Facebook Groups alternative

Facebook Groups alternative: two free platforms and four paid ones

The free options as an alternative to Facebook Groups are Discord for chat and Discourse for a forum; the four paid ones are Skool, Heartbeat, Circle and Mighty Networks. Mighty Networks Launch is $95 a month, billed monthly, or $79 a month, billed annually ($950 a year), as read on 4 October 2026.

Six alternatives with price, free option and one limit

Skool, Heartbeat and Mighty Networks are listed on monthly billing, and Circle shows annual-billing prices only.

Free alternatives to Facebook Groups: Discord and Discourse

Discord and Discourse are the free alternatives to Facebook Groups: Discord sells no server plan, and Discourse offers a free hosted plan with unlimited members, 2 staff seats, 10 categories and 5 GB. Discord's Nitro is a per-user subscription, $2.99 a month for Nitro Basic or $9.99 for Nitro, with the cost varying by country. Server Subscriptions carry a 10% platform fee. Discourse Pro is $100 a month.

For a longer list, see best free community platforms; Mighty Networks vs Discord covers the chat-first case. Facebook itself is the free baseline: its help center says it does not charge people to use Facebook.

When paying is worth it, and who should stay on Facebook

Pay when a group has to charge for membership or run courses and events, and wants its own member list. Mighty Networks says the Host, the person or organization that creates the community and pays Mighty Networks for it, owns the list of member emails and can download it as an Excel file from Launch. Mighty Networks vs Facebook Groups compares the two and leads on to the moving steps.

Facebook documents paid access only through Subscriptions, which need a Page or pro-mode profile with 5,000 or more followers. Facebook's member-list page describes viewing the list in the group and describes no download. Mighty Networks says that on Facebook the admin has no access to members' email addresses; Facebook's own pages show that a Page selling Subscriptions can download subscriber emails as a .csv file.

The limit: Mighty Networks has no free plan on its pricing page, so after the 14-day trial a group pays $95 a month, billed monthly, plus a 2% transaction fee on sales. A free group that only chats and whose members are all on Facebook should stay where it is.

A nonprofit should look at Discourse first: it gives 50% off Pro and Business with proof of status, while Mighty Networks publishes no nonprofit discount for its standard plans; see Mighty Networks for nonprofits. Of the paid options, Mighty Networks, Circle and Heartbeat each give a 14-day trial with no credit card.