The fast company executive board vs Forbes Councils debate usually gets framed as a brand contest, Forbes prestige against Fast Company cool. That framing is wrong. These two programs share a co-founder, a feature list, a seven-step editing workflow and nearly identical originality rules. You are not choosing between two different products. You are choosing which audience sees the same product, and how much you pay for the privilege.
Once you see it that way, the decision gets easier and cheaper. The questions that matter are who reads each masthead, whether you clear the bar to get in, how many articles you will actually write, and whether you need someone to write them for you. Brand halo comes last.
Below is what each program costs as of November 2026, according to their own dues pages, who qualifies, how the applications work, what the editors allow, how reporters read the resulting bylines, and a five-question test to settle the choice.
Same builder, two mastheads
Start with ownership, because most comparisons get it wrong. Forbes Councils is run by Forbes Councils, LLC. Its site footer says the Forbes trademark belongs to Forbes Media, LLC, and every council page on Forbes.com describes the content as “expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license.” A November 2022 press release for a new Forbes Business Council member described the councils as invitation-only communities created with Forbes and the community builders who founded the Young Entrepreneur Council, and it quoted Scott Gerber as founder of Forbes Councils.
The Fast Company Executive Board site carries a different footer: “Fast Company & Inc © 2025 Mansueto Ventures, LLC.” Mansueto owns both Fast Company and Inc. So this is not a Forbes Councils product with a new logo. A January 2022 Business Wire release announcing a member, though, named Scott Gerber as the board’s founder and said it was founded in 2021. His Crunchbase profile lists him as chief executive and co-founder of The Community Company and as co-founder of Forbes Councils (2015), Fast Company’s board (2021), the Rolling Stone Culture Council and the Business Journals Leadership Trust.
That shared origin explains everything else in this post. Put the two dues pages side by side and the benefit lists match almost word for word: a private vetted community, virtual events, bylined articles, monthly Expert Panels, an executive profile, interest groups, digital badges, editorial and concierge support, a member app, press release tools and a complimentary EXEC travel membership. The playbook is the same. The publisher, the reader and the price are what change.
What does each membership cost in 2026?
Both programs now publish their dues openly, so there is no need to rely on agency estimates. Older third-party figures, such as a 2023 agency blog that put Forbes Technology Council at $1,500 to $3,000 a year, are out of date.
Fast Company’s own dues page, checked November 3, 2026, lists two plans. The 1-Year Membership costs $2,300 plus a one-time $500 initiation fee, so year one runs $2,800. The 2-Year Membership costs $3,700 plus the same $500 fee, so two years run $4,200. The page advertises a $900 saving on the two-year plan, which matches the math against two separate one-year terms. There is no ghostwriting tier listed.
The Forbes Councils dues page lists three plans, each with a one-time $600 initiation fee. The Standard 1-Year Membership is $2,800 a year, so year one runs $3,400. The Executive 2-Year Membership is $5,000 for two years, so the total is $5,600, and it adds a welcome post on the councils’ social accounts, a Member Spotlight on the Forbes Councils blog and EXEC Unlimited access. The Premium 1-Year Membership is $6,800 a year, or $7,400 in year one, and adds three articles written for you, a company bio, a personal bio, a content strategy consultation and a dedicated writer who interviews you. The page advertises a $400 saving on the two-year plan. Against two Standard years at list price, the gap is actually $600, so read the fine print before you budget.
Put the like-for-like plans together and Fast Company is cheaper at every point. Year one costs $600 less ($2,800 against $3,400). A prepaid two-year term costs $1,400 less ($4,200 against $5,600). If you plan to write four articles a year, your first-year cost per article is $700 on Fast Company and $850 on Forbes Standard. If you write one, it is $2,800 against $3,400, which is why cadence matters more than sticker price. For a deeper breakdown of the Forbes tiers alone, see our post on what Forbes Councils actually cost.
Eligibility: Fast Company sets the higher revenue bar
Here the programs split in a way that matters. Forbes runs nine separate councils (Agency, Business, Business Development, Coaches, Communications, Finance, Human Resources, Nonprofit and Technology), each with its own entry criteria. The Business Council page asks for at least $500,000 in annual revenue or $500,000 in funding to date. The Technology Council asks for a senior technology executive at a company with $1 million in revenue or funding. The Communications Council and the Agency Council also set the line at $1 million.
