Community Platforms
Best Circle Alternatives for Membership Sites & Online Courses (2026 Guide)
We have reviewed seven alternatives to Circle and compared how their course hosting, community features, monetization, and marketing tools compare.
Circle positioned itself as the ‘home for your digital business ’, initially focusing on creators as its primary user base. While it started out as a community platform, it has evolved multiple times over the years since it was released in 2020. While it initially focused on creators, it has gradually moved towards having primarily enterprise clients as of 2026.
Started by former Teachable team members Sid Yadav, Rudy Santino, and Andrew Guttormsen, the Circle platform retained the same learning management system features Teachable had, but the former members focused on making Circle a lot more community-focused.
While the platform has succeeded in becoming an ecosystem where creators can ditch the fragmented tech stack and keep everything underneath one roof, there are roadblocks and use cases that Circle does not always excel at.
What is a community platform?
A community platform’s core focus is to create a digital space where a creator can build, connect with, and grow their communities.
The core features a creator would look for when creating one would be:
Threaded conversations
If your primary goal is to foster community and engagement, any platform you use as a creator should have the basics, like the ability to have threaded conversations so topics are kept in dedicated spaces.
At Swarm, we like to keep text, video, voice notes, and screen shares available in the same thread so members can post questions and creators can start discussions dedicated to specific topics.
Monetization Tools
The goal for most creators is to be able to monetize their community, whether that is through memberships, gated content, course sales, or digital products.
The right platform will not just give you one or two of those options but rather should have all of them available.
Monetization through one-time payments, memberships, paid coaching, live events, or tiered pricing where the member pays a fee to access certain exclusive content.
Beyond this, having features like the ability to add discounts or create an affiliate program allows a creator to grow further and experiment.
Moderation controls
As your community grows, you will hire out certain roles, and having the ability to set what different admins have access to is an important feature to have when building out your team’s duties.
A community platform should have different user roles, the ability to set guidelines, and filter spam.
Resource libraries
Whether your community is hosting memberships, courses, digital products, or videos, a platform should have resource hubs that allow you to build and host those digital assets.
Private messaging
We discussed threaded conversations and the importance of encouraging engagement within your community. In the same vein, allowing members to reach out to creators or their team directly is important.
Platforms should also allow members to message each other and change their privacy settings depending on personal preferences. This could mean allowing members to decide who can contact them privately (just admins or all members).
Polls and surveys
Quick polls and surveys can help creators decide what course category they should focus on, what webinar they should do next, and generally get an aggregated opinion from their community.
Virtual events
A platform needs to be able to host events where creators can engage with members and keep the final recording in their database for members who missed out on the event.
Ideally, creators should also be able to present and explain concepts using their screen during the event.
Live streaming
In a similar vein to virtual events, live streaming allows creators to have teaching sessions or AMAs. These recordings can then be added to the resource library for members who missed the live stream.
Webinars
Webinars where creators can invite guests, have Q&As with members, and funnel participants into potentially signing up for their course or membership are an important feature for any creator with a sales funnel.
The webinar should have features like slide deck integrations, synchronized screen sharing, virtual whiteboards, and co-browsing so creators can easily share learning material.
Platforms also now host moderation features that separate Q&A questions from general chat, which is a useful feature to keep the communication and discussion clean and well-formatted.
Calendar
On the topic of webinars, live events, and streams- having a calendar that hosts the specific details is an important supporting feature. The calendar can also include details on workshops, office hours, and local meetups.
Gamification
Gamification includes badges, point systems, leaderboards, challenges, and member achievements. Some communities also keep certain content gated until members reach a certain level, earn a certain number of points, or complete a specific challenge.
Automation & Workflows
Basic automations include a welcome video or message, a dedicated onboarding workflow, actions that are triggered by specific member actions, and email marketing automation.
As platforms integrate AI into their features, having AI moderation and content assistance is also becoming increasingly important.
Integrations
While your platform should offer course creation, community features, and basic marketing in one place, you might need specific tools to add on as your community grows.
