Circle vs Mighty Networks: Which Fits Coaches in 2026?

Circle vs Mighty Networks comes down to this: Circle is the stronger pick if you want a polished community with courses, a basic website and more serious automation tiers, while Mighty Networks is the cheaper way in, with livestream hours and member apps included from its first plan. Neither one books 1:1 sessions, sends coaching agreements or tracks a client's habits and check-ins. So if you sell coaching programs rather than a membership, you will add tools to whichever you choose.

This guide compares both platforms on what coaches actually pay for: plan prices as listed in October 2026, platform fees on your sales, community and course features, live events, client apps and how easy it is to leave. We make Coachful, a coaching platform that covers community and 1:1 delivery in one login, so we also explain where it is the better third option and where it is not. Every vendor fact below comes from Circle's and Mighty Networks' own pricing pages and help docs, plus public Trustpilot scores. We have not run paid accounts on either platform, so we describe what each vendor documents and what public reviewers report.

What is the short answer by use case?

Pick Circle for a branded, organized community with stronger automation and API options; pick Mighty Networks for the lowest entry price with livestreaming and apps built in. If your business is mostly 1:1 and small-group coaching, neither is the right foundation on its own.

• You run a paid membership or a large community. Circle, especially if you want custom profile fields, workflows and the option to remove Circle branding on its Business plan.
• You want to livestream to your members without extra add-ons. Mighty Networks. Its Launch plan includes 20 hours of livestreaming a month for up to 100 attendees, as listed in October 2026.
• You are on a tight budget and want community plus courses. Mighty Networks Launch is the cheaper of the two entry plans on annual billing.
• You want to connect other tools through APIs, MCP or webhooks. Both put APIs and MCP on their second tier (Circle Business, Mighty Scale). Circle adds webhooks on its Scale plan.
• You coach clients 1:1 or in programs with weekly goals and check-ins. Neither platform. You would need a scheduler, an e-signature tool and something for habits and check-ins. That is the gap Coachful fills, covered in its own section below.

If you are still deciding whether you need a community at all, our guide to running a coaching circle walks through the format before you pick software.

How do Circle and Mighty Networks compare side by side?

They are close cousins: both are community-first platforms with courses, events, payments through Stripe and apps under their own brand. The differences sit in pricing, platform fees, livestream allowances and how far up the plans you go before you get white-labeling and automation.

Ranking criteria for coaches: one login for the whole client journey, delivery between sessions, total stack cost and setup effort (including a free done-for-you build).

Both vendors list a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Mighty Networks says its trial includes Growth plan features, so you can test the top self-serve tier before choosing a plan.

Circle's entry plan already includes community spaces, courses, live events, a member directory, a simple website, analytics, payments and gamification. On public reviews, Circle held a Trustpilot score of 4.1 from 129 reviews when we checked in October 2026. Our full Circle review covers the platform in more depth.

Mighty Networks bundles community, courses, events and its AI features (AI Cohost and People Magic) into every plan, with free Mighty iOS and Android apps for members. It had a Trustpilot score of 3.3 from 219 reviews in October 2026. See our Mighty Networks review for the longer take.

How much do Circle and Mighty Networks cost?

On annual billing, Mighty Networks is cheaper at every self-serve tier: $79 against $89 a month at entry, $179 against $199 in the middle and $354 against $419 at the top, as listed in October 2026. Both then take a platform fee on your sales that shrinks as you move up.

Circle's pricing page shows annual-billing prices only. Each plan comes with AI credits (2,500 a month on Professional and Business, 5,000 on Scale), and Circle Plus, the custom-priced top tier, adds branded iOS and Android apps, branded push notifications, Email Hub with 10,000 contacts and a dedicated success manager. For a plan-by-plan breakdown, see our Circle pricing guide.

Mighty Networks' pricing cards show $79, $179 and $354 "per month" without saying how they are billed. Mighty's help docs confirm those are annual-billing prices, and give monthly-billed prices of $95 for Launch and $215 for Scale. The Growth plan's monthly price is not published. Mighty Pro is custom-priced and is the only plan with your own branded apps. Our Mighty Networks pricing guide has the full detail.

Platform fees change the real price

Both platforms take a cut of what you sell through them, on top of Stripe's processing fee. The rates match on the entry plans and diverge higher up.

Here is an example with illustrative numbers. Say your community and courses bring in $4,000 a month. On Circle Professional or Mighty Networks Launch, the 2% platform fee costs $80 a month, or $960 a year, before Stripe's own fee. On Circle Business, Circle Scale or Mighty Networks Scale (1%), it is $40 a month. On Mighty Networks Growth (0.5%), it drops to $20. If your sales are high, the fee can matter more than the plan price.

For comparison, Coachful charges a 0% platform fee (since August 2026). You pay only your own Stripe or Razorpay processing.

