Which community and membership stack is best for you? I break them all down and show you what their sales pages won't say out loud!
A white-label community app first, a platform second. Your own iOS and Android app on every plan, starting at $599 a month billed yearly ($699 quarterly). 0% platform fees, but Apple and Google take 15 to 30% on in-app purchases. Groups, livestreaming, a weekly digest of popular posts, manual badges, basic courses. No free plan, no CSV import, London-based, 12 years old.
Skool's shape at a lower price, aimed at coaching and training programs: free plan for 100 members, Build at $65 with courses, 0% fees on every plan, Stripe only. Channels, cohorts, a chronological feed, a digest you can set to daily through monthly, and a branded app tier at $485. No gamification and no CSV import without support's help.
A 2009-vintage all-in-one for coaches: courses, email, CRM, funnels, payments and a community with forums, groups, badges and a points leaderboard. 0% transaction fees on every plan, your own Stripe or PayPal, and the cheapest plan is $70 a month for 500 contacts. No free plan, 14-day trial with everything unlocked.
Channels, courses, events, docs and workflows in one place, from $49/mo with a 5% fee that drops as you pay more. Weekly digest in every member's timezone, email broadcasts and automations on every plan, branded app at $849. Badges, but Heartbeat admits Skool's gamification is better.
A social network on your own WordPress. Free open-source core, paid plans from $99/yr (renewing at $199), groups, forums, feeds, a daily or weekly digest since September 2026, gamification on Scale, and a white-label app from $499/yr. You own everything, and you maintain everything.
The open-source forum that runs half the internet's support communities. Free hosted plan with unlimited members, Pro at $100/mo, or self-host for nothing. Trust levels that unlock abilities, weekly activity digests built in, full data export, Stripe subscriptions on Pro. No courses, no app of your own.
An agency CRM with a Skool clone inside it, down to the exact points table. $97/mo, 0% platform fee on your own Stripe, unlimited contacts, groups and channels, levels that unlock courses, a Skool importer, and a white-label app for $497/mo on top. Built for agencies, not creators.
The free plan that's actually free: 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, one course, a community, 0% fees on your own Stripe or PayPal. The funnels and email are the point. The course builder and the community are the compromise. We use it, so this one's first person.
Nas.io rebranded to Nas.com in 2026 and repositioned from community tool to solopreneur storefront. $29/mo Pro with a 2.9% fee, memberships, challenges with leaderboards, events, Magic Reach email and WhatsApp broadcasts, member import and export. Fees vary by country.
Not a community platform yet, but building toward one. Channel memberships at a 70/30 split, members-only posts and lives, free Courses with PDF attachments, quizzes and polls in the community tab. No email, no export, and the biggest audience on earth.
Where most communities start and most migrations come from. Free, instant, three billion people already logged in. No way to charge, no email, no export, an algorithm that decides who sees your posts, and features Meta adds and removes on a whim. A shaky place to build. Collect emails at the door or own nothing.
Free, unlimited members, the best chat on the internet. No email, no courses, no member export, no gamification without bots. Native paid tiers take 10% and are US-only, so everyone else charges through Patreon, Whop or Memberful.