Mighty Networks

Name: Mighty Networks
Brand: Mighty Networks
Price: 79950 USD

Cohort courses, memberships, and a branded app for creators who teach

Mighty Networks is a community platform for creators, coaches, and educators that combines discussion spaces, on-demand and cohort-based courses, live events and streaming, memberships with paywalls, an AI cohost, and native mobile apps under a custom domain, charging $79 per month with a 2 percent transaction fee, $179 with a 1 percent fee, or a custom-priced Mighty Pro tier at 0.5 percent that includes fully branded apps in the App Store.

Visit website

Overview

Mighty Networks is the oldest venture-backed company in the creator side of this category, founded in 2010 by Gina Bianchini, who had previously co-founded Ning with Marc Andreessen. That history matters: Bianchini has been building community software for two decades, and the product reflects a strong point of view about what makes communities work, packaged as a methodology the company calls Community Design, built around monthly themes, weekly events, and daily questions.

The claim the company leads with is that 84 percent of content on Mighty is created by members rather than hosts, which is the metric that separates a community from a broadcast channel. Whether or not that figure generalizes to your community, it signals the design priority: the product invests heavily in member-to-member connection, matchmaking, and participation prompts rather than in publishing tools for the host. The AI cohost extends this, planning content and nudging engagement rather than writing marketing copy.

Feature-wise it overlaps almost completely with Circle, and the two are usually shortlisted together. Spaces, courses, cohort courses, events, live streaming, chat, DMs, a member directory, paywalls, bundles, custom domains, native apps, analytics, an API, and Zapier are all present. The differences are at the edges: Mighty Networks is stronger on cohort-based courses and structured member matchmaking, Circle is stronger on email marketing and developer surface, and Mighty Networks starts $10 a month cheaper with the same 2 percent transaction fee.

The tier that defines the company is Mighty Pro, the custom-priced top plan that includes fully branded apps in the App Store and Google Play, a dedicated strategy team, launch support, migration services, 4TB of storage, unlimited hosts and moderators, and a 0.5 percent transaction fee. This is a real service business rather than a software tier, and it is how Mighty Networks serves large creators who want their own app without building one. It is also the point at which the product stops being self-serve.

Best for

Coaches, educators, and creators whose product is a course or a cohort program with a community around it, especially those running structured cohorts on a schedule, and larger creators who want their own branded app in the App Store with a services team behind the launch.

Not the right fit for

B2B customer communities; there is no SSO on the published tiers, no support-desk integration, no ideas or roadmap portal, and no knowledge base in the sense Bettermode or Discourse mean it.
Free communities where the platform fee provides no return; $79 a month buys billing and course infrastructure that a free community will never touch, and Discourse's free tier does the discussion part for nothing.
Anyone who needs a branded mobile app on a published price; Mighty Pro is custom-quoted and requires a demo request, so the flagship differentiator has no visible cost.
Communities that want public, search-indexed discussion as an acquisition channel; Mighty Networks supports public content but is built around a gated member experience, and organic search is not why anyone buys it.
Developer-led teams wanting deep programmatic control; the API exists but is not the platform's strength, and Bettermode's GraphQL surface or Discourse's complete REST API are in a different class.

How it works

1
You start a 14-day trial with no credit card, name the network, and point a custom domain at it. Both published tiers include the custom domain, so the community lives at your own address from the start.
2
You organize members into spaces, which can each be a discussion feed, a course, an events calendar, or a chat room, with permissions deciding who sees what. Free and paid membership levels coexist inside one network.
3
Courses come in two shapes and the distinction is the product's strength. On-demand courses are self-paced with lessons and progress tracking; cohort courses run on a timeline with a group moving through together, which is the format most coaching and education businesses actually sell.
4
Events and live streaming run inside the network, with streaming hours allocated by plan: 20 to 30 hours a month on Launch and Scale, 50 on Mighty Pro. Challenges and mini-courses provide shorter engagement formats between the big offerings.
5
Money runs through the platform's own checkout, gating spaces, courses, and bundles behind one-time or recurring payments, with Mighty Networks taking 2 percent on Launch, 1 percent on Scale, or 0.5 percent on Mighty Pro before payout. Members reach all of it through native iOS and Android apps, or through your own branded app if you are on Mighty Pro.

