Mighty Networks vs. Circle: Best Community Platform 2024

This is the complete Might Networks vs. Circle comparison guide.

Early adopters of community platforms will build loyal followers and bring together engaging discussions. Don’t sit by the fence!

If you’re planning to start a community platform where you can bring together your loyal audience and customers, then you have a choice to choose between Mighty Networks and the Circle.so platform — since they’re the most popular today.

And you don’t need 100s or thousands of followers or members to build a thriving business. 53% of creators earning revenue with a community platform have fewer than 8k followers.

What is the Difference Between Mighty Networks and Circle?

The main difference is that Mighty Networks emphasizes community building and online courses, providing a holistic platform for creators to connect with their audience, while Circle focuses primarily on community discussions, offering a space for creators to engage with their audience through forums and messaging.

While both platforms support community interactions, Mighty Networks is geared towards a broader range of creator activities, including courses and events, while Circle centers around community discussion and collaboration.

Mighty Networks Community Platform Reviewed

If you’re looking for a community website platform that will help you create your own business network, Mighty Networks may be the right choice. 

Mighty Networks features a member directory and community tools like articles, polls, and quizzes. 

It also supports live and regular video. It also has an extensive knowledge base for members to use and create content.

Mighty Networks is very user-friendly and features an intuitive interface for members. 

The community area is easy to navigate, with features like a list view of all posts, and an option to sort and filter posts and activity feeds by content type. 

Users can create their own profiles and customize them with additional fields based on their interests.

Mighty Networks is a community software that offers best-in-class features for engagement and community design. 

It also supports online courses. You can create courses within Mighty Networks using its drag-and-drop builder. Mighty Networks allows you to charge for access to community courses and other tools.

Mighty Networks Plans & Pricing

What is the best Mighty Networks plan for you? Well, there are 3 plans to choose from:

• The Community Plan ($39/month): Get a website, plus Chat & Messaging, Native Livestreaming & Video, paid memberships, events & zoom integration, etc.
• The Business Plan ($119/month): Online courses, Live Cohort Course Creation, Zapier APIs & Workflows, and more.
• Mighty Pro: Request a demo, get access to branded app notifications, your own app with listings, etc.

Note: All Mighty Networks Plans come with a free 14-day trial. Get 2 months free with annual billing. 

Who is Mighty Networks For?

Mighty Networks is best suited for online course creators, online influencers, and entrepreneurs who desire to connect deeper with an audience they love.

Essentially, Mighty Networks is an excellent choice for people who want to create online courses, subscription-based membership sites, or niche communities. 

The service is easy to set up and customize, and it offers a host of tools to help you get started. 

It also provides training programs for users so they can start their own educational communities.

Mighty Networks has a simple and clean interface, which makes it easy for users to post articles, comments, and polls. 

In addition, Mighty Networks also lets you schedule posts and notifications to your community. 

This allows you to tailor your community’s activity to your community members’ preferences.

Features of Mighty Networks

• Easily scale a community without the complexity of traditional social media platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)
• Gather and communicate with your audience under your own brand
• Native course builder
• Member profiles: private direct messaging, small group chat, etc.
• Livestreaming
• Live events and meetings
• Event Calendar
• Native video uploads
• Group chat events
• Download your member data
• Set your own terms & conditions

Mighty Networks vs Circle.So: Major Differences

“The main difference between Mighty Networks and Circle is that Mighty Networks is best suited for building an all-in-one community with memberships, events, online courses and livestreaming in one place. Circle is most ideal if you want to add a standalone community to engage your existing audience from YouTube, email list, Instagram, Twitter, or even discord.”

Note: Mighty Networks have way more features in its Community Plan vs. Circle.so Basic Plan

Mighty Networks vs Circle: Major Differences

Circle and Mighty Networks have some differences. Circle can be more difficult to set up for new businesses because it is new on the scene. 

It will take time to add features like payment features and integration. 

Mighty Networks caters to Android and iOS users, while Circle focuses on iOS users. 

Its website is easier to use and has a simple design. Circle also offers an option to remove your branding if you wish.

Mighty Networks is more complicated and a bit less intuitive than Circle. You will have to go through multiple levels to find a conversation. 

If you’re not a seasoned creator, Mighty Networks may not be the best choice for you. You may not need all of the features that Circle has to offer.

“If you’re just looking for a standalone community, Circle may be fine. It depends on how many features you’re looking to use and how you want to grow. Mighty Networks does provide white labeling at their Mighty Pro tier, which comes with your own custom branded apps.”

How Mighty Networks Started

Might Networks, a community platform was founded in 2017 by Gina Bianchini. 

Her goal is to help people create their own social networks by giving them full control over the community. 

She believes that the Mighty Networks platform will help users promote their content and ensure that their work gets seen. 

It also integrates course and billing systems and lets users create as many communities as they want.

The software allows users to build communities and networks based on their interests. It can even create communities for mastermind groups and networking. 

These communities can be monetized by charging members to take courses. As a result, Mighty Networks is a great option for both entrepreneurs and creators.

Keep in mind that Gina Bianchini also founded Ning, which pioneered the opportunity for creators to build social networks and grew it into a $100 million company in about 3 years. 

