1v1 Pricing Showdown
Discourse vs Heartbeat
Side-by-side pricing breakdown for Community Platforms decision-makers
Prices in USD, verified from the United States. Regional pricing may vary.
When choosing between Discourse and Heartbeat for your community platforms stack, the right answer depends on three things: your budget, the specific features you actually use day-to-day, and your tolerance for renewal-price increases. Below we lay out the prices each vendor advertises today (verified against their live pricing pages), the plan limits that decide whether they'll fit your team, and the features that differ between them.
Discourse starts at $20/mo; Heartbeat starts at $40/mo. The cheaper headline price isn't always the cheaper total cost — renewal pricing, per-user fees, and overage charges can shift the math. Use the plan-by-plan tables below to model your actual spend.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| unlimited members | All plans including Free | — |
| forum discussions | All plans — threaded discussions with voting + badges | — |
| chat | All plans — real-time chat channels | — |
| categories tags | Starter+ unlimited | — |
| custom themes | Pro+ | — |
| api access | Pro+ | Grow+ |
| plugins | 0 Free / 15+ Pro / 20+ Business / 50+ Enterprise | — |
| monthly page views | 500k Free / 1M+ Business / Enterprise custom | — |
| ai daily credits | 0 Free/Starter / 500k Pro / 1M Business / 3M Enterprise | — |
| advanced analytics | Business+ | Scale only |
| priority support | Business+ | — |
| uptime sla | Enterprise only — 99.9% | — |
| expert services | Enterprise only — design + development | — |
| self hosted open source | Ruby on Rails — escape hatch from hosted | — |
| free trials no cc | All plans | — |
| unlimited channels | — | All plans |
| unlimited admins | — | All plans |
| unlimited document storage | — | All plans |
| custom domain | — | All plans |
| events | — | All plans |
| direct messaging | — | All plans |
| mobile apps | — | All plans (Heartbeat-branded) |
| branded mobile app | — | Scale only |
| automation workflows | — | 5 Build / Unlimited Grow+ |
| native video | — | 50 hrs Grow / 200 hrs Scale |
| white label emails | — | Grow+ |
| auto responder | — | Grow+ |
| zapier zoom integrations | — | All plans |
| 25000 plus businesses | — | Customer base size |
| stripe standard fee on top | — | 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe processing added to Heartbeat transaction fee |
Affiliate links — you pay the same price
Dive Deeper
About the community platforms category
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+.
Building Your Business Stack?
Decision-makers comparing tools often need more than one category. Here are related comparisons:
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Discourse cheaper than Heartbeat?
- Discourse is cheaper starting at $20/mo. Discourse starts at $20/mo and Heartbeat at $40/mo.
- Does Discourse or Heartbeat offer a free plan?
- Discourse offers a free plan.
- Which is better, Discourse or Heartbeat?
- Discourse scores 8.8/10 compared to Heartbeat's 8.6/10 in our analysis. Discourse ranks higher on features and value, but Heartbeat may suit specific use cases — see the feature comparison above.
- Is Discourse cheaper than Heartbeat for a team of 5?
- For a team of 5, Discourse costs $20/mo (flat rate) and Heartbeat costs $40/mo (flat rate). Discourse is the cheaper option at this team size.
- Are there other community platforms alternatives besides Discourse and Heartbeat?
- Yes. Our [Community Platforms pricing comparison](/pricing/community-platforms/) page covers all major providers with daily-verified prices. You can also see the [cheapest community platforms](/pricing/community-platforms/cheapest/) for budget-focused options.