# Circle Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra

> With the help of Capterra, learn about Circle Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Community products and more.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/10002260/Circle

---

# 

 Circle Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons

Last updated on March 13, 2026

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team.

[Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[FAQs](#faqs)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Integrations](#integrations)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews)

Circle

## What is Circle?

Circle is the world's leading all-in-one community platform, empowering creators and businesses to build branded communities, host events, run courses, and much, much more.  Circle customers include Ali Abdaal, Jay Shetty, Harvard, SpaceX, and Oprah. --- Join 13,000+ community builders to: Create a branded space with full ownership. Engage with events, courses, email, and gamification. Monetize through paid memberships and gated content. Scale using AI tools, automations, and branded apps. --- Circle Plus is a premium solution offering fully branded mobile apps for iOS and Android, designed to boost community engagement and revenue.  Circle Plus helps communities grow through push notifications and in-app purchases, and comes with white-glove services for design, onboarding, and migration.  With priority support and expanded product limits, Circle Plus is ideal for professional community businesses looking to scale quickly and effectively. 

## What is Circle used for?

[Community](https://www.capterra.com/community-software/)[Membership Management](https://www.capterra.com/membership-management-software/)[Coaching](https://www.capterra.com/coaching-software/)

Recognitions

Shortlist

Best ease of use

Top alternative

Featured

Overall rating

Based on 48 user reviews

Reviews sentiment

Positive

100%

Neutral

0%

Negative

0%

Starting price

$49

Flat Rate, Per Month

Free trial  
available

Includes Free Version

Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products...

-   Community / 2025

Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings...

-   Coaching / 2026
-   Community / 2026
-   Course Authoring / 2026
-   eLearning Authoring Tools / 2026
-   Social Networking / 2026
-   Membership Management / 2025

Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings...

Do you work for Circle?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=http://circle.so&name=Circle)

## Compare with a popular alternative

Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status.

### Circle

4.7 (48)

VS.

[4.7 (3,640)](https://www.capterra.com/p/153752/Vagaro/reviews/)

Starting Price

$49

Flat Rate, Per Month

Starting Price

$23.99

Flat Rate, Per Month

Free Trial

Free Version

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

Ease Of Use

4.7 (48)

Ease Of Use

4.6 (3,637)

Value For Money

4.4 (46)

Value For Money

4.6 (3,249)

Customer Service

4.6 (46)

Customer Service

4.6 (3,267)

## Circle alternatives

[4.7 (24,119)](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/reviews/)

Starting price

$8.75

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

96%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[4.6 (92)](https://www.capterra.com/p/185819/Mighty-Networks/reviews/)

Starting price

$41.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

93%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[4.6 (5,255)](https://www.capterra.com/p/153140/Connecteam/reviews/)

Starting price

$29.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

96%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

Highest Rated

[4.9 (151)](https://www.capterra.com/p/140805/ToucanTech/reviews/)

Starting price

$8000.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

99%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/10002260/Circle/alternatives/)

## FAQs about Circle

Overview

### What problems does Circle solve?

Circle solves the chaos of running communities across separate tools by combining discussions, courses, live events, member spaces, content delivery, and payments in one place. Community managers, coaches, creators, educators, and B2B customer teams use it to reduce fragmented engagement, simplify onboarding, organize members, and build private, monetized communities.

Answer based on 35 reviews

Overview

### Which roles and teams benefit most from Circle?

Circle is most used by founders, CEOs, owners, and other business leaders building branded communities, courses, and membership programs. Community managers, educators, and growth specialists rely on it to organize discussions, onboard members, deliver content, and drive engagement, while small teams use it to centralize communication and deepen customer relationships.

Answer based on 48 reviews

Overview

### What company size and industries is Circle built for?

Circle is for established organizations, brands, and creators, with strongest adoption among small businesses at 94%, followed by midsize companies at 6%. It is used most in Health, Wellness and Fitness at 19%, Marketing and Advertising at 17%, and E-Learning at 12%, reflecting community-driven business models.

Answer based on 48 reviews

Features and Usability

### What are the key features of Circle?

Circle offers membership management, member database, member directory, and membership signup for organizing communities. It also includes discussions and forums, live chat, direct messaging, and @mentions for member communication, plus content management, knowledge base management, event management, reporting and statistics, and access controls/permissions.

