Flarum vs Mighty Networks Comparison 2026
Both cover community platforms. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
At a glance
- Only Flarum has a free tier.
Side by side
Flarum | Mighty Networks | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $79 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | 2% of what you earn |
| Runs on (they differ) | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
| Covers |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Flarum
Forum software you host yourself
Flarum is forum software installed on your own server, so the discussion, the members and the domain belong to whoever runs it rather than to a platform. Extensions add what the core deliberately leaves out. There is no hosted tier and no monthly fee, which trades a bill for the work of running it. Anybody who does not want to think about PHP, a database and backups should buy hosted community software instead.
Our note
Price the hosting and an hour a month of your own time before calling this free, because that is what it actually costs and it is still far less than hosted community software. Choose it for ownership rather than for the saving, since the saving is real but the ownership is the part you cannot buy back later.
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.
Our note
Against Circle and Skool this is the one that ships an app under your own name, and it is priced accordingly. If the app is not the point, the other two do the community half for less.
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.