We need each other now more than ever. There’s something special about humans. Our world can leave us feeling lonely and disconnected.

But we’re wired to find and build community.

And tech helps us with this. The power of group chat apps means we can create small group chats and larger online communities with people all over the world.

In this article, we'll round up the best group and community for teams, creators, and communities, both free and paid.

We evaluated every platform on the following criteria:

• Monetization: whether the platform lets you charge for memberships, content, or events natively, and what it costs in fees or revenue share.

• Conversation organization: whether the app supports multiple, organized conversations (channels, threads, Spaces) or just one running stream.

• Group size and scale: whether the app is built for small groups who know each other, or large communities of strangers.

• Voice, video, and livestreaming: what real-time communication options are there.

• Customization and branding: how much you can make the chat feel like your own, up to a fully branded app.

• Apps and accessibility: whether the platform has dedicated mobile apps for staying connected on the go.

• Security and moderation: what tools exist for keeping conversations safe, private, and on-topic.

There are a lot of crossovers between these types of chat apps. Many do more than one thing. Here’s what each one does.

• Chat apps: A chat app for sending messages (text, video, etc.) from user to user. Most messenger apps are also group chat apps.

• Community chat app: Host & organize complex conversations & discussions between groups of people. Some community chat apps are designed for creators to monetize with things like paid memberships, livestreams, and events. For a broader strategy, see our guide on how to build an online community.

• Video chat apps: Chat apps with a video-first focus.

• Premium chat apps: Chat apps that let established brands and creators serve users under their own brands. This often means using a branded app.

Okay, these sound super similar. So what's the difference between a community chat app and a group chat app?

Here's a really simple way to think about it.

• Community chat apps are for big groups and especially people who don't know each other. Think online communities, workplaces, gamers, etc. Community chat apps host multiple conversations and types of convos at once.

• Group chat apps are for smaller groups that know each other. For a running conversation with your friends or family, think of a group chat app. Group chat apps usually host one conversation at a time and one type of conversation.

These dividing lines aren't always perfect. But they're a good starting point. They can help you figure out what you need.

And remember that chat apps are designed for a specific application, whether it's organizing a workplace, sharing video game play, or talking to friends.

We'll break down which is which as we go.

A community chat app organizes different kinds of conversation between a large group, even if they don't know each other.

Best free chat app for free forums

Discord is a community chat app that was designed for gamers to connect in real-time. It’s best with text and voice, giving you the space to build your own “channel” that’s dedicated to a topic that interests you, as well as inviting members and organizing conversations.

Discord is centered around a forum feature, with customizable member roles. It’s good for communities of gamers, of course, as well as free communities that you don’t intend to monetize.

One thing to note if building a Discord community. It’s not great for monetization–it can sell memberships, but the platform takes a 10% cut. And it can’t sell things like courses or events.

You also can’t really brand Discord, although there’s some flexibility with adding stickers and colors.

Pros

• Discussion forum, chat, & messaging

• @ mentions and notifications

• Screen sharing & video streaming

• YouTube & Twitch integrations

Cons

• Limited monetization features

• Limited customization & branding options

Best coworking chat app

If you’ve ever spent time in an office, you’ve probably met Slack. It’s the community chat app for organizing teams, and it works well for this. With channels, a messaging function, and notifications, creating a Slack community is really great for hosting conversations.

You can connect different channels to your Slack app, meaning different conversations from different places can all be in the same app. Slack is a perfect community chat app for the workplace or for people who know each other.

Slack isn’t as strong for large communities of people who don’t know each other. It has huddles, but doesn’t really have a comprehensive live events option. And it’s missing native monetization features for selling memberships and digital projects.

Slack is great for coworking and can work for small, free chat communities.

Pros

• Forum-style discussions, group chats, and 1:1 messaging

• Huddles with video or audio conversations

• @ tagging, mentions

• Integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, Salesforce, Outlook, and Adobe.

Cons

• No native monetization

• Limited event features (other than huddles)

• No customization options

Best one-to-many community chat app

Telegram is a community chat app that’s a bit like email meets SMS. It has good member chat features – users can send each other photos, videos, and files. You can also hold a voice or video call with Telegram.

Telegram can be considered a community chat app, but it’s mostly for creating large groups and broadcasting. Subscribers within a group can click links and polls, but it’s more of a broadcasting tool than a community-building tool.

If you want to monetize your Telegram, you can sell subscriptions and collect 50% ad revenue share if you have more than 1,000 subscribers. Telegram’s star system also lets creators charge Stars for content–and keep 100% of the revenue.

Pros

• Group broadcasting

• Chat & messaging, videos & voice calls

• Organize discussions by channels

• Monetization & subscription features

Cons

• Limited community discussions

• Top-down broadcasting instead of community-building

Best-known free chat platform

A Facebook group has some of the power of a community chat app. It’s a brand everyone knows with a solid app for every device. A Facebook group exists on Facebook, you create it for free and people can join (or request to join). It has features like tagging, a simple one-stream community discussion, and community chats.

