Last Updated<\/strong>: May 19th, 2025<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even though Circle<\/a> has added features since I first published this article,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Circle<\/a>.so is a community management platform that allows creators to build their own paid (or free) online communities from scratch. The most common use of Circle<\/a> seems to be for creating coaching communities, but the case uses are limitless.\u00a0<\/p>\n The interface is professional, and the branding is focused on your program NOT Circle<\/a>. It will look like you spent $1,000s on your own custom membership area. It looks like it’s your own website built around your own brand.\u00a0<\/p>\n The learning curve is reduced thanks to the free “Circle<\/a> for Circle Creators Community” that teaches us how to use the tool effectively (while actually demoing the tool in the process!) It’s very meta.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyone who is earning money by maintaining a community can benefit tremendously from Circle<\/a>, but there are some drawbacks and alternatives to consider first (so read on…)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Circle<\/a> can be used as a replacement or supplement to any existing virtual communities. Typically, it replaces or compliments a Facebook group<\/a> or other social media based community.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some case use examples include…<\/p>\n Anything that involves bringing people together online could potentially benefit from a Circle<\/a> community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2020, we decided it was time to transition our paid community “The Online Arbitrage Challenge<\/a>” into its own membership area.\u00a0<\/p>\n A couple of things to keep in mind…<\/p>\n Our experience so far has been great. And while it’s not quite enough for us to completely delete our Facebook group<\/a>, it’s pretty amazing and it may get to that one day!\u00a0<\/p>\n Students rave about the interface, and integrating it with our payment processor and email marketing<\/a> services was a breeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Circle<\/a> online communities consist of what are called groups and spaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Groups are like categories. We can restrict access to these and make members pay different rates to access them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spaces are what’s actually inside of each group. These can either be “posts” or “events.” We only use posts for now.<\/p>\n This is where you’d host things like Q+A forums, videos, group assignments, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n When we created our course in Circle<\/a>, we made the course the group and the lessons the spaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Inside of each space, we can put all sorts of cool stuff. We can also edit settings such as who can see them, what they look like, whether or not people can comment, and much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The best part about spaces is that you can open them up so that community members can create their own posts (or you can turn that off).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here are the things we have enjoyed the most so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n #1 Beautiful, Professional Looking Interface<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sneak peak of our Circle<\/a> community for OA Challenge members<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Right out of the box, Circle<\/a> communities are breathtaking. You can customize the look and feel all you want, but even if you never touch a thing design wise, you’ll be pleased with the aesthetics. This can’t be said about all the other alternatives.<\/p>\n Also, Circle<\/a> puts your brand front and center. They don’t clog up the design with self-promotion and Circle<\/a> branding.<\/span> You can make it look as if you paid $1,000s to have the area created uniquely for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also, you can integrate the interface with your own domain and website if you want to take it a step further and not even include a “circle<\/a>.so” reference in your membership area’s URL.\u00a0<\/p>\n #2 Amazing Mobile App Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Our members rave about the mobile experience. They can easily jump into our modules and watch videos, listen to audio recordings, and view discussions and PDFs<\/a>.<\/p>\n When I first wrote this article, there was only an iOS app, but they’ve answered the prayers of many and have added an Android version as well now.<\/span><\/p>\n #3 Plenty of Integrations (Specifically, Zapier)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Any software worth its salt should support Zapier integrations. Circle<\/a> does this, which opens up the world of possibilities for connections tremendously.\u00a0<\/p>\n We can connect ThriveCart<\/a> (our payment processor) and ConvertKit (our The native integrations are great, too. My favorite is Typeform, which allows us to create forms, quizzes, or surveys for our members. Typeform isn’t a free tool, but if you’re already a user, you’ll love that it’s built in.<\/p>\n #4 Awesome Community to Learn How to Use Circle\u00a0<\/strong>– Fittingly, Circle<\/a> has a private Circle group that is for their members (other Circle creators like you and me).<\/p>\n It’s probably the coolest example of a company onboarding their product to their users that I’ve ever seen. I literally learned about Circle<\/a> by engaging with a Circle community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This group is highly engaged, full of answers to all the questions I’ve ever had and includes tons of real-world examples of what is possible with Circle<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Seriously, amazing…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Circle<\/a> isn’t perfect. Here are a couple of drawbacks to using Circle<\/a> as your go to community platform.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have a community that is earning you money, Circle<\/a> won’t feel cheap. For $79\/month (which is the current early bird price I’m paying), I’d love to have had access to build over one community. I can create more spaces than I could ever need, but I can’t make a separate brand.<\/p>\n If you have a thriving group, though, this payment is negligible. Relative to the rest of the membership software alternatives, though, it is a bit of a pinch in terms of price and total areas you can create.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I can’t say with certainty that this is much slower than other platforms, but uploading a video file around 2gb can take over 30 mins (I just walk away and let them load in the background). You can bypass this by embedding videos instead, but there’s no perfect fix.