It’s a great time to be creating a course. More and more of us are getting used to learning online.
And maybe one of the best things about being a course creator right now is the sheer amount of software and app solutions to help you build and monetize something you love.
One of the course options that you might have heard of is Passion.io. Passion is a white-label, course app creator that gives you a drag-and-drop solution to building a course. It gives you some design flexibility and some templates to work from.
But Passion.io has some serious limitations too. It only really works for pre-recorded courses, it’s missing features like native live streaming or events, and its community feature is extremely basic – to the point of really only being a simple chat app. What you gain in having an app under your own brand, you lose in terms of solid features that can actually help you wow your members.
But you have other options! In this article, we’ll introduce you to 6 Passion.io competitors that could work for you. Each has different features and is for a slightly different use-case, but each is much better than Passion when it comes to features, access, and cost. Let’s explore.
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1. Mighty Networks
Ranked #1 community platform by G2
Mighty Networks is a versatile, all-in-one cultural software platform that gives you community, courses, content, commerce, and events built in. Unlike Passion, Mighty Networks comes with native live streaming, giving you the option to serve up a cohort-based course for your ideal students.
This means you can presell a course and teach it live, either in one go or spread out over weeks or even months. BUT you also get a copy of the live stream that you can place into your Mighty Networks course platform, splitting it into individual lessons if you choose.
But Mighty Networks is so much more than just an intuitive course platform. Each Mighty Network comes with built-in events, which is something Passion doesn’t have. We already talked about live streaming above, but it also has 1-click Zoom scheduling built-in.
You can create and customize an event, members can RSVP, ask questions, and stick around in a private event community. When it comes to building your business, Mighty Networks gives you more too, letting you sell access to courses, events, communities, Spaces, and more.
AND, let’s not forget the thing Mighty is known for – community. Mighty Networks’ community platform is second to none, with extensive content and member options. It’s ranked as the #1 community platform by the software review site G2.
Finally, let’s talk apps. Every Mighty Network comes with access to a beautiful, responsive Mighty Networks app – including the community plan that starts from $41. But if you want a totally branded, white-label app, we do that too, and that’s where we’ll go next.
2. Mighty Pro
Best white-label community app builder
What do you get when you cross Mighty Networks’ powerful community, course, and event engine with a totally customized white-label app?
You get Mighty Pro. With Mighty Pro, we work with established brands and creators 1:1 to help them build an app their members will love.
Unlike Passion, where you need to design your own app with drag-and-drop software, with Mighty Pro we do the building. You bring your brand and ideas, and we’ll build a totally white-label app for you. The result is something much more powerful and customized than Passion.io, with a brand that’s really yours. We work with you to launch it, AND we keep checking in with you every month to find out what’s working and what’s not.
Mighty Pro has built apps for brands like TED, Cambridge University, Jim Kwik, YouTuber Drew Binsky, and Sadie Robertson Huff.
If you want to find out what you could build, learn more about Mighty Pro. And if you’re not ready for Pro yet, you can always get started on the business plan and go pro when you’re ready – without switching platforms.
3. Kajabi
Best course-only platform
While Kajabi isn’t technically white-label, you can add your own branding and customize it. This and the fact that it’s a really solid course and marketing platform makes it a good alternative to Passion.io. Kajabi has a comprehensive course engine, much better than Passion. And it comes with all the options to upload videos, assessments, discussion posts, and more. Like Passion.io, Kajabi specializes in pre-recorded courses (synchronous). But unlike Passion.io, you CAN create events in Kajabi, along with automatic emails to send your students when it’s happening.
Although Kajabi technically doesn’t give you a white-label app, the Kajabi app is solid, and you can sell the courses under your own branding. The fact that it also adds a whole set of great marketing features that Passion doesn’t is a huge plus. You can create different offers, upsell and downsell, recruit users to be affiliates, and more. What you lose in what-label capability, you’ll gain in a way better platform.
Like Passion, Kajabi has a really limited community option. So if you want a basic discussion to go after your course, it might work. But if you want a really robust community option, Mighty Networks is probably a better option.
4. Disciple
Alternative branded app option
Disciple is another Passion.io alternative that comes with a completely branded app option. It’s a white-label community software out of the UK, giving users the ability to build under their brand. As a community-builder, Disciple lets you live stream in their app and add different types of content in the community. It has a set of member management tools, notification features, and an activity feed to see what’s happened in the community since you were last there. You can add your colors and brand, and you can pay more to completely remove the Disciple branding.
The app plan comes with up to 500 members, you’d have to pay extra beyond that. In fact, this is the main disadvantage to Disciple. Pretty much anything you’d add to your community is going to cost extra, from removing their branding to adding admin seats to adding more members. This can add up, and there’s no way to get an app for less than $458/mo. Unfortunately, this also means that the app and the web app almost function like 2 different products – for example, you can live stream in the app but not on the web. Some users might like the choose-your-own features approach to Disciple, but others might find it frustrating and prefer an all-in-one.
5. Higher Logic
Higher Logic, also known by the names Thrive (association software) and Vanilla Forums (community software). Either of these could be an alternative to Passion, but Thrive is more of a member management tool and is built specifically for non-profits, so we’ll focus on Vanilla here.
Vanilla Forums gives you a good community engine that lets users post all different types of content. You can even post directly from an email account, which is a cool feature for users who don’t log on often. The community feature comes with moderation features and the option to run events – which Passion doesn’t do.
The Vanilla app works a lot like the desktop app, with SSO, DMs, and notifications built in. However, unlike Passion and other alternatives, it doesn’t have a course function – it’s best for those who only want community.
6. Bettermode
One final alternative to Passion.io is Bettermode -- formerly Tribe. Bettermode is a corporate, white-label forum option that gives users the option to create and organize discussions and create spaces – much like Passion.io. But Bettermode has a more advanced forum feature, that also comes with more extensive content tools like discussions, questions, polls, and sharing photos and videos. And, it comes with moderation tools, analytics, and is searchable on Google.
Bettermode has some customization features and is most often used as a white-label option to add things like customer communities to corporate websites and apps. The downside to Bettermode is that it doesn’t do payments, it’s really a better option for an existing business. So, if you wanted to create and sell a course or community, Bettermode wouldn’t be the best option. But if you’re a company looking for a forum-only alternative to Passion, it’s a good choice.
Ready to start?
We hope these options have got you excited to get started AND that you’ve discovered something that works for you.
If you want to come build on Mighty Networks, you can try it totally free for 14 days – no credit-card required. You can start building, see the course platform, and try the app. Mighty Networks comes with a ton of awesome features, from live streaming to subgroups. You can sell access to your community in a bunch of different ways with different currencies – you can even sell in crypto with token-gating.
And if you’re an established brand or business, looking for a totally white-label app under your logo in the App Store and Google Play Store, schedule a call with us.
Otherwise, you can start building!
