Heartbeat review: community platform pricing, features, and honest assessment (2026)

Flat monthly fee + transaction fees pricing · Cloud · Web · Free trial available

Heartbeat brings your community, courses, events, and payments into a single platform designed for creators who want meaningful member connections over gamified engagement metrics. This review covers actual pricing ($49-$129/month plus transaction fees), course and event features, the chat-first UX tradeoff, and where Circle, Skool, or Discord might be a better fit for your community.

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Written by RajatFact-checked by Chandrasmita

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Pricing

Flat monthly fee + transaction fees · 14-day free trial (no credit card required)

Deployment

Cloud

Supported OS

Web

What is Heartbeat?

Heartbeat is an all-in-one community platform that combines discussions, real-time chat, courses, events, and payments under one roof. It's built for creators and coaches who want to monetize their audience without stitching together five different tools. Plans start at $49/month with a 14-day free trial.

Heartbeat pricing breakdown -- what each plan costs (including transaction fees)

Heartbeat uses flat monthly pricing plus transaction fees on paid memberships. The Starter plan costs $49/month ($40/month on annual billing) and covers up to 1,000 members with a 3% transaction fee on payments you collect. The Growth plan is $129/month ($108/month annually) with unlimited members and a lower 2% transaction fee. Business pricing is custom with a 1% transaction fee.

Every plan includes unlimited courses, digital downloads, chats, events, paid memberships, affiliate programs, automated workflows, custom domains, and white-labeling. That's notable -- most competitors gate white-labeling and custom domains behind higher tiers. The real differentiator between plans is the member cap and the transaction fee percentage. If you're charging $50/month for a membership and you have 200 paying members, that 3% Starter fee costs you $300/month on top of Stripe's processing fees. Moving to Growth drops that to $200/month, which nearly offsets the higher base price.

The transaction fee is the part most community builders miss when comparing Heartbeat to flat-fee platforms. Skool charges $99/month flat with a 2.9% transaction fee on Pro (or 10% on the $9 Hobby plan) -- no additional platform fee. Circle charges $89-$419/month depending on tier, with transaction fees ranging from 0.5% to 2%. So Heartbeat's total cost depends heavily on how much revenue you're processing through the platform. Run the math on your specific numbers before committing.

Compared to the field: Skool at $99/month gives you unlimited members with gamification but no real course builder. Circle at $89/month (annual) has more polished community features but charges more for higher member counts and spaces. Mighty Networks starts at $49/month but limits features. Discord is free but has no built-in course or payment tools. Heartbeat's value proposition is the all-in-one bundle -- you're paying for the convenience of not needing separate course, event, and payment platforms.

Starter: $49/mo ($40/mo billed annually)

Growth: $129/mo ($108/mo billed annually)

Business: Custom (Custom pricing, 1% transaction fee)

Verified from the official pricing page on March 24, 2026. View source

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What Heartbeat actually does (and what it doesn't)

You're running a course-driven community and want everything -- discussions, lessons, events, payments -- in one place without per-member pricing eating into your margins. The course builder is genuinely better than most community platforms offer, the mobile app is solid, and white-labeling is included on every plan. It's a weaker fit if you need deep forum-style discussions with threaded topics, robust native integrations beyond Zapier, or if your community is purely social and doesn't need monetization tools. At $49-$129/month, it's mid-range -- cheaper than Circle's higher tiers but more expensive than Skool's flat $99 when you factor in transaction fees.

Quick verdict

Best when: You're a coach, course creator, or membership operator who wants to combine community discussions with structured learning and...

Worth it if: Starter ($49/month) works if you have under 1,000 members and your paid membership revenue is modest -- the...

Think twice if: Heartbeat's discussion interface is designed more like a chat room than a traditional forum

Heartbeat is best for

You're a coach, course creator, or membership operator who wants to combine community discussions with structured learning and needs built-in payments. Skip it if your community is purely conversational with no monetization plan, or if you need advanced forum features like topic sorting and search-heavy archives. The sweet spot is community builders who are tired of duct-taping Teachable + Discord + Stripe together and want one platform that handles all three.

