Community Platforms — Head-to-Head Comparisons
10 community platforms comparisons. Each page shows side-by-side pricing, plan limits, and feature differences — verified daily against vendor pages.
How these community platforms products compare
Online community platforms in 2026 split by purpose. 'Creator/course business communities' (Circle $89-199+/month, Mighty Networks $79-354/month, Skool $9-99/month): community + courses + events for creators monetizing audience. 'Team/creator hybrid' (Heartbeat $40-766/month annual): features similar to Circle but positioned for both creators + SaaS customer communities. 'Open forum/discussion' (Discourse $0-500+/month hosted): category leader for technical communities, product forums, knowledge bases. Transaction fees are the critical pricing lever: Skool Hobby 10% / Pro 2.9% (vs Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 standard), Circle 2% Professional / 1% Business / 0.5% Plus, Mighty Networks 2% Launch / 1% Scale / 0.5% Growth, Heartbeat 5% Build / 2.5% Grow / 1.25% Scale. For a community generating $10,000/month in paid memberships, transaction fees range $125-1,000/month on top of subscription cost. Skool's 'all plans unlimited members/courses/videos/live calls' simplicity wins for creators wanting to focus on content. Circle dominates SMB community management with best enterprise features at Plus tier. Mighty Networks has distinctive 'host' metric (people who can add content) vs pure members. Heartbeat offers branded mobile app at Scale tier unique at category. Discourse is category standard for technical/product forums with open-source self-host option.
How to choose between community platforms options
First: what type of community? Creator monetizing audience (courses + membership + community): Skool $99/month Pro (simplest, 2.9% transaction fee) or Circle Professional $89/month (2% transaction fee + richer features). Course creator with video streaming needs: Mighty Networks Launch $79/month (20 streaming hours for 100 viewers). Team or SaaS customer community with integrations: Heartbeat Build $40/month annual or Circle Professional $89/month with integrations. Technical/product forum with discussions: Discourse Pro $100/month or self-host free. Second: transaction volume matters? High volume ($10K+/month paid memberships): Circle Plus custom (0.5% fees), Mighty Growth $354/month (0.5% fees), Skool Pro $99/month (2.9% — high vs competitors at same volume). Low volume (<$2,000/month): any tier reasonable. Third: branded mobile app? Mighty Pro custom (white-label app) or Circle Plus (optional branded apps) or Heartbeat Scale $766/month annual. Fourth: open source optionality? Discourse offers self-hosted free (Ruby on Rails open-source project) — genuine escape hatch from hosted pricing. Other vendors are proprietary. Fifth: member count? Heartbeat tiers cap: Build 350 members, Grow 5,000, Scale unlimited. Other platforms generally unlimited on all tiers but transaction fees + storage matter. Sixth: live streaming + video? Mighty Networks has dedicated streaming hours (20-40/month) + viewer limits (100-1,000). Circle includes live streams with courses. Skool has unlimited live calls. Heartbeat has native video 50-200 hrs (Grow-Scale). Discourse focuses on text forums not video. Seventh: AI agents / automation? Circle Plus custom pricing includes AI Agents. Mighty Pro has custom automations. Heartbeat Grow+ has unlimited workflows. Eighth: email capability? Heartbeat includes white-label emails at Grow+. Circle offers Email Hub add-on starting $99/month for 10,000 contacts. Mighty integrates with Kit (ConvertKit) at Scale+.
All 10 head-to-head comparisons
Building Your Business Stack?
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