Heartbeat
All-in-one community platform with built-in payments, courses, and events.
Heartbeat excels for creators who want a single platform for community, courses, and payments, with AI to speed setup. The transaction fees and member caps on lower tiers are notable caveats. Consider Circle for lower starting cost or Kajabi for a more course-centric funnel.
Verified 3h ago · liveness 95/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/heartbeat
- Creators building a paid community with memberships, courses, and events
- Coaches and consultants wanting an all-in-one platform under their own brand
- Businesses looking to replace multiple tools with one solution
- Rapid launchers who want AI to set up community structure from a prompt
- Simple course-only businesses that don't need community features
- Enterprises requiring deep analytics, API access, or complex integrations on lower tiers
- Users on a tight budget who need a free or very low-cost solution
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Skip Heartbeat if you need a free tier, deep enterprise analytics, or extensive API access on a budget under $149/mo.
Transaction fees of 5% (Build), 2.5% (Grow), or 1.25% (Scale) are added on top of Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, increasing your effective payment costs.
Heartbeat's pricing is competitive for creators who want an all-in-one solution. The Build plan at $49/mo matches Circle's starter tier but includes courses and events natively. However, transaction fees make it pricier than Skool ($99/mo flat) if you process high volumes. Scale at $849/mo is expensive but includes a white-label app — something Mighty Networks charges extra for.
In short
Heartbeat — All-in-one community platform with built-in payments, courses, and events. Best for Creators building a paid community with memberships, courses, and events, Coaches and consultants wanting an all-in-one platform under their own brand, Businesses looking to replace multiple tools with one solution. Plans from $4940/mo.
Viability Score
How likely is Heartbeat to still be operational in 12 months? Based on 4 signals — momentum (how recently it shipped), wrapper dependency, revenue model, and web presence.
Last calculated: July 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Community channels, live rooms, DMs
- Personalized member feed
- Member directory with auto-matchups
- Evergreen and cohort-based courses
- Native video hosting for courses (50-200 hours on paid plans)
- Assignments, discussions, progress tracking
- Public and private events with ticketing
- Zoom and calendar sync
- Event reminders and attendance tracking
- Flexible payments: memberships, one-time, subscriptions, installments
- In-community upsells and affiliate/reward programs
- Pulse AI: prompt-to-page, personalize, publish
- Automation workflows for welcome, reminders, access, upsells
- Custom domain and branded signup pages
- Branded mobile app (Scale plan)
About Heartbeat
Heartbeat is a unified community platform that lets creators and businesses build, engage, and monetize their audience under their own brand—eliminating the need to juggle separate tools for memberships, courses, events, and payments. With Pulse AI, users can set up pages, courses, offers, and automation workflows from a simple chat prompt, significantly reducing launch time. The platform supports community channels, live rooms, DMs, a personalized feed, evergreen and cohort-based courses with native video hosting, and public/private events with ticketing and calendar sync. Payment features include membership tiers, one-time purchases, subscriptions, installments, upsells, and affiliate programs. Heartbeat processes over $23 million in member payments and boasts a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Key features include unlimited channels, courses, events, documents, and landing pages; custom domains and brand colors; automation workflows per tier; native video hosting (50–200 hours on paid plans); white-label emails and branded mobile app (Scale plan); and integrations with Zapier, Zoom, Google Calendar, and more. Transaction fees apply (5% on Build, 2.5% on Grow, 1.25% on Scale), plus Stripe's processing fees. The platform supports up to 350 members on Build, 5,000 on Grow, and unlimited on Scale. Compared to alternatives like Circle or Mighty Networks, Heartbeat differentiates with its Pulse AI co-builder and integrated payments that remove the need for separate Stripe or PayPal accounts. However, transaction fees on the entry plan may add up for high-volume creators, and API access requires the Grow or Scale tiers. It's best suited for creators building a paid community with courses and events, less ideal for pure course platforms or budget-conscious users.
