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For developing online communities, Circle and Mighty Networks are each formidable systems. These services provide adaptable community structuring, varied media uploads, interaction utilities like digital assemblies and learning curricula, plus complimentary and custom-designed mobile applications.
Nevertheless, Circle excels in ease of use, offers a superior member journey, and features more advanced community administration and revenue-generating functions, whereas Mighty Networks is characterized by its more economical cost structure.
Advantages:
Considerations:
Circle (often referred to as Circle.so) and Mighty Networks both function as cloud-hosted online community construction tools, delivering a comparable set of fundamental capabilities:
Circle’s homepage
Essentially, both platforms demonstrate considerable resemblance, and the distinctions between them are rather slight.
For instance, Circle delivers features such as automation routines and public API availability. Mighty Networks, by comparison, features pricing plans more suited to beginners.
Therefore, we will now delve into a more thorough examination of their respective attributes to identify their key differentiators.
When selecting a foundational system for your online collective, your preference is to avoid investing extensive time mastering an overly complicated setup.
Beneficially, Circle and Mighty Networks are both crafted with non-technical individuals in mind, meaning an ordinary user lacking advanced technical abilities can operate them.
Indeed, each platform provides a comparable user environment for communities, featuring your designated sections itemized in a left-side panel, while discussions and materials populate the main area on the right.
Circle’s user interface
Mighty Networks’ user interface
Nevertheless, Circle presents a more carefully considered user interface construction, enabling you to execute administrative duties effortlessly and with minimal interactions. Reaching your data insights and community supervision tools, as an example, involves just a straightforward selection of the platform’s main heading. Conversely, with Mighty Networks, one must journey through personal account details and system configurations prior to accessing these same functionalities.
Additionally, Circle demonstrates superior capability in structuring administrative settings coherently, simplifying the process of locating specific functionalities. The platform’s configuration area showcases self-explanatory menu choices, like New Member Integration and Personalized Web Address, which clearly communicate their purpose.
Conversely, Mighty Networks employs somewhat ambiguous classifications, like “User Pathways” and “Advanced Functionalities.”
Furthermore, you are required to return to the main system configuration area on each occasion you wish to enter a different functional group. As a result, you will likely allocate more time to discovering specific tools and becoming accustomed to the platform’s overall design.
For community participants, the user interface on both systems mirrors what administrators experience, though without access to the administrative controls.
Although the general interaction is positive with both platforms, Circle delivers a more refined performance. It features a more uncluttered layout, and the controls for composing a new discussion entry are more readily available.
Significantly, Mighty Networks incorporates a somewhat peculiar user interaction where written pieces and educational module content initially appear in a restricted, half-screen view. Circle, in contrast, presents this type of content on a distinct, full page, which facilitates easier consumption and movement to different areas.
In summary, both Circle and Mighty Networks demand little in terms of technical expertise for platform operation, yet the Circle platform presents a more meticulously crafted user interface, simplifying community administration for managers and content navigation for participants.
Circle and Mighty Networks each provide an abundance of instruments for establishing and fostering community interaction. However, several noteworthy distinctions exist between them, which this part will explore.
Nevertheless, to begin, both systems incorporate the most fundamental options for community development:
Now, let us examine the particular details.
Instruments for community structuring are vital as they simplify the navigation of your collective and enhance member participation.
Each system enables the creation of what are termed “Spaces.” These function as distinct compartments within your overall community, housing all shared content and interactions.
You possess the ability to manage the confidentiality and entry permissions for these spaces. As an illustration, you can establish restricted, accessible, or even concealed spaces, permit either all participants or only administrators to extend invitations, and also institute a fee for entry.
Nonetheless, the method for establishing community spaces varies between the two platforms. Within Circle, every space is required to conform to one of six predefined categories, and you are able to generate numerous spaces under each category:
Spaces and Groups in Circle
Mighty Networks, conversely, treats all spaces identically at their inception, though each one can feature a collection of different elements:
These distinct areas are presented through a horizontal navigation bar located within your particular space.
Spaces and Collections in Mighty Networks
Additionally, each system permits the clustering of spaces to establish a structured arrangement in your online collective. This capability is known as “Groups” within Circle and “Collections” in Mighty Networks, yet they fulfill an identical function.
Overall, both methodologies are effective and provide an equivalent degree of adaptability; the choice largely depends on individual taste. Our preference leans towards Circle’s method due to its enhancement of the participant’s journey.
