section in each platform overview
will tell you if its generally in line with your vision.
8. How technical are you/your team?
If you have technical know-how, you can run any of these platforms. If you dont, its a
different story. Some require extensive knowledge, and you may need a team to run
them. For instance, if you want to run the self-hosted version of Discourse (its opensourced, woo!) or Drupal, you need to know how to make it run in your environment.
You probably dont even want to do that alone.
For the end of this e-book, we created short lists of platforms to avoid or consider
strongly if you dont have technical backing.
BONUS QUESTION from Patrick OKeefe
We asked community industry veteran Patrick OKeefe to weigh in here, and he gave us
this tidbit:
9. How easy is it to leave the platform youre picking?
I receive pitches from platform developers every so often, and [this is] the first question
I ask them. It's a little off-putting, but it should be at the forefront of the mind of every
serious community professional. If you can't easily export your community data at your
own discretion, you aren't hosting anything. You are playing in someone else's
sandbox. Don't allow your hosted community to be locked into a provider like that.
Smaller organizations will want to pay attention to how the data is exported, as well,
Patrick cautions. Can you use the format? Big companies have big budgets and can
pay programmers to import the data into their new software. Smaller organizations
might not have that ability. People sometimes mock phpBB, but keep this in mind: from
a phpBB forum, you can get to practically any other software through importers that
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already exist. Think long term, and don't sign away your access to your
community.
Creating a Review Spreadsheet
Now that youve done all this reflecting, you need to put your thoughts into some sort of
visual format that makes comparison easy. Weve created a spreadsheet for you as a
template to get you started.
Heres how it works.
You need to figure out your priorities first. This is why you fill out the checkboxes above
(in #4). Figure out the number of checkboxes youve marked and, as you go through,
see which platforms meet those priorities.
One# of
Implementation
Time Monthly
Technical
Platform Priorities
Time and
Strengths Weaknesses
Setup Fees
Needs
Met
Difficulty
Fees
Discourse
Telescope
NodeBB
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Community Platforms We Discuss and Why
Now youve gotten to the good stuff. (The other stuff was pretty quick and painless,
right?)
Keep in mind, all of these platforms are:
1. Owned: These are platforms you can take ownership of, that you can brand and
control to some degree. Were not talking about sub-communities within specific
communities, such as Nextdoor for physical community. We do, however, delve
into the most important platforms that exist on other platforms, as these can be
great for validating community value propositions. (For things like subreddits and
Facebook groups, see below.) As community expert Patrick OKeefe explains,
Hosted community is very powerful. It allows you to go deeper with your
community so you aren't beholden to a third party like Facebook, which can
decide to cut your reach or access.
2. Platforms: Were not discussing tools like Google Groups or mailing lists because
were talking about platforms where a community can live and breathe. Those
can be great ways to begin a community. In fact, thats how Product Hunt got
started. But its not a platform.
3. Next-level: Were not discussing old-school solutions like Yahoo! groups or
listservs. Why? You already know about those, they havent been updated in
years to account for new types of interactions in communities, and theyre not
owned. These are not social media management tools. Theyre for launching and
growing your own user community.
4. Not topic-specific: We are starting with the most general community platforms
here. There are hundreds of specific community platforms for university alumni,
social collaboration, or learning communities, but we wont survey those here.
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Definitions of Community Platforms

Forums
A forum is a piece of software that enables community members to talk in a message

board style about any topic under the sun. Forums are versatile, but they tend to be
more old-school and free-flowing. Theyre not ideal if you have some specific action
youre motivating your community to complete, but they are ideal if conversation is
the core of the communitys purpose.
We dont include every last piece of forum software. Some are archaic, and you wont
want to use them. We curated the ones youd actually care about.
Well review:
- Bbpress
- Discourse
- IP (Invision Power) Boards
- Mybb
- NodeBb
- Phpbb
- Vanilla Forums Phpbb
- vBulletin
- Xenforo
Enterprise Platforms
Enterprise software is targeted toward large internal communities and large external
communities alike. They are expensive but powerful, and pricing is often negotiable.
We got an insider tip from someone whos negotiated with all of the most popular
enterprise platforms: You can negotiate a better deal at the end of the fiscal
quarter (especially at the end of the year). They will often give you a break if
youre willing to do co-marketing, customer testimonials, and sweeten the deal in
other ways. Theyll usually knock some money off the price.
Well review:
- Jivex
- Lithium
- Salesforce Community
- Standing on Giants Platform
- Zimbra
Community Feedback and Support Platforms
These platforms allow you to create connections with your customers primarily for the
purpose of scaling support and product feedback. You can choose this type of platform
if your community is tied into either support or product departments.
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Well review:
- Get Satisfaction
- Uservoice
- Zendesk Communities
Group Platforms
Group platforms are bent toward action, collaboration, and participation. They often
have less structure than a forum, but the content isnt buried under hierarchies of topics.
Go with this type of platform if you want your community to create things together and
do more offline, rather than just answer one anothers questions or talk about a topic of
interest.
Well review:
- CMNTY
- GroupAhead
- Mightybell
- Muut
- Ning
- Small World Labs
- Switchboard
Content Management Systems
These are wide-ranging platforms that work as standalone solutions or create social
experiences within existing sites. We call them content management systems because,
like Drupal, they allow you to manage user-generated content through plugins.
This is an all-encompassing experience, and generally works best when an entire
company is plugged into the community and its user-generated actions.
Well review:
- Drupal
- Evoq by DNN
- Higher Logic
- Pluck
- SocialGo
- Socious
- Telescope.io
These platforms are all about developing and deepening relationships between and
within communities. They differ from groups slightly, in that they are more about building
relationships that create actions from member to member and from member to leader.
Well review:
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FUEL by Passenger
Mobilize
NationBuilder
SocialEngine
Internal Community
These are all tools for creating community within your company. As we know, every
company has a culture. This is how you can strengthen yours. Many of these tools are
being used now for small, tight-knit external communities too, so dont count them out.
Well review:
- Hipchat
- Honey
- Igloo
- Salesforce Chatter
- Slack
- Yammer
Community Platforms That Exist on Outside Platforms

(Unowned Communities)
We said we wouldnt review any unowned platforms, but we promised to cover those
that will matter to you and your work.
Any of these are great starting points. But in most cases, you want to ensure that youre
not sending your products users to a third-party site and making them leave yours.
There are two exceptions:
1) It doesnt matter that they leave as part of their customer journey (i.e. For
example, Udemy instructors work is done outside the platform as they create
independent courses. They can connect on Facebook Groups with no
consequence to Udemy; however, if your community is meant to buy/sell in your
marketplace, sending them elsewhere to gather would take them out of your
customer journey and into an unowned, third-party experience.
2) You are testing product-community fit. These solutions are low-cost and good
indicators of whether or not you should invest in a platform.
Patrick OKeefe agrees: With some of [these] platforms you don't have
the ability to take your community with you. You are locked into the
platform. I think you should think long and hard about what that means. I'm
not saying that you shouldn't use Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, but I
believe you have to be careful to not place all of your eggs in someone
else's basket.
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The value of these platforms is that people have already built a habit of going there, so
building initial engagement is easier. The downside is its off your site, off brand and you
dont own the data.
Before picking one of these unowned platforms to run with, poll your existing users to
see where they want to hang out. Its always a good idea to get community buy-in.
Well review:
- Facebook Groups
- G+ Communities
- LinkedIn Groups
- Meetup
- reddit
- Stack Exchange
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In-Depth Analysis of All Platforms

Are you ready? Lets dig in.
Forums
BbPress
This is the go-to for forums inside of WordPress, which many use as they get started
with their own small-business forums. Bbpress lets you build the forums, and by adding
other plugins, you can build an entire community on your WordPress site.
Bbpress allows you to include forums in your existing website without changing your
default theme style. You can play around with different plugins and customize the look
and feel. Its super easy to set up and use, and its embraced by well-known companies
like Dropbox.
Defined Focus
Wordpress-integrated forums for free
In Action
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Detailed Breakdown of Bbpresss Features

Cost
FREE. Its an open-source plugin.
Setup Time
A few minutes (but you need to have a

WordPress site already)
Hosted?
Self-hosted on your WordPress site
Mobile
Not optimized
Key Features
Ease of use, with a super simple forumlike look and feel. Additional plugins add
more features.
Key Missing Features
Not mobile-optimized
Privacy?
Can be made invisible to non-members
Ideal Community Size?
Small because moderation queue could

quickly become unwieldy
Examples
Dropbox Forums, Wp Candy
Discourse
Discourse is designed to take forums into the 21st century, facilitating discussion and
new kinds of engagement outside the basic post counts that old-school forums give you.
Its sleek, open-source, user-friendly, and clean.
High priorities for Discourse are trust and moderation. What might be its killer feature is
the built-in community trust system that lets communities become self-governing and
provides a natural immune system from trolls, spammers, and bad actors. Its a big
visual change from forums of the past, but if you can get past all that white space and
color-coded topic areas, this is a strong contender for any type of community.
Its well-suited to large and small communities and is used by large and small brands,
including Boing Boing, HBO, New Relic, and Twitter.
"We want to be the WordPress of forums," says founder Jeff Atwood.
Defined Focus
A clean-looking take on old-school forums, with an emphasis on powerful moderation
and reputation systems.
Good Reads
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/general/discourse/
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http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?76770-What-if-Quarter-toThree-switched-from-vBulletin-to-Discourse
In Action
As you see, each persons avatar in a Discourse forum is displayed if theyve
commented, almost like a Twitter display of @mentions. Theres an overall feed that
includes color-coded topic labels next to each thread. It has a friendly, updated look and
feel with flat discussion in each thread.
Detailed Breakdown of Discourses Features

Cost
Free if self-hosted, otherwise $100$1000/month (depending on size of

community)
Setup Time
30 minutes if you pay to have them set it

up for you, months if customized
Hosted?
Both options are available
Mobile
Mobile-friendly, but they support only the

newest devices like iPhone 6
Key Features
Open-source, highly-customizable,
advanced-karma system that incentivizes
all kinds of contributions (not just posting).
Extremely focused on crowdsourced
moderation.
Minimalized design, simple UI. Read
more here.
They only support the newest devices.

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Lack of robust metrics, no built-in CMS.