Feature breakdown

26 features in 5 modules

Community and member connection

Where the Community Design methodology actually shows up in the product.

Spaces: Permissioned areas that can each be a feed, a course, an events calendar, or a chat room, so one network holds free and paid membership levels without running two products.
Member directory and profiles: A searchable directory with structured profiles, which the platform leans on more heavily than competitors because member-to-member connection is the explicit design goal.
Chat and direct messages: Real-time chat rooms and member DMs alongside the slower discussion, so casual conversation stays inside the network.
Challenges and mini-courses: Short structured formats that create participation between major course launches, which is the concrete implementation of the weekly-event and daily-question rhythm the company preaches.
Moderation tools: Content and member moderation sized for a host-and-moderators model, with 10 moderators on Launch and 15 on Scale.
Host and moderator seats: 3 hosts and 10 moderators on Launch, 5 and 15 on Scale, unlimited on Mighty Pro. Nearly identical to Circle's caps, and a common reason to upgrade for non-feature reasons.

Courses and learning

The strongest part of the product and the main reason to pick it over Circle.

On-demand courses: Self-paced lessons with modules and member progress tracking, available on both published tiers rather than gated to a higher plan.
Cohort-based courses: Courses that run on a timeline with a group progressing together, which is the format most coaching and education businesses actually sell and which Mighty Networks handles better than most competitors.
Live streaming: Native streaming inside the network with 20 to 30 hours a month on Launch and Scale and 50 hours on Mighty Pro, so weekly sessions do not need a separate webinar tool.
Events with RSVPs: Scheduled events with member RSVPs and calendar integration, treated as a first-class content type rather than a bolt-on.
Storage allowances: 200GB on Launch, 500GB on Scale, and 4TB on Mighty Pro. Video course libraries are what consume this.

Monetization

A fee curve identical to Circle's, at a slightly lower base price.

Memberships and paywalls: Gate spaces, courses, and events behind one-time purchases or recurring subscriptions, with access managed automatically by payment status.
Transaction fee by tier: 2 percent on Launch, 1 percent on Scale, 0.5 percent on Mighty Pro, charged on top of payment processing. This is the number that decides your plan.
Bundles: Package multiple courses, spaces, or memberships into a single offer, so a course-plus-community product is one purchase rather than two.
Unlimited members on every tier: Neither published plan caps membership, so growth never triggers a pricing cliff. This is a significant advantage over Heartbeat and Bettermode, which both band by member count.

Brand, mobile, and Mighty Pro

The tier that made the company's reputation, and the one with no published price.

Custom domain on both published tiers: Included from the $79 Launch plan, so even the entry tier runs at your own address rather than on a vendor subdomain.
Native iOS and Android apps: Members get real mobile apps on every tier, carrying Mighty Networks branding until you reach Mighty Pro.
Branded apps via Mighty Pro: Your own app in the App Store and Google Play under your own name, the platform's flagship differentiator, available only on the custom-priced Mighty Pro tier.
Dedicated strategy team and launch support: Mighty Pro is a services relationship as much as a software tier, including a strategy team, launch support, migration assistance, and custom design.
Public content and SEO: Content can be made public, but the product is architected around a gated member experience and search is not a serious acquisition channel here.

AI, analytics, and integrations

Competent rather than remarkable, which is the honest read.

AI cohost: An assistant that helps with content planning, conversation starters, and member engagement, available on all tiers as an optional layer rather than an upsell.
AI writing assistant: Drafting help for posts, prompts, and course material, included across tiers.
Automation: Onboarding and re-engagement sequences triggered by member behaviour, which is how a small team keeps a large network active.
Analytics and reporting: Member, engagement, and revenue reporting inside the platform rather than requiring exports.
API access: A developer API is available, though it is not the platform's strength and does not approach Bettermode's GraphQL surface or Discourse's REST coverage.
Zapier and third-party integrations: Zapier plus a workmanlike native connector set, adequate for creator workflows and thin next to a B2B platform's CRM depth.

Use cases

4 documented

Educator running quarterly cohorts

Four cohorts a year, each with a fixed curriculum on a timeline, weekly live sessions, and a private discussion space that should close when the cohort ends.

