The reasons to explore alternatives to Facebook Groups have never been more obvious.

Facebook Groups might seem like the obvious place to build a community. After all, they’re free!

But we’ve seen the evidence. Creators struggle to actually grow an online community on Facebook. It’s just not built for thriving, engaged communities and memberships. From usability to data privacy issues to fighting the algorithm, Facebook Groups is where communities go to die.

You’ve probably joined Facebook groups in the past and never stepped foot in them again.

It’s a shame. Because a good community platform gives you control and lets you build a beautiful place your members will love (and won’t sell their data).

Whether you want a paid digital business or a free hangout spot for friends, it’s time for a Facebook alternative.

In this article, we’ll cover

• Why your community won't grow on Facebook Groups

• What to look for in a Facebook Group alternative

• Why community platforms beat Facebook Groups

• 17 great alternatives to Facebook Groups to consider

Here are some of the serious disadvantages of Facebook Groups:

• You won’t reach your members: A post in a Facebook group only reaches between 1%-5% of your members or followers.

• There’s tons of competition: Your content competes with a sea of cat videos, political rants, and grandma’s pictures of her birds.

• You can’t make money: Facebook Groups are super limited on monetization. So, if you’re thinking about using a Facebook Group to run a paid membership site or sell online courses, you can’t.

• There’s no content organization: "Content" really means a stream of posts organized by either "most relevant" (whatever that means) or "most recent." That's it.

• There are no courses: Online courses are a fantastic way to help grow your audience and your brand.

• There are no subgroups: This is probably the worst thing. That ONE list of posts is a nightmare as your group grows.

• People are avoiding Facebook: There’s a lot of suspicion directed at the platform. More and more people are boycotting it outright.

• Facebook is irrelevant: Younger generations just aren’t using it. Only 32% of Gen Zs even have an account (vs. 71% in 2015).

• No real customization: Facebook groups are easy to set up. But at the end of the day, one of the reasons they’re so easy is that your group will ALWAYS look like Facebook’s brand.

• Groups get hacked or deactivated: Facebook Groups get shut down, locked, and hacked--often for no apparent reason. And it's hard to get access back if it happens to you.

How do you figure out what the best alternative is?

Well, the best alternative to Facebook Groups should do the things Facebook does well, and fix the stuff it doesn’t.

Based on the points above, here are features to watch for:

• Customization: Build under YOUR brand, not Facebook’s.

• Apps: Facebook does have a good app. So you shouldn't sacrifice that. American adults spend 4 hours a day on their cell phone and mobile use has grown 460% from 2011-2021. You need a community app.

• Monetization: Social media giants gladly accept all your hard work creating content and give you nothing in return. An alternative to Facebook Groups means monetizing if you want.

• Growth features: When you have 10 members in your Facebook community, you get access to a set of features. If you have 10,000 members? Same features. A proper community platform should help you grow.

• Features! You should get more features than you get on Facebook. Things like virtual events, online courses, mastermind groups, and tools to monetize your community.

• AI & automation for engagement: Facebook’s AI features are NOT to help you grow. Look for an alternative that uses AI to make your life easier and scales your community.

• Marketing tools & member acquisition: A real digital business engine gives you ways to attract and retain members.

• Live streaming: Facebook does have livestreaming. But a Facebook alternative should have it too. It’s an awesome community feature.

• Security features: People need to be safe. Safe from bullying and harassment. And they need ways to track and report people who violate community guidelines. A Facebook alternative should be secure in all these ways.

• Data privacy & ownership: People need to know that their data is safe too. A Facebook alternative should keep info secure.

In the end, you want a platform that will replicate the things that Facebook does well.

There’s no point in switching to an alternative that has half the functionality.

That alternative to Facebook Groups has a name. You’re actually looking for a “community platform.”

It gives you the good stuff from a Facebook Group. But the best platforms also add:

• Your own branding

• Monetization options like memberships, private groups, courses, and live events, or bundles of these

• Tons of content options to engage and sort user-generated content: things like hashtags, discussion groups, channels, spaces

• Activity feeds to bring people up to date on what they've missed

Basically, a community platform is like a Facebook Group on steroids--that you own! That's why if you've outgrown Facebook or hit its limitations, chances are you're ready to move your community to a new community platform.

