12 Facebook Group Alternatives You Need to Know About: The Ultimate Guide to Free and Paid Options

If you want to build an online community, Facebook Group is a great platform to get started with.

It’s FREE and doesn’t limit the number of members that can join the community.

However, this does not imply that Facebook Group is the best way to build an online community.

In fact, if you’re looking for a platform that:

• Allows you to monetize your community
• Gives you full control of your community
• Has a ton of community engagement tools
• Is free from distractions

Facebook Group is not the best option for you.

In this guide, we’ll help you choose the best Facebook Group alternatives for creating a highly engaging community.

We’ll also highlight the best features that make each platform a great winner over Facebook Groups.

Let’s delve right in.

Why Look for Facebook Group Alternatives?

Facebook Group is an excellent place to begin when establishing an online community.

However, as your community grows, it becomes challenging to engage and manage it.

For creators looking to create a tightly packed community that they can easily monetize, they’ll opt to use alternatives to Facebook Group.

Here’s why:

Lack of Control and Full Ownership

When it comes to creating an online community, having control over your group is crucial. Unfortunately, this can be a challenge when using Facebook Groups.

One of the biggest drawbacks of using Facebook Groups is that you are subject to the platform’s terms of service and policies.

This means that Facebook can remove your group or censor your content at any time without any recourse on your part.

If you’ve created an online community before, you’ll agree that creating one requires time and effort.

This can be frustrating when your group is shut down after all that time and effort.

Distractions

Facebook Group is prone to distractions. The platform may not be your ideal option if you want a highly engaging community.

Your members can be tempted to leave your group to first reply to a message from their friends, and before they know it, they’re scrolling through their feed or even watching cat videos.

Also, random notifications will steal their attention, and getting them back into your community is challenging.

That’s a considerable downside for any community platform.

Suppose you want to use your Facebook group as a learning platform or coaching program.

Chances are, you members will hardly stay focused. Meaning they’ll need to engage more with your learning materials.

Don’t you want a community-building platform that gives your members a distraction-free environment?

This is why a great Facebook alternative like GroupApp comes in handy.

Limited Customizability

Branding is essential for any creator or business looking to build an online community around their brand or expertise.

Regarding customization of your online community, Facebook Groups fall short.

The platform doesn’t allow you to tailor your group’s features and functionality to your community’s specific needs and preferences.

For instance, you may be unable to change the group’s layout or design.

A good example is the cover photo.

You can change it as often as you’d like, play around with different motifs and color schemes, and so on.

However, whatever you do, the cover photo will be in the same place, and your Facebook group will visually resemble all the others.

There is not much you can do to customize your Facebook group and make it unique.

Minimal Organic Reach in and outside of the Group

Another problem with Facebook Groups is that your posts will compete with your members’ for attention.

Different from most community-building platforms where an administrator’s post reaches 100% of all members, that’s not the case for Facebook Group.

In fact, there are times when other members’ posts get more visibility than yours.

That’s because Facebook has a sophisticated algorithm that can impact your posts’ reach based on members’ engagement and other signals.

Also, Facebook has gained a reputation for limiting a post’s organic reach so that you can pay for advertising.

This implies that it becomes challenging to gain new members organically on Facebook by publishing quality content and good community management.

You’ll have to pay ads if you want people to learn about your group and join it.

But it doesn’t stop there. Organic reach seems to be dying out among group members, too. Facebook claims that this is simply its response to the demands of its users.

However, it is likely the pay-to-play social media model at its finest.

Lack of Control over Member Activity

Managing a Facebook group is not an easy job. The larger the group is, the more difficult it gets. That is why larger companies employ whole teams dedicated to managing such online communities.

Even with a team of professionals, you can only do so much to control who says or does what in your group.

 

You can delete comments and posts, urge other members to report rule-breaking content to admins, ban people, or flag certain words as inappropriate. You can also write a set of Facebook group rules for your members to follow.

If you are an admin in a larger Facebook group, you know that all these tools – although useful – simply aren’t enough. Facebook is yet to come up with a mechanism that will put more power in admins’ hands over the content of their groups.

Facebook group rules can only to do much to help you manage the community

Limited Monetization Options

Facebook is trying its best to tailor to businesses and individuals who sell products and services online, but it simply isn’t trying enough.

For example, if you are a content creator looking to offer subscriptions for your product, you’ll have a number of platforms to choose from like GroupApp. Or you can choose Facebook’s fan subscription option.

For the former, all you have to do is create an account, buy a package, and offer your product. For the latter, you will have to prove your eligibility to even offer subscription services.