Cohort courses handle the timeline natively, live streaming covers the weekly session inside the network, and permissioned spaces plus paywall rules handle access and expiry. This is the workflow the product is best at and where it beats Circle.

Coach with an established audience wanting their own app

Ten thousand members and a brand strong enough that a Mighty Networks-branded app undermines the positioning, but no appetite for building an app in-house.

Mighty Pro delivers a fully branded app in both stores with a strategy team behind the launch and a 0.5 percent transaction fee, which for a large creator is a meaningfully different business than the self-serve tiers.

Creator migrating off Facebook groups

Twelve thousand members inside a Facebook group with no billing, no search, no course delivery, and a platform that owns the relationship.

Unlimited members on the $79 Launch plan, a custom domain, native mobile apps, paywalls, and a course builder move the community onto owned infrastructure. Mighty Pro's migration services exist specifically for this transition at larger scale.

Membership business optimizing fees

Twenty-five thousand dollars a month in recurring memberships, currently on Launch at a 2 percent fee costing $500 a month.

Moving to Scale at $179 halves the fee to 1 percent, saving $250 a month against a $100 price increase, and adds storage, streaming hours, and moderator seats. The break-even is around $10,000 in monthly sales.

Pricing

from $79 per month, or $950 per year (Launch)

Flat monthly platform subscription with unlimited members on every tier, plus a percentage transaction fee on everything sold through the platform's checkout, falling as you move up tiers.

Plan	Price	Includes
Launch	$79 per month, or $950 per year	Unlimited members and custom domain On-demand and cohort-based courses Events and 20 to 30 streaming hours per month 3 hosts and 10 moderators, 200GB storage AI cohost and writing assistant Carries a 2 percent transaction fee. Annual billing at $950 is quoted as two months free.
Scale	$179 per month	1 percent transaction fee 5 hosts and 15 moderators 500GB storage Everything in Launch Higher streaming allowance The upgrade is a margin decision. Halving the fee saves $100 a month at roughly $10,000 in monthly sales, which is exactly the price difference.
Mighty Pro	Custom quoted after a demo request	Fully branded apps in the App Store and Google Play 0.5 percent transaction fee Unlimited hosts and moderators, 4TB storage 50 streaming hours per month Dedicated strategy team, launch support, and migration services A services relationship as much as a software tier, and the only route to a branded app. No published price.

Plan

Price

Includes

Launch

$79

per month, or $950 per year

Unlimited members and custom domain
On-demand and cohort-based courses
Events and 20 to 30 streaming hours per month
3 hosts and 10 moderators, 200GB storage
AI cohost and writing assistant

Carries a 2 percent transaction fee. Annual billing at $950 is quoted as two months free.

Scale

$179

per month

1 percent transaction fee
5 hosts and 15 moderators
500GB storage
Everything in Launch
Higher streaming allowance

The upgrade is a margin decision. Halving the fee saves $100 a month at roughly $10,000 in monthly sales, which is exactly the price difference.

Mighty Pro

Custom

quoted after a demo request

Fully branded apps in the App Store and Google Play
0.5 percent transaction fee
Unlimited hosts and moderators, 4TB storage
50 streaming hours per month
Dedicated strategy team, launch support, and migration services

A services relationship as much as a software tier, and the only route to a branded app. No published price.

Billing notes

Launch is $950 per year on annual billing, quoted as two months free against the $79 monthly rate. The annual rate for Scale is not published on the pricing page.
The transaction fee sits on top of payment processing, so the all-in cost on Launch is roughly 4.9 percent plus 30 cents per membership charge once processing is counted.
Members are unlimited on every tier, so unlike Heartbeat and Bettermode you are never forced up a tier by growth alone. Fees and seats are the only levers.
Streaming hours are metered at 20 to 30 a month on the published tiers, which is generous for a weekly session and tight for a network running daily live programming.
Mighty Pro requires a demo request and has no published price at all, so the flagship branded-app capability cannot be budgeted from the website.
The 14-day trial requires no credit card, which is a cleaner evaluation than card-required trials elsewhere in this category.

