7 fantastic alternatives for Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups used to be the most well-known method to engage with your customers to build brand trust as well as grow your company. The problem is, Facebook isn't the owner of your Facebook Group. Facebook does.
Let's see why more and more content creators are seeking alternative options to Facebook Groups. And which ones made our top seven list.
What are the reasons online creators are looking for alternative options to Facebook Groups?
With 2,934 active users every month -- 1,8 billion are active in groups monthly --, Facebook is certainly a fantastic place to connect with your audience.
However, although Facebook Groups used to be an excellent way to bring your business closer to your clients, recent scandals regarding privacy of users, with an array of issues have increasingly frustrated and even hurt business owners reliant on Facebook.
Many are beginning to look for alternatives to Facebook Groups.
What's the matter with all these concerns You may ask?
First, although Facebook Groups are quick to establish, their customization options are minimal. Everything from the font to the interface to the how your followers interact with you is controlled by Facebook which means you've no control over the way your audience interacts with you.
We'll get to the next part: your Facebook Group isn't owned or managed by the group's owner or manager--it's Facebook's. That means that you might not be able to share specific content or interact with your friends in the manner you'd like. It also means you're counting on Facebook to ensure that its platform is functioning efficiently, and that's often not the case. Do we want to remind you of the social media outage in 2021?
Another downfall one of Facebook Groups is visibility and revenue. In the event that you do not upgrade your ad budget, posts that are not paid for receive around 2.2 percent of the views. To put it another way, if your Facebook Group has 1,000 followers and only 22, then just 22 are likely to see your content!
Facebook's algorithm also prioritizes posts from family and friends over posts from businesses. This makes it much more difficult to attract viewers with your posts amazing as it might be.
Additionally, running the management of a Facebook Group can be hard to manage. Along with dealing with unpleasantness caused by spam accounts and trolls, you can't customize the administrative settings, which means that you'll need to utilize Facebook's system to let people join, publish or moderate.
What Facebook Group alternative is best for the needs of an artist?
The question is one you have to answer on your own, because what works in other companies might be a bad fit for yours. However, we created this post to provide you with some solid advice to make the right choice for you.
These are the most important things to look out for in deciding on an alternative to Facebook Groups:
Features
Are you able to customize the system? Is it easy to use? Are you able to set it up quickly and effectively? Are you happy about the way that it is integrated with your other business?
If you're choosing a platform you must ensure it has the right features for you and your company. The details will be explored when we look at the various platforms we've listed below.
Platform Interface
What do you think of the interface? Do you feel confident installing it, personalizing, and using it? Or do you feel confused or overwhelmed by it? If so, are there great support options to assist you in getting familiar with the platform and help you troubleshoot? If you're having trouble understanding a system and you can't get assistance, it's best to explore different options.
User experience
Your online community thrives when your audience is engaging in a meaningful way, and it is crucial to think about the experience your users will experience when they use the site.
What is it at from a users perspective? Is it simple to use and navigate?
If you are struggling to grasp, that your neighbors will too.
Test it from your audience's point of perspective and determine if it's something they're content with or whether it could be enhanced.
Budget
Certain Facebook Group alternatives are more costly than others, and it's important to find one that fits your budget.
The more expensive option doesn't necessarily mean better--check the above factors before choosing one platform over the other.
The last thing you want is to end up with an expensive platform , whose design and user experience are difficult to figure out.
What are the best alternatives for online communities that aren't Facebook Groups?
There are a variety of options on the market that let you create your own online community outside of Facebook, and today we provide you with the best seven options for Facebook Groups.
Let's dig in!
1. DISCORD
It was originally a gaming platform to play games has grown 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 including private and secure public channels, private channels, customizable bots for interaction with your members, direct messaging between admins and members audio and video calls and custom permissions to distinguish between users and admins.
You can also download and use it for absolutely free. You can also upgrade it for $99.99 per year for additional functions.