Behind the Verdict
Heartbeat is built for creators who want to run a paid community without patching together separate tools. Pulse AI genuinely reduces setup time – you describe your vision and it builds pages, courses, and offers. That’s a real differentiator vs. Circle or Mighty Networks, which require manual configuration. Where it bites: transaction fees. Build plan charges 5% on top of Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30, so a $50 membership nets you ~$43. High-volume creators should factor this in. Also, member caps (350 on Build, 5,000 on Grow) limit scaling without upgrading. We'd recommend Heartbeat over Circle if you want AI-assisted setup and built-in payments without a separate Stripe account. For a pure course platform with no community component, Kajabi or Thinkific might be simpler. Heartbeat's sweet spot is the creator who sells memberships, runs courses, and hosts events – all in one branded experience.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Heartbeat actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You want to set up a membership site with channels, a welcome sequence, and a paid course.
Outcome: Pulse AI creates channels, a course, and a sign-up page from your chat description. You launch in 2 weeks with automated workflows welcoming new members.
You run live cohorts with weekly lessons, assignments, and Q&A calls.
Outcome: Heartbeat hosts drip courses, live events via Zoom integration, and discussion threads. You sell tickets and track attendance in one place.
You currently use Discord for chat, Teachable for courses, and Stripe for payments.
Outcome: Migrate data from Slack/Discord/Circle, set up unified payments, and reduce tool overhead. You manage everything under your own domain with custom branding.
Use Cases
- Launch a paid community with automated member matching and chat channels.
- Sell cohort-based courses with live sessions, discussions, and assignments.
- Host virtual events with ticketing, reminders, and public/private options.
- Automate member onboarding workflows to reduce admin time by half.
- Build a white-label mobile app to increase member engagement and retention.
- Run an affiliate program to turn members into a sales team.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-07-06
Limitations
- Heartbeat's AI co-builder (Pulse AI) usage is capped on the Build plan, and automation workflows are limited to 5.
- The free trial is 14 days with no credit card required, after which you must choose a paid plan.
- API access is gated behind the Grow plan ($149/mo), and white-label apps require the Scale plan ($849/mo).
- Transaction fees (5% Build, 2.5% Grow, 1.25% Scale) add on top of Stripe's fees.
- Build plan caps at 350 members.
as of 2026-06-28
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Heartbeat tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Build
$49/mo ($40/mo billed annually)
Ideal for
Solo creator launching their first paid community with up to 350 members, wanting AI setup and basic automation.
What this tier adds
Starting tier with 5 automation workflows, 1 custom landing page, and 5% transaction fee. Free trial available.
Grow
$149/mo ($124/mo billed annually)
Ideal for
Growing community business with up to 5,000 members needing advanced automation, API access, and affiliate programs.
What this tier adds
Adds unlimited automation, auto-responder & DM rules, native video hosting (50 hrs), 15 landing pages, API access, and 2.5% transaction fee.
Scale
$849/mo ($766/mo billed annually)
Ideal for
High-growth communities with unlimited members requiring a white-label mobile app, advanced analytics, and dedicated support.
What this tier adds
Unlimited members, white-label mobile app, 50 landing pages, 200 hrs video hosting, dedicated onboarding expert, same-day support, and 1.25% transaction fee.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Heartbeat's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Heartbeat's pricing is competitive for creators who want an all-in-one solution. The Build plan at $49/mo matches Circle's starter tier but includes courses and events natively. However, transaction fees make it pricier than Skool ($99/mo flat) if you process high volumes. Scale at $849/mo is expensive but includes a white-label app — something Mighty Networks charges extra for.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Heartbeat — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
With Pulse AI, you can set up channels, courses, and offers in under an hour by describing your vision. Full launch (custom domain, branding, workflows) typically takes 2 weeks. Migrating from another platform adds 1-2 days for import.
Switching to or from Heartbeat
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Circle: import community data directly using Heartbeat's Circle import integration.
- →From Slack: import channels and member data via Slack import integration.
- →From Peerboard: import community data using built-in Peerboard import.
- →From Notion: sync or import your content via Notion integration.
- ↗To Circle: export your community data via Heartbeat's export tool and import into Circle.
Integrations
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Tutorials & Learning
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