App comparison

Add up to 4 apps below to see how they compare. You can also use the "Compare" buttons while browsing.

GetApp offers objective, independent research and verified user reviews. We may earn a referral fee when you visit a vendor through our links. 

Circle Logo

The all-in-one platform for world-class community builders

Last updated: November 2024

Circle Pricing, Features, Reviews and Alternatives

Circle product overview

Price starts from

49

Per month

Flat Rate

What is Circle?

Why juggle 5 tools to build your community when you can just use one?

Key benefits of using Circle

1) All-in-one:

Your members won’t have to switch between different tools for your community and content anymore. Get everything you need to engage and monetize your community — all in one place, under your brand. Mix and match posts, events, chat, live streams, payments, courses, and more to create the seamless member experience of your dreams.

2) Highly customizable:

There isn’t a single ‘right’ way to build a community. That’s why Circle provides all the building blocks and guidance you need to bring your unique community vision to life. Circle's highly customizable spaces empower you to set your community up just as you like it, while your own custom domain plus branding ensures that your brand stands out.

3) Stay in control:

Unlike a lot of other community platforms, Circle enables you to own your content, domain, and data. You have full control over the look and feel of your community as well as relationships with your members. Nobody has the power to ban your members, censor discussions, or delete your hard-earned work.

4) Earn more:

Circle’s easy monetization empowers your community to grow alongside your business. Using Paywalls, you can decide whether to charge for a single space, a set of spaces, your entire community, or a combination of all of the above. Earn more by offering free trials, discounts, upsells, and subscription options to your members at the right place, at the right time.

5) Flexible:

Circle both unifies your community-building tech stack and seamlessly fits into your existing workflow. Choose from thousands of integrations to customize your community, while SSO and API access allow you to connect Circle to your website, app, CRM, or any other valuable web asset. Circle is available on web, iOS, and Android.

Typical customers

Freelancers
Small businesses
Mid size businesses
Large enterprises

Platforms supported

Web
Android
iPhone/iPad

Support options

Knowledge Base
FAQs/Forum
Email/Help Desk

Training options

Documentation
Videos
Webinars
Live Online

Circle pricing information

Value for money

4.5

/5

30

Starting from

49

Per month

Flat Rate

Pricing options

Free plan
Subscription
Free trial
Pricing range

Value for money contenders

Circle features

Functionality

4.6

/5

30

Total features

42

6 categories

Most valued features by users

Activity Dashboard
Third-Party Integrations
Alerts/Notifications
API
Reporting & Statistics
Data Import/Export
Customizable Branding
Mobile Access

Functionality contenders

Circle users reviews

Overall Rating

4.8

/5

30

Positive reviews

100

%

Rating breakdown
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9.4/10
Rating distribution

5

4

3

2

1

23

7

0

0

0

Pros
My overall experience with Circle has been sincerely positive. It’s given me the tools to build a values-driven, supportive community where people can connect in meaningful ways.
The Spaces feature keeps discussions organized and helps members engage more easily. I also love that I can host my course directly on Circle, check in on students' progress, and offer help.
I love how beautiful the UI is for the this software. The UX is also intuitive and constantly be improved upon every year.
Cons
The analytics dashboard is sorely lack and needs a complete overhaul. Very little access to editing user profiles on the backend.
Out of the box, it's very easy to use but only comes with one template making all Circle communities look very homogenous and restricted in customizations.
Updates which mean I lose features or have to update whole group spaces due to the the styling updates.

Overall rating contenders

AvatarImg
AvatarImg

Vilma K.

E-Learning, self-employed

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

Share this review:

Everything I need for my community building in one place

Reviewed a month ago

My overall experience with Circle has been sincerely positive. It’s given me the tools to build a values-driven, supportive community where people can connect in meaningful ways. The platform is user-friendly once you get used to it, and features like Spaces and the ability to host courses and live meetings all in one place make managing my community much easier. Circle allows me to stay close to my community members, offer real support, and create a safe, inspiring environment. I’m really happy with how it has helped me grow my community and make it more engaging for everyone.

Pros

The Spaces feature keeps discussions organized and helps members engage more easily. I also love that I can host my course directly on Circle, check in on students' progress, and offer help. Also, the ability to host live meetings within the platform saves time and money. Circle has given me the chance to create a safe, supportive space where everyone feels part of something special. And to do it away from other social media platforms.

Cons

At first, Circle can feel a bit overwhelming due to its many features, but demo videos help for me and for my community, and it gets easier over time. Though I’m still new (3-4 months in), every feature I’ve used has been very helpful. It just takes a little time to adjust, which is normal.

