Heartbeat
Average of 3 independent sources · Data updated: 2026-08-19 · How we score →
Show score breakdown
| Source | Rating | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Capterra | 10.0/10 | 45.5 % |
| Trustpilot | 8.4/10 | 36.4 % |
| Product Hunt | 7.0/10 | 18.2 % |
We never award a 10/10 — the composite score is capped at 9.4. A perfect headline rating would not be credible.
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Key facts at a glance
- What it is
- Heartbeat is a community platform built for creators, coaches, and online educators who want to run memberships, courses, and events under one roof.
- Toolsplorer score
- 8.9/10 (average of 3 independent sources)
- Best for
- Online coaches selling group programs who want community + courses in one place
Last updated:
Why this tool?
- Pulse AI automations handle onboarding and engagement without manual effort
- Custom-domain white-label apps (web + mobile) give creators a fully branded experience
- All revenue models in one: subscriptions, one-time payments, and tiered memberships
- Cohort-based and self-paced courses live inside the same community — no separate LMS needed
When NOT to use?
- You need a simple discussion forum without monetization. Heartbeat bundles payments, courses, and automations into every plan — if you just want a free forum for a hobby project, you are paying for features you will never use.
- You are building an internal company community or team workspace. Heartbeat is designed for creator-to-audience relationships, not peer-to-peer team collaboration; tools like Slack or Notion are a better fit for internal company use.
- Your audience is purely B2B enterprise buyers with strict compliance requirements. Heartbeat lacks the enterprise SSO, audit logs, and data-residency controls that large corporate IT departments typically require before approving a vendor.
- You want a fully self-hosted or open-source solution. Heartbeat is a closed SaaS platform — you cannot host it on your own infrastructure, which is a dealbreaker if data sovereignty or avoiding vendor lock-in is a hard requirement.
- Your community is on a near-zero budget long-term. The free tier is limited, and the entry-paid plan starts at $49/month; platforms like Discord or a self-hosted Discourse instance cost far less if monetization features are not your goal.
Heartbeat is a community platform built for creators, coaches, and online educators who want to run memberships, courses, and events under one roof. Rather than stitching together a forum tool, a course host, and a payment processor, Heartbeat bundles all three into a single product — with the option to serve everything on a custom domain and branded mobile app.
Core Features and What Sets Heartbeat Apart
The platform covers four main areas: community discussions, course delivery, live events, and payments. Each is tightly integrated rather than bolted on as an afterthought.
- Community spaces: Threaded discussions, direct messaging, and member profiles. Spaces can be open, gated behind a paid tier, or restricted to specific cohorts.
- Course builder: Supports both self-paced and cohort-based formats. Lessons can include video, text, downloads, and embedded media. Drip scheduling and completion tracking are included.
- Live events and workshops: Built-in event hosting with automatic recordings. Useful for coaching calls, Q&A sessions, or recurring workshops without needing Zoom or Calendly links.
- Payments: Native Stripe integration handles subscriptions, one-time purchases, and tiered pricing. Creators can sell community access, individual courses, or bundled memberships directly — no third-party checkout pages required.
- Pulse AI: An automation layer that can handle onboarding sequences, content recommendations, and routine community management tasks.
- Custom domain and mobile apps: Communities run on the creator's own domain, and members can access them through branded iOS and Android apps.
Pricing and Plans
Heartbeat uses a freemium model with a 14-day free trial on paid tiers. The pricing structure breaks down as follows:
- Free tier: Basic community features with limited members and functionality.
- Build — $49/month: Suitable for solo creators starting a paid community or small course business.
- Grow — $149/month: Adds more member capacity, advanced branding, and additional automation capabilities.
- Scale — $849/month: Designed for established businesses running large communities or multiple programs simultaneously.
Compared to alternatives like Circle (starting at $49/month), Skool ($99/month flat), or Mighty Networks (from $41/month), Heartbeat sits in a similar range at the entry level but scales higher for larger operations. The free tier gives it an edge for creators who want to test before committing.
Who Should Consider Heartbeat
Heartbeat works well for creators and educators who want a single platform instead of managing multiple tools. Coaches running cohort programs, course creators selling memberships, and entrepreneurs building paid communities are the primary audience. The custom-domain and branded-app features make it particularly relevant for anyone who wants their community to feel like a standalone product rather than a page on someone else's platform.
Where Heartbeat may fall short is for teams that only need a simple discussion forum or a lightweight course host — the all-in-one approach adds complexity that simpler use cases may not need. Creators who already have a working stack of specialized tools (Teachable for courses, Discord for chat, Gumroad for payments) may find the migration effort hard to justify unless consolidation is a priority.
For creators evaluating community platforms in 2026, Heartbeat is a serious contender alongside Circle and Skool. Its combination of native payments, course delivery, event hosting, and custom branding covers the full stack that most membership businesses require — without the transaction fees or platform-branding tradeoffs that some competitors impose.
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Heartbeat vs. Alternatives
| Feature | Heartbeat | Circle | Mighty Networks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branded Community Platform | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Course Creation (Cohort & Self-Paced) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Domain & Mobile App | ✓ | ○ | ✓ |
| Integrated Payments & Memberships | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live Events with Recordings | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Automations (Built-in) | ✓ | ○ | ✗ |
| Free Plan Available | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| White-Label Branding | ✓ | ○ | ✓ |
✓ Supported ○ Limited ✗ Not supported
vs. Alternatives
- vs. Circle: native mobile app on all paid plans vs. Circle's add-on pricing
- vs. Skool: built-in course builder with cohort support vs. Skool's gamification-first approach
- vs. Mighty Networks: Pulse AI automations reduce manual community management overhead
- vs. Kajabi: community-first architecture vs. Kajabi's funnel/marketing-first focus
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Heartbeat and what is it used for?
- Heartbeat (heartbeat.chat) is an all-in-one community platform designed for creators, coaches, online educators, and entrepreneurs who want to build branded membership communities and monetize them. It combines community discussions, course creation, live events, and integrated payments into a single platform, making it a direct competitor to Circle, Skool, and Mighty Networks.
- How much does Heartbeat cost?
- Heartbeat offers a freemium plan along with three paid tiers: Build at $49/month, Grow at $149/month, and Scale at $849/month. All paid plans come with a 14-day free trial so you can test the platform before committing.
- Can you create and sell online courses on Heartbeat?
- Yes, Heartbeat includes a built-in course creation tool that supports both cohort-based and self-paced formats. You can sell access to courses directly through Heartbeat's integrated payment system, which handles subscriptions, one-time purchases, and tiered pricing.
- Does Heartbeat have a mobile app?
- Yes, Heartbeat allows community owners to launch custom-branded web and mobile apps under their own domain, giving members a white-label experience. This means your community can have its own dedicated app without requiring members to download a generic third-party platform.
- What makes Heartbeat different from Skool or Circle?
- Heartbeat differentiates itself with Pulse AI, a built-in automation layer that helps community managers engage members, trigger workflows, and reduce manual tasks at scale. It also places a strong emphasis on custom branding and custom-domain apps from the start, whereas some competitors reserve white-label features for higher-tier plans.
