I may earn a commission from some of the platforms mentioned on this page. It never costs you extra, and it doesn’t change what I write.
The price on the pricing page is not what you pay. That’s not a criticism of anyone — it’s just how this category is built.
Every one of these platforms charges you in at least two places, and most people only look at one of them. So I sat down and did the arithmetic properly: three layers of cost, six platforms, three realistic revenue levels. The results were not what I expected, and one of them was almost embarrassing in how large the gap was.
If you’re deciding where to put your community, this is the math nobody does for you.
The three layers
Here’s what actually leaves your account each month.
Layer one: the subscription. The number on the pricing page. $9, $49, $89, $179 — whatever plan you picked. This is the part everyone compares.
Layer two: the platform’s transaction fee. A percentage of everything you collect from members. This ranges from nothing to 10% depending on the platform and the plan. This is the part almost nobody compares, and it’s usually bigger than layer one.
Layer three: payment processing. Stripe’s standard rate, typically 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. This one you pay no matter which platform you choose, so it doesn’t change your decision — but it changes your take-home, and people forget to budget for it.
Layers one and two are the ones that should drive your choice. Let’s put real numbers on them.
The setup for these calculations
To compare fairly, I’ll use one scenario shape and vary the size: members paying $50 per month.
- Small: 10 members, $500/month
- Growing: 60 members, $3,000/month
- Established: 200 members, $10,000/month
All platform prices below are monthly-billing rates taken from each company’s own pricing page. Every total is subscription plus the platform’s own transaction fee. I’ve left Stripe out of the comparison tables — it’s the same for everyone — but I’ll come back to it, because it matters more than you’d think.
Small: 10 members, $500/month
| Platform & plan | Subscription | Platform fee | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skool Hobby | $9 | 10% = $50 | $59 |
| Podia Mover | $42 | 5% = $25 | $67 |
| Heartbeat Build | $49 | 5% = $25 | $74 |
| Podia Shaker | $84 | none | $84 |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $79 | 2% = $10 | $89 |
| Circle Professional | $89 | 2% = $10 | $99 |
| Skool Pro | $99 | 2.9% = $14.50 | $113.50 |
| Kajabi Basic | $179 | 2% = $10 | $189 |
At this size, the cheap plans genuinely are cheap. Skool’s $9 Hobby tier wins, and its 10% fee only costs $50 because $500 is a small number to take 10% of.
This is the stage where most advice you’ll read was written, and it’s why “just start on Skool” is such common advice. At $500 a month, it’s correct.
Growing: 60 members, $3,000/month
Now watch what happens.
| Platform & plan | Subscription | Platform fee | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Podia Shaker | $84 | none | $84 |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $79 | 2% = $60 | $139 |
| Circle Professional | $89 | 2% = $60 | $149 |
| Skool Pro | $99 | 2.9% = $87 | $186 |
| Podia Mover | $42 | 5% = $150 | $192 |
| Heartbeat Build | $49 | 5% = $150 | $199 |
| Heartbeat Grow | $149 | 2.5% = $75 | $224 |
| Kajabi Basic | $179 | 2% = $60 | $239 |
| Skool Hobby | $9 | 10% = $300 | $309 |
Skool’s Hobby plan went from cheapest to most expensive. It didn’t change — your revenue did.
And Podia’s Shaker plan, which looked mid-priced at $84 in the first table, is now the cheapest option on the board by $55 a month. The reason is simple and easy to miss on the pricing page: Shaker has no platform transaction fee at all. When your revenue grows, a fixed cost stays fixed while a percentage doesn’t.
I want to be straightforward about something here: Podia is not one of the platforms I earn a commission from. It’s the cheapest option in this table anyway, and leaving it out would make this article useless to you.
Established: 200 members, $10,000/month
| Platform & plan | Subscription | Platform fee | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Podia Shaker | $84 | none | $84 |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $79 | 2% = $200 | $279 |
| Mighty Networks Scale | $179 | 1% = $100 | $279 |
| Circle Professional | $89 | 2% = $200 | $289 |
| Circle Business | $199 | 1% = $100 | $299 |
| Kajabi Growth | $249 | 1% = $100 | $349 |
| Kajabi Basic | $179 | 2% = $200 | $379 |
| Skool Pro | $99 | 2.9% = $290 | $389 |
| Heartbeat Grow | $149 | 2.5% = $250 | $399 |
At this level the percentage is doing all the work. Skool’s Pro plan costs $99 on the pricing page and $389 in reality. Podia’s Shaker costs $84 on the pricing page and $84 in reality.
