Mighty Networks Review: Is It the Right Fit for Your Online Community?
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Community building is an increasingly vital aspect of growing a successful business in our virtual world. People expect to find friendship and camaraderie online when they enroll in your courses, but what is the best avenue to get them started? If a Facebook group hasn't been successful for you, this Mighty Networks review is just what you need.
Should you consider using Mighty Networks for your online courses? Compared to some of the other course builders and online communities out there, you might love Mighty Networks for its extremely intuitive and robust platform.
Here's what you need to know to decide if the Mighty Network is right for you.
Sign up for Mighty Networks today!
Summary
Mighty Networks is a great option if you intend to build a community around your online courses. It's affordable, robust, and offers just about everything you need under one convenient umbrella. Sign up for Mighty Networks here!
Pros
- Different types of courses available
- Better connections with audience members
- Robust analytics on Business plans
- Multiple methods of monetization
- Great customer support
Cons
- No video hosting
- Requires extra step to use custom domains
- Limited livestreaming on Community plans
- Only basic website building functionality
Contents
TL;DR: Should You Use Mighty Networks?
Our Mighty Networks review is mostly positive for anyone thinking about building a course and wanting to increase engagement from their online community. It's an affordable solution with lots of benefits like connection to your members (and their connections with one another), a more targeted activity feed, and subscription services.
At their lowest tier, you can afford to invest for less than the cost of a single membership (but it won't include access to course creation).
If your primary goal this year is to increase your audience and connect with them, the MN team has a lot to offer you. You get more insights and participation than other online communities because people are coming directly to engage with you.
At a glance, it seems like this platform could have everything you need to keep growing.
Who Might Love Mighty Networks?
Not sure if Mighty Networks is right for your brand? While you certainly get value for money spent on this platform (more on pricing in a minute), it isn't necessarily going to be for everyone. It features a great platform for building a private community, but it's about more than just connecting with others.
Beyond the community access for your audience, you might find this tool helpful if you are:
- Building a course that requires commitment and engagement from your audience
- A business that wants to build its own community through subscription services
- Looking for an online community platform apart from the basic Facebook groups
- Wanting to white-label your community builder
It may not be the right fit if you want to create extensive courses with lots of interactive components though. These can come across as clunky to your audience and can cost you additional money because they aren't integrated through Mighty Networks.
If you still think this might be the correct next step for your community builder, next up is the pros and cons section of our Mighty Networks review.
Pros: Is Mighty Networks the Best Course Platform?
As far as a membership site is concerned, choosing Mighty Networks could be an easy option. It gives you the ability to create online courses while remaining user-friendly for your audience. Here are the areas where this platform sets itself apart.
Variability in Types of Courses Offered
Courses aren't always formulaic. What works great for one business plan may not work for another. The good news is that Mighty Networks hosts several different types of courses so that you can get exactly what you need. The three levels of courses offered include:
- Cohort classes: In this type of online course, you can offer live sessions with a set group of people who sign up for the class. With a little extra face-to-face time with you or your staff, implementing a cohort class might be the next high-ticket offering.
- Community courses: All of your community members can take one course together, even if they are starting at different times. Because everyone goes through it at their own pace and in their timing, it's a great way to encourage people to post their results to the course platform.
- Content courses: The Mighty Networks team also allows you to create courses the way you usually would without any of the fancy features of cohort or community classes.
For comparison, see our Teachable review and our guide on how to build an online course here.
Easy to Connect with Your Community Members
Choosing Mighty Networks is often the right decision if you're interested mostly in community-building tools. This user-friendly platform prides itself on connections with your audience. To this end, it's far more effective than Facebook groups, which can get lost in the noise of a busy feed.
How easy is it to connect with your community on Mighty Networks?
Much like other social media platforms, Mighty Networks keeps members engaged by giving them a personalized feed based on their interests and activities. They can easily split off into groups, engage other members in conversation, vote in polls, and even connect one-on-one via direct messaging.
While the course builder is nice, it's these community-building features that tend to win people to the platform time and again.
Use Coupon Codes and Affiliate Programs
Worried that your audience is only interested in a free community? One of the best opportunities here is the ability to hand out discounts -- though it isn't strictly a coupon system. In fact, the Mighty Networks team is quite clear that none of their plans include coupon codes.
However, you can set up a free trial on your community platform or set up a discounted opportunity for a specific person or group of people. All you have to do is set up a hidden discounted plan, share the link with your desired audience, and let them enroll.
They also have an affiliate program you can join if you want to help others start their own online course or build a platform for their community.
Mighty Insights on Business Plan
If you're serious about launching a successful online course, you'll want to enroll in their Business plan (the mid-tier option). Under this plan, you gain access to the Mighty Insights, which can tell you quite a bit about how customers are finding you, engaging with you, and more.
