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Compare · MemBuild Community vs FluentCommunity

Both are free. Only one of them ships the leaderboard and chats in the free version.

FluentCommunity is the modern challenger: fast, its own app, Pro at $199 a year or $399 for life. Its free core switches off the leaderboard, chat, followers and more. MemBuild Community ships those free. Here is the honest side by side, including the things Fluent does better.

Download MemBuild Community (free)See the demo →
FluentCommunity
The modern challenger, from the FluentCRM family.
For a community that wants spaces, polls, digests and deep FluentCRM automation, inside the Fluent ecosystem (FluentCart, FluentCRM, FluentMessaging), and is happy to pay for Pro to get the leaderboard and chat.
free core · Pro $199/yr (1 site) or $399 lifetime · 5 and 15-site tiers
MemBuild Community
Free. The day-one basics included.
For a membership that wants levels, a leaderboard, chats, stories and reels without a Pro tier, and that would rather plug into whatever membership, shop or CRM plugin it already runs.
free · GPL · no member cap · no fee on payments
Side by side

What you get, and what you pay for it.

 
FluentCommunity
MemBuild Community
Price
FluentCommunityFree core. Pro $199/yr for one site ($159 first-year promo), $399 lifetime; 5-site and 15-site tiers up to $1,599 lifetime.
MemBuild CommunityFree. No Pro tier for the features on this page.
What the free version withholds
FluentCommunityLeaderboard and badges, followers, emoji and GIFs, custom profile fields, media gallery, quizzes, sequential lesson lock, the Manager role, removing “Powered by”. Chat is a separate paid plugin.
MemBuild CommunityNothing on this page. Levels, leaderboard, chats, stories, reels, courses and moderation are all in the free plugin.
What Pro buys
FluentCommunityUpdates and support, plus moderation rules, analytics, documents, cloud storage, SEO pre-rendering and FluentCRM automations.
MemBuild CommunityThere is no Pro yet. Premium add-ons later will be extras, not pieces taken out.
Feed
FluentCommunitySpaces and space groups, posts with scheduling, topics, polls, bookmarks, link previews, threaded comments, reactions.
MemBuild CommunityOne feed with photos, video, files, reactions, threaded comments, pinned posts, Latest and Popular, plus stories and reels. No spaces or polls yet.
Courses
FluentCommunityCourses built as spaces, with drip and a video-watched gate. Quizzes and sequential lock are Pro.
MemBuild CommunityCourses, modules, lessons, videos and downloads, progress, drip. Unlock by level or member group. No quizzes.
Gamification
FluentCommunityLeaderboard and badges are Pro, and the leaderboard counts likes only.
MemBuild CommunityPoints for posting, helping and finishing; nine levels you name; streaks; a leaderboard. Free.
Chats
FluentCommunityA separate paid plugin (FluentMessaging) that runs on Pusher.
MemBuild CommunityOne-to-one and group chats, docked windows, typing and seen, encrypted at rest. Free, on your server.
Theme and speed
FluentCommunityA Vue app that bypasses your theme and other plugins entirely; fast, but portal pages are sent no-cache and search is a plain LIKE query.
MemBuild CommunityIts own small app at /community; your theme keeps the rest of the site. Loads only what each screen needs.
Payments and CRM
FluentCommunityFluentCart or Paymattic for payments; FluentCRM for automation; FluentNotify, FluentPlayer. One family.
MemBuild CommunityTakes no payments. Access follows the WordPress role your membership or shop plugin sets: WooCommerce, MemberPress, Memberium, PMPro, and FluentCRM too.
Mobile
FluentCommunityPWA is a Pro feature.
MemBuild CommunityInstallable web app in the free plugin.
Phoning home
FluentCommunityLicence and update checks only.
MemBuild CommunityA weekly anonymous ping: random ID and version numbers. Shown in Settings → Advanced, deletable, switchable off.
Getting your data out
FluentCommunityA BuddyPress/BuddyBoss importer in; export is WordPress’s own tools.
MemBuild CommunityCSV exports of members, posts, comments, files and courses, plus WordPress’s personal-data export and erase.
a green edge marks where we think we're ahead, a dark one where they are. prices and features as published on the date at the bottom of this page.
Where FluentCommunity is the better choice

Pick FluentCommunity if these are your must-haves.