Mighty Networks is ranked as G2’s TOP community management platform; it’s the best Facebook Groups alternative.

It's used by Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuck, Mel Robbins, Marie Forleo, Jim Kwik, Matthew Hussey, TED, and more.

Real engagement–no algorithm

Imagine a Facebook Group designed to hold unlimited conversations, but where you can still find everything. Create Spaces for different members and populate them with any combo of discussions, livestreaming, courses, events, content, chat, and more.

Mighty does what Facebook can't, giving you a platform you create your brand on and the features for engagement you need -- all in a community you own... no competing for the algorithm's attention.

Unlike Facebook, Mighty is an AI community platform designed for streamlining and simplifying administration content generation and member engagement.

• Host discussions, organize by hashtags, tag people, and get notified.

• Dynamic people explorer to surface interesting people, help members create profiles (with AI), show similarities, and even start a convo with one click.

• Gamification, journeys, challenges, polls, and questions–a complete toolbox to actually get members connected and excited.

• New member journeys and automations

• Infinite Question Engine (generate and post discussion questions), auto icebreakers, and AI assist.

Build a thriving digital business

And Mighty lets you monetize! The average Mighty Networks fee is between $48 a month ($576 per member/year).

Here’s how you can earn from Mighty:

• Charge for communities and membership in 135 different currencies or monetize with token gating.

• Create and sell async or live courses–build course content, discussions, quizzes, evals, and downloads.

• Host virtual events, build event page, and collect RSVPs

• Build 1:1 or group coaching programs, host masterminds, office hours, private discussions, or sell premium content.

• Bundle any of these

All this happens on either web apps or awesome mobile apps, for every device, and under your own brand.

Mighty gives you everything you'd get in a Facebook group and MORE -- it's ultimately a way better platform to build on. And it comes with a Kit (formerly ConvertKit) integration, perfect for connecting your email list to your community for automations, updates, and more.

Easy community building

Last, but not least, Mighty is changing the game with simple and instant community-building.

Mighty Co-Host™ is an AI-powered community builder. It runs on Chat GPT and can create a Big Purpose, community name, brand, landing and sales pages, and more. Try our Co-Host™ community generator, and have your community up and running in the next 2 minutes.

• AI Community engine (Mighty Co-Host™)

• Your own branding, colors, light/dark mode, url, and customizable Spaces

• Reach 100% of your members (**who will love it)

• Has all the features of a Facebook Group: posts, messaging, discussions, but is built for engagement

• PLUS Online courses, mastermind groups, private Spaces, livestreaming, live events, and more

• Lots of ways to monetize, bundle, create different plans, etc

• Monetize any Space or the whole community. Sell courses, events, coaching, premium groups, and more in 135 currencies or even token-gating

• When you move to a Facebook Group alternative like a Mighty Network, you might lose some of the traffic Facebook may send you. But you make up for it with deeper, richer member engagement.

Mighty Pro is G2’s top-rated community platform on your own branded app. If you love the features of Mighty Networks but want to grow your community and gain more control over your business, a branded community app is what will get you there. And if you want your own custom app in the App Store and Google Play Store Mighty Pro is the best Facebook Group alternative for you.

The Mighty Pro team has launched over 400 branded apps for brands and creators like Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Jim Kwik, Marie Forleo, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Matthew Hussey.

The Mighty Pro team will help bring your brand to life with network setup, feature configuration, and network & app branding.

It's perfect for existing creators running large Facebook Groups (especially if you're successfully monetizing somewhere else and want everything in one place).

If you've outgrown Facebook Groups and you're ready to build your own app under your brand, let us show you what you could do!

• G2’s top-rated community platform on your own apps

• Branded apps, splash screens, and push notifications

• Proactive updates and App Store & Google Play Store submissions

• Mighty Co-Host™ AI tools like the Infinite Question Generator, and auto course outlines and profiles

• Business Strategy & Community Design™ support

• Access to the Mighty Pro community

• Mighty Pro is a premium product for established brands and businesses. If you're just getting started, start with Mighty Networks.

For group chatting, WhatsApp is a popular Facebook Group alternative

WhatsApp is a calling and chat platform,similar to Facebook Messenger. This means the features are easy to recognize, things like video calls and group chats, it's easy to use and intuitive.

