In this blog post, we’ll compare Mighty Networks and Kajabi, particularly in terms of community building.

mighty networks logo

Mighty Networks is the OG when it comes to community platforms. It was founded in 2017 by Gina Bianchini, the CEO and co-founder of Ning.

Initially, it started as a community platform, but later they added course creation abilities to make it more of an all-in-one community platform.

Kajabi logo

On the other hand, Kajabi is an all-in-one digital selling platform with a strong focus on integrations and automations.

It’s not primarily centered around community building. Its main strength lies in digital selling, specializing in funnels, course creation, email marketing, automation, and website building.

It’s more of a funnel building platform.

Kajabi used to have a basic community building functionality, but recently they acquired Vibely to enhance their community features.

Now, their communiy component is more comprehensive with gamification features like points, badges, challenges, leaderboards, and more.

FeaturesMighty NetworksKajabi
Starting price 💲$39/mo$149/mo
Free plan available?NoNo
Transaction fees 💸0%0%
CoursesYesYes (feature-rich)
Has native live streaming? 📷YesYes
Mobile apps 📱Has completely white-labeled apps for iOS and Android (apps are called Mighty Pro)Has iOS and Android apps but are not completely white labeled.
Supports custom domain?YesYes

Bottomline: If you’re starting a brand new business and need a platform that covers course creation, communities, website creation, automation, and email marketing, Kajabi may be the best option. It offers seamless integration of these features. On the other hand, if you have an existing business and want to add a community component, Mighty Networks may be a more realistic and affordable choice. The Community plan, priced at $39 per month, includes unlimited members functionality.

Kajabi is truly all-in-one platform

Kajabi is truly an all-in-one platform. It comes with the ability for you to create training courses, sell coaching, communities, and it also includes email marketing, automation, the ability to build your own website, host your podcasts, and more.

Being an all-in-one platform, it offers great value for money, and all its components integrate well together, orchestrated by its automation engine, resulting in really good marketing use cases.

At this point, you may be thinking, “Hey, Kajabi is like a jack of all trades and master of none.”

No.

They actually have excellent depth to their features.

For example:

  • Its course analytics comes with student-level course engagement reports with retention graphs and heat maps.
  • It comes with advanced gamification and automation scenarios for community engagement.
  • It also includes a comprehensive website builder eliminates the need for dedicated website builders like WordPress or ClickFunnels

Kajabi has better community gamification features

Kajabi has introduced community gamification features. You can create multiple groups in Kajabi, each with circles for member discussions, challenges, meetups, and announcements.

In the below example, you can see that I have created a circle called “Introduce yourself” for members to introduce themselves to the rest of the community.

Kajabi community space

This circle is specifically for Silver members, allowing them to introduce themselves when they join the access group.

I have selected the Circle type “Chat” to make it easier for people to message and break the ice.

When it comes to gamification features, Kajabi is the best. The closest one that I have come across to Kajabi in this aspect is Skool, which is still a product in progress.

In Mighty Networks, members belonging to specific access groups have the opportunity to participate in challenges. They can provide evidence of their achievements by uploading images or videos.

By actively engaging in challenges, posting content, and participating in other groups, members can earn points and badges.

adding points in kajabi

The way in which you can incentivize the user behaviors of community members inside Kajabi is truly commendable, and this kind of flexibility is unheard of.

Mighty Networks, on the other hand, does not come with any of these features, but it does come with a built-in ambassador program. With this program, you can incentivize people to share your community with their own audiences. In return, they can earn a badge. That’s all there is to it.

Mighty Networks gets more user interaction

As someone who has built and participated in communities on both Kajabi and Mighty Networks, I have noticed that Mighty Networks communities tend to have higher user engagement. There’s just something about the vibe that encourages people to engage more.

One reason for this could be the member directory, which is more interactive and visually appealing compared to Kajabi.

Mighty Networks search filters

For example, in Mighty Networks, you can see who is currently online, which adds a sense of real-time connection.

Mighty Networks matchmaking

Another feature that sets Mighty Networks apart is the community matchmaking feature, which allows users to connect with others who share the same interests.

Moreover, Mighty Networks has a comprehensive community-centric mobile app that supports all the features of the platform.

More on this below 👇

Kajabi has funnels, email marketing and automation features

As I mentioned earlier, Kajabi is truly an all-in-one platform.

Similar to ClickFunnels, you can create funnels in Kajabi.

So, on a blank canvas, you can lay out all the steps in a funnel to guide prospects through the buying process.

In the example above, when people purchase my training course (BloggingX automation system), they receive an email sequence of 10 emails. I can easily edit the emails within that block. It’s similar to automation builders found in email marketing apps like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign.

Apart from funnel automation, you can also set automation rules.