Facebook is really popular and a lot of people have it.

There are a few downsides for more serious community-builders. Facebook is pretty limited for monetization–you can now collect Stars and subscriptions for Pages, but not Facebook Groups. It’s also algorithm dependent, your members may not see all your content. However, as a side note, Facebook Messenger is excellent for small group chats.

Pros

• Free group software, easy to invite people

• A simple discussion feature & chat

• Built-in events

Cons

• Very little monetization

• Potential struggles with algorithm

• No features to organize discussions or a bigger community

Best workplace chat app for meetings

Microsoft Teams is Microsoft’s answer to Slack–designed for the workplace. It’s excellent as a messenger app, although it doesn’t organize large workplace discussions quite as well as Slack–Big groups can get confusing.

MS Teams is excellent for events. For a workplace, scheduling and hosting team meetings is really simple–especially if you use Outlook for email.

But, like Slack, it’s hard to grow an online community of people who don’t know each other. And it’s hard to organize large discussions. There’s no real way to catch up on recent activity without simply scrolling up and reading the whole thread.

Pros

• Good chat app functionality (for small conversations)

• Awesome event integration (calls, video, and groups)

• Easy integration with Outlook

• Great for co-working in an office

Cons

• Large discussions can get confusing (you have to scroll up and up to get caught up)

• No way to monetize

• No discussion board functions

Best low-cost coworking chats

Flock is a community chat app that feels a bit like Discord or Slack–but comes at a lower price. It's strongest for the workplace.

It can organize different conversations into channels and messaging forums. And it has a video calling function too.

Pros

• Forums built around different channels for different conversations

• Video and voice calling built-in

• Different types of content like polls and reminders

Cons

• It can't be customized.

• It doesn't have monetization features

Best free messenger chat app

WhatsApp is owned by Meta, and it’s especially popular outside of North America. In a similar way to Facebook Messenger, you can host a group chat on WhatsApp. WhatsApp boasts an end-to-end encryption feature that protects messages. And it works off a phone number, making it fantastic for cross-border chats and calling. These features make it more robust than Messenger.

WhatsApp is limited for anything bigger than a small group–it doesn’t have threaded conversations so big chats get messy. However, it has recently added a new Channels feature so people can follow larger creators and organizations (e.g. soccer stars, thought leaders, etc.).

Pros

SMS-based chat app for group chats and 1:1 Messaging, calling, text, & video chat It’s well-known (though less common in North America)

Cons

• Not built for complex chats or group chats

• No monetization features

Best encryption for calling and messaging

Viber is a chat app that you can use for 1:1 or group chats, plus it has a good video chat function. It can also handle calls to landlines and mobile numbers around the world–but you have to buy calling minutes.

Viber also has end-to-end encryption and solid privacy features. And they’ve added in features like messages that disappear over time for extra security. Viber has a channel feature too that works like Telegram or Whatsapp, you can build chat channels and assign people as admins.

Viber doesn’t have monetization features.

Pros

• Good chat and messaging app for small groups or 1:1

• Call landlines & mobile numbers

• End-to-end encryption

Cons

• Not good for large groups or communities

• No monetization

Best video & photo-first chat app

Snapchat is a photo and video-sharing app, made famous for posts that disappear after a set time – often they can only be viewed once. It has emojis, filters, and texts, and is a combination of a chat app and sharing app (sharing as stories).

It has a lot of creator features for people to build and share content, with Spotlight, Stories, and subscription features, including charging a monthly fee for premium content. For those with 50,000+ followers, you can collect ad revenue share. There are also paid collaborations and sponsored content options through Snapchat’s marketplace.

Pros

• Good 1:1 messaging with text, photos, videos, and calling

• Story feature means you can build a following too

• Content disappears over time

Cons

• Disappearing content isn’t a perfect science

• Not good for building large communities

Best all-in-one community chat app with monetization

Mighty Networks is an all-in-one community platform and G2’s top-rated community management software. It has chat features (1:1 & group) as well as the tools to build a large monetized community–features like events, courses, and livestreaming.

Mighty Networks has integrated AI tools that are designed for engagement: conversation starters, message and post improvement, and member introductions and matching. And collaborative gamification helps members reward and celebrate each other.

Mighty can monetize chats in different ways, including paid chat Spaces, events, courses, and memberships. It also has a lot of branding flexibility at the Space and community level. Mighty Networks also has a branded app option, a completely custom chat app under your own brand.

Pros

• Sell memberships, events, private groups, and courses

• Chat 1:1, with groups, or host conversations in discussion forums

• AI chat features like “make it better” text editor and icebreaker questions.