Installation and maintenance isnt easy.
The settings are professional-grade so
are made for large communities.
Privacy?
Yes
Unlimited: large or small work well
Examples
Boing Boing, Cisco, GitHub, HBO,

Sitepoint, Twitter
Testimonials
We started our Estimote Community platform on Zendesk, which
proved a big mistake. Zendesk's community tool pretty much
turned our forums/knowledge base hybrid into just another tech
support channel. At some point, we decided to move forums to
Discourse (Knowledge Base stayed on Zendesk for the time
being), and it worked well for us. Basically, from day one, we've
seen bigger traction and more interactions between users: not just
between users and our community managers. Also, it's
customizable without technical knowledge, and super-flexible
thanks to the API if you have a web developer on hand.--Wojciech Borowicz,
Community @ Estimote
I successfully migrated the SitePoint community off vBulletin onto
Discourse last year. We moved ~280K active member accounts
and five years worth of posts-no mean feat. Because SitePoint
is a hybrid community of interest/practice focusing on web
development, we wanted something bleeding-edge, and
Discourse fit the bill. If I had to pick one platform weakness that
frustrates me the most, it is the lack of good metrics/analytics;
however, they are currently working on that side of things, so
watch this space. The migration was complicated, but the
outcomes were incredibly positive and community health and
engagement statistics continue to rise six months on. Im a huge
fan, and am now working to migrate the Feverbee community onto Discourse as well.-Sarah Hawk, Community @ Feverbee
IP (Invision Power) Boards
We noticed a lot of vBulletin users have migrated to this system, so we set out to find
out why.
IP Boards offers IP Blogs, IP Content, IP Gallery, and other community-centric
subproducts. Well talk mainly about the forums in the breakdown, but keep in mind you
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can do more with IP Boards than just create forums. We address this in the detailed
breakdown.
Of all the flat forum software weve come across thats still solidly grounded in the
message-board world, this is the most modern-looking. The Baltimore Ravens,
Evernote, and NASA seem to agree.
Defined Focus
Community packages tailor-made for your customers.
In Action
Here, you see IPBoards simple look and feel all the familiar forums youve come to
expect with a modern, but still old school, sensibility.
Detailed Breakdown of IP Boards Features

Cost
$20/mo for 25 simultaneous users, and

up from there to $590 for 750 users
Setup Time
A few hours to a few weeks
Hosted?
Both self-hosted and hosted options

available
Mobile
Mobile-responsive
Key Features
Polls, social sign-on, automatic video and

image detection, points, easy to
customize and beautify (hard to find
among forum software platforms). For a
price, can be integrated with your site
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sign-on.
@replying
Privacy?
Optional
Small and large because it can quickly be

set up in the cloud or expanded for a cost
Examples
https://discussion.evernote.com/,
http://boards.baltimoreravens.com/
Testimonial
"I've been part of a French gaming guild since 1999
(http://www.lesnomades.fr) and we've been running our
own community with IP Board for a few years now.
We picked IPB simply for its track record of stability and
updates. We narrowed down our choice to two platforms.
vBulletin 4.x was the other obvious one, but we ended up
giving a chance to IPB as we wanted something a
bit different but still with all major forum features.
It comes with everything we need: a structure for our
forums, permission-based roles, user titles, moderation tools, sidebar with widgets,
polls, search, quick reply, shoutbox and CMS for the most important ones. My favorite
feature overall is the way the latest unread message system is done, I actually made it
one of my bookmarks directly so anytime I go to our community, I can see what
happened since I last logged in.
In term of modules, we are also using the portal (IP Content) to run our site. It facilitates
members to write their own blogs and we can easily push them live as everything uses
the same account.
While IPB is not my favorite professional forum software, it is an amazing
hobby community platform. Anytime I'm being asked, I tend to mention it. Aurelien
Poma, Head of Platform @ Standing on Giants
MyBB
MyBB is a free, open-source, community-based, forum software project run by MyBB

Group--volunteers from all over the world. Even though MyBB has been around for a
while, it continues to become more and more popular, mostly for three of its qualities:
simplicity, an extensive administration panel and a powerful plugin system. Through
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plugins and themes, you can extend MyBB's functionality to build your community
exactly as you'd like it.
MyBB's Merge System allows you to easily convert from popular forum software if
youre switching platforms. Its available in English and other language packages
available.
Please note that the team is currently developing MyBB 2.0. Watch this space for
updates.
Defined Focus
Forum software thats open-source and customizable.
In Action
MyBB forums have all the features youd expect from a forumas long as you have the
technical know-how to set them up.
Detailed Breakdown of MyBBs Features

Cost
Free
Setup Time
Minutes
Hosted?
No
Mobile
Not optimized
Key Features
Easy conversion from other platforms.

Constantly updated. Moderation tools,
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theme editor, calendars, simple

gamification, newsletters, private
messaging. Traditional forum look and
feel and features nothing fancy here.
Updated look and feel
Privacy?
Yes
Small to Large
Examples
MySkins.org, The Horror Forums (mostly

small niche communities)
Testimonial
I used MyBB for a community of about 20,000 members. Its good
for large communities, has strong moderation tools, and [makes it]
easy to create subgroups. Unfortunately, its becoming very dated
in terms of design and look and feel. Its hard to customize, not
mobile-friendly, and the analytics are poor.--Jessica Malnik, Social
@ BigCommerce, Blogger @ blog.jessicamalnik.com
Curious about managing these non-mobile

forums from your phone? Theres a new resource:
Check out ForumRunner, which works for vBulletin, XenForo, myBB, and phpBB
forum. Its free, which makes it a good option to try.
NodeBb
NodeBb is a community forum platform that takes advantage of recent trends in web
development to deliver a modern, mobile-responsive option. Its a bit more up-to-date
than its competitors.
Node is open-source and free, but also has paid options for those who dont have the
technical knowledge to run the forums themselves. It has tons of plugins and is easy to
use. NodeBb has built-in multilingual support to provide a localized user interface as
well, which is important for communities that are global in nature.
Defined Focus
Open-source forum option with plugins and multilanguage support.
In Action
Here, you can see Nodes updated interface, looking like a Pinterest board of updates
and posts.
26
Good Read
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/nodebb-inc
Detailed Breakdown of NodeBbs features
Cost
Free for self-hosted; $35-$100/mo for

paid options
Setup Time
Days to weeks
Hosted?
Both self-hosted and non-self-hosted

options are available
Mobile
Mobile optimized
Key Features
Single sign-on, internationalization,

updated look and feel, mobile-responsive
social integration
No mobile app. It isnt easy to set up or

customize without technical know-how,
but for a fee theyll set it up for you.
Privacy?
Optional
Small to large
Example
https://community.nodebb.org
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phpBB
phpBB is a free and open-source bulletin board that allows you to create forums and
subforums. It comes with lots of features while still being efficient and easy to use. With
over 25 million installations around the world and tons of volunteer contributors, this is a
major player in the community platform field. It requires technical knowledge.
Defined Focus
Free and open-source forums
Good Read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhpBB
In Action
This is a snapshot of the ars technica phpBB forums. Nothin fancy, but they do the job.
Detailed Breakdown of phpBBs Features

Cost
Free
Setup Time
A few hours to a few weeks
Hosted?
Hosted
Mobile
Not optimized
Key Features
Open source
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Mobile optimization
Privacy?
Yes
Both small and large
Examples
Adblock, citiesX,
http://arstechnica.com/civis/, Rubechat
Testimonials
I used phpBB back in the days when I was an active participant
of several fandom communities, not actually working as a
community manager. Really liked it back then (by back then, I
mean 2005-2008 or so, it was hugely popular in Poland). It had a
massive community itself, so there were a lot of plugins, making it
easily customizable even without any technical expertise.
Managing it was also straightforward, which was awesome. And it
was free. Actually, phpBB made it possible for so many online
communities to appear and grow organically that it made history,
but that's it. It has been replaced by Discourse, which seems light-years ahead now.-Wojciech Borowicz, Community @ Estimote
I think that phpBB gets a bad rap. It has probably powered more
online communities than any other software At the moment, I
use an old version of phpBB to power KarateForums.com and
PhotoshopForums.com. I've also used it on other communities in
the past. In total, the communities I have used it on total more than
one million posts, 170,000 threads and 90,000 registered
members. phpBB isn't a bad user experience. The traditional
forums format is one that is very familiar and comfortable to a lot of
people. Some of the more recent entries in the field have a user experience that a lot of
people are not a fan of. Because of their long-running popularity, phpBB has a pretty
healthy ecosystem around it of developers who can create add-ons and extensions. No
software will give you everything that you need, so I do think the ecosystem that exists
around the software should also be considered. This isn't to say that I would necessarily
use phpBB if I were starting a community today--but I also wouldn't cast it aside like
many do, in favor of seemingly shinier options that have issues of their own.--Patrick
OKeefe, ManagingCommunities.com
Vanilla forums
Vanilla forums are so called because theyre like vanilla ice cream--you can add all
kinds of toppings and customize to fit your needs. The setup is super simple, and its
easy to add features as you go. If you want to customize anything, youve got to know
some HTML and CSS, so keep that in mind.
29
If you dont have coding knowledge, they offer theme services and migrations from most
major platforms and free upgrades from the self-hosted product. But keep in mind that
all of that costs extra money. Youll have to go back and forth on getting a proposal and
starting to build your forums look and feel.
Defined Focus
Traditional forums that are customizable
Good Read
http://vanillaforums.com/resources/case-studies
In Action
The Sims uses Vanilla Forums to engage their player community. People share Sims
stories, tips, and more.
Detailed Breakdown of Vanilla Forums Features

Cost
$99-$3499
Setup Time
Five minutes to get the basics going, a

few hours to get the design set and
features customized
Hosted?
Yes. Self-hosted, open-source version

available.
Mobile
No app, renders in mobile browser, webbased
Key Features
Gamification (Badges and Reactions),

Single Sign-On, Custom Theme (Skin),
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Social Connect, SPAM Filtering, multiforum management, sentiment analytics.

Integrates with GitHub, MailChimp,
Salesforce, WordPress, Zendesk and
others.
Web-based only, expensive for small

communities
Privacy?
Yes, password-protection is possible.
Small to large. Keep in mind the cost is

determined by number of staff
users/pageviews. Costs could quickly
escalate for high-traffic communities.
Examples
Adobe, EA, Edmunds, FourSquare,

Harvard University, Hubspot, Yahoo!
Testimonial
I've used Vanilla Forums in three ways: a Q&A "Quora style"
forum, a traditional forum, and more recently, a commenting
system. Right now, I'm working with a network of 34 health
condition communities that are all formed around content by
others living with their condition. Vanilla allows us to integrate
with WordPress so that whenever someone comments on an
article, it creates a thread in the forums. This way, all
discussion from the articles is in one central place along with
any custom conversations from the community that are not
article based. Sherrie Rohde, Community @ Rebellion Media
vBulletin
This is a good old standby with a few modern options. vBulletin has the option of
running a cloud forum, which means it hosts for you and does the upkeep rather than
making you host the forums yourself.
vBulletin is intended for a wide variety of users: freelancers, large enterprises, midsize
businesses, nonprofits, public administrations, and small businesses. Unfortunately, its
wide appeal makes it miss key features for specific users. Its not for newbies: setup,
customization and maintenance are pretty advanced.
Defined Focus
Advanced, enterprise-focused forums for large communities
Good Reads
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https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.vbulletin.com
http://www.technobezz.com/moved-vbulletin-phpbb-xenforo/
In Action
Heres a thread from the vBulletin community. As you see, its old school but very
familiar for those whove used forums in the past.
Detailed Breakdown of vBulletins Features

Cost
$19.95/mo for cloud version, $249 onetime fee for vBulletin 5 Connect, or $399
for vBulletin 5 + Mobile, with many addons for each including support ticket
functionality. All cost money.
Setup Time
A few hours
Hosted?
Both self-hosted and hosted options are

available
Mobile
VBulletin 5 includes option for mobile

apps ($399)
Key Features
Avatars, badging, private messaging,

WYSIWYG editor
@replies, dynamic gamification

Very expensive, with
no refunds if not working
32
Privacy?
Optional
Small and large because it can quickly be

set up in the cloud or expanded for a cost
Examples
EA, NASA, Zynga
Testimonial
I have managed both large, established and brand new
communities on vBulletin (both Cloud and self-hosted) and my
experience hasnt been good. I currently run a 500 member
strong UX community of practice on vB Cloud, and the platform
is buggy and cumbersome. Settings are buried, reporting is
almost non-existent and features are slow to reach core. Prior to
that I ran a huge tech community on a self-hosted instance,
which became so weighed down with plugins (necessary for
basic functionality) that upgrading became impossible. Im
migrating everything off vB and my advice to others is Run! Run
for the hills!--Sarah Hawk, Community @ Feverbee
Xenforo
Xenforo is an old-school solution with modern updates. These are self-hosted forums
that you can integrate into your own site experience. Xenforo is a powerful system
providing personalization and customization at a high level. You dont need coding skills
to make it work. Its pretty straightforward and easy to learn and maintain. Xenforo
offers the ability to integrate your Facebook Page with the forum itself, which can help
generate more traffic to the forum.
Defined Focus
A highly customizable and secure non-techie-friendly forum solution.
Good Reads
https://theadminzone.com/threads/my-xenforo-review-for-2014.116482/
http://blinklist.com/reviews/xenforo
In Action
This is a snapshot of Xenforo in action in a rehabilitation community. As you can see,
there are traditional threads with post counts and categories, as well as more updated
features like social logins and customizable banners and sidebars. It blends fresh and
traditional elements.
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Detailed Breakdown of Xenforos Features

Cost
$140 plus extras including backend data

analysis, media galleries, and branding
removal
Setup Time
With engineering know-how, 15 minutes.