Integrations

### Which third-party tools and platforms does Circle integrate with?

Circle integrates with over 20 third-party tools and platforms, including Zapier, Slack, Airtable, Loom, HighLevel, Stripe, Typeform, and Vimeo. Its catalog also includes Auth0, Bubble, GitHub, Google Maps, Instagram, MemberSpace, Memberstack, Simplecast, Thinkific, Twitter/X, VideoAsk, and Wistia.

Answer based on 10 reviews

Getting Started and Support

### What training and onboarding options does Circle offer?

Circle provides live online sessions, webinars, documentation, and videos for training and onboarding. Live online sessions and webinars support guided instruction, while documentation and videos offer written and visual reference materials for self-paced learning and feature review.

Answer based on 6 reviews

Getting Started and Support

### What customer support options does Circle offer, and how do users rate the experience?

Circle offers email/help desk support, an FAQ/forum, and a knowledge base. Users often describe support as responsive, friendly, and helpful, with useful guidance through articles and the user community. Some reviewers mention inconsistent response times or slower help during bugs, but the overall support experience is viewed positively.

Answer based on 35 reviews

Features and Usability

### How user-friendly is Circle's interface?

Circle offers a clean, organized interface that makes community management easier for creators, coaches, and membership businesses. Many users like the simple navigation, modern design, and flexible spaces for discussions, events, and courses, though some admins want clearer settings, deeper branding control, and less friction when switching communities.

Answer based on 21 reviews

Features and Usability

### Is Circle easy to set up and use?

Circle makes setup and day-to-day community management straightforward for small teams, creators, and online educators. Many users find onboarding simple and like having courses, events, discussions, and memberships in one place, though some mention an admin learning curve, occasional bugs, and limits around customization, navigation, or backend controls.

Answer based on 18 reviews

## Features

Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically.

Event Management

4.4 (30)

60.00% of 30 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Schedule and manage the logistics of activities and other gatherings

Access Controls/Permissions

4.4 (24)

62.50% of 24 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems

Member Directory

4.7 (23)

52.17% of 23 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Comprehensive list that contains information and details of all the members associated with a particular organization or group

Customizable Branding

4.5 (22)

68.18% of 22 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Add customized logos and colors to align with company branding

Content Management

4.3 (21)

52.38% of 21 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Handles digital content throughout its lifecycle, from creation and storage to distribution and archiving

Discussions/Forums

4.6 (21)

76.19% of 21 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Online forums/groups where users can ask questions, share ideas, best practices, etc.

Circle 47 features

An @mention is a way to tag or notify a specific person about a message/post

Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems

Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities

Track and document all activities across devices, networks, and other systems

Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges

Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases

Create, manage, and send invoices or bills to customers

Communicate using direct chat or messages within the system

Manage contact details and communication with clients

Leave comments and notes on documents for others to view

Manage and track all internal and external communication conducted via calls, email, text, or chat

Centralized database of stakeholders and their contact information such as names, address, phone number etc.

Handles digital content throughout its lifecycle, from creation and storage to distribution and archiving

Add customized logos and colors to align with company branding

Customize data fields to support various needs and use cases

Pre-designed layouts that can be customized to match preferences and requirements

Import and export data to and from software applications

Online forums/groups where users can ask questions, share ideas, best practices, etc.

Store and organize documents in a centralized system

Assemble applications and processes by dragging over and arranging pre-built components

Reminders sent via email

Tracks metrics that provide insight into how a user interacts with any interface or product

A list of events with their respective dates

Schedule and manage the logistics of activities and other gatherings

Collecting, analyzing, and utilizing feedback from users or customers to improve a product or service

Find & retrieve relevant data or documents

Games or game-like elements to track progress and reward accomplishments

Organize and edit a group of people's policy and members

Manage a repository of information that includes articles, FAQs, or tutorials used for self-service support

Ability to chat online in real time

Contact members listed in the database through email, SMS, social, phone, etc.

Add, store and access information pertaining to members

Comprehensive list that contains information and details of all the members associated with a particular organization or group

Database of members to track personal information of individuals and families

Access software remotely via mobile devices

Access the system via a mobile application

Controls/tools to moderate the session

Manage and support multiple languages

Adjust communications based on previous interactions or personal preferences

Notifications that are delivered to users as soon as an event occurs

Collection, analysis, and representation of numerical data and generation of reports to understand various patterns

Plan availability and assign specific time slots for tasks and resources

Allow users to access multiple services after entering their login credentials once

Security protocol that ensures secure, encrypted communication over the internet, safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized access

Attach digital tags to documents and assets for identification, search, or monitoring purposes

Set up connections to third-party platforms to improve business processes

Manage user accounts, profiles, roles, permissions, and other details across applications, devices or networks

Get Advice

We can help you find the software with the features you need.

