7 fantastic alternatives to Facebook Groups

Nov 25, 2022

Facebook Groups used to be the most well-known method to engage with your customers, establish brand trust, and grow your company. The problem is, Facebook isn't the owner of your Facebook Group. Facebook owns it.

We'll look at the reasons why many content creators are looking for other alternatives for Facebook Groups. Which are the ones that made it onto our top seven list.

What are the reasons online creators are looking for alternatives to Facebook Groups?

With 2934 active users per month, and 1,8 billion who are using groups every month -- Facebook is certainly a fantastic way to reach out to your target audience.

Although Facebook Groups used to be a great option to get your company closer to clients, recent scandals concerning user privacy, along with an array of other concerns, are causing a lot of frustration and may even the business owners that rely on the platform.

The result is that many search for alternative options for Facebook Groups.

What's the matter with all these concerns are you asking?

First, although Facebook Groups are quick to create, the customization options are minimal. Everything from the fonts as well as the user interface way your audience interacts with you, is controlled by Facebook You have no say in the matter.

This takes us to the following point: your Facebook Group isn't controlled or owned by the group's owner or manager--it's Facebook's. That means that you might not be able to share certain content or communicate with your members in the way that you'd like. It also means you're counting on Facebook to keep its platform operating smoothly, which isn't always the situation. May we remind you of the downtime of Facebook in 2021?

One of the biggest drawbacks of Facebook Groups is visibility and monetization. Unless you upgrade your ad budget, posts that are not paid for have around 2.2 percent of the views. In other words, if your Facebook Group has 1,000 followers but only 22 will actually see your post!

The algorithm of Facebook also favors content from friends and family in preference to posts from companies, making it more difficult to connect viewers with your posts, awesome as it may be.

Additionally, running the administration of a Facebook Group can be hard task. In addition to dealing with the annoyances caused by spam accounts and trolls It isn't possible to customize your administrative controls, meaning you'll be relying on Facebook's system to let people in, post or moderate.

What Facebook Group alternative is best to meet the needs of a creator?

This is a question you have to answer by yourself, as what is effective for different businesses may be a bad fit for yours. However, we created this article to give you solid information for making the best decision for your needs.

Here are the main things to look out for when choosing a substitute for Facebook Groups:

  Features  

Are you able to customize the interface? Are you able to operate it easily? Do you have the ability to setup everything in a short time and efficiently? Are you happy with the way it integrates into the other aspects of your company?

In selecting a platform you must ensure it has the right attributes for you and your business. We'll dig into this more when we look at the various platforms we've listed below.

  Platform interface  

What do you think of the user interface? Do you feel confident creating it, making changes, and using it? Do you find yourself at a loss or overwhelmed by it? If so is the case, do you have great support options to assist you in getting up to speed and troubleshoot? If the platform you're using is unclear and you aren't getting the help you need you should look into other options.

  User experience  

Your community online thrives when your audience is engaging with it, so it's crucial to take into account what experience users have when using the platform.

What is it from the perspective of a user? Does it seem easy to navigate and interact with?

If you are struggling to comprehend, that your neighbors will as well.

Test it from your audience's point of perspective and determine if it's something that they'd be satisfied with, or whether it could be improved.

  Budget  

Certain Facebook Group alternatives are more expensive than others and it is important to choose the one that is within your budget.

Higher cost doesn't equal better. Check the factors listed above before deciding between one or the other.

The last thing you want is to end up with an expensive platform whose interface and client experience are difficult to figure out.

What are the most effective alternative to online communities to Facebook Groups?

There are many options out available to build your own community, independent of Facebook, and today we bring you the top seven most effective alternatives to Facebook Groups.

Let's dig in!

1. DISCORD

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The platform that was initially designed as a place for players has evolved into an extremely popular platform for community building.

Discord comes with a number of amazing features to help build your online community outside of Facebook, such as secure public and private channels, customized bots that can interact with members and admins, instant messaging between admins and members, audio and video calls, and custom permissions to differentiate between administrators and users.

You can also download and use it for no cost, or upgrade to $99.99 annually to gain access to other features.

However, the process of setting up the Discord community isn't an easy procedure, and you'll be facing a long learning curve, which can delay your online community-building process.