• Native chat, video, and livestreaming

• Events with RSVP + one-click Zoom integration

• @ mentions & notifications

• Branded apps on the premium plan

Cons

• It’s a paid solution, not free.

• No calling or SMS options

The best chat app depends on what you're building.

For small private groups and personal messaging, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger are simple and free. For workplace teams, Slack and MS Teams are purpose-built and hard to beat. For free gaming and hobby communities, Discord is the default. For creators who want to build and monetize a community—with courses, events, and memberships—Mighty Networks is built for that specific job.

If your goal is to build a paid community, you can try Mighty Networks free for 14 days–no credit card required.

Okay, so obviously there are a lot of features you could look for. And everyone has their own non-negotiables.

Here are some of the key things to think through:

• Monetization options: An important factor if you want to earn. Don’t create a chat app that doesn’t let you collect money if you want to create a paid community.

• Voice & video: Whether you want a text-based chat or you want to create videos and livestream will make a difference to the platform you choose.

• Security: Whether it’s keeping members safe, owning your data, or preventing trolls or bullies, understand your chat app’s security options and data policies. This could include moderation options too.

• Apps: Community chats happen on apps. It should go without saying that a community chat app should actually mean a mobile app–for all devices.

• Content delivery: Will your group chat be a running, one-thread conversation? Or do you want multi convos organized by themes with an activity feed?

• Content types: Are there other content types you want? Courses? Events? Video? Audio? Downloads? Make sure your community platform lets you do what you need to do.

• People limits: Some chat apps work great with 5-10 people and are a nightmare after that (e.g. WhatsApp). Some can grow to huge numbers, organizing content into threads and/or Spaces.

There are three main parts to moderation:

• Setting expectations: Can you create a code of conduct and share it with your community? This is a good first step.

• Create a moderation plan: Be proactive. Create a plan for dealing with moderating issues and communicate it. You might choose members to be your mods (some platforms allow you to give moderators control). And think about the built-in moderation features of your software (e.g. auto-flagging, word blocking, member reporting, etc.)

• Follow through: Be consistent and put the plan into practice. Don’t create exceptions. Moderation is an important part of creating a safe space for members to chat.

It really depends on your goals. Apps like WhatsApp or Facebook are free and fun for small groups of friends. Apps like Discord or Flock are fun for groups of gamers chatting or talking through voice channels. These are all free options, and they work great for simple chats.

But none of these work well for turning your community into a paid membership. If you want to earn from your community chat, pick a platform with the capability to charge for membership and earn cash. Here’s how to build a paid community if you’re ready to move beyond free chat.

Sites like reddit and Quora have their place. A lot of people chat on them. These sites are free, open access, and there are thousands of people already talking about your thing.

Here are a few things to think about if you’re choosing between reddit or Quora and your own community chat app:

• Ownership: you own nothing on reddit or Quora. If you’re just having fun, that’s probably fine. If you want to turn this into a business, it might not be.

• Customization: These sites don’t do much by way of brand building. If you want to customize your chat, they won’t really work.

• Limitations: There are limits to what you can post on reddit or Quora. Even if you start the thread. Self promotion and external links are frowned upon.

Ultimately, these sites are great if they fit your goals for a community chat! Just understand what they are and aren’t.

If you’ve got a thriving chat on a platform you can’t monetize, how can you make the switch? Here’s a simple plan for migrating.

Get strategic: The first step is to think about your community. What’s working? Why are people engaging? Understand what people want and need before making the jump to a new platform. (Choose your alternative: Choose a software that lets you host a community chat, but also grow into a paid membership. You could consider selling access to events, streams, courses, etc.

Set it up: Build out your chat features on the new platform (opt for an AI community platform to help you get started quickly). Brand that thing and get it ready for your members.

Invite people! You could opt for a soft launch to start, with a small group checking out the new space. You might host a launch event like a livestream. Start moving people into the new Space.

Close the old one: Eventually, you need to close the old community chat. If possible, set up a redirect to your new platform. Otherwise, post clear instructions to help people find the new spot.

• For 1:1 or small group chats, WhatsApp or Snapchat work well.

• For workplace chats, Slack is a great option.

• For large chats in free communities, Discord is a good option (especially for gamers).

• For medium to large chats in paid communities, Mighty Networks is a great choice.

Most people choose a community chat app for one of four reasons:

• Better UX: Most social media platforms aren’t built for chatting; they’re built for large scale social networking. As such, the chat and DM functions on major social platforms aren’t always great (or are non-existent).

• Privacy & control: Social media platforms don’t always give you the privacy to host your own chats. And you don’t necessarily have control over the look and feel of your chat, or even of the chat members’ emails or contact info.

• Branding: For launching a chat under your own brand, social media platforms just won’t cut it.

• Payments: If you want to earn money from chatting, social media platforms are often limited. A dedicated community chat app can help you build a business from chatting.

All of these are great reasons to opt for a community chat app!