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are several other membership options.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you’re looking for a free option, Facebook groups have become extremely robust and can provide a solid foundation for any membership program. Unfortunately, Facebook groups have drawbacks such as potential restrictions, throttling of your groups visibility, and the myriad of distractions being on Facebook presents. \u00a0<\/p>\n For paid membership programs, you can check out Skool<\/a>, Mighty Networks<\/a>, Thinkific<\/a>, Kajabi<\/a>, Clickfunnels<\/a> (not recommended) or a WordPress plugin like Memberpress.\u00a0<\/p>\n I suggest that once you try one, you stick with it and give it a real chance. It can take time to make a membership program work and optimize it for maximum value. Be patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n Frankly, I was sold on Circle<\/a> not by their own marketing team but by the word of mouth advertising some people I follow were giving them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Our members are so impressed. It\u2019s intuitive. It\u2019s clean. It\u2019s distraction free. I\u2019m so glad we made this decision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Circle<\/a> is going to fill the GIANT hole in between FB groups and Slack for virtually every kind of online community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The praise from Ankur Nagpal was interesting because his software, Teachable, could be seen as a competitor to Circle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nQuick Summary<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Circle.So](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle.So-PNG-Transparent.png.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle.So")
![\"Circle.So](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle.So-PNG-Transparent.png.webp\" "\\"Circle.So")
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\nPros\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\nCons<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Who Should Use Circle?<\/h2>\n
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How We Use Circle<\/h2>\n
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Overview of Circle.so<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Circle-So](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-So-Groups-and-Spaces-.jpg.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle-So")
![\"Circle-So](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-So-Groups-and-Spaces-.jpg.webp\" "\\"Circle-So")
<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Circle-so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-so-courses-.jpg.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle-so")
![\"Circle-so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-so-courses-.jpg.webp\" "\\"Circle-so")
<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Circle-so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-so-create-spaces-.jpg.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle-so")
![\"Circle-so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-so-create-spaces-.jpg.webp\" "\\"Circle-so")
<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Circle-so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-so-Member-Posts-.jpg.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle-so")
![\"Circle-so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-so-Member-Posts-.jpg.webp\" "\\"Circle-so")
<\/span><\/div>\nWhat We Like about Circle<\/h2>\n
![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2021-08-04_12-49-47-1.png.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle")
![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2021-08-04_12-49-47-1.png.webp\" "\\"Circle")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Circle.so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/mockup-featuring-two-iphones-x-floating-against-a-solid-color-background-28764-1.png.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle.so")
![\"Circle.so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/mockup-featuring-two-iphones-x-floating-against-a-solid-color-background-28764-1.png.webp\" "\\"Circle.so")
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-Integrations-1.png.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle")
![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-Integrations-1.png.webp\" "\\"Circle")
<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2021-08-04_13-51-51-1.png.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle")
![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2021-08-04_13-51-51-1.png.webp\" "\\"Circle")
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\nDrawbacks of Circle<\/h2>\n
Drawback #1 (Relatively) Expensive and Limitations <\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Circle.so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-Courses.jpg.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle.so")
![\"Circle.so](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Circle-Courses.jpg.webp\" "\\"Circle.so")
<\/span><\/div>\nDrawback #2 Long Load Times on Video Uploads\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Circle.so Alternatives<\/h2>\n
Testimonials for Circle.So<\/h2>\n
![\"Pat](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/5f2b05ac58454d2a1f221c7a_pat-flynn@2x.jpeg.webp\"\/ "\\"Pat")
![\"Pat](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/5f2b05ac58454d2a1f221c7a_pat-flynn@2x.jpeg.webp\" "\\"Pat")
<\/span><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/tcb_content_templates\/testimonial\/images\/Quote_left-marks.png\"\/ "\\"Quote_left")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/tcb_content_templates\/testimonial\/images\/Quote_left-marks.png\" "\\"Quote_left")
<\/span><\/div>\nPat Flynn – SmartPassiveIncome.com<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Ankur](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/5f2b05ac23d8fac77b28f2b2_ankur-nagpal@2x.jpeg.webp\"\/ "\\"Ankur")
![\"Ankur](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/5f2b05ac23d8fac77b28f2b2_ankur-nagpal@2x.jpeg.webp\" "\\"Ankur")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/span><\/div>\nAnkur Nagpal- Founder of Teachable
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![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2021-08-04_12-56-31-1.png.webp\"\/ "\\"Circle")
![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2021-08-04_12-56-31-1.png.webp\" "\\"Circle")
<\/span><\/div>\n![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/images.jpeg.webp\"\/ "\\"\\"")
![\"Circle](\"https:\/\/p9n2c8y2.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/images.jpeg.webp\" "\\"\\"")
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