In addition, both platforms enable content classification by using tags or topics. Mighty Networks refers to these as Highlighted Hashtags, while Circle names them Topics. These contribute an additional organizational dimension, simplifying content discovery for members.
Having said that, Mighty Networks incorporates a few beneficial organizational instruments not present in Circle:
Now, Mighty Networks offers a distinctive function known as a Discovery page that allows you to design a specific area showcasing key community highlights—such as prominent discussions, leading contributors, relevant hashtags, and other notable items—within your community.
Otherwise, both platforms furnish comparable functionalities concerning the establishment and structuring of community areas.
Shared materials form the cornerstone of any digital collective, and it is crucial for your chosen system to accommodate diverse content formats.
With either Circle or Mighty Networks, you have the capability to generate brief updates along with comprehensive written pieces.
For concise updates, you are able to compose text, incorporate visuals, video clips, animated GIFs, or documents, and also tag fellow participants. You have the choice to release your update instantly or arrange it for later publication.
However, the content creation tool in Circle performs certain tasks more effectively. This single editor is engineered for crafting both shorter updates and longer articles.
This not only improves the overall user interaction but also makes available the full spectrum of formatting and embedding capabilities for producing brief updates. Additionally, these can be stored as preliminary versions.
Circle’s post editor
Mighty Networks, conversely, employs distinct editing interfaces for creating brief updates and more extensive written pieces.
Using its editor for short updates, you are unable to apply text styling, integrate content from Instagram or Google Maps, insert a web link, or preserve the update as an initial version. The dedicated editor for longer articles, however, does provide all of these functionalities.
Mighty Networks’ post editor
A further distinction relates to their artificial intelligence writing aids. While both systems have incorporated AI within their content creation tools, Circle’s AI feature, known as the content co-pilot, enables you to not only refine your material but also to compose new content, brainstorm concepts, develop structural frameworks, and perform many other tasks.
Conversely, the AI assistant provided by Mighty Networks delivers a more restricted set of capabilities. It permits fundamental operations like rectifying grammar and modifying the style of writing, but it does not possess the ability to generate original content.
Circle’s AI writing assistant
In addition to brief updates and comprehensive articles, both platforms also allow you to design interactive polls as a means of collecting insights and opinions directly from your community participants.
However, Mighty Networks demonstrates superior versatility in this particular area. It accommodates a range of question styles, including multiple-selection options, comparative preference scales (often termed hot/cold), and percentage-based responses, while Circle’s polling feature is confined to multiple-selection formats.
Questions and polls in Mighty Networks
It also incorporates a unique function termed the Infinite Question Engine, which leverages artificial intelligence to produce a continuous stream of inquiries for your community members to interact with. You have the option to modify these questions and publish them at your discretion or set them up for automated posting.
Each of these online community systems facilitates virtual gatherings and live video broadcasting, offering comparable functionalities, with the exception of some subtle variations in their operational methods. Here is a summary of what you can achieve with both:
Creating an event in Circle
In general, both Circle and Mighty Networks provide analogous features for content creation and member interaction, notwithstanding Circle’s more robust tool for composing discussion entries.
Mighty Networks and Circle each facilitate the development of online educational programs, though with some distinctions between their offerings.
Both platforms feature a user-friendly, click-and-move interface for course construction, enabling the organization of educational material into distinct modules and individual learning units.
These systems permit you to store your video materials and assemble learning units that combine written text, sound recordings, and video presentations. Additionally, you can include supplementary documents and activate discussion forums within these learning units.
Circle’s course builder
Regarding educational functionalities, both systems offer the ability to gradually release content over time and to restrict access to certain materials until prerequisites are met. Nevertheless, Mighty Networks additionally provides the capability to incorporate assessments within your educational programs.
Mighty Networks supports content dripping and locking
Nevertheless, to cultivate active participation, both Circle and Mighty Networks permit you to seamlessly combine your educational materials with various community functionalities, such as ongoing discussion areas, interactive live gatherings, and collective messaging features. This positions these systems as excellent choices for group-based learning programs where participants can establish connections, work cooperatively, and acquire knowledge collectively.
From the perspective of user interaction, the educational content interface provided by Circle notably surpasses that of Mighty Networks. The content delivery system within Circle presents a more sophisticated appearance and also features more intuitive directional controls.
Circle’s course player interface
Conversely, the educational content delivery system in Mighty Networks exhibits certain deficiencies regarding its visual arrangement and ease of operation. When a learning unit is selected, it first appears in a retractable panel that covers merely half the display area, and it does not initially show a clear navigation menu. Users must select the Enlarge symbol to engage with the complete interface for the educational program.
