Whether you’ve been thinking about trying Circle community or are currently using it and have outgrown it, this post will talk through some alternatives to Circle.so and walk you through some pros and cons of each one–evaluated on content options, member engagement, features depth, course tools, and pricing. From small creators to huge brands, we’ll show you where to build.

In this chart, we offer a quick comparison of the best Circle alternatives. We go into more depth on each option below.

Circle.so is a community platform that includes features like discussion forums, chat & messaging, livestreaming, and courses. It also gives users different ways to host and organize content created by both hosts and members.

The Circle platform also has monetization features, like adding paywalls to different spaces to sell memberships, courses, and/or events.

• Interactive discussion forums

• Build event, chat, content, or course Spaces

• Member profiles

• Charge for memberships, courses, and events with gating

• Livestreaming

• Workflow options

• Customization tools

• Branded apps

• Single-space only. You can only have one feature per space (e.g. you can't add a discussion forum to a course space).

• Profiles & member discovery is basic. The member list is often off by default. Even when it's on, profiles are basic and aren't designed to bring members together.

• The course LMS has historically been missing things like assessment tools, though Circle has announced a redesigned course builder that may address this. It's better for cohort courses.

• There are limits on the essential features and it can cost extra to add more.

• Circle's AI tools have primarily focused on admin tasks and moderation rather than member engagement, though Circle recently announced a broader AI assistant (Circle AI) still in beta rollout.

We compared each platform against the following criteria.

• Content flexibility: How many features (discussions, courses, events, chat) can live in one space, and how much control do you have over what you build?

• Member discovery and connection: How easily can members find and meet each other, beyond commenting on the same post?

• Communication tools: Are there a range of ways to reach members, like discussions, chat, messaging, livestreaming?

• Course feature depth: Is there support for live and pre-recorded courses, assessments, and structured learning experiences?

• Event functionality: Does it have real RSVP tools, event details, and calendar integration?

• Business platform: Does it have the ability to run a full business, make sales, charge in different currencies, and understand analytics?

• Mobile apps: Does it have iOS and Android apps, are these well-reviewed, and can you upgrade to a branded app if you want?

The best Circle alternative for communities

Mighty Networks mixes a community platform with courses, content, commerce, and events, and it's top ranked community management software by G2.

Mighty gives you flexible Spaces -- each one works like a container that can hold community discussions, live streaming, virtual events, courses, and more. You can choose from templates like Chat, Feed, Cohort Course, Content-Only Course, Event, Conference, Page, or Resource Library.

Mighty also has designed its software to build member engagement: into member profiles, content, and even AI tools.

Mighty's AI features build member connections, and these include:

• Profile assist and show similarities with another member

• Icebreaker questions and conversation starters

• Automatically re-engage members who have dropped off

• Text boosts like the "make it better" editor and an integrated AI course creator for designing course outlines and more.

• AI generate conversation starters instantly.

Mighty gives you a full feature set to build your network under your brand, use light and dark mode, and customize themes, landing pages, network identity, labels, and more. It has well-rated apps for every device. And Mighty builds premium branded apps with Mighty Pro, which has launched 600+ branded apps to date.

Mighty Networks does not have extensive marketing funnels or multi-page website building. This means it's best for communities, not creating marketing sequences for async courses (below).

• All of Circle's core community features but a better fit for communities where engagement is the core product.

• More flexible Spaces with multi-feature design, and Space templates and build-your-own custom Spaces.

• AI-boosted community management with software designed to boost connections between members

• Tighter course, event, livestream, and community experience

• Built-in Kit and Zoom integrations

• No native email marketing

• Does not support multi-page websites

• No marketing funnels

Best Circle alternative for pre-recorded courses + funnels

Kajabi is one of the best-known online course platforms. If you're looking for a Circle alternative that gives you a pre-recorded course with built-in course marketing features, Kajabi is a good option. It has a powerful set of marketing features, things like upsells, email targeting, funnel/landing pages, and more.

