A public multi-page site
Build and publish the community's own pages from a workspace console. The pages are public and indexable, so a stranger can read what you run before deciding to join it.
Communities and the events they run
The members and the attendees are the same list
Publish the community page, ask your own registration questions, schedule the announcements, host the events with tickets and check-in, and sell the membership, without keeping four rosters in step by hand.
- Publish the page
- Ask your questions
- Schedule the send
- Run the event
Six things a group needs and usually buys in pieces.
Registration on your own questions
Visitors register through a panel on the public page, answering a question set you wrote rather than a fixed form somebody else designed. You review the list in the console.
Announcements, scheduled
Write the send now and let it go out later, drawing the account-wide email allowance the rest of Connections uses. Bulk-import an existing member list from CSV to start from.
Events with tickets and check-in
The events your community runs are hosted on the same account, with ticket tiers, recurring dates, email and SMS invites, and kiosk check-in at the door.
Paid membership
Sell a recurring membership from an event page or the check-in kiosk. Cards run on Stripe through embedded checkout, and a paying member is the same record as the person on your roster.
Reach and reception
See visits, registrations and engagement for the community, and boost it across the Connections ad network per boost when you want new people rather than a bigger newsletter.
A forum tool owns the forum. Everything around it lives somewhere else.
| Capability | Connections | Dedicated community platform |
|---|---|---|
| Public community pages | Yes | Yes |
| Custom registration questions | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled announcements to members | Yes | Yes |
| Ticketed events with door check-in | Yes | Limited |
| Recurring paid membership | Yes | Limited |
| Members are contacts the rest of the account can see | Yes | No |
| Paid promotion to people outside the group | Yes | No |
| Bookkeeping for what the group takes in | Yes | No |
Frequently asked questions
Can one account run a community, its events, and the money?
Yes. A community gets a public multi-page site you edit from a console, its own registration questions for visitors who join, scheduled announcements to the member list, member import from CSV, and stats on visits and registrations. The events your community runs are hosted on the same account with ticketing and door check-in, and a recurring membership can be sold from an event page or the check-in kiosk. The members, the attendees, and the buyers are one list.
How do people join, and what do I learn about them?
Visitors register through a panel on your public community page, answering a question set you write rather than a fixed form somebody else designed. You review the resulting list in the console. Because registration writes into the same contacts your events and follow-up use, a member who later buys a ticket or answers a form is not a second person to reconcile, and the community's roster stays current without an export step.
Can I send announcements to members?
Yes, including scheduling one for a future moment rather than remembering to press send. Sends draw the account-wide weekly email allowance that the rest of Connections uses, so the community's mail, your event invites, and your follow-up digests share one pool instead of one mail vendor per purpose. Paid plans continue past the weekly pool at a set per-thousand rate under a spend cap you set.
Is there a way to get the community in front of new people?
Yes. Community pages are public and indexable, and the console has a boost panel that promotes the community across the Connections ad network. On a paid plan a boost is paid from your Connections Credit, and the amount you choose is what you pay. We write, run and report the ad for you, and whatever a boost does not spend goes back to your credit.
Can I charge for membership?
Yes, through the host membership surface, which sells a recurring membership from an event page or a check-in kiosk. Card payments run on Stripe through embedded checkout with Connections taking a three percent cut on top of Stripe's fee for payments it processes. Because the seller console, the events, and the community roster are the same account, a paying member is one record rather than a subscription in one tool and a name in another.
What if I want the pages written for me?
The console can draft a community page from a prompt using the account's shared AI allowance, and it stages the result as an editable draft rather than publishing it. That is the same token pool every other AI feature on the account draws from, so drafting pages does not add a separate AI bill. You edit the draft before anything goes live.
How is this different from a dedicated community platform?
A dedicated platform owns the forum and stops there, which means your events, your payments, your announcements, and your address book live somewhere else and have to be kept in step. Here the community is one surface on an account that already runs the events people show up to, the checkout they pay through, the mail they receive, and the contacts they become. The community stops being a silo because it was never a separate system.
Can visitors use it without an account?
Yes. Community profile pages are public, event pages are browsable and RSVP-able with no sign-in, and marketplace listings and deal write-ups can be read anonymously. Registration and membership are where a person identifies themselves. Nothing in the public path forces a stranger to create an account before they can look at what you are running.