Value assessment: Mighty Networks is priced almost exactly where it should be relative to Circle: $10 a month cheaper at the entry point with an identical 2 percent fee, unlimited members on both published tiers, and a better cohort-course engine. For a creator whose product is teaching, that combination is the best value in the category on a published price. The weak spot is the top of the range. Scale at $179 is fine, but Mighty Pro is entirely opaque, and since a branded app is the single most-cited reason to choose this platform over Circle, the fact that its price is invisible is a real problem for planning. Judged only on what you can actually buy without a call, Launch at $79 is excellent value and Scale is a rational margin upgrade.

Strengths & limitations

Strengths

The best cohort-based course engine in this category, which matters because timeline-based cohorts are what most coaching and education businesses actually sell.
Unlimited members on every published tier, so growth never triggers a pricing cliff the way it does on Heartbeat and Bettermode.
A custom domain included on the $79 entry plan, which several competitors hold back for higher tiers.
Native iOS and Android apps on every tier, plus a genuine branded-app programme through Mighty Pro with a services team behind the launch.
Two decades of institutional knowledge about community design under a founder who has been doing this since Ning, expressed as a methodology rather than just a feature list.
Strong emphasis on member-to-member connection and matchmaking rather than host broadcasting, backed by the company's claim that 84 percent of content is member-created.
The transaction fee falls to 0.5 percent, matching the lowest published rate in the category, and no member cap ever forces an upgrade.
A 14-day trial with no credit card required, and self-serve signup on both published tiers.

Limitations

Mighty Pro, the platform's flagship differentiator, is entirely unpriced and requires a demo request, so the reason many buyers choose Mighty Networks cannot be budgeted from the website.
No SSO on published tiers, no support-desk integrations, no knowledge base or ideas portal, so a B2B customer community is out of scope.
The API exists but is not a strength; teams needing deep programmatic control will find Bettermode's GraphQL or Discourse's REST API in a different class.
Streaming hours are metered on published tiers, which constrains networks running daily live programming without moving to Mighty Pro.
Public discussion is not a meaningful search acquisition channel, so the community generates no organic traffic the way a Discourse forum does.
Host and moderator caps of 3 and 10 on Launch force upgrades for staffing reasons rather than for capability.
The company has been around since 2010 and has repositioned several times across the creator-economy cycle, and third-party headcount figures for 2026 range from roughly 79 to 133 depending on the source, so the trajectory is harder to read than Circle's.

Head-to-head comparisons

5 alternatives

Mighty Networks vs Circle

from $89 per month (Professional)

The closest match in this category, with near-identical features and an identical 2 percent to 0.5 percent fee curve. Mighty Networks starts $10 cheaper, handles cohort courses better, and has a more established branded-app programme. Circle has the stronger monetization and email stack, a better API, and a larger, better-funded company behind it. Choose Mighty Networks if your product is a course or cohort with a community around it; choose Circle if the community itself is the product and you want the deeper commercial tooling.

Full Mighty Networks vs Circle comparison

Mighty Networks vs Skool

from $9 per month (Hobby)

Skool costs $9 or $99 against $79 or $179, has no member limits either, and drives daily participation harder through gamification, but permanently brands the community as Skool's and offers one fixed layout. Mighty Networks gives you a custom domain, cohort courses, live streaming, and a route to your own app. Take Skool if cost and engagement are everything; take Mighty Networks if the community must carry your brand and your teaching is structured.

Full Mighty Networks vs Skool comparison

Mighty Networks vs Heartbeat

from $49 per month, or $40 per month billed annually (Build)

Heartbeat is cheaper to start at $49 and feels like Discord, with better automation workflows, but caps Build at 350 members and charges a 5 percent fee there, and its branded app needs the $849 Scale plan. Mighty Networks has unlimited members and a 2 percent fee from $79. Heartbeat suits a small chat-heavy community; Mighty Networks suits one that is growing and course-led, and its pricing does not punish free growth.

Full Mighty Networks vs Heartbeat comparison

Mighty Networks vs Whop

from $0 per month, then 2.7 percent plus 30 cents per successful card transaction

Whop charges no monthly fee and takes 2.7 percent plus 30 cents, with a marketplace that can actively send you buyers, but it is a commerce and access layer rather than a community product with cohort courses and streaming. Mighty Networks costs $79 and gives you the whole teaching business. If you already have an audience elsewhere and only need to sell access, Whop is cheaper; if the network is where the learning happens, Mighty Networks is the product.

