The 12 Best Community Chat Apps

Building a thriving community isn't just about throwing people together and hoping for the best. It's about fostering meaningful connections, encouraging engagement, and creating a space where your members feel truly connected. And at the heart of this lies the communication platform you choose.

Sure, all chat apps offer basic features like direct messages, group chats, and profiles.  But let's be honest, that's table stakes. The true game-changer is finding a platform that goes beyond the basics and seamlessly integrates with the unique needs of your community. 

We're talking features like:

Why the emphasis on these features? We're not just talking a hunch. The trend is clear – even social media giants like WhatsApp and Instagram are adding dedicated community features. Why? Because they understand that true connection goes beyond quick chats.

So, if you're ready to move beyond the basics and unlock the full potential of your community, buckle up! This guide is your roadmap to finding the perfect chat app partner.

Here's what you can expect

1. Social media chat applications

They also offer a convenient starting point: simply sign up, create groups, and start interacting with your audience. Because most users are already familiar with these platforms, there's less friction and no need to learn a new interface or download additional software.

Some popular social media chat applications to launch your community are Facebook groups, Whatsapp, Telegram, Discord, Reddit and Slack.

Pros:

Cons:

2. No-code community builder tools with built-in chat functionality

They come with user-friendly interfaces, templates with drag-and-drop functionalities that make the building process straightforward. This allows community leaders to focus more on developing the community culture, creating engaging content, and monetization models rather than simply the technical side of things.

Sime popular no-code community builder tools are Mighty Networks, Circle, Guild, Hiverbite, Discourse.

Pros:

Cons:

3. Building your own community chat app by leveraging real-time chat infrastructure platforms

Utilizing real-time chat infrastructure platforms to build a community chat app for your audience is an excellent solution for those who wish to have complete control over every aspect of their member experience, from onboarding and engagement to deriving value from your community. You define the features, design the interface, and customize every aspect to match your vision.

For those managing mobile-based communities that primarily operate through channels or group chats, this is unquestionably the best choice. They help you build a native mobile app that offers a seamless and on-the-go experience for your members.

Take Sploot as an example - they began their journey as an Instagram community and eventually transitioned to their own app with the help of a chat infrastructure platform (to be specific, CometChat). Their community became an integral part of the overall product experience, bringing users together in a unique shared space.

Pros:

Using CometChat to power your community chat function

CometChat is an in-app messaging and calling platform, enabling businesses to add chat, voice, and video interactions to their apps or websites, allowing end-users to engage more effectively.

An excellent example of the transformation that a community can undergo with CometChat is seen in the case of Sploot's transformation from an Instagram page to a thriving in-app community for pet parents. Initially, Sploot built a chat module using Firebase, but as their community grew, they faced scalability and performance issues.

To address these challenges and foster deeper user engagement, Sploot adopted CometChat's robust chat infrastructure. This empowered them to create:

Sploot leveraged CometChat's customizable SDKs and UI Kits to seamlessly integrate chat functionality within their community. These SDKs provide all the essential building blocks to tailor the chat experience to their specific requirements.

Additionally, CometChat's pre-built UI Kits offer a collection of ready-made chat components and UI elements, significantly accelerating the integration process. By leveraging these tools, Sploot was able to implement a visually appealing and user-friendly chat interface without extensive development efforts.

Chat with our team to get a customized demo tailor made for your use case.

Here are some other notable customer stories showcasing how businesses successfully utilized CometChat for their community use cases,

Nobroker enhances resident communication and society management across Indian communities with CometChat

1. Facebook groups

You can control the visibility and maintain community privacy by choosing between public (discoverable by anyone), private (members-only), and secret (hidden from searches) groups. Additionally, Facebook prioritizes Group content in users' feeds, leading to greater visibility compared to brand Pages.

Features offered by Facebook groups

• File sharing : Facebook groups offer the functionality to share documents, photos, and videos, which can be useful for communities that share resources.

• Group insights : Admins can access group insights that show engagement metrics like popular times to post, top posts, and member demographics. This can help them manage the group more effectively.

• Events : You can create online or in-person events within the community, inviting all members and send reminders about the event automatically. Host live streams for discussions, Q&As, demo, etc.

• Engagement tools : Admins can create polls, live videos and share updates for group members, which is a great way to receive feedback or make collective decisions.

