Mighty Networks is a popular community platform that also allows users to host online courses, coaching programs, and membership sites. It’s relatively easy to use, and reviews show that it offers pretty good support.
However, there are better solutions for some use cases. So if you’re looking for an alternative, we combed through various alternative solutions and separated them into the following categories:
- Best alternatives for coaches
- Best alternatives for course creators
- Best alternatives for membership sites
Best For Coaches
upcoach – A truly All-in-One Coaching Platform
Like Mighty Networks, upcoach offers community features and allows you to store all of your training videos and resources directly inside the dashboard. It also automates basic admin work like meeting scheduling, billing, and more.
However, the key difference between upcoach and other community/course platforms is that it is designed to inspire clients to take action on the information learned.
So while Mighty Networks offers the features necessary to support the coaching/resources and community points of the transformation triangle, it doesn’t provide the action item features and accountability required to drive significant client transformation.
Specifically, here are a few features that upcoach offers to inspire clients to take action:
- Habit trackers
- Built-in worksheets
- To-do lists
- Accountability groups (these can meet outside of scheduled coaching calls with you)
The best part is that you and other program members can see each person’s progress directly from the dashboard.
This makes it easy for you to reach out to those falling behind and offer assistance to keep them engaged. In addition, the public progress visibility adds positive peer pressure that encourages clients to push through challenges and even lean on other community members for help.
In fact, co-founder David Henzel found that this approach helped his program completion rate jump from 7% to 94%. As a result, he received more referrals, improved client satisfaction, and, most importantly, made him feel like a more accomplished coach.
Below we’ll discuss how upcoach supports the three key points necessary to deliver transformational client results (coaching/resources, action tasks, community/accountability).
Coaching/Resource Features
Like any other online course platform, upcoach makes it easy to create and store courses with training videos and lessons directly inside the upcoach dashboard.
As clients complete the lessons, they can check them off so that you can gauge each member’s progress and engage those falling behind.
You can also schedule coaching sessions, record them, and then store them (along with session notes) directly in the upcoach dashboard.
Action Item Features
The action items within upcoach are the key differentiating factors that make it a truly all-in-one coaching platform.
Here are the main action item features upcoach offers that we’ll discuss:
- Automated to-dos
- Smart Documents (a native worksheet builder)
- Habit tracker
Task Lists
upcoach makes it easy to create personalized to-do lists for each client to ensure they take action on the information learned in each lesson. You add tasks to a client’s assignments manually, or you can program upcoach to automatically add to-dos when clients complete the corresponding lesson.
Smart Docs
Using a separate worksheet builder to create client worksheets and then download and email them to clients is time-consuming and tedious. So instead, upcoach offers Smart Docs, a feature that lets you create and store worksheets and resources directly inside the dashboard. Clients can also fill out Smart Docs directly inside the platform rather than downloading them and later reuploading them.
As clients complete the worksheets, you can view their progress which adds more positive peer pressure for them to complete the worksheet.
Habit Trackers
Daily habits are the groundwork of real change, so a key upcoach feature is the habit tracker.
The habit tracker is available directly inside the upcoach dashboard, and each habit is publicly visible to other group members. This again reinforces positive peer pressure and adds another level of accountability. The habit tracker is also a helpful feature that members can review during accountability sessions, as it makes it easy to identify and overcome roadblocks.
Accountability and Community Features
Most online community platforms offer group chats and forums for members to hold discussions. This is a great way for members to take advantage of the group’s collective intelligence and connect with other like-minded people, so we offer a general discussion forum inside upcoach:
However, we found that these forums can be difficult to stimulate, and introverts rarely engage. So, in addition to the large group forum, upcoach also lets coaches create smaller accountability groups inside upcoach.
In these smaller accountability groups, members can chat throughout the week and schedule weekly accountability calls to discuss progress from the past week.
Some of the benefits of group accountability include:
- Introverts can form deeper relationships with a few specific course members.
- Clients feel positive peer pressure to complete assignments, knowing they will have to give a progress report on the accountability call.
- Clients can ask the group for help when they get stuck, and other members can look at their progress and identify specific action items to navigate the challenge.
- Coaches aren’t the sole accountability source, which allows you to focus on higher-value tasks while clients still receive the same accountability benefits.
Additional Helpful Admin Features
As your program scales, you’ll probably find that you spend hours each week doing admin work. So here are a few specific features that upcoach offers to reduce your workload:
- Schedule meetings and save the recording/notes inside the platform
- Create a template for your programs and use it for your other courses/products
- Generate personalized reports by getting insights from your student’s CRM
- Chat with your clients through the direct messaging feature
- Build your course from a simple drag-and-drop editor and customize them as per your requirements
- Automated notifications to keep clients engaged
upcoach also offers a detailed CRM that shows a full breakdown of each client’s engagement history.
