If you’re looking at bringing people together, creating a space to host interesting discussions and form a community, there are different platforms you can use. Two spaces that might come to mind are Mighty Networks and Slack.
Although Slack isn’t technically a community tool, it’s a really popular solution for the remote office. Because of its familiarity and functionality, you might be considering it as a possibility for building your online community.
In this post, we’ll compare creating and hosting a community on Slack vs. hosting one on Mighty Networks. We’ll walk you through what each one is for, what they do well, and what to consider when choosing a home for your community.
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1. Mighty Networks vs. Slack: What are they?
Mighty Networks is an all-in-one, cultural software platform that lets you mix community, courses, content, and commerce. With flexible Spaces, you can choose from features like posts, articles, polls, video, live events, courses, and live streaming -- it has a ton of tools for building a great community.
Slack is a team communications tool that lets you organize conversations. A lot of workplaces couldn't live without it, as its mixture of forum/discussion features with chat and meeting features has become a staple of the modern virtual office.
2. Mighty Networks vs. Slack: Criteria
When comparing Mighty Networks vs. Slack, it's important to consider what you actually need it for. While both of these platforms have powerful forum and chat functions, they have very different intended users.
Here are some of the things to think about as you consider which is right for you:
Community-building
If you are trying to use these platforms to build an online community, you should know a little bit about what the features are and how they compare. Importantly, we will also talk about which is right for a community that already knows each other versus trying to build connections in a community of strangers.
We'll explore the community-building features of each option.
Monetization
There's a pretty huge difference here. So if you're looking to build an online community that you can monetize, we'll show you which one of these works for building a community-based business and what the options are.
Price
While there are a range of pricing options, we’ll compare the prices of Slack vs. Mighty Networks, and give you a sense of how to compare depending on what you need.
Apps & access
Finally, we'll walk through the app options that make accessing your community easier. While we won’t do a deep dive here on Slack Enterprise vs. Mighty Pro, we’ll mention a few things to think about here too.
3. Mighty Networks vs. Slack: Community-building
The place where you can draw the closest comparison between Mighty Networks and Slack is in their community-building functions. Both have a comprehensive forum feature that lets you organize discussions between a bunch of people. With Slack, you can join relevant channels, and organize your thoughts into threads, tagging the right people with @(theirname).
In the same way, Mighty Networks also helps you organize big conversations, dividing posts into topics and showing relevant news on each user’s feed. Like Slack, you can also tag current members with an @.
This means that, in terms of organizing conversations between a bunch of people, both Mighty Networks and Slack work great!
The difference in community-building features comes from the different focuses of each platform, and it’s here that the comparison comes in. Slack is designed for the workplace, and works really well for people who already know each other and who work together daily.
Mighty Networks is designed to bring together strangers and help them become friends. So, for example, both Mighty Networks and Slack let you create user profiles. But Mighty Networks also lets you sort by members who are closest to you, helping you find local friends in a large group.
Mighty Networks also gives Hosts the tools they need to build a strong community, with tones of features like AI-powered community building software Mighty Co-Host™, live streaming, subgroups, and courses – which we’ll talk about below.
Mighty Co-Host™
Mighty Networks has harnessed the AI capabilities of Chat GPT to help you get your community built. Mighty Co-Host™ can transform an idea–or even just a few words–into business suggestions that your members will love.
Yes, this includes an awesome name. If you don’t already have one, Co-Host™ will generate a memorable, shareable, and descriptive name.
But the most magical part is that Co-Host™ will also instantly generate an entire brand identity for you.
Mighty Networks is the only community building platform that includes this fun feature.
Curious? Give it a try!
4. Mighty Networks vs. Slack: Monetization
When you compare the monetization options between Slack and Mighty Networks, you really start to see where the platforms differ. After all, Slack is made for workplaces – and by nature, you don’t usually charge admission to your workplace.
This means that, if you’re trying to build and charge for an online community, Slack doesn’t make it easy. It is possible, with the help of a third-party app like Membership Management. But overall, Slack isn’t built to create an online business from your community.
On the other hand, Mighty Networks gives you a comprehensive set of tools to monetize a community. This includes the option to create and sell membership packages, on a one-time or recurring basis. Many of our top communities are profitable businesses thanks to their monthly membership fees. You can also sell memberships to your Mighty Network in multiple currencies.
To add to these features, on the Business Plan and higher, you also get course capability with Mighty Networks. This means you can build and sell an elegant online course.
The combination of sales features and bundle options make Mighty Networks a way better choice if you’re building a community you hope to monetize.
5. Mighty Networks vs. Slack: Price
When it comes to price, Slack does have free options. The free plan comes with basic access to Slack and limited functionality. So if you’re hosting a free community and want a simple interface, this might make sense.
Once you upgrade to the paid options, you get access to more community tools: like integrations, group and video chat, and collaboration options.
The major difference between Slack and Mighty Networks when it comes to pricing is that Slack works on a per-member model, while Mighty Networks works on a flat fee. So, for example, with a Mighty Network you pay one fee for your community, no matter how many people are in it.
This pricing structure is definitely worth considering, especially if you’re building a big group. The Mighty Networks Community Plan starts at $41/mo, which is basically what you’d pay for a Pro Slack team with 5 members. But with a Mighty Network, you can have 5,000 members and the price never changes.
This is really where the differences become clear, because Slack is, after all, a workplace tool. Mighty Networks is a community-building tool. If you’re trying to run a small company, the cost and design of Slack makes sense. If you’re trying to run a community, Mighty Networks will work best for you.
6. Mighty Networks vs. Slack: Apps & access
When it comes to apps and access, there’s not as much to compare between Mighty Networks vs. Slack. Both Mighty Networks and Slack have beautiful, modern apps that make it easy for your users to find you. The apps are well-designed and well-supported.
Obviously, with Mighty Networks, you also get the course and live streaming functions with the app, as well as payment options built in.
There’s also a difference between the Slack Enterprise plans and Mighty Pro. Slack Enterprise plans give you Slack for a large business, while Mighty Pro gives you a totally customized community, complete with your own apps and your own branding. You can find out more here.
Conclusion
In conclusion, choosing between Slack vs. Mighty Networks is probably going to come down to what you need. If you’re trying to run a business with daily communications, chats, and huddles, choose Slack – that’s what it’s built for.
If you’re trying to run a membership community, with the option to grow your following, connect people, and even sell plans, choose Mighty Networks. It’s built to run amazing communities. And you can try it free for 14 days!
