12 Best CX Communities to Join in 2026
Finding the right CX communities can unlock new ideas, guidance, and real support for your toughest customer experience challenges. This roundup will help you connect with peers, stay in the loop, and gain tools to deliver standout service across every customer touchpoint.
Best CX Communities Shortlist
Here's a shortlist of the best CX communities I think are worth joining:
- The CX Lead Community - Best with unlimited practical CX resources
- CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) - Best for CX leadership certification
- CX Accelerator - Best for peer support across all CX roles
- Gain Grow Retain - Best for B2B SaaS customer success leaders
- Customer Success Collective - Best for CS certifications and global events
- Support Driven - Best for support career growth
- Pavilion - Best for senior GTM peer access
- Execs In The Know - Best for enterprise CX leadership
- Qualtrics XM Community - Best for Qualtrics users
- CustomerThink - Best for CX thought leadership
The 12 Best CX Communities
Below are my summaries of the best CX communities that made it onto my shortlist, plus others worth mentioning. My reviews offer a look at each community's audience, size, cost, and more.
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1. The CX Lead Community - Best with unlimited practical CX resources
- Audience: CX and customer success leaders in SaaS businesses
- Cost: Free
- Platform: The CX Lead website and member dashboard, newsletter, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram
Our free community and resource hub, The CX Lead, is built specifically for customer experience leaders who want practical support—not just inspiration. We cover everything from service design and retention to customer success and AI, with a focus on helping you turn strategy into real outcomes.
Why join? We built The CX Lead for leaders who need both tactical resources and strategic depth in one place. Members get access to templates, playbooks, AI prompts, how-to guides, software recommendations, and exclusive events tailored to the realities of running CX in a SaaS environment.
If you're a senior leader, you can also apply for early access to our executive peer community—a space designed for the kind of candid, experience-first conversations that actually move the needle.
2. CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) - Best for CX leadership certification
- Audience: CX professionals and leaders across industries worldwide
- Membership Cost: From $299 per year
- Platform: CXPA website, member portal, online community, local meet-ups, conferences, events
Customer Experience Professionals Association is the premier global non-profit association dedicated to the CX profession. It connects thousands of CX practitioners worldwide through a members-only community, local networks, and industry-recognized resources.
If you're serious about building a career in customer experience, this is the professional home for it.
Why join? CXPA is the only organization that issues the CCXP (Certified Customer Experience Professional) credential, and membership gives you discounted access to the application and exam. Beyond certification, you get access to the CX Book of Knowledge, which helps you externally validate your CX work.
I'd especially recommend this one if you're looking to formalize your expertise or elevate your professional credibility.
3. CX Accelerator - Best for peer support across all CX roles
- Audience: CX professionals, consultants, and contact center leaders worldwide
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Slack, website, virtual onboarding sessions
CX Accelerator is a free, non-profit Slack community built to equip, encourage, and connect CX professionals at every stage of their career. It's one of the most active communities in the CX space, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants real peer connection without a price tag.
Why join? What sets CX Accelerator apart is its channel structure. Each topical Slack channel (think Voice of Customer, AI/Tech Talk, Contact Center, and CX Consulting) is led by a dedicated facilitator, so conversations stay focused and genuinely useful.
There's also a Speaker Cohort for CX pros looking to grow their public presence, a mentorship program, and a CX Primer for those earlier in their career. Whether you're a solo consultant or part of a large CX team, you'll find a channel and a peer group that fits where you are.
4. Gain Grow Retain - Best for B2B SaaS customer success leaders
- Audience: B2B SaaS customer success and CX leaders
- Size: 12,800+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Online community platform, podcast, virtual events, in-person events
Gain Grow Retain launched in June 2020, founded by Jay Nathan and Jeff Breunsbach as a free community for customer success leaders in B2B SaaS. If your CX work sits at the intersection of post-sale experience, retention, and renewals, this community is worth your attention.
Why join? I'd especially recommend it if you work in B2B SaaS, where the line between customer success and customer experience is often blurred. What sets GGR apart is the weekly live leadership office hours, which give you real-time access to peers and practitioners, not just async forum posts.
The podcast also features CS leaders from companies like Zendesk, Gong, and Qualtrics, and GGR Live events bring the community together in person.
5. Customer Success Collective - Best for CS certifications and global events
- Audience: Customer success and support professionals in SaaS and tech
- Size: 100,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Website, Slack, virtual events, in-person summits, local meetups
Customer Success Collective (CSS) is a global network for customer success and support professionals. It's run by the Alliance group and backed by 100,000+ members from companies like Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, and HubSpot.
If your CX role sits in SaaS or tech and overlaps with post-sale success, retention, or support, this is one of the largest and most structured communities you'll find.
Why join? What I think makes CSC stand out is its certification program. With 12+ expert-led credentials, it's one of the few communities where you can actually build and validate your CS skills, not just talk shop. You'll also get access to global in-person summits, local meetups, and virtual events with speakers from Adobe, Cisco, Slack, and Zendesk.
6. Support Driven - Best for support career growth
- Audience: Customer support professionals and team leaders in tech
- Size: 30,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Slack, website, in-person events, newsletter
Support Driven is a free Slack-based community built around one idea: customer support is a real career, and the people in it deserve a dedicated space to grow. With 30,000+ members and over nine years of events across 15 cities, it's one of the longest-running communities in the support space.