Facebook offers a fan subscription service to those who qualify

Poor Choice for Formal Customer Support

If your goal is to simply be more accessible to those who have purchased your product, Facebook groups aren’t a good alternative for you. A social media platform such as Facebook simply isn’t the right environment for formal customer support.

First of all, your customers may shy away from posting publically in your group about a problem they’re having. Secondly, if your group is large, their question or problem may go unnoticed. And lastly, written communication in the form of comments, especially where anyone can join in on the discussion, can be too confusing for this purpose.

Next to None Third-Party Integration Options

Would you like to integrate third-party software, such as Mailchimp, Mixpanel, or Intercom? We have some bad news. Facebook simply won’t allow it.

Third-party integrations are only possible for software that helps you publish and schedule posts or reply to comments, such as Hootsuite. As of now, there is no way for you to send e-mails to your Facebook group members, for example.

Third-party integration options are quite limited

Now that we’ve gone over all the reasons why Facebook groups simply aren’t a good choice for your business nowadays, let’s take a look at what Facebook group alternatives there are, and what they offer.

12 Best Facebook Group Alternatives

Here are the best Facebook Group alternatives that you can use to build your online community.

We’ll also dive deep into the PROS and CONS of each platform.

GroupApp – Best Facebook Group Alternative Overall

GroupApp takes online community building to an entirely new level thanks to its wide selection of tools and intuitive user interface.

The platform allows businesses to create forums, discussion groups, and other interactive features to engage with customers and build a sense of community around their brand.

This can be an effective way to increase customer loyalty and retention and generate valuable feedback and ideas from customers.

Unlike Facebook Group, with GroupApp, you get total control of your community. Your posts are not affected by algorithms, and you have complete control over what is posted on the group.

Here’s what makes GroupApp a great alternative to Facebook Group:

Organize your Community Discussions Using Channels

When running a group or community, chances are you’ve experienced chaos when trying to coordinate discussions and decision-making.

It’s easy for meaningful conversations to get lost in the shuffle and members to feel overwhelmed by a never-ending stream of messages.

Think about it: how many times have you been part of a group where everyone is talking at once, and it’s impossible to keep track of what’s being discussed?

This happens a lot in Facebook Groups.

But when using GroupApp, you can easily organize your community discussions into channels to reduce the amount of clutter and noise in the main group chat.

With GroupApp, you can create channels for specific topics, so everyone knows exactly where to go to discuss what they need to. No more sifting through endless threads to find the information you need.

Channels can also be used to create a clear structure for discussions, which can make it easier for new members to follow along and catch up on past conversations. This helps reduce confusion and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Easily Monetize Your Community

Here’s what makes GroupApp the ideal Facebook Group alternative: community monetization.

We mentioned that Facebook Groups are not ideal for community building because you have less control over your community.

Your members are also prone to distractions; if you can engage your community, it is easier to monetize it.

To monetize your community in Facebook Groups, you don’t have tools that make it easy to create a paywall for your membership.

This is not the case for GroupApp.

Using our platform, you can monetize your community in several ways.

Firstly, GroupApp allows you to create a paid membership community.

With GroupApp, you can easily set up a subscription-based membership program for your community, allowing members to access exclusive content, events, and other perks in exchange for a monthly or annual fee.

You can also create multiple membership tiers to offer your members different levels of access and perks.

Secondly, you can sell online courses to your community.

GroupApp enables you to sell online courses and create a community around your content.

You get access to tools for creating and selling online courses, including the ability to upload video and audio content, complete quizzes and assessments, and track student progress.

What’s more, you can easily set up a community that only allows paid members to access your online courses and other exclusive content and participate in a community of like-minded individuals.

Lastly, with GroupApp, you can sell digital downloadables.

You can offer your members ebooks, templates, or PDFs for a fee.

You can embed the digital downloadables and only allow your paid community members to access them.

Offer Your Community The Support They Deserve

The best way to build trust and engagement in your community is to be available whenever your members need you.

In Facebook Groups, it’s challenging to offer support to your community.

Facebook Groups offer only a few tools or features specifically designed for customer support. This makes it harder to manage and respond to customer inquiries in a timely and organized manner.

At GroupApp, customer support isn’t something we take with a cubic of salt.

Our direct message feature allows you to offer support to individual members privately.

If you want to address a common issue, you can hold a group chats with all your community members.

Organize Your Community Resources Using the Content Library

GroupApp allows you to manage your community resources in one place for easier access by your community members.

