Fora vs Swarm
Fora
fora.soSwarm
swarm.toSide by side
| Figure | Fora | Swarm |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $19/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 6 |
| Spec score · Learning Community Platforms | 8.4 (#5) | 7.6 (#21) |
| Courses | Fora supports courses, and its comparison article describes chapters and progress tracking. | Course builders support ordered modules and lessons containing video, text, PDFs and embeds. |
| Events | The platform supports virtual events and lists events in both Starter and Pro plans. | Swarm supports native live events with meeting or webinar modes, co-hosts, and recordings that can be posted automatically. |
| Integrations | The official comparison mentions no named third-party integrations and says payment connections use the creator’s own stack. | The Scale plan includes Zapier, API access and SSO; Swarm’s help center describes syncing new space members to a CRM through Zapier. |
| Intended users | Fora names creators, educators, and coaches as the people its platform is built for. | Swarm describes itself as a fit for coaches and experts whose teaching is visual, physical or personal, and says it is a poor fit for text-only communities or people who do not want to appear on camera. |
| Payments | Fora’s comparison says creators connect payments through their own stack rather than using native platform commerce. | Creators can sell memberships, courses, downloads, event tickets and bookings through a branded storefront. |
| Product | Fora describes itself as a white-label community platform for creators, educators, and coaches. | Swarm is a video-first community platform for online experts and coaches. |
| Support | The contact page provides a form and the address [email protected] for assistance. | Swarm provides a Help Center with guidance on getting started, member management, live events, billing, stores, courses and troubleshooting. |
Plans
Swarm
- Launch$29 a month
- Growth$89 a month
- Scale$199 a month
- Launch$228 a year
- Growth$948 a year
- Scale$1,788 a year
In their own words
Fora
Fora is a web-based white-label community platform for creators, educators, and coaches. It combines discussions, courses, events, and a member directory in one branded space. Communities can use a Fora subdomain or a custom domain owned by the creator. Course material can be arranged into chapters and lessons, while a leaderboard ranks members by posts, completions, and activity. Fora supports event hosting and lists a 5,000-member limit, with Starter and Pro plans shown for 200 and 5,000 members respectively. The FAQ says most communities can launch in under 20 minutes without code or infrastructure setup. Fora is in beta and free, with no credit card or trial period. Starter and Pro are each listed at free, billed monthly; Enterprise lists unlimited members but no price. There are no mobile apps. Fora says it does not sell personal information, though it may share data with service and analytics providers. Beta terms do not guarantee uptime or service availability.
Swarm
Swarm is a video-first community platform for online experts and coaches, combining discussions, courses, live events and creator sales. Conversations can use threaded text, video, voice notes, images, GIFs, embeds, mentions and screen shares. Courses are organized into ordered modules and lessons with video, text, PDFs and embeds. Native events offer meeting or webinar modes, co-hosts and recordings that can be posted automatically. Creators can sell memberships, courses, downloads, event tickets and bookings through a branded storefront, with Stripe processing payments. Swarm provides an installable Progressive Web App for mobile and desktop with push notifications, without an app-store download. Its 14-day trial requires no credit card, but uses Launch and excludes the store, white label, Zapier and API integrations. Scale includes Zapier, API access and SSO. Swarm says most data remains while an account is active and six months afterward, and personal-data deletion begins within 10 business days of account closure.