Why join? If your CX work is rooted in support — whether you're managing a team, running support operations, or building your career in the field — Support Driven treats that work seriously in a way most broader CX communities don't.
The Slack community gives you peer access across roles and experience levels. The in-person events (including the annual SD Expo and Leadership Summit) also bring together 550+ speakers and hundreds of practitioners for real career and leadership development.
7. Pavilion - Best for senior GTM peer access
- Audience: Senior GTM and customer success leaders in SaaS
- Size: 10,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Depends on seniority and location
- Platform: Slack, website, in-person events, virtual events, learning platform
Founded by Sam Jacobs — Pavilion is a paid, application-based peer network covering customer success, sales, marketing, and RevOps. With 10,000+ members (70% VP-level or above) across global chapters, it's built for senior GTM leaders who own a number and want direct access to peers doing the same work.
Why join? If you're a VP or C-suite CX or CS leader, Pavilion gives you real cross-functional peer access to the sales, marketing, and RevOps leaders. You'll get curated 1:1 peer matching, a dedicated Customer Success Leaders group, certified programs like CCO School and AI in GTM School, and access to the flagship GTM conference in NYC.
I'd be clear-eyed going in, though — this is a GTM community first, so if you want deep CX-specific content, you'll want to pair it with something more focused.
8. Execs In The Know - Best for enterprise CX leadership
- Audience: Corporate CX leaders at enterprise and mid-market brands
- Size: 1,500+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Online community, website, in-person events, webinars, magazine
Execs In The Know is a global CX community run by Chad McDaniel, built specifically for corporate CX leaders at enterprise and mid-market brands. Its online community, KIA (Know It All), is vendor-free and application-based, keeping the membership to brand-side practitioners only.
Why join? The vendor-free environment is what sets this apart — making the conversations more candid and useful. Beyond the online community, you get access to the Customer Response Summit (CRS), a flagship in-person event with practitioner-led content from senior leaders at brands like Zillow, Turo, and Ritz-Carlton.
I'd especially recommend this one if your CX work is rooted in customer care or contact center operations — that's where this community is strongest.
9. Qualtrics XM Community - Best for Qualtrics users
- Audience: Qualtrics users in CX, EX, and research roles
- Size: 46,500+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Community website, virtual user forums, in-person user forums
The Qualtrics XM Community is a free peer community run by Qualtrics for its platform users — CX, EX, and research practitioners who want help, learning resources, and a direct line to the Qualtrics product team. It's one of the larger vendor-backed communities in the experience management space.
Why join? If you're a Qualtrics user, the Evolve program is a standout. You can submit and upvote product ideas that get reviewed directly by Qualtrics product leaders, which is a genuinely useful feedback loop.
You'll also get access to industry-specific groups (Government, Financial Services, Higher Education, and more) and regional User Forums with live product specialist support. If you're not a Qualtrics customer, this community won't have much to offer you — it's built specifically around the platform.
10. CustomerThink - Best for CX thought leadership
- Audience: CX practitioners, consultants, and business leaders worldwide
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Website, email newsletter
Founded in 1998 by Bob Thompson, CustomerThink is one of the longest-running online communities for customer-centric business strategy. It's free to join and open to CX practitioners, consultants, and business leaders worldwide.
Why join? What sets CustomerThink apart is its strict human-authored editorial standard. All content comes from named practitioners with real experience, which makes it a reliable source of CX perspective.
If you want to build your own thought leadership, the Write For Us program lets you contribute articles and earn recognition through their Top Authors and Hall of Fame programs. It's less of a peer discussion space and more of a content-and-contribution community, so it's best suited for those who want to read, write, and be seen in the CX space.
11. r/CustomerSuccess - Best for candid peer advice
- Audience: Customer Success professionals in SaaS and tech worldwide
- Size: 53,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Reddit
r/CustomerSuccess is a free, volunteer-moderated subreddit where Customer Success and CX professionals gather to discuss the real day-to-day of the role. It skews heavily toward the SaaS and tech world, but the conversations are practical enough to be useful across industries.
Why join? What makes this community genuinely useful is the anonymity. You can ask questions whether that's salary benchmarking, venting about a difficult renewal, or getting honest feedback on your interview process.
Discussions cover everything from Gainsight and ChurnZero tool comparisons to how to handle churn conversations, and the peer responses tend to be direct and experience-backed. If you want unfiltered, peer-level advice rather than polished thought leadership, this is where to find it.
12. ICMI - Best for contact center leadership
- Audience: Contact center leaders and CX professionals worldwide
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Website, newsletter, Zoom, webinars, in-person events
ICMI has been a go-to resource for contact center professionals since 1985 and is now run by Informa TechTarget. If your work touches customer service delivery, support operations, or contact center leadership, this community is built for you.
Why join? ICMI stands out because it combines structured professional development with genuine peer connection. Free membership gets you access to monthly Coffee Chats (virtual peer meetups), the newly launched Mentorship Program, and a weekly newsletter packed with practical contact center insights.
For those who want an in-person experience, the annual Contact Center Expo brings together speakers, site tours, and sessions focused squarely on the operational and strategic side of customer management. It's one of the few communities where you can go from a casual virtual chat with peers to a certification course or a conference floor.
Other CX Communities
Here are some other community recommendations that CX professionals like you might appreciate:
- Dedicated CXO communities for Chief Experience Officers (and those heading that way)
- You can try looking for local or remote CX and UX Meetup groups
- Join and participate in customer success communities or customer service communities
What’s Next?
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