Circle

Circle is the platform for a community that's outgrown one feed. The bill reflects it: $89 a month on annual billing before you've sent a single marketing email.

Pricing, checked on circle.so/pricing, 16 October 2026. Professional is $89 a month, Business $199, Scale $419, all on annual billing. The page doesn't show month-to-month prices at all, so assume monthly is higher. Circle Plus is custom.

Circle's cut is 2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale, 0.5% on Plus. And that's on top of Stripe's fee. Circle's help centre says it plainly: both get charged on every paywall payment (Paywall transaction fees).

What you're paying for

Spaces. This is the whole reason people leave Skool for Circle.

Professional gives you 20, Business 30, Scale 100. Each one is its own feed, its own members, its own paywall if you want one. A coaching program, a free lounge, and a paid mastermind can all live in one community without the mastermind people wading through beginner questions.

Your own Stripe. Circle connects to the Stripe account you already have, or creates one, and runs payments through it (Connect a Stripe account). You set the currency. You see customers in your own Stripe dashboard. If you ever leave, the subscriptions come with you.

Tiers and paywalls. Multiple paywalls at different prices, subscription groups, one-time fees, paywalls on individual Spaces. A course Space with a one-time price is a standalone product in everything but name.

Gamification's included on every plan: points, levels you set the thresholds for, a leaderboard, and workflows that fire when someone levels up (Gamification). Keep in mind, locking a Space behind a level runs through those workflows, not a toggle. And workflows start on Business. So on Professional, the leaderboard is decoration.

What costs extra

Email. Circle's Email Hub does broadcasts and automations, and it's an add-on on every plan below Circle Plus. $99 a month for 10,000 contacts, on top of the $89 Professional plan. So "community plus email" on Circle is really $188 a month on annual billing. That's more than Kajabi's starting plan, and about twenty times Skool Hobby plus a separate email tool.

The branded app. Every plan gets the shared Circle app on iOS and Android. Your own icon in the store is Circle Plus only. Mighty Networks sells that lower.

Can you leave?

Better than almost anyone here.

Admins can pull a members CSV themselves (first name, last name, email, join date). The full export, members, Spaces, posts, and comments as four CSV files, comes when you email support@circle.so (How do I export my community data). Uploaded media isn't in it. Courses aren't mentioned in the export article at all, so assume you rebuild lessons by hand.

Coming in: bulk CSV import is documented (Importing members in bulk), and Circle publishes a migration guide for people arriving from Kajabi. It's a guide, not a tool. Courses get rebuilt.

Courses

Sections, lessons, drip schedules (Course setup). Circle's help centre doesn't list quizzes or certificates. If the credential is part of what you sell, LearnWorlds or Kajabi are safer bets.

Does Circle have a free plan?

No. 14-day trial, then $89 a month on annual billing. If you need a free runway, Systeme.io, Nas.io, Whop, and Mighty Networks have one.

Is Circle worth $89 over Skool at $9?

If you've got more than one audience in the same community, or you want payments in your own Stripe, yes.

If your community is one group of people talking about one thing, no. That's what Skool is built for, and the extra $80 buys Spaces you won't use.

Circle or Mighty Networks?

Circle if you want the cleanest admin experience and your own Stripe. Mighty if you want a branded app without paying Circle Plus prices.

Circle or Skool?

Circle if you've outgrown one feed and want tiers, Spaces, and email on one bill. Skool if you want engagement first and you're fine running email somewhere else.

Sources, all checked 16 October 2026: Circle pricing, paywall transaction fees, connect a Stripe account, community data export, member CSV export, gamification, course setup.