Almost none of the dedicated community platforms have a permanent free plan. Circle, Skool and Mighty Networks all run 14-day trials and then require payment, and Bettermode retired its free tier in March 2026 so new communities now start at $49/month. What is genuinely free is Discord, permanently and without a member cap, plus revenue-share platforms like Patreon that take 10% of earnings instead of a monthly fee. If you want to narrow the field further, run a side-by-side comparison between your top picks or browse the full creator software directory for options outside this category. Every listing is scored using the same review methodology.
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10 tools with free access highlighted below, plus 0 more in this category.
Published price means the vendor states a figure; quote only means it does not. The best-fit line is each tool’s own authored sentence, not a description of its deployment model.
| Tool | Published price | Pricing model | Deployment | Free trial | Best for | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bettermode | $49/mo Starter (about $33 annually) | Free plan + paid tiers | Cloud | Yes | Branded communities built to a plan | Read review |
 Circle | $89/mo Professional | Flat monthly fee | Cloud | Yes | Branded paid memberships | Read review |
 Discord | $0 (free, no time limit) | Freemium, personal subscription not per server | Cloud | Yes | Free real-time community chat and voice | Read review |
 Geneva | quote only | Freemium | Cloud | Yes | Geneva was best for casual, local, or interest-based communities that needed group chat and event coordination without monetization features. | Read review |
 Heartbeat | $49/mo Starter ($40 annually) | Flat monthly fee | Cloud | Yes | Course communities that sell | Read review |
 Mighty Networks | $79/mo Launch ($948 a year) | Flat monthly fee | Cloud | Yes | You'll get the most from Mighty Networks if you're running a paid membership community that also needs courses, events, and a mobile app, and you want all of it under one brand without stitching together separate tools. | Read review |
 Nas.io | $0/mo Basic, with higher transaction fees | Freemium | Cloud | Yes | Starting to sell with no subscription | Read review |
 Patreon Community | 10% of earnings | Revenue share | Cloud | Yes | You'll get the most from Patreon's community features if you're a content creator with an existing audience who wants to offer exclusive content, direct interaction, and membership tiers, and you want it all on the platform your patrons already know. | Read review |
 Skool | $9/mo Hobby, flat for the community | Flat monthly, no per-member charge | Cloud | Yes | Low-cost paid communities | Read review |
| Tribe | $49/mo Starter (about $33 annually) | Free plan + paid tiers | Cloud | Yes | Bettermode (the continuation of Tribe) is best for technical founders and businesses that need deep community customization with API access. | Read review |
Showing 10 of 10
Free plan + paid tiers · Cloud · Free trial
Bettermode (formerly Tribe) is a customizable community platform that lets creators and businesses build branded online communities with forums, knowledge bases, gamification, and integrations. It targets mid-market to enterprise customers who need deep customization without writing code. Paid plans start at $49/month.
Flat monthly fee · Cloud · Free trial
Circle is an all-in-one community platform that combines discussion spaces, online courses, live events, memberships, payments, and workflow automations under a single branded experience. It's built for creators, educators, and businesses who want to own their community without duct-taping five different tools together. Plans start at $89/month billed annually with a 14-day free trial.
Freemium · Cloud · Free trial
Discord is a free communication platform built around servers, channels, and real-time voice, text, and video chat. Originally designed for gamers, it has become a go-to tool for community builders, course creators, and membership operators who want persistent chat rooms, granular role permissions, and voice hangouts -- all without paying a cent.
Freemium · Cloud · Free trial
Geneva was a free community chat platform designed for group conversations, real-life meetups, and club-style communities. In May 2024, Bumble acquired Geneva, and by September 2025, the standalone app was shut down. All Geneva communities were migrated to Bumble BFF. Geneva is no longer accepting new communities.
Flat monthly fee · Cloud · Free trial
Heartbeat is an all-in-one community platform that combines discussions, real-time chat, courses, events, and payments under one roof. It's built for creators and coaches who want to monetize their audience without stitching together five different tools. Plans start at $49/month with a 14-day free trial.
Flat monthly fee · Cloud · Free trial
Mighty Networks is a community platform that lets creators build membership communities with built-in courses, events, and native mobile apps under one roof. Members interact through Spaces, flexible containers for discussions, courses, events, or content. Plans start at $41/month billed annually, with a 14-day free trial on all tiers.
Freemium · Cloud · Free trial
Nas.io is a community platform built for creators who want to monetize through memberships, courses, events, and digital products, all in one place. Founded by Nas Daily (Nuseir Yassin), it combines community hosting with built-in payment processing, AI business tools, and lead generation features. A free plan is available, with paid plans starting at $20.75/month annually.
Revenue share · Cloud · Free trial
Patreon is a membership platform that lets creators earn recurring revenue from fans through tiered subscriptions, with community features including chats, DMs, comments, and video hosting. As of 2025, Patreon charges a flat 10% platform fee (plus payment processing) for new creators. No upfront subscription. You only pay when you earn.
Flat monthly fee · Cloud · Free trial
Skool is a community platform that combines a discussion feed, course hosting, and gamification into one space for creators, coaches, and educators. Founded by Sam Ovens and backed by Alex Hormozi, it prioritizes simplicity over feature depth. Plans start at $9/month with a 14-day free trial.
Free plan + paid tiers · Cloud · Free trial
Tribe was a customizable community platform for building branded online communities with forums, Q&A, and knowledge bases. In 2022, Tribe rebranded to Bettermode, restructured pricing upward, and repositioned toward mid-market and enterprise customers. The original Tribe product no longer exists as a separate platform. Bettermode is the continuation.
Discord, and it has no expiry date either: unlimited servers, unlimited messages, voice and video. The practical limit is a 10MB file upload cap on the free tier, which matters if you share video or large downloads with members. Nitro is a personal subscription and does not fund the server.
Bettermode, formerly Tribe, discontinued its free plan in March 2026, so new communities start on the $49/month Starter tier. Circle and Skool never offered permanent free plans at all. Grandfathered legacy Tribe accounts are the only exception.
Yes, by trading a subscription for a revenue cut. Patreon charges a flat 10% platform fee for pages published after 4 August 2025, plus payment processing, and nothing when you earn nothing. Whop has no monthly fee either and takes 2.7% plus $0.30 on domestic card sales.
New reviews, repriced plans and fresh comparisons in community platforms, as we publish them.
Read our buyer guides for deeper editorial takes, check the glossary when a term needs clarifying, or explore pricing calculators to model costs before committing.
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