Groups & communities

Want to gather a group, run a club or find people who share an interest? These are all free to start and use. They come in two shapes — fast, live chat spaces and slower, searchable threaded ones — so pick by how your community likes to talk.

Live chat communities

• Discord — free servers with voice, video and text channels; the go-to for gaming and interest communities.
• Element / Matrix — free, encrypted, open community rooms that no single company controls.
• Telegram — free groups and broadcast channels that scale to very large audiences.
• WhatsApp Communities — free, for organising related group chats (clubs, schools, neighbourhoods).

Forums & threaded discussion

• Reddit — free public forums for almost every topic imaginable.
• Mastodon — free, open communities you can join or host, without ads or algorithms.
• Facebook Groups — free groups for local and interest communities, if your people are already there.
• Running your own board? Free, open-source forum software like Discourse or phpBB lets you host a community you fully control.

All free and legal, and not affiliated with this page.