Index › Customer › September 2026 Edition

Community platforms

Asked as “customer community platform”, and as “online community software for customers”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Higher Logic Vanilla and Bettermode

Contested

23% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

Small business

Circle31%ContestedStanding →Mid-market

Higher Logic Vanilla23%ContestedThis page Enterprise

Higher Logic Vanilla38%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

Higher Logic Vanilla20%45accepted challenger

Bettermode20%40accepted challenger

Circle23%43accepted challenger

Discourse11%37accepted challenger

Discord14%14accepted challenger

Gainsight Customer Communities6%33accepted challenger

Facebook Groups27%11criticized challenger

Skool20%10accepted challenger

Mighty Networks35%23criticized challenger

Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Khoros43%14criticized challenger

Salesforce Experience Cloud29%31criticized challenger

Khoros Communities20%20accepted challenger

Influitive7%14accepted challenger

Zendesk Community4%24accepted challenger

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Head to head

Higher Logic Vanilla vs Bettermode Higher Logic Vanilla vs Circle Bettermode vs Circle

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default

Negative label rate →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%

Key

Higher Logic Vanilla23%

Bettermode23%

Circle15%

Discourse13%

Discord11%

Gainsight Customer Communities6%

Facebook Groups2%

Skool2%

Mighty Networks2%

Zendesk Community0%

Influitive0%

Khoros Communities0%

Salesforce Experience Cloud0%

Khoros0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.

Higher Logic Vanilla

20%

9 of 45 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“The open-source **Vanilla Forums** is effectively abandoned, so avoid that specific variant.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

Bettermode

20%

8 of 40 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative

“eliminated its free plan and raised prices to $399+/month. No longer budget-friendly.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

Circle

23%

10 of 43 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“Avoid Creator-First Platforms (e.g., Circle, Mighty Networks, Skool)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt

Mighty Networks

35%

8 of 23 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative

“Most complaints center on **billing, support, and UX**... **Mighty Networks** for billing/support friction” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 168 links across 70 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

higherlogic.com

vendor site · Higher Logic10 answers · 11 citations · 3 models

cxtoday.com

8 answers · 10 citations · 2 models

gartner.com

vendor site · Gartner8 answers · 8 citations · 2 models

bettermode.com

vendor site · Bettermode7 answers · 10 citations · 2 models

guideflow.com

vendor site · Guideflow7 answers · 10 citations · 2 models

circle.so

vendor site · Circle4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

zendesk.com

vendor site · Zendesk4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

learn.g2.com

4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

thecmo.com

4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

toolradar.com

4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

zendikt.com

4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

g2.com

3 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

cxtoday.com/community-social-engagement/customer-community-platforms-2026

8 answers · 2 models

gartner.com/reviews/market/b2b-customer-community-platforms

8 answers · 2 models

guideflow.com/blog/customer-community-software

7 answers · 2 models

higherlogic.com/blog/online-community-software

6 answers · 2 models

bettermode.com/blog/all-in-one-community-platform

5 answers · 2 models

thecmo.com/tools/customer-community-software

4 answers · 2 models

zendikt.com/top-10-community-software

4 answers · 1 model

circle.so/blog/best-community-platforms

3 answers · 2 models

gitnux.org/best/customer-community-software

3 answers · 1 model

learn.g2.com/best-online-community-management-software

3 answers · 1 model

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.

ModelDirect“What is the best customer community platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which online community software for customers would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top customer community platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer community platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer community platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which customer community platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5Bettermode

Four alternatives

Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Zendesk Community

Higher Logic VanillaChanged

Three alternatives

Bettermode, Circle, Khoros Communities

no first choiceDiscord

Five alternatives

Circle, Discourse, Facebook Groups, Mighty Networks, Slack

no first choicenothing named

GPT-5.4 miniHigher Logic Vanilla

Two alternatives

Gainsight Customer Communities, Khoros Communities

Gainsight Customer CommunitiesChanged

Three alternatives

Discourse, Influitive, Khoros Communities

no first choiceCircle

Two alternatives

Discord, Facebook Groups

against: Bettermodeno first choiceagainst: Salesforce Experience Cloud

Gemini 3.5 FlashBettermode

Three alternatives

Discourse, Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla

against: Circle, Khoros, Mighty Networks, Salesforce Experience Cloud, SkoolGainsight Customer CommunitiesChanged