Integrations can include payment gateways like Stripe, your native email marketing platform, calendar apps, Zapier, or analytics.
What does Circle offer course creators?
After covering the features we think creators should prioritize, let us move on to what Circle’s platform does offer and what it does well.
When you start your trial, you will be prompted to decide between creating a community, migrating one, or ‘just exploring’.
After that, you will select the average number of members in your community, your average annual revenue, and whether you have a team.
After this, you can select what is important to you in regard to features:
Once you have answered the basics, you will have this dashboard as your starting point:
Key Features
Circle has integrated an AI chat option that allows you to describe what you would like to build and helps you get there. I used this example prompt: I would like to create a community for my personal training clients focused on strength-based exercises for women in Boston.
In response, it asked me four basic questions.
Once I sent over my answers, it offered me some suggestions on how I should set up my community on the platform:
Once you ask it to build it out, you will get a basic template to work with. This is what mine looked like:
It renamed my spaces to ‘Discover’ and created groups within it.
It created free public spaces for prospective clients visiting the community.
Paid training spaces included Workouts, Events, and Share Your Wins, which existed inside the Training space.
Member-only community spaces were created and grouped.
Overall, it gives you a nice basic template to build on.
Besides this, Circle has the basic features we covered, like gamification, discussions, spaces, moderation, a course builder, built-in analytics, integrations, and a branded mobile app option that creators can use to create their own fully native iOS and Android app.
Why course creators leave Circle
While Circle is a great all-in-one and they do deliver on their promise to host your digital business under one roof, these are the most common roadblocks we see creators face on the platform:
Engagement drop-off due to overwhelm
While Circle has a lot of engagement features, it can get overwhelming for members if creators simply enable every feature without testing what is actually working.
It leaves members desiring more regarding engagement within the community and feeling generally overwhelmed by notifications that do not serve their purpose.
Creators sometimes seek out platforms that are more straightforward and simplified since the goal is to avoid issues that come up with the complexity of a platform like Circle.
Learning curve
For the same reason, Circle’s complex platform can sometimes mean a learning curve for creators. Creators who do not have a team behind them or just don't want the overwhelm of countless features they are not using decide to move to platforms that better suit their needs.
The goal is to set up a space that is easy to navigate for creators and members alike.
Pricing scale
As your platform grows, you might need features you did not in the beginning. This could be automation or custom-branded apps that are hidden behind higher tiers with higher pricing.
A common issue we see for creators is that they have to pay more than they thought they would when they signed up as their platform grows.
These features can often be found for a lower price on different platforms.
Migration to another platform is limited
Due to the sheer volume of features under the Circle umbrella, there is a lock-in you are signing up for whether you realize it or not.
This means that shifting to another platform is difficult due to the sheer amount of data creators input into Circle without a clear migration tool built into the platform.
Asynchronous content vs. real-time chat
We saw a common core issue arise, which is too many features without a dedicated reason to actually have those features in place.
Another example is Circle’s long-form community discussions (forums) alongside their live chat.
This leaves creators confused about where to start a topic discussion, and information is too spread out across the space, leaving members looking for a specific topic for too long.
What questions to ask before choosing a community platform
As I wrote this piece and tested out different platforms, I became aware of what I was personally searching for when deciding what platform was working best for me. Hopefully these questions can help guide your decision as well.
What kind of community do I want to create?
Is your community designed with peer networking in mind? What kind of service do you plan on providing?
If there are physical elements where there’s something you need to demonstrate (think exercise, occupational therapy, art classes), having a video-focused platform would be of importance. This means a platform that allows you to host videos within the course or host multiple elements like text and video in a seamless format.
If your platform needs a feature like synchronous hangouts, for example, with a group therapy service, that would be something you should add to your list of non-negotiable features.
What features are non-negotiable?
Once you have decided what kind of community you want to create, what service you are providing, and what sort of communication you will be using the most, you can make a list of your non-negotiables with regard to features you need.
This could be a focus on video within the platform, certain monetization options, automations, etc.
Where is my target audience spending time?
The places where your community is already spending time are a good indicator of what kind of community you should focus on building.
