Four tiers. Four prices. No monthly surprises.
Each tier is a fixed-scope, fixed-price deliverable. Custom scopes are quoted on the order chat after checkout. No retainer, no recurring charge, no surprise invoices.
Starter
Launch a basic Discourse community
One-time payment · No subscription
- Discourse provisioning (hosted setup)
- 5 categories + tag taxonomy
- Basic moderation rules
- Welcome message template
- 7-day support window
30-day refund · Visa & Mastercard
Standard
Discourse + onboarding flows
One-time payment · No subscription
- Everything in Starter
- Single Sign-On (SSO) configuration
- Onboarding flow + welcome kit
- Custom theme & brand colors
- 14-day support window
- Moderation playbook (PDF)
30-day refund · Visa & Mastercard
Pro
Circle setup with gamification
One-time payment · No subscription
- Everything in Standard
- Circle.so full setup
- Paid memberships via Stripe
- Gamification badges & member tiers
- Custom onboarding sequence
- Admin guide (PDF + Loom)
- 30-day support window
30-day refund · Visa & Mastercard
Premium
Mighty Networks, full white-glove
One-time payment · No subscription
- Everything in Pro
- Mighty Networks full configuration
- Stripe + Apple Pay + Google Pay
- Content seeding (10 posts + 3 events)
- Member welcome kit + auto-DM
- 90-min strategy session (Loom + live)
- 45-day support window
30-day refund · Visa & Mastercard
Side by side. Every feature, every tier.
Scan the rows, then pick the column that fits your scope.
Feature
Starter
Lean entry
Standard
Most chosen
Top pickPro
Full studio
Premium
White-glove
Platform provisioning
Category & tag taxonomy
Trust-level rules
SSO (Google + Apple)
Brand theme + colours
Onboarding flow
Member welcome kit
Moderation playbook (PDF)
Stripe paid memberships
Gamification badges + tiers
Admin guide + Loom
Apple Pay + Google Pay
Content seeding
Live strategy session
Support window
How this build compares against the real alternatives.
A fair side-by-side at the same scope — measured in trade-offs, not invoices.
Do it yourself
Free in cash
Expensive in calendar attention
Cash-free, but it costs you weeks of platform research, theme tweaking, and moderation drafting — and almost always ships without documentation.
Freelance generalist
Mid-range
Revision cycles included
A single contractor delivers a working platform but rarely documents it. You inherit a build with no audit trail and no operating playbook.
Community agency
Premium tier
Plus a recurring retainer
Polished delivery with status calls and account managers — and a retainer that outlives the launch. Quality is high; the ongoing fee is the catch.
ForumBuildersLab
Studio rate
One-time, brief-anchored
Fixed scope, fixed price, full operating package, refund anchored to the brief. No retainer, no monthly bill — chat directly with the build team.
Pricing, questioned honestly.
Seven questions buyers ask before they place an order, answered without hedging.
Yes. You pay once. We deliver once. The platform account is yours from day one — if you cancel us, your community stays online. We do not bill monthly under any tier.
You submit a brief at checkout. If the deliverable does not match that brief within 30 days of handover, we refund 100% to the original card. No interrogation, no rebuild obligation. The brief is the anchor — not opinion.
Hybrid scopes, migrations, and custom integrations are quoted on the order chat or in a short discovery call. We give a fixed-price quote in writing before any work starts.
No. Discourse hosting, Circle.so subscription, and Mighty Networks plans are billed by those platforms directly to your account. Our fee is the configuration and documentation — the platform itself is yours.
Visa and Mastercard, routed through Authorize.Net (PCI-DSS Level 1). We do not store full card numbers — only the last four digits and the transaction reference.
For tiers under $100, no — the amount is too small to justify the overhead. For custom-quoted scopes above $1,000, we offer a 50/50 split: 50% at brief acceptance, 50% at handover.
We do not run flash sales. We do offer a chained-build discount: order two or more services in one go and we discount the smaller tier by 15%. Quoted on the order chat.
Add-ons, chained to any tier.
Discrete pieces of work you can bolt onto any plan. Scope agreed and quoted on the order chat before any work begins.
Custom domain & DNS setup
Configure your apex or subdomain, the SSL certificate, and verify DNS records end to end.
Content seeding pack
We seed your community with starter discussions and event slots tuned to your niche, so day one is not empty.
Moderator onboarding call
A live working session walking your moderators through the playbook, with open Q&A at the end.
Extra Loom walkthrough
An additional recorded walkthrough on a specific area — Stripe, SSO, or moderation.
Migration from another tool
Move members, threads, and content from Slack, Discord, Mighty Networks, or another platform.
Translated playbook
Your moderation playbook professionally translated to Spanish.
Request any add-on on the order chat — we agree the scope before any work begins.
One tier. One payment. One delivery.
A fixed-scope, fixed-price build with a brief-anchored 30-day refund.