• Moderation tools : Manage member requests, set rules, filter posts, and appoint moderators to maintain a safe, positive environment.

Cons

• Interest-based communities: Groups for hobbies, fandoms, or niche interests.

• Support groups: Communities offering mental health resources, shared experiences and mutual aid.

• Location-based groups: Neighborhoods, cities, or local events

• Professional groups: Skill development, industry networking, and job hunting within a specific profession.

• Brand communities: A space for customers to connect with a brand, share feedback, and participate in discussions.

Best suited for

2. Slack

If you've ever worked in an office setup, you've undoubtedly encountered Slack. This powerful communication tool is widely used by businesses, organizations, and teams of all sizes, from tiny startups to global conglomerates.

While primarily aimed at teams needing a seamless platform for regular collaboration, especially those operating remotely, Slack's popularity extends beyond tech-savvy fields like IT and software development. It's also found its place in other sectors, including healthcare, finance, and education, making it a familiar platform for many professionals across diverse fields.

Features offered by Slack

• Channels - Slack lets you divide up your community into sections according to various subjects, teams, or projects by using chat rooms. You can make channels private (invite only) or public (available to all members).

• Direct Messages (DMs): Members can have one-on-one conversations via direct messages, which is great for personal interactions within the community.

• Mentions and Notifications: Members can mention each other in discussions to get their attention or to refer to previous points made. Also, customizable notifications ensure that members won't miss out on important updates.

• File Sharing: Slack allows users to share files directly within the platform. This can range from documents, images, videos, or links. Shared files are also stored and searchable, facilitating easy access.

• Voice & Video calls - Slack's huddle functionality enables users to have brief, casual audio conversations.

Cons :

• Limited monetization: Slack offers only one significant monetization option: charging membership fees for access to private channels. This limits your ability to explore other revenue streams like in-app purchases, virtual goods, advertising.

• Scaling challenges: As your community grows, moderation becomes increasingly difficult on Slack. The free plan lacks advanced tools, making it challenging to maintain a positive and constructive environment, especially with large user bases.

• Limited Search and chat history: The free version of Slack only allows searching the most recent 10,000 messages. This can hinder knowledge sharing and community engagement, as valuable content gets buried in older conversations. Accessing a complete search history requires upgrading to a paid plan.

• Unfamiliarity for Non-Professional Audiences: While familiar to professionals, Slack might not resonate with other demographics. This could create a barrier to entry for potential members outside of workplace settings.

• Costly for Large Communities: While the free plan offers basic features, larger communities might find themselves needing paid plans with increased storage and member limits, leading to potentially significant costs.Similar to other social media chat apps, Slack offers limited control over the user experience and community branding.

Best suited for - Slack is best suited for starting communities geared towards professional development, industry-specific discussions, or collaboration on work-related projects.

3. Discord

Originally designed for gamers to communicate and strategize during gameplay, Discord has evolved beyond its initial niche and now caters to a diverse range of online communities. Music enthusiasts, movie buffs, and even educational groups have found Discord to be a valuable platform for connecting and engaging.

Discord's strength lies in its focus on text and voice chat. Users can create dedicated "servers" for specific topics, allowing them to invite others and facilitate focused discussions around their shared interests.

Features offered by Discord

• Group Discussions: Discord gives communities the ability to set up channels for various subjects so that members can communicate, exchange ideas, and work together.

• Audio rooms: Voice chat and calling enables community members to interact in real time. This can be especially helpful in gaming groups, where teamwork requires voice communication.

• Community Events: Communities can organize events like game nights,AMAs, and live streaming through Discord.

• Integration: Discord can be integrated with other platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and Reddit, providing a more unified experience for community members.

Cons

• Limited video quality: The video quality for screen sharing and video calls is limited, which may not be suitable for all types of content.

• Lack of formal structure: Discord is primarily designed for informal communities, such as gaming groups. It doesn't offer the same level of professional structure as some alternatives, which might be a limitation for certain communities.

• Potential safety concerns: Discord doesn't have a comprehensive content moderation system, which could potentially lead to spam and hate messages unattended.

• Limited customization: While you can customize your server to an extent, the options for customization are not as extensive as on some other platforms.