For example, if a large swath of your target audience is on Facebook groups or Discord chats, they are comfortable with asynchronous, forum-style discussions.
If they are on Slack, they would be used to a faster, chat-based communication style.
How well does it integrate with your existing tools?
It's important to check which tools you are currently using and how well they integrate with your platform of choice. If they do not integrate, does the platform have an alternative, and is it easy to migrate to that alternative?
Who owns the data?
Is it easy to migrate data like a list of your members, content you have created, or billing data if and when you choose to switch to a new platform?
Under most platforms’ terms of service, the creator retains ownership of the content they create, but the platform normally retains ownership or a broad license of the user data that is compiled during the usage of the platform. This also includes analytics and insights gathered during the time period that the creator uses the platform.
Complete ownership would mean that the creator should have the ability to possess, use, delete, or monetize the data outside of the platform by being able to extract the data and move it to a different platform.
How does pricing scale?
Often, platforms like Circle have a great starting price, but as members need more features or the ability to scale, they need to upgrade to the higher pricing tier quite quickly.
How do you choose the right Circle alternative for your brand journey?
We have dived further into features, pricing, and differences in the specific platform sections below to help give you a quick glimpse of the differences and features in each platform.
Swarm: A video-first Circle alternative focused on community-led learning
Swarm’s primary focus is creating video-first communities, since we see the highest engagement in communities that prioritize video in an age of AI, when many are losing sight of creating an authentic, original space.
With the average internet user spending an average of 11h 39m per week consuming video content, we have realized that prioritizing video content for our communities means supporting them in their growth endeavors.
Other platforms do offer video content in regard to inserting it within courses created, but we wanted to include video content also within communication across the community. We did this by allowing members to send video messages to anyone within the community.
Key Features
Keeping in mind our priority as a community platform is to help creators grow, these are some of the features we have implemented to ensure communities feel alive even while being mostly online.
Community: Video is the primary medium members use to communicate and interact with each other. It is also the primary teaching mechanism employed by creators and coaches.
Discussions can be had within dedicated threads where every reply, whether it is text, video, voice notes, or screen shares, stays within the thread where the topic is being discussed.
Whether you are hosting a mastermind or a Q&A, members don't have to follow a Zoom link. Swarm uses a one-click join policy that lets members join easily from within the community. However, if you do prefer Zoom, you can always paste an external link. Events are recorded and transcribed automatically, with AI summaries included. Members who missed the event live can access it as an evergreen resource later.
A customizable storefront means you can include your brand voice with testimonials, SEO-optimized content, layouts, colors, and more.
Swarm includes a Progressive Web App (PWA) on every plan. If you upgrade to the ‘Scale’ plan at $149/month (when paid yearly), the app becomes branded and customizable, alongside custom branding colors and a custom domain.
AI can help you draft your response with a single click. You can then choose to post it as-is or edit it to your liking.
How much does Swarm really cost?
Swarm has monthly and yearly pricing options, with the yearly option bringing down overall costs by 2 months.
Monthly pricing starts at $29 per month and includes 1000 members and one space.
The downside of this pricing tier is that it comes with a 10% transaction fee when processing payments. This tier is built for creators starting out who are focused on building up their community.
Higher tiers include lower transaction fees at 2% for the ‘Growth’ tier and 0.5% for the ‘Scale’ tier.
Best for
Circle creators who want to focus on member engagement and community growth through a video-first approach.
Pros | Cons |
A large set of features allows anyone from new creators to creators with an established community to create a space that works for them and what they need. | While transaction fees are competitive with other major platforms, the base tier has a 10% transaction fee, which is more suitable for creators just starting. |
Branded apps are available for a fraction of what they cost on other platforms. (The Scale plan at $149/mo includes the branded plan). | Circle has more extensive customization abilities than Swarm since it targets enterprise clients. |
Members value the ability to communicate via video, audio, text, screenshare, etc. within the same thread. | |
The Hive is a community for Swarm creators that is active and consistently helpful. | |
The ability to create topic-specific hubs gives creators greater community control. | |
Customer support is consistently praised by users within reviews on G2 and Trustpilot. |
Trusted Reviews
"The Video-Powered Community Platform That Transforms Online Engagement"
What do you like best about Swarm?
