Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover community platforms. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Heartbeat | NodeBB | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $49 | From $20 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | 5% of what you earn | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web, iOS, Android | Web |
| Covers | Community Platforms, Courses & Coaching, Memberships & Subscriptions | Community Platforms |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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
Forum software you can host yourself
NodeBB is forum software in the old sense, with categories and threads, built on Node.js and released under the GPL. You can run it on your own server for nothing, or pay NodeBB to host it and keep the plugins and backups somebody else's problem. Hosted plans are sized by pageviews rather than by seats, so a busy community with three moderators costs the same as a quiet one with thirty.
Our note
Take the self-hosted route only if somebody on your side is comfortable keeping a Node application patched. Otherwise the $20 plan is cheaper than the hours, and it is the same software either way.
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.