Choose the core model
Course-first
The learning sequence is the product
Organize around curriculum, prerequisites, assessment, progress, completion, and instructor operations. Community supports learning but does not define the offer.
Community-first
Member interaction is the product
Organize around spaces, identity, discussion, live interaction, events, moderation, and recurring participation. Courses are structured resources inside that network.
Blended membership
The recurring journey combines both
Operate a deliberate cadence across learning, events, community, and paid access. Convenience is real, but so is the workload of sustaining every layer.
Compare eight decision dimensions
- Core value: structured learning or member interaction?
- Revenue model: one-time courses, subscriptions, or recurring community membership?
- Learning evidence: progress, prerequisites, assessment, certificates, or compliance?
- Live operations: events, cohorts, rooms, streaming, attendance, and recordings?
- Roles: instructors, administrators, moderators, analysts, and support staff?
- Integration: API, SSO, automation, CRM, payment, and data-warehouse needs?
- Exit: member, progress, content, media, payment, and configuration portability?
- Audience: creator education, professional membership, customer education, or corporate training?
Situation table
| When this is true | Start here |
|---|---|
| A sequenced curriculum, assignments, certificates, and completion evidence lead | Course-first |
| Member discussion, peer connection, events, and ongoing interaction lead | Community-first |
| Courses, events, community, and recurring membership are equally central | Blended membership |
| SSO, API, compliance, or procurement controls are non-negotiable | Requirements and tier first |
| Exit portability matters more than single-platform convenience | Run an export drill first |
How the three Wave A products map
Thinkific is the clearest fit of these three when structured learning, assignments, completion evidence, and course commerce are the primary job and community is supporting infrastructure.
Circle is the clearest fit of these three when organized member discussion, events, live interaction, and branded community space lead, with structured courses delivered inside that community.
Mighty Networks is the clearest fit of these three when a paid membership experience should blend community, courses, events, and gamification in one member-facing environment.
These are conditional starting points, not final procurement decisions. Read the three-way comparison and verify the required plan in a trial before paying annually.
A trial should answer operational questions
- Build one representative course, community space, event, and paid-access rule.
- Use internal test accounts to exercise owner, instructor, moderator, and learner roles.
- Confirm the exact tier for every must-have capability and expected volume.
- Export members, progress, transactions, content, and settings where documented.
- Model one and three years of base price, fees, add-ons, and external services.
- Read cancellation, refund, data-retention, and migration documentation before launch.
- Record unknowns; do not turn a sales promise or demo into a verified production fact.
Sources and access notes
Source extracts are recorded in the repository with capture dates and deterministic hashes. Links below open the current publisher page, which may have changed since capture.
- Thinkific Pricing — Thinkific
Current plan features and plan boundaries
Open source page - Communities: Live Events — Thinkific
Community event workflow and conferencing dependency
Open source page - Thinkific Progress Reports — Thinkific
Learner progress visibility and CSV exports
Open source page - Circle Pricing — Circle
Plan prices, transaction fees, capabilities, limits, API, and SSO boundaries
Open source page - Circle Courses Overview — Circle
Course structure, progress tracking, quizzes, and course types
Open source page - Circle Developer Platform Overview — Circle
Admin API, Headless Member API, and Data API plan availability
Open source page - Mighty Networks Pricing — Mighty Networks
Annual-billing equivalent Launch and Scale prices, capabilities, and plan boundaries
Open source page - Which Mighty Network Plan Is Right for You? — Mighty Networks
Current Explore, Launch, Scale, and Growth hierarchy and capability boundaries
Open source page - What's Included in the Mighty Networks Growth Plan? — Mighty Networks
Growth price, higher limits, API access, SSO option, and boundary below Mighty Pro
Open source page - Can I Download My Member Data? — Mighty Networks
Member, space, plan, and course-progress export availability
Open source page - Wave A requirements-to-fit matrix v1 — ChoiceMosaic
Conditional fit synthesis for course-first, community-first, and blended membership operating models
Internal reproducible calculation