- The unique 1:1 spaces feature enables personalized, asynchronous coaching - members only see their interactions with you, making it perfect for individual support
- Incredibly intuitive interface - participants find it easy to navigate without getting overwhelmed
- Video-first approach creates genuine connection while maintaining flexibility (no need for constant live presence)
- White label option with branded mobile apps (UK-based, which is great for European businesses)
- Integrated course module that seamlessly blends with the community experience
- Clean, professional design that doesn't sacrifice functionality
- After trying Facebook (declining engagement), Skool (group-only limitations), Mighty Networks and Circle (both too overwhelming), Swarm emerged as the clear winner by offering the perfect balance of features and simplicity
- Customer support is really quick and flexible.
What do you dislike about Swarm?
There is nothing really I do not like yet.
As a newer platform in the market, some advanced integrations might still be in development but they are very quick in responding to issues or queries.
And they recently launched a course feature which I am still testing, so still exploring its full capabilities so I haven't included that in my review
"Swarm experience"
What do you like best about Swarm?
I love the built in options for video, audio, or text messaging. The overall format is clean and easy to use. Support is amazing and super responsive. Very happy so far!
What do you dislike about Swarm?
Functionally and options are somewhat limited, but I can see how quickly this platform is growing and how dedicated the team is. I know it will only get better.
Podia: An all-in-one business stack alternative to Circle
Podia has positioned itself as an all-in-one platform for creators. It focuses on helping creators build a website, host their course on the website, create an email address to run an email marketing campaign, and use other community features.
Key Features
Community features
Podia has member-to-member chat, group chats, member profiles, and spaces to help creators focus on community. Member profiles can be populated with a bio, a member photo, and a bio that helps prompt more member communication.
The activity feed, where members can see the latest posts, replies, and highlights, can also include a welcome message, and important posts can be pinned to the top.
Monetization
To help creators scale and monetize their community, Podia helps build sales pages. Creators can then choose what they sell and how they sell it.
This can be a subscription, a one-time sale, or a subscription. Coupons and upsells can be added to any sale a creator is making within the Podia platform.
Building your website and hosting a course
A custom domain and website builder allow creators to build out landing pages they can customize to their liking.
Courses can include unlimited students, video and audio lessons alongside text, file downloads, and quizzes.
Creators can also include these courses in a bulk bundle that can include downloads, events, coaching, and/ or community access.
Note: When going through the site myself, I found the list of features tends to be a little cumbersome to go through compared to other platforms where it is more succinct and easy to understand. A better place to start getting information on the features is the pricing page rather than the features page.
How much does Podia really cost?
Podia can be purchased annually or monthly, starting with a 30-day trial. The monthly pricing starts at $49/ mo and goes up to $179/ mo.
The basic tier ‘Mover’ includes 5% fees, unlimited customers, 50 products, 500 videos, and the ability to create up to 25 spaces.
You also get 100 contacts that can be added to an email list you build out. This can be increased separately by paying more to add more contacts.
Best for
Circle creators that are looking for an all-in-one architecture with a focus on selling digital downloads or courses.
Pros | Cons |
Higher plans have no transaction fees, and the lowest plan has 5% transaction fees, which is relatively competitive. | Since Podia’s priority is to be a streamlined, easy-to-use option for solopreneurs, the website editor and page blocks are not as customizable as other options like the Circle platform. |
Solopreneurs who need multiple features find Podia to be a good starting point. | It does not include advanced sales funnels, which some creators need as their platform grows. |
A clean and intuitive interface is built for creators with a non-technical background. | |
Some competitors limit how many products can be sold or how many students can be included, but Podia keeps both unlimited even on the most basic plan. | |
Free migration support across Podia’s paid plans means their team helps you move your products, courses, and email lists if you are switching from another platform. | |
Email marketing is included in all plans and can be scaled separately if wanted. |
Trusted Reviews
"All-in-One Platform for Websites, Memberships, Email Marketing, and Blogging"
What do you like best about Podia?
