Heartbeat vs Tribe Social (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Heartbeat if

• Fits if your members want a desktop app as well as a phone app
• Works for coaches charging a monthly membership with chat, courses and live calls

Look elsewhere if

• Pricey if you sell a lot on Build, where 5% of every payment goes to Heartbeat
• Tight if you grow past 350 members, a count that includes admins and moderators
• Skip it if you want a branded app without the $766-a-month Scale plan, sold through a call
• Watch out: video hosting on Build is a $19 a month add-on, and the API and branding removal start on Grow at $124

Pick Tribe Social if

• Fits if you want to be sold a managed community after a call
• Works for creators who also want courses and live calls

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want to sign up yourself, as the page says it is not self-serve
• Skip it if you want a listed price, as none is published
• Watch out: the vendor says it will say so if your community is not a fit
• Watch out: the pricing page was nearly empty when we read it

Heartbeat

• Heartbeat keeps 5% of payments on Build, 2.5% on Grow and 1.25% on Scale, on top of Stripe's fee (typically 2.9% + 30 cents).
• Member limits count admins and moderators: 350 on Build and 5,000 on Grow.
• On Build, native video hosting is a $19 a month add-on with 50 hours; API access and removing Heartbeat branding start on Grow.
• The white-label branded mobile app is only on Scale, at $766 a month billed annually, which is sold through a call.

Tribe Social

• No pricing table is published; the vendor says it proposes pricing after a conversation about scope.
• Not a self-serve product: the page says it is not a self-serve sign-up, and the only call to action is booking a demo.
• The vendor says it will say so if a community is not a fit for the platform.

Heartbeat

Channels, discussions and messages

Organize the community into public and private channels with threaded posts and live chat, plus one-to-one and group DMs and a member directory.

Courses and documents

Evergreen courses with drip release or cohort courses with fixed dates, with quizzes, assignments and a discussion on every lesson, beside a document library.

Events and video rooms

Live events with RSVPs, reminders, calendar sync and Zoom recordings, plus voice and video rooms for up to 256 people at once.

Payments and offers

Sell subscriptions, one-time offers, tiered memberships and paid waitlists, with coupons, trials, upsells and ready-made checkout pages.

Workflows

Send emails and DMs, grant access or follow up automatically when members join, attend, finish a course or go quiet. Build allows 5 workflows.

Pulse AI

An AI co-builder that sets up the space, channels and first pages from a description of your community and builds landing pages.

Tribe Social

Community feed

One place for posts, replies and updates from members, so the community has a single focused feed.

Courses

Structured lessons and progress paths that sit alongside the community, for a learning experience inside the same space.

Live calls

Host live calls to keep members engaged between regular gatherings.

Pro tier

A Pro offering with its own service-level terms, linked from the site; the vendor lists Pro as a separate product page.

Heartbeat

• Build$40

  per month for up to 350 members, billed annually ($49 monthly)

  Unlimited channels, courses, events and checkout pages, 5 automation workflows, 1 landing page, custom domain. Heartbeat keeps 5% of payments.

• Grow$124

  per month for up to 5,000 members, billed annually ($149 monthly)

  Unlimited workflows, 50 hours of video hosting, 15 landing pages, affiliates, API access, white-label emails, no Heartbeat branding. 2.5% fee.

• Scale$766

  per month, unlimited members, billed annually ($849 monthly)

  A white-label branded mobile app, advanced analytics, 50 landing pages, 200 hours of video and same-day support. 1.25% fee. Sold through a call.

Tribe Social

Pricing could not be confirmed. See tribe.social.

Heartbeat

• Annual discount

  Save 17% with annual billing

  Build is $490 a year instead of $49 a month and Grow $1,490 instead of $149, two months free; Scale saves 10% at $9,200 a year.

Tribe Social

No public discounts listed.