Communities have long been the backbone of shared experiences, knowledge, and support. With the dawn of the digital age, communities have not only survived but thrived, harnessing the power of technology to connect on a grand scale. Enter community apps, the digital gateway to forming, nurturing, and expanding your community. Let’s delve into the world of community apps and unravel their remarkable potential.

Short Summary

• Explore the top community apps and their unique features & benefits.
• Monetize your online community with membership models, courses/events, or premium content/experiences.
• Compare different platforms to identify best fit for needs & goals based on reputation, UI, cost etc.

Exploring the Top Community Apps

Community app platforms, also known as community platforms, have seen a surge in popularity as they facilitate the creation of online spaces for individuals with similar interests. They offer an interactive platform for people to exchange ideas, provide support, and even organize community events through features like a community chat app. In essence, they allow you to create customized online communities, giving you the tools to build your own community and foster a thriving online community with your own app.

As of 2023, the best community apps for community building are Disco, Fliplet, Tribe, Hivebrite, and Circle. Let’s dive into each one and explore their unique features and benefits.

Disco: Supercharge Your Learning Community

Disco stands out as a disciple community platform designed to facilitate collaboration and the sharing of ideas among enterprise teams. It offers a suite of tools that let users manage educational content seamlessly. The app’s power lies in its ability to monitor progress, giving you analytics and reporting tools to track success.

Moreover, Disco is conveniently available on both iPhone and Android devices, ensuring that users can engage with the community from their mobile devices, further enhancing the sense of a thriving online community.

Fliplet: Customizable Community App Creation

Fliplet offers a comprehensive custom community solution, enabling users to create and customize their community apps without any prior coding or development expertise. It’s user-friendly interface, customization options, integrations, and security features make it an ideal platform for developing a community app. Moreover, Fliplet’s gamification features and newsfeed feature are advantageous for businesses aiming to enhance community engagement and keep their audience informed.

Even better, Fliplet offers a competitive pricing plan for the features and functionality available, allowing users to start building their app at no cost.

Tribe: Gamified Social Communities

Tribe takes a modern approach to social media practices for communities, offering an alternative to traditional platforms like Facebook groups. It stands out with its gamified platform, offering points, badges, and rewards to incentivize users and foster engagement. Tribe members have many options when interacting with content. They can ask questions, create polls, vote, comment, and even upload media.

However, Tribe’s pricing plan ranges from $85/month to $249/month, which might be a limiting factor for some users. Not to mention, it can sometimes take an extended period to adequately address technical issues. Despite these setbacks, Tribe’s gamified platform is a compelling choice for those looking to build a lively and engaging online community.

Hivebrite: Community Platform for High-Profile Institutions

Hivebrite is a platform specifically tailored for high-profile institutions. It provides cloud-based community management solutions. It offers a multitude of features, including a member directory, events page, and paid membership functionality. However, the analytics and page-building components may be difficult to comprehend, and the media center may not be fully optimized.

Despite these drawbacks, Hivebrite is a robust platform for institutions that require a comprehensive community management solution. Its pricing is tailored to each organization’s needs, ensuring that the platform is accessible and affordable for all.

Circle: Creator-Centric Community App

Circle is designed with creators in mind, offering discussion threads, public/private spaces, and plans for various budgets and needs. The app’s basic plan is packed with features. It offers 1,000 monthly active users, 10 spaces, a custom domain and Zapier integration. Making it the perfect choice for all your needs. Whitelabel access, API access and CSS access are not included. However, this should not be a barrier to achieving success.

While Circle can be challenging to seamlessly integrate into an existing website without extensive coding expertise, it still stands as an appealing option for creators and entrepreneurs looking for a more affordable and flexible community app solution.

Monetizing Your Online Community

Monetization is a crucial aspect to consider when managing an online community. It not only helps sustain the community, but can also provide a significant revenue source. There are several monetization strategies for online communities, including selling memberships, providing a premium experience, delivering value that a website cannot, upselling products and services, offering courses, hosting live events, livestreaming, offering group coaching, or facilitating a mastermind.

Choosing the right monetization model depends on the kind of community you are building. It could be based on a membership model, selling courses and events, or offering premium content and experiences. Let’s delve deeper into each of these strategies.

Membership Models

Membership models are a popular monetization strategy for online communities. They offer the potential for recurring revenue through tiered plans, providing varying levels of access and benefits to members. This enables members to select the level of access and benefits that best meets their requirements.

Full, affiliated, and associate membership are the three primary models offered. Full membership grants access to the full range of resources provided by the website, community, brand, creator, or organization. Affiliated membership provides access to some of the resources available. Associate membership grants access to a limited selection of resources.

Selling Courses and Events

Selling courses and events is another effective monetization strategy. It allows community leaders to share their knowledge and earn revenue while providing members with beneficial learning opportunities. The kind of courses and events to sell would depend on the target audience and their preferences.

Effective marketing strategies for selling courses and events include creating a promotional video on YouTube, offering discounts, conducting live webinars, and leveraging social media to share snippets of the course and student testimonials.

