Community platform free options: which free tiers are real

Free community platforms with a real free tier

Four community platforms we could check have a real free option: Discourse, Slack, Discord and Patreon. Each is free in a different way, and each limits something. The details below were read on the vendors' own pages on 3 October 2026.

Facebook Groups is the free option most readers already use. Facebook's help pages would not load for us on the day of research, so it is left out of the table instead of being described from memory.

Does Mighty Networks have a free plan?

No. Mighty Networks lists no free plan on its pricing page. It offers a 14-day free trial of the Growth Plan with no credit card required. The cheapest paid plan documented in its help center is Explore at $35 a month, or $29 a month paid annually, with a 5% transaction fee. The first plan with courses is Launch at $95 a month.

There is one wrinkle. The help center says a network whose trial lapses moves to a Free Plan with 1 host, 1 moderator, unlimited members and Spaces, one landing page and 10 GB of storage. Canceling a paid plan lands there too. It is described as a fallback state, and the pages we read do not say a new host can choose it as an ongoing plan, so do not plan a community around it. The paid tiers are set out in the Mighty Networks pricing breakdown.

Platforms that only offer a free trial

Skool at $9 is the nearest thing to free among the purpose-built community products. On paid memberships its 10% fee soon outweighs the low subscription.

What a free community platform costs you instead

• History. Slack's Free plan keeps 90 days of messages searchable, and its pricing page says free workspaces delete data after one year. A community that relies on old answers loses them.
• A share of income. Patreon takes 10%. Discord takes a 10% platform fee plus 6% payment processing on server subscriptions bought on desktop or in a browser.
• Your time. Self-hosted Discourse has no license cost, but you run the server, updates and backups.
• Structure. Ten categories on the Discourse free plan is enough for a club, tight for an association with chapters.
• Courses and events. None of the four free options lists a course builder on the pages we read. On Discourse, events are listed on the $500 Business plan.

Free tools also differ in how much member data you can take with you. Check that before you grow, using the exit plan checklist.

Which free option suits which community

• A discussion-heavy club or open source project: Discourse free hosted plan. Threads stay organized and readable for years.
• A working group that chats daily and does not need old messages: Slack Free.
• A hobby or gaming community that wants voice and live chat: Discord.
• A creator with fans but no paying members yet: Patreon, since nothing is owed until someone pays.
• A group that already works in a Facebook group: staying put is a legitimate choice. The case for not moving sets out when.

When paying for a community platform is worth it

Paying makes sense when a free tool blocks something the community needs every week. The common triggers are running courses, charging members without losing 10%, exporting a member list with email addresses, and getting everything into one phone app. At that point the realistic step up is Skool at $9, Heartbeat at $49 or Mighty Networks at $95 a month. The side-by-side is on the best community platforms page. Prices and limits were read on 3 October 2026 and can change.