We know how challenging it can be when using Facebook Groups to manage your community members and offer content materials.

With GroupApp, however, you can organize your content materials so that members, both new and existing, can have an easier time finding them.

Consider GroupApp’s Library as a hub that allows you to bring all community content resources in one place.

Using this tool, you can upload practically any material format. Be it a video, a PDF, worksheets, audio files, or even embed externally hosted resources like videos hosted on Wistia.

You can then set access levels to control who can access your community resources.

You can restrict access to your community resources using one of the four methods.

• Free: if you want anyone with access to your community URL to use the material.
• Paid members: only allow the members who’ve upgraded to your subscription plan to access the content.
• One-time fee: if users want to pay for the resource once without renewals. This can be ideal when selling ebooks.
• By plans: this can be ideal if you have multiple membership tiers and want a specific level to access the materials.

Schedule Upcoming Events, Posts, and Emails

Scheduling events can be a massive pain if you have a Facebook group.

Facebook Groups need advanced tools to help you create, schedule, and run online events to engage your members.

Furthermore, you need to use third-party tools like Hootsuite to schedule posts.

With GroupApp, you can easily create and manage events and schedule posts and emails sent out at specific times.

You can even track the performance of your events and communications.

Create Powerful Workflows through Third-party Integration

Third-party app integration is one function you’d want in any community-building platform because it allows you to extend the functionality and capabilities of your platform.

By integrating with other apps and services, you can take advantage of a wide range of features and tools that can help you better manage and grow your community.

GroupApp third-party integration helps you achieve that.

You can connect your platform with a third-party tool like Stripe that allows you to collect payments for your paid memberships.

GroupApp also integrates with Zapier, allowing you to connect with over 5000+ apps and create automated workflows.

To give you more integration control, you can use our API to exchange data between different types of software and automate procedures.

GroupApp Pros and Cons

GroupApp is an excellent Facebook alternative that you can use to create a community and monetize it.

Here are the pros and cons of using GroupApp.

Pros

• Intuitive user interface that allows you to navigate and use the platform easily.
• Host your community under your domain, allowing you to add a touch to your brand
• You can reach 100% of your members without your post being buried by algorithms or other member’s post
• Monetize your community using a variety of ways like paid memberships and online courses
• A ton of community engagement features are available
• Improve your community learning experience using cohort-based course
• Drip schedule your community resources and online courses to improve your learning experience

Cons

• Stripe needed – with GroupApp, you need to have a Stripe merchant account to add a payment gateway to your premium memberships.
• No donation button – you cannot accept donations or tips using GroupApp. Instead, you can only add subscriptions to your premium content based on a one-time fee or monthly/yearly subscriptions.

Kajabi

Kajabi is a comprehensive platform that allows you to create, market, and sell online courses, coaching programs, and digital products.

As an ideal alternative to Facebook Groups, one of the standout features of Kajabi is its ability to help users create an engaging online community.

 

That started when they acquired Vibely, a community-building tool that allows creators to grow and foster authentic communities that scale.

By integrating the platform into their website, your community can connect and learn with interactive tools, live sessions, and collaborative challenges, to mention a few.

 

The platform allows you to create professional and customizable landing pages and websites to showcase your online courses, coaching programs, and digital products.

Overall, Kajabi is a robust platform that offers a range of tools and resources to help you build and engage with a thriving community of learners, customers, and students.

Its customizable landing pages and websites, engaging course content, robust email marketing capabilities, community forums, and discussion groups, and advanced analytics contribute to its effectiveness as a community builder and an excellent alternative to Facebook Groups.

Kajabi Pros

• A powerful website builder that allows you to create a membership website
• Large library of customizable landing page templates
• Inbuilt email marketing tools
• Sales funnel software that allows you to nurture your leads in every conversion stage

Kajabi Cons

• Limited student and community engagement tools.
• Kajabi pricing is expensive to use the platform for community building

Circle

Circle.so has features quite similar to GroupApp.

For example, Circle.so combines the aspect of a community builder and an online course platform.

Although this is nothing new, they are a great deal that makes it a great Facebook alternative for anyone looking to bring people together virtually.

With Circle, you can engage your community using group chats, live streams, events, and even private messaging.

They have an intuitive interface that makes it easy even for a beginner to get hold of their features.

Circle. so Pros

• A clean user interface
• Single sign-on allows your members to log in at in with one click
• GDPR compliant
• You can host your community in your custom domain

Circle.so Cons

• The native analytics could be better
• Lacks native emailing
• Their mobile app could be improved

Reddit

Reddit is quite similar to Facebook Groups. It gives you more control over your forum community and doesn’t manipulate user data (remember Facebook selling users to Cambridge Analytica).

