Courses & CommunityCircle review
A community platform that feels like a modern app instead of a forum from 2009.
Is Circle right for you?
Circle got the fundamentals right when the alternatives were a Facebook group you don’t own or forum software that looks like it. Spaces, threads, events, live rooms, and paid membership sit behind one clean interface that people enjoy coming back to.
Signing in matters more than it should. Members can use an account they already have instead of another password to forget, and the chain that follows is the whole business: if they can’t log in, they don’t use it; if they don’t use it, they stop paying. Every hard part of running a paid community (access, billing, events, keeping the room worth visiting) is easier here than it has any right to be.
It has also outgrown its origins. Image and video posting give it a social feel, events and livestreams run natively (plenty of communities have stopped reaching for Zoom), and it takes payments and sells courses. That makes it a Kajabi arrived at through a different door.
Owning the room is the strategic argument. A community on rented land answers to an algorithm that would rather show your members something else, and to a platform that can change the terms whenever it likes. Circle is yours, and the member list comes with you.
The honest gap is email. Circle has no equivalent of Kajabi’s email automation or site builder, which cuts both ways: you’ll need a real email platform beside it, and whichever you choose will almost certainly beat an all-in-one’s built-in tooling. Paired with something like Kit or ActiveCampaign, Circle is enough to run a serious membership business on, and for many people it’s the better shape.
None of this creates a community. Every quiet Circle looks like every quiet Facebook group, and the failure is always the same: nobody whose job it is to post, welcome people, and start the conversation on a Tuesday when nothing’s happening. Budget for that person before the software.
Questions about Circle
What people usually want to know before committing, answered the way we'd answer them on a call.
Circle or Kajabi?
They now cover most of the same ground; the real difference is that Kajabi brings email automation and a site builder and Circle doesn't. Kajabi began as course delivery and grew community around it; Circle began as community and added payments, courses, and events. That difference is a trade-off, not a gap. If you already run a good email platform, Circle plus that may be all you need.
Read the Kajabi reviewCan Circle replace my email platform too?
No, and that's the deciding factor for many people. Circle doesn't do email automation or site building the way Kajabi does, so you'll want a real email platform beside it. The upside: Circle plus something like Kit or ActiveCampaign gives you better email than an all-in-one, and enough to run a robust membership business on.
Read the Kit reviewWhy does single sign-on matter so much?
Because forgotten passwords quietly kill paid communities. Members can sign in with an existing account (Google, Facebook, and the like) instead of inventing another login they'll lose. That sounds minor until you follow the chain: if they can't log in, they don't use it; if they don't use it, they stop paying. Removing that friction is one of the most direct retention levers a membership platform has.
What can Circle actually do now?
Far more than the forum it's often mistaken for. Image and video posting give it a real social feel, and it hosts events and livestreams natively, so plenty of communities have stopped reaching for Zoom. It takes payments, and it sells and delivers courses. For the money, the value is there.
Should I move my Facebook group to Circle?
Only if the group is asking for something Facebook can't give it. Plenty of our clients have moved and been glad: you own the room and the member list, and no algorithm decides whether your posts get seen. But moving a happy audience costs you members, and the software was never the hard part. Budget for the person who posts on a quiet Tuesday before you budget for the platform.
Still deciding?
Not sure if Circle is the right call?
The tool is rarely the hard part; fitting it to what you've already got is. Five minutes with the concierge: honest fit, no pressure, and a real person follows up.
More Courses & Community
The rest of this shelf, if you're weighing your options.
Disclosure: the link to Circle on this page is an affiliate link. If you buy through it, Peaceful Media may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend, and you'll notice we tell you who should skip each tool.