Up to a few weeks with customizations.
Hosted?
Self-hosted only
Mobile
Mobile-responsive
Key Features
Highly customizable, built-in badges,

email setup, login with Facebook or
Twitter, profiles, replies in threads, SEO,
WYSIWYG editor web-based.
No @replying
Privacy?
Yes, option for private forums
Large communities. Installation and

customization can take a while, so its not
worth the effort just to try out a new
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community concept.
Example
talk.drugabuse.com
Testimonial
We couldn't be happier with Xenforo overall. Our community
required a great deal of front-end customization and Xenforo
made this possible without sacrificing the integrity or security
of the platform. Setting up and managing our forums was
simple, but this simplicity does not reduce the powerful
backend capabilities in this platform. The reporting and
backend functionality is incredibly strong and managing users
is very straightforward. As with any forums, spam is always an
issue. We effectively used both StopForumSpam and Akismet
integrations, which were easy to configure, and these controls
have dramatically reduced our forum spam and abuse. The messaging feature and
activity feed allow you to fully customize Xenforo into a true social experience akin to
Facebook. The thing our users probably like most about Xenforo is its ability to create a
clean, more progressive user experience than some of the older, more archaic bulletin
board platforms. I would highly recommend Xenforo to host your forums, although you'll
definitely benefit from having a developer who has strong PHP and CSS skills.--Joseph
Cervantes, Community @ Rehabs.com
35
Enterprise Software
JiveX
Jivex is a cloud-based, powerful, complex external community platform with built-in

gamification, CRM, and marketing automation as well as Twitter and Facebook
integrations. This is a big investment for big communities. Jive is also one of the few
platforms optimized for mobile.
Defined Focus
Retention and engagement, mobile optimization
Good Reads
http://technologyadvice.com/products/jivex-jive-software-reviews/
http://investors.jivesoftware.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=799305
http://www.socialedgeconsulting.com/2014/09/the-x-factor-behind-implementing-asuccessful-jivex-community/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJBjvWnaCd8
In Action
Cisco uses JiveX to enable a community-powered support process. As you can see, the
platform allows you to put social buttons, leaderboards, and groups front and center.
Detailed Breakdown of JiveXs Features

Cost
Note: All Enterprise systems cost for license + technical

implementation
36
Several inside sources share that prices vary anywhere from

$50,000-$100,000 out of box (for cloudonsite implementation
will cost you much more but will be totally customized), but
subscription model starts in blocks around $12/user/month. Jive
charges based on pageviews and charges for those in blocks.
Implementation will cost another $10,000-$15,000, depending on
community size
Setup Time
Weeks to months, depending on levels of customization desired
Hosted?
Hosted and self-hosted options
Mobile
Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, Mac, RIM-web-based, Windows

Phone
Key Features
Integrated gamification elements, reward store for giving

incentives to top contributors, CRM & Marketing automation,
built-in SEO, Facebook and Twitter integration, device
optimization, analytics.
Key Missing
Features
Limited inter-team communication in the backend
Privacy?
Yes
Ideal Community
Size?
Small to large
Examples
Cisco, HP, Sidecar, T-Mobile, Vodafone
Testimonial
I used Jive for the Cisco Learning Network, which launched
in June 2008. We started from zero and grew the community
to somewhere around 500,000 registered users during my
time on the team. The feature set for community engagement
mechanisms is rich, but there were no content management
features in terms of scheduling refresh of material, a way for
teams to request approval on new content, etc. Ours was a
highly customized community and Cisco worked with a third
party solution development company to build out functionality
to widgets and customize aspects of the social groups feature.
Jive developed some of its current widgets and features from having worked with our
team. Finding quantitative metrics for moderation and detailed metrics on activity for
specific pages had to be done separately using Google Analytics. Reporting capabilities
were also minimal.--Rachel Medanic, Community and Content Expert @
Communituity.com
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Lithium
Lithium is a robust solution that many large companies use to power their power user,
support, and community engagement strategies.
According to Sidecar Head of Community Maria Ogneva, While a gold standard in
communities with a pedigreed track record and market reputation, Lithium can be
complex and pricey to set up and maintain. Its a powerful product with features that
have been honed over the years, but the level of customization necessary to stand it up
and maintain wasnt right for us at this time (again, a team of engineers behind you
would be helpful if using Lithium). At the time of our platform selection, Lithium was still
largely web-centric vs. mobile-first in its approach, and the mobile experience, which
was our major sticking point, was weaker here than in other platforms.
Defined Focus
Workflow integration with other products
Good Reads
https://www.trustradius.com/guides/social-media-management/2015/review-lithiumsocial-web
http://social-media-monitoring-review.toptenreviews.com/lithium-social-mediamonitoring-review.html
In Action
Spotify uses Lithium forums to incentivize their top members to help others through the
support process, fuel music discussions, beta test new features, recognize their most
active contributors, and post community-centric blogs.
Detailed Breakdown of Lithiums Features
38
Cost

implementation
Very expensive. Offered in 4 packages: Standard Lithium
Social Web, Standard and Premier Lithium Community and
Enterprise Combined Platform.
Based on tiers of number of unique visitors per month (noncrawler page views) in addition to setup costs, from $60,000$100,000/year + an estimated $100,000 in
development/professional services to get you going
Implementation and customization also costs extra, as the bare
bones Lithium is not very attractive, so expect another couple
thousand in customization costs.
Setup Time
Months (sales calls to customizations to launch)
Hosted?
Only Lithium-hosted
Mobile
Not optimized
Key Features
Ability to bubble up great content, knowledge base powered by

community, crowd-sourced content support, integrated
community product reviews, contest support, customer to
customer tech support via Q+A, built-in SEO, powerful
analytics, gamification tools like badges and leaderboards.
Key Missing
Features
Integrations with other tools could be improved, including

online chat tools and Lithium Community. Also, users would
like to see integration with additional social channels such as
Instagram and Reddit.
Privacy?
Yes
Ideal Community
Size?
Medium to Large
Examples
AT&T, Autodesk, Barclaycard, eBay, Sephora, Skype, Spotify
These are community platforms that exist in the cloud and plug in with the entire
Salesforce suite.
Maria Ogneva shares, Salesforce Communities is a solid option with a pedigree in
customer experience and worker productivity, and it has a whole suite of leading
39
technologies built on the Salesforce platform. Similar to Lithium, its pretty complex (and
expensive) to set up and customize. Salesforce Communities is a powerful platform for
partner engagement and for anything that relies on Salesforce products.
For some, Salesforce Communities can be a bit too powerful, especially if youre just
starting out.
If you do decide to use the platform, Salesforce Community Templates make it easier to
get setup quickly from scratch. These templates use responsive design, and they also
allow discussions and articles to be organized by topics so theyre easily searchable.
Currently, they offer three options. If your community needs more customized
templates, you can do that with Community Builder.
The Salesforce Community Templates integrate with the rest of the Salesforce suite,
and theres no need for programming skills to get started.
Defined Focus
Customers who use Salesforce for other functions in their business and want to tie their
community activity back into sales goals.
Good Reads
https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=networks_overview.htm&language=en_
US
https://help.salesforce.com/help/pdfs/en/salesforce_communities_implementation.pdf
In Action
Salesforce Communities gives you powerful analytics both in the desktop and mobile
apps. It integrates well with sales/marketing teams.
40
Detailed Breakdown of Salesforce Communitys Features

Cost

implementation
Our several inside sources share ranges anywhere from
$80,000-$200,000 for large communities of users.
Setup Time
Weeks to months (depending on customizations)
Hosted?
No self-hosting available
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
Attachable files, badges, business integration for CS and

sales, endorsements, rich profiles, sleek interface.
Hard to track individual member engagement, reports are

adaptable but not user-friendly. Must have a tech team to
help implement.
Privacy?
Yes
Ideal Community
Size?
Large
Examples
GE, Virgin
41
Testimonial
We used Salesforce for hosting our online community for
the employees of Certified B Corporations (were a nonprofit). The prepopulated Salesforce Reports are not very
helpful or intuitive when you are trying to track individual
users. With a fair amount of time and energy, we were able
to adapt them to report what we would like them to show.
Our company, B Lab, is 40 team members but we are using
Salesforce Communities to ideally reach several thousand
employees of Certified B Corporations from around the
world. The major plus is that theyre built on Salesforce, which is our main database and
driving force of our organization to manage the Certified B Corporation community. The
major minus is that Salesforce Communities (Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce pages)
requires a lot of customization which requires a lot of time and energy from our tech
team. I do recommend it, but also caution [about] the amount of time it may take from
the tech team building the platform. -- Sarah Haggarty, Community @ B Lab
This is a brand new platform that just launched (you heard it here first!).
The Standing on Giants platform was created because the team knows that IT
environments can be very complex, with many legacy systems, long-term roadmaps,
and inflexible solutions.
They designed their platform to be easy to set up, integrate, and customize to reflect a
large companys changing needs.
Defined Focus
An enterprise-level platform at a more affordable price, created by a team of community
managers.
In Action
The Standing on Giants platform is fully customizable with your branding, so each
platform will look different. Here, you see main discussion boards, widgets, and member
leaderboards.
42
Detailed Breakdown of SOG Platforms Features

Cost
Depends on the size of the community

and the features required. It can go from
ten of thousands to hundreds of
thousands of dollars (PRO TIP: in private
comparisons, theyre the most affordable
of these enterprise options).
Setup Time
8 to 12 weeks from the moment you

agree on final scope to the actual launch
of the community. This timeframe is for a
fully tailored community including
branding.
Hosted?
SOG-hosted
43
Mobile
Responsive design with the option to run

a separate mobile version if required as
well as integration with the Tapatalk app.
Key Features
Four main feature modules: advanced

forum, knowledge base, ideas exchange,
company blog and users blogs. Inside of
these, there are features, which include:
gamification, analytics, SEO
configuration, social media integration,
Q&A, hashtags and @mentions, verified
answers, thumbs up and down, private
messaging, profiles, search, sidebars and
widgets.
ROI calculation, REST-API, call center

integration (all coming soon)
Privacy?
Yes
Small to large
Examples
http://forum.vivo.com.br
http://comunidad.movistar.com.ar
Zimbra
Zimbra places a huge emphasis on privacy, design, and content sharing. Its a sleek
platform with a ton of room for customization. Its definitely more focused on feedback,
customer support, and social than some of the other platforms, but it also plugs into
other programs to be pretty robust.
Focus
Sharing and collaborating on content in a private and beautiful way.
Good Reads
http://searchconsumerization.techtarget.com/definition/Zimbra
http://www.getapp.com/collaboration-software/a/zimbra-collaboration-suite/
https://files.zimbra.com/website/docs/Zimbra%20Collaboration%20Product%20Overvie
w.pdf
In Action
Zimbras clean interface is great for creative collaboration communities and those who
wish to focus on their members. Profile pages are front and center.
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Detailed Breakdown of Zimbras Features

Cost
Freemium and subscription mode. Pricing

N/A on their webpage.
Setup Time
Hours to days
Hosted?
No self-hosted option
Mobile
Yes, synchronized but web-based
Key Features
Integration with powerful third-party tools

and applications (blogs, calendars, email,
wikis, video embedding, etc.).
Can also work for blogs, internal teams,
photo galleries, and Q&A.
Built with Big Data in mind, Zimbra
Analytics has been designed to make it
easy to integrate with business
intelligence systems.
Zimbra focuses heavily on email and their

integration on that front, so development
on the community platform is slow and
the UI is dated.
Privacy?
Yes
Large
Examples
Cadbury, Comcast, Dell, H&R Block,
45
Investec, Mozilla, NTT Communications,