However, Kajabi isn't as strong on community features. Kajabi's community product adds "Circles" (topic clusters), discussion forums, messaging, and live events. It's missing advanced engagement tools like AI discussion starters and the gamification is limited to badges and a leaderboard. The biggest limit is that Kajabi's community 2.0 came from acquiring a chat platform, and the UX still feels like an add-on–it's not closely integrated.

This means Kajabi is better than Circle for pre-recorded courses, landing pages, and funnels, but not as good for communities specifically. Kajabi also offers a basic branded app that's a cheaper, but ultimately more limited, version of Circle plus. You need to manage your own developer account.

• Great async LMS with course delivery, dripping content, assignments, etc. built-in

• Integrated marketing funnels, landing-page builders, and email marketing

• Affordable basic branded apps

• Course apps and business admin apps are separate–you need 2 apps to run your business on mobile.

• Community isn't integrated into courses

• More expensive than Circle

Best for branded enterprise community apps

The next Circle alternative we'll talk about here is Disciple. It's a branded-app first platform, every community comes with one. Disciple gives you a community platform with branding options and good content tools. Members can share text, videos, or images, and Disciple has discussion forums, Q&As, and even an activity feed. It also offers livestreaming and courses on all plans.

Disciple gives you tools for mobile app monetization -- it is app-based first and foremost. You can monetize with gated content and subscriptions, and manage memberships. And since most plans allow for a branded app, it's more customizable than Circle and comes branded from day 1. It's especially noted for its branded notifications.

A few things to note about Disciple. Disciple is costly. Every Disciple plan includes a branded iOS and Android app, but pricing is on the higher end. And it doesn't have built-in email marketing like Circle.

However, with its focus on branded apps, Disciple is a good Circle alternative for a mid-tier, basic branded app and good community features.

• App-based community forum with a web app.

• Build a digital business that sells subscriptions or gated content.

• Customization and branding features

• Good member management tools: lists, groups, topics, friends, messaging, etc.

• High cost

• No native email

• Lacks the advanced community engagement tools found elsewhere.

Best corporate customer communities

Bettermode was formerly called Tribe, and it's a good alternative to the Circle platform for companies needing a corporate forum.

Bettermode's corporate forum platform has good community-building features to host and sort discussions with content and spaces, plus member management tools (profiles, roles, etc.). And it has content creation options, things like images, videos, and polls. It has flexible deployment options for adding to existing websites, as well as mobile friendly options.

However, Bettermode does not have a native mobile app. But it does support a number of integrations in its own "app marketplace" (not to be confused with a native mobile app). These include things like translation support (expanded on enterprise), email white-labeling, and customization.

It's a good tool for corporate communities specifically. It's missing built-in, native monetization features, so it's not the best Circle alternative for a digital business. It's best for customer communities that you don't need to charge for.

• Forum-first community with spaces and some member options

• Build under your own brand and white-labeling (apps, email, etc.)

• Design studio for more customization power

• Lots of app integrations for corporate applications.

• No native monetization features

• Missing courses and live events

• Discussion forums are basic

Best free Circle alternative for simple communities

Discord is another popular team chat platform. It's similar to Slack in that it creates a text-based communication solution that helps community members have conversations. Also, like Slack, Discord allows you to create dedicated channels for discussion topics. It also has easy options for voice chatting since it was created for gamers to collaborate. This also means that it's great for streaming gameplay.

Discord also has server subscriptions, which can be a way to monetize your community. They take a 10% - 30% cut of revenue (30% on app-based purchases), and you can charge anywhere from $2.99-$199.99/mo.

As an alternative to Circle.so, Discord is comparable to Slack. It's a good option to create channels for discussions and has the added bonus of easy live calling between members—which could be helpful in some situations.

• Free & easy to use with a good UX and great livestreaming

• Add voice and video chats

• Has many of the same conversation functions as Circle.so

• Great apps for every device

• Limited tools for growing a community,

• Limited tools for selling courses, paid events, or more complex membership offers

• If you do charge with subscriptions, Discord takes 10% - 30%

• No course functions

• Not functional for organizing a large community

Best for coworking and simple chats

Slack is another alternative to Circle.so. With Slack, you can create specific channels for dedicated conversations, which replicates one of the main features of Circle.

