# Community platforms: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane 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://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/customer/community-platforms/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/customer/community-platforms/index.md

**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

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Higher Logic Vanilla](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/higher-logic-vanilla/index.md) | 23% | 21% | 48 |
| 2 | [Bettermode](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/bettermode/index.md) | 23% | 20% | 40 |
| 3 | [Circle](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/circle/index.md) | 15% | 23% | 43 |
| 4 | [Discourse](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/discourse/index.md) | 13% | 11% | 37 |
| 5 | [Discord](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/discord/index.md) | 11% | 14% | 14 |
| 6 | [Gainsight Customer Communities](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/gainsight-customer-communities/index.md) | 6% | 10% | 39 |
| 7 | [Facebook Groups](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/facebook-groups/index.md) | 2% | 27% | 11 |
| 8 | [Skool](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/skool/index.md) | 2% | 20% | 10 |
| 10 | [Mighty Networks](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mighty-networks/index.md) | 2% | 35% | 23 |
| 11 | [Zendesk Community](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/zendesk-community/index.md) | 0% | 4% | 26 |
| 12 | [Influitive](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/influitive/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 13 | [Khoros Communities](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/khoros-communities/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 34 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 64 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## 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 4.20: 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 Experience Cloud
- 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: 14 answers, 19 citations
- bettermode.com: 13 answers, 23 citations
- cxtoday.com: 10 answers, 12 citations
- guideflow.com: 9 answers, 13 citations
- gartner.com: 8 answers, 8 citations
- reddit.com: 6 answers, 10 citations
- linodash.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- standingongiants.com: 6 answers, 6 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://cxtoday.com/community-social-engagement/customer-community-platforms-2026 (10 answers)
- https://higherlogic.com/blog/online-community-software (9 answers)
- https://bettermode.com/blog/all-in-one-community-platform (8 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/b2b-customer-community-platforms (8 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/customer-community-software (7 answers)
- https://linodash.com/community-platforms (6 answers)
- https://standingongiants.com/blog/community-platform-comparison-10-leading-platforms-reviewed-2026 (6 answers)
- https://thecmo.com/tools/customer-community-software (6 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/user-community-platform (4 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-online-community-management-software (4 answers)

## Warned against

- Higher Logic Vanilla: 10 of 48 labels negative. "The open-source Vanilla Forums is effectively abandoned, so avoid that specific variant." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Salesforce Experience Cloud: 11 of 34 labels negative. "reviews specifically flag Salesforce Community Platform as widely considered outdated and difficult to customize" (Perplexity Sonar, 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)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.