Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. We review these products after doing a lot of research, we check all features and recommend the best products only.
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Robust
Mighty Networks
- Mighty Networks stands out with its more robust and feature-packed community offerings.
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Easy-to-use
Kajabi
- Kajabi is designed to help you turn your expertise into various online offerings.
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Powerful
Bettermode
- Bettermode offers features to foster vibrant communities and customer relationships.
Are you looking for a dynamic and budget-friendly alternative to Circle.so in 2023?
Of course, you might be stressed by its higher subscription plans. Circle.so is undoubtedly charging very high rates for the minimal feature offerings. For example:
It only allows a limited number of members in your community. Normally, all plans start with 100 members. If you want to add more people, you have to pay extra – $20 per month for every additional 10,000 members.
You won’t find it in the basic plan if you want to opt for live streaming. You must choose the more expensive plans ($89 per month) to get that feature.
For API access and customizing the sender email, you must go for the top-tier plan, which costs $399 monthly.
These reasons will definitely force you to find Circle.so alternative. But don’t worry. I have so many options for you to build a smarter community and engage customers.
Join me on a journey through the top 17 Circle.so alternatives are poised to empower your community-building endeavours this year.
17 Best Community Platforms in 2023
1. Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks and Circle.so are competing platforms, but Mighty Networks stands out with its more robust and feature-packed community offerings compared to Circle.
Mighty Networks provides a helpful checklist to orient community members in the right direction. You can personalize and manage this checklist to ensure members feel comfortable and informed.
Each member can see active users and engage in real-time conversations. This feature facilitates instant connections and chats.
Unlike Circle, Mighty Networks permits unlimited hosts, moderators, and members across all plans. This makes it an excellent choice for growing or expanding your community.
A significant strength of Mighty Networks is its custom-branded mobile app known as Mighty Pro. These apps are fully white-labeled, allowing you to create your own personalized apps.
Mighty Networks offers a wealth of features that foster a vibrant and interactive community experience. This makes it a compelling option, especially for larger communities.
Key Features
- Chat community
- Feed community
- Event series
- Cohort-based course
- Organize community around chats
- Native live streaming & video
- Analytics & member data
- Zapier APIs & Workflows
Circle.so vs. Mighty Networks
| Circle.so | Mighty Networks |
| You get limited features based on the pricing plan | You get unlimited members, moderators, spaces, and admins in all plans |
| Expensive | Less expensive |
| Not many customization options | Allows customizing community interface |
Circle.so vs. Mighty Networks
Community: $33/month
Business: $99/month
Mighty Pro: Custom
2. Kajabi
Kajabi is an impressive alternative to Circle.so. It is designed to help you turn your expertise into various online offerings like courses, coaching programs, memberships, podcasts, and more.
The best part is that all the necessary tools are available in one place. It saves you time and effort. Even if you’re not tech-savvy, Kajabi is user-friendly.
One standout feature is that Kajabi charges 0% revenue fees, meaning you keep all your earnings. Plus, they offer a hassle-free money-back guarantee, ensuring your satisfaction.
Kajabi goes beyond just courses; it supports digital products, memberships, communities, coaching, and podcasts. If you’re mainly focused on selling courses and need basic community tools, Kajabi is a smart choice.
Kajabi provides tools like pipelines (funnels), email marketing, event management, theme building, blogging, and automated processes. Moreover, it has simple automation rules. With just a click, you can automate various customer interactions.
While Kajabi lets you gamify certain aspects, like offering free coupons to students who finish a course, it doesn’t have built-in gamification features like some other dedicated community platforms.
In simple terms, Kajabi offers a comprehensive platform to create and market your online content, especially if your focus is on courses and you want strong marketing capabilities.
Key Features
- 0% revenue fees
- Creates all kinds of content
- Full package of marketing tools
- Inbuilt templates to create content
- Built-in CRM
- Stripe and PayPal integration
Circle.so vs. Kajabi
| Circle.so | Kajabi |
| Offers trial period of 14 days | Offers trial period of 30 days |
| Starts at $39 | Starts at $149 |
| No discounts available | Offers 20% discount on annual cost |
| Possesses only iOS and Android App | Possesses both iOS and Android App |
Circle.so vs. Kajabi
Basic: $149/month
Growth: $199/month
Pro: $399/month
3. Bettermode
Bettermode stands out as an alternative to Circle.so. It offers an array of features to foster stronger customer relationships and vibrant communities.
