Teachable VS Thinkific VS Kajabi VS Skool: Where Should You Build Your Community?
3. Ratings (from actual users)
When it comes to building an online community that is focused on education, many useful tools exist that you can use. Having enjoyed success on various platforms, I wanted to share my experience using Circle, Mighty Networks, and Skool.
Let me say this: I believe all three platforms are among the best in the industry. They all offer remarkable features, are incredibly easy to use, and can be extremely powerful in the right hands. However, sticking with one platform to build a lasting community is better. In this guide, I will help you understand:
By reading this comparison, you should feel more confident in making your decision. So, let’s get started on comparing Circle, Mighty Networks, and Skool!
When reviewing software, I like to put stock in what other users have suggested. While I always try out software myself, I want to have a general idea of the wider consensus before I start using it. So, with that in mind, what do other users say about their time with Circle, Mighty Networks, and Skool?
Circle has some great reviews online, with CapTerra users providing a highly credible 4.8/5 rating. The feedback on Circle is mostly built around its ease of use and simplicity.
The most focus in the reviews on the positive side was to do with how quick and easy it is to get started. However, it should be noted that Circle is unlike Skool or Mighty Networks because it does not have a dedicated course focus. However, for building a community, it is excellent.
The primary complaint I found from other users – and something I shared – was the issues with updates. Circle has a nasty habit of breaking features that worked just fine before an update. Another common complaint was that there was not enough analytical data about community performance. I agree that analytics and update issues are frustrations with an otherwise solid platform.
When reviewing Mighty Networks, I was impressed by its 4.6 rating on CapTerra. Capterra is a great platform for user reviews, and the general feedback on Mighty Networks was very positive.
Most user reviews tended to focus on providing praise for the excellent price-to-feature ratio. Other platforms can feel barebones at the cheapest price, but Mighty Networks does not scrimp on this side. On top of that, there was justified praise for its ease of use.
However, some negative points focused on the high bar for learning. For example, key features such as its affiliate marketing programs can be complex. The general negatives mentioned about Mighty Networks focused on how confusing it can be for first-time users; getting to grips with this platform takes time and patience.
Skool has been reviewed extensively online, although it lacks wider user-provided reviews like the above platforms. That being said, the platform ranks highly with respected industry members like EMoneyPeeps.
There was a lot of praise given to Skool by the above review, and it is easy to see why. It included the simplicity of usage, which I fully agree with, and the ability to manage your community. The gamification features were praised, as was the lack of advertising on your Skool platform.
The main negative about Skool is that it perhaps lacks some key advanced features. EMoneyPeeps and others have noted that the platform also has a limited amount of information about the platform online. Compared to Mighty Networks and Circle, Skool can feel a touch opaque.
Once you are signed up, and in the platform itself, I found it more than lived up to my expectations.
The cost for any course and community builder should be a major priority. I have always found that pricing is one of my biggest bugbears when investing in a service: am I getting good value for money? Here is what I found regarding the cost of Circle, Mighty Networks, and Skool.
Circle has a three-tier payment system that starts at $89.99 per month before moving up to as much as $399 per month for its Enterprise model. That is a hefty price to pay. The cheapest service is surprisingly limited for the fee you pay compared to both Mighty Networks and Skool; it offers the highest cost for the lowest value.
While its more powerful price tiers are rich in features, they are very expensive. Circle might not offer the necessary value if you build a community that focuses on education as its primary connection.
Mighty Networks uses a pricing system that can seem daunting at first glance. I found myself a little confused by what was on offer – but once I drilled down into each version, I understood what I was getting more. The cheapest option is $33/month, while the dearer option of $99/month offers great value.
You can also get a bespoke pricing plan based on your desire. Mighty Networks does offer the greatest level of flexibility. I would advise looking at the features of the $99/month option and comparing it with Skool: do you need all of those extra features? Do you need video hosting and/or streaming at the cost of simplicity?
Skool keeps things simple with a one-tier pricing option at $99 per month. Like everything with Skool, simplicity is the aim of the game. The price tier you pay here gives you access to every feature in one place. There are no paywalls or additional price tiers. This makes Skool the best platform overall regarding value for money.
Nothing is hidden; nothing costs extra. You get everything that you want from Skool with one single payment. If you build the most cost-effective course-focused community, Skool wins hands down in pricing. I value transparency and openness, and Skool provides both in droves.
Having enjoyed using all three platforms to various degrees, I wanted to give an idea of my general user experience when using each. Hopefully, this will help you to work out what platform is the most accessible and useful for you.
Circle is an intriguing platform – it is easy to use but can be confusing initially. Circle feels quite uncertain at first because it simply has so many questions to ask of you. Circle makes starting hard, but the process becomes much smoother once you lay those tricky foundations. So, do not expect to have your Circle community up and running in minutes – it takes time and patience.
That patience, though, is often well rewarded because Circle is great for building a close-knit community. For one, the dashboard is very easy to use once you determine your desired features. Then, the user functions like group chats and user profiles make it easy for each community member to feel like they are more than just a generic username.
A major negative of Circle is the lack of course-building solutions. Yes, a course builder is included, but it is nowhere near as powerful or intuitive as course-focused platforms like Skool and Mighty Networks. If you are trying to build a business that is primarily focused on education and courses, then I have to say that Circle fails to hit the market. From a pure community management and growth point of view, though, it is a reliable tool. It has some key features that other alternatives lack, such as live streaming, which is a real bonus.
I could resolve most issues thanks to its excellent customer support and community. I could learn from what others had done in Circle and rely on their email customer support to help me fix technical problems with my communities.
