In partnership with
Read time: 3 minutes.
Welcome to the 257th edition of The Growth Elements Newsletter. Every Monday and sometimes on Thursday, I write an essay on growth metrics & experiments and business case studies.
Today’s piece is for 8,000+ founders, operators, and leaders from businesses such as Shopify, Hubspot, Zoho, Freshworks, Chargebee, Servcorp, Zomato, Postman, and Razorpay.
Today’s The Growth Elements (TGE) is brought to you by:
How Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads
For its first CTV campaign, Jennifer Aniston’s DTC haircare brand LolaVie had a few non-negotiables. The campaign had to be simple. It had to demonstrate measurable impact. And it had to be full-funnel.
LolaVie used Roku Ads Manager to test and optimize creatives — reaching millions of potential customers at all stages of their purchase journeys. Roku Ads Manager helped the brand convey LolaVie’s playful voice while helping drive omnichannel sales across both ecommerce and retail touchpoints.
The campaign included an Action Ad overlay that let viewers shop directly from their TVs by clicking OK on their Roku remote. This guided them to the website to buy LolaVie products.
Discover how Roku Ads Manager helped LolaVie drive big sales and customer growth with self-serve TV ads.
The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Aniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, who keep this newsletter free.
Community-Led Growth or CLG became the retention engine of Product-Led Growth (PLG) SaaS in 2026. HubSpot, Notion, Webflow, and Figma all lean on community for compounding retention, expansion, and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) citation ground.
The community platform you pick decides how much of that compounding you capture.
Here are the top 5 community platforms running real Business-to-Business (B2B) SaaS communities in 2026.
What should you look for in a community platform in 2026?
A community platform in 2026 should solve six things:
Threaded discussions with member profiles
Native events (live and asynchronous)
Courses and gated content for tiered access
Native integration with your CRM from the top 5 CRM tools for B2B SaaS in 2026
Product analytics tools from the top 5 product analytics tools for 2026
SEO plus AEO discoverability so community threads become citation-ready content.
Selection criteria to apply:
Discussion structure:
Threaded conversations, categories, member profiles, moderation tools.
Events and courses:
Native live events, replays, gated content, cohort courses.
CRM and product analytics integration:
Sync member activity into CRM and product analytics.
Discoverability:
Public threads indexable by Google and citable by Google AI Overviews (AIO).
Pricing model:
Per-member, per-community, or flat-fee. Predictable at scale.
The top 5 community platforms for 2026
[1] Circle
Best all-around community platform for B2B SaaS.
Circle is the community platform of record for B2B SaaS. Native discussions, live events, cohort courses, gated content, and a member directory. Used by Adobe, Notion, Shopify, and thousands of B2B SaaS communities.
Key features: Threaded discussions, live events, courses, chat, member directory, gamification, native integrations with Zapier, Circle API, custom domain.
Pricing: See current pricing at circle.so/pricing. Tiered plans scale with members and features.
Best for: B2B SaaS at Series A through enterprise wanting a polished community with courses and events.
Notable use case: Used by Adobe, Notion, Shopify, and Pat Flynn's SPI Pro community.
My take: Circle is the safe pick for most B2B SaaS teams. Right when community becomes an intentional growth motion, not a side project.
[2] Bettermode
Best enterprise community platform with white-label design.
Bettermode (formerly Tribe) is the enterprise community platform for B2B SaaS wanting full white-label customization, Single Sign-On (SSO), and deep API access. Community as an embedded product experience, not a standalone site.
Key features: Fully white-label, SSO and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), custom domains, API access, native embed in-product, gamification, moderation tools.
Pricing: See current pricing at bettermode.com/pricing. Tiered plans scale with members and features.
Best for: Enterprise B2B SaaS wanting community embedded natively inside their product with SSO.
Notable use case: Used by HP, Fujitsu, and enterprise B2B SaaS with custom community requirements.
My take: Bettermode is the enterprise choice. Right when the community needs to live inside the product with SSO and full brand control.