The only downside? WhatsApp is almost impossible for a large community. It's great for small groups like a family or a sports-team, so if you're looking for a great chat alternative for a Facebook Group with 25 people in it, it might work.

But don't even think about using it for a community of 100 people. It's just not designed for it.

• Great, app-based chat software that’s easy to use

• Messaging, calling, and reaction features similar to Facebook

• Free!

It's a messaging platform, not a community platform

• Not for large communities

No monetization or branding features

• It’s owned by Facebook

If you’re looking for an alternative to Facebook Groups to house your online community, reddit does offer some of the features of Facebook for free in the form of groups (AKA subreddits).

Reddit has features for community conversations, since it's a solid text-first discussion forum. With ways to organize conversations and up-votes and down-votes, reddit has long been a favorite. It’s much easier to use than Facebook Groups, and more intuitive.

Reddit isn’t the place to build a real digital business, but it does have a few quirky ways to earn money: like selling collectible avatars (reddit keeps 20%) or

Reddit is best for a Facebook Group alternative if you just want to host open discussions without monetizing or other features.

• Easy to set up your online community subreddit

• The forum function works well, with upvoting and downvoting and good organization for conversations

• If users want an ad-free experience they can pay a small fee

• It’s open-source, so it’s a very flexible community space

• When you have a big community, it becomes much harder to engage with your members in meaningful ways

• You own nothing–it’s all reddit’s

• Reddit is mainly a text-based forum, with no options for livestreaming, courses, or anything else you’d want for a great community

Kajabi has become a household name for asynchronous courses. The builder lets you create a course and connect it to Kajabi’s powerful marketing suite.

That’s Kajabi's strength. It’s a marketing engine. If you're looking to build a course-based business from a Facebook Group, it might be the place to build. Custom landing pages. Built in email campaigns. Kajabi has a lot of great course features.

The downside to Kajabi is its community options. While Kajabi does have a community feature that lets you add a discussion forum to your courses, it’s on a separate app from your course, and there are better all-in-one community platforms available. That’s because Kajabi bought another platform to create a community tool, instead of adding communities natively.

However, Kajabi Community 2.0 does give you discussions, livestreaming, and opportunities to host a community. It could be a good alternative to a Facebook Group for a paid community.

• Livestream, chat, and meet on the Kajabi Community 2.0 app

• Host discussions and organize content

• Build pages from templates & connect marketing funnels

• Connect to a Kajabi async course (separate app)

• There is a steep learning curve for getting comfortable with the platform software.

• Courses and communities can’t go together

Thinkific is a course platform that can also be used to add community features. It has a solid engine with a drag-and-drop builder you can use to create your own courses. Each course can have assignments, quizzes, and exams.

You can build landing pages for your courses, pulling from pre-made themes if you choose. You can also have your brand reflected in the course. And you can choose custom domain names and themes.

Thinkific also has good monetization features. Obviously you can sell courses, but you can also create different types of digital products like downloads and subscriptions. You can upsell and downsell, adding in coupons, or even an affiliate program if you want.

Finally, Thinkific offers community features that integrate with the course tools. This includes hosting posts, digests, and virtual events that connect to a course you’re teaching. The community platform includes breakout Spaces and the option for running live learning.

It’s missing the advanced capabilities of a proper community platform, but Thinkific’s courses, pages, and discussion features are a decent Facebook alternative.

The only downside is the apps. Thinkific has terrible reviews for its mobile apps: 1.9 stars on the App Store and 3.2 on Google Play as of writing this.

• Build comprehensive courses with a great LMS

• Create websites and landing pages

• Easily sell and upsell courses, digital downloads, and subscriptions

• The apps are very poorly reviewed.

• The community features are basic.

Circle is a community platform that's a good alternative to a Facebook Group. It comes with good discussion features that you can use for all sorts of content, text and video conversations. It was created as a companion to the course platform, Teachable, with the intent that it work hand-in-hand to add a community function.

But Circle has added courses and events to its platform, making it a much more comprehensive community option.

Circle also has monetization features, including the option to create plans and charge for access.

There are two main downsides to Circle:

• The Spaces are separated into different types of content. For example, you choose a course, community OR events Space. This hurts engagement, and there are better alternatives that keep your content together.

• There are lots of hidden fees as a community grows.