A walkthrough of Mighty Networks’ course player experience
To summarize, both Circle and Mighty Networks are suitable for developing educational programs within your online collective. Nevertheless, Circle holds an advantage concerning the visual appeal and user interaction of its content delivery system.
Furthermore, with Circle, you have the option to connect with well-known educational system providers such as Teachable and Thinkific. Consequently, should you prefer not to utilize Circle’s integrated course features for any particular reason, you can opt for an external system as an alternative.
Mighty Networks and Circle both incorporate functionalities for individual and collective communication.
For collective discussions, each platform includes capabilities such as threaded conversations, user tagging, and emotive responses. However, Circle additionally facilitates the sending of audio messages and the highlighting of important messages.
Circle’s group chat feature
Next, let us address the topic of alerts. Both of these community-building systems enable participants to get updates via electronic mail and mobile device notifications. Additionally, users have the ability to choose which specific activities and designated areas they wish to receive alerts for.
Member notification settings in Mighty Networks
In general, both systems effectively enable participants to receive information regarding the events and discussions most relevant to their interests.
A highly significant provision from both systems is their complimentary application available for users of iOS and Android operating systems.
These applications empower both you and your participants to engage with your online collective via mobile devices and remain informed about recent developments through direct mobile alerts.
Through either application, community participants can compose new discussion entries, respond to ongoing conversations, dispatch private communications, join live interactive sessions, and view educational program content.
The application’s user interface is specifically adapted for mobile device usage, and moving between different areas and executing tasks, such as initiating a new discussion entry, is an uncomplicated process.
Circle app’s user interface
Mighty Networks app interface
It is important to note, however, that the application from Mighty Networks additionally incorporates the complete suite of administrative functionalities and configurations. Although this theoretically permits modifications to your online collective and even its complete construction using a mobile device, this approach is not optimal for several distinct considerations:
Consequently, our assessment suggests that a dedicated application specifically for administrators to construct and oversee their online collectives would represent a more advantageous arrangement.
The application provided by Circle, in contrast, prioritizes the participant’s journey, and it achieves this with notable proficiency. Nevertheless, in differentiation from Mighty Networks, it does not facilitate transactions within the application itself.
Ultimately, both systems provide the capability to create custom-branded applications for your online collective. However, Mighty Networks enables new participant registrations and in-application transactions via their personalized applications, whereas Circle, at present, does not include these particular functionalities.
In the realm of fostering online collectives, the choice between Mighty Networks and Circle is quite nuanced, and selecting either system is a commendable decision.
Each system is equipped with the complete toolkit needed for developing your online collective, covering discussion entries and detailed pieces, virtual assemblies and live broadcasts, learning programs, direct and group communication, tailored alerts, and mobile applications.
Both systems provide analogous capabilities, with some slight variations observable in particular functions.
Circle and Mighty Networks each provide integrated instruments for revenue generation. Both enable the creation of straightforward introductory webpages and the processing of payments, aspects we will concentrate on here.
Mighty Networks features a webpage creator that enables you to construct a straightforward introductory page for your online group. It provides several predefined segments, encompassing a main visual display, a textual content area, and pricing details, yet it offers minimal flexibility for extensive modifications.
Mighty Networks app interface
Within Circle, this function is referred to as the Access Control Display, and similarly, the options for page construction are somewhat restricted.
It accommodates merely four distinct page areas: a primary banner display, a descriptive text area, a list of educational program units, and sections for calls to action. While these areas offer a degree of personalization, the modifications are not exceptionally substantial.
Circle’s landing page builder
Nonetheless, its utility is greater since it enables the generation of distinct introductory pages for individual areas or subscription tiers, granting you enhanced adaptability in this regard. In contrast, Mighty Networks permits the construction of only a single introductory page for the entire community.
Regarding financial transactions, several commonalities exist between the two systems:
Thus, both systems accommodate the fundamental functionalities, yet the common ground concludes at this juncture. Indeed, it is Circle that distinguishes itself favorably from this stage onward.
Pertaining to the payment completion screen, Circle again demonstrates superiority. Circle’s checkout interface is more efficiently structured than Mighty Networks’. Account setup and payment submission occur on one consolidated page, offering a more refined aesthetic as well.
A sample checkout page created on Circle
Alternatively, Mighty Networks employs a payment system organized into several key phases. Indeed, the next phase necessitates that individuals provide their own picture, an action that feels quite irrational and truly obstructs effective onboarding processes.
