What membership community platforms cost in 2026: Circle, Mighty Networks and Discourse under members vs seats vs transaction fees

Direct answer: at published prices, 1,000 members and $5,000/$20,000/$50,000 monthly community revenue, membership community platforms in 2026 cost about: starting tier (3 admins/10 moderators/200GB/$5,000 revenue): Circle 189, Mighty 179, Discourse 100; growth tier (5/15/500GB/$20,000): Circle 399, Mighty 379, Discourse 500; scale tier (10/100/1TB/$50,000): Circle 919, Mighty 604, Discourse 500*. All three have unlimited members; cost is driven by admin/moderator seats, spaces/categories, storage, live/email allowances and platform transaction fees, not member count. Published prices: Circle 89/199/419 (annual-billing equivalent) with 2%/1%/1% fees; Mighty 79/179/354 (monthly) with 2%/1%/0.5%; Discourse 100/500 (monthly) with no platform fee listed. At high revenue the 0.5% vs 1% fee gap matters more than the monthly fee; Discourse’s 500 tier includes only 15 staff/100GB, so the scale tier is not a strict like-for-like.

This guide is for operators, community managers, finance and procurement teams running membership communities, paid knowledge communities, alumni/industry groups, customer communities and internal communities. Data cut-off: 7 November 2026; prices come from the official Circle, Mighty Networks and Discourse pricing pages, in USD, excluding tax; all TCOs are editorial calculations, not vendor quotes. “Member/seat/space/transaction fee/storage” differ, so official facts, editorial assumptions and non-comparable items are kept separate.

Three meters: plan + seats, plan + transaction fee, forum hosting

Circle: Professional 89/month (annual-billing equivalent, same below), Business 199, Scale 419; unlimited members, admins 3/5/10, moderators 10/15/100, spaces 20/30/100, storage 200GB/500GB/1TB, transaction fees 2%/1%/1%, AI 2,500/2,500/5,000 credits; add-ons: extra admin 10/month, moderators 20/month per 10, spaces 20/month per 10, live attendees 20/month per 100, branded email 40/month, custom profile fields 49/month, Email Hub 10k contacts 99/month. Mighty: Launch 79/month (monthly billing, same below), Scale 179, Growth 354; unlimited members and spaces, hosts 3/5/10, moderators 10/15/100, storage 200GB/500GB/1TB/4TB, streaming 20/30/40/50 hours/month, viewers 100/200/1,000/3,000, transaction fees 2%/1%/0.5%. Discourse: Free 0 (2 staff/5GB/10 categories), Pro 100/month (5 staff/20GB/unlimited members and categories), Business 500/month (15 staff/100GB/SSO/automation/events), Enterprise custom (unlimited staff/200GB+/99.9% SLA); no platform transaction fee listed.

Sources: Circle Pricing, Mighty Networks Pricing and Discourse Pricing (US/USD, accessed 7 November 2026). Circle states prices are annual-billing equivalents, excluding tax; Mighty uses the page’s default monthly prices (annual has a discount, but the page shows both “2 months free” and Launch $950/year, which are inconsistent — confirm at checkout); Discourse is monthly with plan changes anytime. Excludes tax, discounts, nonprofit/education pricing, payment processing, migration/design services and overages.

Three TCOs: $5k, $20k, $50k monthly revenue

Including platform transaction fees (excluding Stripe/PayPal processing): starting Circle 89 + 2% × 5,000 = 189, Mighty 79 + 2% × 5,000 = 179, Discourse 100; growth Circle 199 + 1% × 20,000 = 399, Mighty 179 + 1% × 20,000 = 379, Discourse 500; scale Circle 419 + 1% × 50,000 = 919, Mighty 354 + 0.5% × 50,000 = 604, Discourse 500*. Annual: growth Circle 4,788, Mighty 4,548, Discourse 6,000; scale Circle 11,028, Mighty 7,248, Discourse 6,000*. Discourse’s 500 tier includes only 15 staff/100GB; the scale tier’s 10 admins/100 moderators/1TB needs Enterprise or add-ons at unpublished prices, so 500 is not a strict like-for-like.

Editorial calculation, not a quote. Circle uses annual-billing monthly equivalents, Mighty monthly prices, Discourse monthly prices; transaction fees are platform rate × monthly revenue and exclude Stripe/PayPal processing (about 2.9% + $0.30). * Discourse Business includes only 15 staff/100GB; 10 admins/100 mods/1TB requires Enterprise or add-ons (unpublished), so 500 is not the same limits. Excludes tax, discounts, live/email overages, migration/design/managed services and overages.