Rackspace, Red Hat, VMware, and
Vodafone.
46
Community Feedback + Support Platforms

Get Satisfaction
Get Satisfaction is cloud collaboration software and has been building customer
community software for over 10 years. Its one of the standard solutions that many
startups use when looking to solve both community and customer support issues.
You can utilize Get Satisfaction (lovingly referred to in the industry as GetSat) for a
range of priorities: product feedback and brainstorming, celebrating customers, Q&A,
customer service, content curation, event scheduling
Defined Focus
Customer service-related community
Good Read
https://getsatisfaction.com/corp/resource-center/case_studies/bluenose.php
In Action
Detailed Breakdown of Get Satisfactions Features

Cost
Starts at $1200/month
47
Setup Time
Minutes to hours
Hosted?
Mobile
iPhone, iPad, Web-based
Key Features
Social Knowledge base, gamification

elements, easily customizable to look like
your home site, analytics, private notes
and ability to route issues to your team,
ability to filter content into categories like
ideas, praise, problems, and questions.
Analytics are not powerful, no customized

widgets, hard to do much beyond product
feedback and support with GetSat.
Privacy?
Yes
Any size
Examples
Bluenose Analytics, Prezi
UserVoice
It only takes a few minutes to embed UserVoice, and its easy to use, customize and
maintain. Its designed with customer-focused companies in mind, in that it helps you
understand how to provide the best service for your customers through customer
satisfaction analytics, feedback forums, gaming, and support ticketing.
Its a great tool if youre at the early stages and want something that can scale up.
Defined Focus
Early-stage product feedback and brainstorming community
Good Reads
http://www.getapp.com/customer-management-software/a/uservoice-feedbacksite/#q=userv&ac=listing
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uservoice
In Action
The UserVoice interface is no frills, but its intuitive for new users and easy to plug in.
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Detailed Breakdown of UserVoices Features

Cost
Prices range from free to $95/mo per

company user.
Setup Time
Fast and easy
Hosted?
Mobile
Android, iPad, iPhone, Mobile Web App,

Web-based
Key Features
Feedback, gaming, in-depth Actionable

Customer Feedback, scale support with
Instant Answers, support ticket.
Embeds directly in your web or mobile
app. Knowledge based. Unique distinction
of being beneficial to both product
managers and support managers.
Central community space
Privacy?
Yes
Any size
Examples
Bitly, Kaboom
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Testimonial
UserVoice is not great as a standalone community. However, it
performs great as a subsection of a community when it comes
to sorting feature requests. It's really easy to set-up, [it gauges]
overall interest (via votes and comments), [has] decent
analytics, and integrates nicely with other web apps (such as
Salesforce).--Jessica Malnik, Social @ BigCommerce and
Blogger @ blog.jessicamalnik.com/
Zendesk Communities
Zendesk started as a purely customer service-driven solution but has made significant
forays into the community space.
The primary function of the communities is to allow customers to answer each others
questions instead of having agents answer them.
Defined Focus
Streamlining customer service inquiries through communities
Good Read
http://www.getapp.com/customer-management-software/a/zendesk/
In Action
Zendesk is a clean knowledge base-forward platform with tons of white space.
Detailed Breakdown of Zendesk Communities Features

Cost
Free with Zendesk account. Starter Plan:
50
$1 per agent/month with 3 agents.

Regular Plan: $25 per agent/month.
Plus Plan: $59 per agent/month.
Enterprise Plan: $125 per agent/month.
Enterprise Elite: $195 per agent/month.
Setup Time
Fast and easy
Hosted?
Self-hosting not available
Mobile
Android, iPad, iPhone, Linux, Mac, Opensource, RIM-BlackBerry, Web-based,

Windows, Windows Phone
Key Features
@mentioning, tied to CS ticketing system,

upvotes, replies and comments. End
users can answer each others questions.
Private community section
Privacy?
Not possible
Any size
Examples
Airbnb, Box, Gilt Groupe, Groupon,

Sears, Sony, Tumblr, Zappos
Testimonial
I have a love/hate relationship with Zendesk as a support
tool. I hate that the web version works slow, and the spam
filter isn't all that good (suspends legit inquiries, lets the
Prince of Nigeria through). The analytics are poor unless you
integrate with GoodData, etc. But apart from minor
annoyances, it's an extremely powerful tool for customer
support and really flexible on top of that. It has some built-in
plugins (random GIF selection from Giphy is pure gold) and
exposes an API that lets you tailor it to your needs. We have
integrated it with Trello for product feedback, with RelateIQ for passing leads to BizDev
team, and even with our own backend for managing orders. So do I sometimes want to
throw my PC out the window because of Zendesk? Yeah. Would I replace it with any
other support tool? Hell, no (the Giphy plugin <3)!
As for their community platform, it's dreadful and we were happy to ditch it. Unlike the
support tool, community has a very weak API and any customization is a ton of manual
labor. Plus the forums/questions UX is rather bad, too.--Wojciech Borowicz,
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Group Platforms
CMNTY
This platform includes many features to start conversations and gather insights, such as
blogs, forums, diaries, questionnaires, and rewards. Its an impressively customizable
interface.
CMNTY Corporation just launched CMNTY Market, which allows you to pick and
choose features in an a la carte model unique to the market. Its white-labeled and has
an app.
Defined Focus
A host of community offerings that can be plugged in a la carte, plus many features for
the qualitative researcher.
Good Read
https://www.cmnty.com/news/2015/03/introduction-video-to-cmnty-platform/
In Action
CMNTY has a traditional blog-like look and feel, but with powerful backend analytics.
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Detailed Breakdown of CMNTYs Features

Cost
A la carte
Setup Time
Minutes, once you start working with the team
Hosted?
Only hosted by CMNTY on Amazon AWS worldwide
Mobile-Friendly
Yes
Key Features
CMS and backend analysis of community metrics, challenges,

forums, blogs, profiles, member-centric approach.
Key Missing
Features
Event calendar, upvoting.
Privacy?
Yes
Ideal Community
Small to medium
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Size?
Example
https://community.phonebloks.com/home
GroupAhead
GroupAhead is the first mobile-first platform. Its meant for communities that meet
offline. It is not meant for giant brands. If youre developing a tight-knit group or a local
ambassador program, we highly recommend giving this a shot.
The co-founder was part of the group at Google who built Google+ Communities.
Defined Focus:
For small, tightly-knit groups who want their own app.
Good Read
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/04/groupahead-gives-member-based-organizationstheir-own-mobile-app/
In Action
GroupAhead is a clean mobile-only app that can be customized for your community.
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Detailed Breakdown of GroupAheads Features

Cost
Currently free
Setup Time
A few days. You email a request, and the team sets up

your app.
Hosted?
Hosted by GroupAhead on mobile
Mobile-Friendly
Yes (mobile only)
Key Features
Discussion feed, events, and photo feed. Access to emails

of all members. No need for technical know-how. Push
notifications.
No desktop component. No ability to customize (yet).
Privacy?
Only private
Small
Examples
SF Front Runners, rowing clubs
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Hoop.la
Hoop.la is one of the most feature-rich platforms weve seen, and it could work for large
enterprises or small startups. It includes separate areas for forums, a calendar, chat
rooms, clips (where you can share collections of content), blogs, surveys, a separate
customer support portal, the ability to feature content, and feature-rich profiles for your
members.
If you dont use all the features, you can turn them off--but youll still pay for them.
Defined Focus
A dynamic fanbase site that allows you to customize a package.
In Action
Here you see Hoop.las many areas for creating and curating community content. Users
can create blog posts that cascade as a feed, and they can create activity streams,
featured photo galleries, forum feeds, and subgroups.
Detailed Breakdown of Hoop.las Features

Cost
$399/month for 20,000 members, $999/mo for larger

communities. For a more scaled-down version, see
Ubb Forums, starting at $359/mo.
Setup Time
Days to weeks
Hosted?
Hosted
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Mobile
Mobile-friendly interface, with full responsive design

scheduled for Q2 2015
Key Features
Multi-author blogging and collections, advanced

reporting (community health report), forums
(powered by UBB Forum), premium memberships,
chat events and chatrooms, email and system alert
notifications, groups, custom themes and design
(graphic design costs more), calendar events,
access custom CSS, surveys, custom pages, file
upload (photos, video, files), single sign-on (with
Facebook, Foursquare, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, or
YouTube), robust member profiles, member
leaderboard, API.
Design is a bit dated and setting up all the areas can

be cumbersome for a smaller community.
Privacy?
Yes
Medium to large, because features are too rich for a

community thats just forming
Examples
HarperCollins, Runners World Magazine, and Time

Warner Cable Business Class
Mightybell
Mightybell is geared toward professional networking and communities. The design sets
it a tier above the rest, though many of the details of the feed and content sharing
capabilities are still being worked out. It launched out of Levo League (Lean Ins
community) and has since expanded to Skillcrush, Intuit, and others.
Mightybell is good for organizing small groups around projects and discussions. It was
built to give people the opportunity to learn something new every day with people who
share the same goals and interest.
A Mightybell Circle can be either public or private. Circles can live within a Mightybell
Community or exist independently.
Defined Focus
Professional community platform with evolving features and clean design.
Good Reads
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/mightybell-now-tolls-for-all/
http://www.businessinsider.com/gina-bianchini-Facebook-mightybell-2014-4
In Action
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Mightybells design has a ton of white space and therefore looks very clean. Members
have their own profiles (which can be sorted by top contributors, geography, and length
of membership. People are grouped into circles (subcommunities).
Detailed Breakdown of Mightybells Features

Cost
Free up to a certain amount of members

(pricing is still TBD, so you must work
with the Mightybell team on a one-on-one
basis).
Setup Time
About an hour
Hosted?
Mobile
Mobile-responsive
Key Features
Beautiful design, clean look and feel,

profiles, topic pages, Google Hangout
integration, calendar of events,
collaborative project areas, branched-off
subcommunities (called Circles)
Ability to white-label the group, ability to

search and filter conversations easily,
circles are not very intuitive from a
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community standpoint.
Privacy?
Yes
Small to mediumotherwise, content and

feed become cumbersome to follow
Examples
Intuit: How to Be Self-Employed,

Skillcrush
Muut
Muut has a clear stance on communities: Content is everything.

It touts the worlds smallest forums. That means theyre light and fast and easy to
enable. Many users plug these design-friendly forums into their Squarespace sites,
since both sites are aligned toward design-first thinking. They dont offer an incredibly
rich community experience, but they do get you going quickly.
Basically, the community is the center of your site, and peoples forum identities can
follow it throughout--on your blog, news pages, store, and so on. It also plugs into
Shopify so people can leave comments and reviews on your products.
The forums are free and include unlimited traffic and users, but you have to pay if you
want to customize.
Defined Focus
Lightweight, text-focused commenting platform.
In Action
Muuts forms are insanely clean and easy to navigate, combining the white space look
of Discourse with the more traditional-looking thread home-page layout of old-school
forums.
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Detailed Breakdown of Muuts Features

Cost
Free for most small communities, more if

customized ($ 16, $36, $96, $486)
Setup Time
Minutes
Hosted?
Only Muut-hosted
Mobile
Mobile responsive design and super light
Key Features
Drag-and-drop visual editor means you

dont need technical chops, seamless
integration with channels like Blogger,
Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, WordPress,
etc.
Rich content sharing
Privacy?
Several options available on paid plans
Small to large
Examples
https://localbitcoins.com/forums/,
http://www.rappad.co/discussion
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Ning
Ning is one of the original community platforms, founded by Gina Bianchini (who now
runs Mightybell) and Marc Andreessen. Unfortunately, it hasnt evolved much since its
origins, so it looks pretty dated.
Defined Focus
A simple, affordable way to create a dynamic community platform.
In Action
Ning is a full-on, feature-rich community platform with areas for collaboration, groups,
event listings, job postings, stores, and user profiles. This is the front page of the
National Peace Corpss page, which has static content on the sidebars, highlights of
member profiles, and a big call-out image in the center.
Detailed Breakdown of Nings Features

Cost
$25-$99/month
Setup Time
An hour or so
Hosted?
Ning hosts
Mobile
Mobile responsive and has APIs to

develop your own mobile app.
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Key Features
Social integrations with YouTube, etc.