Step 1: Create an account
Step 2: Upload a profile picture
Step 3: Complete the payment
Additionally, Circle incorporates integrated affiliate marketing functionalities, enabling you to enlist affiliates and assign them either predetermined or percentage-derived commissions.
Conversely, Mighty Networks lacks native affiliate marketing capabilities, although it does present a feature known as its Ambassador Program, which permits you to bestow badges and unique incentives upon members for successfully introducing new individuals.
In summary, Circle demonstrates a clear advantage when compared to Mighty Networks regarding its offerings for landing pages, payment processing, and checkout experiences.
Within this segment, we will evaluate Circle against Mighty Networks concerning the array of instruments they provide for reporting insights and administrative tasks.
Each of these platforms delivers fundamental utilities designed for the effective supervision of your online community and its participants:
Nonetheless, Circle presents a pair of distinctive features that significantly elevate the overall administrative experience and capabilities.
The platform allows for the creation of personalized profile fields, enabling the gathering of supplementary details from your members, with options to make this information publicly viewable or restrict its visibility exclusively to administrators.
Yet, the most noteworthy feature is Circle Workflows. This Workflows system incorporates numerous triggers and corresponding actions, empowering you to automate tasks in response to specific occurrences within your community environment.
As an illustration, you can establish automated messages that are dispatched to new participants upon their entry into your community or a particular space. In a similar fashion, you can automatically assign tags to members when they purchase a subscription or register for an event.
Automation workflow to message members when they join a space
Furthermore, the Workflows feature incorporates a comprehensive bulk action component, which empowers you to identify and choose a particular group of your community members simultaneously and then execute a collective operation upon them in a single step, such as dispatching a communication, applying a classification tag, excluding them from a designated area, or terminating their subscription, among other possibilities.
Although Mighty Networks does provide the capability to carry out certain mass operations, its functionalities in this regard are comparatively more restricted.
Conclusively, Circle distinguishes itself by offering superior instruments for the administration of your online community and its participants.
Both Circle and Mighty Networks present comparable functionalities when it comes to their reporting mechanisms and analytical features.
Using Circle, you gain access to a consolidated overview dashboard which presents key performance indicators at a glance, including metrics like the count of daily engaged participants, the volume of recent joiners, the most popular contributions, and the most influential members.
Circle’s Overview dashboard
Beyond this, detailed analytical reports provide deeper insights into your participant base, content engagement, event participation, communication patterns, and payment activities.
A commendable feature is the inclusion of multiple visual instruments and charts within these reports, greatly facilitating the extraction of valuable understandings.
Similarly, Mighty Networks also furnishes an Overview dashboard presenting summary-level statistics, alongside distinct reports focused on members, messaging interactions, and live broadcast events.
Mighty Insights’ Overview tab
Furthermore, the reporting features are thoughtfully crafted, incorporating charts and graphical representations to enhance comprehension.
The key additional contrast is that Circle provides enhanced filtering selections.
Within Mighty Networks, your report filtering is limited to date spans and specific spaces, whereas Circle extends this functionality by allowing filtering through tags and individual profile attributes.
This capability proves advantageous when you aim to acquire more profound understanding regarding a particular demographic within your collective.
Beyond this, both systems deliver adequate reporting and analytical instruments for monitoring the expansion and interaction levels of your community members.
This represents an additional domain in which Circle demonstrably surpasses the offerings of Mighty Networks.
When using Mighty Networks, you are presented with two primary choices:
And that concludes the list. Although Circle also facilitates these same integrations, its capabilities extend significantly beyond this.
Circle provides iFrame widget functionalities, enabling you to seamlessly integrate your complete Circle community, a designated area, or discussion threads from a particular post into an external web page.
Circle facilitates ready-to-use Single Sign-On (SSO) integrations with numerous well-regarded membership systems such as Thinkific, Teachable, and MemberPress, which permits individuals to authenticate using their pre-existing credentials. Furthermore, a bespoke single sign-on alternative is also available.
Circle’s SSO Integrations
Conversely, Mighty Networks exclusively facilitates custom SSO integration, a factor that could present a considerable hurdle for individuals lacking proficiency in programming.
Ultimately, Circle’s publicly available API grants developers entry to the system’s underlying infrastructure, empowering them to construct tailored integrations and unique applications.
In summary, Circle’s comprehensive array of integration capabilities renders it more readily harmonized with your existing technological framework and also more adaptable for future enhancements.
The customer assistance offerings from both community platform providers are remarkably comparable in quality.