Specifically, upcoach’s CRM shows:
- Habit tracking progress
- To-do list progress
- Client information and bios
- Total number of meetings attended
- Completed course lessons
- Tasks completed
All these features make it easy to see exactly what portion of the course your client has completed, how much is still left, and total number of assignments, tasks finished.
(screenshot of upcoach CRM)
If you want to try the platform for yourself, schedule a demo today.
Pros
- An all-in-one platform with all your course material, action items, and community in one place (clients only have to remember one login)
- Features like habit trackers and to-do lists designed to inspire clients take action on what they learn
- Built-in worksheet builder that also tracks and reports on client progress
- Easy setup and user-friendly dashboard
- A detailed client CRM that tracks engagement
Cons
- Limited marketing features as the idea is that by providing better client results, you’ll grow more through word-of-mouth marketing
- The main benefit (detailed engagement features and accountability) probably isn’t attractive to online course creators who don’t want to be part of their client’s transformation process
Pricing
upcoach plans starts at:
- Launch – $29 team member/ month
- Grow – $39 team member/ month
- Scale – $79 team member/ month
- Enterprise – need to contact for pricing
Does it sound like a good fit for you? Consider scheduling a demo today.
Best For Course Creators
Kajabi – Best For Most Advanced Course Creators
Kajabi is another top alternative for Mighty Networks that is both beginner-friendly and robust enough for professional course creators.
With Kajabi, you can easily build, host, and market your courses online.
To create a course, you can use one of Kajabi’s simple templates and upload your training videos.
Like Mighty Networks, Kajabi allows you to create sales funnels, email campaigns, and landing pages. In fact, its marketing tools are also among the best of all online course platforms, with an affiliate option, email marketing automation, and webinar hosting capabilities.
It also offers a basic community feature where clients can communicate in an open forum.
Many review sites consider Kajabi an all-in-one platform, as it has everything you need to build, host, and market the course.
Just like any other course platform, Kajabi has some drawbacks. For instance, it doesn’t have any group accountability feature, which makes it more difficult to engage with clients and keep them accountable.
In addition, you also need to invest in other collaboration and accountability tools, like a habit tracker and worksheet builders.
Key Features
- Robust marketing features, from affiliate marketing to email automation
- Host community live events in addition to the open discussion forum
- Plenty of template options for drip courses, full courses, and mini-courses
Pros
- It has several robust marketing tools, such as weekly updates, email campaigns, welcome flows, and more. You can also build out a full marketing funnel with upsells and downsells.
- It’s one of the most robust online course platforms available and makes it easy to set and forget
- Allows you to set different pricing, such as one-time purchases, subscription models, multiple payments, and others
Cons
- Given that it’s so robust, it’s also one of the most expensive platforms available
- Kajabi doesn’t offer action-oriented features like habit-tracking, native worksheets, or automatic to-dos
- There isn’t a native feature to offer group accountability
- The community feature is rather limited in comparison to a solution like Mighty Networks as it’s just a basic discussion forum
Pricing
Kajabi has three pricing plans and comes with a 14-day trial
- Basic – $149/ month
- Growth – $199/ month
- Pro – $399/ month
Podia – Best for Beginner Course Creators
Podia is an excellent course creation platform for non-techies and beginner course creators. It’s relatively low-priced and makes it easy to create, edit, and host courses, digital downloads, and membership sites.
To get started, use one of their simple templates, and you’ll have a course or membership site in minutes.
To scale, Podia offers simple marketing features like email automation, affiliate marketing, and more. These features are less robust than Kajabi’s, but they are still more than enough for an entry-level creator to run simple campaigns.
Podia also has a basic community platform that’s structured as a discussion forum. You can either offer the community to members for free in your program or block it behind a paywall and offer it as an upsell.
Unfortunately, Podia’s simplicity brings customization limitations. First, most creators complain that virtually all podia-hosted programs look the same. While it’s a nice, clean user interface, you have fewer customization and branding options.
It also lacks client engagement features like habit tracking, worksheet builders, or accountability groups. So if you want to track client progress, you’ll have to integrate with another tool.
Key Features
- Super simple course and website builder that can have you up and running in minutes.
- Simple community feature
- Simple marketing features
Pros
- It’s a simple and easy-to-use platform for beginner course creators
- Users can host all their videos in one place
- It doesn’t take any transaction fees
- Offers 24/7 customer support
- Provides different email marketing options
Cons
- Only offers minimal engagement features (no accountability, habit-tracking), which isn’t ideal for creators who want to track their student’s progress
- Limited branding and customization options
- There aren’t many analytics options, and it is only limited to course completion
- It gives a very templated user experience, as customization options are limited
Pricing
Podia offers four types of pricing plans:
- Free – $0
- Mover – $39/ month
- Shaker – $89/ month
- Earthquaker – $199/month
Teachable – Best for Academic Course Creators
Teachable is another platform that’s comparable to Kajabi and Thinkific. It offers everything you’d expect from a course creation platform, including:
- Course creation capabilities (training videos)
- A website builder (or integrate with a WordPress website)
- Basic marketing and promotion capabilities like email and affiliate marketing
However, it differs from other course creation options in that its advanced assessment and grading features make it excellent for more academic course creators.
