Circle vs Mighty Networks vs a Custom Community Platform: What a 1,000-Member Business Pays in 2026

Short answer: a paid community with 1,000 members at $60 a month moves $720,000 a year through the platform, and at that size the transaction fee costs more than the subscription. On prices read from each vendor's own page on 26 October 2026, Circle's Business plan comes to about $9,600 a year ($199 a month plus a 1% transaction fee) and Mighty Networks' Growth plan to about $7,800 a year ($354 a month plus 0.5%), while Circle's entry plan lands near $15,500 because its fee is 2%. A custom community platform costs $15,000 to $50,000 for a first production version and carries no per-member platform fee. The comparison that matters is the fee at your revenue plus the limits you hit.

Published prices, side by side

The member count and the $60 price are our assumption for the example, not a vendor figure. Yearly cost is the displayed monthly price times 12 plus the transaction fee on $720,000.

How to read these numbers. Subscription prices are the vendors' published list prices on the date shown, before taxes, overages, add-ons and seat growth. The custom-build figures are KUMO's published bands for the build only: hosting, model usage, third-party fees and ongoing engineering ($5,000 to $10,000 per month if you have no engineers) sit on top, and we say so wherever a total is compared. A standard tool is the right answer when your workflow fits it; configuration is enough when the gap is small; a custom build is justified only by a specific complexity named on this page, not by preference.

Want the number for your own scope? Send a short brief: what takes your team the most manual time, which systems are involved, roughly how many people touch it. A senior engineer replies within two working days with a band and the questions we would ask on a call. No call needed. Or get a range in a minute from the AI development cost calculator.

Circle's page says prices are in USD, based on annual billing, and exclude taxes. Mighty Networks lists monthly prices and says annual billing gives two months free, so its yearly figures here use the monthly price. Both pages list members as unlimited on every plan, so the fee, not a member cap, drives the bill. Confirm whether your payment processor's charge comes on top before you rely on any total.

What the fee does at scale

Over three years the same 1,000-member business pays about $28,800 on Circle Business and about $23,500 on Mighty Networks Growth. Those totals sit inside the Starter band, so the fee alone makes a build a fair question once the membership price is settled.

The fee grows with revenue. At 3,000 members paying the same $60, revenue through the platform is $2.16 million a year. A 1% fee is then $21,600 a year before the $2,388 Circle Business subscription, which is $71,964 over three years. The same 3,000 members on a 0.5% fee is $10,800 a year plus the subscription. A custom platform has no percentage fee, so that line stays flat as you grow. The AI development cost calculator gives a range for your own build in about a minute.

What moves the number

1. Revenue through the platform. The percentage fee is the largest line once you pass a few hundred paying members.
2. Plan gates. Circle lists API access, workflows and automations as not included on Professional, and SSO to your own login on Scale only. Mighty Networks lists its branded apps only on Mighty Pro.
3. Branded app. Both vendors list a custom branded iOS and Android app only on their custom-price plans.
4. Admins. Circle Professional includes 3 admins and charges $10 a month for each extra one.
5. Your own data. If access is decided by your CRM or order system, the sync with the community is work somebody must build and keep running.
6. Who builds and maintains it. Upwork's web developer cost page lists expert hourly rates of $50 to $200 and carries no date (read 26 October 2026) (hourly help adds up fast).

Three quotes for the same brief

Give each source the same brief: 1,000 paying members, plan-based access, sign-in with your existing account, a branded mobile experience and monthly billing. A platform vendor quotes a plan and names the gate that applies. A freelancer quotes hours, often without a plan for hosting or handover. A senior product team quotes a fixed first version, says who owns the code and states the monthly cost after launch. Compare the three as a three-year total, because the cheapest first invoice is rarely the cheapest third year.

What the Starter band buys at KUMO

KUMO builds community, portal and membership products for 10 to 100 person businesses that have no engineers of their own. A Starter Build ($15,000 to $50,000) is a launched first production version: member sign-in, plan-based access, payments and billing, the content and discussion screens your members use, an admin area for your team, deployment into your own cloud account and a handover another engineer can continue from. Two to three months is typical, and the code is yours from day one. If you are moving off a hosted platform, no-code to custom explains how the move is staged so members keep access, and AI workflow automation covers the sync between the community and your other systems. Softr vs Bubble vs a custom client portal prices the same decision for client-facing portals.

KUMO's founders built Volopay's first production version as its founding engineers, and the FLIN case study walks through another production build from scoped brief to launch. KUMO has not published a community-platform case study, so the proof here is adjacent: production products with members, payments and permissions.

Costs after launch

A custom platform carries hosting in your own account, monitoring, security updates and changes when your offer changes. Ongoing engineering is $5,000 to $10,000 per month, or less once the platform is stable. A hosted platform has its own after-launch costs: extra admin seats, the upgrade when you hit a gate, and the hours spent stitching the community to your other tools. Every route also pays the payment processor.

How to get a real number this week

Write down paying members today, price per member, expected members in 12 months and the two features you cannot live without, then run them through the table above. Then book a free 30-minute call with an engineer, bring those figures and the systems the community must connect to, and ask for a band and a three-year total.

FAQ

How much does Circle cost? Circle's pricing page, read 26 October 2026, lists Professional at $89 a month, Business at $199 and Scale at $419, billed yearly, with transaction fees of 2%, 1% and 1%. Circle Plus is custom priced with a 0.5% fee.

How much does Mighty Networks cost? Mighty Networks lists Launch at $79 a month, Scale at $179 and Growth at $354, with transaction fees of 2%, 1% and 0.5%, on its pricing page read 26 October 2026. Mighty Pro is custom priced.

Circle vs Mighty Networks: which is cheaper? At 1,000 members paying $60 a month, Mighty Networks Scale comes to about $9,350 a year and Circle Business to about $9,590, so the two are close; Mighty Growth is lowest at about $7,850 because of its 0.5% fee. The feature gates differ, so compare plans, not logos.

Is a custom community platform cheaper than Circle? It depends on revenue. A custom first version costs $15,000 to $50,000 once, while Circle Business at 1,000 members costs about $28,800 over three years and about $71,964 at 3,000 members. The custom route has no percentage fee but does carry hosting and upkeep.

How much does a custom community platform cost in 2026? A first production version from a senior team costs $15,000 to $50,000 and typically takes two to three months. Builds with payments, branded apps and several integrations run $50,000 to $100,000. Ongoing engineering is $5,000 to $10,000 per month, or less once stable.

When should we move off Circle or Mighty Networks? When the transaction fee passes what a build would cost over three years, when you need a gate that sits on a custom-price plan, when members need a login tied to your own product, or when only one person understands the setup. Two or more of those is the time to price a move.

Last verified 26 October 2026. Circle prices and features from circle.so/pricing, Mighty Networks prices and features from mightynetworks.com/pricing, freelance rates from upwork.com/hire/web-developers/cost, all read on that date. Yearly and three-year totals are KUMO's arithmetic on those published prices and the stated member and price assumptions. KUMO bands are KUMO's published prices.

The numbers in one file. The Build vs Buy Price Book, October 2026 has the published prices of 40 business tools read in October 2026, what they cost a 40-person company, and the four tests that say whether a custom build is worth it. Download the PDF (8 pages, free, no form).