Here are a few things you can do that are worth mentioning in a Mighty Networks review:
- Track contributing, active, and total members engaged, including tracking by cohort
- Host and member engagement tables based on their Engagement Score
- Member details
- Organic members vs. referred members
- Activity by platform to see if people are engaging on the go or from their laptop and desktop
- Active member heat map to show when people are the most engaged
- Livestream and direct messaging data
Rivals Social Media Platforms for an Engaged Online Community
Because people have to come directly to Mighty Networks to engage with your content and the global community you have there, they are typically more likely to engage. If you can convince people to come visit your page daily or even several times per week, you're likely head and shoulders above where you would be with Facebook groups.
Why does our Mighty Networks review lead us to believe it is superior for community engagement?
A Facebook group may not alert someone every time a new post goes live. The content from your page is filtered in among all of the other friends and followers they have. Mighty Networks isn't the same.
In your paid community, people are coming to see you directly.
People come to see your community space and can see everything they want immediately. No more trying to compete with other Facebook groups, personal page updates, and advertisements for other goods and services!
Monetization Options for More than Courses
While the biggest draw in our Mighty Networks review is the course builder, Mighty Networks offers all the tools you need to monetize your business. In addition to giving people community features along with a course purchase, monetization is also possible for influencers who have an audience.
For example, you can sell paid memberships to the people who want to hear and experience more from you. Memberships can offer a special deal, gain access to live events, and generate opportunities for members to do more networking.
In your own network, you can interact and allow others to interact with like-minded people who love you and your brand.
Another option for monetizing is to host live virtual events. This amazing app allows you to offer workshop sign-ups and face-to-face time with your active members -- for a fee, of course. Everything you could possibly need is available on one platform.
Customer Support
We would be remiss if we didn't talk for a moment about what you can accomplish via their customer support. The MN team is available from 06:00 to 18:00 PT every day. Better yet, you have options for how you reach out to them, including email and chat support.
All you have to do is navigate to the small "Need Help?" section in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Send a message with your question or problem, and someone will help you troubleshoot the issue as soon as possible. Responses are sent to your email and directly through the Mighty Network.
Keep in mind this feature is only available through the desktop version of Mighty Networks.
Cons: Why Should You Think Twice About Mighty Networks?
Of course, it isn't all sunshine and roses when it comes to the Mighty Networks review. Here are a few areas where it falls short.
No Video Hosting
One of the downsides of their main network is that there is no video hosting. You can embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook video, and Searchie. The whole process is easy to use, but it can sometimes function a little glitchy for your audience.
Using third-party services may slow loading speed, leading to frustration and higher bounce rates. It can also mess up your analytics on both Mighty Networks and the video platform that you choose to use to host your videos. Don't forget about the potential extra cost of having to pay for video hosting too.
Extra Step to Use Custom Domain
Many people don't want to use the standard "mn.co" domain name. Custom domains can be used to point to your MN page, but it requires a few extra steps (and the added cost of a domain name). Go to your settings page and fill out the information requested under Domains.
For more ways to get a free domain name, see our guide here or visit Namecheap for reasonably priced options.
Limited Live Streaming on Community Plan
Live streaming is one of the best ways to connect with your audience and is one of the key features that often lead content creators to the platform. On their cheapest Community plan, you can only livestream for up to five hours per month.
This might be enough to get you started, but it can seriously hinder you if your MN page takes off.
Only Basic Website Building Functionality
Looking to build landing pages that resonate with your audience? A custom website might be your best bet, but not everyone has the funds or time to invest in designing something from scratch. If you want something to show your new members without investing a ton, the Mighty team has you covered.
Build a quick and easy landing page that funnels people into your community. You can customize your landing pages to some extent by following the instructions here.
Mighty Networks Review: What Will it Cost You?
The two most compelling pricing plans for the Mighty Networks review are the Community and Business plans. If you are starting a new community and don't intend to take advantage of every feature, then a smaller and less expensive Community subscription could be right for you.
It's just $33 per month, billed annually. This cost can easily be recouped through a single subscription payment. Keep in mind that online courses aren't integrated into the Community plan, and you will need to upgrade to the next tier.
On the other hand, more serious users might want to opt for the Business plan right out of the gate. It has more features like online course creation, live cohorts, analytics, and Zapier APIs. It's a little more expensive ($99 per month, billed annually), but it's worth the cost if you'll be using it for online courses rather than just community building.
If you want your own mobile apps, you can also sign up for a Mighty Pro account at custom rates.
Final Thoughts: Is Mighty Networks Right for Your Brand?
While they are undergoing continuous improvement, there are a lot of reasons to consider Mighty Networks for your community members right away. Their pricing plans are reasonable, and they offer just about everything you need to launch an online course, create polls, and create a personalized activity feed for your members.
Are you ready for more engagement from your community, landing pages, webinars, and courses?
Mighty Networks could just be the next right step for your brand to keep on building!
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