With Reddit, you can create a Subreddit that allows you to bring people with shared interests together and discuss topics in an organized and structured way.

Users can subscribe to specific topics and communities. This helps to create a sense of belonging and allows users to connect with others with similar interests.

However, Reddit still lacks a ton of community-building tools.

 

Although it’s a good alternative to Facebook Groups, just like any social media-hosted community platform, you still lack complete control of your community.

If your Subreddit isn’t in line with Reddit guidelines, you risk your community being shut down.

Reddit Pros

• An easy-to-use interface
• Completely free
• You get more freedom and control than Facebook Groups

Cons

• Lacks monetization options making it unsuitable for creating paid membership communities
• Users new to the platform can’t make subreddits
• Doesn’t offer as much control compared to hosting your groups in a community builder platform like GroupApp

Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is a community platform allowing you to create your own branded community spaces, free and paid. It offers a range of features and is a comprehensive solution for building and managing communities.

With Mighty Networks, you can create and fully customize a branded community platform where you retain ownership. The platform is accessible on the web, Android, and iOS devices, and members can communicate with each other through small group chats or private messages.

This is in contrast to Facebook Groups, where you have a different level of control and branding options.

Pros

• Feature-rich and advanced community management tools
• Native live streaming allows you to go live and easily engage with your community members
• Integration with third-party tools allows you to create a powerful workflow system
• High level of customization, including a white-labeled mobile app
• Unlimited hosts, members, and moderators

Cons

• Does not offer a free plan
• For new users who are used to Facebook Groups, Mighty Networks can be quite a learning curve

Discord

Discord is an excellent alternative to Facebook Groups, especially if your community enjoys live streaming and gaming. With Discord, you can create public and private channels for various discussion topics.

Discord excels in its ability to manage large groups of people. When you create a Discord server, you can create separate channels with varying access permissions for different users.

This helps to prevent overcrowding in a single message thread or voice chat channel, which can often occur in popular servers.

Discord has AI-powered assistants they call Discord bots. The bots are a clear game changer as they take care of tasks typically handled by moderators, such as welcoming new users, banning or muting trolls and spammers, and more.

Discord Pros

• An intuitive interface that is easy to navigate, making it accessible to users of all levels.
• Discord allows you to customize your server with different channels, roles, and permissions, giving you control over how your community is organized and who has access to what.
• Integration with other tools and platforms, such as Twitch and YouTube, allows you to bring together multiple parts of your community in one place.
• Bots and automation help you automate tasks and keep your community running smoothly.
• Voice and text communication makes it easy for community members to connect with each other in real time.

Discord Cons

• While Discord does offer voice communication, it does not have native video conferencing capabilities.
• Discord has relatively basic moderation tools and may not be sufficient for larger communities or those with more complex moderation needs.
• Potential for spam and abuse.
• Limited customization options.

Patreon

Patreon is a crowdfunding website geared towards artists and content creators producing regular content. It has gained a lot of attention in recent years.

Unlike Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Patreon uses a rewards-based crowdfunding model where supporters, called patrons, pay a regular subscription fee in exchange for access to exclusive content.

This differs from the one-time pledges backers make on Kickstarter and Indiegogo in exchange for rewards.

In addition to providing a way for creators to earn a living, Patreon can also serve as a powerful community-building tool.

One of the critical benefits of Patreon is that it allows creators to connect directly with their fans and build a loyal community around their work.

Patreon offers several features that facilitate this connection, including the ability for creators to provide exclusive content and experiences to their subscribers and communicate directly with subscribers through the platform’s messaging system.

This level of intimacy and access can foster a sense of community and belong among subscribers, who feel like they are part of something unique and exclusive.

Patreon Pros

• Continuous crowdfunding for creators through recurring subscriptions.
• No upfront cost for creators.
• Multiple subscription plans are available
• Easy to use, making it accessible to creators of all skill levels.

Patreon Cons

• Patreon takes a percentage of each subscription as a fee for using the platform.
• Some fans may feel intimidated by the monthly commitment.
• You can’t create a free membership tier with Patreon.
• Limited community interactions.

 

Tribe.so

Tribe is a software platform that allows businesses to create their customized online community through their website or mobile app.

Tribe is an excellent Facebook Group alternative for businesses that want to create a community specifically for their customers and brand loyalists.

