Circle vs Mighty Networks: which community platform fits your members?

Circle has three plans. Professional is $89 a month with a 2% transaction fee, Business is $199 a month with 1%, and Plus is custom-priced at 0.5%. Mighty Networks has four. Launch is $79 a month with 2%, Scale is $179 a month with 1%, Growth runs $354 to $425 a month with 0.5%, and Mighty Pro is custom at 0.5%. Neither platform puts a monthly cap on its percentage, and card processing is charged on top of both.

The ladders mirror each other almost step for step. Each entry plan is 2%, each middle plan is 1%, and each top plan is 0.5%. Mighty Networks is $10 cheaper at the bottom and $20 cheaper in the middle. That is a rounding error next to the fee, which is why the useful question is not which is cheaper but when to move up a tier on whichever one you choose.

At $1,000 a month in member revenue, Circle Professional costs $89 plus $20 in fees, or $109, and Mighty Networks Launch costs $79 plus $20, or $99. At $5,000 a month, Circle Professional is $89 plus $100, or $189, and Mighty Launch is $79 plus $100, or $179. At $20,000 a month, Circle Professional reaches $489 and Circle Business is $199 plus $200, or $399, while Mighty Launch reaches $479 and Mighty Scale is $179 plus $200, or $379. Processing is extra in every case. Math example, not a customer outcome.

The decision rule you can screenshot: on Circle, move from Professional to Business once you pass about $11,000 a month in sales; on Mighty Networks, move from Launch to Scale once you pass about $10,000 a month. Below those lines the entry plan is cheaper, above them the middle plan is. At the same revenue the two platforms stay within about $20 a month of each other. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Circle organizes a community into spaces. A space can be a discussion board, a chat room, an event list or a course, and you can group spaces by topic, cohort or membership tier. For a community with six conversations that should not mix, this structure is the product. Its member experience is polished, and its admin tooling (roles, moderation, member management, analytics) suits a team running a large brand community.

Mighty Networks puts more weight on the feeling of arriving somewhere. Its strength is the branded mobile app, which gives your community an icon on a member's home screen and makes it feel like its own place rather than a tab in a browser. If your audience is phone-first and you want them to check in the way they check a social app, that matters more than any feature list. Before you budget for it, confirm which Mighty Networks plan includes a fully branded app in your own name, because that is the line item creators most often misjudge.

Both platforms include a course area and neither is a full learning management system (LMS, software built to deliver, assess and track courses). Circle's course builder handles lessons, sections and drip, and it looks good, but quizzes are basic and there is no native verifiable certificate. Mighty Networks also offers courses alongside its community, and the same caution applies: check its current documentation for quiz types and certificates before you plan an assessed program on it.

If your course is the product and learners expect graded quizzes and a certificate they can share, both platforms usually end up paired with a separate LMS such as Thinkific or Teachable. If the course is one asset inside a membership, either one is enough.

Circle is strong on events. Native live streams, event pages with RSVPs and recordings are part of the product, which is why cohort programs with weekly calls often choose it. Mighty Networks also runs events and live sessions inside the community, and its app makes them easy to join from a phone. Compare the two on the event you actually run: if it is a weekly call for 40 people, both will do it; if it is a ticketed workshop with check-in at a door, test that flow on each before you commit.

Neither platform leads on gamification. Circle has a basic points layer, and Mighty Networks offers its own engagement features. If a leaderboard is central to how you keep members active, look at Skool, whose points and levels are the best-known in the category, and read our Skool vs Circle comparison for that trade.

Both platforms sell memberships and courses, take their percentage on each sale, and pass card processing through on top. The practical difference is small. What matters more is the shape of your revenue: if you sell one $49 monthly membership, both platforms handle it identically; if you sell a mix of courses, bundles and event tickets, map each product onto each platform's checkout before you choose, because rebuilding pricing after launch is painful.

Because neither fee caps, both platforms cost more the better you do. A community growing from $5,000 to $20,000 a month sees its platform line roughly double on either one, even after moving to the middle tier. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Pick Circle if you run several groups that need their own spaces, host regular live streams and events, have more than one person moderating, and want the most mature admin tooling of the two. It suits brands, agencies and established creators with teams.

Pick Mighty Networks if your members are phone-first, you want the community to feel like a place with its own app, and you care more about that sense of belonging than about granular admin controls. It suits coaches and creators building an identity-driven community.

Pick neither if your business is mainly assessed courses or you want a fee that stops growing at some point. Both platforms are built around community first and an uncapped percentage.

HiveLearn is built for the creator who likes what both platforms do for community but needs a real LMS and a fee that stops growing. Courses, community, events and payments sit in one place: quizzes with six question types graded on the server, certificates with a public verification page, learning tracks, events with RSVPs, paid tickets and QR check-in, plus points, levels and leaderboards. It works on phones and installs as an app from the browser, though it is not a branded app in the stores, so if that is your priority, Mighty Networks is the better fit.

Starter is $0 a month with a 6% revenue share, so there is no monthly fee until you monetize. Growth is $39 a month with 4%, rev share capped at $2,000/month. Pro is $99 with 2%, rev share capped at $3,000/month. Scale is $249 with 1%, capped at $4,000/month. Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30) is charged on top, as it is everywhere. At $20,000 a month in sales, Pro comes to $99 plus $400, or $499, against $379 to $489 on the plans above, so HiveLearn is not the cheapest choice at that level; the cap starts paying once sales pass $150,000 a month on Pro. Math example, not a customer outcome. Growth, Pro and Scale include a 14-day free trial, no credit card.