Full Mighty Networks vs Whop comparison

Mighty Networks vs Raklet

from $0 (Free), then $59 per month, or $49 per month billed annually (Essentials)

Raklet is aimed at associations, nonprofits, and clubs, with a member CRM, dues renewals, digital membership cards, and a free plan, where discussion and courses are secondary. Mighty Networks is aimed at creators selling courses and memberships, with cohorts and streaming as the core. An alumni association or professional body should take Raklet; a coach running paid cohorts should take Mighty Networks.

Full Mighty Networks vs Raklet comparison

Implementation & onboarding

Setup time: A live network in an afternoon. Spaces, a custom domain, payment setup, and a first course outline are all self-serve. Designing the actual member rhythm the company's methodology calls for takes considerably longer than the software configuration does.
Learning curve: Moderate for hosts. The spaces and permissions model and the cohort-course scheduler both reward planning before building, and networks that improvise their structure usually rebuild it. Members need no instruction.
Onboarding: Self-serve on Launch and Scale with a 14-day trial and no credit card. Mighty Pro is a full services engagement including a dedicated strategy team, launch support, migration assistance, and custom design, which is a large part of what the unpublished price buys.
Migration notes: Mighty Networks actively courts switchers and runs a dedicated migration programme, with hands-on migration services included on Mighty Pro. Coming from Facebook groups, Circle, or a course platform is a supported path. Leaving is the usual proprietary-platform story: member and content exports are available, but the space structure, threading, and course progress data do not reconstitute cleanly on another platform.

Platform, API & security

Platforms: Web appNative iOS appNative Android appFully branded iOS and Android apps on Mighty ProCustom domain hosting
API: A developer API is available for member and content operations, plus Zapier for no-code workflows. It is functional rather than a headline capability.
Compliance: GDPRPayment processing handled through a third-party processor
Data residency: Not published as a selectable option.
SSO: Not offered on the published tiers. Members authenticate with Mighty Networks accounts. Identity arrangements on Mighty Pro would be a matter for that sales conversation.
Security notes: Mighty Networks does not publish an audit certification or trust centre prominently on its public pricing and feature pages. Buyers with a formal security review should request current documentation directly rather than assuming SOC 2 coverage.

Support & resources

Channels: Email support on published tiersIn-app helpDedicated strategy team and launch support on Mighty Pro
Documentation: A substantial help centre covering spaces, courses, cohorts, events, payments, custom domains, and the mobile apps, alongside a large body of published material on the company's Community Design methodology.
Community: Mighty Networks runs its own large host community on the platform, and the company invests heavily in educational programming for hosts, which functions as both support and marketing.

Company

Founded: 2010
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California, United States
Ownership: Venture-backed
Founders: Gina Bianchini, Tim Herby, Thomas Aaron
Employees: Third-party trackers report figures ranging from roughly 79 to 133 in 2026; not published by the company
Funding: Approximately $67.9M raised across multiple rounds from investors including First Round Capital, Intel Capital, and Floodgate, including a $50M round announced in April 2021 at the peak of creator-economy funding.

Funding history

Round	Amount	Year	Notes
Early rounds	Part of the approximately $67.9M total	2011	Backed by First Round Capital, Intel Capital, and Floodgate following the 2010 founding.
Series B	$50M	2021	Announced in April 2021, aimed at building a creator economy for a mass market rather than for top creators.

Timeline

2010Founded by Gina Bianchini, previously co-founder and CEO of Ning with Marc Andreessen, alongside Tim Herby and Thomas Aaron.
2017Relaunches around the Mighty Networks name and the Community Design methodology, moving decisively toward creators and educators.
2021Raises $50M in April at the peak of creator-economy investment, bringing total funding to roughly $67.9M.
2022Mighty Pro matures into a full branded-app and services business, becoming the differentiator large creators choose the platform for.
2026Ships an AI cohost and writing assistant across all tiers, positioning AI as an engagement and planning aid rather than a content-generation upsell.

Integrations

Payment processing for memberships and course sales
Zapier
Calendar integrations for events
Email notifications and automated sequences
Developer API
Native iOS and Android apps, with branded apps on Mighty Pro

Frequently asked questions

10 questions

What is Mighty Networks?

