The short answer
What an online research community costs depends mostly on how many members it holds, how long it runs and how much of the work the vendor does for you. Platform fees are usually charged monthly and scale with panel size. Recruitment, incentives, moderation and analysis come on top, so budget for them separately.
That isn't a dodge. Two quotes for "a community of 500 people for a year" can describe very different things: one might be software only, the other a fully run programme with recruitment, moderation and quarterly reporting. Until you know which parts you're buying, a headline figure tells you very little. This guide goes through what moves the number, so you can brief a vendor properly and compare quotes like for like.
Why there's no going rate
You'll find figures quoted online for community costs, and they rarely agree. That's because the word "community" covers everything from a profiled panel you send the odd survey to, through to a weekly programme with a dedicated community manager and a research team writing up every wave. The software is often the smallest line on the budget. People's time is usually the biggest.
So rather than look for a benchmark, work out which of the drivers below apply to you, and ask every vendor to price the same set.
What drives the cost
Panel size
Most community platforms price by the number of members, or by the maximum number of active members you can hold at once. More members means more invitations, more data, more incentives and more moderation, so panel size pushes up several lines at once.
Size the panel from the work you'll run, not from a round number. Ask how many people each typical activity needs, multiply by the segments you must hear from separately, and add a margin for members who won't take part in any given week. A smaller, well-profiled panel that you use often is usually better value than a large one that sits idle.
How long it runs
Communities are usually billed monthly, so duration multiplies the platform fee directly. Set-up costs such as recruitment and portal design are spread across the run, so a short community carries more of that set-up cost in each month than a long one does.
If you only need answers for a few weeks, you probably don't need a community at all. A short online discussion is recruited for one brief and closes when it's done, and it's priced that way. Our explainer on what an MROC is covers where the line falls.
How much the vendor builds and runs
This is the biggest swing factor. At one end, you license the platform and your team does everything: task design, moderation, member management, analysis and reporting. At the other, the vendor or an agency runs the whole programme. Most arrangements sit somewhere between.
Moderation and community management are people's time, and they recur every week. When comparing quotes, ask who moderates, how many hours a week are included, how quickly members get a reply, and who writes up each activity.
Recruitment
Recruiting from your own customer list is the cheaper route, and you keep the relationship. The catch is list quality: old or unconsented addresses won't convert. Recruiting through a fieldwork agency costs more per head, and harder-to-reach audiences cost more again, but you get people who match a specification.
Don't forget refresh recruitment. Members drift away over a long run, and you'll need to top up to keep the panel at size. Budget for it from the start.
Incentives
Incentives scale with panel size and with how often you ask people to take part. Common schemes include points per activity that members redeem, prize draws, and a completion bonus for longer tasks. The University of Warwick sustains its student panel with panel points and Amazon voucher prize draws.
Cost the scheme for the whole run, including the effort of fulfilment. Points that members can see building up in the portal do more for engagement than a reward that turns up months later.
Custom design and branding
A branded portal on your own domain tells members they've joined your programme, not a research tool they've never heard of. Some vendors charge separately for portal design, a custom domain or extra branded sub-communities. Ask what's included and what's an add-on.
Languages and markets
Each extra language adds work: translating activities and member communications, moderating in that language or translating responses, and checking that tasks make sense locally. Even where responses are translated automatically, you'll want a native speaker to check the wording of your activities before they go out.
Analysis and reporting
A community produces data every week, so the cost of reading it adds up. AI can take a large share of the first pass, summarising responses and pulling out key points, but someone still has to interpret it and turn it into something the business acts on. Agree the reporting rhythm (per activity, monthly, quarterly) before you sign, because it drives the people cost more than anything else.
Extras to ask about
Before you compare totals, check each quote for the things that often sit outside the headline price:
- Seat licences for researchers, clients and observers
- Set-up or onboarding fees
- Portal design, custom domains and extra sub-communities
- AI analysis sold as an add-on or a higher tier
- Video storage, transcription or translation charged per minute or per word
- Data export, and access to your data after the community closes
- Minimum terms and notice periods
How to brief a vendor for an accurate quote
The more of this you can give a vendor, the closer the first quote will be to the final one:
- Who the members are, and whether they come from your own list or need recruiting
- Panel size, and the segments you need to hear from separately
- How long the community will run, or whether it's open-ended
- How often members will be asked to do something, and what kind of tasks
- Who'll design activities, moderate and analyse: your team, the vendor, or an agency
- Languages and markets
- Branding and domain requirements
- Your incentive approach
- The reporting you need, and who it's for
Making the budget go further
A few habits keep costs sensible without starving the community. Start as a panel if that's all you need for now, and add activities when the questions arrive. Use your own list where it's good enough. Send each activity to the members it suits rather than to everyone. And use the community for the questions that come up between projects, because that's where it pays for itself.
How Qualzy Community is priced
Qualzy Community is billed monthly and priced by panel size: you set the maximum number of active members, and run as many activities as you like within it. A custom domain is included as standard, and so is every AI feature: translation, summaries and key points on each response, and theme analysis. There are no seat licences, so admins and observers don't add to the bill.
The full rate card is available on request: find out more about community pricing, including pay-per-project and subscription options for shorter projects. If you'd rather talk through your own numbers, book a Discovery Call and we'll price the community you actually need.
Common questions
How much does an MROC cost per month?
It depends on panel size and on how much of the work the vendor does. A platform-only licence and a fully managed programme for the same number of members can be priced very differently, so compare quotes that include the same things.
Is it cheaper to run a community ourselves?
The platform cost is the same either way. Running it yourself saves the vendor's service fees but uses your team's time every week, so it's cheaper only if you have the people and the hours to moderate and analyse properly.
Is a community cheaper than running separate projects?
It can be, if you have a steady flow of questions for the same audience, because you recruit once instead of for every brief. If you only run research a few times a year, separate projects are usually cheaper.
