Circle
Online community management software
Forum board software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$89 per month
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
Small
Medium
Large
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What is Circle
Circle is a hosted online community platform used to create and manage member communities with discussion spaces, posts, comments, and member profiles. It is commonly used by creators, educators, and businesses to run private or public communities, deliver content, and host live sessions or events. The product emphasizes a modern, branded community experience with structured spaces and moderation tools, and it offers integrations and APIs to connect with external tools.
Structured spaces and moderation
Circle supports organizing discussions into spaces and groups, which helps teams separate topics, cohorts, or programs. Moderation features such as roles/permissions and content controls support managing member behavior and access. This structure fits use cases where a community needs more governance than a basic forum board.
Member experience and branding
Circle provides a branded community environment with customizable appearance and member profiles. It is designed for private communities with invitations, paid access, or gated content. This can reduce reliance on generic social platforms and helps organizations keep community activity in a controlled environment.
Events and content delivery
Circle includes features for hosting events/live sessions and sharing content within the community context. This supports community-led programs where discussion, resources, and sessions live in one place. For teams that want community plus lightweight programming, it can reduce the need to stitch together separate tools.
Not a full LMS
While Circle can host content and support cohort-style communities, it is not primarily a learning management system. Organizations that need advanced course authoring, assessments, certifications, or SCORM/xAPI tracking may require additional software. This can add integration and administration overhead.
Limited forum-style depth
Circle focuses on modern community spaces rather than deep, traditional forum mechanics. Some forum-centric capabilities (for example, highly granular thread workflows, complex taxonomy, or extensive archival/search controls) may be less comprehensive than dedicated forum board platforms. Communities with heavy long-form discussion and knowledge-base expectations may need to validate fit.
Ecosystem and data portability
As a hosted platform, Circle’s customization and extensibility depend on its supported integrations, APIs, and plan level. Organizations with strict data residency, bespoke UI requirements, or complex identity management may face constraints compared to self-hosted or highly extensible alternatives. Migrating large communities can require planning around exports, redirects, and content structure changes.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Professional | $89/mo* | Core community features: Unlimited members; Courses; Discussions; Events; Website builder; Live streams & Live rooms; Custom branding; Reporting & analytics; Searchable member directory; Rich member profiles; Paid memberships; Gamification; Custom domain; Weekly community digest; Migration services for payments. Limits: 3 admins, 10 moderators, 20 spaces; Storage 100GB; Live stream attendees 100; Transaction fees 2%. Includes a free 14-day trial (no credit card required). |
| Business | $199/mo* | Everything in Professional, plus: Workflows (automations), Custom profile fields, Headless Member API, Admin API, Branded email notifications, Content co-pilot, Automated transcriptions, Activity scores, Remove Circle branding, Standard migration services. Limits: 5 admins, 15 moderators, 30 spaces; Storage 250GB; Live stream attendees 200; Transaction fees 1%. Includes a free 14-day trial. |
| Circle Plus | Custom Pricing | Enterprise/scale plan (custom pricing). Everything in Business, plus: AI Agents & AI workflows, Custom SSO, highest platform limits (Live, Storage, Workflows), 10k Email Hub contacts included, lower transaction fees (0.5%), advanced analytics, sandbox community, priority technical support, concierge onboarding, dedicated Customer Success Manager. Branded apps and other services available; contact sales for pricing. |
Additional official add-ons & pricing shown on the vendor site:
- Email Hub (add-on): +$99/mo for 10,000 contacts (charged on top of community plan; first 30 days free).
- Extra admins: $10/mo per admin (Professional & Business show this add-on; Circle Plus includes unlimited admins).
- Extra moderators: $20/mo per 10 moderators.
- Extra spaces: $20/mo per 10 spaces (Business/Professional); Circle Plus: talk to sales.
- Brand email notifications: $40/mo as an add-on on lower plans (included on Business+).
- Live attendees: $20/mo per 100 attendees (add-on on lower tiers).
- Extra hours (live rooms/streams): $50/mo per 10 hours (add-on).
Seller details
CircleCo, Inc.
New York, NY, USA
2019
Private
https://circle.so
https://x.com/circleapp
https://www.linkedin.com/company/circleco/
