Circle.so Review 2025: Is It The Best Online Community Builder?

Quick Note: Circle.so Black Friday Sale is live (expiring on Dec 2) and this year, you can save 25% on all Circle.so annual plans. Claim your offer now.

If you are looking for an in-depth review of Circle.so, then this article is for you?

Circle is one of the most popular platforms for building an online community, used by over 7,500 creators and businesses across the world. It comes with a pretty great 14-day free trial, affordable paid plans, and a solid set of community management features.

But how does it work and is it really the best online community builder out there?

In this post, we will go in-depth and provide you with a first-hand look at everything Circle.so has to offer, so you can have a better idea of the platform before making a final decision.

We’ll show you all the key features of the platform, discuss its pricing options, cover its advantages and disadvantages, and more. So let’s dive in and find out!.

In case you’re in a hurry and looking to test the platform right away, — simply click the link below and get started, there’s no need to enter your card details.

Click here to sign up for a free 14-day trial of Circle.

*This post may contain affiliate links, and if you decide to buy any of the promoted products, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. By doing this, I might feel more inspired to continue writing on this blog.

Introduction: What is Circle.so?

Founded by former employees of Teachable, Circle.so is a platform that helps creators and brands make their own online communities. It allows them to build a place where people can come together, interact, and be a part of a group.

On this platform, you can do a lot of cool stuff to make your community fun and interesting. You can write posts and articles, teach courses online, organize events, do live streaming, make a list of all the members, send messages, and get personalized notifications.

If someone misbehaves, you can also control and manage the community with some special tools.

Circle also lets you make your community look nice. You can change the design and add your own special touches. You can even make money from your community too. It also integrates with third-party services such as Teachable and Thinkific.

The best part is that you don’t need to be a tech expert to use Circle. It’s cloud-based, so you don’t have to install any software.

All you need to do is make an account, create your community, and connect it to your website.

Yes, it’s that easy and you don’t need to worry about the technical things — you can just focus on making your community awesome.

One more thing that makes Circle special is that it’s not like Facebook Groups. With Circle, you can make your community look unique and run it the way you want. You have control over the people in the community and can connect with them in any way you like.

Who is Circle.so best for?

Circle.so is a platform that can be beneficial for various individuals and groups. Here are some examples of who should consider using Circle.so:

• Creators and Course Instructors: If you have online courses or educational content and want to provide a dedicated space for your students to interact, collaborate, and support each other, Circle.so is an excellent choice.
• YouTubers: If you have a YouTube channel or produce content on other platforms and want to build a dedicated community around your content, Circle.so can offer a space for your subscribers or followers to engage with each other.
• Facebook group owners: If you already have a Facebook group but want a better space where you have more control and fewer distractions, Circle.so is a good option.
• Membership Sites: If you run a membership-based website or offer premium content to subscribers, Circle.so can enhance the value of your memberships by providing a dedicated space for members to interact and access exclusive content.
• Businesses and Organizations: If you run a business or organization and want to build a loyal customer base, provide value-added services, or create a knowledge-sharing hub, Circle.so can serve as a centralized platform to facilitate these activities.

Basically, it’s a place where you can build a community around what you do and share it with others who are interested.

Many famous users like Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income, Breakthrough Facilitation, Soapbox Project, Impact Alliance, Code Meets No Code, and Ship 30 for 30 use Circle.so.

But Circle is not just for big names! There are also many smaller brands and creators who use it to build successful communities. You can check out some examples of how these creators and brands are using Circle.so in the Circle Community Showcase.

Circle.so User Interface and Dashboard

You should always look for a community platform that is easy to use, especially if you are new to it.

The good news is that Circle is one of the easiest out of all the top community builders we’ve tested, and you don’t need any fancy technical skills to use it.

Now, let’s jump in and see how easy it is for you to use their interface.

When you log in as an admin, everything is organized neatly on the screen. On the left side, you’ll see a list of all your spaces, and you can easily create a new one. From there, you can go to space, join discussions, and adjust settings.

If you want to publish a new post or do a live stream, both options are positioned in such a way that you can easily find them without looking here and there.

All the tools and features of Circle are organized into different categories, like Courses, Members, PayWalls, Direct Messages, etc., so you won’t have to search a lot to find what you need.

For the people using your community (the members), the interface they see looks similar to what you see, but without the admin settings. It’s quite simple and easy to understand. They can find important links from the left sidebar and use the search bar to find specific posts, comments, groups, and more.