However, setting up a Discord community can be a difficult procedure, and you'll be facing a long learning curve, which can delay your online community-building process.
Your Discord server can also be found with the rest of the communities that are online on this service, which means that you'll have to make sure you stand out so your audience engages with the content you post instead of competitors.
When it comes to branding Discord employs a black and white theme. This may or may not fit the aesthetic of your company. It's unfortunate that this cannot be changed.
Additionally, you aren't able to charge users to gain access to your Discord server. If you'd like to charge this, then you'll have create a paypal page for each user separately.
All in all, Discord is a great alternative to Facebook community groups, offering better functionality and features. However, if your goal is to make money from your followers and expand your brand, the platform may not give you all the tools you want.
2. REDDIT
With over 50 million users who are active on Reddit every day, the platform is a big contender when it comes to building an online community outside of Facebook.
Reddit has a forum-like design that allows each topic to be assigned to a category called a subreddit.
The best thing concerning Reddit are that it's freeto join, it's possible to create a public or restricted subreddit, and it's straightforward to create and utilize .
However, much like Discord the platform isn't equipped with customizing options for your brand and monetization options for your members. And similar to Facebook, you don't fully own the subreddit you have created.
The subreddit could be removed if the platform's admins believe that you -- or one or your subscribers have broken the rules through posting or commenting.
Subreddits are a huge part of the website is quite significant, which means that creating content to engage your audience can become an effort.
While the platform is totally free, you need to purchase an advertisement-free version.
Reddit is an awesome option to build a completely free online community, but as with Discord however, it's not the best option if you're seeking to create a revenue stream for your online community.
3. MIGHTY SUPERNETWORKS
Mighty Networks allows you to establish an online community as well as sell your courses in the same place.
Through this platform, you can make free or paid community to your members, apply personalized branding, offer an app for mobile devices, and set up private areas where your followers can interact.
Mighty Networks also allows for live streams, group and private chat, and the ability to have unlimited members and moderators.
The platform does not have a free plan, and transaction fees are charged over the monthly fee.
If you're after online course options, you'll need to sign up for their Business planfor $119/month, and if you need any additional devices, like payment processing, email marketing, a good web builder or landing page creator--you may have 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 5percent transaction fee), Community Plan ($39/month and 3% transaction fee) as well as their Business Plan ($119/month and the transaction fee of 2%) as well as Mighty Pro (custom price).
The platform can be a wonderful way to build 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 is a community-building online tool designed to be used through websites of businesses or through phone apps.
One of the advantages of Tribe include the ability to make a choice to set up a public or private community, integrate it seamlessly with other software (such as Slack, Google Analytics, or Intercom, to name just a handful) or customize it to fit the style of your business. Additionally, you can access an array of community management tools.
Tribe also allows members to post content using different categories tags.
It is possible to join Tribe gratis in the first 100 people to join.
After that, you can select from their Plus Plan($59/month) that allows as many as 2,500 members and increase the number of apps available; or their Premium Plan($299/month) that allows you to remove the Tribe branding and increase membership to 25,000 users.
A major drawback is that Tribe doesn't allow for direct messaging, making it harder for administrators and members to get in touch with each the other.
Like the other options, Tribe doesn't offer any ways to pay for membership in your online community , or selling digital products to members.
That means that the options for monetizing Tribe provides require you to work around these issues and set up payments that are not part of Tribe's platform. Yikes! Another tool you can add to your tech stack.
Tribe is an excellent option for businesses with a long history that wish to increase their reach in the online presence because it is focused on nurturing brand loyalty.
However, it's not as efficient in getting your message out to the world and can hamper your efforts to build a community, especially in the beginning, especially if you're new to the business.
5. PODIA
Podia can be described as an online marketplace designed for creators and a great alternative to Facebook Groups.
With Podia it is possible to control how you interact with the members, provide free or paid membershipsand also offer digital goods.
Podia also supports direct messaging, website building, and email marketing. This makes it simpler to build connections, and connect your company with your online community.
