Open-source membership community stack 2026

TL;DR

• Five open-source tools cover a membership community without per-member pricing: Discourse for discussion, Mattermost for chat, Mautic for member email, Castopod for a podcast, and Nextcloud for resources.

• DANIAN runs each for €9 per app, per month, flat. A five-app stack is €45 a month whether you have 200 members or 1,000.

• Circle, Mighty Networks, Skool, and Patreon scale their cost with the community — a percentage of member payments, or monthly tiers plus add-ons.

• The honest catch: this stack does not collect payments. You add a separate billing layer to charge members, and members-only access uses each app’s own permissions.

• The trade is ownership: your member data, discussion history, and content live on infrastructure you choose, exportable at any time.

Who this stack is for

This stack is for operators who have outgrown per-member math on Circle, Mighty Networks, or Skool and want to own their community data. It fits paid or free communities of roughly 100 members and up, where the cost of the hosted platform, or the percentage it takes, has started to matter.

It is not the right first move for everyone. If your community is small, or you want one polished app with a checkout built in and almost no setup, a hosted platform earns its fee. The per-member and percentage costs only start to sting once the community, and the revenue, grow. The honest test is whether you are paying more in platform fees than the work of running five focused tools would cost you.

First, the honest part: no built-in payments

None of these five tools includes a checkout or a paywall. The fees Circle, Skool, and Patreon charge pay for a built-in way to take member payments, and this stack does not replace that piece. To run a paid membership, you add a separate billing layer and gate access using each app’s own controls.

Members-only access still works, it just works differently. Discourse has groups and trust levels, Mattermost has private channels and teams, and Nextcloud has group folders and share permissions. A billing tool — a payment provider’s hosted checkout, or a membership tool — sits in front, takes the money, and adds or removes members from the right groups when a payment succeeds or lapses.

This is more moving parts than Circle’s one-click checkout, and it is fair to weigh that against the savings. What you get for the extra setup is ownership: the payment relationship, the member list, and the content are yours, and no platform can change the terms or the fee later.

The five tools and what each one does

Each tool does one job well, rather than one platform doing everything adequately. Discourse runs discussion, Mattermost runs chat, Mautic runs email, Castopod runs the podcast, and Nextcloud runs files. All five are mature open-source projects, and DANIAN operates each for the same flat €9 a month.

Discourse — the discussion home

Discourse is the discussion layer: categories, threads, trust levels, and full-text search, on software used by thousands of large communities. It is open source under the GPL-2.0 license, with around 47,000 stars on GitHub, and it stores everything in a standard PostgreSQL database you can export.

This is the tool that replaces the discussion spaces and forums inside Circle and Mighty Networks. Where those platforms give you a feed, Discourse gives you a structured forum with moderation tools and member trust levels that grow with participation. It is best for communities whose value is the conversation itself — questions, answers, and long-running threads that stay searchable.

DANIAN runs managed Discourse for €9 a month. See Discourse for community discussion for the managed setup.

Mattermost — real-time chat

Mattermost is the real-time chat layer: channels, direct messages, threads, and apps for desktop and mobile. Its core, the Team Edition, is open source under the MIT license, and it runs as a single binary on PostgreSQL. It is the part of the stack that feels like Slack or Discord, on infrastructure you control.

For a membership community, Mattermost handles the fast, informal conversation a forum is not built for — daily chat, event coordination, and small group rooms. You set up channels per topic or per tier, and members talk in real time. It suits teams, cohorts, and communities that want a chat space without per-seat fees.

Mautic — member email and onboarding

Mautic is the member-email engine: segments, drip campaigns, broadcasts, and contact scoring, with the contact list held in your own database. It is open source under the GPL-3.0 license, with around 9,000 stars on GitHub. It does the onboarding and newsletter work that hosted platforms charge extra for.

This replaces a tool like Mailchimp or ConvertKit, and it covers what Circle sells separately as its Email Hub. New members get a welcome sequence; active members get updates; lapsed members get a win-back. The honest caveat: email needs a working sending setup and good deliverability, which is the part Mautic does not do for you.

DANIAN runs managed Mautic for €9 a month. See Mautic for member email for the managed setup.

Castopod — a member podcast you own

Castopod is the podcast host: it stores your episodes, builds the RSS feed, and supports Podcasting 2.0 features like chapters, transcripts, and persons. It is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, built by Ad Aures on the CodeIgniter framework, and it keeps your show and your feed in your hands rather than a platform’s.

For a membership, this is how you run a members-only show without handing your audience to a third party. Castopod hosts the audio and the feed; to keep that feed members-only, you put it behind the same access layer that gates the rest of the stack. It replaces a private podcast feed bolted onto Patreon or a separate podcast service.