Premium Content and Experiences

Premium content and experiences provide exclusive access to specialized resources, services, or interactions, enhancing the value for community members and creating additional revenue. These could include premium membership opportunities, courses, events, video panels, and more.

However, providing premium content and experiences may come with its set of challenges. These include creating and sustaining the content, ensuring quality, and determining the appropriate pricing. Despite these challenges, offering premium content and experiences can significantly enhance user engagement and commitment, as well as optimize user experience.

Enhancing Community Engagement

Engagement is paramount in community apps. It is what keeps the community members active and the community itself thriving. There are several strategies for enhancing community engagement. These include live chat and messaging, gamification and incentives, personalization and customization.

Live chat and messaging facilitate real-time dialogue and collaboration among community members, creating a sense of unity and camaraderie. Gamification and incentives provide rewards for members’ contributions and achievements, thus incentivizing further participation and engagement.

Personalization and customization enable community leaders to customize the app experience to the specific requirements and preferences of their members, thereby enhancing the engagement and relevance of the experience.

Live Chat and Messaging

Live chat and messaging play a crucial role in fostering a sense of connection and belonging among community members. It facilitates real-time dialogue and collaboration, thereby creating a more cohesive community.

There are several live chat and messaging tools recommended for 2023, including LiveChat, HubSpot, Tidio, Zendesk, Olark, and Intercom. These tools are praised for their comprehensive features, user-friendly interface, and excellent customer support.

Gamification and Incentives

Gamification and incentives are powerful tools to boost community engagement. They provide rewards for members’ contributions and achievements, thus incentivizing further participation and engagement.

Among the most effective gamification and incentive tools for community apps are Scavify, Habitica, and Evoq Engage. Gamification is predicted to remain a vital tool in the corporate industry in 2023, further cementing its importance in community apps.

Personalization and Customization

Personalization and customization are other essential components of a successful community app. They allow community leaders to tailor the app experience to the unique needs and preferences of their members, creating a more engaging and relevant experience.

Effective personalization and customization tools include features such as custom branding, user profiles, and content curation. They enable community leaders to craft a more engaging and pertinent experience for their members, which can lead to heightened user engagement and loyalty.

Making the Right Choice: Comparing Community Apps

Selecting the right community app, including the possibility of creating your own community app, can be a daunting task, given the myriad of options available. However, by comparing the different community apps, you can identify the best fit for your community’s needs and goals.

There are several factors to consider when selecting a community app. These include the app’s reputation, user interface, cost, customization options, integration, security, and support. Let’s compare some of the top community apps to help you make an informed decision.

Fliplet vs. Tribe

When comparing Fliplet and Tribe, the former stands out with its more customizable and user-friendly platform. It offers a wider range of features and integrations, making it a better choice for businesses and organizations.

On the other hand, Tribe stands out with its gamification features. It offers points, badges, and rewards to incentivize users and foster engagement. While both platforms have their unique merits, Fliplet’s comprehensive feature set and user-friendly interface make it a more appealing choice for most businesses.

Hivebrite vs. Circle

Hivebrite and Circle cater to different user bases. Hivebrite, with its emphasis on high-profile institutions, offers a robust platform for organizations that require a comprehensive community management solution. Its unique features facilitate monetization of online communities.

On the other hand, Circle is a more affordable and flexible community app solution, particularly for creators and entrepreneurs. It offers discussion threads, public/private spaces, and plans for various budgets and needs. While Hivebrite may be more suitable for high-profile institutions and brands, Circle is a better fit for creators and entrepreneurs.

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Summary

In conclusion, the best community app depends on the specific needs and goals of your community. While Disco, Fliplet, Tribe, Hivebrite, and Circle are among the best community apps of 2023, each has its unique features and benefits. Furthermore, monetizing your online community, enhancing community engagement, and making the right choice by comparing community apps are all essential aspects to consider when managing an online community.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is community apps?

Community apps allow users to create an interactive virtual community, where they can engage in conversations, comment and like posts, and share and watch videos - providing a dynamic online space for socializing.

This type of platform offers a great way for people to connect with each other, regardless of their physical location. It also allows users to stay up to date with the latest news and trends, as well as to discover new content and ideas.

By creating a virtual world, you create a virtual world.

What is the best app to create a community?

Discourse, Slack, Mighty Networks, Tribe, Discord and Facebook Groups are the best apps for creating an engaging community online in 2023.

Heartbeat is a great option for creating an enjoyable online experience.

What is Touchtown Community apps?

Touchtown Community Apps is a digital platform that allows members to stay connected and informed. It enables them to order room service, book spa days, schedule yoga classes, request assistance and more.

The platform is designed to make life easier for members, allowing them to access all the services they need in one place. It also provides a secure and reliable way to communicate.

What are community features in an app?

In-app communities are a feature that enable users to interact with each other within an application. They provide tools such as sharing information, communication, and discovery so users can build and grow communities.

Additionally, these features allow developers to receive feedback from users.

What are some effective strategies for monetizing online communities?

Effective strategies for monetizing online communities include selling memberships, upselling products, offering courses, hosting live events, and facilitating a mastermind.

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