• Good community and discussion features

• Livestreaming and clean course LMS

• Spaces to organize content

• Spaces aren't multi-use (e.g. you can't put a discussion in a course space)

• Hidden fees

Slack is a coworking software that some creators have been using as a Facebook Group alternative.

With intuitive features for office productivity and managing teams, Slack replicates a Facebook Group but adds organization. It has features like threads and channels to manage discussions as well as meeting options like "huddles" which are perfect for quick chats with teammates.

Slack has DM functionality and a bunch of other integrations to choose from to make it even more useful.

For all these reasons, we’re seeing free Slack Channels pop up more and more as a Facebook alternative.

But the only downside of Slack as a Facebook Group alternative? It's not really made for bringing together big communities of people. You'll never see the engagement you'll see on a designated community platform.

Oh, and it’s expensive for paid features. From $8.75/mo/user if you want the paid version.

• People are often comfortable using Slack because they use it at work

• Slack is instantly available on the web and mobile apps

• Slack is great for small groups that already know each other

• Good Channel organization and simple tagging and threads

• You can’t brand Slack as your own

• No direct monetization features in Slack to sell memberships, courses, events, etc.

• It charges per member, so it can get expensive quickly

LinkedIn has about 740 million users, and is considered the top social network for professional activities like building your personal network and finding a job. It also has something called “LinkedIn Groups” which are similar to Facebook groups.

Users can join the groups, take part in conversations by posting text or video posts, and engage with each other.

• Like Facebook, LinkedIn is a major social media network and a lot of your members may be there

• Easy to get a group started

• Good sharing functions (you can add photos, videos, and polls)

• People are used to LinkedIn being a professional platform and discussions can be more respectful than on other platforms (obviously there are no guarantees)

• The algorithm is really bad for group material, and it almost never shows your members group activity on their timeline

• There’s no way to monetize your group

• LinkedIn has a course platform, but you have to apply to teach one and very few applications are approved

• You can only send broadcasts to your members once a week that go straight to their inboxes

Telegram was built as a community chat app that sort of works like a combination of an email service meets livestream meets SMS.

On the chat front, it's similar to WhatsApp. You can send messages, including videos or files. And Telegram gives you a feature to do a video or voice call.

But Telegram also has some functions for a large group that make it a good Facebook Groups alternative. It gives you a broadcast function, meaning you can reach your subscribers live. They can engage and ask questions. You can also organize your discussions by channels.

Telegram also lets you monetize, selling subscriptions to your most engaged followers. And one cool feature is that you can opt to send sponsored messages to your followers for a payout.

The only issue with Telegram is that it's not really for an engaged community. Telegram is more one-directional, a creator can broadcast to their community, but it's not built for horizontal community interactions.

It would be best for a creator looking to share their ideas with followers but not really create a community where your followers know each other.

• Good chat and messaging options

• Broadcasting & customizing Channel pages

• Simple monetization & subscription features

• It's more one-directional than a community platform

• No live events or courses

• No community discussion features

• No branding options

Discord has become another popular alternative to Facebook Groups. It’s easy to use and available across mobile devices and web. On Discord, similar to Slack, your community will primarily communicate through text and voice chats that are separated into their own channels.

You can also stream on Discord, either direct or by sharing a screen. It was developed for gamers, so in theory this means streaming gameplay.

Discord has more content options than Slack, making it a better discussion forum. But it's still limited as a community platform, missing features like courses or robust live events.

And above all, it's difficult to monetize with Discord. It does have a new "Partner Program" which allows hosts to apply for the option to sell plans. But it's not rolled out fully yet, and Discord is a long way from being a real monetization platform.

This makes Discord a great Facebook Group alternative if you want to run a free discussion forum.

• Easy to create your own Discord server and incredibly user-friendly interface.

• Robust tools for text and voice chat.

• Free to use while also offering affordable upgraded plans for more bonus features.

• While it’s easy to use and offers voice and text chats, it’s not the best at creating a community space that grows with your business.

• Can’t offer many experiences. If you’re interested in online courses or virtual events, you’ll need to use another platform.

• It’s hard to manage your community as it grows bigger.

If you're looking for a Facebook Group alternative that's a private group for a company or non-profit, Vanilla Forums is an option. Along with its other brand Higher Logic, it provides forum-first options for things like customer communities, association membership communities, or alumni networks.