It offers enterprise-level features such as customization to fit your branding, custom domains, member profiles, gamification, and moderation. These features make it ideal for established businesses looking to build a strong community.

Tribe.so Pros

• Advanced and improved community management functions.
• Fully customized and white labeled.
• Excellent for forming communities around your business.
• Offers a wide selection of thirdparty integrations.

Tribe.so Cons

• It is not suitable for small firms or entrepreneurs.
• There are no built-in messaging capabilities.
• Challenging to build premium membership plans using the platform as you must use a third-party application.

Memberdev

Memberdev is an online community-building platform that simplifies the process of building and managing your online community. With its powerful tools and features, Memberdev makes it easy for anyone to create a thriving online community for their brand, business, or organization.

One of the critical benefits of Memberdev is its ease of use. The platform is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for anyone to build their community.

Whether you are a small business owner, a marketing professional, or a community manager, you can quickly and easily set up your community using Memberdev’s simple interface.

You also get access to features like discussion forums, chat rooms, polls, and other interactive elements that encourage engagement and interaction among community members. You can also use Memberdev to create and manage events, webinars, and other online activities that help bring your community together.

Memberdev Pros

• You can monetize your community with online courses.
• Detailed analytics that gives you deeper insight into your sales and membership metrics.
• Better community engagement tools
• Member-only messaging facilitates secure communication between the administrator and members

Memberdev Cons

• You need to contact them to get custom pricing which can make you question pricing transparency
• Lacks a mobile app

Slack

Slack is primarily known as a workplace communication tool, but it can also be used as a platform for community members to connect online.

It is an excellent option to consider instead of using Facebook Groups, especially for professional and corporate teams.

With Slack, team members can easily send messages, share files, and conduct video and audio calls, all within a single platform.

This helps teams stay organized and connected remotely or across different time zones.

You can create a virtual “workspace” to host a community with Slack.

You can create different “channels” within each workspace that focus on specific topics, similar to a forum.

Community members can communicate with each other in group channels or through private, one-on-one messages. In addition to text-based communication, members can connect through audio and video calls within the Slack app.

Slack Pros

• A great free plan
• Easy to use
• Common among users
• Ideal for building free communities

Slack Cons

• The paid plan is expensive
• Low level of customization
• Monetizing a community can be challenging
• Lacks most community management

Disciple Media

Disciple Media is another Facebook Groups alternative that puts the latter to shame with its amazing community-building tools.

The platform allows you to organize your community resource in a content library customized to match your audience’s needs.

You can use different layouts, such as folders, groups, and lists, to outline your community structure.

If you want to sync other third-party tools to your community, it’s possible with their open API. For example, you can connect your community platform with automation marketing software like Drip to create drip campaigns.

Disciple Media Pros

• Insightful analytics that allows you to track your member’s performance
• Push notifications allow you to draw members to your community and make them keep them coming for more.
• In apps, purchases are supported
• Has a mobile app

Disciple Media Cons

• High price tag compared to the resources and tools the platform avails
• Lacks a free plan
• Limited user interface customization

Linkedin Groups

LinkedIn is one of the world’s most popular networking networks, well recognized as the place to make business contacts. However, it may also be used to establish your community, similar to Facebook Group.

One of the key benefits of LinkedIn Groups is that they provide a dedicated space for like-minded individuals to connect and engage with each other.

Whether you’re a business owner looking to network with other professionals in your industry, or an individual seeking to learn and grow your skills, LinkedIn Groups offer an ideal platform for building relationships and learning from others.

In addition to facilitating meaningful connections, LinkedIn Groups also offer a variety of features that can help you build and grow your online community.

For example, group members can participate in discussions, share content, and collaborate on projects. This can be especially valuable for professionals looking to stay up-to-date on industry trends and best practices.

Pros

• Strong analytics: LinkedIn provides robust analytics tools that can help you track the performance of your community-building efforts and understand what works best for your audience.
• Wide reach: LinkedIn has a large user base, which means that your community-building efforts have the potential to reach a wide audience.

Cons

• Prone to distractions.
• LinkedIn’s community-building features are limited compared to other community-building software like GroupApp.

Conclusion

Facebook Groups are a popular choice for community building, but there are better alternatives that come with advanced community management tools.

GroupApp is the overall best Facebook Group alternative. The software comes packed with all the features you need to build a white-label community platform without breaking your bank account.

GroupApp has all the tools you need to create and engage your community. From quizzes, discussions, online events, and drip content to forums, there’s no limit to what you can use to make your community lively.

Try GroupApp today and ditch Facebook Groups for a far better experience.