8 Best Circle Alternatives for Creators & Membership Businesses (2026)

You’ve built an audience from high-quality content. Now it’s time to grow your income, and memberships or subscriptions are a good place to start. If you want a membership business with community at its core, you might be considering Circle.

Circle is a community platform that lets your audience build meaningful connections with you and one another. With a sleek interface and a large suite of features, it's a popular choice for creators looking to monetize their community.

But there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to building a membership business. Circle has many features, but that doesn’t make it the right choice for everyone.

Maybe you want to share different types of exclusive content or need your platform to integrate with another key tool. Plus, you need to consider how you’ll grow — is Circle the right platform to take you into the future?

We’ve started the research for you. Read on to learn a little more about Circle, why some creators decide to switch to another platform, the different types of alternatives on the market, and eight other choices to consider.

What is Circle?

Everything you do on Circle comes back to one thing: fostering community.

In Circle, you can sell access to a community hub where you can DM your community and facilitate discussions, host virtual events and livestreams, and build courses.

Community-led businesses and creators also love how simple it is to set up and its sleek interface, with many reviews praising its “clean, minimal look”. It’s easy for members to use, too, with this review saying “I never see a member confused with how to use the Circle platform”.

While it's best known as a “complete community platform”, Circle has recently made a shift, with new AI-powered features that help run the rest of your business, like email marketing and web tools. If you’re someone who prefers an all-in-one platform, Circle may be able to replace some of the other tools in your tech stack.

If you want an all-in-one platform to run your community with a clean, modern interface, Circle could be the right choice for you.

Circle has two pricing options available for creators, with custom pricing available. The two plans are:

• Professional: $89 USD/month + 2% transaction fees
• Business: $199 USD/month + 1% transaction fees

Why Creators Look for Alternatives to Circle

There are a few reasons creators and educators decide to switch from Circle to another tool.

• Community isn’t at the center of their business, so its features don’t support the membership experience they want to provide.
• They want to fully own their memberships. With Circle, you’re limited by what the platform can do.
• Customization is limited, and they want more control over branding.
• It’s expensive to scale, especially if they need to layer in third-party tools.
• It’s difficult to integrate with their WordPress website or marketing tools, and the built-in marketing tools don’t have the functionality they need.
• They want to build a modular membership tech stack instead of managing everything from one place.
• Setting up features and navigating the backend can be tricky.
• Courses are functional, but aren’t as in-depth or customizable as more education-focused platforms.
• It isn’t a good match for their audience. One creator noted that Circle isn’t the best choice for “high-volume chat communities, like Discord".

Circle is still a strong platform, and it could be the right tool for you. However, it’s important to figure out what you do need before you make the choice.

What to Look for in a Circle Alternative

Here are some of the things to consider when choosing a new platform.

Community Features

What community features does the platform have, and which ones do you need? Common features include discussions, chats, livestreams, events, and courses.

You should also consider whether you need custom community spaces. Some platforms offer deep integrations with platforms like Discord that help you manage a paid community on a tool that your community already uses.

Membership Management

Is it easy to manage your members, or does the platform add more admin work to your plate? See how easy it is to manage access, create new plans, and adjust subscriptions.

Ownership & Branding

Owning your membership business gives you control over your content, data, and payments, and over how your business grows. Look for features like an owned payment stack, custom domains, and white-label capabilities.

You should also consider design and branding. Choose a platform where you can own your brand so it feels like your own.

Content & Courses

Determine what kinds of content you want to provide your members. A platform that supports community or courses might not support newsletters, podcasts, or digital downloads.

Integrations & Flexibility

You shouldn’t be depending on your platform’s capabilities to make authentic business decisions. See how each tool works with the rest of your stack, with APIs and integrations with platforms like WordPress, Zapier, or Discord.

Pricing & Transaction Fees

Make sure you review monthly pricing and transaction fees, and see how costs increase as you scale, too. You’ll also want to look into the payment processor – this might come with additional charges.

Ease of Use

Consider how easy the platform is to set up, if day-to-day maintenance is simple, and if there’s customer support to help you figure things out.

Scalability

As your membership business grows, does the tool grow alongside it? Some tools may have additional costs associated with more members, adding email contacts, or trying new features.