MC
AvatarImg

Manami C.

Health, Wellness and Fitness, self-employed

Used daily for 6-12 months

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9/10

Share this review:

Circle: A Powerful Community Platform with Room for Growth

Reviewed 2 months ago

My overall experience with Circle has been positive. It offers an excellent platform for community building with features like live streams, chats, and customizable spaces that help foster real-time engagement. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to manage content and interactions. However, there are some areas that could improve, such as more storage options and automation flexibility to streamline processes. Despite these, Circle has been a great tool for growing and engaging with my community.

Pros

What I liked most about Circle is its community-focused features and the ability to seamlessly integrate content with interactive discussions, live events, and member engagement tools. It makes it easy to foster real-time conversations and customize spaces to suit my brand. The platform is highly flexible, allowing for easy monetization through memberships and subscriptions, which has been crucial for my business. Its intuitive interface and robust tools for building a connected community make it a standout choice for fostering deep, meaningful interactions.

Cons

One downside I found with Circle is its limited storage for growing communities and the lack of advanced automation features. This means that larger communities might face storage constraints over time, and tasks like automating onboarding or integrating with other platforms could be more flexible. While Circle excels in community building, these areas could use improvement to streamline processes and provide more scalability as the community grows.

MP
AvatarImg

Manuel P.

Design, self-employed

Used daily for 6-12 months

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend8/10

Share this review:

Community first

Reviewed 2 months ago

As a freelancer, I've built several Circle communities for my clients, which are mostly content creators who like to have a private community for monetizing their audience and having deeper conversations with their fans.

Pros

Circle is the membership tool that places the most emphasis on community aspects. For me, it's the closest thing to social media, just in a private and (if necessary) paid environment. Also, the support chatbot is surprisingly helpful. I found a lot of solutions within seconds I otherwise needed to wait hours or days for.

Cons

The course area needs some more features to be more competitive to other tools. In general, I'd like to have way more customization options, especially for the mobile apps to make it a more on-brand experience.

AM
AvatarImg

Andreea M.

Marketing and Advertising, self-employed

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

Share this review:

Circle made it so easy to host/manage my community!

Reviewed 24 days ago

Overall, my experience has been super positive. I love all the admin tools, the customization options, the fact that I can take payments, have affiliates, add any type of content I want and interact with my members!

Pros

Circle has made it so easy for me to set up my community and host my content and courses. I switched from a self-hosted platform and switching over was super easy. I love that I can add courses, blog-post style content, as well as videos and PDF files. It's also super easy to customize the look of my community. The platform also allows for members to interact with the content and post questions, which is really great! I have been using them for the last three years and I couldn't be happier!

Cons

The transaction fees could be lower, but other than that I have been super happy with the platform.

MW
AvatarImg

Mark W.

Management Consulting, self-employed

Used daily for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9/10

Share this review:

Great tool for online communities

Reviewed 2 months ago

I have found circle to be easy to implement, easy to have multiple layers of membership and a rich environment for interaction

Pros

I love the community of circle users - on circle - who are there to support and help.

Cons

Users were from facebook so there was a learning curve for them, albeit small, to use circle

Circle FAQs

Q. What type of pricing plans does Circle offer?

Circle has the following pricing plans:
Starting from: $49.00/month
Pricing model: Subscription
Free Trial: Available | (No Credit Card required)


Q. Who are the typical users of Circle?

Circle has the following typical customers:
Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Small Business


Q. What languages does Circle support?

Circle supports the following languages:
English, Portuguese, Portuguese


Q. Does Circle support mobile devices?

Circle supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone


Q. Does Circle offer an API?

Yes, Circle has an API available for use.


Q. What other apps does Circle integrate with?

Circle integrates with the following applications:
GitHub, Outseta, Zapier, Airtable, Bubble, WordPress, Twitter/X, Stripe, CodePen, Wistia, Slack, Typeform, VideoAsk, Vimeo, Loom, Auth0, Instagram, Google Maps, YouTube, Thinkific


Q. What level of support does Circle offer?

Circle offers the following support options:
Knowledge Base, FAQs/Forum, Email/Help Desk

Common Circle comparisons

Circle logo
Instagram logo
CirclevsInstagram
Circle logo
Discord logo
CirclevsDiscord
Circle logo
Slack logo
CirclevsSlack
Circle logo
Brilliant Directories logo
CirclevsBrilliant Directories
Circle logo
Microsoft Viva Engage logo
CirclevsMicrosoft Viva Engage

Related categories