Creating your online community today is easy. You’ve got many platforms that will help you achieve that. You could turn to social media – Facebook is undeniably great at this. But if you want to create a more focused community, you need to consider alternatives with additional features.
Mighty Networks and Ning are two very worthy ones. These two are quite similar at what they do, although there are some slight differences between the two that we’ll go over in this Mighty Networks vs Ning comparison.
Don’t Want to Wait? We Prefer Mighty Networks
There’s no denying that both platforms are similar and that Mighty Networks was based on the premises upon which Ning was built.
But the truth is that Mighty Networks is an upgrade of Ning in many ways. It’s more modern and more versatile, as you’ll be able to create your network on a variety of devices. Ning is only available through the browser.
Secondly, Ning is more of a community builder while Mighty Networks offers you the option to create courses for your members. Considering that you’ll have to pay similar prices for subscriptions for both services, we believe Mighty Networks brings more value for your money. Here’s why.
About Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is a website builder that helps you create online communities where you can create posts, share content, and allow users to engage with each other. It was established in 2017 by Gina Bianchini. Today, it’s a trendy website builder that’s especially useful for anyone who has a big community and wants to:
- Create memberships for their network
- Add online courses to the network and bundle them
- Create an engaging community of followers with shared interests
- Post content on a daily basis and share it to the group
- Have one of the more complete website builders around at their disposal
We’ll only go over Mighty Networks shortly in this comparison, so read our full review of Mighty Networks here.
Features
One of the most significant advantages of Mighty Networks over Ning is that it’s available on different devices. You can access it from your phone app or your web app, as well as on your tablets (for iOS and Android).
It also has a deep interface with advanced options that will help you manage the community. You can create courses, memberships, and bundle your products and sell them to your members and external customers.
And with the marketing options at your disposal, you can quickly grow your community and earn even more. It has a unique Referral program that allows the referrers to earn rewards and gifts when they refer your organization to their friends and associates, and when they join.
Another feature we like about Mighty Networks is the course builder. It’s profound and comprehensive, although not the most user-friendly (at least at the start). You can create in-depth courses with different content types – from videos to text and other types of files. You can set your own price for the course and bundle it with your membership or other courses.
You don’t get a course creator with Ning, so you can’t market your courses if you have any. This is a big feature of MN that’s missing on Ning, although it’s only available on its highest-paying subscription. But since you’re paying the same fee for the monthly subscription as you are with Ning, we believe MN is worth it if you’re a course creator.
Mighty Networks Pricing
So, what are you paying for Mighty Networks, and what features do you get for those prices?
- Free. The basic option of MN is free, although you do get only limited features with this subscription. It’s good for creating basic communities where you post content and create membership fees. But, you’ll also have to pay 5% of your earnings to Mighty Networks if you select this subscription.
- The Community plan is $23 per month, which is good value if you have a relatively large community of members. You get your own web domain, which allows for better branding. You can also charge for memberships.
- The Business plan is where it’s at. It’s $81 per month, and it allows you to create online courses for members, use Zapier integrations, and take advantage of the premium analytics (which are very deep, by the way). It’s the best plan if you’re serious about creating a big community with courses.
Mighty Networks Pros
Here’s what’s good about Mighty Networks:
- It has a free plan that allows you to create really basic communities. It’s a good way to test-ride Mighty Networks and see if it is for you.
- You can create online courses with Mighty Networks. This feature is not available on any of the plans with Ning, which is helpful if you’ve got a large community and if you’ve got a good course you have to offer to customers.
- Mighty Networks works across different platforms, so you can use it both on your phone and on your computer, as well as on your laptop. In comparison, Ning only works through the browser, which can be limiting to some.
- It has a deep interface with many advanced settings. Seriously, it might take you some time to get a grasp of all the features that are available on Mighty Networks. The course builder is also quite in-depth, but you can certainly expect to get used to it after a few days of using it.
- Referral programs and analytics are nice for both managing and growing your networks. You get Zapier integrations, which offers you up to 2000 and even more integrations with other tools.
Mighty Network Cons
Is there anything that could be improved about Mighty Networks?
- There’s no phone support or live chat where you can contact the support. This is where MN lags slightly behind Ning perhaps. With the higher paid plan with Ning, you get the option to call support and even get a personal manager. The support with MN is nice and there’s a dedicated help section, but you don’t have the live chat function.
- The course builder and the interface can be intimidating for beginners. Luckily, you’ll also get a full separate help page where you’ll see tutorials for just about anything that’s done with MN.
About Ning
Ning is a networking platform that was created in 2004 by Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreesen. It is primarily a community builder where you can invite new members and post unique content as well as provide them with your own resources.
In essence, it has a similar purpose to Mighty Networks, yet they are different in some regards. They are both community-building platforms, and both offer you the ability to create websites. But the truth is that Mighty Networks is a bit more complete as it has more options, including courses.
Ning Features
Ning allows you to create membership fees and allow users that pay the fee to view your content. You may keep your audience engaged with blog posts, articles, polls, forums, events, audio files, videos, and photos.
You also get a custom domain for your site, with SSL certification. This is useful for branding your community. Creating your community is quite easy – with the drag and drop builder, you can easily drop in files into the builder and create new posts or content.
Another useful feature is the analytics. Here, you’ll be able to see how your network is performing. Also, we must say that Ning perhaps has better customer support than MN, because it offers live chat and phone calls, and premium members get additional support options, too.
Members can join with the social media accounts, which is useful if you already have a FB group, for instance. Other features include marketing tools, ads, blogging, SEO tools, and more.
Ning Pricing
Ning has a three-tiered pricing system:
- Basic – $24.99 per month
- Performance – $49.99 per month
- Ultimate – $84.99 per month
Obviously, each offers different functions and features. For large creators, the Ultimate plan works best. The prices are similar to Mighty Networks, although you don’t have a free plan, and the ultimate plan doesn’t have online courses and Zapier integrations.
Ning Pros
- The customer support at Ning is great. You’ll have different options with customer support, from live chat to phone calls and even one-on-one sessions
- It’s easy to use with the drag-and-drop builder
- You can upload a variety of content types to the feed of the community
- Custom domain, SSL certification, and analytics are included
Ning Cons
- We would say the biggest area where Ning lags behind MN is that it’s not available on the phone or other devices, it’s only available through web browsers
- There’s no course builder here, something that MN does very well
- It’s more expensive than MN, and it doesn’t have a free plan
- It doesn’t seem as deep as Mighty Networks
Final Thoughts
So there you have it, this is our Mighty Networks vs Ning comparison. Ultimately, we believe that Mighty Networks presents a more complete package than Ning, as you’re able to create courses and access your community from a variety of devices.
Ning is not bad, and it offers good customer support and some nice features. But we believe that Mighty Networks just has that extra bit to offer that’s going to entice serious community creators.
Check Mighty Networks out here.