Features

4.6 (48)

4.6

Based on 48 reviews

## Pricing

Value for money

4.4 (46)

Free Trial

[View pricing plan details](https://www.capterra.com/p/10002260/Circle/pricing/)

Basic

$49.00

Flat Rate,Per Month

Value for money

4.4 (46)

4.4

Based on 46 reviews

## Integrations

[

Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/)[

WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)[

GitHub](https://www.capterra.com/p/129067/GitHub/)[

Instagram](https://www.capterra.com/p/210721/Instagram/)[

Stripe](https://www.capterra.com/p/123889/Stripe/)[

Zapier](https://www.capterra.com/p/130182/Zapier/)[

Airtable](https://www.capterra.com/p/146652/Airtable/)[

Google Maps](https://www.capterra.com/p/227511/Google-Maps/)

Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation

Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs.

## Support, customer service and training options

Customer Service

4.6 (46)

Support

-   Email/Help Desk
-   FAQs/Forum
-   Knowledge Base
-   Phone Support
-   24/7 (Live rep)
-   Chat

Training

-   In Person
-   Live Online
-   Webinars
-   Documentation
-   Videos

Deployment

-   Web
-   Android
-   iPhone/iPad

Typical users

-   Freelancers
-   Small businesses
-   Mid size businesses
-   Enterprises

Customer Service

4.6 (46)

4.6

Based on 46 reviews

## User reviews

Overall rating

4.7

Based on 48 reviews

Filter by rating

5(35)

4(13)

3(0)

2(0)

1(0)

Mentioned topic

Sorted by most recent

AU

Anonymous User

Growth Coach

Marketing and Advertising

### "Circle Community Platform"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

April 20, 2026

Very Good. It feels like a solid, reliable community platform with a good and user-friendly interface.

Pros

Simple interface and connections for community members. Nice visuals and easy to find your way around.

Cons

Back-end settings and integration of stripe for example - could do with better signposting and clearer guidance

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AU

Anonymous User

Owner, LCSW

Health, Wellness and Fitness

### "Great Community Building"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

March 22, 2026

It is great to interact with communities and a bit expensive with a learning curve to create courses.

Pros

A great way to create and connect with community, network and share resources and information. So much better than using other social media.

Cons

It can become challenging to switch between various communities. While intuitive, there is a learning curve as well.

Alternatives considered

[Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/)

Reasons for choosing Circle

Circle seemed a better place to build community with a forum as I did not want traditional social media in addition to branding

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

Francesco P.

CEO

Arts and Crafts

### "Circle can give you all the tools you need to start a community business, but you have to invest some money upfront."

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

6/10

February 4, 2026

I've tried to test it out for a few month. It is indeed good, but since I didn't have too much money to invest on it in the beginning I moved on to more budget friendly options

Pros

Circle is a valid option if you are going to build a community, it has a lot of features, easy monetization and rapid customer support when needed (and trust me, if you want to build a community you want to have a good support) but this is true if you have a minimum of money to invest

Cons

Circle major problem imho is related to the fact that there is not an cheap entry plan if you want to test your idea out before committing to more (like a free or budget friendly option). It has a quite steep entry price, and generally speaking a community needs month to start. Therefore you have to keep some money ready to use if you want to make it profitable.

Alternatives considered

[Bettermode](https://www.capterra.com/p/178753/Bettermode/)

Reasons for choosing Circle

I've actually moved to bettermode since it's more budget friendly

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JH

Jessica H.

Owner and Coach

Mental Health Care

### "Circle is fabulous for nurturing a community and adding coursework. "

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

May 8, 2025

When I created a course for ADHD adults, I wanted to be able to offer a community space and group coaching for those who used it. Circle perfectly fit the bill.

Pros

Circle makes it EXTREMELY easy to manage a course and community. I was able to upload both written and audio versions of a 70 lesson course, and track which of my clients have read it, as well as interact with them in post format on a daily basis. I genuinely love this platform and will be using it for a long time.

