Heartbeat Chat vs Skool Communities
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Heartbeat Chat
Build and manage your online communities with a versatile platform. Engage members through chat, voice, and video, and create a knowledge base for lasting discussions. Integrate with other tools to automate actions and track growth.
- Customizable channels for chat and posts
- Voice rooms for real-time conversations
- Presence indicators for a shared room feel
- Knowledge base creation from discussions
- Integration with Zoom, Google Calendar, Salesforce, etc.
- Automated community match-ups and intros
- Permission management and payment processing
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Heartbeat is the home for all your online communities. Create a space where you and your community can have fun through chats, threads, voice, and video. Heartbeat works great for online schools, accelerators, incubators, paid communities, innovations hubs, support groups, and so much more! Whether its a massive, established community, or you're just getting started, Heartbeat makes it easy to build lasting, genuine relationships. LAUNCH AN INVITE-ONLY COMMUNITY SPACE: - Customize channels to use posts or chats and design a space just for you and your community to have deep discussions about how the world is changing or just to share the best restaurants in Atlanta. - Voice rooms help you take your conversations to the next level — jump into a voice room with 1 click - Presence indicators floating around the app show you where other people are, and make it feel like you're in the same room CREATE A LASTING LIBRARY OF KNOWLEDGE - Turn insightful posts into long-lasting knowledge base articles & grow your community off the great conversations that happen - Organize information vital to your community members & create a space they can always reference for the best information - Manage access through powerful permissioning tools native to Hearbeat SCALE YOUR COMMUNITY LIKE A BOSS - Use deep integrations with Zoom, Google Calendar, Salesforce, Hubspot, Airtable, and more to automate community actions & track deep analytics over time to see how your community is growing - Automate in-community match-ups and conversations through customizable, weekly Heartbeat intros - Create moderators, special access permissions, manage payments, oversee projects & more within your customizable community space
Skool Communities
Connect with your online communities from anywhere. Engage in discussions, access courses, stay updated on events, and directly message members. This app brings all the core functionalities of the platform to your mobile device.
- Community discussions
- Video and text courses
- Event calendar
- Direct messaging
- Push notifications
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The official Skool app. Stay connected to your communities on the go. All Skool's features + push notifications. • Community - group discussion with posts and comments • Courses - learn with video and text-based lessons • Calendar - see what community events are happening • Chat - DM anybody in your communities
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is chart position: Skool Communities at #22 against Heartbeat Chat's unranked. Skool Communities also leads on ratings volume (713 vs 119) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for Heartbeat Chat against 3.8 for Skool Communities. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Skool Communities has 713 ratings behind it against 119, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 39% of Heartbeat Chat's written reviews are positive against 41% of Skool Communities's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on September 22, 2026.
| Parameter | Heartbeat Chat | Skool Communities |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (119 ratings) — better | 3.8 (713 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 39.1% of reviews | 41.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 119 | 713 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #22 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 76 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Heartbeat Chat, Inc | Skool.com, Inc. |
Customer experience
Heartbeat Chat
Skool Communities
User reviews
Heartbeat Chat
From 119 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use and navigate
- 🚀 Fast and streamlined experience
- 💡 Great for community building and hosting
- ✨ Elegant toggling between memberships
- ✅ User-friendly features for admins
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitchy and buggy performance
- 🐌 Slow loading times
- ❌ Difficult login process for users
- 📱 Poor iPad optimization
- ⚠️ Invasion of privacy concerns
Skool Communities
From 713 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent community platform
- 💡 Innovative learning features
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- 🚀 Fast and responsive app
- 👍 Great for online businesses
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy video playback
- 🐛 Crashes and freezes
- 🐛 Inconsistent notifications
- 🐛 Navigation issues
- 🐛 Slow loading times
Bugs and requests
Heartbeat Chat
Reported bugs
40 issues- Audio playback stops when phone locks
- Users struggle with logging in
- App is not optimized for iPad, especially in landscape view
- Invasion of privacy concerns regarding photo access
- Notifications are inconsistent and important messages are missed
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- Auto-subscriptions and difficulty with cancellation
- App performance is non-existent, leading to slow loading and unresponsiveness
- Content overlaps
- Tiny frame on iPad, displaying a mobile view
- Forced photo upload during sign-up
- Email already in use error after providing email
- Courses are inaccessible
- Slow response from support
- App fails to update
- Unable to access community
- Unable to cancel subscription
- Charged without consent
- App not working on iPhone
- App freezes frequently
- White screen issues upon opening the app
- App does not function correctly
- Messages not sending when the send button is tapped
- App doesn't work on tablets
- Phantom notifications causing frustration
- App crashes frequently
- Jank and unstable performance
- App shows it has posted but it never publishes
- Notifications and Activity pages have major glitches and don't refresh
- Unable to pull down the Activity page to refresh
- App started messing up immediately, unable to access anything
- App asks for information, then shows an error that it cannot find the channel
- App loads but nothing is tappable or responsive
- App is constantly freezing
- App crashes after iOS update
- App shows communication but refuses to show what it is
- App shows a white screen and is unusable
- App shows a white screen and is garbage
- App shows it has posted but it never published the comment
- Notifications are funky and make zero sense
- App doesn't work correctly on iPhone
Requested features
17 requests- Allow audio to play while phone locks
- Improve iPad optimization, especially in landscape view
- Fix the app icon to not resemble a dating app
- Allow users to change their RSVP to an event after confirming
- Enable users to join public threads via the app
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- Improve image embedding, especially on mobile
- Reduce excessive white space
- Fix notification logic
- Improve image insertion functionality
- Add permalinks to the app
- Allow location changes within the app
- Fix phantom notifications
- Enable profile editing
- Fix the login process for users
- Make the app work on tablets
- Improve backend setup on mobile
- Allow deletion of communities on mobile
Skool Communities
Reported bugs
5 issues- Unable to create account
- Stuck on login screen
- Videos not playing full screen
- Frequent log-outs
- Incompatibility with older devices
Requested features
5 requests- Dark mode option
- Ability to save posts
- Improved iPad support
- Better chat functionality
- Sync with calendar apps
In-app purchases
Heartbeat Chat
No in-app purchases
Skool Communities
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Heartbeat Chat free?
Is Skool Communities free?
Which has better reviews, Heartbeat Chat or Skool Communities?
Do Heartbeat Chat or Skool Communities have ads?
Which is updated more often, Heartbeat Chat or Skool Communities?
Other comparisons
