Discourse vs Mighty Networks Comparison 2026
Discourse is forum software: free to host, searchable, indexed by Google, with no built-in way to charge members at all. Mighty Networks puts a paid membership at the centre, with courses and events hanging off it, from $79 a month for Launch plus a 2 percent transaction fee that falls as the plans get dearer. Discourse's Pro tier is $100 a month if the free hosted plan is outgrown. The real choice is a public, indexed archive against a paid membership with a branded app somewhere down the pricing table.
At a glance
- Mighty Networks starts cheaper, at $79.
- Only Discourse has a free tier.
Side by side
Discourse | Mighty Networks | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $100 | From $79 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API |
Discourse
Forum software, hosted or run yourself
Discourse is the forum the internet settled on: threaded, searchable, indexed by Google, and open source, so a community that outgrows the hosted plans can take the database and run it on its own server. That escape hatch is the argument for it over anything closed. The hosted pricing starts where a hobby project stops, and self-hosting swaps the bill for a sysadmin.
Our note
The reason to choose this over Circle or Mighty Networks is that the conversation is public and indexed, which makes the forum an asset rather than a cost. The reason not to is that it is a forum, and an audience raised on Discord will find it slow.
Only on this side
- Covers website builders
Mighty Networks
Community, courses and memberships
Mighty Networks puts the community first and hangs courses, events and paid memberships off it, which is the opposite order from a course platform that added a forum later. Members get a branded app rather than another tab. The transaction fee on the entry plan is small but real, and it disappears as the plans get dearer.
Why people weigh these two
- Mighty Networks instead of Discourse
- Mighty Networks folds courses and memberships into the community from $79 a month, more a business platform than a threaded public archive.
- Discourse instead of Mighty Networks
- Discourse is forum software you can run yourself, with a free tier to start, plainer than Mighty Networks and without the courses or branded app.
Which one should you pick
Buy Discourse if the community should be public, searchable and free or nearly free to run, with no plan to charge members through the platform itself. A real free hosted plan exists, and Pro is $100 a month if you need more email allowance and support.
Buy Mighty Networks if the community is the product members pay for, with courses and events attached to it. Launch is $79 a month at a 2 percent transaction fee, dropping to 1 percent on Scale at $179. A branded app is not part of either of those tiers; it needs the custom-quoted Mighty Pro plan, so budget for a call rather than a listed price if the app is the reason you are considering it.
Common questions
- Which one can charge members for access?
- Mighty Networks is built for that, from $79 a month at a 2 percent transaction fee. Discourse has no described payment or membership feature; it is forum software for public, searchable discussion, not a monetization platform.
- Which is cheaper to run for a free community?
- Discourse. A genuine free hosted plan sits at the bottom of its pricing table, and self-hosting the open source software is free apart from a server. Mighty Networks has no free tier at all; the cheapest plan is $79 a month.
- Does Discourse include courses and events?
- No, neither is part of what it does; it is a forum, threaded and searchable. Mighty Networks builds courses, events and paid memberships around the community from its first paid plan.
- Which one ships a branded mobile app?
- Mighty Networks can, but only through Mighty Pro, which is custom quoted rather than listed at a fixed price. Discourse runs in a browser on the web and Linux; a branded native app is not part of what it offers.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.