Bettermode is designed to help you establish better connections with your customers. It’s a platform that facilitates engagement and interaction. Whether you’re a beginner or have specific requirements, Bettermode makes community building a breeze.
You can choose from customizable templates or design your own from scratch to match your unique needs. Bettermode is a robust platform that empowers you to convert, engage, and retain customers effectively.
It’s been trusted by over 2,000 companies to create thriving communities. You can seamlessly integrate Bettermode with industry-leading software to automate and enhance your workflow.
Source
This integration ensures a smoother experience for both you and your community members. Bettermode takes community security seriously.
It features advanced moderation systems, security best practices, user reporting tools, GDPR & SOC compliance, and full data protection to ensure a safe environment.
With Bettermode, you can streamline your customer experience. You’ll be able to establish impactful brand-led communities in minutes.
Bettermode is a powerful platform for cultivating customer relationships and building thriving communities. Its user-friendly approach, integration capabilities, security measures, and quick setup offer a valuable alternative for those seeking effective community solutions.
Key Features
- Create powerful brand-led communities in minutes
- Self-serve community platform
- Prebuilt templates
- Sets automation rules
- Single sign-on
- Offers comprehensive analytics
- Allows embedding tools
- Fully automated smart badges
Circle.so vs. Bettermode
| Circle.so | Bettermode |
| Offers only API | Offers Webhook, API, and developer portal to customize automation and workflow |
| Limited customization options | Offers many customization tools |
| Offers no security features | Offers security and audit features |
| Offer no advanced filtering and no federated search | Besides built-in search functionality, it supports federated search via granular filters |
Circle.so vs. Bettermode
Advanced: $599/month
Enterprise: Custom plan
4. Heartbeat.chat
Heartbeat is an online community and course platform designed to facilitate conversations, events, and content hosting directly on your domain. Available for both iOS and Android devices.
Heartbeat is similar to Circle.so. It offers block-based community building to create tailored online spaces that boost user engagement.
With Heartbeat, you can craft groups centred around members’ shared interests, hobbies, locations, and more. This feature aids in connecting with like-minded individuals, even fostering offline interactions.
Much like Kajabi, Heartbeat incorporates event capabilities. It seamlessly integrates with Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. It allows you to effortlessly plan events, send reminders, and distribute invitations with just a few clicks.
Source
Heartbeat caters well to course creators, content developers, and solopreneurs. It’s a fantastic fit if you’re seeking a platform based on blocks to construct communities. This enables you to visualize and create spaces, pages and feeds as per your requirements.
A bonus is its integration with Notion, streamlining the management of your course resources. Heartbeat stands out as a Circle.so alternative that empowers you to establish engaging communities and offer courses in a customizable, block-based environment.
Key Features
- Effortless setup
- Maximize revenue with many payment tools
- Offers threads and chats
- Design amazing learning experiences
- Cohort-based courses
- Automates member match-ups
- Manage subscriptions
- In-platform upsells
- Ad conversion tracking
- Schedule posts
- Automates event reminders
Circle.so vs. Heartbeat
| Circle.so | Heartbeat |
| Possesses both iOS and Android App | Possesses both iOS and Android App |
| Expensive | Less expensive |
| Comparatively, many features | Limited features |
| Hosting public events in the private community is not possible | Public or private events can be hosted directly on the platform |
Circle.so vs. Heartbeat
Starter: $40/month
Growth: $108/month
Business: $333/month
5. Amity
Amity is a social networking platform that transforms your apps or website into a lively community hub. It does this by integrating interactive widgets.
For instance, if you want to engage with your visitors instantly, you can activate features like feeds, profiles, and groups within your apps. To assist your customers, you can include chatbots or live chat widgets.