Transaction-fee sensitivity: 0.5% vs 1% vs 2%

Platform transaction fees scale with community revenue, not members: at $5,000/month, 0.5%/1%/2% cost 25/50/100; at $20,000, 100/200/400; at $50,000, 250/500/1,000. Plan mapping: Circle Professional 2%, Business/Scale 1%, Plus 0.5%; Mighty Launch 2%, Scale 1%, Growth/Pro 0.5%; Discourse lists no platform fee (subscriptions go through Stripe/PayPal, processing separate). Break-evens: Circle Professional 89 + 2% equals Business 199 + 1% at about $11,000/month revenue; Mighty Launch 79 + 2% equals Scale 179 + 1% at about $10,000; Mighty Scale 179 + 1% equals Growth 354 + 0.5% at about $35,000. Above those points, the fee saving covers the plan uplift.

Editorial calculation, platform fee only, excluding payment processing (Stripe/PayPal and others around 2.9% + $0.30, varying by region/card/currency), refunds, chargebacks and tax. Whether the platform fee stacks on processing and whether it applies to gross or net is subject to each vendor’s terms.

Why members do not raise the price: seats, spaces and storage do

All three list unlimited members: Circle Professional/Business/Scale unlimited members, Mighty unlimited members and spaces on every tier, Discourse unlimited members and categories on paid tiers. What actually tiers is the team and resources: Circle 3/5/10 admins, 10/15/100 moderators, 20/30/100 spaces, 200GB/500GB/1TB; overages 10/month per admin, 20/month per 10 moderators, 20/month per 10 spaces. Mighty 3/5/10 hosts, 10/15/100 moderators, 200GB/500GB/1TB/4TB, streaming 20/30/40/50 hours, viewers 100/200/1,000/3,000. Discourse 2/5/15/unlimited staff, 5GB/20GB/100GB/200GB+, page views 50k/100k/500k/1M+, emails 20k/100k/300k/1.5M. Bottom line: price seats, spaces/categories, storage, live/email and transaction fees first; members can go from 500 to 50,000 with the monthly fee unchanged.

Sources: the three official pricing pages (accessed 7 November 2026). This is a public tier overview; exact seat/space/storage/live/email limits, overage prices, SSO/audit/compliance, SLA and support depend on tier/contract. Discourse add-on prices are not published on the page.

Which option fits which scenario?

Forum/knowledge base/SEO, budget-first, forum-style experience acceptable: Discourse Pro 100 or self-hosted open source (software free, but pay servers/ops/upgrades); all-in-one community + courses + events, low-to-mid revenue, turnkey: Mighty Launch/Scale; branding/automation/API, many admins and spaces, deeper workflows: Circle Business/Scale; above about $35,000/month revenue and fee-sensitive: Mighty Growth 0.5% or Circle Plus 0.5%; large teams/many spaces/compliance/custom: Circle Plus, Mighty Pro, Discourse Enterprise (all custom quotes); full control/data residency: Discourse self-hosted. Payment processing is separate for all; do not compare monthly fees alone.

Sources: the three official pricing pages (accessed 7 November 2026). This is an editorial decision matrix, not vendor advice; community activity, retention, load speed, live stability, payment success and migration cost were not tested.

What should procurement and acceptance specify?

At least ten things: members and growth, monthly community revenue/ticket, admin/moderator/host seats, spaces/categories, storage and files, live/events, email/notifications, payments and transaction fees, SSO/audit/compliance, migration/exit. Run a 2–4 week POC on a real community and record activation, posting/replying, live, payments, email delivery, export and the bill; do not compare only “89/79/100 per month”.

• Members: total/active/growth; whether truly unlimited, fair-use/anti-spam limits.
• Revenue: monthly GMV, ticket, refunds/chargebacks; fee on gross or net.
• Seats: admins/moderators/hosts/staff; overage price, permission levels.
• Spaces: spaces/categories/private groups; overage price, nesting/permissions.
• Storage: total/per-file/video; overage price, retention/export.
• Live: hours/viewers/recording; add-on, overage.
• Email: volume/deliverability/custom domain; whether Email Hub is extra.
• Payments: Stripe/PayPal rates, currencies, refunds, invoices, tax.
• Compliance: SSO/SAML, audit logs, GDPR, residency, SOC 2.
• Contract: annual/monthly, renewal uplift, migration/export, exit.

FAQ

Which of the three is cheapest?

No single answer: Discourse 100 is lowest at the starting tier; Mighty 379 is lowest at the growth tier; Discourse 500 is lowest on paper at the scale tier but includes only 15 seats/100GB, so 10 admins/100 mods/1TB needs Enterprise or add-ons. Compare monthly + transaction fee + seats/storage together.

Do members raise the price?

All three list unlimited members, so member count itself does not raise the price; increases come from admin/moderator seats, spaces/categories, storage, live/email overages and transaction fees. Members can go from 500 to 50,000 with the monthly fee unchanged.