Why Heartbeat stands out

All-in-one simplicity, course quality, white-labeling on every plan, and no per-member pricing. The course builder rivals dedicated platforms like Teachable -- you get evergreen courses, cohort-based programs, drip lessons, assignments, and secure video hosting. White-labeling (custom domain, removed Heartbeat branding, custom emails) is included even on Starter, while Circle and Mighty Networks reserve this for higher tiers. vs. Circle: better course tools and cheaper white-labeling, but weaker forum discussions. vs. Skool: more flexible course structure and events, but less community gamification.

Is Heartbeat worth the price?

Starter ($49/month) works if you have under 1,000 members and your paid membership revenue is modest -- the 3% fee won't hurt much on small numbers. Growth ($129/month) makes sense once you're processing enough revenue that the 1% fee savings plus unlimited members outweigh the higher base cost. Try the 14-day free trial with your actual content before paying -- import your course material and invite 10 real members to test the experience. Don't go annual until you've run a full billing cycle and confirmed the transaction fees work for your revenue model.

Heartbeat features

Course Builder and Content Delivery

Heartbeat's course builder supports both evergreen (self-paced) and cohort-based courses with drip scheduling, assignments, and community discussion embeds tied to specific lessons. Video hosting is built in with authentication, download prevention, and basic analytics. You can structure courses with modules, lessons, and quizzes -- and bundle them into membership tiers or sell them individually. The main limitation is customization. Course pages follow Heartbeat's templates -- you can't design completely custom layouts or add complex interactive elements like some dedicated course platforms allow. The video player is functional but basic compared to Wistia or Vimeo integrations on platforms like Teachable. For most creators, the built-in tools are more than sufficient, but if you need advanced course marketing pages or sophisticated quiz logic, you may outgrow it.

Community Spaces and Real-Time Chat

Heartbeat organizes community conversations into spaces -- public or private channels for discussions, chats, and direct messages. You get threads, reactions, custom emojis, typing indicators, image sharing, and polls. Voice channels let members hop into audio conversations, and voice notes with auto-generated transcripts add an asynchronous audio option that most competitors lack. The tradeoff is the chat-room design. Unlike Circle's forum-style spaces with post titles, categories, and rich sorting, Heartbeat's discussions flow more like a Slack channel. This works well for active, small-to-mid-size communities where real-time conversation is the goal. It becomes harder to navigate in larger communities where members want to search for past discussions or browse topics. If your community is heavy on reference content and searchable knowledge, this is Heartbeat's weakest area.

Events, Workshops, and Live Sessions

Heartbeat's event system handles workshops, coaching calls, summits, AMAs, and recurring sessions. Events integrate with Zoom for live video and sync with Google Calendar and Outlook so members never miss a session. You can run public events (open to anyone, great for acquisition) or private events (members-only, adds exclusivity). Event tickets can be sold standalone or bundled into memberships. The event feature replaces the need for a separate tool like Eventbrite or Calendly for most community use cases. The limitation is that Zoom is the only native video integration -- if you prefer Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or a self-hosted solution, you'll need workarounds. Automated event reminders and follow-ups are built in, reducing the no-show problem that plagues online events.

Payments, Memberships, and Monetization

Heartbeat's payment suite runs on Stripe and handles recurring subscriptions, one-time purchases, free trials, coupon codes, and an affiliate referral program. You can create multiple membership tiers with different access levels -- for example, a free tier with basic community access and a paid tier that unlocks courses and events. Digital downloads (PDFs, templates, guides) can be sold as standalone products. The downside is the transaction fee layered on top of Stripe's processing fee. On the Starter plan, you're paying 3% to Heartbeat plus Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents -- nearly 6% total on every transaction. For communities processing significant revenue, this adds up fast. The other limitation is Stripe exclusivity: no PayPal, no Paddle, no alternative payment methods. For creators with international audiences in regions where Stripe is limited, this can be a deal-breaker.

Pros and cons

Separate what looks good in the demo from what actually matters after a month of daily use.

Strengths

The strengths that matter most once you start using Heartbeat daily.

Genuinely good course builder inside a community platform

Most community platforms treat courses as an afterthought -- a tab with some video uploads. Heartbeat's course builder is closer to what you'd get from Teachable or Thinkific. You can create evergreen self-paced courses or cohort-based programs with scheduled lessons, drip content, assignments, and discussion threads tied to specific modules. Secure video hosting includes download prevention and analytics. If selling courses is central to your business, this saves you from maintaining a separate course platform.