Add-ons to budget for

Circle publishes a detailed add-on list, which helps you forecast. Mighty Networks lists fewer add-ons and does not show their prices.

A practical reading: a coach who needs email marketing on Circle Professional is looking at $89 plus $99 a month on annual billing, or $188, before any other add-on. On Mighty Networks you would connect an outside email tool, which has its own cost.

Which has the better community features?

Circle gives you more structure and control over the community itself, while Mighty Networks includes AI Cohost, People Magic and livestreaming on every plan. Both cover the basics a coach needs: a feed, discussion areas, events, member profiles and paid access.

Circle's Professional plan includes spaces, a member directory, analytics and gamification. Business adds custom profile fields, activity scores and the option to remove Circle branding and white-label the community. That matters if your community is the product and you want it to feel like yours rather than Circle's.

Mighty Networks includes community, courses, events, AI Cohost and People Magic on every plan, with basic automations on Launch. Scale adds member tags and member export along with more automations and integrations. Mighty's moderator allowances (10, 15 and 100 across the three self-serve plans) match Circle's.

For a coach, the bigger question is what happens around the community. A feed is useful for peer support and announcements, but it does not tell you which client skipped their check-ins this week. We cover this in detail in Coachful vs Mighty Networks for coaching communities and in our guide to hosting coaching communities without Circle.

In Coachful, the community feed, group chat, direct messages and video events sit inside the same app as each client's program, sessions and habits, so members do not jump between a community app and a coaching app.

Which is better for courses and cohorts?

Both include courses on every plan, so the choice depends less on the course builder and more on the automation and storage you need to run cohorts.

Circle's Professional plan includes courses, live events and payments, so you can sell a course with a community attached from the entry tier. Workflows (automations) start on Business with 20 automations, 20 scheduled and 20 bulk actions a month, and become unlimited on Scale. If you want to drip messages to a cohort or tag members automatically, budget for Business.

Mighty Networks includes courses and basic automations on Launch, with more automations on Scale and advanced and AI automations on Growth. Storage is generous: 200 GB on Launch, 500 GB on Scale and 1 TB on Growth, which matters if you host a lot of course video.

Coachful's courses use modules, lessons, drip release and completion tracking, and you can bundle them with downloads, videos, books and AI tools. When a client enrolls in a program, Coachful creates a cohort group automatically, so a new intake gets its own space without manual setup.

If cohorts are your main format, our walkthrough on running coaching cohorts without Mighty Networks shows the setup step by step, and group coaching software explains what Coachful includes for groups.

How do live events and livestreams compare?

Mighty Networks includes livestreaming in its plans with stated hour and attendee limits; Circle includes live events and streams and sells extra hours and attendees as add-ons. For coaches who run regular group calls, that difference is the clearest one between the two.

• Mighty Networks Launch: 20 livestream hours a month for up to 100 attendees.
• Mighty Networks Scale: 30 hours a month for up to 200 attendees.
• Mighty Networks Growth: 40 hours a month for up to 1,000 attendees, with extra viewers up to 10,000 as an add-on.
• Circle: live events on every plan; extra live attendees cost $20/mo per 100 and extra live hours $50/mo per 10 hours, as listed in October 2026.

Here is an example with illustrative numbers. A coach running four 90-minute group calls a month uses 6 hours, well inside Mighty Networks Launch's 20 hours. A coach running weekly masterclasses plus office hours might use 12 to 15 hours, still inside Launch, but should check Circle's included allowance before choosing its Professional plan. For mastermind formats specifically, see hosting client masterminds without Mighty Networks or without Circle.

Coachful covers group calls, webinars and video events, plus built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Google Meet and Teams links for sessions. If livestreaming to hundreds of people at once is the core of your business, Circle and Mighty Networks publish capacity tiers built for exactly that.

What about websites, email and automations?

Circle includes a basic website and has a paid email add-on; Mighty Networks offers a custom domain and relies on integrations for email. Neither replaces a full coaching website with booking and sales funnels.

Website. Circle lists a website on every plan along with a custom domain. Mighty Networks lists a custom domain on Launch. Both are built to present the community, not to run a coaching sales funnel with applications, booking and lead magnets.

Email. Circle's Email Hub costs $99 a month for 10,000 contacts (included in Circle Plus), and branded email notifications come with Business or cost $40 a month on Professional. Mighty Networks connects to Kit on Scale and offers optional white-label email on Growth.

Automations and integrations. Circle's workflows start on Business and become unlimited on Scale, which also adds AI agents, AI workflows, webhooks and custom SSO. Mighty Networks has basic automations on Launch; Scale adds APIs and MCP plus Kit, Zapier and affiliate integrations; Growth adds advanced and AI automations and optional SSO.