Source
Amity is an alternative to Circle.so. It helps create a dynamic community space by seamlessly integrating interactive elements into your apps or website.
Key Features
- Ready-to-use APIs & SDKs
- Allows adding white-label social features
- Prebuilt features
- Drives engagement
- Boost retention
- Accelerate growth
- Increase revenue
- Allows hosting unlimited messages & connections.
- Offers analytics & moderation panel
Circle.so vs. Amity
| Circle.so | Amity |
| Offers only API | Offers APIs & SDKs |
| Limited customization options | Limited customization options |
| Offers no security features | Offers security & compliance |
| Expensive | Comparatively lesser expensive |
Circle.so vs. Amity
MAU(Monthly Active User)
Basic: $0.06/MAU
Advanced: $0.09/MAU
Max: $0.14/MAU
6. Thinkific
Thinkific helps you create and manage online courses, memberships, and communities, similar to a tool called Kajabi. These communities are like special pages where students and teachers can talk to each other by writing posts and comments.
In Thinkific, you can offer these communities as part of your courses, memberships, or packages. You can also sell them as extra options or upgrades.
However, unlike tools such as Circle, Thinkific’s communities are more casual. It has fewer features like customizing the feed, controlling the community, adding game-like elements, and so on.
Key Features
- Offers custom web themes & domains
- Intuitive dashboard
- Drip scheduling
- Bundles, coupons, and cross-selling
- Community spaces & notification
- Offers mobile app for courses & communities
- Allows integration with various tools
- Gives detailed analytics
- 0% transaction fee
- Drag and Drop course builder
- 100% ownership of content created
- Easy-to-use website themes
- Course quizzes & surveys
Circle.so vs. Thinkific
| Circle.so | Thinkific |
| Offers free trial Offers no security features | Offers free plan Offers security & compliance |
| Limited customization options | Limited customization options |
| Offers no security features | Offers security & compliance |
| Expensive | Comparatively lesser expensive |
Circle.so vs. Thinkific
Free: $0
Basic: $36/month
Start: $74/month
Grow: $149/month
7. Discord
Imagine a place where you can be part of a school club, a gaming group, or a big art community. It’s like a special space where you and a few friends can hang out. This place makes it super easy to chat every day and spend more time together.
On Discord, they organize things into different sections based on your interests. So you can work together, share stuff, and chat about your day without making a big mess in a group chat.
When you’re free, you can join a voice channel. Then, your friends can see you’re online and just start talking with you. You don’t have to call them or anything.
The cool thing is that when you talk with your friends on Discord, it feels like you’re all in the same room. You can see each other on video, watch them play games, or even draw things together on the screen.
Key Features
- Free for all
- Easy-to-use
- Similar conversation functions like Circle.so
- Organized Discord servers as per topic-based channels
- Offers safety and moderation tools
- Provides server insights & analytics
Circle.so vs Discord
| Circle.so | Discord |
| No audio chat feature is available | Discord is best for audio chatting |
| Fully community platform | Channel-based platform |
| Expensive | Free to use |
| Host engaging events easily | Allows self-organizing live events |
| Best platform for content | Best platform for chatting |
Circle.so vs Discord
8. Slack
Slack is an online platform designed for teamwork, businesses, and organizations to streamline conversations within a single tool. It achieves this through channels that act like distinct spaces for discussions.
Additionally, Slack offers features like Slack Connect, enabling connections with external members, private messaging, and huddles, allowing for quick voice and video calls.
Slack integrates seamlessly with popular file storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive to enhance productivity. Users can seamlessly incorporate the platform into their existing workflows by utilizing the Slack API.
Slack provides a workflow builder for those on premium plans. It is a valuable resource for automating repetitive tasks and communication processes, ultimately simplifying daily responsibilities.
Key Features
- Intuitive interface
- Available on web and mobile platforms
- Best suited for familiar groups.