The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive here is $315 per month, or roughly $3,800 a year, for tools that are broadly trying to do the same job.
The crossover points
Here’s the part I think is genuinely useful, and I haven’t seen anyone publish it.
Every platform with two tiers has a revenue level where the expensive plan becomes the cheaper plan. Below it, stay put. Above it, upgrading saves you money — not just gets you more features, actually saves you money.
I solved for each one. The formula is just setting the two plans equal: subscription₁ + rate₁ × revenue = subscription₂ + rate₂ × revenue.
| Platform | Upgrade from → to | Crossover point (monthly revenue) |
|---|---|---|
| Podia | Mover → Shaker | $840 |
| Skool | Hobby → Pro | $1,268 |
| Heartbeat | Build → Grow | $4,000 |
| Kajabi | Basic → Growth | $7,000 |
| Mighty Networks | Launch → Scale | $10,000 |
| Circle | Professional → Business | $11,000 |
Read that table as a set of alarms. When your monthly community revenue crosses the number next to your platform, you’re paying more than you need to until you upgrade.
The Skool one is the sharpest, because the gap between its two fee rates is so wide. Every month you stay on Hobby past $1,268 in revenue costs you money, and the cost grows the more successful you get. At $3,000/month it’s $123 wasted. At $5,000/month it’s $278.
The Podia one is the easiest to act on: at $840 a month in revenue, moving from Mover to Shaker starts paying for itself, and it keeps paying more the bigger you get.
The costs that aren’t in any table
A few things won’t show up in the arithmetic above, and they’ve caught people out.
Payment processing on top of everything. Stripe’s typical 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction applies regardless of platform. At 60 members paying $50, that’s $87 in percentage plus $18 in per-transaction fees — $105 a month that no platform comparison will show you, because it’s identical everywhere. Budget for it as a line item.
Note the per-transaction part specifically. Thirty cents sounds like nothing, but it’s charged per payment, not per dollar. A community of 200 members paying $50 pays $60 a month in flat fees alone. A community of 50 members paying $200 — same revenue — pays $15. Fewer, larger payments cost you less, which is one of the quieter arguments for annual billing or higher-priced tiers.
Member caps that force an upgrade. Heartbeat’s Build plan covers 350 members and Grow covers 5,000. If you cross a cap, you move up whether the fee math says you should or not. Most other platforms on this list state unlimited members on the plans compared here, so this is specific rather than general — but it’s the kind of thing that turns a planned budget into an unplanned one.
Add-ons priced separately. Heartbeat lists native video hosting as a $19/month add-on unless you’re on a higher tier. That’s $228 a year that doesn’t appear on the plan comparison.
Annual billing discounts. Skool and Mighty Networks both advertise roughly two months free on annual billing. Circle and Heartbeat also discount annually. Paying yearly is usually a 15–20% saving, which on a $179/month plan is real money — but it also means committing before you know whether the platform suits you. My honest read: take the monthly rate for the first few months, then switch to annual once you’re sure.
So what do you do with all this?
Three things, in order.
Work out your actual monthly community revenue. Not your best month, not your projection — the number you can count on. Everything above depends on it, and using an optimistic figure will point you at the wrong plan.
Check where you sit against the crossover table. If you’re already past your platform’s crossover point, that’s a change you can make this week that puts money back in your pocket with no downside.
Then, and only then, compare on fit. Because here’s the thing the numbers don’t say: the cheapest option isn’t automatically the right one.
Podia comes out cheapest in two of the three scenarios above, and it’s a genuinely good deal. But it’s a creator business platform where community is one feature among several — courses, digital products, email, a website. If community is your product, you may well find it thinner than the tools built specifically for that job, and paying $200 more a month for something your members actually enjoy using is not a bad trade.
Cost tells you what you’re spending. It doesn’t tell you what you’re getting.
Where I’d start
If your community revenue is under about $800 a month, the cheap entry plans are genuinely cheap and you should take one. Skool’s Hobby plan at $9 is the lowest-commitment way in — just set yourself a reminder at $1,268.
If you’re somewhere between $1,000 and $10,000 a month and community is the main event, Mighty Networks and Circle both sit at 2% on their entry plans and stay reasonable as you grow. Both offer a 14-day trial without a card, so the cost of finding out is zero.
If you’re conversation-first rather than content-first, Heartbeat is worth the trial — just check its member caps against where you expect to be in a year, since that’s what will move you between tiers before the fees do.
Whichever you pick, run the crossover number for your own revenue before you commit to a plan. It takes two minutes and it’s the highest-return arithmetic in this whole business.