Best suited for gamers, creative personas like artists, musicians and writers, and fans

4. Reddit

Reddit thrives as a digital hub for communities, offering a unique platform to foster and nurture communities based on shared interests, passions, and niche topics. Its unique subreddit system allows for highly focused, topic-specific communities, enabling users to easily find and connect with others who share their interests.

Reddit boasts a massive and active global audience, attracting millions of daily users across a broad spectrum of demographics and interests. While the platform generally skews younger and attracts a significant portion of tech-savvy individuals and early adopters, its appeal extends to a diverse audience, making it a valuable platform for nurturing vibrant online communities of all kinds.

Features offered by Reddit

• Subreddits: These are topic-specific communities you can join or create, allowing users to curate their content.

• Posts & comments: Text posts, image/video posts, and threaded comments form the core of content and interaction.

• Upvoting and downvoting: Users rank content quality and visibility, shaping conversations.

• Chat Rooms: Every subreddit can create its own chat room. This is a place where users of the subreddit can engage and communicate in real-time.

• Moderation tools: Subreddit moderators have tools for content removal, user bans, and basic customization.

Cons

• Video and voice chat limitations: Currently, Reddit does not support native video or voice chat.

• Lack of moderation tools: While subreddits can be moderated, there's a lack of robust moderation tools in place to manage direct messages.

• No cross-platform synchronization: If you're chatting on a computer and switch to your mobile device, the chat doesn't always sync up, causing potential confusion or missed messages.

• No chat search: Searching for specific content within a chat isn't supported, making it difficult to find previous pieces of information or conversations.

Best suited for

5. Whatsapp

WhatsApp is targeted at anyone who wants a simple, reliable, and private way to talk to others, whether that's friends, family, coworkers, or community members. It's really easy for communities to start using WhatsApp. All you need to do is download the app, create a group, and start inviting people. You can add up to 256 people in one group, making it a great space for communities to chat, share news, and stay connected.

Features offered by Whatsapp

• Group chats: WhatsApp allows you to create and manage groups with up to 256 members. This feature enables communities to interact, share information, and communicate en masse.

• Communities: Communities in Whatsapp act like an umbrella structure, bringing together multiple existing WhatsApp groups under one roof. This allows for better organization and communication across various sub-groups within a larger community, while still maintaining privacy in individual groups.

• Channels: They function as one-way broadcast tools. Admins can send text, photos, videos, and other content to a large audience. Unlike groups, members cannot directly chat within channels, but they can still react and reply to messages posted by admins.

• Voice and Video Calls: WhatsApp allows for voice and video calls, including group calls for up to 8 participants. This is helpful for virtual community meetings or hangouts.

• Mentions and Replies: In group chats, you can specifically reply to a message and mention a group member.

Cons

• Size constraints: Communities can have up to 5,000 members, which might be insufficient for very large communities. Individual groups within a community are even smaller, capped at 256 members.

• No anonymous posting: Members can't post anonymously. Their phone numbers are visible to everyone added in the group, which can be a privacy concern for some users.

• Moderation challenges: Admins have limited tools to filter content, manage spam, or track member activity.

6. Telegram

Telegram is a chat service used by people who appreciate speed and anonymity. It is widely used by those who need to share large files (up to 2GB) and communicate with large groups (up to 200,000 per group). It is also popular among those who want access to a wealth of capabilities, such as bots, channels, and advanced media sharing.

Features offered by Telegram

• Large Group Size: Telegram allows you to create groups with up to 200,000 members, making it an excellent choice for large communities.

• High-Level Security: Telegram uses end-to-end encryption for voice calls, ensuring that your conversations are secure and private.

• Bots: Telegram allows the creation of bots for various tasks such as managing groups, sending automatic responses, etc. This can be a great advantage for managing and interacting with your community.

Cons

• Limited Visibility: Unlike social media platforms, there's no timeline or newsfeed where you can post content that is visible to all members regularly. All communication is directly chat-based.

• No Official Business Accounts: Telegram doesn't offer any distinct features for businesses or community owners to manage their groups or channels professionally, unlike platforms like Facebook.

• Difficult to Discover: Discovering channels or groups on Telegram is not straightforward unless users have the specific invitation link. It lacks a proper search feature for users to find and join new groups or channels.