Slack is common, and a ton of companies use it. So, there's a good chance some of the members will know Slack already from work.

Slack also has a dedicated app that works well and is available across all devices. While Slack channels can work for small, free communities, they aren't designed to help people connect and meet each other. Slack's free plan only gives access to the most recent 90 days of message and file history, and content more than one year old is permanently deleted. Paid plans are priced per active user, which can become expensive as a community grows. There is no native monetization or branding, and the more comprehensive Slack plans are really expensive.

This makes Slack a good, simple option for some people testing community ideas. And it's fantastic for co-working.

• A free, simple starter plan that could work for small groups

• Intuitive and familiar to users

• Available on mobile and web

• Works well for groups that already know each other

• No custom branding

• No direct monetization options

• No options to create online courses

• Charges per member

Best Circle alternative for enterprise users platform

Higher Logic Vanilla is another Circle.so alternative that gives you features for creating and managing customer communities. It can be branded under a corporate brand and gives you some good membership management tools; members can be organized into different groups and you can add polls and questions.

As an enterprise platform, it adds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance, as well as useful enterprise integrations. The newest AI features add AI-suggested answers, sentiment analysis, and AI moderation and search.

As an online forum solution, Vanilla is made for customer support, companies can engage and answer member questions, connect it to their knowledge base, or even to CRM and customer experience platforms (CEPs) like Salesforce or Zendesk.

Higher Logic is a great alternative to the Circle platform for brands looking for enterprise-level customer communities. It's not a full community solution for brands looking to monetize and sell digital products and memberships.

• Build customer forums under a corporate brand

• Add member management features and customization

• Integrate with knowledge base and tools like Zendesk and Salesforce

• Not a full community solution

• Extremely limited subscription and monetization tools

• No apps or white-label apps (web app only)

Best Circle alternative for alumni and professional networks

Hivebrite is an alternative to the Circle community platform that was built as an alumni management platform.

Hivebrite includes features like dedicated subgroups, forum functions, and even a job board for students to explore. And it has added AI matching for networking, AI moderation, and AI search. Hivebrite has a unique mentoring feature that means community members can mentor each other–a popular feature on the review sites.

Hivebrite's best connecting feature for alumni networks? Its tools for events--including event apps. It can handle invite emails, tickets, and event calendars. And it has some monetization features like event ticketing and donor campaigns.

Although the live event features are strong, Hivebrite's community engine is quite simple compared to competitors. And the limited virtual event options with no livestreaming or video tools are another limit. However, it does have a Zoom integration.

Hivebrite is strongest for alumni, associations, and professional networks that need networking, mentoring, branded apps, event management, and member monetization. It lacks native livestreaming and video-course tools, so virtual-first creator communities may need additional integrations.

• Live event management and useful alumni features

• CMS tools with job board

• AI matching and mentoring tools

• Good live event management

• Apps under your brand

• Limited community engine for engagement

• Doesn't have livestreaming, native video, or courses

Best low-cost option for async courses and websites

Thinkific is a good course platform, and they've recently added some community features that make it a decent alternative to Circle.so.

As an e-learning solution, Thinkific is strong. It has good curriculum-building features with advanced quizzes, webinars, surveys, and feedback. And it adds live events, direct messaging, push notifications, community moderator roles, trending posts, and threaded comments. It's still not a match for dedicated community platforms, but it functions well.

Thinkific is a bit like Kajabi, but it's significantly cheaper.

The biggest weakness of Thinkific is its apps, which are low-rated: Users complain about poor performance, video lags, difficult UI, and a much more limited experience than the web version.

• Good course platform with really strong LMS options

• Some integrated marketing features

• The community feature isn't as strong as Circle's

• Thinkific's app reviews are not well-rated

There are a lot of great options on this list for every creator. And if you are the creator looking for a community alternative to Circle, why not give Mighty Networks a try? It gives you the power to create a vibrant community, host discussions, sell memberships, go live, build dedicated subgroups, and create elegant courses.

You can try it free for 14 days--no credit card required.