For example, in the above instance, you can see that I have set an automation rule that, when a specific email from the sequence is clicked, I may need to register them for an upcoming webinar event. Once again, the possibilities are endless.

kajabi automation triggers

Speaking of email marketing, Kajabi supports both one-time broadcasts and email sequences (need a trigger).

kajabi email marketing 1

When crafting emails, Kajabi supports dozens of pre-designed email templates, similar to those of other email marketing software like MailChimp.

Additionally, when you send a broadcast, you can select the segment of the audience to whom you would like to send the email.

Kajabi email creation

It will then load the email editor that offers various building blocks that you can simply drag and drop to compose your email.

Having an email marketing system well integrated with the software you use to sell your products is a real big perk to have.

In contrast, Mighty Networks does not include any email marketing features and lacks built-in integrations or an API. Instead, it relies solely on Zapier for integration.

Kajabi has better course features

Kajabi has really comprehensive course creation functionality. When it comes to creating the course, you have modules, submodules, and you can have lessons and quizzes inside these containers.

Kajabi course outline

And you can also ensure that students consume your training course in a specific order by using their content locking feature. This feature locks the content and only unlocks it once the previous lessons are completed.

And when it comes to lesson content, you can have any media associated with the training course, such as video, audio, or even assessments.

Kajabi lesson creation page

You can also include a description of the lesson and any downloads or handouts for supplementary material along with the lesson content.

Along with this, Kajabi comes with a variety of other features.

  • Assessments: Create graded assessments with a passing grade for better student accountability (for instance Mighty Networks only supports quizzes)
  • Certificates: Automatically send course completion certificates to students upon finishing the course. Mighty Networks doesn’t come with this.

Their course functionality seamlessly integrates with their automation engine.

For instance, I have set up an automation to automatically send students an email congratulating them and providing additional guidance when a specific lesson is completed.

On the other hand, with Mighty Networks, although you can host courses, it lacks assessments and course completion certificates.

mighty networks course builder
mighty networks drip scheduling

And also, you have the option of drip scheduling, or you can set the course progress as sequential so that the lessons will be unlocked once the previous lessons are completed.

But it lacks automated progress tracking of students when they are going through the training course and doesn’t come with heat maps and video retention reports that Kajabi offers for student-level accountability.

Mighty Networks has better mobile apps

Both Kajabi and Mighty Networks offer highly rated mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Mighty Networks Mobile apps

The mobile app of Mighty Networks is community-centric. That means the main objective of the app is to increase user interaction in your community.

Whereas with Kajabi, as it is a course-centric platform, their mobile app lacks that community-centeredness.

They even provide a service called Mighty Pro, where the platform manages your apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store listings. This gives you complete white label features.

kula community mobile app

You can read this case study by Adriene Mishler, one of the top most influential yoga instructors, who moved her community (Kula by Yoga With Adriene) from Facebook Groups to Mighty Pro (as Facebook Groups have a lack of control, a lot of distractions, lack of custom branding options). Her own custom-branded app helps the audience to access the community easily and her community now has 220,000+ passionate members.

Kajabi has better integrations

Although Kajabi is an all-in-one application, if you are already using a dedicated email marketing software, you may need to integrate Kajabi with it.

kajabi integrations

Kajabi comes with integrations for all the major email marketing software. It also supports Zapier integration and has webhook support as well.

On the other hand, Mighty Networks lacks an API and does not have native integrations with any other email marketing or software. You have to rely completely on Zapier. This is a shame considering that mighty networks is one of the oldest players out there.

Mighty Networks is more affordable

When it comes to Mighty Networks, the pricing starts at $39 per month, which gives you access to all the features except online courses, advanced analytics, and integration with Zapier.

If you want all the features that Mighty Networks offers, you need to go with the Business plan that costs $119 per month.

mighty networks pricing 1

If you already have your course hosted on some other platform and are only looking to host your community on Mighty Networks, the Community plan at $39 per month would be ideal for you.

Because, unlike other community platforms (like say Circle), it doesn’t come with restrictions on the number of members you can host in your community.

On the other hand, the basic plan of Kajabi costs $149 per month and has restrictions that allow you to create only up to 3 products and 3 funnels.

Kajabi pricing

Therefore, if you choose Kajabi, you would need to opt for their $199 per month plan.

However at this price, if you’re just interested in a community platform, using Kajabi would be an overkill!

Verdict

Again, the choice between Mighty Networks and Kajabi entirely depends on your needs.

If you’re starting a brand new business and want an all-in-one platform that covers everything from course creation, communities, website creation, automation, and email marketing, then Kajabi may be the best option. It has all these features integrated seamlessly.

On the other hand, if you have an existing business and want to add a community component to it, Mighty Networks may be a more realistic and affordable option. You can choose the Community plan, which costs $39 per month and includes unlimited members functionality. However, this plan lacks online courses, Zapier integrations, and analytics.

The choice really comes down to your specific needs. If you find Mighty Networks too limiting as a community platform and Kajabi too expensive, you can consider other dedicated community platforms.

If I were to start my business today, I would choose between Circle and Kajabi.