It combines so many features into one platform: web site creation, memberships, email marketing, blog
What do you dislike about Podia?
If using only for creating a web site, it is a little pricey. Also, the inability to add code to pages is a negative.
What problems is Podia solving and how is that benefiting you?
An all-in-one web and email solution for a simple business
"Great to sell digital products and courses"
What do you like best about Podia?
Very simple to use and intuitive, it makes it easy to sell digital products and courses in no time. It's really easy to setup everything, and they have affordable plans without fees.
What do you dislike about Podia?
It's hard to personalize your sales pages as their editor is limited. It would be great to have more options for styling and also add media more easily, like timers, etc.
What problems is Podia solving and how is that benefiting you?
I was looking for a simple solution to sell digital products and saw some video reviews, so I tried it and really enjoy using it as it makes everything easy and simple.
Skool: A simple community-focused alternative to Circle
While Podia’s features list was a long read for anyone interested in signing up, Skool’s is short and succinct.
Skool’s platform is one of the simplest starting points a creator can select at $9/ month with unlimited members, courses, live calls, and videos.
This platform is built for creators who want a cheap membership-focused option to host their community.
The downside to this platform is that it does not have many advanced features and is quite bare-bones compared to other platforms. This works best for communities whose primary goal is to have a platform for discussion.
Key Features
Unlimited videos, members, live events, and courses at $9/ moth, but this comes with a steep transaction fee of 10%
Communities can be found by Skool members on the platform, so there is some level of built-in marketing, which is why Skool is often compared to Facebook groups.
Unlike digital storefronts like Kajabi or Swarm, where multiple products and courses can be sold, Skool ties the courses into the general community framework- the two are not separable.
How much does Skool really cost?
The basic ‘Hobby’ plan is $ 9/month with a 10% transaction fee and no custom URL, but unlimited in every other regard. The second plan is $99/ month, which you might be thinking is quite the jump, but the transaction fees go straight down to 2.9%.
Online discussions mention how the plans do not offer much flexibility since there are only two options to work with.
Best for
Pros | Cons |
Community-first and simple to set up. | Limited options in regard to advanced features like marketing, sales funnels, or content customization. |
Skool’s standout feature would be member engagement features that focus on gamification. It includes built-in points, levels, and leaderboards. | Rigid formatting and branding constraints compared to platforms like Teachable or Swarm. |
Its primary focus is clearly community, and it offers those features for an unbeatable price. | We noticed many reviews mention that the approach to gamification encourages competition instead of building community. |
The discovery network on the platform is not something other platforms offer. |
Trusted Reviews
I could not find reviews for Skool on G2 or Trustpilot, so I have included YouTube videos and reviews from other websites instead.
This review on Ruzuku highlights Skool’s simplicity and cheap fees. It mentions that Skool excels in what it does not offer, which is a good way of putting it. That means no decision fatigue and no feature bloat.
Mighty Networks: an enterprise digital campus alternative to Circle
Mighty Networks is one of the platforms I see most often compared to Circle since they share a target audience far more than a platform like Skool, for example.
The platform allows for scalability, with creators being able to create multiple groups, localized chapters, or multiple tiers of content. Creators who also need to host multiple live events benefit from Mighty Network’s built-in calendar features, live streaming abilities, and RSVP tracking.
Key Features
The architecture of this platform is built around what they call a ‘space,’ and you can build multiple spaces for your community. Each space can have a custom mix of discussion feed, real-time chat, calendars, course modules, and a list of members. This allows for a level of customization other platforms do not.
Advanced behavioral triggers, like tracking multi-action participation streaks and peer recognition (where members reward each other), allow for more engagement.
You can go live directly within the platform with the native live streaming feature.
Mighty Networks has a large enough list of features that we can safely say it is best suited for creators who already have a community to work with rather than a solopreneur who is just starting to create one.
How much does Mighty Networks really cost?
