A mobile-first, customizable community is a great way to meet your members where they are. While traditional email updates and website content still serve their purpose for member communication, creating a digital community (especially a mobile-native one) helps members connect with each other as well as with your organization. And the best way to do this is to use online community software.
In this article, we’ll walk through the basics of online community software and how to pick the right one for your organization, as well as our top picks. We’ll cover the following topics:
Let’s dive in!
Online community software is technology that provides a centralized, private space for members to network and access resources directly from your organization. While many types of communities can benefit from an online hub, they’re especially useful for professional and trade associations, as these platforms bridge the gap between traditional member engagement solutions and the interactive digital experiences that modern members want.
Members’ expectations for personalized, frictionless, and mobile-native digital experiences are rising: according to a 2025 survey, 79% of association members want mobile access to a community platform, and 76% expect a tailored, social media-like experience. At the same time, association executives’ opinions of their value propositions are declining, with only 11% believing their organizations offer “very compelling” value.
To meet members’ digital experience expectations and enhance their value proposition, associations can use online community software to turn standard membership into a highly engaging, connection-oriented experience that encourages retention.
Online community solutions range from web forums to robust, mobile-first apps tailored for ongoing engagement. The right type depends on your goals, whether you need to host large discussion boards, create targeted learning environments, or launch a custom-branded app.
Here are some basic types of online community software:
There are also different types of online community software for different communities:
Creating group engagement spaces on public networks like Facebook or LinkedIn is popular because these platforms are free and familiar to users. However, this approach also poses security and control challenges, such as:
Meanwhile, building a platform fully from scratch gives you complete design control, but also has multiple drawbacks, such as:
Here is a snapshot comparison of an online community software, social media group, and a custom-built platform:
To determine the best online community software, consider your community’s specific needs and prioritize the platform that best addresses them. You should look for something that delivers a smooth mobile experience, integrates easily with your existing databases, and facilitates strategic member engagement.
Here are some of the key features that your online community platform should have:
By keeping these three things in mind, you can filter through the hundreds of options in the software market and choose the right online community platform for your organization.
Now that you have an idea of what to look for when choosing online community software, we have compiled a list of the 13 best options on the market today to help you find the right one for your organization.
Best For: Trade and professional associations, unions, and event-driven communities.
Clowder is a year-round, mobile-first engagement app and platform offering personalized features to strengthen engagement and retention for associations, unions, and other membership communities. It functions as a private social network to keep members connected wherever they are through their mobile devices.
More than 150 professional communities trust Clowder to fuel their mobile engagement strategies and reinforce the value of membership. The platform has helped save $220 million in IT and staffing costs, and organizations see an average return of four times their investment in Clowder.
Best For: Large discussion forums
Higher Logic is an enterprise-grade online community and marketing automation platform built for professional and trade associations, B2B, and B2C companies looking to maximize peer-to-peer engagement, knowledge sharing, and retention.
Top Features:
Pricing: Higher Logic provides custom quotes for each of its customers based on overall community size, integration scope, and specific module needs. Contact their team to get your estimate.
Best For: Trade association communication
Tradewing is a modern community engagement platform with an engagement infrastructure that integrates community interaction, learning, events, member management, and sponsor management into one centralized ecosystem.
Top Features:
Pricing: Custom quotes are available upon request after a discovery consultation with the Tradewing team.
Best For: Small association AMS, and community.
WildApricot is tailored for small clubs, nonprofits, and professional associations that want to handle their back-office administration and basic member communications in one place.
Top Features:
Pricing: WildApricot offers three pricing plans for the same online community features: $66/month (monthly billing), $59.40/month (1 year pre-paid), and $56.10/month (2 years pre-paid).
Best For: Complex alumni networks.
Hivebrite is a highly customizable community management platform designed for universities, large alumni networks, and global nonprofits that require independent sub-communities under a master brand.
Top Features:
Pricing: Hivebrite has three plans: “Connect”, “Scale,” and “Enterprise”. Prospective customers have to contact them directly for pricing, which varies by industry, currency, location, and other platform feature options.
Best For: Association learning communities.
Forj is a specialized community experience and Learning Management System (LMS) platform designed so that associations can combine member collaboration with professional development, training, and continuing education.
Top Features:
Pricing: Cost is based on each organization's scope, member volume, and selected software modules. Contact Forj for a custom quote.
Best For: Basic alumni apps.
MobileUp is a mobile-first membership and engagement platform designed for higher education, K-12 schools, and local alumni groups wanting to stay connected through a streamlined, branded mobile application.
Top Features:
Pricing: MobileUp uses a custom quote model. Prices vary based on organization scale, number of users, and specific integrations required.
Best For: Year-round event engagement.
Engagefully 365 is a mobile engagement application developed by RD Mobile that acts as a bridge between major annual conferences and day-to-day, year-round association networking.
Top Features:
Pricing: Pricing is customized based on organization size, required AMS integrations, and custom branding requirements.
Best For: Custom app development
mosaic apps is an app-oriented event and membership solution specialized for nonprofits and associations needing customized mobile experiences, automated on-site check-ins, and direct integrations with solutions like iMIS.
Top Features:
Pricing: Custom pricing is available through mosaic apps team consultations.
Best For: Creator communities
Circle is an intuitive, modern, all-in-one community platform built for creators, coaches, brands, and digital membership operators looking for a sleek, interactive space to host discussions and digital product promotions.
Top Features
Pricing: Circle’s Professional plan costs $89/month, and the Business plan is $199/month. Circle Plus runs on a custom pricing model.
Best For: Course-driven communities.
Mighty Networks is a business-oriented community platform that combines online learning and digital monetization under a single umbrella.
Top Features
Pricing: Mighty Network offers the “Launch” plan at $95/month, and the “Scale” plan at $215/month when billed monthly. Annual billing is $79/month and $179/month for each plan, respectively. Their premium plan, Mighty Pro, is available with custom pricing.
Best For: Enterprise CRM communities
Salesforce Service Cloud is an enterprise-level support and service framework that integrates with Salesforce Experience Cloud, allowing large corporations to transform their core CRM data into highly accessible, branded self-service and community portals.
Top Features
Pricing: Salesforce Service Cloud offers the following plans and rates per user per month: Starter Suite ($25), Pro Suite($100), Enterprise ($165), and Unlimited ($330).
Best For: Internal team chatting.
Slack is a real-time collaboration hub structured around channels, optimized to replace internal email workflows and keep segmented organizational teams connected instantly.
Top Features
Pricing info: Slack features a limited free tier with a 90-day history limit. Paid plans start with the Pro tier at $7.25/user/month billed annually ($8.75 if billed monthly) and Business+ at $15/user/month billed annually ($18 if billed monthly). Custom pricing applies to Enterprise Grid configurations.
Launching an online community changes the way you connect with your organization’s members. By adding a modern, custom space to your current outreach (especially a mobile-first one like Clowder), you’ll improve engagement and strengthen retention.
For more strategies on growing your organization and keeping members connected, explore these resources: