# Community overview & creating one

> Add a full community to your project — member feed, groups, courses, and events — running on its own address next to your site.

Source: https://knowledge.estage.com/community/
Part of the ESTAGE knowledge base (https://knowledge.estage.com). Full corpus: https://knowledge.estage.com/llms-full.txt

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The **Community module** attaches a complete social platform to your project: a member feed,
groups, courses, events, and member profiles. It's the "turn an audience into a membership"
piece — your site markets, your community retains.

## How it's set up

A community is **not pages inside your site** — it's a full standalone portal that runs next
to it, on its own address:

- Without a custom domain: a default community address for your project.
- With a [custom domain](/domains/): **`community.mysite.com`** — see
  [Community on your domain](/community/custom-domain/).

Your site links to it (a "Community" button in your nav), visitors click through, sign up,
and they're in.

## Creating a new community

1. Open **Settings → [Modules](/project-settings/modules/)**.
2. On the **Community** card, click **Add community**.
3. Genesis provisions the community (named after your project) and the card flips to
   **ENABLED** with an **Open community →** link.

If your project already has an active custom domain, Genesis also tries to claim
`community.<your-domain>` for it automatically — so the portal lands on your brand from day
one.

That's the whole creation flow — no forms, no wizard.

## What's inside

Your community comes with the full feature set:

| Area | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| **Feed** | The member activity stream — posts, reactions, discussion |
| **Groups** | Topic spaces within the community |
| **Courses** | Structured learning content for members |
| **Events** | A calendar with RSVPs |
| **Members** | Profiles and the member directory |
| **Direct messages** | Member-to-member chat |
| **Access levels** | Groups gated by what a member has bought or been granted |
| **Challenges** | Time-boxed activities members take part in |
| **Live rooms** | Live streams and video calls inside the community |
| **Gamification** | Points, levels, and badges for participation |

### Native mobile apps

The community isn't only a web portal: members can install a **native iOS and Android app** for
it, with push notifications and deep links straight into a post, a course, a chat, or a live
room. The community they join on your domain is the same one they carry on their phone.

## Where you manage it

Day-to-day administration — privacy, groups, courses, events, member moderation — happens in
the **community portal itself** (the **Open community →** link), where you're the admin. That's
also where you brand the emails it sends and set the reply-to address — see
[Community emails](/community/email-branding/).
Genesis manages the connection: activation status and
[which address it lives on](/community/custom-domain/).

## Things worth knowing

- **One community per project.** A project maps to exactly one community.
- **Separate sign-in.** The community has its own member accounts — signing into the
  community is separate from anything on your site.
- **The portal isn't embeddable** into site pages — it's a destination, not a widget. Link to it
  prominently. If you want the community's screens *inside* your own site instead, that's the
  [Community toolkit](/community/toolkit/), on a [Web app](/platform/web-apps/) project.

## Two ways to show it

| | Community portal | [Community toolkit](/community/toolkit/) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Where it runs | Its own address (`community.mysite.com`) | Inside the site Genesis built for you |
| Design | The portal's own | Restyled by the AI to match your brand, screen by screen |
| Requires | Any project | A [Web app](/platform/web-apps/) project |
| Members sign in | In the portal | Through a secure Estage login on your site |

## Already have a community on Estage?

Don't create a new one — [import your legacy project](/community/legacy-import/) and Genesis
will use the existing community, members and content intact.