Users can also enforce lecture order, lesson viewing, and graded quiz completion to ensure clients comprehend the material. You can also award certificates when clients complete your program.
Teachable recently added a basic community feature, though like most course creation platforms, it’s still somewhat limited to a basic forum.
At the moment, Teachable only offers an IOS app, so Android users won’t be able to use it.
Key Features
- Advanced assessments and certifications to ensure users comprehend the material
- Free option for basic users
- Offers various marketing features, like, sales page builder, A/B testing, landing pages, and email marketing features
- Basic community platform
- Allows you to integrate with several platforms, for example, Zapier, Google Analytics, MailChimp, CovertKit, and more
Pros
- It offers a free version
- It’s simple for beginner course creators and coaches who are still learning the ropes of online course creation
- Accepts payments from 130+ international currencies
- Advanced assessment options and users can generate certificates for course completion
Cons
- The basic plan charges a 5% transaction fee
- While it offers basic marketing features, they aren’t as robust as some alternatives
- It doesn’t have any client engagement features such as accountability and habit tracking
- The community feature is still relatively limited
Pricing
Teachable pricing plan starts at:
- Free – $0/ month
- Basic – $39/ month
- Pro – $119/ month
- Business – $299/ month
Best For Community/Membership Sites
Tribe – Best For Businesses
Tribe is an alternative for the Mighty Network enterprise solution – Mighty Pro. So Tribe is designed specifically for B2B organizations rather than course creators or coaches. In fact, here are the four categories it advertises to:
- Customer Self-service
- Ideation and Feedback
- Customer Engagement
- Private community
The main dashboard is structured as an activity feed, similar to Facebook. This is where your team members can quickly see the most recent discussions and collaborate.
It also allows you to create threads for specific projects and topics (similar to Slack), which makes it easy to find relevant discussions quickly. Tribe calls these threads Spaces, and anyone can easily create a Space with just a few clicks.
To increase team collaboration and community building, Tribe also offers a Gamification option that awards users with badges for commenting and participating in discussions.
Like any other community platform, Tribe also offers a selection of moderation features and user permissions to make community management easy.
Unfortunately, Tribe doesn’t offer many action item features like habit trackers, to-do lists, worksheet builders, and accountability groups.
Also, because it’s designed more for teams, it doesn’t offer online course features like video hosting. Additionally, users can’t build out a website and marketing funnels. Instead, think of it as a more robust version of Slack.
Key Features
- Create spaces and categorize discussions so that team members can quickly find what they’re looking for.
- Excellent moderation features with a keyword blocklist feature and a strong moderation panel.
- Gamification features that encourage engagement.
Pros
- General discussion forum, small groups, and direct chat message communication options
- Advanced monetization features with upsells and downsells
- Designed to accommodate B2B teams
Cons
- It doesn’t have a mobile app
- You can’t host an online course
- No marketing features to sell your course
Pricing
Tribe offers two pricing plans:
- Advanced – $599/month
- Enterprise – need to contact sales
Circle.So – Best For Creators
Circle.so is a community platform similar to Mighty Networks, but the key difference between the two is that it focuses specifically on membership sites. So it doesn’t offer any course creation or resource-storing features, but its community features are superb, and the interface is clean and easy to navigate. Nevertheless, if you’re running a coaching program or online course, you’ll have to integrate it with another platform like Thinkific or Kajabi.
Inside the platform, you can create small accountability groups, host weekly discussions, and other community engagement events. Circle.so also allows you to add your own custom branding and white label the entire program.
Another key difference between Circle and Mighty Networks is that Circle.so offers native integrations with more than ten apps and supports Zapier and Integrately. It also offers API integrations. In contrast, Mighty Networks doesn’t offer an API, and you have to use Zapier for integrations.
Key Features
- Various member engagement features, including a membership directory, group chats, and more.
- An API and native integrations with Slack, MailChimp, ConvertKit, and more
- Detailed analytics dashboard that tracks popular discussions, latest trends, active members, and more
Pros
- Specializes in membership sites
- API integrations and native app integrations
- Create small accountability groups
- Detailed monetization options
- While label your membership site
Cons
- It doesn’t offer a mobile app
- Doesn’t have any feature for a to-dos list and habit tracking
- No native online course creation features
Pricing
Circle.so offers a 14-day free trial with all of its plans.
- Basic – $39/ month
- Professional – $99/ month
- Enterprise – $399/month
Choosing The Best Mighty Network Alternative
Mighty Networks is an excellent solution for some use cases, though it’s not perfect for every situation.
If you’re a course creator or coach, consider upcoach as it offers community features, an online course section, and more client progress tracking to ensure clients see an ROI from your program.
To learn more, schedule a demo or try it out risk-free today!
