Vendor · Circle · Community section · USD
Circle (2026) — who it’s actually for
Circle is a branded community host: a home for community, events, and courses under your own brand. Professional is the public floor — the $89/mo* card is annual billing. You connect Stripe. Circle’s 2% sits on top of Stripe’s cut. It is not a one-feed room and not a course-business OS.
Who this page is for
Experts with a method, deciding whether Circle is the branded community — not whether they should invent a forum. Spaces, courses, events, a site, and paid memberships on your Stripe. You would otherwise buy Skool for a feed, Mighty for a membership network, or Kajabi and never open the community tab.
This is the community section of a course-platform directory, not a second site. It is not a Circle vs everyone table. Those live on Skool vs Circle vs Mighty Networks, Mighty Networks vs Circle, and Kajabi vs Circle. Which Circle plan you need is Circle pricing. This page is Circle on its own terms.
The short version
What it is
Official homepage: “Build a home for your community, events, and courses — all under your own brand.” Professional card: courses, discussions, events, website builder, live streams, live rooms, custom branding, paid memberships, custom domain. You connect Stripe.
You pay for
A branded community with unlimited members. Professional: 3 admins, 10 moderators, 20 spaces, 200GB storage. Circle’s cut: 2% plus Stripe.
You do not get
Skool’s merchant-of-record simplicity. A Kajabi-style email and funnel OS on the Professional card. Branded iOS/Android apps on Professional — those are optional on Circle Plus (custom).
Actually for
A community people stay in under your brand — with spaces, a site, and paywalls — not a one-feed room and not a recorded catalog you sell once.
Fits
An expert whose method needs a home with events and courses attached. Professional is the usual start. Business is workflows, APIs, and removing Circle branding.
Skip
If the offer is a $9 feed. That is Skool. If the offer is a library with email and funnels, that is Kajabi. If the offer is a membership network with native apps on the shared shell, start at Mighty.
The 2026 facts
Visible Professional $89/mo*. Business $199/mo*. Plus: custom. Platform page: displayed prices are USD, based on annual billing, taxes extra. Page data this fetch: priceYear 89 / 199; priceMonth 99 / 219. 14-day free trial. 30-day money-back guarantee (pricing FAQ).
Circle + Stripe
Professional 2%, Business 1%, Plus 0.5% — in addition to Stripe. Payments page: connect existing Stripe.
Keep Skool checkout
Not this product. Circle is not merchant of record. You need Stripe.
Cited numbers, September 19, 2026
USD. Visible cards are the asterisked per-month rates Circle shows. Month-to-month dollars are from page data (priceMonth), not a second public card. Platform fee is Circle’s cut, not Stripe. Plan fork detail: Circle pricing.
| Professional | Business | Circle Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visible card | $89/mo* | $199/mo* | Custom pricing |
| Page data (priceYear / priceMonth) | 89 / 99 | 199 / 219 | — |
| What the asterisk means | Platform page: “Prices displayed in USD, based on annual billing and do not include applicable taxes.” Meta: “starting as low as $89 per month.” | ||
| Members | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Admins / moderators / spaces | 3 / 10 / 20 | 5 / 15 / 30 | Unlimited / unlimited / flexible |
| Circle transaction fee | 2% plus Stripe | 1% plus Stripe | 0.5% plus Stripe |
| Storage | 200GB | 500GB | 1TB |
| Live stream attendees / live room / hours | 100 / 15 / 10 | 200 / 20 / 15 | Flexible / flexible / flexible |
| On the Professional card | Circle AI, unlimited members, courses, discussions, events, website builder, live streams, live rooms, custom branding, reporting, member directory, paid memberships, gamification, custom domain, weekly digest, payment migration services. | ||
| Business adds | — | Workflows, custom profile fields, Circle MCP, Headless Member API, Admin API, branded email notifications, content co-pilot, automated transcriptions, activity scores, standard migration services, remove Circle branding. | — |
| Plus adds | — | — | Lower transaction fees, Email Hub contacts included, sandbox community, concierge onboarding, dedicated CSM. Optional branded apps. |
| Email Hub | Listed as an add-on on the comparison grid this fetch (10K contacts on the add-on row). Public dollar for the add-on not extracted this fetch — omitted. | Email Hub contacts included | |
| Trial / guarantee | 14-day free trial. 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee (pricing FAQ). | ||
Sources: circle.so/pricing, circle.so/platform, circle.so/payments. Full list at the bottom.
What you are actually buying
A branded community home. Official homepage: community, events, and courses under your own brand. Professional already includes the website builder, live streams, live rooms, paid memberships, and a custom domain. That is still a community host with a site — not Kajabi’s business OS, and not Skool’s one-feed room.