1. Circle

Circle is best known for its clean, intuitive, and modern design. It is highly flexible and customizable to match any brand, resonating well with creators and brand communities. It excels in integrations, working seamlessly with platforms like Zapier, WordPress, and others.

Key features that Circle offers to communities include

• Spaces: Create different spaces within your community based on topics, membership levels, etc.

• Topics & Posts: Within each space, members can start topics and comment, creating dynamic conversations.

• Direct & Group messaging: Members can message each other directly or in groups, enhancing community connectedness.

• Member Profiles: Members have rich profiles where they can share about themselves and connect with others.

• Notification & Digests: Members are kept informed and engaged with notifications and email digests.

• Custom Branding: The community can be fully branded based on your preference.

• Membership Management: You can manage memberships, process payments, and offer different access levels within your community.

• Courses: Allows creators to build and deliver engaging online learning experiences directly within their existing communities

Pricing

All plans include a 14-day free trial and the rates can be locked in for life. Check out their pricing for more details.

2. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks empowers individuals and businesses to create, manage, and own their branded online communities, courses, and memberships, all in one place. The communities that Mighty Networks focuses on are creator-centric. Coaches, entrepreneurs, and course developers are their target markets.

Key features of Mighty Networks include

• All-in-one platform: Mighty Networks hosts community discussions, online courses, events, and membership subscriptions all in one place. This eliminates the need for multiple platforms.

• Spaces and groups: Organize your community into smaller, focused groups or "Spaces" based on specific interests, topics, or membership levels.

• Native Mobile Apps: Mighty Networks offers fully functional mobile apps (iOS and Android), making it accessible for members on the go.

• Detailed Analytics: You have access to detailed analytics to track community engagement and growth.

Pricing

Mighty Networks offers three primary pricing tiers:

There is also a Mighty Pro plan for enterprise-level customers, which provides native mobile apps published under your brand, advanced analytics with a dedicated Community Strategist. Check out their pricing plan.

3. Hiverbite

Hivebrite is targeted primarily at larger organizations and institutions, such as universities and professional networks. It offers a fully branded platform with features like event management, mentoring programs, and membership management catering to the needs of larger communities.

Key features of Hiverbrite include

• Member Management: You can easily manage your community members, including individual profiles and group structures. This includes moderation tools for controlling member content

• Event Management: You can create and manage events for your community, including ticketing and location mapping.

• Email and Newsletter Tools: You can send targeted emails and newsletters to your community members.

• Job Boards and Mentoring: Hivebrite comes with a job board function for posting and applying to jobs, as well as a mentoring module for community members to connect and learn from each other.

• Analytics: This feature allows you to measure the impact of your online community, track member engagement and understand the success of different initiatives.

4. Discourse

Discourse is an open-source platform, making it a preferable choice for tech-savvy communities or those needing heavily customized solutions. It's renowned for its forum-style layout, built for in-depth, long-form discussions.

Key features include -

• User-friendly interface: Discourse has a clean, modern, and well-organized interface that encourages users to participate in discussions.

• Mobile-First Design: Discourse works seamlessly on mobile devices, thereby ensuring accessibility and engagement even on-the-go.

• Real-Time Updates: Discourse forums update in real-time, showing who is replying to a topic or reading your post.

• Spam Management: Discourse has an integrated solution to control and manage spam which includes automated spam blocking features.

• One-click Install: Discourse offers a one-click install for cloud platforms like DigitalOcean.

Pricing

Discourse offers basic, standard, and business to communities.

They also provide a enterprise plan to customize the design of your brand's community experience. All these options come with a 14-day free trial

Check out their pricing for more details.

5. Guild

Guild stands out for its focus on professional communities. It offers a mobile-first, simple-to-use platform where professionals can connect and converse privately, away from the noise of social media.

Key features of Guild include

• Professional Profiles: Guild lets users create a professional profile that helps others understand more about their background and expertise.

• Group Management: Administrators can create and manage groups easily, controlling who can join or view the group's content.

• Ad-free Infrastructure: The platform is ad-free, offering a clean, uninterrupted space for professional communication.

• Integration with Calendar: Guild allows users to create and manage events within the app, which can be integrated with the built-in calendar.

Pricing

Guild offers four pricing plans for its messaging platform:

They also provide a custom plan tailored to meet your community needs. Check out their pricing page.