Neither platform provides immediate live chat assistance, although each incorporates help widgets within their administrative dashboards, allowing for swift contact with their respective support personnel. Typically, the turnaround for responses is commendably prompt.
Circle’s support widget
Additionally, both platforms offer extensive informational resources where you can uncover responses to virtually all your questions. The support materials provide unambiguous directions and detailed, ordered procedures.
Lastly, both Circle and Mighty boast active user groups where you can submit inquiries and receive support from official administrators and other experienced community facilitators.
Whichever platform you decide best suits your brand’s unique requirements, we sincerely advocate your participation in both user networks to deeply absorb comprehensive insights concerning effective community creation.
Mighty Community
To summarize, both systems deliver trustworthy customer assistance, and there isn’t a substantial distinction between them regarding the overall quality of support provided.
Concerning the financial outlay, both Circle and Mighty Networks feature subscription options billed on a monthly cycle.
Circle’s Basic plan has a monthly cost of $49, in addition to a 4% fee, while Mighty Networks’ Community plan involves a $49 monthly expenditure, plus a 3% fee.
Circle’s pricing plans
Mighty Networks’ pricing plans
Both of these plans present comparable functionalities, yet it is pertinent to highlight that Mighty Networks facilitates an unrestricted number of members, whereas Circle provides support for a maximum of 100 members.
Advancing to the more comprehensive tiers, Circle’s most widely chosen selection is the Professional plan, which entails a monthly expenditure of $99 alongside a 2% transactional fee. In contrast, Mighty Networks provides the Courses plan, with a monthly cost of $119 plus an additional 2% transactional fee.
Both these plans are quite similar and incorporate a corresponding range of features (for example, educational courses and live streaming capabilities). Nonetheless, Mighty Networks allocates more ample capacities for data storage and also for the number of individuals serving as moderators and administrators.
| Circle Professional | Mighty Business | |
|---|---|---|
Members |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Moderators |
10 |
Unlimited |
Admins |
3 |
Unlimited |
Total storage |
100 GB |
1 TB |
Monthly live streaming |
20 hours |
20 hours |
A singular aspect that operates to Circle’s advantage here is the Professional plan’s capability to eliminate Circle branding, an option solely offered with Mighty Pro (costing $30K per annum), a tailored plan additionally furnishing branded mobile applications for your community.
Ultimately, both platforms present further plans more aptly configured for larger-scale communities. Circle’s and Mighty Networks’ Business tier subscriptions are identically priced at $219 monthly, and each one supports augmented capacities for storage and live broadcasting, plus features like email domain customization and Workflows.
Analogous to Mighty Pro, there is also Circle Plus (costing $30K per year) which allows for the acquisition of your bespoke community applications.
To summarize, although both systems present comparable financial structures, Mighty Networks delivers superior overall economic benefit. It extends more substantial usage allowances and maintains a distinct advantage over Circle in this particular aspect.
This guide has contrasted Circle with Mighty Networks, evaluating them upon every individual characteristic.
Although the two systems share numerous common characteristics, Circle clearly stands out as the preferable solution in a variety of respects, encompassing intuitive design, the overall member experience, financial generation methods, community governance utilities, or external application connectivity.
Additionally, it is quite appropriate for all varieties of collective groups, irrespective of their operation by independent digital content specialists or a Software-as-a-Service business. If you wish to explore its capabilities firsthand, you may commence a complimentary trial period by selecting the option available underneath.
Conversely, Mighty Networks presents itself as a more economically accessible choice. Furthermore, it aligns with Circle’s performance in essential domains such as community structuring and active participation.
For digital content producers in search of a solution that is gentler on the budget, an investigation into Mighty Networks is certainly warranted.
Yes, Circle is better than Mighty Networks in many regards. It’s easier to use, more feature-rich, better for end-user experience, and offers more third-party integration options.
Circle focuses on ease of use and supports additional features, like automation workflows, public API, and single sign-on, while Mighty Networks more affordable pricing.
Circle is a better choice if you need to manage large communities. It has better community-management tools, offers public API, and supports single sign-on, all of which make it easier to scale up your community.
Mighty Networks has more affordable pricing. Its entry-level plan doesn’t just cost less but also allows you to have unlimited members, while Circle’s plan limits you to 100 members. Even its Courses plan has more generous limits on things like storage and the number of moderators, making it more reasonably priced.
Daniel NicFounder, SellingOnliceCoursesGuide.comis an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
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Copyright © 2024 by SellCoursesOnline
Daniel Nic is an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
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