Heartbeat vs Mighty Networks Comparison 2026
Heartbeat builds courses and events directly into the community, from $49 a month plus a 5 percent fee that falls to 1.25 percent on its top plan. Mighty Networks puts the community first and hangs courses and events off it instead, from $79 a month at a 2 percent fee falling to 0.5 percent, with a branded mobile app available on its quoted Mighty Pro tier. Pick Heartbeat for courses and events that feel native to the space. Pick Mighty Networks if a branded app under your own name is worth the higher starting price.
A community with courses and events built in
Community, courses and memberships
At a glance
- Heartbeat starts cheaper, at $49.
- Neither has a free tier.
- Mighty Networks takes 2% of what you earn against Heartbeat's 5%.
Side by side
Heartbeat | Mighty Networks | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $49 | From $79 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| API | Yes |
Heartbeat
A community with courses and events built in
Heartbeat runs channels, threads, events, courses and a member directory in one place, which is the shape most creator communities end up wanting after outgrowing a Discord server. Payments run through it and it takes a cut that falls as the plan rises. There is no free plan, and a community that stops paying is deactivated rather than frozen.
Our note
Work out the transaction fee at your own revenue before comparing headline prices: at $5,000 a month collected, Grow costs less in total than Build. Against Circle and Mighty Networks this is the one with courses and events genuinely built in rather than bolted on.
Only on this side
- Works with Discord
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 Heartbeat
- Mighty Networks bundles the same community, courses and memberships shape, from $79 a month with a free trial.
- Heartbeat instead of Mighty Networks
- Heartbeat covers the same community, courses and events combination, from $49 a month, without Mighty Networks' branded app.
Which one should you pick
Pick Heartbeat if courses and live events need to be genuinely built into the community rather than hung off it. Build is $49 a month plus a 5 percent transaction fee on top of Stripe, falling to 1.25 percent on Scale at $849, after a 14-day trial with no card.
Pick Mighty Networks if the community itself is the product and members should get a branded app rather than a browser tab. Launch is $79 a month at a 2 percent fee, and that fee drops to 0.5 percent on the quoted Mighty Pro tier, which is also where the branded app lives. If the app is not the point, its own comparison says Heartbeat and similar tools do the community half for less.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper to start, Heartbeat or Mighty Networks?
- Heartbeat, at $49 a month against Mighty Networks' $79. Heartbeat's transaction fee starts higher, though, 5 percent against Mighty Networks' 2 percent, so the cheaper choice depends on how much revenue is moving through it.
- Which one ships a branded mobile app?
- Mighty Networks, on its quoted Mighty Pro tier, which is priced specifically for that. Heartbeat runs on web, iOS and Android as its own product, not as an app carrying your own brand.
- Are courses built into both the same way?
- Heartbeat's own pitch is that courses and events are built in rather than added later. Mighty Networks works the opposite way round: the community comes first and courses, events and paid memberships hang off it.
- Do both take a cut of what members pay?
- Yes, and both fees fall as the plan rises. Heartbeat runs from 5 percent down to 1.25 percent by tier, on top of Stripe. Mighty Networks runs from 2 percent down to 0.5 percent, stated separately from payment processing.
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.