This DevOps Engineer Built an Online IT Community With Pumble

Ioannis Gkourtzounis’s career has taken him on an unexpected journey — from sales to becoming a DevOps engineer specialized in containers and Kubernetes.

Along the way, he realized how valuable it is to have guidance when navigating the IT field, especially for newcomers who often face uncertainty about where to start.

That realization inspired him to create an online community — a space where people entering the field could ask questions, share experiences, and support each other.

To bring this vision to life, Ioannis needed a platform that was simple, accessible, and capable of supporting a growing community. That’s when he turned to Pumble.

Today, Pumble powers his community, helping him build meaningful connections and give back to the next generation of IT professionals.

Let’s dive into how Pumble helped Ioannis create and sustain his IT community.

Communication challenges Ioannis faced before Pumble

When building a community, communication is everything.

Members need a clear and reliable way to share information, ask questions, and engage with each other.

But without the right platform, conversations can quickly become disorganized, scattered across different apps, or even lost completely.

Ioannis had two goals in mind when he started thinking about creating a community — sharing knowledge and bringing people together:

“The goal was to:

• Have an easy way to manage an online community,
• Share my experience working in the IT field, and also
• Bring people together so they can share their advice and experiences.”

So, for Ioannis, the challenge was finding a tool that fit all his criteria.

It needed to be:

• Easy to set up and manage,
• Familiar to use, and
• Free with unlimited message history and users.

This set a standard as to what he was looking for in a tool. He needed a simple and accessible tool, but powerful enough to support structured communication.

That search eventually led him to Pumble.

Why Ioannis Gkourtzounis switched to Pumble

In his search for the perfect tool that would help him guide others through the forest that is the IT field, Pumble was the only platform that offered him everything he needed:

“I was searching for an easy-to-use platform for my needs. I was thinking about a Slack alternative — a platform that can be free to use as I am starting out. My research showed that Pumble was the only platform that offered me the following:

• Easy to set up a community and manage users,
• Easy to start using by downloading an app and using it just like Slack — no need to learn new menu items or options, and
• The entire message history.”

During his research, Ioannis also found that Pumble was the only tool that offered all the necessary features for free.

Ioannis believes that, when you’re trying to build an online community, accessibility is crucial:

“Pumble was the only platform that allowed me to start a community 100% free while offering chat history to all users. Slack, and every other similar tool that I tested, required a paid subscription for this feature. But it only makes sense to start free with a platform like that when the chat history is included in the free plan.”

As Ioannis testifies, Pumble has proven to be a great tool for him and his community:

“My experience so far has been great, most notably because:

• Setting up was easy and quick,
• The user administration section is easily visible in the web version, and
• The mobile app is fast, reliable, and stable.”

How Ioannis uses Pumble to stay in touch with his community

The accessibility and ease of use were what drew Ioannis to try Pumble:

“As I’ve mentioned earlier, it was easy to set up, it is easy to manage users and use the chat functionalities because it is just like Slack — everyone already knows how to use it.”

But, we wanted to know which features made him stay.

Ioannis highlights these features of Pumble as his favorite and most useful:

“I would say that channels, direct messaging, and threads are the most useful features for us.”

Among other features, he especially liked how Pumble saves all message history:

“It is very easy to see different channels, post your questions, or send a private message to someone. Pumble saves all chat history, and that is a great feature for us. We don’t use this as a traditional remote collaboration platform, but more as a community tool that allows easy communication between all of us.”

During our chat about his favorite way of communication in Pumble, Ioannis discovered a feature he wasn’t yet aware of — video calls:

“We mostly use chats, direct messaging, and threads. As a matter of fact, I did not know that someone could use video calls from within the Pumble app. We will surely try it!”

Thriving online communities — powered by Pumble

For Ioannis, Pumble is more than just a communication tool — it’s the foundation of his IT community.

By combining structured channels, private messaging, and organized threads, Pumble gave him everything he needed to:

• Bring people together,
• Share knowledge, and
• Build connections.

Pumble’s ease of use and unlimited chat history made it possible to start small without barriers, while still providing room to grow.

With Pumble, he isn’t just managing conversations — he’s creating a space where future IT professionals can learn, collaborate, and evolve together.