Best community platforms for creators: fees, courses and what you keep

The best community platforms for creators, ranked by what they take

The best community platforms for creators are Skool, Mighty Networks, Circle, Heartbeat, Kajabi and Patreon, and the right one depends mostly on how much you sell each month. A creator pays twice: a subscription for the platform and a percentage of every member payment. The table shows both, read on each vendor's own pricing page on 3 October 2026. Monthly billing is quoted except where noted.

Card processing is extra everywhere. Patreon lists 2.9% plus $0.30 for standard US payments, and Kajabi Payments lists the same on Basic. Mighty's help center puts Stripe at typically 2.5% to 5%.

What you keep from $2,000 a month in memberships

Take a creator with 50 members paying $40 a month, which is $2,000 in sales. This is the platform's share before card processing.

The order flips at lower volume. At $500 a month in sales, Skool Hobby costs $59 and Patreon $50, while Mighty Networks Launch costs $105. Skool Pro overtakes Skool Hobby once sales pass about $1,270 a month. Kajabi Basic's flat $179 undercuts the 2% plans once sales pass about $4,500 a month, because it charges no platform percentage.

Courses, live sessions and apps: what each gives a creator

• Mighty Networks. On-demand, cohort and live courses with quizzes and automatic badges on Launch, plus 20 livestream hours a month with 100 viewers. Check the pricing page for which plan allows charging for a one-time event.
• Circle. Courses, live events and a website on Professional, with 10 livestream hours and 100 attendees.
• Skool. Unlimited courses, videos and live calls on both plans, with affiliates and a custom URL.
• Heartbeat. Evergreen, drip and cohort courses on every plan. Native video hosting starts on Grow at $149 a month.
• Kajabi. Courses plus email marketing, landing pages and funnels. Basic allows 5 products and 2,500 contacts.
• Patreon. Membership tiers, one-time payments, native video, livestreaming, newsletters and digital product sales.

On Mighty Networks, purchases made in the iOS app go through Apple, which the Mighty Networks help center says takes 15%. You can set a higher iOS price to cover it. More detail is in the Mighty Networks pricing breakdown.

Where Mighty Networks fits for creators, and where it does not

Mighty Networks suits a creator whose offer is a membership with regular live sessions and a course inside it, sold to people who will use a phone app. Its fee falls to 1% on Scale and 0.5% on Growth, so it gets cheaper as sales grow. It does not suit a creator who mainly posts content to fans, where Patreon needs no setup, or one who needs email marketing and funnels built in, where Kajabi is stronger. A closer look at the two nearest rivals is in Mighty Networks versus Skool and Mighty Networks versus Kajabi.

Which platform to pick by stage of creator business

• No paying members yet: Patreon or Skool Hobby. You risk $0 to $9 a month.
• $500 to $1,000 a month: stay on Skool Hobby or Patreon, or move to Heartbeat Build if you have under 350 members.
• $1,000 to $4,500 a month: Circle Professional or Mighty Networks Launch, or Skool Pro from about $1,270. Choose on features; at $2,000 their platform totals are within $30 of each other.
• Above $4,500 a month: Kajabi Basic's flat price costs least if 5 products are enough. On Mighty Networks, Scale's 1% fee beats Launch above about $12,000 a month.
• Courses first, community second: Kajabi.

Moving paying members between platforms is the hard part, because subscriptions do not transfer by themselves. Read the transition cost page before switching. Prices were read on 3 October 2026 and can change.