Broadcast capability, customizable
member profiles, email, forums, liking and
sharing, photos, unlimited subgroups
Updated look and feel. No easy way to

create an app.
Privacy?
Yes
Medium
Example
Peace Corps
Testimonial
I used the platform as part of a three-part community
strategy at The Tyra Banks Show for Telepictures
Productions. I was the show's web producer and led a
relaunch of the show's website for its final season. Ning
[was] where our community of just over 200k talked
about topics we covered after the show. Though the
[Facebook] page was heavily moderated, Ning was
modded mostly by community members, and we
created avatar badges based on how active members
were. It worked to create a perfect balance because I
was very involved on the other two platforms [Twitter
and Facebook], but with Ning, we could link from
specific show pages directly on the site, and the community managed the conversation
from there. This was [the] early days, and the analytics weren't so advanced on any
community or social platform. General page views and visits, and registrations to the
larger site were the main KPIs.--Annemarie Dooling, Community Advisor @ Salon,
formerly at AOL and Huffington Post
Place
Place is a complete community networking system accessed via web and mobile
applications (iOS and Android). It provides tools for growing and managing your
network, moderating user activity and deriving analytics on users and their engagement
patterns. The product was built to foster self-expression, facilitate two-way
communication and help organizers retain the value of their network.
The Places team vision is: The future of social networking doesnt lie in an allencompassing network, but in niche networks with purpose.
Defined Focus
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Connect with like-minded people, create deeper engagement and more genuine
conversations.
Good Read
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/06/the-backplane-black-box/
In Action
Place looks a lot like a branded Facebook group for your community especially.
Detailed Breakdown of Places Features

Cost
Free
Setup Time
Minutes to hours
Hosted?
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
Media-rich posting tools and integrations

(such as SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube,
Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Google+). Privacy controls, tools to
moderate content, Custom
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branding/tailored for SEO, email

capability, topics (sub-Groups),
customizable leader profiles, sign-in with
social accounts, events, blogs, search,
notifications, special HTML pages,
responsive design for tablets, use a
custom domain, flag content, assign roles
and permissions, track usage metrics,
leaderboards, message other users,
browse/discover Places, multiple content
feeds, follow people.
Deep backend analytics
Privacy?
Optional
Small to 1M+
Examples
Major League Baseball Players

Association (MLBPA), UN Foundation,
Jazz Foundation of America, Anime
Multiverse, Paradise City (Guns N
Roses).
Small World Labs
Small World Labs is a niche solution from a small company. They work with a lot of
nonprofits and for-purpose companies.
Small World is a flexible platform with a large number of standard block features.
No programmer needs to personalize it, so its super easy to use. It offers both a
platform and community engagement services.
Defined Focus
Community software with great customer support to empower nonprofits and
associations.
Good Reads
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/small-world-labs
https://www.trustradius.com/reviews/small-world-labs-community-2013-07-12-15-45-48
In Action
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Detailed Breakdown of Small World Labs Features

Cost
They do not give out this information to

non-customers.
Setup Time
Days to weeks
Hosted?
Mobile
Mobile-optimized but with no app--you

design the site yourself
Key Features
Can work for blogs, internal teams, photo

galleries, Q&A. Community Engagement
Services help you set up and engage with
your community.
New features constantly released, so

keeping up with them can be rather
cumbersome.
Privacy?
Yes
Small to large
Examples
American Cancer Society, American

Heart Association, Care.org , United
Nations Foundation, Alzheimer's
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Association, National Wildlife Federation
Switchboard
Originally created as an alumni networking tool for higher education, Switchboard has
expanded to provide an easy way to connect for any high-affinity, collaborative
community.
Switchboard is a simple tool that allows you to ask and offer things within your
community. Theyve taken off in the Portland startup community and have tons of niche
communities on the platform (female cyclists, butchers, etc.) and in higher education
communities.
Defined Focus
Posting asks and offers in your community
Good Reads
By founder Mara Zepeda: http://cmxhub.com/3-essential-traits-of-an-exceptionalcommunity-builder/
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/switchboard/
In Action
Here you see Switchboards clean interface and the ask and offer buttons. This is
one of the most simple ways to set up a community for give/take.
Detailed Breakdown of Switchboards Features
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Cost
Free for small communities, annual subscription for

large communities
Setup Time
You must be approved first, which takes a few days
Hosted?
Switchboard-hosted
Mobile
Mobile responsive, with an app coming soon
Key Features
Actionable information, not social sharing. Login

required to comment, basic discussions, @replies and
email notifications, clean look and feel, text-heavy
community building tool, successful outcomes
measured, archived and searchable, post digest.
Ability to customize URL, customizable design
Privacy?
Yes (paid plans)
Midsize to large
Examples
https://communitybuilders.switchboardhq.com/,
https://pdxstartups.switchboardhq.com/ ,
https://meatcollectives.switchboardhq.com
Content management systems

Drupal
Drupal is an open-source content management platform, which lets you build everything
from personal blogs to enterprise applications. There are thousands of add-on modules,
and Drupal can be adapted to virtually any visual design.
Its built, used, and supported by people from around the world. Anyone is free to
download and share it. Drupal is the choice for most high-end code developers, as a
website built in Drupal is much more efficient and loads faster.
Drupal 8 allows the user to change content with any Android, iPad, or iPhone mobile
device.
Defined Focus
A sophisticated open-source solution for creating a community-first website.
Good Reads
https://www.acquia.com/what-is-drupal
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/drupal/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1m-wGcWnVI
http://nodeone.se/en/what-is-drupal-cms
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In Action
The Carrie Underwood Community uses Drupal to create a content-rich site with
community components.
Detailed Breakdown of Drupals Features

Cost
Free
Setup Time
A few minutes
Hosted?
Only self-hosted
Mobile
Mobile-friendly
Key Features
Content management is front and center, opensourced so you have a whole community of
developers around you and the sky is the limit.
Nothing is drag-and-drop, so coding knowledge

is required.
Privacy?
Yes
Small, mid- and large companies
Examples
The Economist, NBC, Tesla, the White House
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Evoq by DNN
Evoq Engage is a dynamic community platform that comes with an integrated content
management system (i.e., a place for managing and publishing content). It gives an
organization the opportunity to build a branded, online community directly on its
website, or on a standalone site. It allows directed actions including sharing ideas,
showcasing members, asking questions, and creating groups around your community.
Evoq Engage includes a customizable gaming mechanics engine along with advocate
marketing capabilities.
Defined Focus
A feature-rich and simple community platform built into your website.
Good Reads
http://www.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/CaseStudies/DNN-Evoq-Social-Case-StudyMars.pdf
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/from-0-to-1000-in-a-month-oneonline-communitys-story-027768.php
In Action
This is the COPD Foundations submit an idea page. DNNs software allows your
community to submit ideas for implementation into the product.
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Detailed Breakdown of Evoqs Features

Cost
Prices starting at $20,000 per year (annual

subscription)
Setup Time
Several hours to weeks, depending on whether

you use DNN software already
Hosted?
Self-hosted and DNN-hosted options
Mobile
Mobile-responsive out of the box. DNN Partners

have developed privately-branded Android and
iOS apps for use by customers.
Key Features
Spotlighting, event creation and attendance,

event calendars, member leaderboards, member
showcases, clear way to share ideas to improve
the product, member profiles, fully integrated
Content Management System (CMS); gaming
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mechanics engine; advocate marketing

Mentioning capability, document collaboration
Privacy?
Yes
Medium to large
Examples
CHADD (Children and Adults with AttentionDeficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), City of Denver,

COPD Foundation, Cornell University, Creative
Circle, Golds Gym, Mars Petcare, SchoolDude
Higher Logic
Higher Logic is a cloud-based community platform for internal and external use. Its
user-friendly and hosted. Its focus is on long-term use and growth over time, so its
made for companies ready to make a big investment in community. It has features
different from other platforms, like a user group called HUG, Mentor Match (great for
professional organizations and nonprofits), and Volunteer Central.
Higher Logic offers plenty of support by publishing regular articles on how to best use
their software and build online communities.
Good Reads
http://resources.higherlogic.com/hs-fs/hub/312413/file-2331656204pdf/HigherLogic_2014_Community_Benchmarking_Report.pdf
In Action
Defined Focus
Private communities for all kinds of businesses and volunteer organizations.
Detailed Breakdown of Higher Logics Features
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Cost
Full communities start at $900/month with

annual contract
Setup Time
Weeks
Hosted?
HigherLogic Hosted on AWS
Mobile
Yesfully responsive mobile sites
Key Features
Advanced discussions features, resource

library, user directories, automated
workflows/smart-rules, microsites, event
calendar, Volunteer Central, Mentor
Match, CMS, Higher Logic user group,
integration with Desk.com and other CS
platforms, integration with Microsoft
Dynamics, CRM, Salesforce, and other
CRM platforms
Setup is not simple (no DIY)
Privacy?
Yes
Small to large organizations
Example
Microsoft Dynamics CRM User Group,

NetPromoter (Satmetrix), The American
Association of Association Executives
Testimonials
Summit is our annual conference that comprises 60 percent of our revenue its by
far our biggest event of the year. Being a major driving force, the annual conference
relies on the success and growth of CRMUG Collaborate to drive revenue and
membership in so many meaningful ways. --Andy Hafer, CEO Dynamic Communities
Higher Logic's Community has become one of our most popular member benefits. I
continually hear from members about how it has become an integral part of their work
day. --Rachael Bell, Digital Communications Manager NJSCPA
Pluck
Pluck is a platform for user reviews and ratings. It also offers social and community
features, but its focus is really on the latter. The entire platform is cloud-based. Pluck is
a product of Demand Media, not an independent operation.
Defined Focus
A platform for retailers to connect with customers
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In Action
This is the Pluck illy coffee community. Each piece of content appears as a tile, as in a
Pinterest board or Tumblr design. You can favorite, forward to social networks, or reply
from here.
Detailed Breakdown of Plucks Features

Cost
$399/month
Setup Time
Weeks to months
Hosted?
Pluck-hosted only
Mobile
Mobile-ready
Key Features
Ratings and reviews management,

groups, forum, customizable feedback,
gamification (badges, etc.), community
management, galleries, customizable
search, comments, social connectivity,
language adjusted by members location
User-generated content is front and

center, actual members are not
Privacy?
Yes
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Mid- to large-sized retail businesses
Examples
Loreal, Nestl, Walgreens, Whole Foods
SocialGo
SocialGo provides a social networking website builder. Its an all-encompassing site,

rather than a flat platform just for discussions.
SocialGo focuses on providing existing communities with a flexible tool to create an
integrated web presence. With powerful website-building tools and a core host of
community features (membership, private messaging, events), its the best choice for
existing communities who need a beautiful, scalable online home.
SocialGo requires a subscription instead of ads. However, you do have the option to
generate revenue by inserting your own advertisements or promotions. Setting up a
social network using SocialGo is simple and takes a few minutes.
It fully integrates with any social media, and you own all your own data. Its
customizable and growth-adaptive.
Defined Focus
Creating entire community-centric sites.
SocialGo in Action
This is a SocialGo-powered site, with a forum, membership profiles, and event listings
(upper-left tool bar) and a customizable banner and front page.
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Detailed Breakdown of SocialGos Features

