Minds review
A flexible federated community platform with publishing, groups, chat, and memberships.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Minds is an open-source social networking platform for creators, communities, and organizations. It supports text, image, audio, and video publishing alongside blogs, groups, encrypted chat, and ActivityPub federation. Communities can use open or closed groups, moderation and reporting tools, paid memberships, exclusive content, and content boosting. Minds is available on the web, iOS, Android, through an API, and as self-hosted software, making it suited to teams that want more control over their community environment.
The free plan covers the core publishing and community functions: multimedia posts, blogs, groups, encrypted chat, ActivityPub federation, and YouTube synchronization. The Plus plan adds access to exclusive Minds+ content, boosted-content controls, audio uploads, channel verification, publishing to the Minds+ feed, and paid Supermind challenges. Pro includes Plus features while adding a separate Pro page, cash payouts, custom-domain publishing, and longer video uploads. This tier structure gives creators a path from general participation to premium publishing and monetization, but advanced creator controls sit behind paid subscriptions.
Minds also fits organizations seeking a branded or self-hosted community network. Minds Networks supports custom domains, memberships, moderation, integrations, and branded mobile applications, with connections including ActivityPub, YouTube, Stripe, SSO, and RSS. Its broad platform coverage is a strength for federated communities that need publishing, social interaction, and creator tools in one system. Choose Minds if open-source deployment, federation, multimedia publishing, or creator monetization matters. Consider another community platform if event management is a primary requirement or if the community needs advanced creator capabilities without moving beyond the free plan.
Minds pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Free plan includes multimedia posts, blogs, groups, chat, and federation
- Supports web, mobile apps, API access, and self-hosting
- Adds memberships, moderation, custom domains, and creator monetization
- Where it doesn't
- Advanced creator tools are concentrated in paid Plus and Pro plans
- Custom-domain publishing is limited to the Pro plan
- Event management is not a central product focus
Minds fact sheet, pricing and score →
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