Moreover, the dashboard has a helpful “Getting Started” setup checklist. If you’re new to Circle, this checklist will help you set up your community correctly. It’s kind of like a to-do list that tells you what steps to follow.

If you know how to set it up and the checklist bothers you, just click on the “X” icon next to the “Getting Started” option on the left side of the screen to remove it.

But remember, once you delete the setup checklist, you can’t bring it back. So it’s best to delete it only after you’ve finished all the necessary steps.

Overall, Circle is user-friendly and simple to manage. You can start your community in just a few minutes, and everyone (including your community members) will have a great experience using the application.

What Features Does Circle.so Offer?

Circle.so has lots of great features that make it worth buying. When you sign in to your account, you’ll find all the important features right on the main screen.

• Customization
• Live streaming
• Free mobile apps for Android and iOS
• Monetization opportunities
• Online courses (with new updates)
• Workflows and automation

Now, let’s learn about how all these cool features in Circle actually work.

Customization

Circle has an amazing feature called customization that lets you make it look and feel just the way you want it to. It’s like having your own special version of the platform that matches your brand perfectly. Here’s what you can do to make it unique:

• Choose your brand colors: You can pick the colors that represent your brand and make your community look awesome.
• Upload your logo: You can add your own logo to the platform, so it shows up everywhere and everyone knows it’s your community.
• Use custom subdomains: You can create a special web address (URL) for your community that includes your brand name or something cool that you like.

And there’s, even more, you can do to make it yours! With Circle, you have the power to customize and make your community truly special and unique.

Live Streaming

Creating an event in Circle.so is easy and fast. Just provide basic details like the date, time, whether it’s a one-time or recurring event and the location.

To host an online event, you have a couple of options. You can use Circle’s own live-streaming technology or use another platform like Zoom.

When you create an event in Circle, your members can RSVP and they’ll get a confirmation email. You can even set up automatic reminders for them before the event.

Besides scheduled events, you can do live streaming anytime and there are two options to achieve this:

• Live Room — Perfect for small group meetings, where up to 30 members can join and have a conversation together.
• Live Stream — Perfect for webinars and Q&A sessions, where only hosts can talk.

During live sessions, you can share your screen and chat with your members without interrupting the session. You can also record the live discussion and share it with anyone later.

Circle.so mobile apps (Android and iOS)

The key to creating a strong online community is to make sure people engage with it every day. Since we use our phones a lot, having an app is super important.

Circle’s app for iOS and Android fulfills this requirement brilliantly. One of the coolest things is that when you do a live video (or whatever you want), you can let people know directly on their mobile phones. It’s a great way to get their attention and keep them involved.

Isn’t that cool? ?

Monetization opportunities

If you want to create a community where people have to pay to join, Circle lets you do that without needing any other systems. They have a feature called Paywalls that makes it possible.

It’s awesome because you can start from nothing to having a fully working paid community using just Circle. You don’t need to have any technical skills either.

Take a look at this sample checkout page created using Circle;

Sell online courses in Circle.so (and new updates)

Last year, Circle.so made a significant improvement by allowing users to host and sell courses directly on their community platform.

Before, creators had to rely on different platforms like Circle for community and Teachable for courses. But from now on you can do everything from just one platform, which makes it much easier than what you do before.

Moreover, Circle.so keeps enhancing the course feature and regularly introduces new updates to make it even better. For more information, click on the links given below:

• Read the official announcement of introducing courses on Circle.so
• Check out the most recent updates to the Courses feature
• Click here to check out the product updates of Cirlce.so

Workflows and automation

We also want to tell you about an exciting feature that Circle.so has added recently. They now have workflow automation built right into the platform, available for users on the business plan or higher.

We have personally used these automated workflows in my community to make things easier for new members and to manage existing members better.

But automation doesn’t stop there. Circle also has the ability to integrate with different platforms like Thinkific or WordPress using something called single sign-on (SSO). This lets your members use one set of credentials to access their accounts.

Moreover, you can also use automation tools like Zapier to connect Circle with your CRM (Customer Relationship Management), email software, and more. In our experience, there’s hardly any repetitive task in Circle.so that cannot be automated.

Sign-up for a 14-day free trial of Circle.

Circle.so Help and Customer Support

Circle has a special team that is always ready to help you if you have any questions or problems. You can contact them by email, and they will reply to you quickly during the hours when they work in the United States.

If you need help while using Circle, you won’t be able to chat with someone right away. But don’t worry. In the bottom-right corner of the screen, there’s a small help box you can click on. Just type a message to the support team there, and they will send a reply right to your email.