Understanding the Different Types of Circle Alternatives

As one commenter said in this Reddit thread: “Your choice of platform should be determined by your community goals… don't rush into picking a platform that you might regret later.”

While Circle is one of the top community platforms, you might need a different type of software altogether. Here are the different types of Circle alternatives to consider.

Membership Platforms

You don’t just want to start a community; you want a scalable business that grows with your audience. If this sounds like you, consider a membership platform. These tools help you grow sustainable income by building subscriptions, facilitating payments, and creating exclusive content.

The top membership platforms include Memberful and MemberPress.

(And here’s something to consider: even though it has built-in memberships, Circle integrates with Memberful, allowing creators to use its membership features alongside Circle’s community platform.)

Community Platforms

You want a product that, at its core, helps you build relationships with your community and lets them connect, too. A community platform might be the best option for you. With these tools, you can create custom paid spaces for your audience built on conversation, learning, and engagement.

Some of the top community platforms are Mighty Networks, Heartbeat, and Bettermode.

Course Platforms

You may already be an educator at heart, or know that you can provide value through an in-depth course or coaching program. A course platform is worth considering. These tools are built with the learning experience at their core, with community and marketing elements that support your students.

One of the best course platforms on the market is Thinkific.

All-in-One Platforms

Managing subscriptions and jumping between tools can be tricky, especially when you’re just starting out. If you want to run as much of your business as you can in one place, an all-in-one platform helps you handle it all.

Build communities and courses, manage memberships, create simple websites, and use marketing tools — all from one software.

Some of the top all-in-one platforms include Podia and Kajabi.

Quick Comparison of the Best Circle Alternatives

We’ve done the research for you and found the top alternatives to Circle out there. If you’re looking for a quick comparison, you can check out the table below.

Best Circle Alternatives

To help you find the right platform for you, we researched the best Circle alternatives to find eight options that might suit your business, depending on what you’re looking to do: build memberships, run a community, create courses, or do it all at once.

After considering feedback from real users, forums like Reddit, and in-depth reviews, here are the top eight Circle alternatives.

1. Memberful
2. MemberPress
3. Mighty Networks
4. Heartbeat
5. Bettermode
6. Thinkific
7. Podia
8. Kajabi

Memberful

If you’re building a content-led membership business that you fully own, with flexible features that extend beyond community, Memberful is the top choice for you.

Memberful is a membership platform that sets the foundation for a long-term, scalable business. Ownership is key: you have total control of your payments, your data, and your content. It’s easy to set up memberships that look exactly how you want, offer the right content for your audience, and grow and change with you over time.

Memberful is an ideal choice for memberships built on sharing exclusive content. Create exclusive newsletters, private podcasts, and even a membership website right in the platform. One of the best things about Memberful is its flexibility; it integrates with tools you already use, like your WordPress site.

And if you want a community space as part of your offering, Memberful integrates with Discord and Discourse. Your members get exclusive community access on platforms they already use, while you manage memberships and content from Memberful. That’s a win-win.

With Memberful, you can build the memberships you want, without compromises.

Memberful's Key Features

Pros of Memberful

Some of the things Memberful users love about the platform are:

• Full ownership over everything, including your audience and payments (using the Stripe integration).
• Run and manage your memberships from your website with the WordPress plugin.
• Diversify your content mix with newsletters, podcasts, publications, digital downloads, and member communities.
• It fits into your existing tech stack, with 18 included integrations.

Drawbacks of Memberful

Here are some of the drawbacks to consider before choosing Memberful:

• It doesn’t include a built-in community platform, although it easily integrates with Discord and Discourse.
• When you use it with a community software like Circle, you have to set up a custom integration.
• It’s better suited for established creators with the foundations in place to expand their business; beginner creators might prefer another tool.

How Memberful Compares to Circle

Memberful wins for creators who want to grow a membership business with total ownership over payments, branding, and data. It also wins for creators sharing multi-channel content and adding memberships to tools like WordPress and Discord.

Circle wins for creators searching for a platform with a built-in community who want a simple way to engage with members through discussions, events, and courses.

Memberful is Best For

Established creators building scalable membership businesses with exclusive content, where community is not the main focus.