The fast company executive board runs one board with a higher floor. Its membership page asks for one of four profiles: a CEO, C-suite or senior executive at a company with $3 million or more in annual revenue; a vice president or above who leads a region or division at a $3 million company; a founder or co-founder of a company with $2 million or more in revenue or institutional funding; or a nonprofit founder with $1 million in revenue or funding.
Fast Company then opens a side door Forbes does not advertise. You can also qualify if you earn at least $50,000 a year from speaking, hold a salaried role with 25 or more speaking engagements a year, get paid for 25 or more speaking gigs, have a book from an established publishing house, or contribute regularly to an edited industry publication. That makes the board reachable for consultants, authors and keynote speakers whose companies are small but whose platforms are not.
Put plainly, a founder at $700,000 in revenue fits Forbes Business Council and not the Fast Company board, unless she has a traditional book deal or a real speaking business. A divisional vice president at a $50 million company fits both.
How the application works on both sides
The mechanics are close to identical. On Forbes, you submit an online application covering your background, company and achievements. The Business Council FAQ says a selection committee of trained internal council staff reviews it on leadership experience, company success and thought leadership potential, and that you typically hear back within two to four business days. If approved, you receive an invitation and then choose and pay for a package. If declined, the FAQ says you get reasons and can appeal or reapply as the business grows.
On Fast Company, the Apply Now button leads to an application form, and the membership page does not describe review steps or a timeline. Given the shared founder and the shared invitation-then-purchase model on the dues pages, expect a similar flow, but no published turnaround exists, so do not plan a launch around one.
Two practical notes apply to both. First, acceptance is not free: you pay only after approval, and the initiation fee is part of the first bill. Second, the Forbes FAQ recommends strengthening an application with awards, press coverage, leadership roles, growth figures and examples of your thought leadership. That advice transfers directly to the Fast Company form, especially if you are qualifying through the speaker or author route and need to document it.
Publishing perks, line by line
Both memberships give you two ways onto the site. The first is the bylined article. Fast Company’s benefits page promises “ongoing opportunities to publish articles with their byline on FastCompany.com,” while noting elsewhere that members are “considered for publication.” Forbes promises the same on Forbes.com. Neither page caps or guarantees a number of articles a year.
The second is the Expert Panel. Each month, members answer a set question in a short response. Forbes says answers run under 400 characters and take ten to fifteen minutes. Editors on both sites pick a range of answers and publish them as a roundup article that credits each member and links to their profile or company. Expert Panels are the lowest-effort way to appear on either site, and on Forbes the FAQ says they are the recommended path for members short on time.
The extras differ at the margins. Forbes adds Member Spotlight interviews and a social welcome post on the Executive plan, a newsletter called Biz Pulse that features select member pieces, a complimentary 30-minute strategy session with a business coach for qualified members, and customized letters signed by council leadership that members can use for visa applications and other vetting. Fast Company adds a Member Leader program that lets vetted members run an interest group, and a guided new-member orientation.
The biggest gap is Premium. If you will not write, Forbes sells you a writer: three articles, two bios and an interview process for $4,000 a year more than Standard. Fast Company lists nothing comparable on its dues page, so a member who cannot write has to bring an outside ghostwriter or a PR team. For the Fast Company routes that do not involve a membership, our guide on how to get a byline in Fast Company covers the editorial pitch path.
The editorial rules are nearly identical
Read the two publishing guides back to back and you will find the same document with a different logo. Fast Company’s Executive Board blog, last updated August 27, 2025, describes a seven-step process: plan, draft, submit, relax, revise, publish and promote. Articles run 500 to 1,000 words. Content must be new and original, never published before, “including on your own blog or LinkedIn,” and the page says exceptions are not made. A content editor checks substance and adherence to guidelines, the draft goes back and forth, a copy editor reviews it, you approve the final version, and the whole thing takes four to five weeks.
The Forbes Councils guide, last updated May 5, 2025, gives the same 500 to 1,000 word range, the same originality rule, the same editor queue and the same four to five week timeline. The Forbes Business Council FAQ cites four to six weeks and “2+ rounds of revisions.” Forbes is more explicit on two points. Its guide bans press releases and interviews as formats, and it requires members to check a box at submission confirming the article is their own and not AI-generated. The FAQ adds plagiarism checks and a ban on republishing duplicate or overly similar content.