White-labeling and custom domains on every plan

Even the $49/month Starter plan includes custom domains, branded emails, your own logo, custom colors, and removal of Heartbeat branding. On mobile, members access your community through the Heartbeat app, but once they're logged in, all Heartbeat branding disappears. Circle reserves custom domains for higher tiers and Mighty Networks gates white-labeling behind their premium plans. For creators who care about brand consistency, Heartbeat's approach is refreshing.

No per-member pricing -- flat monthly fee

Unlike Circle (which limits members and spaces per tier) or platforms that charge per active user, Heartbeat's pricing is based on your plan level, not how many people join your community. Starter caps at 1,000 members, but Growth gives you unlimited. This means your costs don't spiral as your community grows -- a meaningful advantage if you're building a large free community with a paid membership tier on top.

Built-in payments, affiliates, and monetization tools

Heartbeat handles paid memberships, event tickets, course sales, and digital download payments natively through Stripe. You can set up subscription pricing, one-time payments, free trials, and coupon codes without any third-party tools. The built-in affiliate program lets your members earn referral commissions. For creators who want to monetize from day one, everything is wired up out of the box -- no Zapier hacks needed.

Events with Zoom, calendar sync, and ticketing

Heartbeat's event system integrates with Zoom for live sessions and syncs with Google Calendar and Outlook. You can run workshops, coaching calls, summits, and AMAs -- either bundled into a membership or sold as standalone tickets. Public events double as acquisition tools (free events to attract new members), while private events add exclusive value for paying members. This replaces Eventbrite or Calendly for most community use cases.

Limitations

Check these before subscribing — these are the limitations most likely to affect your experience.

Chat-first UX makes forum-style discussions messy

Heartbeat's discussion interface is designed more like a chat room than a traditional forum. Posts don't have titles or subjects, conversations live in one continuous scroll, and there's no sorting by date or topic. If you're used to Circle's threaded spaces or even a simple bulletin board, Heartbeat's approach can feel disorganized once your community gets active. Threads help, but they're not the same as a true forum with categories and searchable archives.

Transaction fees add up on higher-revenue communities

The 3% transaction fee on Starter (or 2% on Growth) is on top of Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction. If you're running a $97/month membership with 500 paying members, that's roughly $1,455/month in Heartbeat fees alone on the Starter plan. Compare this to Skool's flat $99/month or Circle's lower transaction rates on higher tiers. For high-revenue communities, the total cost of Heartbeat can quietly become more expensive than it first appears.

Limited native integrations -- Zapier fills the gaps

Heartbeat integrates natively with Stripe, Zoom, Google Calendar, and Outlook. Beyond that, you're relying on Zapier to connect with email platforms, CRMs, webinar tools, or anything else in your stack. Circle and Mighty Networks offer more direct integrations. If you use ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, or other marketing tools heavily, budget time for Zapier setup and the occasional automation that breaks.

Stripe-only payment processing

Heartbeat only supports Stripe as a payment gateway. If your audience is in regions where Stripe isn't available, or if you prefer PayPal, Paddle, or another processor, you're stuck. This is a hard blocker for some international creators. Skool also uses Stripe, but Circle and Mighty Networks offer more payment flexibility.

Smaller team means slower support at times

Heartbeat is a smaller company compared to Circle or Mighty Networks, and it shows in support response times. Multiple reviewers report waiting days for replies to support tickets, particularly on lower-tier plans. The founding team is accessible and genuinely responsive to product feedback, but if you need same-day help with a technical issue, the wait can be frustrating. Growth and Business plans get priority support.

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Setup, integrations, and getting your community running

Getting started with Heartbeat takes about 30-60 minutes for a basic setup: create your community, add your branding (logo, colors, custom domain), set up your first chat space, and invite a few members. The 14-day free trial gives you enough time to build out a real community structure before paying. Importing existing content (courses, member lists) adds more time -- budget a full afternoon if you're migrating from another platform.

The learning curve is moderate. The chat and discussion features are intuitive -- anyone who's used Slack or Discord will feel comfortable. Courses take more time to set up properly, especially if you're building cohort-based programs with drip schedules and assignments. The workflow automation feature (Heartbeat's built-in alternative to Zapier for internal actions) is powerful but takes experimentation to master. Budget 2-3 weeks of active use before you've explored everything.

