Heartbeat is a good deal on paper. They're essentially a Circle clone, with added features for livestreaming, courses, knowledge base, etc.

Unfortunately, they lack a few completely non-optional features that is now making me considering moving away from HB (after having migrated my community there from Circle recently)

The biggest issue is the lack of any kind of sorting or difference in how the threads are viewed. If you spend 15 seconds in Circle you're quickly impressed by the way you can have minimalist layouts, card layouts, full layouts, and anything in between.

Plus, threads that have new topics in them are automatically shown at the top.

There is no such sorting feature in Heartbeat at all, which makes it extremely difficult to know what's actually going on in your community. Especially if it's an active one.

Also, all threads are "expanded" by default with no option to show just thread titles and then the replies within the threads (discourse style)

In general, I would say that the app is functional, but very scuffed.

To give one good feature, the event feature is really well done, with RSVPs, reminders, and a highly functional Zoom-esque live room built into the community itself.

I'm on the fence as to whether I'll stick with HB, even though I'm outside the refund window, as even a service like ThriveDesk, where the community isn't even the primary feature, seems to do the community aspect better than Heartbeat.