The new capital that Mighty Networks raises will help the company launch new products and expand into new markets.

Mighty Networks vs Circle Key Features Tables

Circle Community Platform Reviewed

Circle is a social networking platform that makes community building easy. 

It has tools to create forums, groups, and pages. As a result, you can build communities that share similar interests. 

In addition, Circle allows you to share links and other content on different platforms. 

It also has features for managing communities, such as a curated timeline and notifications.

Circle offers an easy way to create, manage, and collaborate on virtual communities. 

The platform is modular, so you can create multiple spaces and customize access to each space. 

For example, you can control who can create new topics, and which topics appear on the top of your page. 

You can also choose to make your community private or public. The system is free for basic users, but you can upgrade if you want more features.

As earlier stated, Circle was founded by three former colleagues from Teachable, where they worked for five years. 

One was Sid Yadav, who was the first designer of Teachable. The other two were Andrew Guttormsen, the VP of growth at the time, and Rudy Santino, the head of design at the company. Circle allows for seamless integration with other platforms. 

It doesn’t offer its own payment system, but it integrates with PayPal, Stripe, and Stripe.

Circle is easy to use and has a clean interface that includes a search bar and profile tabs. 

The platform also allows you to customize notifications and sort posts by various criteria. 

Its members’ tab features a video library with insight from Circle experts. Another tab includes a group chat for members.

Circle is a useful tool for churches and organizations looking to make more connections online. 

Who is Circle Ideal For?

Circle is suitable for: Creators and Brands.

Circle is an ideal solution for creators who want to connect with their audiences. 

The software is plug-and-play and makes it easy to connect your audience with your content. 

It works just like a forum and has features for creating comments, pinning posts, and more. It also has powerful member director features and bulk import capabilities.

Circle allows community members to communicate and collaborate through group chats, direct messages, and a weekly digest email. 

Members can also easily find each other through tags and custom profile fields. 

The site provides several benefits to course creators, including multiple membership levels, group coaching, and weekly training. 

Circle also allows users to create chat rooms with up to 50 members and assign admins.

Features of Circle

• Design your community with spaces
• Rich posts & content
• Custom branding and style
• 1000s of integrations with your favorite apps and tools
• Advanced analytics
• Paid memberships, recurring subscriptions, Gate access, Offer upsells, etc.
• Immersive live streams with co-hosts
• Event spaces with calendars & RSVPs
• Rich profiles and searchable member directory
• Weekly training and educational workshops

Circle Plans & Pricing

Circle offers 3 distinct plans and pricing:

• Basic ($39/month): Get started with a simple community and access the essential features. Access to Rich member profiles, unlimited events, iOS app, etc.
• Professional ($99/month): Unlike more features — everything in Basic, plus Live streams & video, advanced analytics, remove circle branding, CSS customization, etc.
• Enterprise ($399/month): The most advanced plan for growing businesses — dedicated success manager, customer Single Sign-0n (SSO), priority email support, plus everything in Professional.

Note: Every Circle plan comes with a Free 14-Day trial. So take advantage of it today.

What is Circle Useful for?

• Customer communities
• Course Communities
• Membership communities
• Coaching communities
• Clubs & organizations
• Brands & startups

Circle’s ultimate goal is to integrate all of the tools a creator needs to engage with their audience. 

For example, it supports newsletters, podcasts, streaming, merchandise, event calendars, payments, and more. 

How Circle Started

Circle is an all-in-one community platform that was founded by Sid Yadav, Rudy Santino, and Andrew Guttormsen in 2019. 

Essentially, it came 2 years later than Mighty Networks — but it’s still a powerful community platform with amazing features.

If you’re wondering how Circle got its start, it’s worth describing its basic concept. 

The idea is to provide a platform for communities to stitch together different “building blocks” to layout pages. 

The primary mode of communication is through the “Space” feature, which lets creators and community members interact about topics and build custom domains for each community.

The Circle platform works much like Slack and is easy to set up and customize. 

You can create spaces on the site that are private and public. You can also manage which people are allowed to see which spaces. 

You can also use Circle to keep private conversations private from public views. Circle also makes it easy to respond to and join conversations.

Whether you’re looking to build a community for your podcast or create a newsletter, Circle can help you succeed. 

The platform allows you to create a private or public group for each type of community. Each group can contain as many or as few as 50 members. You can also assign admins to every chat room.

Another great feature of Circle is the ability to create your own space groups. 

This feature allows you to customize your own community and segment your audience using criteria. 

Circle also allows you to create events and invite members to attend them. This feature will help you reach hundreds of clients at once.

It currently employs over twenty people in the United States, India, and Europe. Its founders hope to grow the company to over 100 employees. 

Currently, the team spans Europe, Australia, and India, but their main office is based in California.

The Benefits of a Community Building Platform

Here are the core benefits of embracing a community platform:

1). Enhance your brand with a community platform

A community platform is an ideal way to engage with large audiences around common interests. 

A Platform like Circle.so allows members to create free accounts and host a community within the larger platform.

While some communities use free community platforms, others are privately owned and have their own login and website.