Your Discord server will also co-exist with the rest of the online communities using this service, which means that you'll have to make sure that you stand out to ensure that people are able to interact with the content you post instead of opponents.

In terms of branding, Discord uses a dark theme, which may or not work the aesthetic of your company. However, it isn't able to be altered.

Additionally, you aren't able to charge users to gain accessibility to the Discord server. If you want to do this, you need to create a separate paypal page for each user separately.

Overall, Discord is a great alternative to Facebook community groups, offering greater functionality and more features. If your objective is to help your users earn money and expand your business, this platform may not give you all the tools you want.

  2. REDDIT

reddit-website

With more than 50 million users using Reddit daily, this platform has a lot to offer when it comes to building an online community that isn't Facebook.

Reddit uses a forum-like structure in which each topic is classified into a subreddit or the subreddit.

Some great things concerning Reddit is that it's totally freeto join, it's possible to create an open or restricted subreddit and it's simple to setup and utilize .

But, like Discord it isn't able to provide the ability to customize your branding and monetization options for your users. Like Facebook the platform isn't completely control your own subreddit.

This means your subreddit can be suspended if admins believe that you -- or one of your members--have broken rules by posting or making comments.

Subreddits are a huge part of the site is extremely significant, which means that making content that engages the audience could be an obstacle.

Even though the platform is free, you have to pay to get an advertising-free version.

Reddit is an awesome option to build a completely open online community. However, similar to Discord isn't the most effective option for those trying to make money from your online community.

  3. MIGHTY Networks

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Mighty Networks allows you to build an online community and offer your course on the same space.

With this system, you are able to make free or paid community for your users, employ personal branding, provide a mobile app, and set up private areas that allow your users to connect with each other.

Mighty Networks also allows for live streams, group and private chat messages, as well as an an unlimited number of members and moderators.

However, this platform doesn't provide a no-cost plan and transactions are charged in addition to the cost of your monthly subscription.

If you're looking for online courses options, you'll need to join their Business Plansfor $119 per month, and if you need any additional tools--such as payment processing, email marketing, a reliable site builder, or website creator, you may need to pay extra to get the tools you need.

Mighty Networks plans--and the transaction costs that go with them -- are their Free Trial ($0/month and the transaction fee is 5%), Community Plan ($39/month and 3% transaction fee) and Business Plan ($119/month with a the transaction fee of 2%), and Mighty Pro (custom price).

This platform is a great tool to create an online community. However, it is important to keep track of the transaction costs since they can add up quickly as your community gets bigger.

  4. TRIBE.SO

tribe.so-website-home-page

Tribe is a community-building online tool intended to be utilized via websites for businesses or via phone applications.

One of the advantages of Tribe is that you are able to decide to create a private or private community, and integrate it easily with other apps (such as Slack, Google Analytics, or Intercom among some) or modify it according to the style of your business. In addition, it comes with a great variety of community management tools.

Tribe lets members post content using different categories tags.

The Tribe app is available for purchase Tribe gratis for the first 100 members.

Then, you'll be able to choose among your Plus plan($59/month) to allow as many as 2,500 members and expand your choice of apps as well as their Premium Plan($299/month), which allows you to remove the Tribe branding and increase membership to 25,000 members.

A major drawback is that Tribe isn't able to allow instant messaging. This makes it difficult for administrators as well as users to talk with one members.

Like the other options, Tribe doesn't offer any ways to pay for membership in your online community , or selling digital products to members.

The monetization tools Tribe offers require you to work around these issues and set up payment tools external to the platform. Yikes! Another new tool to be added to your arsenal of tech tools.

Tribe is an excellent option for businesses with a long history that want to expand their online presence because it is focused on building loyalty to brands.

However, it's not as efficient in reaching out to your target audience that can compromise your efforts to build a community, especially if you're just starting up.

  5. PODIA

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Podia can be described as an online marketplace that allows creators to share their work as well as a fantastic alternative to Facebook Groups.

With Podia it is possible to control the way you interact with members, provide free or paid memberships, and sell digital products.

Podia is also able to handle direct messages, website building, and marketing via email, which makes it easier to create connections and link your business with your online community.