It gives some customization features and community management tools too. Members can create and publish content, and you can organize your community with groups and subgroups.

It doesn't come with monetization features, and is best for an organization trying to engage its customers or members without needing to build a digital business from the community.

• Corporate forum solution for large companies

• Build under a corporate brand

• Integrate with common business apps like Zendesk and Salesforce

• Whitelabel apps

• Limited monetization options

• Outdated branding and feel

If you're building a Facebook Group for alumni and feeling the pinch of limited engagement, you might choose a Facebook Group alternative like Hivebrite. Hivebrite is an alumni management platform that gives you discussion forums mixed with groups and subgroups (e.g. for regional chapters), a branded mobile app, and even a job board to share opportunities.

Hivebrite also has the option to plug your CRM into a live event, creating ticketing and attendee lists.

All in all, Hivebrite is built with alumni networks in mind, so provides a good space for students and current alumni to connect. It also offers branded community apps.

Hivebrite is best for alumni networks. It has limited to no monetization features and even the community features are best for networking rather than building a really engaged community.

• Discussion forums & job boards

• Support for regional chapters

• Live event management

• White-label apps

• Outdated platform feel and UX

• Limited monetization tools

If you run a company and you want an alternative to Facebook Groups for a customer community, Bettermode (formerly Tribe) is a good option. Bettermode is a white-label platform that adds a forum space to an existing corporate website.

Like a lot of the forum options on this list, it lets you create discussions, post content, and even have a mobile app under your brand. You can lead discussions and your customers can share images and videos, participate in polls, and you can organize discussions by spaces.

But Bettermode isn't for someone who wants direct messaging between members or wants to create a host live events or courses. It's a very limited forum for companies that want a discussion forum only. Like Vanilla Forums, it would be great for a customer community on your website.

• White-label functionality

• Custom domain & website builder

• Forum-based discussions under your company brand

• Organize conversations with “spaces”

• No chat features

• No event features

• No course features

• It's not made for a robust community

If you're a diehard WordPress fan looking for a Facebook Group alternative that can live on a WordPress site as a plugin, then Memberium might be an option. It lets you create a membership site by blocking off sections of your website and it includes a community component.

• It's a WordPress plug-in (for WordPress users)

• Can be used to gate content and areas of your website

• Comes with a community feature

• Could be combined with other (paid) plugins to add missing features (e.g. LearnDash for online courses)

• Clunky design

• Community features are extremely basic (just a discussion forum)

Discourse is an open-source community platform with the community code living on GitHub. It gives you a discussion forum that you can build that feels similar to reddit.

You can have conversations and organize by topics. It also gives you the option to add community moderators, and it has a simple notification feature to let you know if people respond to you.

Discourse is EXTREMELY BASIC, especially compared to the more advanced community platforms on this list, and should only be attempted by someone with some coding knowledge. Discourse does have an option where they build your community for you, but it will end up costing you more ($100/mo) than the better community platforms above.

• Simple forum engine

• Free software on GitHub

• EXTREMELY limited.

• Missing features for branding, monetization, courses, live events, livestreaming

• Even the discussion feature is outdated.

Today, the hands-down best alternative to Facebook Groups is a Mighty Network. Especially if you’re looking to grow a digital business with online courses or membership subscriptions, no other platform has the breadth or depth of features as a Mighty Network.

Plus, your Mighty Network is available across the web, iOS, and Android which gives your members flexibility and accessibility to how they interact with each other and your content.

And with Mighty Pro, you can add your own branded apps under your own brand in the App Store and Google Play Store.

You can get started with Mighty Networks free for 14 days! No credit card required.

If you have a thriving Facebook group and you’re hitting a wall, it’s probably time to move. Here’s a simple roadmap for migration.

Step 1: Strategy and planning: It’s a great time to assess (or reassess) who your Ideal Member is and what your Big Purpose will be moving forward. Often hosts recognize that their Facebook group needs better definition. It’s the perfect time to be strategic and set your new community up for success.

Step 2: Choose & set up a community platform: From the Facebook alternatives above, choose the one that best fits your needs–both in replicating what’s working on Facebook and adding things you can’t do on Facebook.