Mighty Networks starts at $48 a month, but their pricing page is confusing because you have to scroll down to find that basic plan. This plan includes the option to offer a free mini-course or challenge to validate your membership idea.
It acts more as a tester plan since it is highly focused on helping you validate your membership idea.
The pricing after this is $95, but its list of features is robust and works well for creators with an established community. It includes courses, events, gamification, and automation, with the ability to upgrade to their ‘Scale’ plan before needing custom pricing.
It does offer an interactive pricing calculator that can help give you an estimate for your exact situation:
Best for
Pros | Cons |
Creators who have a community already and want a set of robust features will benefit from all Mighty Networks has to offer. | Since Mighty Networks is better suited to established creators who likely have technical help on their side, the platform does have a steep learning curve. |
High structural flexibility with the ability to build multiple ‘spaces,’ each having its own discussions and list of members. | Decision fatigue is real with multiple options that can be overwhelming instead of beneficial at times. |
Real-time chat, discussion threads, member directories, and multiple all-in-one capabilities help creators grow their community. | The course builder lacks advanced LMS features like complex graded quizzes or compliance certificates. |
Higher-tier plans allow you to build a native app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store that can feature your logo, brand colors, and name. |
Trusted Reviews
"Good but still feels clunky and behind"
What do you like best about Mighty Networks?
They are slowly rolling out quality-of-life updates for admins like redesigned admin menus.
What do you dislike about Mighty Networks?
It's still a lot of wading through the knowledge base to make sense of new features and see where to use them. They focus on selling to solo people running a knowledge business rather than a more broad community-curious audience and I think that means their current users who don't fit the bill suffer in terms of use-case examples for features (I run a free learning community for a charity that provides free services). They could benefit from more how-to content around good community design and learning design principles.
"Simple, Beautiful, and Fast—Mighty Keeps Improving and Listening"
What do you like best about Mighty Networks?
It is simple and highly aesthetic. I am managing a huge community with no need for IT. The help bot is quite useful, and when I have needed to contact a real human, I have been able to get real human help. I have been able to integrate Mighty with my database. Pricing is fair and competitive. The page works fast, and the app alternative is outstanding. What I like best is that it is a dynamic and creative service that is constantly improving and listening to users' suggestions. So far AI integration has been evolving constantly.
What do you dislike about Mighty Networks?
Mighty still needs some improvements in the area of customization. Better integrations with AI to answer messages inside the platform in a faster way and better integrations with payment platforms other than Stripe. I would particularly like a direct integration with PayPal or other payment systems most popular in Latin America.
Kajabi: all-in-one digital commerce and course-hosting engine alternative
Kajabi positions itself as an enterprise all-in-one solution, making it similar to Mighty Networks in that it targets established creators who are looking for a robust list of features.
Sophisticated marketing automation, sales funnels, and landing pages make it a great option for creators who want to build out their community further and convert prospective visitors.
Having everything you need for a community under one roof makes it a good option for creators who want to stop having multiple subscriptions and consolidate everything to one platform.
Key Features
A robust email marketing system allows creators to replace their email marketing subscription on ConvertKit or MailChimp and move to Kajabi for their email list. Features like granular user segmentation and behavior-based automation give them access to the same level of customization most email marketing platforms would allow.
0% platform transaction fees on all plans. Creators pay standard payment processing fees when they connect their Stripe or PayPal account, which keeps it competitive.
Advanced funnels allow creators to build out multi-step marketing campaigns like webinar campaigns or product launch sequences.
How much does Kajabi really cost?
Starting at $179/month (billed every month), Kajabi definitely caters to established creators with a solid list of features, like the ability to create 5 products, have 2,500 contacts, and host a website and community.
Best for
Pros | Cons |
Zero transaction fees across all platforms allow for a competitive advantage. You keep everything you make minus standard processing fees depending on which payment processor you are using. | While the plan’s starting price is high, it does not offer unlimited products or contacts like some other platforms do. |
The email marketing suite is impressive enough that you may not need a separate email marketing platform subscription. | It focuses more on courses and products; the community features are limited in comparison to other platforms. |
It delivers a polished, clean, and branded experience to members. | |
You can replace your entire tool stack with Kajabi since it focuses on being an enterprise all-in-one solution. |
Trusted Reviews
"Easy CRM Alternative with Room for Email Improvements"
What do you like best about Kajabi?