[3] Discord
Best real-time community for developer and creator brands.
Discord is the real-time community platform of choice for developer, creator, and gaming-adjacent B2B SaaS brands. Native voice and video channels, threads, custom bots, and roles. Every major open-source project, developer tools company, and creator brand runs a Discord.
Key features: Real-time chat, voice and video channels, threads, custom bots, roles and permissions, forum channels, unlimited members on free tier.
Pricing: Free for community use. Discord Nitro at $9.99 monthly for individual features. Server boosts optional.
Best for: Developer tools, open-source projects, creator brands, and PLG SaaS wanting real-time community engagement.
Notable use case: Used by Vercel, Supabase, MidJourney, and thousands of developer tools.
My take: Discord is the developer-brand default. Right when the community wants real-time interaction and a lower bar to join. Trade-off is lower Search Engine Optimization discoverability than Circle or Bettermode.
Best community platform for professional networks.
Slack as a community platform is the default choice for professional networks, industry cohorts, and paid mastermind communities. Members already live in Slack for work, so join friction is near zero. Native channels, threads, and integrations.
Key features: Channels, threads, huddles, canvases, integrations with 2,000+ tools, member directory, custom emoji, workflow builder.
Pricing: Free plan available with 90-day message history. Paid plans scale with members. See current pricing at slack.com/pricing.
Best for: Professional networks, industry cohorts, paid mastermind communities, and B2B SaaS with technical buyer audiences.
Notable use case: Used by Product-Led Growth Collective, RevGenius, and hundreds of professional communities.
My take: Slack Communities is the professional-network default. Trade-off is limited discoverability (private by default) and 90-day free-tier message history caps.
[5] Mighty Networks
Best community platform for creator and course brands.
Mighty Networks is the community platform for creator brands, cohort courses, and Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) tribes wanting community plus courses plus commerce in one platform. Native native app under the community's own brand.
Key features: Discussions, live events, courses, native mobile apps under the community's own brand, monetization (subscriptions, one-time payments), member directory.
Pricing: See current pricing at mightynetworks.com/pricing. Tiered plans scale with members and features.
Best for: Creator brands, cohort courses, DTC tribes wanting native mobile apps with community plus commerce built in.
Notable use case: Used by Marie Forleo, Adriene Mishler (Yoga With Adriene), and creator brands.
My take: Mighty Networks is the creator-brand pick. Right when the community wants a branded mobile app and native monetization built in.
How to choose the right community platform for your team
Match the tool to community motion (B2B SaaS retention versus developer brand versus professional network versus creator brand).
Most B2B SaaS choose Circle.
Enterprise chooses Bettermode.
Developer brands choose Discord.
Professional networks choose Slack Communities.
Creator brands choose Mighty Networks.
Decision framework:
B2B SaaS at Series A through growth stage wanting a polished community: Circle
Enterprise B2B SaaS needing SSO and in-product embed: Bettermode
Developer tool or open-source project wanting real-time interaction: Discord
Professional network or paid mastermind for technical buyers: Slack Communities
Creator brand or cohort course wanting native mobile plus commerce: Mighty Networks
Community data pairs with retention analytics from the top 5 product analytics tools for 2026, and community threads become AEO citation ground covered in AEO Playbook Part 7: how to drive third-party mentions and brand consensus.
Final Words
[1] Pick one platform and commit for 12 months. Community platform churn destroys the compounding effect. Migration destroys 30 to 50% of active members. Decide once and stick.
[2] Public threads are AEO ground, private threads are retention ground. If your motion is AEO citation, choose Circle or Bettermode with public categories. If your motion is pure retention, private Slack or Discord works.
[3] Instrument member activity in the CRM from day one. Community engagement is the single strongest expansion signal in B2B SaaS. Track it or lose it.
That's it for today's article! I hope you found this essay insightful.
Wishing you a productive week ahead!
I always appreciate you reading.
Thanks,
Chintankumar Maisuria