DANIAN runs managed Castopod for €9 a month. See Castopod for a member podcast for the managed setup.

Nextcloud — member resources and files

Nextcloud is the file and resource layer: shared folders, documents, share links with expiry and passwords, and an office suite, on a server you choose. It is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, with around 35,000 stars on GitHub, maintained by a German company, and it runs on more than half a million servers.

For a community, Nextcloud is where the downloads live — templates, worksheets, recordings, and member resources — replacing a shared Google Drive or the content library inside a community platform. You give each member group access to the folders they are entitled to. It is the heaviest app in the stack to run, which is a good reason to have it managed.

How the five fit together

The five tools combine into one community without one bill that scales per member. Discourse is the home for discussion, Mattermost adds real-time chat, Mautic runs onboarding email, Castopod carries a members-only podcast, and Nextcloud holds the resources. You can start with one and add the rest as the community grows.

A few combinations come up often. A course or knowledge community usually runs Discourse for discussion, Nextcloud for lesson files, and Mautic for onboarding. A creator membership often pairs Castopod for the private show with Discourse and Mautic. A team or association leans on Mattermost for chat, Nextcloud for documents, and Discourse for the slower, searchable conversations.

Each app keeps its own accounts by default. If you want members to sign in once across the apps, DANIAN offers single sign-on through SAML, OIDC, or LDAP for €30 a month. Smaller communities often start with separate logins and add single sign-on when the friction is worth removing.

What it costs at 200 and 1,000 members

At 1,000 paying members, Circle on its Professional plan with Email Hub and a 2% platform fee runs near $588 a month; the same community on five DANIAN apps stays at €45. The difference is structural. Hosted platforms take a percentage of member payments, so their cost climbs as the community grows. €9 per app does not move.

Figures assume members pay about $20 a month and exclude payment processing, which every option pays. Circle and Mighty Networks prices are the annual-billing rates from their pricing pages; monthly billing costs more.

The percentage is the part that scales. Patreon charges new creators a 10% platform fee, with legacy plans between 5% and 12%. Circle adds up to about 2% on member payments on top of its monthly tiers, and Mighty Networks charges 1% to 3% depending on plan. Skool is the exception at $99 a month flat with no platform fee beyond payment processing, though that covers one community.

Two honest notes. Payment processing, about 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, is charged by the payment provider, and every option pays it, including this stack. And the hosted price buys a built-in checkout; this stack needs a separate billing layer to charge members, which is a real cost and a real piece of setup. Even with both, the flat €9-per-app model usually stays well below the platforms once a paid community grows.

Try a single app free for 7 days, no card needed.

The five tools at a glance

Here is what each tool does, what it replaces, and who it fits. Every app is €9 a month, managed, in the region you choose from 21 datacenter locations.

How to start

Start with the one tool that removes the most friction this month, not all five at once. For most operators that is discussion or email. Deploy it, import a slice of real content or contacts, and run it beside your current platform for two weeks before you move anyone over.

If your members already live in conversation, begin with Discourse and import your current forum or export. If onboarding email is the bottleneck, begin with Mautic and bring your contact list as a CSV. If the files and recordings are scattered, begin with Nextcloud. Each app activates on a 7-day free trial with no card, so you can test the real thing before committing.

Migration is rarely instant. Member lists and contacts move cleanly as CSV files; discussion history is harder, because hosted platforms limit what you can export. Running old and new side by side for a few weeks is the honest way to switch without losing the thread.

Frequently asked questions

Cost and per-member pricing

Does this open-source stack really have no per-member pricing?

Correct. DANIAN charges €9 per app, per month, flat — the price does not change with your member count. A five-app community stack is €45 a month at 200 members or at 1,000. Hosted platforms like Circle and Mighty Networks instead take a percentage of member payments, so their cost grows as you do.

How does the cost compare to Circle at 1,000 members?

At 1,000 paying members each paying about $20 a month, Circle on its Professional plan with Email Hub and a 2% platform fee runs near $588 a month. The same community on five DANIAN apps stays at €45 a month, about $48. The gap is the percentage fee Circle takes on member revenue.

What about payment processing fees?

Payment processing, around 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, is charged by the payment provider, and every option pays it — Circle, Patreon, and a self-owned stack alike. The difference is the platform fee on top: Patreon adds 10% for new creators, Circle up to about 2%, while €9 per app adds none.

Is €9 per app cheaper than running these tools myself?

It depends on your time. The software is free to self-host, and a small server can be cheap. The recurring cost is the patching, backups, monitoring, and email deliverability work. If you have a developer who enjoys that, self-hosting wins on cash; if you do not, €9 per app is usually cheaper once your hours are counted.

Charging members and private areas

Can I charge members with this stack?