Since Podia integrates payment platforms so you do not have to fret about needing to create them separately. It allows you to monetize your blog and make the most of your web community.

Since you are able to build your website in Podia right from scratch, you get a 100% customizable platform to match your brand's identity.

With Podia, you can use their Free plan however, they charge an 8.8% charge for transactions made via the platform.

Paid plans do not charge an amount for transactions. Currently, they are available as three plans: Mover Plan ($39/month), Shaker Plan ($75/month), and Earthquaker Plan ($166/month).

If you wish to access webinars and affiliate support it is necessary to move to Shaker Plan.

One of the downsides of Podia is that it only offers a basic product template and has a limited number of customization options so you'll have to spend a considerable amount of time creating resources from scratch.

Podia doesn't offer an overview of the progress users are making with your courses either--you can check users' progress individually, which is mega time-consuming--making it harder for you to see at a glance whether your audience is engaging with your training.

If you require assistance with training to make the most of Podia be aware that you'll only have an hour of Q&A each week. This could not be enough assist you in setting up your online community to maximize its full potential.

  6. HIVEBRITE

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Hivebrite is a platform for community building which permits a huge number of members to use it.

This service offers you an extremely customizable experience, live feeds, different access rights for your members, either paid or free memberships. You also have the ability to turn on more features as your community expands and evolves.

Over 500 organizations utilize Hivebrite, and their customer service is rated to be excellent.

However, Hivebrite doesn't display its prices on its website but the company claims that its prices start at $500/month. To get specific pricing information and other key details, you must sign up for a free trial.

Hivebrite is an excellent alternative for large-scale enterprises looking to create an online community they can make money from, however due to the expensive price and the technical complexity, it might not be the best choice for independent creators and smaller companies.

  7.

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lets you create safe public and private communities, adapting the platform to the brand's image, and set up paid memberships. In addition, following the recent purchase of Vibely, the top-of-the-line community platform Vibely, it will soon include live chats, challenges leadersboards, accountability tools, real-time chat, and more!

Y ou can tie your company's internet-based communitythanks to 's custom web-based website tool and domain. These allow you to add videos as backgrounds and sales pages as well as pop-up forms, among many other elements.

consolidates all of the different integrations you need to create, grow and then monetize an effective online community. This will help you save cash while allowing you to easily ramp up your income.

The monthly cost you pay covers everything that is required to run your company and run your online community. This means it's not necessary to use several platforms in order to manage and expand your business.

offers three different payment plans:

  • The Basic Plan($119/month) comes with one website that can sell as many as three items with three pipelines. You get an unlimited number of landing pages as well as marketing emails. Additionally, you could have as many as 1,000 members active.
  • The Growth Plan($159/month) comes with a website that can sell up to 15 products and pipelines. It also increases the active user count to 10,000. Additionally, you can establish 10 administrators and you can remove 's branding.
  • The Pro Plan($319/month) includes three websites that can sell up to 100 products and pipelines. You can also be able to have up to 20,000 active users as well as 25 administrators.

This is a fantastic alternative an excellent alternative Facebook Groups for community owners as well as course creators and coaches. It's also a cost-effective way to run your business, as there is only a single monthly fee for the full set of growth tools for businesses.

Which is the best alternative to Facebook Groups?

Online communities are great spaces that allow you to build your branding identity, distribute audience-focused content, and show prospects and customers you're interested in the opinions of those who are part of them.

Knowing your customer's preferences and needs can help you build an effective strategy for your brand; they're in the minds of potential customers, which means you can make sure that your products and content are aligned in a way that appeals to the audience you want precisely.

It is your own personal decision as to what you'd like and want for a community-building online tool. However, getting acquainted with options is an excellent way to be sure you are making an educated selection.

The majority of entrepreneurs love having a full package of tools to grow and profit from their community all in one place and with zero hidden costs.

It offers an array of business software all in one convenient package. It also offers a wide range of resources, such as the templates for your products as well as webinars for free for making your life easier.

And the best part? It's free to try it for free for 14 days before deciding if it's the perfect option for you.

Try for free for 14 Days

is everything your online business needs. Everything you need in one location.        Yes! Let's go!