Both editors screen for the same thing: specific, actionable advice that teaches a business reader something, with takeaways Forbes calls “valuable, unbiased and non-promotional.” In practice that means your company can appear as an example, but a pitch for your product will come back with edits or not run at all.
The consequence for strategy is simple. You cannot write once and run twice. If you hold both memberships, each idea needs its own draft for its own audience, which doubles the writing load and is the main reason almost nobody should buy both.
What a journalist sees when they read your byline
This is the part that membership sales pages leave out, and the one that matters most if your real goal is press. Reporters can tell paid community content from editorial coverage in about two seconds.
On Forbes.com, council articles carry a “Council Post” tag, and the author is identified as a “Forbes Councils Member.” The council landing pages add that opinions are the author’s own and that the content is operated under license. On FastCompany.com, Executive Board pieces sit under a “Fast Company Executive Board” section that describes the group as “a private, fee-based network of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs.” On November 3, 2026, that section’s newest article was a roughly 1,100-word piece titled “Where do I start with AI?” by the founder of a software firm.
None of this makes the byline worthless. A well-argued piece gives a reporter a fast read on your point of view, a sense of whether you can explain something clearly, and a reason to quote you on a topic you have already written about. What it does not do is count as a feature, a profile or an earned mention. If your press page lists “As seen in Forbes” based on a Council Post, a journalist who checks will discount the rest of your claims.
Use these memberships the way a good source uses a published paper: as proof you have something to say, attached to a pitch that offers a reporter something new. We cover the paid versus editorial split for Forbes in more detail in Forbes Councils vs Forbes contributor.
The Masthead Match Test
When a client asks me which board to join, I run five questions I call the Masthead Match Test. Each question points to one masthead. Whichever side collects three or more answers is the one to buy. If a question does not apply, skip it, and if you end up tied, take the cheaper option, which is Fast Company.
Reader. Who do you need to convince? If your buyers are owners and operators of small and mid-sized businesses, finance leaders or HR leaders, Forbes has a council built for them and the name carries further with that crowd. If your buyers are product, design, marketing, innovation or media people, the point goes to Fast Company, whose board lists technology, marketing, advertising, social impact, media, creative design and entertainment among its industries.
Gate. Do you clear Fast Company’s floor? If your company is under $2 million in revenue or funding and you have neither a publishing-house book nor a paid speaking business, the point goes to Forbes, because that is the door you can walk through. If you clear both, the point goes to Fast Company on price.
Cadence. How many articles will you finish in the first year without help? Be honest. At four or more, the $600 first-year saving makes Fast Company the stronger buy. At one or two, neither membership pays back on publishing alone, and you should ask whether Expert Panels and networking justify the fee.
Pen. Who writes? If you will draft your own pieces or you already pay a writer, the point goes to Fast Company. If you need a ghostwriting package from the platform itself, only Forbes sells one, at $6,800 a year plus initiation.
Proof. Where will the badge show up? If the membership will mostly appear in sales decks, proposals and visa or award applications where the Forbes name and a signed verification letter help, the point goes to Forbes. If it will mostly appear in speaker bios, design-industry communities and creative pitches, it goes to Fast Company.
The test takes five minutes, and it usually ends the debate. Most founders I see score Forbes on Gate and Pen and Fast Company on Cadence, which tells you the real constraint: whether you will actually write.
Which one should you join?
For a senior leader who writes, sells to innovation-minded buyers and clears the $2 million or $3 million bar, the fast company executive board is the better buy. It costs less in year one and much less over two years, and its rules and workflow match Forbes almost exactly. For a smaller founder, a buyer pool of small business owners, or anyone who needs the platform to write for them, Forbes Councils is the better fit, and Premium is the only built-in ghostwriting option on either side.
Join only one at a time. The originality rules mean two memberships double your writing load without doubling your reach, and a dormant second membership is pure cost.
The short version: both programs come from the same builder and follow the same playbook. Fast Company costs $2,800 in year one and $4,200 for two years; Forbes Standard costs $3,400 and $5,600, with Premium at $7,400. Forbes lets you in at $500,000 to $1 million, while Fast Company asks for $2 million to $3 million or a speaking, book or contributor track record. Both bylines are labeled member content, so treat them as proof of expertise, not press. Run the Masthead Match Test, pick the side that wins three questions, and commit to writing.