# Community platforms: what AI models recommend, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "customer community platform" and as "online community software for customers", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/customer/community-platforms/

**Standing:** Higher Logic Vanilla (tied with Bettermode) leads with 23% of first choices; verdict contested. 47 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Higher Logic Vanilla | 23% | 20% | 45 |
| 2 | Bettermode | 23% | 20% | 40 |
| 3 | Circle | 15% | 23% | 43 |
| 4 | Discourse | 13% | 11% | 37 |
| 5 | Discord | 11% | 14% | 14 |
| 6 | Gainsight Customer Communities | 6% | 6% | 33 |
| 7 | Facebook Groups | 2% | 27% | 11 |
| 8 | Skool | 2% | 20% | 10 |
| 9 | Mighty Networks | 2% | 35% | 23 |
| 10 | Zendesk Community | 0% | 4% | 24 |
| 11 | Influitive | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 12 | Khoros Communities | 0% | 20% | 20 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Bettermode; alternatives Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla, Influitive, Zendesk Community
- GPT-5.4 mini: Higher Logic Vanilla; alternatives Gainsight Customer Communities, Khoros Communities
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Bettermode; alternatives Discourse, Gainsight Customer Communities, Higher Logic Vanilla
- Perplexity Sonar: Bettermode; alternatives Circle, Gainsight Customer Communities
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Higher Logic Vanilla; alternatives Bettermode, Gainsight Customer Communities
- Mistral Small: Bettermode; alternatives Discourse, Jatra
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Higher Logic Vanilla; alternatives Bettermode, Gainsight Customer Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Circle; alternatives Discourse, Guru, Microsoft Viva Topics & Teams, Salesforce Communities
- Kimi K2: Higher Logic Vanilla; alternatives Bettermode, Circle, Salesforce Experience Cloud
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Higher Logic Vanilla; alternatives Bettermode, Gainsight Customer Communities, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Zendesk Community
- MiniMax M2.5: Circle, Higher Logic Vanilla; alternatives Bettermode, Salesforce Experience Cloud

## Sources the answers cite

20 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- higherlogic.com: 10 answers, 11 citations
- cxtoday.com: 8 answers, 10 citations
- gartner.com: 8 answers, 8 citations
- bettermode.com: 7 answers, 10 citations
- guideflow.com: 7 answers, 10 citations
- circle.so: 4 answers, 5 citations
- zendesk.com: 4 answers, 5 citations
- learn.g2.com: 4 answers, 4 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://cxtoday.com/community-social-engagement/customer-community-platforms-2026 (8 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/b2b-customer-community-platforms (8 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/customer-community-software (7 answers)
- https://higherlogic.com/blog/online-community-software (6 answers)
- https://bettermode.com/blog/all-in-one-community-platform (5 answers)
- https://thecmo.com/tools/customer-community-software (4 answers)
- https://zendikt.com/top-10-community-software (4 answers)
- https://circle.so/blog/best-community-platforms (3 answers)
- https://gitnux.org/best/customer-community-software (3 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-online-community-management-software (3 answers)

## Warned against

- Higher Logic Vanilla: 9 of 45 labels negative. "The open-source Vanilla Forums is effectively abandoned, so avoid that specific variant." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Bettermode: 8 of 40 labels negative. "eliminated its free plan and raised prices to $399+/month. No longer budget-friendly." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Circle: 10 of 43 labels negative. "Avoid Creator-First Platforms (e.g., Circle, Mighty Networks, Skool)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt)
- Mighty Networks: 8 of 23 labels negative. "Most complaints center on billing, support, and UX... Mighty Networks for billing/support friction" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://gtm-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://gtm-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, gtm-ai-index.com.