It makes up for what Circle lacks in course building in community management. You can also build your own branded mobile app, making it even easier for your members to access the community on demand. On top of that, it is easy to integrate Circle into other parts of your business, so it can be a great place to run a community and improve your options concerning marketing.
Mighty Networks is an interesting platform – it takes some getting used to. I found it to offer an effective platform that was easy to use once I understood where everything was. Once I logged in, I understood what other reviewers had mentioned: there were a lot of options to pick from. Too many, at first. The options for creating a course and a community were so extensive it felt overwhelming.
However, that density of options is a good thing. As time progressed and I created more communities, this volume of choice was really useful. Everything you need to find on the dashboard is kept on the left-hand side. This makes accessing events, members, and your overall feed easy. Creating content as varied as blogs and podcasts was simple, too, which I appreciated.
That being said, the sheer wealth of options can feel intimidating. At first, I felt a sense of ‘analysis paralysis’ as I tried to determine my best options. It felt like I had too many options, even for someone fluent in such software. For those looking for advanced features and more power, though, Mighty Networks is excellent value for money.
Mighty Networks also excelled when it comes to customer support. I learned much from other users through its bustling community, and the in-house support team was very helpful. This was one of the main benefits of using Mighty Networks. While the platform can be confusing to learn and use, the available support meant I could easily overcome most of the issues I faced.
My experience with Mighty Networks could only be described as positive after an initial sense of confusion. It had everything I was looking for regarding advanced course creation and community management. A few minor quibbles included a lack of moderation tools and the time it took to master the platform. When I finally found what I was looking for, I was rarely disappointed with the quality.
The user experience in Skool was, in my view, its most powerful asset. Everything is easily located and found within the dashboard. Even without some ‘expected’ features like course and community templates, building what I was looking for was so simple that it took little to no time to get to grips with Skool. From a user experience perspective, I had the best time when it came to using Skool.
Skool simplifies course and content creation to a ridiculous degree. It is easy to build what you are looking for, and Skool is also a master of ensuring your community members can access the platform just as easily. This includes detailed membership profiles and excellent analytics that allow for easy review of how your students are getting on – who needs help, who is excelling etc.
Gamification might be the landmark feature of Skool, though. The community is easy to manage because everyone can see progress through badges, progress bars, and leaderboards. On top of that, the in-built analytics ensure that you can keep every member of your community on track and having fun. This makes it much easier to encourage people to participate and stay committed to their education.
Another factor about Skool that I loved was the quality of customer support. I could use the in-house customer support for tech issues or the Skool Community to learn about the platform. This made learning about the available features even easier, and any tech issues I ever had were resolved promptly and professionally. This only furthered my belief that Skool is an easy-to-use platform.
On top of all of this, Skool is a slick and fast-moving system. Everything loads quickly, is easy to find and can be customised to fit your preferences. While Skool might lack essential features like building your mobile app, accessing Skool communities is so refreshingly easy that I could look the other way. Regarding usability, Skool is the easiest platform of all three to use – by far.
Each platform has a pretty diverse range of features that make them very effective in their own right. What was my general view of the features provided during my time with each platform? I will break down the most important features that I believe make each platform a worthwhile tool.
Circle boasts a wide range of useful features allowing community and course management. While the course-building tools are rudimentary compared to Skool and Mighty Networks, other useful features include:
Mighty Networks boasts a very impressive array of features. However, I believe that the depth of features is also a potential issue for beginners. It can make the platform seem daunting. The following elements, though, are essential to what makes Mighty Networks so useful:
Though Skool might not have as many advanced or ‘major’ features as some competitors, it has enough. Every feature I needed to run a happy community focused on a course was present. The best features I found include:
While Circle does offer course-building solutions, they are so basic compared to the competition that I would not recommend Circle if your primary intent was for course creation.
It is primarily for building a community you can bring together, market products/services to, and secondarily create a course they can take as part of the community platform.
I respect it, but it is probably unsuitable for first-time course creators and community managers. However, The quality it has to offer is not in doubt whatsoever.
Yes, Mighty Networks makes course building easy enough. However, there is a somewhat steep learning curve, so do not expect to get everything right at the first time of asking.
Yes, massively so. The simplicity of Skool is one of its main selling points. I am a huge fan of how easy it is to build a course and community using Skool.
Unfortunately not. However, it makes up for this by making course creation so simple and easy to follow along with the process that I would not worry too much about it.
There is not necessarily a “right” or “wrong” answer when choosing between Circle vs Mighty Networks vs Skool. It comes down to personal requirements, technical experience, and long-term aims. If you want my personal view, Skool offers the best blend of simplicity, effectiveness, and reliability.
Yes, Skool might not be as ‘advanced’ as the above options. It is my opinion, though, that Skool offers the best way of getting started. Many people want to build a course-focused community but find the tools available to do so quite daunting. Well, Skool strips everything back to the simplest level. This makes it intuitive, easy to use, and quick to master.
If your sole aim is to build a community focused on education in a specific subject, Skool offers you everything you need. What it lacks in more advanced functions, it makes up for in ease of use, ease of joining for members, and member interaction. All three platforms are great, but Skool wins as it is just as effective for newbies as it is for veteran course-community builders.
Of course, you might use another program other than Circle, Mighty Networks and/or Skool. Thankfully, other choices include tools such as Kajabi, Slack, Discord, ClickFunnels, Teachable, Thinkific, and Facebook Groups.
All of the above options provide access to their collection of features and purposes. While not all will be suitable for building a community and a course in one place, each offers great foundations for community growth. I recommend investigating the above options, but Skool is the simplest, most effective choice for building a course-focused community.
INFINITE DISRUPTION GmbH, ℅ Cludea Capital, Schauenburgerstr. 10, 20095 Hamburg