I think Kajabi is pretty easy to use overall, which is great. I like the templates we can use for emails, as they are easy to set up and others can use them too. It's nice to have the downloads and freebies that Kajabi offers. Also, even though we can't afford a big CRM, Kajabi works well for us in handling contacts. The initial setup was pretty easy with not much to do, which I appreciated.
What do you dislike about Kajabi?
I think the templates for emails could be a little easier to work with and a little easier to save. Sometimes there are different versions of emails that are not compatible with each other, and I think some of that can kinda get confusing for other people to use.
"Easy Setup and Professional-Looking Course Design"
What do you like best about Kajabi?
It's easy to understand and set up. I used it to design a course and was very pleased at how visually professional it looked by adding thumbnails of my content.
What do you dislike about Kajabi?
I don't like how homework assignments have to be listed as quizzes, I wish there was another option. Additionally, I think it's a little clunky to preview a course.
Disco: all-in-one "AI-native" learning platform alternative to Circle
Disco is an AI-focused platform that lets you create courses with its AI course generator and include quizzes or assessments within the course. It also allows you to add AI video transcription for each video.
Each training program can be customized with pages, a specific curriculum, a learner feed, multiple channels, and integrations with third-party tools.
Community features are also AI-focused, with an instant AskAI option that allows automatic replies using AI. Members also get suggested prompts regarding what they can AskAI. Other community features include live chat, shared documents, structured learning journeys, channel discussions, and a centralized feed for announcements.
Key Features
AI program generation allows you to build a course outline and lesson plan, giving you a good starting point.
The platform supports both self-paced learning and cohort-focused learning that is live and time-bound.
The content editor is drag-and-drop, making it easy to build courses or lessons with text, media, videos, and quizzes.
Gamification allows creators to track progress and use leaderboards to keep members engaged.
How much does Disco really cost?
Pricing is pretty steep compared to other platforms, with the only option being $499/ mo or custom pricing.
The features that give it a higher price tag are mostly AI-focused, like using AI to build out courses, create images, generate video assets (transcription, summary, subtitles), or AI community moderation.
Best for
Pros | Cons |
AI creation allows for quick launch and course creation. | Pricing is high, starting at $499/month, billed monthly. |
Moderation can be automated with AI. | Being on the higher end of available pricing points, it has a relatively steep learning curve with a large portion of the platform being AI-powered. |
Collaborative feeds, gamification, live chats, and live events help foster connection and help creators focus on community. | AI-native elements contradict the platform's focus on communities and human connection. |
A dedicated mobile app for each community built on the platform means members can access courses and community on the go. |
Trusted Reviews
"Disco provides a massive shortcut for turning domain expertise into a professional academy"
What do you like best about Disco?
The most impactful part of using Disco is how it shifts the focus from the manual "grind" of course creation to actual expertise transfer. Traditionally, building a curriculum meant starting with a blank page and manually stitching together resources. With Disco, I can curate a knowledge base at the platform level using my own videos, internal documentation, and specific URLs.
The AI Agent then helps me craft a robust curriculum based directly on those sources. I particularly appreciate the option to toggle live web search alongside my own data - it ensures that while the course is rooted in my personal philosophy and experience, it also stays current with industry trends. It feels less like a generic content generator and more like a high-level "thought partner" that respects my unique domain knowledge.
What do you dislike about Disco?
There is a slight learning curve in figuring out the best way to organize your source library to get the highest quality output from the AI. It isn't a "one-click and you're done" tool; you still need to be the architect of your knowledge, but it handles the heavy lifting of the initial structuring and drafting.
"Great app but too much downtime. Not reliable."
What do you like best about Disco?
The disco platform looks really nice and is really easy to use. And it offers a lot of customisation.
What do you dislike about Disco?