Three alternatives

Bettermode, Discourse, Higher Logic Vanilla

Bettermode, Circle, Discourse, Hivebrite

Five alternatives

Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla, Khoros, Mighty Networks, Salesforce Experience Cloud

Discourse

Five alternatives

BuddyBoss, Circle, Discord, Flarum, Skool

against: Bettermode, KhorosBettermode

Three alternatives

Circle, Discourse, Gainsight Customer Communities

against: Higher Logic Vanilla, Salesforce Experience Cloudagainst: Bettermode, Custom-Built React/HTML Portals, Khoros Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud

Perplexity SonarBettermode

Two alternatives

Circle, Gainsight Customer Communities

against: Higher Logic VanillaBettermodeHeld

Three alternatives

Circle, Discourse, Higher Logic Vanilla

no first choiceDiscord, Discourseagainst: Circle, Mighty Networksno first choiceagainst: Bettermode, Circle, Discord, Facebook Groups, Khoros, LinkedIn Groups, Mighty Networks, Reddit Communities, Salesforce Community Cloud, Slack, Telegram

Grok 4.1 FastHigher Logic Vanilla

Two alternatives

Bettermode, Gainsight Customer Communities

against: DiscourseHigher Logic VanillaHeld

Three alternatives

Bettermode, Gainsight Customer Communities, Zendesk Community

against: KhorosGainsight Customer Communities

Four alternatives

Higher Logic Vanilla, Khoros Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

Discourse

Two alternatives

Discord, Facebook Groups

against: Circle, Mighty Networks, Vanillano first choice

Three alternatives

Gainsight, Higher Logic Vanilla, Khoros

against: Discourse, Flarum, Higher Logic Vanilla, Khoros, MyBB, Salesforce Experience Cloud, phpBB

Mistral SmallBettermode

Two alternatives

Discourse, Jatra

against: Circle, Gainsight inSided, Vanilla ForumsBettermodeHeld

Five alternatives

Circle, Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

Gainsight Customer Communities

Nine alternatives

Circle, Discourse, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Khoros Communities, Mighty Networks, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Vanilla Forums, Zendesk Community

Discord, Mighty Networks

Three alternatives

Circle, Facebook Groups, Self-Hosted Discourse

no first choiceagainst: Bettermode, Circle, Discord, Higher Logic Vanilla, Mighty Networks, Skool

DeepSeek V4 FlashHigher Logic Vanilla

Four alternatives

Bettermode, Gainsight Customer Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

against: Circle, Mighty NetworksBettermodeChanged

Two alternatives

Circle, Higher Logic Vanilla

against: Discourse, Gainsight Customer Communities, Salesforce Experience CloudGainsight Customer Communities

Seven alternatives

Bettermode, Circle, Discourse, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Mighty Networks, Zendesk Community

against: Khoros Communities, Salesforce Experience CloudCircle

Five alternatives

Discord, Discourse, Facebook Groups, GroupApp, Skool

against: Bettermode, Disciple, Higher Logic Vanillano first choice

Six alternatives

Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Khoros Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

against: Circle, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Khoros Communities, Mighty Networks, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Vanilla Forums

Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceBettermode, Higher Logic VanillaChangedno first choiceDiscord

Two alternatives

Facebook Groups, Slack

no first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashCircle

Four alternatives

Discourse, Guru, Microsoft Viva Topics & Teams, Salesforce Communities

Circle, DiscourseChanged

Two alternatives

Hive, InvisionPlus

against: KhorosGainsight Customer Communities

Five alternatives

Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Khoros Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

GroupApp, Skool

One alternative

Discord

against: Facebook Groupsno first choiceagainst: Axero, Disco, Higher Logic Vanilla, Zapnito