- No messing around
- Separate channels to connect
- Controls visibility and access
- Access shared knowledge
- Automate routine activities
- Allows connecting to other services
Circle.so vs. Slack
| Circle.so | Slack |
| Easily manages community | Easily manage projects |
| Community Platform | Group chat & notification platform |
| The mobile app is for Android and iOS | The Mobile App is available only for iOS |
| It is less expensive as compared to Slack | More expensive |
Circle.so vs. Slack
Pro: $7.25 per person/month
Business:$12.50 per person/month
Enterprise Gold: Custom plan
9. Hivebrite
Hivebrite is a robust and all-in-one solution for community engagement. It is an amazing alternative to Circle.so. It can help your community in several exciting ways.
Hivebrite helps your community grow by making money, breaking down barriers, and sharing knowledge. It brings people together and lets you make a positive impact.
With Hivebrite, you can make a digital space that’s really unique. Your community gets its web address, cool looks, and even a mobile app. Also, it has all the great features you need to get people engaged all in one spot.
Source
Hivebrite is flexible, full of cool stuff, and ready for the future. It is always coming up with new ideas. They work with big, essential brands in many areas. This keeps them ahead of the game, offering the best solutions around.
Key Features
- Highly customizable
- All-in-one solution for community engagement
- Market-leading features
- Adaptable
- Rich-and-future-proof
- Continuous and impactful innovation
Circle.so vs. Hivebrite
| Circle.so | Hiverbrite |
| Community management platform | Content Management |
| Community Platform | Group chat & notification platform |
| No Surveys and feedback option | Surveys and feedback option |
| Do not offer website management | Offers website management |
Circle.so vs. Hivebrite
Pro: $7.25 per person/month
Business: $12.50 per person/month
Enterprise Gold: Custom plan
10. StoryPrompt
StoryPrompt is a video community platform. With StoryPrompt, sharing and collecting personal videos is as easy as sending a link. You can gather stories, testimonials, and updates without any fuss.
You can have interactive video conversations with your customers, team, and community without worrying about time. Your busy schedule won’t be a problem.
StoryPrompt is great for getting stories from your community. These stories can be turned into video testimonials, reviews, and other content everyone can share.
You don’t need to stress about schedules. People can reply with videos from any device, anytime—even when you’re not awake.
It’s super simple to collect video testimonials from your customers and team. Your branding is added automatically, so you just need to share it on social media or put it on your website.
StoryPrompt adds your branding, logo, titles, music, and more to the videos you get. You can also make your own mixes using their editing tools.
Key Features
- Watermark-free videos
- Screen recording
- Automatic transcription
- Video stitching & editing
- Reusable templates
- Virtual backgrounds
- Offers diverse voices for your community
- Asynchronous video messaging in your community
Circle.so vs StoryPrompt
| Circle.so | StoryPrompt |
| Audio community platform | Video community platform |
| No free plan is available | Offers free plan |
| Expensive | Comparatively lesser expensive |
Circle.so vs StoryPrompt
Basic: Free
Starter: $39/month
Pro: $69/month
Premium: $169/month
11. Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are a free option to build communities and are easily accessible to mobile users. However, relying on Facebook’s algorithm impacts group visibility.
Unlike specialized tools like Circle.so, it has drawbacks: distractions from newsfeeds and ads, lower engagement, limited customization control, absence of integrated email features, and reduced functionalities such as member tagging and gamification.
Key Features
- Community chats
- Reels
- Allows sharing music
- Host events
- Share files
- Host live videos
- Share Polls
- Allows changing public communities to private
- Newsfeeds for the latest posts
- Inbuilt messenger for messaging
Circle.so vs. Facebook Groups
| Circle.so | Facebook Groups |
| Community platform | Social networking platform |
| No free plan is available | Offers free plan |
| Offers advanced customization options |
Limited customization options |
Circle.so vs. Facebook Groups
The platform is free to use.
12. Discourse
Discourse is an open-source software that is a versatile platform for various community management requirements.
Discourse supports thoughtful discussions and connections. It helps you adapt to various scenarios, from product feedback to sharing creative work. Now, it even incorporates AI for enhanced support.
It keeps discussions positive and focused with top-tier moderation tools and AI assistance. The platform ensures keeping out inappropriate content.
Discourse allows you to seamlessly switch between chat and longer discussions. It helps members build relationships while the community collectively grows in knowledge.
