# The Owned-Community Software Landscape

> A category feature on the online community platform market - the software brands, creators, universities and enterprises use to build owned communities off social media. It maps six players that rarely compete head to head: Zapnito (expert and knowledge communities), Almabase (alumni engagement), Disciple (branded mobile community apps), XenForo (self-hosted forums), Gainsight (customer support and success communities, formerly inSided) and CMNTY (insight and research communities). The through-line is community-led growth: owning the relationship instead of renting reach from an algorithm.

## Achievements

- Turned 'community' from a nice-to-have into a measurable growth channel tied to retention and lifetime value.
- Kept the owned-forum tradition alive (XenForo) while newer players extended it to apps, alumni networks and support hubs.
- Almabase rated highly by higher-ed and K-12 institutions and recognized by Gartner Digital Markets.
- Gainsight connected community activity directly to customer success and support deflection metrics.

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Community-led growth playbooks and templates go mainstream among B2B marketing teams.
- **2026-01** — Analyst forecasts continue to size the online community platform market in the billions with double-digit CAGR.

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/land-grab-communities-algorithm-cant-touch
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-07