Creating a community platform requires creating content relevant to your community members’ needs and interests. 

For example, a B2B SaaS company can add top customers to a private mailing list and share case studies, upcoming product updates, and pain points. 

This approach will allow you to get to know the community members’ needs and help them feel valued.

2). Improve customer lifetime value with community platform

A community platform can be used to boost your customer’s lifetime value. It can help you increase your purchase frequency and increase the amount of money that you earn from each customer. 

By building a personalized customer journey, you can keep your customers engaged and encourage them to make additional purchases. 

This will increase your repurchase rate by as much as 25%. 

It will also allow you to track and understand consumer behavior over time, which will help you improve customer loyalty and increase your customer lifetime value.

A community platform can also help your business reduce the cost of acquiring new customers. The cost of acquiring a new customer is usually 5 to 25 times more than the cost of retaining a current customer, according to Harvard Business Review (HBR).

So, focusing on customer retention and increasing their lifetime value will lead to reduced marketing and sales campaigns, and more cash in your pocket.

3). Encourage peer-to-peer communication with a community platform

Peer-to-peer communication is an important component of successful workplace culture, and a community platform can play a vital role. 

It can encourage employees to talk to each other and work together to solve problems. 

Peer-to-peer communication can also be used to reward good performance. 

Several companies are taking advantage of community platforms to improve employee engagement.

A community platform can facilitate peer-to-peer communication by offering various features such as payment processing, quality assurance, and more. 

Peer-to-peer communication in a corporate community helps employees to form stronger bonds and improve company performance.

4). Get customer feedback with a community platform

Using online communities to solicit feedback from customers is a smart way to focus on what your customers are actually talking about. 

Feedback can also be used to improve your products and services. 

Online communities are often active 24 hours a day, which means they can provide richer feedback than traditional surveys. 

In addition, they help you identify brand advocates and foster deeper relationships with existing customers.

A study by SurveyMonkey found that 91% of people feel that companies should listen to their customers. 

This is especially important for new products, as new features can be improved by taking feedback into account. 

Using a community platform can help you identify any issues that customers are having, and it also allows you to create a dedicated space for this feedback.

5). Growing an online community is cost-effective

While launching an online community via Circle or Mighty Networks can be a significant investment, there are also many benefits. It’s also quite cost-effective compared to building a community that you don’t 100% own.

These communities can help brands build strong relationships with customers and generate more sales and leads. 

They can also help brands innovate new products and reduce support costs. In fact, DEWALT, a power tool company, saved over $6 million by launching its community.

Before starting an online community, you should identify the key stakeholders. An online community should be organized like a business, and have team members assigned to specific tasks. 

This team should be able to share ideas, answer questions, and create content that is useful to members. It is also helpful to create a content calendar for the community.

What is a Community Platform?

An online community platform is a platform that allows you to build an online community and invite members to participate. 

Members can interact with each other and post questions or tips. 

These types of communities can help you reduce the workload of traditional customer support channels. 

In addition, they can help you build resources and answer FAQs. Online communities can also be helpful for businesses because they help them find and engage new customers. 

In addition to addressing customer needs, they can also serve as a way to collect testimonials, share success stories, and more.

Alternative Community Platforms

Tribe vs. Mighty Networks

The comparison between Mighty and Tribe focuses on community management tools.

Both platforms have good community management tools, but Tribe offers some important features and customization options that Mighty Networks doesn’t.

For instance, Mighty lacks an API and no app store. Tribe has an excellent community management platform and supports customization and integrations, such as apps.

For those who want to build a community that has a strong focus on monetization, Tribe is the better choice.

Mighty Networks has more integration options. The Mighty Networks app is available on iOS and Android devices. Users can create a white-label app with personal branding for it in the Google Play Store or App Store.

They can also customize the icon and message content of the app. Mighty Networks also offers a desktop version of its community, as well as mobile versions. The web app also offers more functionality than Mighty Networks.

HiveBrite: A Circle Alternative

HiveBrite is another alternative to Circle. It doesn’t offer a free trial, but it’s more affordable than Mighty Networks.

Nevertheless, both platforms have a host of benefits that make them worthwhile for online communities. You can choose either one of them based on your preferences and budget.

You’ll be glad you did! You’ll be able to find the best platform for your community.

Mighty Networks vs Circle: FAQs

Here are answers to some of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Mighty Networks and Circle:

What is Mighty Networks?

Mighty Networks is a membership community platform that supports online courses, one-to-one services, and digital products. 

It differentiates itself from similar community platforms through its marketplace, which allows creators to identify warm leads and send personalized offers. 

In addition, it provides more features for building online communities, including gamification, basic quizzing options, and dripped content.

Mighty Networks vs Circle: Which is Better?

Mighty Networks is one of the most comprehensive community platforms available. 

Its flexible monetization options make it a great choice for online courses, as it offers all essential business functions in one place. 

Mighty Networks offers tools to build a website, create virtual groups, manage community members, and live stream events. 

On the other hand, Circle is more user-friendly. Circle’s interface is similar to that of Facebook and Slack groups. It is also easier to use than Mighty Networks.

It also offers more features. Circle also has an online community space that allows members to create courses and posts.