Discourse excels in maintaining discussions on track and healthy with its robust moderation tools. It’s trusted by major brands like Atlassian, Asana, and Zoom for their online communities.
Unlike Circle.so, it doesn’t limit member count and offers anti-spam tools like two-factor authentication. Discourse’s flexibility is further enhanced by extra plugins.
Key Features
- Secure web access
- Mobile App
- Custom themes & components
- Community support
- Email support
- Extra page views
- Extra storage
- Security & legal agreements
- Cloud hosting on AWS
- Custom outgoing & email address
- Custom styling & configuration support
- Community moderation
- Single sign-on
- 100% open-source
- Comprehensive API
- Two-factor authentication
- Official plugins
- Trust system
Circle.so vs. Discourse
| Circle.so | Discourse |
| Community platform | Formula and Forum software + Community platform |
| No free plan is available | No free plan is available |
| Better communication options | Lacks communication |
| Limits member counts | Doesn’t limit member counts |
Circle.so vs. Discourse
Basic: $50/month
Standard: $100/month
Business: $300/month
Enterprise: Custom Plan
13. Vanilla Forums
Vanilla offers a unique forum solution where companies can create their online community. Their goal is to help businesses build a lively community that’s engaging and beneficial for growth, customer support, and revenue increase.
The platform believes each community should match the brand’s style and values. Hence, it welcomes members and rewards them for positive involvement.
Vanilla Forums is a complete community software that can set up discussion forums, support spaces, or even internal collaboration areas.
With Vanilla, you can fully customize your community’s look. This includes changing the web address, adding a small icon, and adjusting the appearance of your design.
Moreover, it allows customizing the header and footer parts of your pages. Vanilla is all about making your community uniquely yours.
Key Features
- Moderation tools
- Integration
- Gamification
- Social Integration
- Administration tools
- Customizable forums
- Community building
- Analytics
- Custom design
Circle.so vs. Vanilla Forums
| Circle.so | Vanilla Forums |
| Community platform | Virtual community builder |
| Available for iOS and Android platform |
Web-based platform |
| Offers free trial | Do not have CRM sync. |
| Do not have CRM sync | CRM synchronization feature |
Circle.so vs. Vanilla Forums
Vanilla Open-Source: Free
Business: Contact vendor
Corporate: Contact vendor
Enterprise: Contact vendor
14. PeerBoard (Now acquired by Docebo)
PeerBoard is an easy-to-use community tool. It serves various purposes like learning management systems (LMS), online education, software as a service (SaaS), and non-profit organizations.
It’s like a tool you can plug into your app or website to create a forum where people can interact.
The remarkable thing about PeerBoard is that you can make it look exactly how you want. You can change the colors, logos, sections, and topics to match your brand and style. It helps in giving a unique and branded experience to its users.
The coolest part is that PeerBoard works smoothly with Thinkific, WordPress, and Shopify. This means you can put your customized community pages anywhere on these platforms. It’s like having a community space that fits into your website or app.
Source
Docebo has now acquired PeerBoard. Docebo is dedicated to helping customers make their learning goals a reality. PeerBoard is a vital part of this journey.
It’s a community platform that adds a social dimension to learning. This way, Docebo is not just offering a learning platform but also helping people build communities around learning.
For Docebo, PeerBoard is a big step for them. It helps become a better partner for businesses that want to create a robust learning environment. With this, Docebo allows its customers to combine learning with a vibrant community.
Key Features
- Light integration
- Simple WordPress plugin
- Completely White-Label
- Basic community software
- Fully customizable
- Access controls and permissions
- Collaboration tools
- Account management
- Alerts and notifications
- Communication management
- Content management
Circle.so vs. PeerBoard
| Circle.so | PeerBoard |
| All-in-one Community platform | Plug-and-Play community building platform |
| Live chat is available | No live chat option |
| No free plan is available | The free plan is available |
| Offers advanced customization options | Basic customization option |
Circle.so vs. PeerBoard
Free: $0
Starter: $29/month
Professional: $79/month
Enterprise: Custom plan
15. Reddit
Reddit is a well-known social network platform centred on discussions, boasting millions of active users. It is similar to Circle.so which allows people to form “communities,” formerly called “subreddits.”