Coachful includes a section-based website builder with a blog, custom domain, SEO settings and 30 designed homepage templates, plus booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels with pixel and UTM tracking. Email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits are included in your Coachful membership. See the coach website builder for details.

Can either one handle 1:1 coaching?

No. Neither Circle nor Mighty Networks offers 1:1 scheduling, coaching agreements or a per-client record with habits and check-ins. Mighty Networks also has no invoicing for individual clients. Both are built around a group of members, not around an individual client's plan.

That is fine if you only run a membership. But most coaches also sell private sessions or programs, and that work needs:

1. A booking page with availability rules, time zones, reminders and calendar sync.
2. A coaching agreement signed before the first call.
3. Payments per client: payment plans, invoices, refunds.
4. A client record with goals, notes, intake answers and session history.
5. Between-session delivery: weekly goals, daily tasks, habits and check-ins the client completes and you can see.

With Circle or Mighty Networks, each of those becomes a separate tool and a separate login for your client. Check what a scheduler costs in our Calendly pricing breakdown, and what a client-management tool with contracts runs in our HoneyBook pricing guide. Add those to the community plan and the total stack cost climbs quickly.

Coachful handles that list in one place. Booking pages have availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, with two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook calendar sync. Coaching agreements with e-signature go out before the first call and are stored on the client record (see coaching contracts). Payments run through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, with subscriptions, payment plans, coupons and refunds.

Here is how a program looks in Coachful:

What do your clients experience on each platform?

On Circle and Mighty Networks, your members use an app branded as Circle or Mighty Networks unless you pay for the custom-priced top tier. On both, the experience centers on the community feed, courses and events.

Circle offers iOS, Android and desktop apps under the Circle brand from its Professional plan. Business lets you remove Circle branding and white-label the community, but your own app in the App Store requires Circle Plus. Mighty Networks gives members free Mighty iOS and Android apps from Launch, and your own branded apps require Mighty Pro.

For a coaching client, the feed is only part of the picture. What they usually need each day is: what to do today, how they are tracking against their goal and when the next session is. Neither platform has a place for that, so clients end up with a community app, a calendar invite, an email with a contract and a spreadsheet or habit app.

In Coachful, a client opens one app with your branding and sees their program week, daily tasks, habits with streaks, morning and evening check-ins, the next session and the community. One limit: the client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account.

The check-ins clients complete feed straight into your view of them:

How easy is it to leave each platform?

You can export your members from both, but posts and community content are harder to take with you. Plan for that before you build years of discussion on either platform.

Circle lets you export members and subscriptions as CSV files at any time. Posts and other content had no bulk export as of our September 2026 profile. Mighty Networks offers member list export with member tags (listed on Launch and Scale in its plan docs); posts and content were not bulk-exportable as of September 2026.

Coachful exports your full client data as a ZIP file: roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses, plus a course export. Coming in the other direction, your clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. If you are leaving one of these platforms, our lists of Circle alternatives and Mighty Networks alternatives cover the wider field.

Which should you pick for which kind of coach?

Choose by what you sell most. If it is access to a community, pick Circle or Mighty Networks. If it is coaching (sessions, programs and accountability between them), pick a coaching platform and treat the community as one part of it.

Life and mindset coaches who run a group program with weekly calls and want clients to journal or check in daily will find the 1:1 and daily tools missing from both community platforms. See Coachful for life coaches.

Business and executive coaches with a mastermind of a few dozen members and private sessions on the side need booking, agreements and session notes. Either community platform covers only the mastermind.

Creators with a large audience selling a low-price membership to hundreds or thousands of people are the natural fit for Circle or Mighty Networks.

Pick Circle over Coachful if your business is a membership community first and coaching second, you want the community white-labeled, or you need webhooks, unlimited workflows and SSO on a published plan.

Pick Mighty Networks over Coachful if you mainly livestream to a large group, want included livestream hours with stated attendee limits, or your offer is a community with courses and no 1:1 work at all.

Is there a third option that covers both community and coaching?

Yes. Coachful is a coaching platform where one subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant. It beats both Circle and Mighty Networks when you deliver coaching, and loses to them when the community itself is the whole product.

What Coachful is and who it is for

Coachful is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions; solo coaches growing into a small team; and coaches replacing four to six tools. You get one login and your clients get one app with your branding. The company is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and has a Trustpilot score of 4.5 from 21 reviews.

