Costs and pricing
Part of How to build a community budget that finance will trust
How flat, per-member, per-seat and usage pricing behave as a community grows
Compare flat-tier, member, activity, administrator, usage and bespoke community pricing through official records and workload-based scenarios.
What to take away
- Flat tiers are the easiest to forecast while the service stays inside the boundary, and they step up when a needed workflow or member ceiling is crossed.
- Per-member pricing rises with every stored account, dormant ones included, so archiving policy becomes a budget line.
- Per-seat pricing tracks staff rather than members, which suits a small operating team and penalises shared cover and specialist review.
- Usage pricing grows fastest in a healthy community, so it needs a written unit definition and an alert point.
- For most growing English communities, a tiered plan with a stated member ceiling plus one capped metered add-on gives the best balance of control and headroom.
Which model sits behind each named platform
Plan names and limits change, so treat this as a dated record of model type and re-check each vendor's own pricing page before you commit.
| Provider | Model on its own pricing page | What moves the bill |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | Tiered subscription with member and admin limits | Crossing a member or admin boundary |
| Discourse (hosted) | Tiered hosted plans with traffic allowances | Volume against each plan allowance |
| Mighty Networks | Tiered plans with member caps | Member total and tier features |
| Kajabi | Tiered plans with contact and product limits | Contact list size and product count |
| Vanilla, Higher Logic | Quote-based enterprise agreements | Seats, modules, negotiated terms |
A tier boundary is a step change rather than a curve, while metered pricing rises smoothly with no ceiling. That difference, not the headline rate, decides which model suits a growing community. Our community management product comparison reads Circle, Discourse, Vanilla and Mighty Networks against what each maker claims.
Counting rules that decide the bill
Before accepting a per-member rate, settle which account types count. Suspended, invited, staff and duplicate accounts may all be billable, so model joins, retention and legitimate removals as a cohort rather than assuming a flat headcount.
Which accounts count as members
- Suspended accounts count?
- Invited accounts count?
- Staff accounts count?
- Duplicate accounts count?
- Cohort modelnew members
- Cohort modelretention
- Cohort modellegitimate removals
Retention is a compliance decision as much as a financial one. The ICO's advice for small organisations sets out expectations that should shape an archiving rule, so a deletion policy written purely to shrink a bill starts from the wrong place.
Activity-based units turn on the supplier's definitions. A login, a page view, a contribution and a rolling period each produce a different count, and therefore a different invoice. Ask how bots, administrators, delayed data and reactivated members are treated, since those choices move the number without any change in real participation.
Seats buy administrative access for named people. Moderation duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 scale with membership rather than staff, so reporting and review seats arrive earlier than small teams expect. Model moderators, analysts, temporary cover and technical administrators separately instead of sharing logins.
Usage add-ons sit behind their own allowances. Email, storage, video, automation and artificial intelligence features usually carry separate units, so give each one a definition and an alert point before estimating volume.
Usage add-on allowances
- Email
- Storage
- Video
- Streaming
- Automation
- Artificial intelligence
- Unit definition and alert point
Example: three growth cases over a three-year term
The inputs below are illustrative modelling figures in pounds sterling, not quotations from any supplier. Replace them with your own rates before you decide.
Three growth cases
- Membership grows from 400 in year one to 900 in year two and 1,600 in year three.
- Admin seats rise from three to four to five as moderation and reporting are split across the team.
- Monthly outbound email rises from 18,000, inside a 20,000 allowance, to 60,000 and then 120,000.
Three growth cases
Year 1
- Flat tier: £199, £349, £549 a month
- £2,388
- Per registered member: £0.90 a month
- £4,320
- Per admin seat: £60 a month
- £2,160
- Usage: £12 per 10,000 sends over allowance
- £0
Year 2
- Flat tier: £199, £349, £549 a month
- £4,188
- Per registered member: £0.90 a month
- £9,720
- Per admin seat: £60 a month
- £2,880
- Usage: £12 per 10,000 sends over allowance
- £576
Year 3
- Flat tier: £199, £349, £549 a month
- £6,588
- Per registered member: £0.90 a month
- £17,280
- Per admin seat: £60 a month
- £3,600
- Usage: £12 per 10,000 sends over allowance
- £1,440
Three-year total
- Flat tier: £199, £349, £549 a month
- £13,164
- Per registered member: £0.90 a month
- £31,320
- Per admin seat: £60 a month
- £8,640
- Usage: £12 per 10,000 sends over allowance
- £2,016
Seat and usage rows are components rather than complete platform prices, and most suppliers pair a base tier with one metered element.
The flat tier moves in three steps as membership crosses each ceiling. The per-member column roughly doubles between year two and year three on unchanged growth. A modest per-member rate can therefore outrun a flat tier once membership compounds.
Any configuration still has to serve a defined member outcome, because the cheapest setup that suppresses participation is not cheap.
Contract, VAT and currency notes for English buyers
Dollar-denominated plans carry exchange-rate risk across a multi-year term, so ask for sterling invoicing or a stated conversion mechanism. VAT at 20 per cent is added to most UK software bills, and quoted monthly figures are usually exclusive of it.
The GOV.UK business finance and support finder lists schemes some SMEs use to offset software costs, though eligibility varies by region and sector.
Check renewal uplift, the overage rate above the included allowance, and the notice period that locks you into a tier you have outgrown. Reading community agency reviews with an eye on who wrote them helps here, because incentive shapes what any review emphasises.
Ask for the overage rate in writing before signature, not after the first busy month.
Common questions
Which model is cheapest as a community grows?
It depends on growth shape rather than size. Flat tiers stay cheapest for steep member growth, while per-seat pricing stays cheapest when membership grows fast and the staff team does not. Usage models are cheap in quiet periods and expensive in active ones.
How do per-member and active-member pricing differ?
Per-member billing counts every account you store, including dormant and invited ones. Active-member billing counts only accounts that meet the supplier's activity test, which makes the definition of a login or contribution the decisive term.
Which costs should I model before signing?
Include setup, integrations, internal staff time, support, storage and other metered add-ons, VAT and exit. Test each against low, expected and high membership, and mark which inputs are fixed, indexed or usage-dependent.