Cost
$9.99-$79.99/month
Setup Time
A few minutes to get up and running, a

few months to customize
Hosted?
Both self-hosted and Joomla-hosted

options
Mobile
No
Key Features
Fully integrates with any social media,

unlimited storage and bandwidth, instant
messaging, event and calendars, blogs
and forums, host media
Tons of notification emails, which may

overwhelm your members.
Privacy?
Yes
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Large, established communities
Example
Chain Reaction Bikes
Socious
Socious is online customer community software that helps build customer relationships
by creating online groups for specific customers or members, discussion forums, wikis,
and blogs. Socious focuses on collaboration and visibility through sharing documents
and files like marketing videos, product files, support articles, and recorded webinars.
You can easily increase engagement with such gamification features as awards,
leaderboards, and profile badges. Socious also features online registration for events,
payment acceptance, agenda-building tools and a speaker management system. You
can gather feedback from members on products and services through surveys or create
an online store.
Socious is only offered in English.
Defined Focus
Increases customer engagement by creating online groups for your large community.
Generates revenue from an online store.
Good Reads
http://www.itqlick.com/socious-online-community
http://www.getapp.com/internet-online-software/a/socious/
http://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/socious-online-community-profile/?layout=var_w0
In Action
Sociouss look and feel is a bit dated, but can be updated with developer help.
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Detailed Breakdown of Sociouss Features

Cost
Socious does not share pricing

information with non-customers.
Setup Time
Weeks to months
Hosted?
Socious-hosted
Mobile
Yes--includes a mobile app
Key Features
Built-in conference and event

management software (great for user
groups), discussion boards, product
feedback tools, membership
management, activity streams, online
groups, member profiles,
customer/member directory, doc sharing,
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media library, surveys, ecommerce

capabilities, email marketing,
gamification, blogging and wikis,
analytics.
Can get too complex for a small

community
Privacy?
Yes
Large enterprises and communities
Examples
Lamaze International, VMWare User

Group
Telescope.io
Telescope is a platform upon which you can build a reddit-like, Product Hunt-like,
Designer News-like, or Hacker News-like platform for sharing content and comments in
your community. Is link sharing critical to your strategy? Do you want to form
conversations around great content and questions? If so, this is a brilliant place to start.
Beyond link sharing, you can do a lot more with a little technical know-how. According to
founder Sacha Grief, You're not limited to link sharing with Telescope. You can also
build things like news aggregators or event calendars. One of Telescope's strong points
is how flexible it is. Think of it as the WordPress of community apps.
Defined Focus
Creating conversations around great content
Good Read
Written by the founder: http://www.communitybuildingguide.com/
In Action
This is the Crater.io community. As you can see, the community shares a link or creates
an overarching topic, and people comment and upvote. If thoughtful content is important
to you, this is the way to go. Most forums organize content chronologically rather than
by quality, and this allows the good stuff to bubble up.
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Detailed Breakdown of Telescopes Features

Cost
Free
Setup Time
A few hours to a few days
Hosted?
Self-hosted only (fork the code on GitHub)
Mobile
Responsive
Key Features
Ability to post, create a profile, upvote,

comment. Nothing super fancy. Sorts by
top posts, not chronologically. Email
digests and other community-created
features arising over time. Clean look and
feel.
Ability to input without technical

knowledge. Rich profiles.
Privacy?
Options to limit sites to invited users only
Any size
Examples
Crater.io, Datalook.io
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FUEL by Passenger
The FUEL Community Engine was built with members and community managers in
mind. It helps leading brands connect with their customers to uncover insights, foster
innovation, and inspire advocacy.
FUEL is easy to use. It takes just a few hours to set up Integration of Qualtrics survey
tools, so thats a good option if youre looking for product feedback.
Includes the ability to translate into multiple languages.
Defined Focus
Connect with customers to uncover product insights, foster innovation, and inspire
advocacy.
Good Read
http://www.thinkpassenger.com/technology
Detailed Breakdown of FUELs Features
Cost
The team does not reveal pricing

information to the public.
Setup Time
A few weeks from talking with team to

creating the full site to launch
Hosted?
FUEL-hosted
Mobile
Yes, native app
Key Features
Multilanguage translation, advanced

moderation but easy to DIY, social media
integration, responsive design, in-browser
and in-app notifications for new content,
recruit and qualify new community
members from your Facebook fan page(s)
and engage members where they already
interact with your brand (organic
engagement).
No transparent pricing
Privacy?
Yes
Large
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Examples
Coca Cola, Mercedes Benz, Nike
Mobilize
Mobilize is in beta, finding its groove and working closely with big-name companies.
What we like about Mobilize is its carved out a very solid niche for itself. If you identify
with the following, you should go with Mobilize: Mobilize focuses on an emerging type of
community, referred to as external stakeholders. Team members recognized such
stakeholders behavior is unique from that of employees and customers. They call their
company-to-community platform community relationship automation because it
embeds all the best practices of building relationships with community members into an
automated, smart process.
Whats unique about Mobilize is your members dont have to log into the platform. They
can reply to everything from their email or calendar, with more external integrations in
the pipeline. This presents unique challenges as you have to get your members to
return to the platform, but theyre making all kinds of changes on a regular basis to the
platform to make it better.
Defined Focus
A platform designed for up-and-coming to mature businesses to mobilize their
community members, partners, and freelancers into action.
Good Reads
http://tech.co/community-management-platform-mobilize-raises-1-2m-seed-funding2014-11
http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/25/mobilize-a-better-alternative-to-google-groups-forcommunity-management-raises-1-2m/
In Action
From the Activity page, send posts, events, polls or files. Reminder and follow-up
buttons make it easy to drive engagement. Pick message recipients via an embedded
sync to your customized directory (also lives in Members page). See lists of your events
and files on those pages, with analytics for each one.
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Detailed Breakdown of Mobilizes Features

Cost
There are different tiers by community size. Pricing for small to

large size communities ranges from two-week trials to $500
monthly, with custom pricing for enterprise accounts.
Discount: 10% off first three months with coupon code
welovecmx. Expires 4/30/15.
Setup Time
Minutes
Hosted?
Mobilize-hosted.
Mobile
Dont need platform to interact (device agnostic). The platform,

though, is fully responsive on mobile.
Key Features
All communication tools embedded with member directory, with

custom filters to segment your audience. Analytics in each post
and in dashboard. Easily invite new members. Very low friction.
Customizable interface and content spotlights.
Privacy?
Yes--customizable privacy controls at every level.
Ideal Community
Size?
Can work from small to enterprise level communities
Examples
Etsy, Google Developers, Seedcamp, Thiel Fellowship, Uber
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NationBuilder
NationBuilder specializes in creating community sites for politicians and other

government organizations, but thats not to say it cant work for other communities. It
does, and its designers have a few compelling examples on their homepage. They call
the platform the operating system for communities. It has all the makings of such, but
the fine-grained details are lackingthough you can submit feature requests! It allows
you to fundraise and share news as well as give each of your supporters their own
profile page.
Some big pros of the platform: You can run your entire organization or a brand
ambassador program including your website, using their platform. Engagement is built
into every page, so your site will do more than broadcast your. Collect event RSVPs,
sell tickets, manage memberships, process invoices, and crowdsource ideas from your
biggest supporters, because your people database consolidates website engagement,
social media interactions, and financial support, are all in one place.
Defined Focus
Connects online space with on-the-ground actions to help leaders and organizations
build genuine relationships.
Good Reads
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahmckinney/2014/02/24/this-company-is-turning-thepower-of-storytelling-within-for-employees/
http://nationbuilder.com/genun_full
In Action
Detailed Breakdown of NationBuilders Features
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Cost
$19/mo for 2,000 people and 200 emails

all the way up to $999/mo for 500,000
people and 100,000 emails; Enterprise
pricing also offered by request only.
Setup Time
A few hours (custom themes in about two

weeks)
Hosted?
NationBuilder-hosted
Mobile
Mobile-responsive
Key Features
Donate page, easy editor, event pages,

free phone number, integration with social
media, join page, petitions, profiles for
members, volunteer recruiting
Like many platforms, ability to customize

themes is limited without technical knowhow
Privacy?
No
Small to large. Though it can get

expensive, its still more affordable than
many other large platforms.
Example
Hero Hatchery
SocialEngine
If you want to own and control your data completely, this is the platform for you.
SocialEngine includes 100% source-code access and data ownership.
SocialEngine is a software suite sold in two products: as a standalone software package
called SocialEngine PHP, and as software as a service under the name SocialEngine
Cloud. With the cloud version its incredibly easy to create a social website with no
hosting, installation, or programming experience needed.
Defined Focus
Giving you complete control and ownership over all aspects of your site and content.
Good Reads
http://www.socialengine.com/features/php
http://www.getapp.com/marketing-software/a/socialengine/
In Action
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This is a SocialEngine community of corgi lovers. Its like a fully socialized Tumblr
focused on user-generated content.
Detailed Breakdown of SocialEngines Features

Cost
A license valid for one installation is $299

Plugins are $40 each
Setup Time
SE cloud is easy to set up. You just fill out

a form and their internal team sets it up
for you. To use Se PHP, you need
engineering skills
Hosted?
Self-hosted only
Mobile
Mobile plugin
Key Features
Complete control and ownership of data,

fully unencrypted source code, activity
feed, advertising space, member profiles,
anti spam
No ability to set up for yourself
Privacy?
Yes
Small, mid- and large companies
Examples
Apple, Electronic Arts, Kaplan University,

MasterCard, Shell, Startup Revolution
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Internal Community
HipChat
HipChat is an Atlassian product. It basically works as a chat room for internal groups, a
lot like Basecamp chat. The different chat rooms can be both on-topic for work as well
as off-topic. You can turn on desktop notifications, so its great for remote teams that
need to ping one another.
Defined Focus
Instant messaging that works for small and large teams.
In Action
HipChat is another internal chat application that separates by topic and team.
Detailed Breakdown of HipChats Features

Cost
HipChat Basic: free for unlimited users,

group chat, and instant messaging.
HipChat Plus: $2 per user per month for
video chat, screen sharing and additional
advanced features.
Setup Time
Minutes
Hosted?
Atlassian-hosted
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Mobile
Mobile-friendly
Key Features
Sixty-two third-party integrations

including: Asana, Desk.com, Freshdesk,
Help Scout, Heroku, Intercom, JIRA,
MailChimp, Raygun, TeamCity, Twitter,
Usersnap, UserVoice, Woopra,
WordPress, Zapier, and ZenDesk. Mobile
device apps, social tools like @mentions
and GIFs, and Instagram feeds, file
sharing, push notifications, unlimited chat
rooms and searchable history.
Doesnt scale very well
Privacy?
Yes
Small companies. Though it can be used

for larger, we dont think its ideal.
Examples
Dropbox, DropCam, Expedia, and Netflix
Testimonial
We were using HipChat for internal communications at
Estimote as sort of an official tool. After several months
some people started chatting on Slack as well. Then, a
strange thing happened: in a matter of two weeks, the
whole company (including CEO and management)
organically moved to Slack. It's kind of funny, because
while I couldn't really point at any big qualitative gap
between those two (apart from mobile, HipChat app is
awful), I like using Slack so much more than HipChat.-Wojciech Borowicz, Community @ Estimote
Honey
Honey is a cloud-hosted social intranet solution, founded by former agency and startup
engineers and business executives. Honey is an intuitive way for employees to share
and discover news and information at work. Its user-friendly and clean and has an
easy-to-use mobile app.
Defined Focus
Simple internal community builder for companies with employees on the go.
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Detailed Breakdown of Honeys Features

Cost
$4 person/month
Setup Time
Minutes
Hosted?
Yes
Mobile
Yes, native apps
Key Features
Unlimited total storage, integration with