Kimi K2Higher Logic Vanilla

Three alternatives

Bettermode, Circle, Salesforce Experience Cloud

against: Gainsight Customer CommunitiesBettermode, CircleChanged

Three alternatives

Discourse, Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla

no first choiceCircle, Discourse

Six alternatives

Chatwoot, Discord, Facebook Groups, FreeScout, Rocket.Chat, Skool

Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla

Two alternatives

Circle, Zendesk Community

against: Bettermode, Circle, Facebook Groups, Higher Logic Vanilla, Khoros Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Slack/Discord for Communities

GLM 4.7 FlashXHigher Logic Vanilla

Four alternatives

Bettermode, Gainsight Customer Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

Higher Logic VanillaHeld

Four alternatives

Gainsight Customer Communities, Hivebrite, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

Discourse

Seven alternatives

Bettermode, Circle, Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Mighty Networks, Zendesk Community

Discord, Facebook Groups

Four alternatives

Bettermode, Discourse, Skool, Slack

no first choiceagainst: Bettermode, Circle, Discourse, Flarum, Gainsight, HubSpot Communities, Mighty Networks, NodeBB, Salesforce Communities, Zendesk Community

MiniMax M2.5Circle, Higher Logic Vanilla

Two alternatives

Bettermode, Salesforce Experience Cloud

BettermodeChanged

Three alternatives

Circle, Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla

Gainsight Customer Communities

Eight alternatives

Bettermode, Circle, Discourse, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Khoros Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

Discourse

Two alternatives

Bettermode, Circle

no first choice

Five alternatives

Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla, Khoros, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community

against: Axero, Higher Logic Vanilla, Zapnito

Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:03	yes	8	9 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 00:22	yes	4	9 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-14 23:44	yes	17	27 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 01:34	yes	20	5 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:00	yes	0	10 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 04:17	yes	0	11 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 05:07	yes	0	25 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 03:32	yes	0	1 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 00:14	no	0	41 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-14 23:52	yes	0	33 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 03:36	yes	0	64 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 02:55	yes	0	18 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 04:30	yes	15	9 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 03:27	yes	3	4 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-14 23:03	yes	11	23 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 00:31	yes	20	6 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-14 23:56	yes	0	8 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 04:16	yes	0	8 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 04:06	yes	0	20 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 05:05	yes	0	2 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 01:19	no	0	38 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 02:59	yes	0	36 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 02:27	yes	0	191 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 04:23	yes	0	20 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 02:40	yes	7	7 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 04:18	yes	4	10 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:07	yes	21	22 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 03:55	yes	20	7 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 03:13	yes	0	9 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 02:19	yes	0	8 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 04:56	yes	0	20 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 02:04	yes	0	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 03:53	yes	0	30 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:20	yes	0	63 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 00:56	yes	0	28 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 03:07	yes	0	31 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:16	no	0	5 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 02:16	yes	3	5 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:58	yes	16	22 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 05:04	yes	20	5 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-14 22:58	yes	0	8 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 01:06	yes	0	9 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 01:13	yes	0	15 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 00:07	yes	0	2 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 02:46	yes	0	35 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 03:55	yes	0	41 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 04:13	yes	0	30 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-14 23:15	yes	0	9 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 04:53	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 03:43	no	0	6 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-14 23:10	yes	10	26 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 01:52	yes	20	7 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 04:19	yes	0	8 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 00:07	no	0	6 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-15 00:55	yes	0	45 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-14 23:02	yes	0	2 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 01:59	no	0	44 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 05:01	yes	0	48 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 03:59	yes	0	42 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 04:35	yes	0	14 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:59	no	0	2 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 05:01	yes	4	7 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 04:28	yes	21	21 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 04:42	yes	20	7 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 03:55	yes	0	8 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 02:00	yes	0	15 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 03:17	yes	0	28 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-14 23:33	yes	0	2 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 04:09	yes	0	59 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:12	yes	0	99 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-14 23:11	yes	0	43 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 04:11	yes	0	20 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings

None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.

Unresolved, counted raw

Commsor

Custom-Built React/HTML Portals

Freshworks Fan Community

Gradual

Hive (or Hive Community)

HubSpot Communities

InvisionPlus

Kustomer Community

MangoApps

NING

Slack + Bot integrations

Slack/Discord for Communities

Tiltify

Zendesk Communities

Zendesk Community/Sunshine

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Community platforms

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in customer