Fluent built a genuinely modern community plugin. If any of these is the centre of your membership, it is the better choice today.

Spaces
Separate spaces and space groups, each with its own feed, members and courses. MemBuild Community has one feed and access groups; it does not have spaces yet.
Polls, digests and scheduling
Polls in the feed, daily and weekly email digests, scheduled posts, topics. We have pinned posts and email summaries; no polls or scheduling yet.
Deep FluentCRM automation
If you already run FluentCRM and want the community to trigger and respond to automations in detail, Pro does that natively.
Pro’s extras
Moderation rules, analytics, documents, cloud storage (S3, R2, Bunny), SEO pre-rendering. Serious features for a serious community, and worth $199 if you use them.
Where MemBuild Community is the better choice

Pick MemBuild Community if you want the basics free, on your own terms.

The parts members notice first are the ones Fluent holds back for Pro. We ship them free and leave your stack alone.

Levels, leaderboard and chats, free
The three things members ask “is there a…?” about on day one. On Fluent, the leaderboard is Pro and chat is a separate paid plugin.
No ecosystem to join
Keep WooCommerce, MemberPress, Memberium, Keap, ActiveCampaign or FluentCRM. Access follows a WordPress role. You do not have to move to FluentCart to sell.
Stories and reels
Short vertical video and 24-hour stories, the format members already use elsewhere. Fluent’s feed is posts and polls.
Clear about what is free
Check Fluent’s free-vs-Pro list before you count on a feature. Our readme and this page list what is free, what is coming, and what the plugin sends us.
If you switch

Same site, same members. Spaces become a feed and groups.

Your members are WordPress users already, so the move is about content and access, not people.

  1. 1
    Install alongside
    MemBuild Community sits at /community; Fluent’s portal keeps its own slug. Run both for a week with a few members.
  2. 2
    Map spaces to member groups
    Each Fluent space that gates content becomes a member group tied to a WordPress role. Courses unlock by group or level.
  3. 3
    Rebuild courses
    Modules and lessons; drip and progress carry the same shape. Quizzes do not exist here yet, so if you rely on them, pause.
  4. 4
    Start the feed with a reason
    Pin a welcome, name the nine levels, announce the leaderboard reset. The first week needs a next step, not a blank page.
  5. 5
    Deactivate Fluent after a billing cycle
    Keep the export of anything you want from Pro (documents, analytics) first. The free core can stay installed, deactivated, as a fallback.
if the spaces are the point of your community, stay on fluent. if the levels and chats are, try ours for a week.
Questions owners ask
FluentCommunity has a free version too. What is the difference?

Fluent’s free core is good, but it switches off the things a community needs on day one: leaderboard and badges, followers, emoji and GIFs, custom profile fields, the media gallery, quizzes, sequential lesson lock, and the “Powered by” credit. Chat is a separate paid plugin. MemBuild Community ships levels, leaderboard, chats, stories and reels free.

Is Fluent faster?

It is fast, for a real reason: it bypasses your theme and other plugins completely and renders its own app. MemBuild Community does the same for the community screens, with a smaller app. Neither is slow; Fluent’s portal pages cannot be page-cached, ours are built per screen.

I already use FluentCRM. Isn’t Fluent the obvious choice?

If you want deep FluentCRM automations inside the community, Fluent Pro has them and we do not. If you just need the CRM to open and close access, MemBuild Community follows the WordPress role your membership plugin sets, which FluentCRM can drive too.

Can I move from FluentCommunity to MemBuild Community?

Same site, same WordPress users, so members are already there. Spaces, posts and courses are rebuilt by hand for now; an importer is on the list. Run both for a week before you switch.

What does MemBuild Community send to you?

Once a week, a random ID and version numbers so we can count installs. Nothing about your site address or members. Settings → Advanced shows the exact payload, with a delete button and a filter to turn it off.

Try it on your own site this afternoon.

Free, GPL, no member cap, no fee on your payments. If you are running a bigger membership and want us to move you, the Audit covers it.

Download free
Also readvs BuddyBoss →A free Skool alternative for WordPress →MemBuild Community: see the demo →