Discourse vs Mighty Networks

Choose Discourse if you run a support or discussion community and want the option to host it yourself. Choose Mighty Networks if you sell courses with your community and want branded mobile apps. Discourse has a free plan, then paid monthly plans, with higher plans quoted. Mighty Networks has paid monthly plans, with higher plans quoted.

A support team or open source project often wants a forum it fully controls. Discourse can be run on the buyer's own servers as free software, not only as managed hosting. It also offers boards where members submit ideas and vote on them. One limit is that gamification and advanced reporting arrive only on higher plans.

Creators who charge for access need courses, live sessions and billing working together. Mighty Networks hosts structured courses with lessons and progress tracking, and it runs live video sessions inside the community. Members can use the host's own branded iOS and Android apps on the top plan. A limit is a transaction fee on member payments, which falls as the plan rises.

Discourse's users praise its open source code, its plugins and how extensively it can be used. Reviewers say it connects a group of people around discussion well. Others report that the interface and navigation are hard, and that notifications are poor. Mighty Networks' reviewers like responsive, personal support and an easy, flexible all-in-one tool. They complain about unwanted renewals, hard cancellation, slow access to a human and a steep learning curve.

Discourse describes a career hub that connects students with STEM professionals, and the hub uses the platform for project work, online resumes and AI mentoring. The hub's community grew significantly and reached members across many countries. On Mighty Networks, a community built around personal growth and online events shifted its members and live sessions into the community's own branded mobile apps. Live event attendance grew sharply and the membership scaled to a very large size.