Dropbox, Google Drive and box file,
media sharing, group moderators,
@mentions, private groups, emoji
support, custom branding, LinkedIn
integration. Very basic analytics.
Because of its simple design and overall

newsfeed, this is probably not ideal for
large organizations with many teams. No
editable wikis. No chat. No email
notifications.
Privacy?
Yes
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Small to midsize companies (up to 1000

employees)
Examples
Capital One, Prezi, Sesame Street
Testimonial
"I looked at a lot in this space and nothing quite fit for our needs [building community
among VC portfolio companies]. Then Honey came along and checked all the boxes. It
has a rich directory of user profiles, email integration, two mobile apps, a web app,
robust archive that is searchable by keyword, PDFs, user profiles, robust notifications,
groups and topics. Its also really nicely designed and I loved Rachel, the founder."
We only have 8 employees, but we have 250 founders who dont all know each
other. Our companies were in a dark room and I wanted to turn on the lights. I wanted
them to talk to each other and know who else is there. It needed to be asynchronous.
I would definitely recommend it. Its so much easier to have a product built with a
support team than building your own and troubleshooting support." - Nicola Korzenko,
Community @ Lerer Hippeau VC
Igloo
Igloo is a 100% cloud solution, super easy and fast to get started and use. No technical
skills are required to implement it, and it allows for richer collaboration than HipChat or
Slack.
The platform allows you to share files, answer and ask questions, share ideas, and
manage projects. There are many built-in functions including blogs, calendars, forums,
shared files, task lists, and wikis for creating practice documents and taking notes.
To set up, simply choose from a selection of built-in apps and drag-and-drop onto a
page to create an experience that reflects how you work. You can use them all together
or select only the ones you need. And if you want to create a site that matches your
brand, Igloo has an in-house digital agency too.
Defined Focus
Organized, connected, intelligent internal communication.
Good Reads
http://www.igloosoftware.com/blogs
https://vimeo.com/igloosoftware
In Action
Igloo is an updated-looking intranet that allows your coworkers to collaborate on
projects and processes.
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Good Reads
http://www.getapp.com/collaboration-software/a/igloo-software/
https://www.g2crowd.com/products/igloo-software/reviews
Detailed Breakdown of Igloos Features
Cost
Free to use with up to ten people.

For more users, Igloo offers a
subscription model with pricing on a per
user, per month basis.
Licensing starts at $12 per user per
month (for intranet) and $3 per user per
month (for external communities), and
volume discounts can be applied for
larger communities.
Setup Time
30 minutes to an hour
Hosted?
Igloo-hosted
Mobile
Yes- responsive and has mobile apps
Key Features
Multiple easy ways to communicate and
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distribute to a select few or many, easyto-follow visual email thread, forum and
wikis, communicate with integrated
messaging, presence and status
indicators, share, organize and manage
documents and multimedia, collaborate
through blogs, events, forums, polls and
wikis, build rich user profiles to locate
expertise, find what you need faster
through activity streams and searching.
Drag and drop editor makes all of these
easy to plug in.
No real-time chat functionality (but with a

developer, you could work around this
given their REST-based API.
Privacy?
Yes
Small to large organizations (anywhere

from 5-10,000 people)
Languages
English, Spanish, French, German,

Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian
and Chinese
Examples
Aetna, Golin, NII Holdings and the ATP

World Tour
Salesforce Chatter
Salesforce Chatter is an internal tool that companies can use to connect their
employees around sales, marketing, and other business goals. Its made for companies
who use Salesforce in other aspects of their business.
Defined Focus
For the company that uses other Salesforce products and wants to build internal
community and collaboration.
Good Read
http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/customer-stories
In Action
Chatter looks like Facebook meets LinkedIn. Heres one of its profile pages.
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Detailed Breakdown of Salesforce Chatters Features

Cost
Free with purchase of CRM license or

$15/user/month for Chatter Plus
Setup Time
A few hours
Hosted?
Salesforce-hosted
Mobile
Mobile first priority: iPad, iPhone, Mac,

Mobile Web App, RIM-BlackBerry, Webbased, Windows
Key Features
Social intelligence: Chatter recommends

people, documents, files, and other
information for you to follow based on
your activity and interests; supports
hashtags, share calendar and events,
secure protected data, document and file
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sharing, define workflow and business

processes, activity feed, publish and
update shared content
A little too robust for a small team, more

geared toward those who use
Salesforces CRM tools
Privacy?
Yes
Small business to large enterprise-level
Examples
Salesforce, Inttra, Wells Fargo, GE

Aviation
Slack
Slack is a relatively new player that is sweeping the business world. Its a fully
searchable, integrated chat application that plugs into all kinds of other services. While
not a traditional community platform, its got the makings of an internal or external tool
that were seeing used as a community platform more widely each day.
You cant invite just anyone to be in the platform seamlessly, it takes some onboarding.
So this is only ideal for MVP programs and internal communities.
Many organizations are now using Slack as a means to build external communities,
giving restricted access to private channels to select users. From the users standpoint,
adding new channels and organizations is super simple as they all plug into the clean
main Slack interface.
The apps that work for iPad and iPhone as well as other mobile devices are similarly
beautiful and functional.
Defined Focus
The updated work chatroom youve been waiting for.
Good Reads
https://levels.io/slack-typeform-auto-invite-sign-ups/
http://blog.gopheracademy.com/gophers
In Action
Slack is an updated and clean IRC-like chat platform.
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Detailed Breakdown of Slacks Features

Cost
Starting from $0 - $8/month
Setup Time
Minutes
Hosted?
Slack-hosted
Mobile
Native apps for Android and iOS to give

you the full functionality of Slack wherever
you go with multiple channels or
organizations (great for freelancers!)
Key Features
Integrates with dozens of services; native

apps for Android and iOS; powerful
search and archiving; built-in internal and
external sharing option; support for
private groups and one-to-one direct
messaging; webhooks and an open API;
emojis and emoticons and all kinds of
plugins for GIFs make this a fun
alternative to HipChat
Cannot open and edit documents like

other software that manages files
(Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.). Best
experience is on the desktop version.
Onboarding is best suited for MVP
members and internal employees, as it is
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labor-intensive.
Not very customizable and doesnt allow
for posting and following threads easily.
Best for project-based work.
No integration with email. Hard to get
users to re-engage if theyre not regular
Slack users.
No ability to search inside Google Docs,
PDFs, Photoshop files, Word docs.
You cannot create open channels.
Privacy?
Yes
Any size
Examples
Startups everywhere!
https://thenetwork.slack.com,
http://hashtagnomads.com/,
http://fedsonslack.com/,
http://www.hashtagstartup.co/,
https://make.wordpress.org/chat/
Testimonial
Slack communities are predominantly for internal communities
within the workspace. However, we are starting to see external
communities using Slack. One great example is Nomadslist. It has
an appealing design, its easy to use and set up, [with] easy-to-setup channels and groups (both public and private) for various topics.
You can also filter information via tagging and hashtags and search
all your conversations easily. It integrates nicely with dozens of web
apps and social media sites. The cons are that it is a more of an
IM/group messaging channel than a community. It's better for realtime communication as opposed to discussions lasting days,
weeks, or months. The analytics aren't great either.--Jessica Malnik, Community @
BigCommerce, Blogger at blog.jessicamalnik.com
Yammer
Yammer (owned by Microsoft) enables employees to collaborate with one another in a

private space. Its a secure platform that allows your company to share information
privately across different departments and within teams.
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Defined Focus
Internal work groups for large organizations.
In Action
Yammer has a simple interface with gamification elements. Its easy to start new
discussions and see the list of features on the left sidebar. At the top left, you see the
user profile, where you can add in member information.
Detailed Breakdown of Yammers Features

Cost
Enterprise Standalone $3 per user/month

Office 365 for Business starts at $8 per
user/month
Setup Time
Hours
Hosted?
Yammer-hosted
Mobile
Mobile-compatible with all smartphones
Key Features
Enterprise microblogging, PMs, Office

365 integration, see who's online, profile
pages, leaderboards, subgroups, org
charts, wikis, file sharing, polls, surveys.
No customizability, no forums
Privacy?
Yes
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Small to Large
Examples
DHL, Shell, 7-Eleven
Community Platforms that Exist On Outside Platforms

(Unowned Communities)
Well remind you here: before picking one of these unowned platforms to run with, poll
your existing users to see where they want to hang out. Its always a good idea to get
community buy-in!
We wont go into deep detail on these. Instead, well give you a sense for when to know
if this platform is right for you.
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups is the easiest way to collect your community, as everyone uses
Facebook on a regular basis. Groups allow members to post content such as
comments, editable documents, events, links, media, and questions on these items. If
you want to dig deep into your community, if you want it to truly connect and share info,
then groups is not for you. Its good as a starter to see the appetite for your community
and how people interact.
Defined Focus
Simple, efficient communication
In Action
Our very own CMX Facebook group is alive and well.
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Detailed Breakdown of Facebooks Features

Cost
Free, but you can pay for more views
Setup Time
Five minutes
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
Event creation and sharing, file uploads,

and its easy to find all the members
Its simple to use but difficult to keep track

of whats going on.
Privacy?
Secret, closed and open
1- 1000 members. You can have more-Udemy has 20,000--but data and admin
get unwieldy.
Example
Cmx group
G+ Communities
Any Google Plus user can easily create and host a community on the cloud in a matter
of a few clicks. Google+ Communities are for users who are interested in vibrant
conversations around topics, not for users who want to build deeper community
relations. By building categories and using hashtags, you can filter your content and
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thus improve the discoverability of content. Users can select the content they want
quickly. Hangouts are becoming an increasingly valued asset in communities as well, as
they create shared experiences and cement bonds.
In Action
Defined Focus
Lively conversations around specific niche topics
Good Read
http://blog.hootsuite.com/reasons-to-use-google-plus-communities/
Detailed Breakdown of G+ Communities Features
Cost
Free
Setup Time
10 minutes
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
Discussion areas, ability to email

members, G+ profiles, G+ Hangouts,
Google docs integration
Google+ can be very annoying: G+ circles

are not intuitive, features are not rich, and
Hangouts are only available to this with a
G+ account
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Privacy?
From private hidden to open
1-10,000
Example
National Geographics Exploration

Community
Testimonial
I remember constantly refreshing Google+ the day they were
adding communities. Originally, Google+ was a great way for
us to grow the My Community Manager community in a public
setting. Despite rapid growth, the conversations stayed very
focused and were not full of spam. In more recent times, this
has changed. The nice thing about Google+ Communities is it
does have a pretty strong native spam filter. Creating a
community here made sense for us since our community
exists around Google+ Hangouts, although we rarely actually
promoted our hangouts or posts within the community. All of that being said, I'm not
sure what the future of Google+ Communities is now. Sherrie Rohde, Community
@Rebellion Media
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn is the best social media platform for businesses. Its a great way to meet
others in your industry, but is it the best for creating a community? We arent sure.
LinkedIn is a professional network, focusing on B2B interactions. That means the quality
of the contacts youll get for any business-related content is much higher than those
from Facebook or Twitter. Its a good starting point to prove you have potential for a fullfledged community, but we dont recommend staying there long-term.
Detailed Breakdown of LinkedIns Features
Cost
Free
Setup Time
10 minutes
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
Ability to add people quickly, discussions,

email notifications, link dropping
Hard to follow conversations without it

getting unwieldy
No growth of deep relationships
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Privacy?
From private to open
1-10,000
Examples
Mention, The Fetch
Testimonial
Only use LinkedIn for the network effects.-- Bas van Leeuwen,
Principal Consultant @ Evidently Community
Meetup
Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. Its mission is to start and grow
local communities and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup is a great
starting point for an event series that encourages offline engagement, but it's not a great
place to build an ultra-active online community.
Distribution of your meetups is one of the platforms strong points. It allows you to reach
new people who search the site by keyword, which takes a ton of legwork out of an
initial event launch. We cant stress how helpful that is.
With Meetup Pro, organizations and companies can harness the power of Meetup to
manage, grow, and engage with their communities. Meetup Pro offers tools specifically
for community professionals, including the ability to create and manage Meetups,
communicate with their community, and measure success.
Defined Focus
Bringing people together through events
In Action
Here you see the SF Community Manager group. Each scheduled event has its own
discussion wall, where guests can interact and ask questions. Organizers can now
message their members within the app as well, which is a great feature.
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Detailed Breakdown of Meetups Features