Is Circle’s 89 monthly or annual?

89/199/419 are Circle’s annual-billing monthly equivalents; the monthly price is not expanded on the page and is usually higher. This article uses the annual equivalent; confirm monthly/annual and tax at checkout.

How are transaction fees calculated?

Community revenue × platform rate: Circle 2%/1%/1%, Mighty 2%/1%/0.5%, Discourse not listed. Stripe/PayPal processing (about 2.9% + $0.30) is separate, and refunds/chargebacks/tax also count.

Why does Discourse have no transaction fee?

Discourse is open-source forum software; hosted plans charge by month/seats/storage, and subscription payments go through Stripe/PayPal plugins. The pricing page lists no platform cut. Payment processing is still charged by the provider.

When should we upgrade a tier?

Circle Professional 89 + 2% equals Business 199 + 1% at about $11,000/month revenue; Mighty Launch 79 + 2% equals Scale 179 + 1% at about $10,000; Mighty Scale 179 + 1% equals Growth 354 + 0.5% at about $35,000. Above the break-even, the fee saving covers the plan uplift.

What hidden costs should we expect?

Payment processing, refunds/chargebacks, live/storage/email overages, extra admins/moderators/spaces, Email Hub, branded email, custom profile fields, migration/design services, tax, SSO/audit/compliance and exit. Circle has many add-ons — budget base fee + likely add-ons together.

How do we choose and accept?

Forum/knowledge base: Discourse; all-in-one community + courses + events: Mighty; branding/automation/API and many seats: Circle; high revenue: 0.5% tier or custom. A 2–4 week POC on a real community records activation, posting, live, payments, email and the bill before signing.

Research method and limitations

This article separates “official facts” from “editorial modelling”: Circle’s 89/199/419, 3/5/10 admins, 10/15/100 moderators, 20/30/100 spaces, 200GB/500GB/1TB, 2%/1%/1% fees and add-on prices come from Circle Pricing; Mighty’s 79/179/354, 3/5/10 hosts, 10/15/100 moderators, 200GB/500GB/1TB/4TB, 20/30/40/50 streaming hours and 2%/1%/0.5% fees come from Mighty Networks Pricing; Discourse’s 0/100/500, 2/5/15 staff, 5GB/20GB/100GB, page views/emails/AI credits come from Discourse Pricing. The three TCOs are arithmetic on those assumptions, not vendor quotes.

Eight limitations: (1) Circle uses annual-billing equivalents, Mighty monthly and Discourse monthly, so billing periods differ; (2) Mighty’s page shows both “2 months free” and Launch $950/year (≈12 × 79), which are inconsistent — this article uses monthly only; (3) only platform monthly + platform transaction fees are counted, excluding Stripe/PayPal processing, refunds/chargebacks, tax, live/storage/email overages, extra seats/spaces, Email Hub, migration/design services and SSO/audit; (4) Discourse 500 includes only 15 seats/100GB, so the scale tier is not like-for-like; (5) community activity, retention, load speed, live stability, payment success and email deliverability were not tested; (6) Facebook Groups, Slack, Discord, Kajabi, Podia and Memberful are excluded; (7) migration, re-engineering, training and dual-run costs are excluded; (8) prices and terms can change by contract, region and exchange rate. Treat this as a tier-conversion template and replace assumptions with a 2–4 week real-community POC.

Sources and basis

• Circle, Pricing: circle.so/pricing. Professional 89, Business 199, Scale 419 (annual-billing equivalent); unlimited members; admins 3/5/10, moderators 10/15/100, spaces 20/30/100, storage 200GB/500GB/1TB; transaction fees 2%/1%/1%; add-ons: admin 10/month, moderators 20/month per 10, spaces 20/month per 10, live attendees 20/month per 100, branded email 40/month, custom profile fields 49/month, Email Hub 10k contacts 99/month. Accessed 7 November 2026.
• Mighty Networks, Pricing: mightynetworks.com/pricing. Launch 79, Scale 179, Growth 354 (monthly); unlimited members and spaces; hosts 3/5/10, moderators 10/15/100, storage 200GB/500GB/1TB/4TB, streaming 20/30/40/50 hours, viewers 100/200/1,000/3,000; transaction fees 2%/1%/0.5%. Accessed 7 November 2026.
• Discourse, Pricing: discourse.org/pricing. Free 0 (2 staff/5GB/10 categories), Pro 100/month (5 staff/20GB/unlimited members and categories), Business 500/month (15 staff/100GB/SSO/automation/events), Enterprise custom (unlimited staff/200GB+/99.9% SLA); add extra page views/storage/emails/staff; no platform transaction fee listed. Accessed 7 November 2026.

Data cut-off 7 November 2026; prices are public list prices excluding tax; all models are editorial calculations. This is not procurement advice.