For teams, Heartbeat supports multiple admins and moderators with role-based access. Brand kits keep visual consistency across your community. The shared workspace means your team can manage events, courses, and discussions without stepping on each other. If you have a virtual assistant or community manager, they can handle day-to-day operations while you focus on content.

Practical tip: start with one paid offering (a single membership tier or one course) and one active discussion space. Heartbeat gives you the tools to build a complex community, but launching with too many spaces, courses, and events at once overwhelms your members and dilutes engagement. Add complexity as your community grows and tells you what they want.

Before you subscribe

Free trial and getting started with Heartbeat

Before you subscribe to Heartbeat, work through these questions. The all-in-one pitch is attractive, but the right platform depends on what your community actually needs.

Run the transaction fee math on YOUR numbers. Calculate your expected monthly revenue from paid memberships, courses, and events. Multiply by 3% (Starter) or 2% (Growth) and add Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents. Compare that total to what you'd pay on Circle, Skool, or a separate course platform. The cheapest-looking plan isn't always the cheapest in practice.

Test the discussion UX with real members during the free trial. Heartbeat's chat-first approach works for some communities and frustrates others. Don't evaluate this in an empty community -- invite 10-15 people, post regularly for a week, and ask them how it feels compared to what they've used before.

Check if your key integrations work. If you rely on ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Notion, or other tools, verify the Zapier connection works the way you need before committing. Native integrations are limited, and a broken Zapier automation at scale can mean lost members or missed onboarding steps.

Decide whether you actually need courses and events, or just community. If your main goal is discussion and member connections -- no courses, no paid events -- a simpler platform like Skool, Discord, or Geneva might serve you better at a lower cost. Heartbeat's strength is the all-in-one bundle, so you're overpaying if you only use half of it.

Try Circle and Skool side by side. All three offer free trials. Set up the same community structure in each, invite the same test members, and compare the experience. The right platform often comes down to which interface your specific audience prefers -- not which feature list is longer.

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Frequently asked questions about Heartbeat

How much does Heartbeat cost per month?

Heartbeat's Starter plan is $49/month ($40/month on annual billing) with up to 1,000 members and a 3% transaction fee. The Growth plan is $129/month ($108/month annually) with unlimited members and a 2% transaction fee. Business pricing is custom with a 1% transaction fee. All transaction fees are on top of Stripe's standard processing fees.

Does Heartbeat have a free plan or free trial?

Heartbeat doesn't have a permanent free plan, but it offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. That's enough time to set up a community, build a course, and test the experience with real members. Both Circle and Skool also offer 14-day trials, so you can test all three simultaneously.

Who is Heartbeat best for?

Heartbeat is built for coaches, course creators, and membership operators who want community, courses, events, and payments in one platform. It's strongest when you're selling structured learning alongside community access. It's a weaker fit for purely social communities, large-scale forums, or communities that don't need monetization tools.

Heartbeat vs Circle -- which is better?

Heartbeat has better built-in course tools and includes white-labeling on every plan, making it stronger for course-driven communities. Circle has a more polished forum-style discussion experience, more native integrations, and better scalability for large communities. Choose Heartbeat if courses are central to your business. Choose Circle if community discussions are your primary focus.

Heartbeat vs Skool -- which should I pick?

Skool is simpler, cheaper ($99/month flat for Pro, $9/month for Hobby), and built around gamification to drive engagement. Heartbeat offers more flexible course structures, built-in events with Zoom integration, and white-labeling. Choose Skool if you want simplicity and leaderboard-driven engagement. Choose Heartbeat if you need cohort courses, events, and brand control.

What integrations does Heartbeat support?

Heartbeat integrates natively with Stripe (payments), Zoom (live events), Google Calendar, and Outlook. Everything else connects through Zapier -- including email marketing platforms, CRMs, and webinar tools. If you need deep native integrations with tools like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign, Circle or Mighty Networks may be a better fit.

Can I sell courses on Heartbeat?

Yes, and the course builder is one of Heartbeat's strongest features. You can create evergreen self-paced courses or cohort-based programs with drip lessons, assignments, discussion threads, and secure video hosting. Courses can be sold standalone, bundled into memberships, or offered for free as lead magnets. It's more capable than the course features in Circle or Skool.

Does Heartbeat have a mobile app?

