Heartbeat for memberships
A community platform with courses and events included on every plan, priced by member count with a falling transaction fee.
What Heartbeat is
Heartbeat is a community platform built around channels and threads, with courses, events, and paid memberships included on every plan.
Who it’s best for
Cohort-based programs and chat-native communities, particularly groups leaving Discord or Slack who want to charge members without losing the conversational feel.
- Cohort programs and communities that live in chat
- Groups moving off Discord or Slack that want payments attached
- Communities under 350 members that want a low monthly floor
Who should avoid it
Anyone running a large free community, since the pricing tiers are member-count based, and anyone whose product is written, audio, or video rather than conversation.
- Large free communities, because pricing is tied to member count
- Newsletter, podcast, or video-library memberships
- Anyone who needs a branded app below $849 a month
Membership models it supports
Not every platform suits every kind of membership. These are the models we consider it a genuine option for.
- Paid community
- Course and community
- Coaching or group program
- Migrating an existing membership
Pricing and fees
Read from Heartbeat's own pricing page on 2026-07-28. Always check the official page before you buy.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | Platform fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build$490/year billed annually. Caps at 350 members, one custom landing page, no API. | $49 | $40.83 | 5.0% |
| Grow$1,490/year billed annually. 50 hours of native video hosting, API access, branding removal. | $149 | $124 | 2.5% |
| Scale$9,200/year billed annually. Unlimited members, 200 hours of video, branded mobile app. | $849 | $767 | 1.3% |
Payment processing. Heartbeat publishes its transaction fee per plan but not processing rates; Stripe's standard published US card rate applies on top.
Trial. 14-day free trial, no card required
What it costs in practice
Cheapest plan that holds the member count, including the platform's cut and payment processing.
Just starting
25 members at $20 a month
$96 / month
On Build. About 19% of your revenue.
Established
100 members at $25 a month
$277 / month
On Build. About 11% of your revenue.
Growing
500 members at $25 a month
$974 / month
On Grow. About 8% of your revenue.
Feature support
What is included, what needs a higher plan, and what simply is not there.
Community features
SupportedChannels, threads, direct messages, and group chat with a Discord-like feel.
Courses
SupportedUnlimited courses on every plan.
Coaching and live events
SupportedUnlimited events on every plan.
Video hosting
Higher plan requiredNative video hosting starts on Grow at 50 hours.
Livestreaming
Partially supportedLive events rather than broadcast streaming.
Newsletter and publishing
Partially supportedPrivate podcast support
Not supportedPayments and monetization
SupportedPaid memberships with a transaction fee that falls as the plan rises.
Branding and customization
Higher plan requiredCustom domain on all plans; removing Heartbeat branding needs Grow.
Branded mobile app
Higher plan requiredBranded mobile app is a Scale feature at $849/month.
Audience discovery
Not supportedEmail and marketing
Partially supportedAuto-responder rules and white-label emails from Grow upward.
Integrations and API
Higher plan requiredAPI access starts on Grow.
Migration support
Partially supportedDedicated onboarding on Scale; no published self-serve importer.
Customer and data ownership
SupportedYour own Stripe account.
Important limitations
- The Build plan's 5% fee is the highest of the mainstream community platforms.
- Member caps of 350 and 5,000 force plan upgrades based on headcount rather than revenue.
- Native video hosting is not available on the entry plan.
Data ownership and migration
Payments run through your own Stripe account. There is no published self-serve import tool, so moving in usually means rebuilding content by hand.
Alternatives worth comparing
Sources
Every fact on this page traces to one of these official pages.