Step 3: Announce the move: you can now announce the move to your group. Often it works well to coincide the move with an event or special offer that brings people to the new platform seamlessly. (ie. “Come to our first X masterclass with X special guest.)

Step 4: Execute: Go all in and bring your community to the new platform. You may not get everyone. In fact you probably won’t. But it will be worth it to have better connections and engagement in your community. And if you’re launching a paid community, the revenue will be worth it!

Step 5: Close your Facebook group: Don’t duplicate content. Don’t give people a reason to stay on the Facebook group. If you want to keep posting about the move for a while, that’s fine. But eventually, you need to pull the plug and put all your effort into the new platform.

In the Cut: Rae Benjamin started with a Facebook group dedicated to helping Black creatives break into Hollywood, but moved to Mighty and saw higher engagement and more members.

ARC Alumni and Coaching Group: Eric Tivers–a social worker who launched a group for adults with ADHD started on Facebook–perhaps the worst place for people with ADHD to be. He eventually made the switch to Mighty.

The Village by Happy Family: The community–dedicated to helping modern parents thrive–moved to Mighty after a 20,000 person Facebook group still failed to build a real community.

RV Lifestyle: Mike Wendland “retired” as a journalist, and started blogging about RV-ing. The result was 560,000 followers on Facebook, but no real engagement. He made the move to Mighty and paid memberships instead.

Wanderful: Beth Santos launched the Wanderful blog to share experiences for women traveling solo. It grew to an 11,000 person Facebook group, but was missing connection (and revenue). Today, Wanderful is a paid membership that teaches women the ins and outs of travel.

Teach Music Online: Carly Walton helps music teachers create a thriving business from anywhere in the world. It all started with a private Facebook group as Carly tried to find a course platform to run alongside the group. Finally, she moved to Mighty and found everything in one place.

Honestly, very little if you’re trying to monetize within the group itself. On-platform monetization is limited to things like affiliate products you could mention in posts. Facebook Groups has no features for offering a paid membership, which is usually the most lucrative way to monetize groups of people.

You have a few options:

• Try to run other “offers” alongside a Facebook group. Maybe it’s a course you run on a separate platform. Maybe you try to connect Stripe with a paid Facebook group to “sell” memberships. But this is a tough slog.

• Move the Facebook group to a better platform: The best community platforms let you charge for memberships, sell courses, host events, and more, with better engagement than a Facebook group. (Example: Offering a paid membership at $47/member/month can generate over $56,000/year from 100 members.)

It’s hard. The fact that there’s no native monetization, combined with a fickle algorithm and terrible content discovery means Facebook Groups just doesn’t monetize well. Though if you are still interested, we have a post here on your options for monetizing a Facebook group.

Probably a dedicated community platform. Here's why.

• Community platforms have direct monetization, which Facebook groups don't.

• Community platforms have higher engagement than a Facebook group. Just because people stay in Facebook groups forever doesn't mean they are engaged.

• Community platforms offer a premium experience. People feel better about paying for membership on a branded platform.

Of course, there will be some outliers. Some successful creators will charge on a third party platform, run their course on a third party platform, and have a community on Facebook.

But read the case studies we shared above. A lot of people outgrow it. A lot of creators hit a ceiling. And most people earn more from small, dedicated communities than from Facebook groups, no matter how large.

You can't do it natively. Facebook doesn't allow you this information. You would need to use a third-party software to try to scrape the information.

This is one reason why you need to work hard to build your email list, and don't count on Facebook groups to keep track of your membership.

On Mighty, you get push notifications from the app (just like from the Facebook app). You can also get email notifications and popup notifications in the community. Members can control the types and levels of notifications they receive, opting for notifications when things happen or as a daily digest.

The result is something that feels a lot like traditional social media, especially with the app installed. You can read more about notifications on a Mighty Network here.

Any platform requires a minute to learn. But Mighty Networks is intuitive, designed to feel like Slack or Discord (unlike Facebook, content can be organized by themes). Mighty also comes with customizable new-member checklists, these walk first-time members through the platform and your community. And Mighty comes with AI prompts and tools built in. (Learn more here.)

From this list, Discord has the largest user base–with about 150 million monthly users. But the comparison is tricky, because many of the options on this list aren’t open social networking sites, but software for building courses and communities.

We have a full guide on how to grow an online community here!