Which method is better to create a community for a website? Code your own like PH or using Discord?

Question

We launched our website Aiswers.com recently. Currently, we use discord as community. The good thing is that it's easy and fast deploy, but the shortcoming are obvious as well that user has to register and download discord to talk to others. Also the community content aren't displayed within the website and not SEO friendly.

So what do you think about it? Which method is better?

murph · Accepted Answer

I think bootstrapping an active community from scratch on any new platform is suppper hard these days, so like the tradeoff of bolting on an existing service like Discord.

I would look at using telegram or whatsapp as a base too.. depending on your niche,  more likely the user is on one of those apps already.

Allan · Answer

@duffdevone True, I see most new products uses discord. It's probably because the benefit can't cover the cost.

Two Heads · Answer

I think growing a community on (communication) tools that people already use would be much easier. So maybe look into WhatsApp? Or indeed create your own so you can display community posts on your website, social media, etc.

Matthew Aaron Clarke · Answer

I think it depends on your goals and resources. Building your own community platform integrated with your site can be great for SEO and keeping users engaged on your domain. But it requires significant dev work to get the features and experience right. Using Discord is much easier to get started and leverages an existing active user base, but has the drawbacks you mentioned. If SEO and site integration are key priorities, coding your own is probably better long-term. But if you want to build community ASAP and iterate from there, Discord is a solid choice. You could even start with Discord and then later transition to your own solution once you have some community traction.

Two Heads · Answer

@allan_ryl it’s word a shot, as pretty much everyone has whatsapp, not discord

murph · Answer

@allan_ryl for sure. plus for certain niches (eg. web3, gaming) your target market is already hanging out on discord.

Which method is better to create a community for a website? Code your own like PH or using Discord?

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