# The Owned-Community Software Landscape

> A landscape feature on the software racing to move creators, brands and associations off public social media and onto owned, private communities. Eight platforms - Kajabi, Raklet, XenForo, ToucanTech, Disciple, Discourse, Zapnito and GroupApp - are attacking the same shift from different angles: all-in-one creator suites, open-source forums, white-label mobile apps, and niche tools for alumni networks and B2B expert communities. The common pitch is ownership of the member relationship, the data and the money, sold against a creator economy worth roughly $200 billion.

## Achievements

- Kajabi: reported ~$75M revenue and tens of thousands of creator customers as an all-in-one knowledge-commerce suite.
- Discourse: open-source platform powering 20,000+ communities, including large open-source and enterprise projects.
- XenForo: became the de facto premium successor to vBulletin for self-hosted forums.
- Zapnito: £3.3M Series A from Octopus Ventures for B2B expert community software.
- Disciple: built a business around fully branded iOS/Android community apps with 0% transaction fees.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Circle's 2026 community trends data cited ~88% of community-led creators monetizing via paid memberships, reinforcing the owned-community thesis.
- **2026-08** — The eight-vendor field splits cleanly into all-in-one creator suites, forum/discussion software, white-label apps, and niche B2B/alumni/association tools.

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Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-07