Article · About a 10 minute read

Learnings from running communities on Slack, Discord and WhatsApp

Adithya Narayanan · Medium Free Beginner

This is written by a founder who actually ran three different communities on three different platforms and picked each one for a specific reason, not from a features chart. His two-question test (what are your users already comfortable with, and what kind of discussion do you need) maps directly onto the WhatsApp vs Slack vs Discord call. WhatsApp being his default for a low-friction group also lands well for an Indian audience where WhatsApp is where people already are.

• Pick on two things: what your users are already comfortable with, and what the content or discussion actually needs (channels, breakouts, threads).
• WhatsApp wins when you need no fancy features and want the lowest friction for members; Slack and Discord earn their place only when the discussion structure demands it.
• The platform is the easy part. Active curation, moderation, and recurring events are what keep a community alive, not the tool you chose.