Logo of Circle

Circle

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Last updated on

Company health

Employee growth
33% increase in the last year
Web traffic
9% increase in the last quarter

Ratings

G2
4.9/5
(61)
TrustPilot
3.8/5
(2)

Circle description

Circle is a comprehensive platform designed for businesses and creators to build and manage online communities. It consolidates various tools and features into one place, allowing you to host discussions, events, courses, and memberships under your brand. Circle enables you to engage your audience, monetize your community through subscriptions and payments, and scale your efforts with automation and integrations. It's suitable for customer communities, course creators, membership businesses, and more. Circle stands out with its ease of use, customizable branding, and all-in-one approach to community management.


Who is Circle best for

Circle is best for small businesses and creators seeking a user-friendly platform to build and manage online communities. It excels at fostering engagement through features like courses, memberships, and events. While praised for its customer support and ease of use, users note concerns about high transaction fees and limited scalability for larger businesses.

  • Best for small businesses.

  • Ideal for creators and businesses focused on education, coaching, memberships, and customer engagement.


Circle features

Supported

Circle enables the creation of private spaces and provides features like memberships and paid content, suggesting users can be charged for access.

Supported

Circle.so allows you to use a custom domain for your community platform.

Supported

Circle supports direct messaging between members.

Supported

Circle enables the creation of events, including details like title, description, time, and integrations like Zoom. It supports various event types and offers features like RSVP management, live streaming, and notifications.

Supported

Circle supports creating group chats with up to 50 members.

Supported

Circle supports NFT-based membership and content restriction.

Supported

Circle allows accepting payments via Stripe integration.

Qualities

We evaluate the sentiment that users express about non-functional aspects of the software

Value and Pricing Transparency

Rather negative
-0.6

Customer Service

Strongly positive
+1

Ease of Use

Strongly positive
+1

Reliability and Performance

Rather positive
+0.5

Ease of Implementation

Rather negative
-0.6

Scalability

Rather negative
-0.5

Circle reviews

We've summarised 43 Circle reviews (Circle TrustPilot reviews and Circle G2 reviews) and summarised the main points below.

Pros of Circle
  • Clean, modern, and user-friendly interface praised by many.
  • Excellent customer support and helpful resources are a major plus.
  • Robust all-in-one platform consolidating community features and courses.
  • Highly customizable for branding and tailoring the user experience.
  • Active development and responsiveness to user feedback are appreciated.
Cons of Circle
  • High transaction fees are a recurring concern.
  • Inability to create multiple communities limits scalability for some users.
  • Limited flexibility with automation, especially for complex workflows.
  • Limited native integrations require workarounds with third-party tools.
  • Mobile app experience, particularly for admins, needs improvement.

Circle pricing

The commentary is based on 12 reviews from Circle G2 reviews.

Circle's pricing is a recurring theme in user reviews. While most users acknowledge the platform's value and consider it justified, some find the subscription and transaction fees high, especially when needing add-ons or third-party integrations for full functionality.

Users sentiment

Rather negative
-0.6

See the Circle pricing page.

  • Circle has a free trial.

Professional
$89/mo (billed annually)

Includes rich member profiles, searchable member directory, discussions, events, paid memberships, weekly community digest, gamification, custom domain, courses, live streams, unlimited members, custom branding, reporting & analytics, custom code snippets, conversion tracking, and migration services for payments.

Business
$199/mo (billed annually)

Includes all features in the Professional plan, plus: workflows, custom profile fields, headless member API, admin API, branded email notifications, content co-pilot, automated transcriptions, activity scores, and migration services for courses.

Enterprise
$360/mo (billed annually)

Includes all features in the Business plan, plus unlimited workflows, custom single sign-on (SSO), priority support, advanced analytics, lower transaction fees, sandbox community, up to 10 admins & 100 moderators, concierge onboarding, quarterly business reviews, and a dedicated customer success manager.

Plus Branded App
Custom

Includes all features in the Enterprise plan, plus your own iOS and Android apps, prioritized migration services, a dedicated launch team, access to Circle's design studio, branded push notifications, the ability to offer in-app purchases, and higher limits across the board.


Circle alternatives

  • Logo of Mighty Networks
    circle-2 vs Mighty Networks
    Build and monetize your own branded community platform.
    Read more
  • Logo of Bettermode
    Bettermode
    Build vibrant online communities, easily customized.
    Read more
  • Logo of Kajabi
    Kajabi
    Create, sell, and manage online courses, memberships, and more.
    Read more
  • Logo of Facebook Groups
    Facebook Groups
    Connect with like-minded people, share, and build community.
    Read more
  • Logo of Common Room
    Common Room
    Unify community data, understand customers, grow smarter.
    Read more
  • Logo of Heartbeat
    Heartbeat
    Own your community. Grow engagement and revenue.
    Read more

Circle FAQ

  • What is Circle and what does Circle do?

    Circle is an all-in-one community platform for businesses and creators to build online communities. It provides tools for discussions, events, courses, memberships, and monetization, all under your own brand. Circle is praised for its ease of use, customizable branding, and comprehensive features. However, it receives negative feedback for high transaction fees and limited scalability for multiple communities.

  • How does Circle integrate with other tools?

    Circle provides native integrations with tools like Stripe and Zoom. To connect with other tools, users can leverage Zapier or Integromat, which expands Circle's integration possibilities.

  • What the main competitors of Circle?

    Circle's main competitors include platforms like Bettermode, Hivebrite, Mighty Networks, and Heartbeat. These alternatives offer similar features for building and managing online communities, providing options for engagement, monetization, and customization.

  • Is Circle legit?

    Circle is generally considered a safe and legitimate platform for building online communities. It's known for its user-friendly interface and robust features, as reported by users. However, potential subscribers should be aware of user feedback on high transaction fees and limitations in scalability.

  • How much does Circle cost?

    Circle's pricing starts at $89/month for the Professional plan, $199/month for the Business plan, and $360/month for the Enterprise plan. The Plus Branded App plan has custom pricing. They also offer add-ons like the Marketing Hub starting at $99/month.

  • Is Circle customer service good?

    Based on user reviews, Circle's customer service is consistently praised as excellent. Users highlight the helpful resources, responsive support team, and proactive approach to addressing customer needs.


Reviewed by

MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

NEW: Introducing Gralio Screen Buddy

An AI tool that observes your work, finds inefficiencies, and suggests smarter ways to do things. Maybe you can use your tools better, automate tasks, or switch software.

For Individuals
Streamline your daily tasks, get helpful AI tips, and find the right tools for your workflow.
For Businesses
See how your team really works, uncover automation opportunities, and get software recommendations tailored to your processes.