Mighty Networks Alternatives

Circle

Free trial

9.3 /10

Circle is the SMB community platform category leader. Professional at $89/month: unlimited members + 3 admins + 10 moderators + 20 spaces + 200 GB + 2% transaction fees + courses + discussions + events + live streams. Business at $199/month adds 5/15/30 with 500 GB + 1% fees + workflows + Headless Member API + remove branding. Circle Plus custom pricing with AI Agents + SSO + branded apps + 0.5% fees.

• Most feature-complete SMB community platform — courses + discussions + events + live streams
• Transaction fee structure (2% → 1% → 0.5%) rewards high-revenue communities at scale
• Plus tier branded mobile apps available as optional add-on (not forced purchase)

Full Review Visit Circle

Skool

Free trial

9.2 /10

Skool is the simplest community + course platform. Two tiers only: Hobby at $9/month ($7.50 annual with 2 months free) — 10% transaction fee. Pro at $99/month ($82.50 annual with 2 months free) — 2.9% transaction fee. Both tiers unlimited members + courses + videos + live calls + custom URL + affiliate program. Primary differentiator is transaction fee percentage.

• Radical simplicity — two tiers differentiated primarily by transaction fee
• Pro tier's 2.9% transaction fee matches Stripe's base rate (no platform markup)
• Built-in affiliate program across both tiers

Full Review Visit Skool

Discourse

Free plan Free trial

8.8 /10

Discourse is the open-source forum platform with hosted + self-host options. Hosted tiers: Free (2 staff + 500k page views + 5 GB), Starter $20/month (20k emails + unlimited categories), Pro $100/month (custom themes + API + 500k AI credits), Business $500/month (advanced analytics + 1M AI credits), Enterprise custom (99.9% SLA). Self-hosted free (Ruby on Rails) provides open-source escape hatch.

• Open-source foundation with self-host option provides genuine escape hatch — unique in category
• Free tier with unlimited members + 500k page views genuinely usable for small forums
• Pricing linear and transparent — 5x increments between tiers (Starter → Pro → Business)

Full Review Visit Discourse

Heartbeat

Free trial

8.6 /10

Heartbeat is the community platform with member-capped tiers + transaction fee differentiation. Build at $40/month annual ($490/year): 350 members + 5% transaction fee + 5 automations. Grow at $124/month annual ($1,490/year): 5,000 members + 2.5% fee + unlimited workflows + native video 50 hrs + white-label emails + API. Scale at $766/month annual ($9,200/year): unlimited members + 1.25% fee + branded mobile app + 200 hrs video.

• Scale tier's branded mobile app at $766/month annual is cheapest white-label app in category
• Native video hosting 50-200 hours included at Grow/Scale tiers (saves Vimeo/Wistia costs)
• White-label emails at Grow tier ($124/mo annual) for brand consistency in transactional emails

Full Review Visit Heartbeat