In terms of functionality, a Reddit community offers much of what Circle.so does, including an interactive forum for discussions.
Users can craft posts, leave comments, and receive notifications. Additionally, they can upvote the content they like the most. Reddit provides a reliable app for various devices, a feature that Circle.so lacks.
However, there’s a notable drawback to Reddit. To start a community, you must be an established user with a certain amount of “karma” earned through engagement.
If you were to create a Reddit account today with hopes of forming a community, you’d need to wait at least a month while actively participating before even having a chance.
Even then, there’s no guarantee. Plus, Reddit has its own set of rules, limiting your creative freedom compared to other options.
Key Features
- Offers multiple interface enhancements
- Fully remappable
- Offers many style tweaks to the Reddit interface
- Fully customizable dashboard
Circle.so vs. Reddit
| Circle.so | |
| All-in-one community platform | Forum-based community platform |
| Provide add-on | No add-on option |
| Provides email white-labeling | No such feature |
| Paid platform | Free platform |
Circle.so vs. Reddit
Free: $0
Starter: $29/month
Professional: $79/month
Enterprise: Custom plan
16. GroupApp
GroupApp is among the best alternatives to Circle.so. It is tailored for educators, authors, coaches, and organizations.
GroupApp caters to knowledge creators, offering tools for instructors, authors, coaches, and organizations. They understand this audience’s needs and even provide a drag-and-drop course builder.
GroupApp brings your community, courses, memberships, and events under one roof. It allows you to monetize your expertise more effectively.
With GroupApp, your students learn and collaborate within a single platform using a single account and login.
The integration of courses and community enhances engagement and retention while minimizing distractions. This ensures that your students remain attentive and responsive, leading to better learning outcomes.
Key Features
- Plug-and-play community builder
- Discussion channels
- Allows membership subscriptions
- Instant messaging feature
- Allows monetizing your content
Circle.so vs. GroupApp
| Circle.so | GroupApp |
| All-in-one Community platform | Plug-and-play community builder |
| No free plan is available | The free plan is available |
| Community AI feature | Use it on Android & iOS platforms. |
| Use it on Android & iOS platforms | Available for Android & iOS app |
Circle.so vs. GroupApp
Basic: $39/month
Pro: $99/month
Premium: $499/month
17. inSided
inSided is now a “Gainsight Digital Hub” to engage, retain, and delight users. Gainsight offers customer-focused community software that serves as a hub for various product-related interactions.
From hosting support communities and knowledge bases to fostering product ideation and feedback discussions, it consolidates all product-related conversations in a single space.
For engaging the community, inSided incorporates gamification elements such as points, badges, rankings, likes, and leaderboards.
When it comes to hosting spaces for product feedback or ideation, inSided equips you with a range of tailored features.
Key Features
- In-app embeddable
- Maintain knowledge easily
- Gain product insights
- Fast & smart reach
- Prioritize best content
- Never bothers user’s workflows
- Enhances customer engagement
- Innovation category
- Up-voting
Circle.so vs. inSided
| Circle.so | inSided |
| Community platform | Digital hub customer-focused platform |
| No free plan is available | No free plans |
Circle.so vs. inSided
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to Choose the Best Circle.so Alternatives in 2023?
In the dynamic landscape of 2023, the choice of finding the right Circle.so alternative is crucial. Each platform presented offers its own features, catering to diverse needs, whether it’s fostering community engagement, supporting learning, or nurturing discussions.
Evaluating these alternatives’ unique strengths and weaknesses will empower you to select the best fit that aligns with your goals and aspirations.
As you embark on this decision-making journey, consider the essence of your community, the interactions you wish to foster, and the tools that resonate most with your vision.
With these Circle.so alternatives’ possibilities, you’re well on your way to creating a vibrant, thriving online community tailored to your distinct requirements.
Keep reading the article at Blog – SaaS Ultra. The article was originally written by Prerna Oberoi on 2023-09-15 10:07:39.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.