Swarm Review: Best Community Platform in 2025?

Are you struggling to build a thriving online community?

It’s a common problem. Many platforms promise connection, but few deliver.

Imagine a space where your audience actively engages, shares ideas, and connects.

This Swarm review explores whether this platform is the answer you’ve been searching for, exploring its features and potential to foster genuine community growth. 

Let’s find out if Swarm lives up to the hype.

What is Swarm?

Swarm is a platform to help you build and nurture a thriving online community.

Think of it as your own dedicated space where your audience can connect, share ideas, and engage with each other and your brand.

It’s more than just a forum; Swarm offers tools to foster meaningful interactions, including video-centric features, branded mobile apps, and analytics to track your community’s growth.

Swarm provides the framework and features to create a vibrant and engaged community around your interests or business.

Who Created Swarm?

Swarm was created by Gavin Hammar.

He started the company to focus on community platforms.

He also founded two other companies, Sendible and Storyprompt.

Swarm’s goal is to use video to help people connect and share their stories.

It wants to build trust and real connections by making it easy to capture and share video reviews and testimonials.

Top Benefits of Swarm Alternatives

This product is designed to streamline your online business and community management.

It offers a powerful combination of tools that help you connect with your audience, sell your products, and manage your content.

• Comprehensive Toolset for Creators: It’s a one-stop-shop that lets you run your entire online business. You can manage your content, courses, and community from a single dashboard, simplifying your workflow.
• Robust Community Features: This platform is a great alternative to mighty networks. It’s built to help you foster strong connections with your customers, making it easy for your fan bases to interact and share stories.
• Monetization and Sales Tools: The platform makes it easy to monetize your creations. You can sell courses, memberships, and digital products, all with built-in payment processing. You can even track sales and revenue.
• Integrated Marketing Capabilities: It helps you market your content to a wider audience. With tools for email marketing and landing page creation, you can attract new customers and drive more sales.
• Simplified Content Management: The platform is designed to make it easy to upload and organize your content. Whether you’re creating a mini series or a full course, you can easily add videos, text, and other media.
• Strong Security and Data Control: Your data and your customers‘ information are protected with high-level security. This gives you peace of mind knowing that your content and user information are safe.
• Scalable to Grow with You: Whether you’re just starting out or have a large community, the platform can scale with your needs. It can handle a growing number of members and a large library of content.
• Reliable Support: If you ever get stuck, help is available. The platform offers support to assist you with everything from management to technical issues, ensuring your business can run smoothly.

Best Features of Swarm

Swarm has some great tools to help you connect with your community.

These features make it easy to share information and build strong relationships with other people.

1. Rich Messaging

This feature lets you send more than just text.

You can share images, videos, and files.

This makes your messages more interesting and easy to understand.

2. Live Video

You can host live video sessions.

This lets you talk with your community face-to-face.

You can hold live events or just chat with everyone at once.

3. Calendar

Swarm has a built-in calendar.

You can use it to schedule events for your community.

It helps everyone know when things are happening.

4. Screen Sharing

This tool lets you share your computer screen.

It is helpful for showing a presentation.

You can also use it to teach someone how to do something.

5. Courses

You can create and sell courses on Swarm.

This lets you teach people new skills.

It is a great way to share your knowledge with others.

6. AI Assist

This tool uses AI to help you. It can help you write messages.

It can also help you come up with ideas for your content.

7. Member Directory

There is a list of all the members.

You can use it to find other people in the community.

You can also see their profiles and what they are interested in.

8. Private Messaging

You can send private messages to other members.

This is good for one-on-one conversations.

It is a way to talk without everyone else seeing.

9. Transcriptions

This feature takes spoken words from videos and turns them into text.

It makes it easy to read what was said in a video.

It is helpful for people who can’t listen to the audio.

Pricing

Plan Name	Price	Key Features
Novice	$39/month	1 space, 25 members
Pro	$79/month	5 space, 50 members
Expert	$149/month	Unlimited space, 150 members
Elite	$339/month	Unlimited Spaces, Unlimited Members.

Pros and Cons

Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of any platform is crucial for making informed decisions.

This breakdown of Swarm’s pros and cons will help you determine if it’s the right fit for your community-building needs.

Alternatives to Swarm

Swarm Compared

Personal Experience with Circle

My team and I recently used Circle to launch a new community, and it was a game-changer for us.

We were able to move our audience from scattered social media groups to a central, branded hub.

The clean design made it easy for everyone to get started, and we saw engagement go up almost immediately.

The platform’s features allowed us to create a space that felt both exclusive and welcoming, helping us achieve a higher level of interaction and value for our members.

Here’s how we used its features to get results:

• Intuitive Interface: The user experience on both the desktop and mobile apps was seamless.⁴ This meant less time spent on technical support and more time on building our community.

• Dedicated Community Spaces: We created different “spaces” for various topics, which made it easy for our members to find relevant conversations.
• Live Events and Workshops: We used the native live streaming to host Q&A sessions and workshops directly inside the community. This created a much more personal connection than using an external tool.
• Member Profiles: The robust member profiles allowed our community to connect on a deeper level. Users could fill out their profiles with their skills and interests, which made it easy for them to find others to collaborate with.
• Flexible Monetization: We were able to offer both free and paid tiers, which helped us test different membership models and get a clear picture of what our audience was willing to pay for.

Final Thoughts

Based on our analysis, Swarm, as a standalone product, is no longer available.

Its features have been absorbed into Foursquare’s primary app, which changes its core value proposition.

Given the robust features and dedicated communities offered by the other platforms we’ve reviewed, you’ll likely find a better fit for your needs among the modern alternatives.

For example, a platform like Skool offers far more for community engagement and course delivery than a simple check-in app.

Ultimately, your best option isn’t Swarm, but a modern platform built for creators.

Choose a product that helps you build a dedicated community and sell your expertise.

Take the next step and find a platform that provides the tools you need to succeed.

Frequently Asked Questions