Mighty Networks is a community platform for creators, coaches, and educators. It combines discussion spaces, on-demand and cohort-based courses, live events and streaming, memberships with paywalls, an AI cohost, a member directory, and native mobile apps, all under your own custom domain. It was founded in 2010 by Gina Bianchini, previously co-founder of Ning.

How much does Mighty Networks cost?

Launch is $79 a month, or $950 a year which the company quotes as two months free, with a 2 percent transaction fee. Scale is $179 a month with a 1 percent fee. Mighty Pro is custom-quoted after a demo request and carries a 0.5 percent fee plus branded apps and a services team. There is a 14-day trial with no credit card required and no free plan.

What is the transaction fee on paid memberships and courses?

2 percent on Launch, 1 percent on Scale, and 0.5 percent on Mighty Pro, charged on top of payment processing. This is the number that should decide your plan. Upgrading from Launch to Scale costs $100 more per month and halves the fee, so the upgrade pays for itself at roughly $10,000 in monthly sales.

Are there member limits?

No. Members are unlimited on every tier, including the $79 Launch plan. This is a genuine advantage over Heartbeat, which caps its entry plan at 350 members, and Bettermode, which bands by member count. Host and moderator seats are limited at 3 and 10 on Launch and 5 and 15 on Scale, and those caps are what actually force upgrades for most networks.

Can I get a branded mobile app and what does it cost?

Yes, through Mighty Pro, which puts your own app in the App Store and Google Play under your own name with a dedicated strategy team, launch support, and migration services behind it. Mighty Networks does not publish a price for it; you have to request a demo. Members on the published tiers get native iOS and Android apps carrying Mighty Networks branding.

How good are the courses, and what is a cohort course?

Courses are first-class and the strongest part of the product. On-demand courses are self-paced with modules and progress tracking. Cohort courses run on a timeline with a group moving through together, with scheduled sessions and shared deadlines, which is the format most coaching and education businesses actually sell. Mighty Networks handles cohorts better than most competitors, and it is the clearest reason to pick it over Circle.

Will Mighty Networks content show up in Google?

Content can be made public, but you should not choose the platform for this. Mighty Networks is architected around a gated member experience, and organic search traffic from discussion is not a channel it competes on. If indexed public discussion is part of your acquisition plan, Discourse or Bettermode are built for that and this is not.

How does it compare to just running a Facebook group?

A Facebook group is free and has an audience already inside it, and everything else about it is worse. You cannot charge members, there is no course delivery or progress tracking, search barely works, Meta owns the relationship and the data, and the group can disappear without recourse. Mighty Networks gives you unlimited members on your own domain with billing, courses, streaming, and mobile apps for $79 a month. Migrating off Facebook is one of the platform's most common use cases and Mighty Pro includes services for it.

How hard is it to leave Mighty Networks?

The usual proprietary-platform answer. Member lists and content exports are available, but the space structure, discussion threading, course progress data, and member relationships do not reconstitute cleanly on Circle, Skool, or Discourse. Migration into Mighty Networks is well supported and even serviced on Mighty Pro; migration out is your problem. Treat the archive as substantially locked in.

Who runs Mighty Networks and how is it funded?

It was founded in 2010 by Gina Bianchini, who previously co-founded and led Ning with Marc Andreessen, alongside Tim Herby and Thomas Aaron, and is based in Palo Alto. It has raised roughly $67.9M from investors including First Round Capital, Intel Capital, and Floodgate, including a $50M round in April 2021. Third-party headcount estimates for 2026 range from about 79 to 133, and the company does not publish a figure.

Editorial verdict

Mighty Networks is the right pick when teaching is the point. The cohort-course engine is the best in this category, live streaming is included, members are unlimited on every published tier, the custom domain starts at $79, and the fee curve matches Circle's while the base price undercuts it. Two decades of thinking about what makes members talk to each other rather than to the host shows in the product. The reservations are about transparency and scope. Mighty Pro, which is the flagship reason large creators choose this platform, has no published price at all, and there is no SSO, no support-desk integration, and no meaningful search visibility, so a B2B customer community should look at Bettermode or Discourse instead. For a coach, an educator, or a creator running structured cohorts under their own brand, this is the strongest published-price option available and a genuine alternative to Circle rather than a lesser one.

Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.