The problem is that they keep pushing out updates that they haven't tested, and they keep causing the same problems over and over again. It's so exhausting and frustrating. Every month I get a LOT of complaints from my customers because overnight some core functionality stops working. And because of that, they can't use my product at all. This is very frustrating for my customers and for me. The problem is usually solved after 48-72 hours. That means yes, 2-3 days where my customers can't use my product. And then 1 month later, the exact same problem comes up again, causing the same downtime. Or sometimes a new problem. But basically I have calculated that the downtime is about 10%. I don't know any other company that offers services with only 90% uptime. That is a disaster. They over promise and under deliver. If you have a serious business, with real customers, then you should go for a more mature platform. To me they are still in beta and behaving like we are just testers. Despite paying full price.
Hivebrite: an enterprise-grade solution built for large organizations
Hivebrite is similar to Disco in that it's one of the two platforms on this list that has adopted a more AI-focused approach to content creation.
It uses AI to moderate content, automate suggested content based on relevance, and even match members based on shared goals and interests.
A mentoring program allows you to search for mentors or mentees based on specific criteria using a searchable, filterable directory.
Key Features
Automation helps creators with onboarding, renewal reminders, and other repetitive tasks.
A dedicated, branded mobile app (iOS and Android) helps keep courses and community accessible everywhere.
RSVP tracking, event hosting, ticket sales, and logistics for events can all be handled within Hivebrite.
A drag-and-drop builder allows creators to build out courses, community, dashboards, and landing pages without code.
How much does Hivebrite really cost?
Hivebrite definitely targets established course creators, with no monthly billing option and its cheapest plan starting at $895/month. This plan includes directory, events, memberships, and monetization, with AI automations running the show.
Best for
Pros | Cons |
A complex member database allows for data segmentation and custom profiles. | The highest pricing we have on this list makes it far less accessible. |
With rigorous standards like ISO27001 compliance, it is extremely secure for members concerned about member data or even large-scale organizations with sensitive information. | It is not meant for creators looking to create a casual vibe, but is built for organizations that want a formal community space. |
Granular groups allow creators to maintain tailored sub-communities and multiple spaces. | |
A custom mobile app experience gives organizations a professional member experience and visual identity. |
Trusted Reviews
"All-in-One Community Hub for Events, Memberships, and Alumni Engagement"
What do you like best about Hivebrite?
It allows us to use multiple features in one location all with ease. With Hivebrite, we're able to manage event registrations, memberships, news publishing, all while fulfilling a sense of community in our alumni. Before Hivebrite, we were outsourcing for each of these components, and asking our volunteer leaders to front the effort of connecting with each other. While using our Hivebrite platform however, we provide for our volunteers a singular location to not only connect their community to the greater whole, but it also is making that connection easier in every step.
What do you dislike about Hivebrite?
The best improvement that could be made would to increase the AI features as they're already developing and to allow those AI features to complete even larger functions, such as page creation, event creation, and more. The capability is there, and the potential for Hivebrite and it's automation process is huge.
"Useful for Matching, but Disappointing Multilingual"
What do you like best about Hivebrite?
I really love using Hivebrite to create our platform; it establishes connections and facilitates matching between co-founders. What I like the most are the matching recommendations that help keep our community engaged. They allow new users to stay informed about other members and encourage old users to return to meet new ones. This promotes effective exchanges between co-founders.
What do you dislike about Hivebrite?
In fact, everything related to the activation form, I find that it's not really compatible with the filters we're looking for in the People Directory, there are incompatibilities, but really the biggest incompatibility is with the multilingual functions. We're trying to have a community that is bilingual in English and French. Then the functionalities actually don't allow us to have good translations and an activation form or a filter form that includes both a French version and an English version. We are forced to have dual displays in many places, which affects the UX part. There were problems with the translation. An initial version was in English only, and when I had to do the French, I had to start over from scratch, everything I had done in English wasn't necessarily final because there hadn't been a translation. Otherwise, I find that the initial installation was relatively okay, but at the same time, there was a lot of back and forth.
