An honest comparison: ShareCraft vs the alternative community platforms

If you run a community of practice, you have probably looked at Circle, Mighty Networks, Hivebrite or Discourse. They are good tools, and plenty of communities do well on them. So here is a straight comparison: where ShareCraft overlaps with them, where they are stronger, and the one thing they are not built to do.

Many communities don't start on a purpose-built platform. They piece one together from tools that were made for something else: a Facebook group because members are already there, a Mailchimp list for newsletters, Slack or Microsoft Teams for real-time chat, and Basecamp to run projects. Each does its own job well. But discussion ends up scattered across all of them, nothing is easy to find later, and no one tool holds the community's knowledge or its practices. We left these four out of the comparison because they aren't community platforms. For many communities they are the patchwork a platform like ShareCraft replaces. For this comparison, we’ll focus on the purpose built community platforms.

Where we overlap

The basics of running a community are covered on all five platforms:

•     Searchable conversations. Threaded discussion, so a good answer from last year is still there next year.

•     Member directory. A clear directory of who is in the community and what they work on.

•     Events. Sessions, registration and reminders, so your regular catch-ups run themselves.

If this is all your community needs, any of these platforms will do the job.

Where they are stronger

If your community runs on live video, a native app or a long list of integrations, the platforms below do those things better today.

•     Native apps and live video. Circle, Mighty Networks and Hivebrite all have app-store apps, and most offer live streaming. ShareCraft runs as a mobile web app, and live video is not part of it today.

•     Courses as a business. If selling courses is the main point of your community, Circle and Mighty Networks are built around it. On ShareCraft, training sits alongside a practice rather than being the product.

•     Integrations. Circle, Hivebrite and Discourse connect to more tools out of the box.

What ShareCraft does best

Community platforms are built around the conversation. ShareCraft is built around the practice the conversation is about, so what works can be passed on faithfully. ShareCraft is built for the social sector in Australia, with knowledge-sharing tools for non-profits, public sector organisations and communities of practice.

•     The practice lives with the community. Your method is documented as a Field Guide attached to the community, so members open the current version on their phone, filtered to their role, instead of hunting through old threads.

•     Cases become know-how. Members write up real cases in a structured Case Book, with video if they like. What worked, and what to watch for. These real-life experiences bring the work to life.

•     Practice that becomes best practice. When your practice is ready, you can share or license it to other organisations across the sector, monetising your work and spreading its relevance.

And it is built right here: made for the Australian social sector, with data hosted in Australia.

Which one is right for you?

To choose the best platform among Circle, Mighty Networks, Hivebrite, ShareCraft, and Discourse, you need to evaluate them based on your target audience, technical capacity, and community purpose:

•     Choose Circle or Mighty Networks if your community is built around courses, live sessions and a paid membership.

•     Choose Hivebrite if you are a large association or alumni network with the budget for a full membership system.

•     Choose Discourse if you want an open, discussion-first forum and have the technical help to run it.

•     Choose ShareCraft if your community exists to improve how the work gets done, and you want what it learns to last and to reach the people who need it. Communities of up to 25 members are free on ShareCraft.

Book a demo and we'll walk you through a live community and the practice it’s sharing.