Yes. Members access your community through the Heartbeat mobile app on iOS and Android. While you can't get a fully standalone branded app, Heartbeat removes its own branding once members are logged in -- so the experience inside the app matches your brand. Push notifications, chats, courses, and events all work on mobile.

Is Heartbeat worth the money?

If you're currently paying for a separate community platform, course platform, and event tool, Heartbeat can consolidate those costs into one subscription. At $49-$129/month plus transaction fees, it's worth it for creators who actively use courses, events, AND community features. If you only need one of those three, a specialized tool (Skool for community, Teachable for courses) may be more cost-effective.

Can I cancel Heartbeat anytime?

Yes. Heartbeat is month-to-month with no long-term contract. If you're on annual billing, you've prepaid for the year but can cancel renewal. Before canceling, make sure to export your member data and course content, properly disconnect Stripe to stop billing your members, and deactivate subscriptions -- the offboarding process has a few steps that aren't immediately obvious.

Heartbeat alternatives worth comparing

If Heartbeat isn't the right fit, these community platforms take different approaches to the same problem. The best choice depends on whether you prioritize discussions, courses, simplicity, or cost.

Tool	Best when	Main tradeoff	Pricing	Free trial
Heartbeat(this tool)	You're a coach, course creator, or membership operator who wants to combine community discussions...	Heartbeat's discussion interface is designed more like a chat room than a traditional forum	Flat monthly fee	Yes
Circle	You're running a paid community with courses, live events, and membership tiers — and...	Circle offers a 14-day free trial but no ongoing free tier	Flat monthly fee (tiered)	Yes
Skool	You're building a coaching community, paid mastermind, or course-based membership where engagement matters more...	The $9/month price tag looks attractive until you start charging members	Flat-rate per group	Yes
Discord	You're building a free or loosely monetized community around real-time conversation -- think fan...	Discord has zero payment or subscription infrastructure	Freemium (user-level upgrades)	Yes
Mighty Networks	You're running a paid membership community that also needs courses, events, and a mobile...	Every Mighty Networks plan charges transaction fees: 3% on Community, 2% on Courses and...	Tiered flat fee + transaction fees	Yes

Circle

Circle is the most polished community platform for forum-style discussions, with rich post formatting, threaded spaces, and a clean UI that scales well for larger communities. Pricing starts at $89/month (annual) with courses, events, and email built in. Transaction fees range from 0.5% to 2% depending on plan. Choose Circle over Heartbeat if community discussions are your primary focus and you want a more traditional forum experience with better native integrations.

Compare Circle

Skool

Skool is the simplest community platform on the market -- community, courses, and gamification in a clean interface. The Pro plan is $99/month flat with a 2.9% transaction fee, and the Hobby plan is just $9/month with a 10% fee. No white-labeling, limited branding, and basic course tools, but the leaderboard and gamification mechanics drive engagement in a way other platforms don't. Choose Skool over Heartbeat if you want simplicity, built-in engagement mechanics, and don't need advanced course features or events.

Compare Skool

Discord

Discord is free with optional paid Server Subscriptions (90/10 revenue split) for creators who want to monetize. It's the most flexible community tool with channels, voice chat, video, and bots -- but has no built-in course tools, no event ticketing, and requires third-party integrations for any structured content. Choose Discord over Heartbeat if your community is purely conversational, your audience already uses Discord, and you don't need monetization or course features built in.

Compare Discord

Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks positions itself as a community-powered course platform with native mobile apps, live streaming, and AI-powered member matching. Pricing starts at $49/month (annual) and scales up for more features. It offers more native engagement features than Heartbeat but can feel complex to set up. Choose Mighty Networks over Heartbeat if you want native livestreaming, AI-driven member connections, and a standalone branded mobile app.

Compare Mighty Networks

Geneva

Geneva is a free, lightweight community app designed for real-time group communication -- chat, audio rooms, video, livestreaming, and events in a clean mobile-first interface. No monetization tools, no courses, no payment processing. Choose Geneva over Heartbeat if you're running a free community focused on real-time connection and don't need to charge members or deliver courses.

Compare Geneva

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Sources

Pricing and product details referenced on this page were verified from public sources. Confirm final details directly with the vendor before purchasing.

pricing · verified Mar 24, 2026

Official pricing page

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