Circle alternatives
At 100 members paying $10 a month, Circle costs $119 a month. 3 community platforms cost less, from $50 (Skool). The closest match, Patreon, covers 67% of what Circle does. Each one shows how much of it it covers, capability by capability, next to the price.
What Circle does
Core: Discussion community, Paid memberships & subscriptions.
Important: Real-time chat, Online course hosting (partly), Events and live rooms (partly), Member mobile apps, Custom domain and branding, Email marketing broadcasts (partly).
Also has: Members-only site content (partly), Branded mobile apps (partly), Points & badges gamification (partly), Member directory and profiles (partly), AI features (partly), Public SEO forum (partly), SSO and embedding (partly), Integrations and API (partly).
Alternatives to Circle at 100 members paying $10 a month, best match first
- Patreon: $100/mo 10% platform fee + processing (Standard creator plan (10% platform fee, no subscription)). It covers 67% of Circle; missing or partial: Discussion community (partly), Real-time chat (partly), Online course hosting, Custom domain and branding (partly), Branded mobile apps. Free plan: No monthly fee: free members can follow, see free posts and join creator-opened chats; Patreon only charges once you earn.. Last price hike: Aug 2025.
- Skool: $50/mo Hobby: +10% of member payments (Hobby). It covers 63% of Circle; missing or partial: Paid memberships & subscriptions (partly), Real-time chat (partly), Custom domain and branding, Members-only site content, Branded mobile apps. Free plan: none.
- Discord: $100/mo 10% of paid subs, plus processing (Server Subscriptions (free server + 10% revenue share)). It covers 56% of Circle; missing or partial: Paid memberships & subscriptions (partly), Online course hosting, Custom domain and branding, Email marketing broadcasts, Members-only site content. Free plan: Free servers with unlimited members, channels, roles and full message history.
Prices at every size
- Circle: 100 members paying $10 a month $119/mo, 1,000 members paying $10 a month $299/mo, 1,000 free members $99/mo (+2% of member payments; monthly price as of 2025)
- Patreon: 100 members paying $10 a month $100/mo, 1,000 members paying $10 a month $1,000/mo, 1,000 free members free (10% platform fee + processing)
- Skool: 100 members paying $10 a month $50/mo, 1,000 members paying $10 a month $99/mo, 1,000 free members $9/mo (Hobby: +10% of member payments)
- Discord: 100 members paying $10 a month $100/mo, 1,000 members paying $10 a month $1,000/mo, 1,000 free members free (10% of paid subs, plus processing)
Monthly USD on monthly billing (annual-only plans divided by 12) to run a community of a given size, including the platform's own fees on member payments but not standard card processing; WordPress plugins are priced on their licence without hosting, and forum software sold both ways on the vendor's hosted plan. The headline is 100 members paying $10 a month; we also compare 1,000 paying members ($10,000 a month, 2 admins) and a free community of 1,000 members.
Built a cheaper community platform?
List it on PriceHiked for free as an alternative to Circle: Add your product. It's ranked by price at the same size; sponsored listings are labeled and never change the order.
Everything about Circle's own prices and price hikes: Circle.