Your Stripe, plus Circle’s cut. Payments page: paywalls powered by Stripe; connect existing Stripe; Professional 2% / Business 1% / Plus 0.5% in addition to Stripe. You are not buying merchant-of-record simplicity.
Courses as a community feature. Courses sit on the Professional card. They are not a Thinkific LMS and not a Kajabi product catalog. If the offer is a recorded library you sell with email and funnels, start at Kajabi or Thinkific — not here.
What the fees do to a simple offer
Circle’s percentage is on top of Stripe. Arithmetic on listed price, no tax. Circle help historically cites US cards typically 2.9%+$0.30; we use that as the Stripe example only where Circle’s own help does. Full plan math: Circle pricing.
- $97 one-time. Professional 2% = $1.94. Plus Stripe at 2.9%+$0.30 = $3.11 → combined $5.05 if you use that US-card example.
- $497 one-time. Professional 2% = $9.94 plus Stripe ($14.71) = $24.65.
- $2,000 one-time. Professional 2% = $40.00 plus Stripe ($58.30) = $98.30.
You do not buy Business to save the fee on a simple membership. The visible annual gap Professional → Business is $110/mo ($199 − $89). Business’s extra 1% saved on $97 is $0.97. Buy Business for workflows, APIs, unbranding, or admin/space limits — after you have read the plan page.
Who should pick Circle
Professional if you want a branded community with paid memberships, courses, events, and a site, and 3 admins / 10 moderators / 20 spaces will hold. 14-day trial first.
Business if you need workflows, the APIs, or to remove Circle branding — or if Professional’s admin/space caps will not hold after you have priced add-ons on the plan page.
Plus only if you are buying branded apps, a sandbox, or a dedicated CSM on purpose. No public dollar this fetch.
Skip Circle if
You wanted Skool’s merchant-of-record feed and no Stripe account. Skool Hobby is $9/mo; Pro is $99/mo. That fork is Skool vs Circle vs Mighty Networks.
Also skip if you only needed a course player or a live weekly cohort as the product — start at Thinkific vs Kajabi for cohorts or best course platform for a weekly cohort. Skip if the work is a coaching OS with one community attached — public Kajabi Basic is $179/mo. Skip if you wanted Mighty’s branded membership network with native apps on the shared shell — that page is Mighty Networks.
Visit Circle
Circle affiliate slot — not live Mighty Networks affiliate slot — not live Thinkific affiliate slot — not live
Circle and Mighty Networks buttons are official product URLs only. Kajabi’s trial box and visit button use affiliate links. The Kajabi pricing button is a pricing-page affiliate. Visit Skool uses the Skool signup affiliate. Official skool.com/pricing remains the source for Skool numbers. No invented Circle affiliate.
Omitted on purpose
- Circle Plus public dollar card. Custom. Third-party “starts at” quotes are not official cards.
- Email Hub add-on dollars. Listed as an add-on this fetch; a public dollar was not extracted today.
- A break-even month presented as advice. The $97 / $497 / $2,000 arithmetic is Circle’s official percentage plus a typical US Stripe card example.
- Tax as a dollar table. Circle’s asterisk: displayed prices do not include applicable taxes.
- Keyword volumes, “Circle is expensive” threads as pricing sources, and anything that documents your method for you.
Sources
- Circle pricing — Professional priceMonth 99 / priceYear 89; Business 219 / 199; Plus custom; visible cards $89/mo* / $199/mo*; meta “starting as low as $89 per month”; 14-day trial; 30-day money-back; members unlimited; admins 3/5/unlimited; moderators 10/15/unlimited; spaces 20/30/flexible; transaction fees 2%/1%/0.5%; storage 200GB/500GB/1TB; live 100/200/flexible attendees, 15/20/flexible room, 10/15/flexible hours; Professional and Business feature lists; Email Hub as add-on (dollar omitted this fetch). Fetched September 19, 2026.
- Circle platform — “Prices displayed in USD, based on annual billing and do not include applicable taxes.” Fetched September 19, 2026.
- Circle homepage — “Build a home for your community, events, and courses — all under your own brand.” Fetched September 19, 2026.
- Circle payments — paywalls powered by Stripe; connect existing Stripe; Professional 2% / Business 1% / Plus 0.5% in addition to Stripe. Fetched September 19, 2026.
- Kajabi pricing — public Basic $179 / $143. Cited as the OS alternative. Fetched September 19, 2026.
- Skool pricing — Hobby $9/mo, Pro $99/mo. Cited as the one-feed room fork. Fetched September 19, 2026.
- Mighty Networks pricing — Launch $79/mo, Scale $179/mo, Growth $354/mo; Mighty Pro custom. Cited as the branded-membership fork. Fetched September 19, 2026.