Inside that box, you can also search for answers to your questions. There are many helpful articles available that can teach you how to do things on Circle. This is a good way to find answers on your own.

Finally, Circle also has a wonderful community of users who are active and friendly. You can connect with other people who have their own communities, share your ideas, and get feedback as well as advice from the other users who are already doing great.

And one last thing is, the Circle’s community is built using the Circle itself. This means you can see how others use the platform and get an idea of how it works. It’s a great way to learn and see what’s possible.

Circle.so Review: Latest Pricing Structure Explained

Now you might be wondering, “How much does it cost to get all the fantastic features that Circle.so offers?” Well, let’s dive into their pricing plans and see what options are available for you.

Circel.so comes with four different plans: Basic, Professional, Business, and Enterprise. They provide options for both monthly and annual billing cycles. Here’s a brief summary of their pricing structure:

Aside from the subscription cost, they also have a separate transaction fee for each plan — it’s 4% for the Basic Plan, 2% for the Professional Plan, 1% for the Business Plan, and 0.5% for the Enterprise Plan.

Okay, so what are the main differences between these plans?

The Basic Plan has limitations with 100 members, 10 spaces, and a total storage capacity of 10 GB, which might be insufficient for some users.

To access more resources, you’ll need to upgrade to the Professional Plan. This plan offers unlimited members, 20 spaces, and 100 GB of storage, along with essential features like live streaming, online courses, and white labelling. It offers great value for money.

However, if you require additional space or advanced features like automation workflows and APIs but your current plan does not offer them, then switch to one of their Business or Enterprise plans.

Circle.so also offers a pretty great 14-day free trial (no credit card needed), so you can explore their platform well and take the right decision before becoming a paid customer. Click the button below to sign up and get started!

Additionally, there is a discount available for annual billing plans. If you are committed to using Circle, we suggest opting for the Professional plan to enjoy all of its key features and higher usage limits.

Please note that the provided information is not a huge list of differences, so visit Circle’s pricing page to get a complete understanding of what each plan includes before making a decision to sign up.

Circle.so Customer Testimonials and Reviews

We’re providing you with a detailed review of Circle.so. If you’re interested in knowing what other users think about this software, here are a few customer reviews we found on the Circle website.

Our members are so impressed. It’s intuitive. It’s clean. It’s distraction-free. I’m so glad we made this decision.

Pat Flynn (Founder @ SPI)

I considered using something else but Circle was the winner imo. It’s the perfect balance of functionality, design & price. Plus the founders are super helpful & responsive.

Mackenzie Child (Founder @ Flowmingo)

The key here is that Circle brings a technical way to centralize and service a community. It’s offering growth by way of shrinking! A consolidation of tech & location in exchange for the potential of better connection and servability.

Melissa Tal (Founder @ Liminal)

…these are only a few examples, but you can find more by clicking here.

Circle.so Alternatives

Not convinced that Circle.so is the right fit for building your community? Here are some alternatives you might want to check out instead.

Mighty Networks

Rating

9.8/10

Free Trial

Yes (14 days)

Transaction Fee

Yes

Starting Price

$33/mo (billed monthly)

Promotion

Start your 14-day trial

Bettermode

Rating

9.9/10

Free Trial

No, but the demo is available

Transaction Fee

Yes

Starting Price

$599/mo (billed monthly)

Promotion

Get a demo to start

StoryPrompt

Rating

9.7/10

Free Trial

No (they have got a free plan)

Transaction Fee

Yes

Starting Price

$39/mo (billed monthly)

Promotion

Start for free (no time limit)

Circle.so Review: Final thoughts

After taking a look at Circle.so, we are sure that you will be as impressed with Circle’s remarkable features or capabilities as we are.

In our experience, it stands out as one of the most powerful online community builder tools available, particularly due to its exceptional video streaming and seamless live event hosting.

Moreover, Circle.so lets you have full control over your content and how people see it. It also comes with lots of other cool features to help you manage your content even better.

With this community-building platform, you can make sure your audience gets the best experience when they check out your stuff.

But if you’re still unsure about whether Circle.so is the ideal solution for you, we suggest giving it a try. You can take advantage of their generous 14-day free trial without any commitment. Simply click the button below to sign up and test it out.

Thanks for reading our expert review on Circle.so [Updated: January 2025]. If you’ve any other questions about this platform, let us know in the comment box below and we’ll reply soon.