community-software

(11)
Story
Everyone Is Quietly Building A Members-Only Internet
Saas · Social · Education

Everyone Is Quietly Building A Members-Only Internet

The creators and brands who spent a decade renting attention on other people's feeds are now buying software to build private homes instead. Skool, Patreon, Podia and a stack of quieter forum companies are all fighting to be the front door.

online-community · community-platformRead →
Story
Everybody Wants To Own Your Crowd
Saas · Enterprise · Media

Everybody Wants To Own Your Crowd

Uscreen, Bevy, Almabase, Personify, Zendesk and Gradual are all selling the same promise - a place to gather your people - and quietly disagreeing about who those people actually belong to.

community-software · membership-platformsRead →
Story
Nobody Owns A Community They Just Rent The Room
Saas · Enterprise · Social

Nobody Owns A Community They Just Rent The Room

Gravyty, Podia, Khoros, Bevy, Personify and a crowd of rivals all sell the same promise - that your audience is an asset you control. The platforms making that promise keep getting bought, merged and switched off.

community-software · membership-platformsRead →
Story
Your Community Platform Is Either A Home Or A Listening Post
Saas · Social · Enterprise

Your Community Platform Is Either A Home Or A Listening Post

Open Social and CMNTY are both Dutch, both say they build community, and both are right - one hands you a network you own, the other turns a crowd's opinions into research data. Here is why the same word points at two very different businesses.

online-community · community-platformRead →
Story
You Don't Own the Community You Built
Saas · Enterprise · Social

You Don't Own the Community You Built

Skool, Circle, Discourse, Gainsight, Salesforce and Gravyty are all selling the same thing - a place for your people to gather. The difference is who keeps the keys.

community-software · creator-economyRead →
Story
Everyone wants a community. Almost nobody owns theirs
Saas · Enterprise · Developer Tools

Everyone wants a community. Almost nobody owns theirs

Six platforms - from open-source Discourse to enterprise Khoros and Salesforce - are quietly fighting over the same thing: the conversations your customers have about you. Building that crowd turns out to be the easy part. Owning it is where it gets expensive.

online-community · community-softwareRead →
Story
The Quiet Land Grab to Own Your Community
Saas · Enterprise · Education

The Quiet Land Grab to Own Your Community

Zendesk, Khoros, Thinkific, Disciple and a pack of rivals are betting that organizations will pay to own the audiences they once rented from Facebook. Here is how the community software scramble is shaking out.

community-software · owned-audienceRead →
Story
The Land Grab for Communities Social Media Left Behind
Saas · Enterprise · Social

The Land Grab for Communities Social Media Left Behind

Almabase, Hivebrite, Gravyty, Zapnito, Threado, Khoros and a pack of forum-software veterans are all selling one promise - a place your people gather that you actually own. The market got crowded, then it started eating itself.

community-software · online-community-platformRead →
Story
The Land Grab for Communities the Algorithm Can't Touch
Saas · Social · Enterprise

The Land Grab for Communities the Algorithm Can't Touch

Zapnito, Almabase, Disciple, XenForo, Gainsight and CMNTY are quietly selling brands a way to own their audience instead of renting it from a feed. Here is how one market splits into six very different bets.

online-community · community-led-growthRead →
Story
Four Ways to Build an Online Community That Actually Sticks
Saas · Enterprise · Developer Tools

Four Ways to Build an Online Community That Actually Sticks

Personify, ToucanTech, Discourse and Forumbee all promise to gather your people in one place - but they pick very different people. Here is how the community-software field splits, and how to read it before you sign anything.

community-software · online-forumsRead →
Story
Forumbee Turns Repeat Support Tickets Into a Public Answer
Saas · Enterprise · Developer Tools

Forumbee Turns Repeat Support Tickets Into a Public Answer

The San Francisco community software company has spent more than a decade on a quiet bet: the best help desk is a crowd of customers answering each other in the open.

forumbee · online-communityRead →