What it boils down to is Facebook adding that extra barrier and making it just that little bit more difficult for your community to ever leave their walled garden.
There are plenty of other hosted community platforms out there - @circleapp looks genuinely excellent, as do some others - but I always advocate for self-hosting so you can fully own your platform and content. That will become ever more critical the larger your community grows.
How do you self-host a community platform? Use @WordPress:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💻" title="Computer" aria-label="Emoji: Computer">Core blog & site content: @WordPress
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👫" title="Mann und Frau halten Händchen" aria-label="Emoji: Mann und Frau halten Händchen">Social features: @BuddyBossWP, @PeepSo or @BuddyPress
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🛒" title="Shopping cart" aria-label="Emoji: Shopping cart"> Online store & paid memberships: @WooCommerce
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎓" title="Doktorhut" aria-label="Emoji: Doktorhut"> Online courses (LMS): @SenseiLMS or @LearnDashLMS
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎙️" title="Studiomikrofon" aria-label="Emoji: Studiomikrofon"> Podcast: @CastosHQ
There will be some extra work in getting it set up how you like, but that trade-off is worth it for the extensive flexibility and power you& #39;ll unlock. Use a managed WordPress host - @Pressable, @WPEngine, @HeyFlywheel, etc. - and you shouldn& #39;t have performance or security issues.
The platform you end up with will be:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👏" title="Applaus-Zeichen" aria-label="Emoji: Applaus-Zeichen"> 100% owned by you
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💯" title="Hundert Punkte Symbol" aria-label="Emoji: Hundert Punkte Symbol"> Customised to your needs
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🦾" title="Mechanischer Arm" aria-label="Emoji: Mechanischer Arm"> Powerful enough to scale with your community
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💰" title="Geldsack" aria-label="Emoji: Geldsack"> Comparable in price to hosted alternatives
You can follow @hlashbrooke.
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