Cons

I had a tiny bit of trouble using the live meeting function on circle, but when I changed to a zoom integration the issue was solved :)

Alternatives considered

[Kajabi](https://www.capterra.com/p/154682/Kajabi/)

Reasons for choosing Circle

I felt it had the simple, clean interface that I was looking for, and make it easy for my clients to see what their next steps were.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AH

Andrea H.

Operations manager

Accounting

### "Easy to use"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

February 25, 2025

I've been pleased with my overall experience. The support from set-up to ongoing quarterly meetings has been a game changer for our team.

Pros

Circle was easy for me to learn and easy for members to navigate

Cons

occasionally need features that aren't offered, but they are updating those often

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

KT

Ken T.

Assistant Educator and Community Administrator

Financial Services

### "Circle Has Helped Our Community Thrive"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

February 23, 2025

The customer support team is very responsive when any issues arise, which are thankfully very rare. I use the platform several hours a day and love it. We can do almost everything we need in Circle.

Pros

Circle has allowed us to quickly build and grow a private investor education community and add or change features as needed.

Cons

While there are some customization limitations, the platform is more than enough for what we need.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

KL

Kristin L.

COO

E-Learning

### "Circle for Community and Course"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

7/10

February 20, 2025

We have been with Circle for at least 2 years. They are constantly making updates and adding features. I feel like they have come a long way and hope to see continued improvements. Great customer service.

Pros

I like that we are able to have our course and our community available to our customers in one place.

Cons

I feel the site still lacks a lot of customization features. To be able to style your platform a little more on brand to your company, better use of overall visuals/flow.

Switched from

[Kajabi](https://www.capterra.com/p/154682/Kajabi/)

Wanted our community and our course to be on one platform.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

RB

Riya B.

CEO and Founder

Real Estate

### "Best Platform for building an online community (better than Skool)"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

February 18, 2025

Overall, Circle has been a game-changer for running my community. Before, I was managing conversations across multiple platforms like Facebook groups, Slack, and Zoom, which was chaotic. With Circle, everything is structured and in one place, making it easier to engage members, run events, and scale the community. While there’s room for improvement, it’s still one of the best community platforms available.

Pros

I’d give Circle a solid 9/10. It’s one of the best platforms for building an engaged online community, with a clean interface, great customization options, and solid integrations. The best part about Circle is how organized and seamless it makes running a community. Everything—discussions, events, memberships, and courses—is in one place, so there’s no need to juggle multiple platforms. The user experience is smooth, branding is fully customizable, and engagement tools make it easy to keep members active. It’s also great that it integrates well with Zapier and other tools.

Cons

Circle could improve in a few areas. Automations are limited, so you need Zapier for a lot of things that should be built-in. The mobile app isn’t as smooth as desktop, and analytics could be more detailed. Pricing also jumps quickly as you scale, which can be a drawback for smaller communities

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JL

Jillian L.

Marketing Manager

E-Learning

### "Community Building as a Marketing Strategy in B2B"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

February 10, 2025

we use Circle to host a currently free, active community for our customers, helping them connect to one another, access exclusive events and resources, and discounts. For us, it helps us build deeper bonds and trust with our B2B customers and serve our mission of empowering and inspiring our industry.

Pros

It is intuitive and user friendly for both users and admins. It uses UX similar to popular social media sites to make for an easy experience. It has great community building tools, with different formats for different content types, the ability to organize folks into different spaces and groups by topics or persona, and a very well built out event hosting capability. It has solid analytics, good customer support, and the ability to notify members of what's happening via email and push notification.

Cons

It serves our needs well. There are opportunities for deeper analytics or improvement of certain analytics. For example, we use Circle's tracking links to determine which events prompt folks to sign up and we learned it tracks clicks on links, not actual sign ups.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AU

Anonymous User

Community Coordinator

E-Learning

### "Great tool for community building"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

January 31, 2025

Been using circle for our community for 4 months now and its been great, people share a lot to help folks with their own community giving tips/ideas/workflows and so much more. The support team is also super nice and helpful.

Pros

So many options for building community. payment options from the platform, automations and workflows to reach out + automate actions like tagging folks and bulk emails or DMs

Cons

Sometimes certain views are not ideal like the DMs scroll up instead of going to the most recent message.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

[View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/10002260/Circle/reviews/)

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