Cost
Free
Setup Time
10 minutes
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
Detailed events, attendee visibility, ticket

sales, photos, sponsors, discussion
boards, in-app messaging of your
members
It's largely a vehicle for event

management -- the meetings happen
offline.
Privacy?
Any size, though depth will not be

significant
Examples
San Francisco Online Community Meetup

Group
reddit
reddit has become one of the Internets go-to resources for content discovery and
conversation. Its a social news website where users can post links to content or create
self posts to spark conversation.
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reddit is organized into subreddits, which are organized around topics of conversation
and which often grow into full-fledged deeply-connected communities (such as
https://www.reddit.com/r/ClashOfClans/). Subreddits are abbreviated as r/topicname.
Some subreddits are defaulted, such as r/books, r/gaming, or r/gadgets.
Other users may then vote the posted links up or down, causing them to appear more or
less prominently on the reddit homepage (as well as on reddit users customized
homepages, created by subscribing to certain subreddits).
Karma is the social reputation currency of reddit. Users are incentivized through karma,
which you get when others upvote your posts and comments. By default, when there
are enough votes against a given comment, it wont be displayed, though a reader can
display it through a link or preference.
Detailed Breakdown of reddits Features
Cost
Free
Setup Time
10 minutes
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
reddit is mainly anonymous and not

connected to peoples offline identities. As
a leader, this may make it difficult to bring
reddit relationships back to your own
platform in the future, if that is your plan.
Hard to build long-standing community

relationships
Privacy?
From private to open
Very small to large
Example
Social Media Marketing
Testimonials
reddit is the only site I can say has changed my life. It has
allowed me to benefit from a level of insight that made me
tremendously grow as a person. But reddit is a harsh mistress.
Written and unwritten rules, as well as crowds, change widely
from subreddit to subreddit. Managing a subreddit can quickly
be challenging because of anonymity, sensitivities and -- for the
few who are successful -- traffic. But where else can a noob like
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me get to manage communities of millions of users? Not only is reddit the best
community management school and a great traffic generator for your product, but if you
succeed at reddit, you can manage any community, anywhere. -- Nicolas Gregoire,
Founder and CEO of amigoCAT and reddit moderator
At Estimote, we've started doing some work to reach developers
using iBeacon (or beacons in general) via reddit, but in our case it
turns out it's very distributed and hard. We'll definitely revisit this
with more resources on hand, but haven't achieved substantial
results yet. However, I see tremendous potential to unlock for
people managing niche communities (from lucid dreaming, to
transcranial DC stimulation, to conspiracy theories, to whatever)
that don't have many better places to go. --Wojciech Borowicz,
Stack Exchange
Stack Exchange is a network of 130+ Q&A communities. It started with programming on

Stack Overflow and then branched out. Today, you can propose a new community and
run it on the site.
Defined Focus
Q&A only--this is for people with questions or answers. Its not for anything else.
In Action
Detailed Breakdown of Stack Exchanges Features
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Cost
Free
Setup Time
10 minutes
Mobile
Yes
Key Features
Community of experts, Q&A, upvoting

answers, intuitive interface, newsletters
built in
Not for deep relationships
Privacy?
1-1000
Example
Stack Overflow
Testimonials
From the whole SE platform, I've only used Stack Overflow
(personally, I love the one for chess as well) for community
management purposes, and it has huge power. Developers
consider SO the ultimate source of knowledge, so if you're
doing devangelism and you don't have strong presence at
SO, you're doing something wrong. It's awesome for
gathering product feedback, gaining authority (which leads to
thought leadership), and support too.--Wojciech Borowitz,
Stack Exchange is perfect: great audience, the rules are clear,
moderation tools are great. The downsides are there are no
announcements, no mailings, no analytics.-- Bas van Leeuwen,
Principal Consultant @ Evidently Community
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TL;DR Quick Suggestions to Get You Started

If Youre Not Tech-Savvy and Dont Have Anyone Technical
on Your Team, Skip These
Phpbb
vBulletin
Drupal
Xenforo
DNN
If You Want Something that Focuses on Content Curation

and UGC Creation
Telescope
Mightybell
Pluck
Any internal platform
If Youre Not Tech-Savvy and Just Want to Get Started ASAP
Vanilla Forums
Mightybell
Any of the unowned platforms
GroupAhead
Mobilize
Switchboard
Zendesk
If You Want Something Full Customizable and Technical

Know-How Is Not an Issue
Any enterprise platform (assuming your budget is over $200,000)

vBulletin
If Gamification Is Important to You
Discourse
Vanilla Forums
Enterprise platforms
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Further Reading
-
CMXs ultimate guide about choosing the right platform for community
Feverbee: a few rules for choosing online community platform
Udemy Facebook group case study
Platforms to Watch
-
GroupAhead: still in early stages, could be a game-changer

Legion.io: still in pre-launch
SOG platform: just launched in April 2015
Glossary
Cloud or Cloud-Based: The difference here is platforms are updated in real time as
changes roll out. You wont need to store any information or do manual updates.
Hosted: When we say hosted, we mean its either self-hosted (on your companys
server) or by the company that provides the platform. Why does that matter? If you want
to control the platform and fully integrate it into your site, it needs to be self-hosted. If
youre okay with an outside company having access to your data and controlling when
you have downtime, then its okay to host on anothers servers.
Threaded Forums vs. Flat Forums: A flat forum (like Discourse or vBulletin) is a forum
in which a conversations replies are all added one by one to the end of a conversation
without hierarchy. You can quote another member, but there is no set order other than
chronological. A threaded forum is one in which you can reply to anothers message
rather than keep things in a thread by topic. You see this in Disqus comments and on
reddit, where replies are indented rather than just a steady stream of similarly formatted
replies.
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Appendix
Community Priority Checklist
I want my community to
create user-generated content beyond conversations

give feedback (product- or content-related)
reply to user-generated content
ask customer support-related questions
crowdsource ideas for your product
private message one another
plan events together
report bugs
discuss topics
follow each other to deepen relationships
search past discussions to use as a knowledge base of some sort
serve as a tiered engagement ladder
serve as ambassadors for your product
facilitate collaboration on projects or documents
Community Platforms that Fit Each Priority Best

Create user-generated content beyond conversations
JiveX
Lithium
Zimbra
CMNTY
GroupAhead (mobile photos and discussions only)
Hoop.la
Mightybell
Ning
Place
Small World Labs
All Content Management Systems (its their bread and butter)
Mobilize
NationBuilder
SocialEngine
Honey
Igloo
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Slack (allows for uploads)
Give feedback (product- or content-related)
Keep in mind that any forum, enterprise-level solution, or any content management system
could be used for this purpose. Were only sharing those here who really specialize in this
function if this is your top priority.
Get Satisfaction
UserVoice
Zendesk Communities
Evoq by DNN
Reply to user-generated content
Any of these platforms could be used for this purpose, depending on the content. For rich
content, go back to the first list of those platforms that allow user-generated content beyond
conversations.
Stay away from chat platforms like HipChat, Slack, Chatter for this purpose as they require
more synchronous conversation.
Ask customer support-related questions
Get Satisfaction
UserVoice
Zendesk Communities
Crowdsource ideas for your product
Evoq by DNN
NationBuilder
Mobilize
Igloo
IP Boards (polls)
Private message one another
Any forum software

Any enterprise software
Any unowned community platform with limited effectiveness, as they all have
messaging built in, with the exception of Stack Exchange and G+.
GroupAhead (you get other members emails, but no in-app messaging)
Hoop.la
SocialGo
Switchboard
Any internal community
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Plan events together
Mightybell
Meetup
Hoop.la
GroupAhead
CMNTY
Evoq by DNN
Telescope.io (with developer help)
Higher Logic
NationBuilder
Report bugs
Get Satisfaction
UserVoice
Zendesk Communities
Discuss topics
Any type of platform will work except community feedback platforms. Note that this should
probably NOT be your only goal of connecting people. This is usually not a compelling enough
reason to get people to interact with each other by itself unless they are super isolated or you
are building a pure fan base or enthusiast community.
Follow each other to deepen relationships
Place
Yammer
Any unowned platform
Search past discussions to use as a knowledge base
Get Satisfaction
Zendesk Communities
Serve as a tiered engagement ladder
Vanilla Forums
Lithium
JiveX
Xenforo
Ning
Pluck
Socious
Serve as ambassadors for your product
Any private forums

Mobilize
Any internal community platform
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Private G+ Communities
Private Facebook Groups
Private LinkedIn Groups
Facilitate collaboration on projects or documents
JiveX
Lithium
Zimbra
All Content Management Systems
Mobilize
Honey
Igloo
Slack (allows for uploads)
Community Platform Review Sheet
You will want to narrow down your priorities for a platform to no more than three from
the checklist above. Then create a spreadsheet where you can evaluate the platforms
based on your unique priorities.
You can download this form and expand it at:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HAvUpC3mmBLkACKhIPhu4RkJ7BAjTUqnL
ZVjk074zNc/edit?usp=sharing.
Platform
# of
Priorities
Met
OneTime
Setup
Fees
Monthly
Fees
Implementation
Time/Difficulty
Technical
Needs
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The CMX Guide To Community Platforms

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The CMX Guide To Community Platforms

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M

CARRIE M ELISSA JO NES

About the Authors

In-Depth Analysis of All Platforms............................................................................. 19

TL;DR Quick Suggestions to Get You Started ........................................................ 106

So Youre Stuck Choosing a Platform for Your

Introduction to Platform Decisions

The Nine Key Questions You Should Ask Before Even

How large is your community?

What will community members do?

What is your budget?

How important is privacy?

BONUS QUESTION from Patrick OKeefe

Creating a Review Spreadsheet

Community Platforms We Discuss and Why

Definitions of Community Platforms

A forum is a piece of software that enables community members to talk in a message

Community Feedback and Support Platforms

Content Management Systems

Community Relationship Management

Community Platforms That Exist on Outside Platforms

In-Depth Analysis of All Platforms

Detailed Breakdown of Bbpresss Features

FREE. Its an open-source plugin.

A few minutes (but you need to have a

Self-hosted on your WordPress site

Key Missing Features

Can be made invisible to non-members

Ideal Community Size?

Small because moderation queue could

Dropbox Forums, Wp Candy

Detailed Breakdown of Discourses Features

Free if self-hosted, otherwise $100$1000/month (depending on size of

30 minutes if you pay to have them set it

Both options are available

Mobile-friendly, but they support only the

Key Missing Features

They only support the newest devices.

Lack of robust metrics, no built-in CMS.

Ideal Community Size?

Unlimited: large or small work well

Boing Boing, Cisco, GitHub, HBO,

IP (Invision Power) Boards

Detailed Breakdown of IP Boards Features

$20/mo for 25 simultaneous users, and

A few hours to a few weeks

Both self-hosted and hosted options

Polls, social sign-on, automatic video and

Ideal Community Size?

Small and large because it can quickly be

MyBB is a free, open-source, community-based, forum software project run by MyBB

Detailed Breakdown of MyBBs Features

Easy conversion from other platforms.

theme editor, calendars, simple

Updated look and feel

Ideal Community Size?

MySkins.org, The Horror Forums (mostly

Curious about managing these non-mobile

Free for self-hosted; $35-$100/mo for

Both self-hosted and non-self-hosted

Single sign-on, internationalization,

Key Missing Features

No mobile app. It isnt easy to set up or