Not on its own. None of the five tools includes a checkout or paywall. To run a paid membership you add a separate billing layer — a payment provider’s hosted checkout or a membership tool — that collects money and grants access. The stack handles community, content, and email; billing is a piece you bring.

How do members-only areas work without a built-in paywall?

Each app has its own access controls. Discourse uses groups and trust levels, Mattermost uses private channels and teams, and Nextcloud uses group folders and share permissions. Your billing layer grants or revokes membership in those groups when a payment succeeds or lapses, so paid members see member areas and others do not.

Can I add a billing or membership layer later?

Yes. Because the apps are standard open-source software, you can connect a payment provider or a membership tool whenever you are ready. Many operators start with free discussion and content, validate the community, and add paid tiers later. The community data stays in place when you add the billing layer.

Owning and moving your data

Do I actually own my member data?

Yes. The member records, discussion history, email contacts, files, and podcast episodes live in standard databases and storage on infrastructure you choose. DANIAN operates the apps; the data is yours. You are not renting access to your own community, and no platform sits between you and your members.

Can I export everything if I leave DANIAN?

Yes, on demand. Each app has its own export — Discourse and Mautic export their databases, Nextcloud syncs your files, and Castopod gives you the RSS feed and media. You can download backups or move to another host. The open-source apps are yours; DANIAN only operates them for you.

Is my community isolated from other customers?

Yes. Each app runs in its own hardened, isolated container with its own resources and network boundaries. The underlying hardware is shared, which is how €9 per app works, but the boundaries between containers are real. Your discussion data and member files are not mixed with anyone else’s.

Which region is my data hosted in?

The region you choose. DANIAN runs 21 datacenter locations across six continents, and you pick the one closest to your members for each app. Latency and data location are yours to decide. If your members are in one part of the world, you can keep the apps near them.

Which tools, and how many

Do I need all five apps?

No. Most communities start with one or two and grow into the rest. A discussion-led community might run only Discourse and Nextcloud; a creator membership might pair Castopod with Mautic. At €9 per app you add tools as the need appears, rather than paying for a bundle you do not use yet.

Which tools replace Circle’s discussion and chat?

Discourse replaces the discussion spaces and forums, and Mattermost replaces the real-time chat. Together they cover what Circle and Mighty Networks bundle as community feeds and group chat. Mautic covers Circle’s Email Hub, and Nextcloud covers the file and content library. Each is a focused tool rather than one shared feed.

Can my members use one login across the apps?

Yes, with single sign-on. DANIAN offers SSO through SAML, OIDC, or LDAP as a €30 per month add-on, so members sign in once across the apps. Without it, each app keeps its own accounts. For a smaller community, separate logins are often fine to start; add SSO when the friction grows.

Is this stack overkill for a small community?

It can be. If you have fewer than about 100 members, or you want one app with a checkout built in and no setup, a hosted platform is the simpler choice. The open-source stack pays off once the per-member or percentage cost grows and owning your data starts to matter more than convenience.

Can I run a members-only podcast?

Yes, with Castopod plus your access layer. Castopod hosts the show, the episodes, and the RSS feed you own, with Podcasting 2.0 features like chapters and transcripts. To keep a feed members-only, you put it behind your billing or access layer, the same piece that gates the rest of the stack.

Running it and switching over

Who patches and backs up these apps?

DANIAN does. The €9 per app covers patching, daily off-site backups, monitoring, and security updates, with a human on chat when you need one. You do not run the server or the upgrade cycle. That is the difference between self-hosting the free software and paying for it to be operated.

How hard is it to migrate from Circle or Mighty Networks?

It varies by tool. Member lists and email contacts export as CSV and import into Mautic and Discourse. Discussion history is the trickier part, since hosted platforms limit content export. The honest approach is to run the new stack beside the old platform for a few weeks before moving everyone over.

What happens to my community if a payment fails?

DANIAN does not delete your data on a failed payment. If a card fails, the apps keep running while you sort it out, and a human will reach out. Your member data and content are not held hostage to a billing hiccup, which is a real risk on platforms that gate access by subscription.

Do I get help if something breaks?

Yes. DANIAN runs 24/7 chat and email, and a named person replies rather than a queue. The 7-day free trial is the best way to test the support before you commit — message during the trial and see how fast a real human answers. There is no card required to begin.

What to do this week

Pick the single tool that is costing you the most in fees or friction, and start a trial. If you are paying a percentage of member revenue to a platform, that number grows every time the community does; a flat €9 per app does not. Owning the data is the larger point, but the math is the reason most operators look.

Be clear-eyed about the trade. You are taking on a billing layer the platforms include, in exchange for owning your member data, your discussion history, and your content outright. For a growing paid community, that trade usually pays for itself.

Pick one app and start a 7-day trial. A human is on chat if you get stuck.