According to the 2024 CMX Community Industry Report, Slack is still the most popular platform for running online community forums/message boards.
But despite its popularity, Slack wasn’t really built or priced for external communities in mind.
So, why does it remain the go-to choice for community managers?, and how are they using this non-community platform to run their online communities? While there are pros and cons to using Slack as your platform, that’s a topic for another time.. Today, we’re focusing on some tools and apps I’ve discovered that enhance and elevate the Slack experience - both for members and community managers!
This is not a sponsored post. These tools come recommended through word of mouth, conversations in the CMX community, and feedback from community members. Here’s a list of Slack-adjacent tools that community managers are using to elevate their communities on Slack.
Common Room helps you manage your Slack community by keeping track of important conversations, topics, and trends. It uses AI to surface the discussions that matter most, so you can focus on what’s resonating with your members. You can set up automations to send messages or surveys to specific groups, which is perfect for re-engaging people or welcoming new members. On certain payment plans, you can even connect your Slack community with your company’s CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot, etc.). This means you can track community engagement and compare it directly to your customer journey in your CRM.
Pricing: Starts at $0 for 500 contacts and two integrations
Learn more: https://www.commonroom.io/
Doc-E tracks conversations and can automate responses to FAQs, so you don’t have to manually answer the same questions repeatedly. It takes ongoing Slack discussions and turns them into educational content or guides, saving you time while keeping your community informed. Basically, Doc-E helps you turn everyday Slack conversations into useful resources with minimal effort.
Pricing: Starts at $39/month for 15 free trial credits and 10 credits per month
Learn more: http://doc-e.ai/
Intros.AI simplifies connecting members within your Slack community by automatically matching people based on shared interests, skills, or other criteria you choose. After a quick setup, it does all the heavy lifting—scheduling introductions and even tracking those connections over time. Whether you're facilitating networking events or just encouraging casual meetups, Intros.AI gives your community members a personalized, thoughtful way to engage.
Pricing: Starts at $169/month for 200 members and unlimited matches
Learn more: https://www.intros.ai/
Knobi.io brings AI into your Slack community, offering smarter onboarding and content curation. It automatically welcomes new members and suggests relevant channels based on their interests. It can also curate and summarize key community conversations, making it easier for everyone to stay updated without endless scrolling. By leveraging AI, Knobi saves time while ensuring your community stays engaged with relevant, personalized content.
Pricing: Starts at $300/month for unlimited users and 5 interface or scheduled jobs
Learn more: https://www.knobi.io/
Orbiit is a tool that helps connect people within a community through personalized 1:1 or small group conversations. It uses AI to match members based on shared interests or goals, making it ideal for networking or collaboration. You can set it up to send invites through Slack, email, or other platforms, and it automatically handles scheduling and follow-ups. The cool part is that it’s really low-effort for users—just a quick form, and Orbiit takes care of the rest. While it doesn’t require a separate login, its insights can help community managers see what’s working and improve future engagement. Orbiit Has Been Acquired by Hivebrite.
Pricing: No prices listed on their website
Learn more: https://orbiit.ai/
Sift AI helps you stay on top of everything happening in your Slack community. It identifies key members, tracks engagement trends, and even recommends ways to boost participation. It’s great for keeping an eye on who’s active and who might need a little nudge to get more involved. Plus, with automated workflows, you can streamline a lot of the behind-the-scenes work. Sift AI makes sure you’re not missing any important conversations and helps you keep your community humming along.
Pricing: No prices listed on their website
Learn more: https://www.getsift.ai/
Threado gives you the power to streamline your Slack community with a mix of automation and analytics. You can automate workflows like welcoming new members, re-engaging inactive ones, and triggering personalized messages based on user activity. On top of that, Threado’s built-in analytics helps you track engagement, member growth, and content performance—all from a single dashboard.
Pricing: Starts at $0 with 15 queries answered per month
Learn more: https://www.threado.com/
TightKnit upgrades your Slack community by adding a companion forum that syncs directly with your Slack conversations. It's perfect for communities that want to keep discussions organized and accessible without losing the casual, in-the-moment feel of Slack. The tool works across all Slack plans and lets you control which channels are integrated, making it super flexible.
Pricing: Starts at $0 for 200 members and two active Slack channels
Learn more: https://tightknit.ai/
Trova enhances Slack communities by providing deep, AI-powered insights on how members are interacting with your content and each other. It analyzes behavior to identify emerging leaders, influential contributors, and hot topics within your Slack channels. With this information, you can improve member engagement and better understand community dynamics. Trova’s integration helps you make data-driven decisions for growing your Slack community without having to dig through endless conversations manually.
Pricing: No prices listed on their website
Learn more: https://www.trovaus.com/home
Waves simplifies networking within your Slack community by facilitating quick, lightweight meetups between members. It pairs people based on shared interests or goals, creating opportunities for one-on-one chats. With an intuitive integration, Waves can help maintain member connections and foster meaningful relationships without the need to organize a massive event. It's perfect for communities focused on networking or mentorship.
Pricing: $20/month for 300 members
Learn more: https://meetwaves.com/
Xpertly is a workflow automation platform designed to streamline IT services and reduce complexity, particularly for tasks like API management and validation testing. It’s especially useful for organizations looking to enhance efficiency and reduce the time and cost associated with IT delivery. By integrating with tools like Slack, Xpertly helps users to stay on top of tasks with automated notifications and streamlined communication, making it easier to collaborate and manage workflows – all without leaving Slack. It’s a practical option for teams that need to align their tech initiatives with business goals and boost overall operational efficiency.
Pricing: FREE! In the future, they plan to introduce a paid Professional edition.
Learn more: www.xpertly.ai
How do you choose?
Each of these tools is powerful in its own way and solves a unique challenge. As a community manager, you can determine how you want to prioritize the problems you need to solve, and then decide which of these tools is right for you! This list isn’t exhaustive, though! If you are using a Slack-specific tool or app, or you’ve built a tool specifically for community managers to enhance their experience using Slack as a community platform, I’d love to hear about it – send me an email at beth@bevy.com.
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