Where it goes beyond either community platform:

• Programs that run between sessions: multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks.
• A real client record: goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments and sessions, with each client flagged as thriving, active, quiet or at risk.
• Booking and payments: booking pages, calendar sync, email reminders plus SMS and WhatsApp reminders once messaging is enabled, paid sessions and session credits, and payments through your own Stripe or Razorpay account with a 0% platform fee.
• Community and cohorts: feed, group chat, direct messages, video events, and cohort groups created automatically on enrollment.
• Michelle, the built-in AI assistant: works from your live practice data to build programs, draft emails, summarize recorded sessions and brief you before each session. Questions and planning are included in your membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits. See the AI coaching assistant.
• ICF credential tracking: counts coaching hours and distinct clients against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds and exports an ICF client coaching log. See ICF hour tracking.

What Coachful does not do

• It is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing.
• No PayPal and no permanent free plan.
• Your client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account.
• It is not a course marketplace, not a general website builder for non-coaching sites, and has no third-party plugins.
• The affiliate program is partial: it tracks links, clicks, conversions and revenue, but payouts are recorded manually.
• No Salesforce or HubSpot integration and no multi-stage sales deal board for large teams.

Why the total cost often comes out lower

With Circle or Mighty Networks, a coach who also sells 1:1 work typically pays for the community plan, the platform fee on sales, a scheduler, an e-signature or client-management tool and sometimes an email tool. With Coachful, those are included in your membership on one flat monthly plan (current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients). Lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, and team plans add coach seats. Compare the full field on our comparison hub, or read the head-to-head on Coachful vs Circle and the Mighty Networks alternative page.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can ask the Coachful team to build things for you inside your own account. From Create, choose "We'll build it for you", describe what you want (a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline and written material, email sequence, form, lead quiz, event or automation) and attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files such as logos, photos and brand guides. Builds usually arrive within about 24 hours. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. Recent examples include a somatic coach leaving Kajabi who had their homepage and About page rebuilt with the contact form connected, and a business mentor for beauty professionals who got a 12-week mentorship sales page, a free start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more about the white-glove service.

How to start

1. Start a free trial and connect your Stripe or Razorpay account.
2. Request a white-glove build of your website, first program or funnel, or have your existing clients, programs and content imported during onboarding.
3. Set up your booking page and coaching agreement, then invite your first clients into their branded app.

If you would rather see the full feature list first, Coachful's coaching software overview covers it.

Frequently asked questions

Is Circle or Mighty Networks cheaper?

Mighty Networks is cheaper on annual billing at every self-serve tier, as listed in October 2026: $79 against $89 a month at entry, $179 against $199 in the middle and $354 against $419 at the top. Mighty also publishes monthly-billed prices for Launch ($95) and Scale ($215), while Circle's pricing page shows annual prices only.

Do Circle and Mighty Networks charge transaction fees?

Yes. Circle charges 2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale and 0.5% on Circle Plus. Mighty Networks charges 2% on Launch, 1% on Scale and 0.5% on Growth and Mighty Pro. Stripe's processing fee applies on top on both platforms.

Can I get my own branded mobile app on Circle or Mighty Networks?

Only on the custom-priced top tiers: Circle Plus and Mighty Pro. On every other plan, members use Circle-branded or Mighty-branded apps. Circle Business does let you remove Circle branding and white-label the community.

Can I book 1:1 coaching sessions in Circle or Mighty Networks?

No. Neither platform includes 1:1 scheduling, coaching agreements or per-client habits and check-ins. Coaches typically add a separate scheduler and contract tool, or use a coaching platform that includes community features.

Which is better for livestreaming group calls?

Mighty Networks includes stated livestream allowances on every plan, from 20 hours a month for 100 attendees on Launch to 40 hours for 1,000 attendees on Growth. Circle includes live events and sells extra hours ($50 a month per 10 hours) and attendees ($20 a month per 100) as add-ons.

Do Circle and Mighty Networks offer free trials?

Both offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, as listed in October 2026. Circle's trial covers Professional, Business and Scale, and Mighty Networks says its trial includes Growth plan features.

Can I export my members if I leave?

Yes, on both. Circle exports members and subscriptions as CSV files, and Mighty Networks exports the member list with tags. Neither offered a bulk export of posts and community content as of September 2026, so discussions largely stay behind.

Which do public reviewers rate higher?

On Trustpilot in October 2026, Circle scored 4.1 from 129 reviews and Mighty Networks scored 3.3 from 219 reviews. Review counts are modest for both, so read recent reviews for the issues that matter to you, such as support or billing.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

On every plan, the Coachful team will build a website, funnel, program, course outline, email sequence or similar inside your account from your brief, reference links and files. Builds usually arrive within about 24 hours, and nothing is invented: gaps are left for you to fill. It does not cover video recording, logo design or ad management.

Can Coachful replace Circle or Mighty Networks?

For coaches, usually yes: Coachful includes a community feed, group chat, video events and cohort groups alongside booking, payments, contracts, programs and check-ins. If your business is a large membership community with no 1:1 work, or you need your own App Store listing, Circle or Mighty Networks may suit you better.