Since Podia integrates payment systems so you do not have to fret about needing to setup these systems in a separate manner. This helps you monetize your website and get the most of your web community.
Since you are able to create your site in Podia from the ground up and you can have a 100% customizable platform to match your branding.
With Podia it is possible to use their no-cost plan but they charge an 8.8% charge for any transactions you make on the platform.
Paid plans don't charge you an amount for transactions. Currently, they are available as plans like the Mover Plan ($39/month), Shaker Plan ($75/month), and Earthquaker Plan ($166/month).
If you want to unlock webinars and affiliate support it is necessary to upgrade to the Shaker Plan.
Another downfall of Podia is that it offers a basic product template with few customization options, therefore you'll be required 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're in need of assistance in training so that you can get the most of Podia, keep in mind that you'll only get one Q&A session every week, which may not be enough to assist you in setting up your community online and make the most of its power.
6. HIVEBRITE
Hivebrite is a platform for community building which allows for a large number of members to use it.
The platform offers a the highest level of personalization including live feeds, various access rights to your members, free or paid memberships, and the option to enable other features when your community expands and evolves.
Over 500 businesses currently use Hivebrite Their customer service is rated as fantastic.
But, Hivebrite doesn't display its pricing on its site, but the company claims that its prices start at $500/month. For specific pricing details along with other details you must sign up for a demo.
Hivebrite is a good option for big-budget enterprises to create an online community that they can make money from, however due to the expensive price and the technical complexity this might not be a great choice for independent creators and smaller businesses.
7.
It lets you build safe community spaces, both private and public. You can adapting the platform to your brand identity, and set up paid members. And since its recent acquisition of the most popular community platform Vibely It will shortly offer live call-ins, competitions and leaderboards, accountability tools live chat in real-time, and many more!
Y you can connect your company to an web-based communitiesthanks the's custom domain tool as well as website builder. They allow you to create video backgrounds and sales pages as well as pop-up forms, among many different elements.
integrates all the various integrations that you require to build, expand and profit from a flourishing online community. This will help you save money while setting you up for a quick increase in your revenue.
With , the monthly fee is all you need to run your business as well as manage your online community. This means you don't have to use several platforms in order to manage and expand your company.
Three payment options are available:
- The Basic plan($119/month) comes with an online store that sells as many as three items with three pipelines. It comes with an unlimited number of landing pages, as well as marketing emails, and you can have up to 1,000 active members.
- The Growth Plan($159/month) includes one website that can sell as many as 15 products or pipelines. It also increases the active user count to 10,000. It also lets you create 10 administrators as well as remove's logo.
- The Pro Plan($319/month) comprises three websites with the ability to sell up to 100 products . In addition, with pipelines, you can have as many as 20,000 active users as well as 25 administrators.
is an excellent alternative an excellent alternative Facebook Groups for community owners, course creators, and coaches. It's also a cost-effective option to manage your business, as there is only one monthly cost for a full suite of business growth software.
What is the most effective alternative to Facebook Groups?
Communities on the web are great places for you to consolidate your brand identity, share targeted content for your audience and show potential customers that you're keen on what they have to say.
Be aware of your target customer's preferences and needs can help you build strategies that work to promote your brand. They're in the minds of your potential clients, which means you can make sure that your products and content are aligned with your target audience more precisely.
It is your own personal decision as to what you'd like and want from an online community-building tool, but getting familiar with all the possibilities can help ensure you make an informed decision.
However, the majority of online business owners love the fact that they have a complete set of tools to grow and make money from a group all at a single location and with no hidden fees.
The package includes a variety of digital business tools together in a neat bundle and an array of tools including product templates and webinars for free, to make your experience even easier.
And the best part? You can test it absolutely free for 14-days to determine if it's the perfect choice for your needs.
Try for free for 14 Days
It has everything your online business requires for your online business. Everything in one place. Yes! Let's go