Best Bettermode Alternatives in 2026 (Top 10 Competitors Compared)

1. Turf: Best overall Bettermode alternative for SaaS/tech companies

Best for: SaaS and software companies that want one “customer hub” that drives engagement and measurable outcomes that they can embed in their own application.

Turf is built specifically for SaaS companies, with an emphasis on reducing support costs and churn through higher community usage (not just “having a forum”).

What makes Turf different vs Bettermode:

• Centralize customer-facing modules in one place: community forums + knowledge base/help center, product feedback & ideation, changelog/roadmap communication, academy/courses, and events.

• Embed your community into your SaaS app so customers participate where they already are (instead of hoping they visit a separate site).

• Focus on business impact and engagement drivers that correlate with support deflection and retention.

If you’re switching from Bettermode, Turf is usually the cleanest upgrade path.

2. Discourse: Best open-source alternative (forums-first)

Best for: Teams that want a powerful forum and are comfortable with configuration, hosting, and plugins.

Discourse is widely known as a strong forum product with a rich editor and robust discussion structure. It’s a great choice if your “community” is primarily discussion threads and you have internal resources to build it out.

Trade-offs: You may need additional tools (or custom work) to match a complete “customer hub” approach (feedback, roadmap, academy, etc.) that some SaaS teams want centralized.

3. Gainsight Customer Communities: Best CS suite integration

Best for: Organizations that need a full customer community program inside their customer success suite.

Gainsight Customer Communities is positioned for enterprise communities and commonly focuses on engagement + support + retention programs.

Trade-offs: Pricing is typically not transparent and tends to be enterprise-oriented. You also likely need to set up third-party analytics tracking to be able to report on business impact.

4. Higher Logic (Vanilla): Best for non tech enterprise communities

Best for: Big legacy enterprise communities that are not SaaS companies.

Higher Logic mostly works with non tech enterprises that do not need state of the art implementations, in-app embedding, in-depth business impact analytics, and just want to enable a forum for their customer bases.

Trade-offs: Enterprise suites can be heavier to implement and may require more admin overhead. If you are a tech company you are better off choosing a vendor that has in-app embedding and business impact analytics suites tailored to what tech companies need to report on.

5. Khoros: No go!

Khoros customers have recently reported that Khoros is shutting down their community platform. Customers reported that they can't get support anymore or access their data. Most customers seem to be migrating away to other platforms.

6. Influitive: Best for customer advocacy + gamification

Best for: Advocacy programs (referrals, champions, rewards) and engagement via gamification.

Influitive is positioned around advocacy and is often highlighted for gamification-style engagement mechanics. If your goal is “turn customers into champions,” Influitive is a strong Bettermode alternative.

Trade-offs: It’s more specialized (advocacy) than a general-purpose community hub.

7. Circle: Best for creator/learning use cases

Best for: Branded communities with groups, directories, and messaging that are often creator-led or cohort-based communities.

Circle is frequently listed among Bettermode alternatives and is especially common in thought leader communities, courses, and other learning use cases.

Trade-offs: Circle is great for thought leaders or influencers. If you need a deeply integrated SaaS customer hub (in-app + feedback + KB + analytics), you may want something more purpose-built for SaaS.

8. Mighty Networks: Best for courses + community bundles

Best for: Creators where communities with courses, memberships, and events are core (often creator-led).

Mighty Networks is commonly included as a Bettermode alternative for creators. It’s great if your “community” looks like a membership product.

Trade-offs: Many SaaS customer community teams need in-app embedding, business impact analytics, and other customer modules (e.g. knowledge base & product feedback boards) than creator platforms typically prioritize.

9. Hivebrite: Best for alumni networks / member orgs

Best for: Alumni communities, professional networks, and membership organizations.

Hivebrite tailors more to alumni networks and membership organizations, particularly where networking + directories + organization structure matter.

Trade-offs: If you are building a customer community environment this likely is not the way to go. If you are an alumni network or membership organization on the other hand, definitely check out Hivebrite.

10. Tradewing: Best for associations and structured member engagement

Best for: Associations and membership orgs needing community + events + email + site builder.

Tradewing’s positions itself toward association-style use cases (member management, events, website builder, email marketing) much like Hivebrite.

Trade-offs: If you are building a customer community environment this likely is not the way to go. If you are an association, alumni network or membership organization on the other hand, definitely check out Tradewing.