LMS With Community: 7 Platforms Compared for Coaches
Compare LMS platforms that pair courses with a built-in community. See how Hopper, Kajabi, Circle, Skool, Mighty Networks, Thinkific and Disco fit coaches.
By the Hopper team
If you teach online and want courses and a community in one place, you have two kinds of options. Some are course platforms that added a community. Others are community platforms that added courses. For coaches and educators who already have paying clients, we think the best fit is an all-in-one platform that treats both as equals and charges one flat price. That is what we built Hopper to be.
Below, we compare seven platforms people commonly weigh for this job, explain what to check before you choose, and show what a move from your current tools involves.
TL;DR
- An LMS with community puts lessons, discussions, live sessions and checkout in one login, so members stop bouncing between tools.
- The seven platforms covered here are Hopper, Kajabi, Circle, Skool, Mighty Networks, Thinkific and Disco. Each leans toward courses, community or corporate training.
- Judge them on five things: how many communities you can run, how sales are charged, whether members get a native app, how coaching is handled, and how painful it is to leave later.
- Hopper is $58 per month (Base) or $108 per month (Pro), with unlimited hubs, members, team and products, and free done-with-you migration.
- Your export options on the old platform decide how smooth a move will be. Check them before you commit.
Table of Contents
- What "LMS with community" really means
- How to compare these platforms
- The seven platforms at a glance
- Courses plus community: what actually changes for your members
- Which formats each setup should support
- Your public page and website
- Moving from your current tools
- Perspective: why we built one flat plan
- Hopper pricing and how to start
- How to choose in five minutes
- FAQ
- Sources
What "LMS with community" really means
A learning management system, or LMS, delivers lessons: video, audio, quizzes, certificates, drip schedules. A community adds the part that keeps people showing up: a feed, threads, reactions, direct conversation with you and with each other.
Traditional LMS software was built for companies training staff. Coaches and healers have a different need. You are selling transformation, not compliance. Members want to feel known, ask a question the same day and meet people on the same path.
That is why so many coaches end up with what I call a Frankenstein stack: one tool for courses, another for the community, a third for selling, a fourth for the app. Each one has a bill, a login and a plugin that breaks at the worst moment. The goal of an "LMS with community" is to end that.
How to compare these platforms
Before the list, here are the criteria that matter once you have real clients.
- Number of communities. Do you run one programme or several? Some platforms tie you to a single community per account. If you run a cohort, a membership and a 1:1 programme, that matters quickly.
- Pricing shape. Look for flat pricing versus tiers that climb with contacts, hosts or features. Also look at whether the platform takes a cut of each sale.
- Native mobile app. A native iOS and Android app puts you on the home screen. A mobile-friendly website does not.
- Coaching support. Cohorts, 1:1 coaching and asynchronous check-ins are different formats. Not every platform handles all three.
- Exit path. What you can export decides how hard it is to switch later.
- Built-in AI help. Some platforms now offer an assistant that answers students from your own material.
The seven platforms at a glance
The table below describes where each platform sits. We deliberately avoid quoting competitor prices here, because tiers and fees change often. Check each vendor's own pricing page for the current numbers.
| Platform | Starting point | Best fit | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hopper | Courses and community on equal footing | Established coaches, healers and educators who want one flat plan | Built for operators who already have clients |
| Kajabi | Course and product platform | Creators selling courses and funnels | Pricing by tier, and community posts are not part of its contact export |
| Circle | Community platform | Communities that add some courses | Courses are a secondary layer; cost grows with your needs |
| Skool | Community with a classroom | Simple, single-community businesses | One community per account; no native content export |
| Mighty Networks | Community and membership platform | Large, open communities | Posts and courses are not exportable |
| Thinkific | Course platform | Course-first creators | Community is an add-on to the course experience |
| Disco | Learning community platform | Communities and cohort-based learning | Aimed at larger programmes and organisations |
Hopper
Hopper is organised around hubs. A hub is a self-contained space for one business or programme, and one account runs unlimited hubs on one plan. Every hub includes:
- Discussions: a community feed with spaces, threads, reactions and native video.
- Library: unlimited video, audio and live replays, with drip content, quizzes and certificates. You can sell items individually or bundle them into a membership.
- Async Sessions: asynchronous coaching, available on the Pro plan.
- Landing Page: a public page that shows the hub and every product, so people join or buy in one place.
Both plans include a native app for iOS and Android, and Pro carries 0% fees. Our built-in AI twin, Sprout, is designed to answer students from your own lessons and pass the rest to you. Free done-with-you migration and founder-led onboarding are part of how we welcome new customers.
Hopper accepts creators in every country Stripe supports.
Kajabi
Kajabi is the name most coaches know. It covers courses, products, email and funnels, and it has a community feature. Many of the coaches who come to us love what they built there but find the bill hard to justify as their audience grows. On the export side, Kajabi offers full contact and purchase export from its Migration Center, but community posts are not included, according to the Community Platform Migration playbook.
Circle
Circle is a polished community platform. If your business is mainly a community with a few courses, it is a natural candidate. Coaches tell us the friction starts when they want a full course library, product sales and coaching in the same place, or when per-sale charges start to add up. Circle does offer full data export: members, posts, comments, events and course completions, as CSV and JSON, per the same migration playbook.
Skool
Skool is simple and has a strong built-in audience of people who like its format. The limit coaches run into is structural: one community per account. If you run a cohort programme, an alumni membership and a separate offer for a different audience, you need to juggle accounts. Skool has no native content export. You can download the member list as a CSV, but posts and comments cannot be exported and the content library has to be rebuilt, according to the migration playbook.
Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is built for community at scale. Hosts who find the cost too high as they grow are among those who ask us about alternatives. It exports a member CSV with name, email and join date, but community posts and courses are not exportable, per the same source.
Thinkific
Thinkific is a course-first platform. Teachable and Thinkific creators often tell us the same thing: the courses are solid, but the members want somewhere to talk. If that is you, you either bolt on a separate community tool or move to one platform that does both.
Disco
Disco appears often in lists of community-driven learning platforms. It is aimed at structured learning communities and larger programmes. For a solo coach or small team with a few offers, it may be more than you need.
Courses plus community: what actually changes for your members
The real difference between a stitched stack and one platform is felt by your members, not by you.
With separate tools, a member finishes a lesson in one place, then has to remember another login to ask about it. Conversation drifts to Instagram DMs or email. Your best insight ends up in a thread nobody can find.
With one platform, the lesson and the conversation sit side by side. A member watches a video, drops a question in a space, gets a reply from you or a peer, and carries on. Billing, access and the app are the same everywhere. It feels like a place they belong, not a set of stitched tools.
Which formats each setup should support
Most coaches sell more than one thing. Match your offers to what you need:
- Cohort programmes: a dedicated space with drip content, a live replay library and a feed for the group.
- 1:1 coaching: private workspaces and, ideally, asynchronous check-ins so you are not tied to live calendars. On Hopper, Async Sessions covers this on the Pro plan.
- Memberships: a bundle of library content plus the community, billed on a recurring basis.
- Courses and digital products: a storefront and landing page that lets someone buy without leaving your space.
If you are an aspiring coach overwhelmed by tech setup, simplicity matters more than a long feature list. One login, one landing page and one checkout is easier to launch than four tools.
Your public page and website
Whatever platform you choose, people need a clear front door. Hopper's Landing Page shows the hub and every product so visitors can join or buy in one place. If you also want a full brand site around it, you can look at website design for therapists and coaches and link it to your hub.
Moving from your current tools
Switching is the part everyone dreads. A few checks make it much less painful.
- Export what you can, early. Kajabi, Circle, Mighty Networks and Skool all differ on what leaves with you, as covered above. Know what you will have to rebuild.
- Plan for payments. Skool has no subscription migration API, so every member must re-subscribe manually on the new platform. AdvLaunch calls this the biggest churn driver in a Skool move and suggests a 30-day free extension for members who migrate before the deadline, per the migration playbook.
- Keep your community's history in mind. Where posts cannot be exported, save the best threads as content for your library or a welcome post.
- Tell members early. Explain why you are moving and what they gain, like a native app and everything in one place.
- Run old and new side by side briefly. Then close the old space on a date you announced.
At Hopper, we include free done-with-you migration and founder-led onboarding, covering client and payment transfers, because we know this is where most coaches stall.
Perspective: why we built one flat plan
I started Hopper because I watched good teachers get buried under software. They had real clients and real results, then spent their evenings fixing a plugin or paying a fourth subscription.
The all-in-one platforms fixed the sprawl, but many fixed it with tiers. Prices rise with contacts, hosts or features, and most take a cut of every sale. Switching is painful, and that lock-in is part of their business model. Hopper is a bet against it.
So we made one plan hold everything: unlimited hubs, members, team and products. Pro carries 0% fees. Both plans include a native app, because your members should find you on their home screen, in a digital living room, not in a browser tab they forgot.
The lecture hall is closed. The playground is open. We want your members to talk to each other, to you and, when you are asleep, to Sprout, our AI twin, which is designed to answer from your own lessons and hand the rest back to you.
If you are choosing an LMS with community, choose the one that lets you grow without a pricing letter arriving each time you do.
Cedrik, Founder at Hopper.so
Hopper pricing and how to start
Hopper has two plans. Base is $58 per month, or $580 per year. Pro is $108 per month, or $1,080 per year, and adds Async Sessions and 0% fees. Migration and onboarding are free.
If you have outgrown Kajabi, Circle, Skool or a stack of separate tools, see Hopper's plans and start your trial and bring your courses, community and products into one hub.
Because one account runs unlimited hubs, you can start with your main programme and add the rest later without changing plans.
How to choose in five minutes
- You run several programmes or audiences: pick a platform with unlimited hubs rather than one community per account.
- You sell mostly courses and want a basic forum: a course-first tool can work, but ask what happens as you add coaching.
- You want members on their phone: look for a native app on every plan, not an upgrade.
- You want coaching without calendar chaos: look for asynchronous sessions as well as live ones.
- You are leaving a tool that is expensive: check your export options first, then pick the platform that includes migration help.
FAQ
Do I need an LMS if I already have a community?
If you only host conversation, a community tool may be enough. Once you sell structured lessons, drip schedules, quizzes or certificates, having them next to the community saves your members a login and saves you a bill. Many coaches consolidate at that point.
Can I run more than one community on one account?
It depends on the platform. Skool is built around one community per account. On Hopper, one account runs unlimited hubs on one plan, and each hub is its own self-contained space.
Will I lose my community posts if I switch?
Possibly, depending on where you are leaving. According to the migration playbook, Skool, Mighty Networks and Kajabi do not export community posts, while Circle does. Save the threads you value before you move, and we help with the rest during migration.
Is there an AI assistant that answers students from my course?
Hopper includes Sprout, an AI twin designed to answer students from your own lessons and escalate what it cannot answer to you. Other platforms may offer their own versions, so check each vendor's current features page.
Sources
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