MemberPress

If you want to add membership features to your existing WordPress site, MemberPress could be the right choice for you.

MemberPress is a popular WordPress plugin that turns your WordPress site into a membership hub. You maintain control over your site and branding while selling subscriptions and adding exclusive content, with thousands of plugins available for deep customization.

MemberPress’ key features

Pros of MemberPress

Here are the things that users love about MemberPress:

• You can add membership features directly onto your WordPress site, making it easy for blogs and publications to add a new income stream.
• It has a built-in LMS for building and selling courses and coaching programs on your site.
• High-quality, human customer support.

Drawbacks of MemberPress

Here are some of the drawbacks to consider with MemberPress:

• There is no built-in community platform — you need to use plugins to add these features.
• You run your memberships directly from WordPress, which can bloat your backend and slow your website.
• You manage the software and integrations yourself, which can lead to more time spent troubleshooting and web support costs.

How MemberPress compares to Circle

MemberPress wins for WordPress publishers who want to add membership features to their website.

Circle wins for creators and publishers who want to build community-based memberships on a platform outside of their website.

MemberPress is best for:

WordPress publishers and bloggers who want to add memberships without using another platform.

Mighty Networks

If you want to build memberships with an engaged community as the core product, Mighty Networks is a popular choice.

With an interface designed to feel like the social platforms your members already use, Mighty is full of engagement-focused features that build solid member communities and keep them coming back for more.

Mighty Networks’ key features

Pros of Mighty Networks

Here are some of the features that Mighty Networks users love:

• Core focus on community, with “every feature you could ever want in community building”.
• Extra opportunities to build audience engagement and income, like paid challenges and gamification features like streaks and leaderboards.
• Chats, courses, and events are in one space, making community spaces flexible to what members need.

Drawbacks of Mighty Networks

Here are some of Mighty Networks’ key drawbacks:

• Very few integrations, and no option to add content like podcasts and emails for your members.
• Branding customizations are limited.
• Reviews note that Mighty isn’t user-friendly and can be difficult to set up.

How Mighty Networks compares to Circle

Mighty Networks wins for creators who want to focus on building an engaged community space for their members.

Circle wins for community-focused creators who prioritize a clean user interface and the option to add on extra marketing tools.

Mighty Networks is best for:

Building memberships with an engaged community as the core product.

Heartbeat

If you want to take your community to the next level, Heartbeat is another platform to consider.

Heartbeat helps creators and builders turn the community they've already built into a business, replacing the tools you use to host discussions, build courses, and manage your income.

Heartbeat is known for having sophisticated online events, with workflows that help you engage with attendees and track event statistics.

Heartbeat’s key features

Pros of Heartbeat

Here are some of the things community builders love about Heartbeat:

• Sophisticated online event workflows, with recurring events and reminders that cut down on admin time
• The AI assistant, Pulse, is helpful for users who want the help of an AI tool for managing their community
• It’s easy to set up and navigate, with reviews noting helpful customer support events and training

Drawbacks of Heartbeat

Here are some drawbacks to consider with Heartbeat:

• Heartbeat is a higher-priced platform, with costs increasing as you scale and add more members
• Integrations and features are limited compared to some other community platforms

How Heartbeat compares to Circle

Heartbeat wins for community builders who want to build an income on a platform with sophisticated business workflows.

Circle wins for creators who want to build a community and courses with a crisp, clean aesthetic and user experience.

Heartbeat is best for:

Community builders who want to build a business around community and online events.

Bettermode

If you want your most loyal customers to have a white-label community space built for engagement, check out Bettermode.

Bettermode is primarily used by large-scale businesses to support their customers, not as another income stream. If you’re a B2B business, it helps your customers build a relationship with your brand beyond simply using your product.

Bettermode’s key features

Pros of Bettermode

Here’s what brands and community managers love about Bettermode:

• Bettermode communities are easy to set up and maintain for non-technical users.
• It's one of the only community platforms that focuses on B2B business, with integrations with tools like Salesforce and HubSpot.
• Everything is customizable, with many G2 reviews mentioning helpful built-in templates.

Drawbacks of Bettermode

There are a few drawbacks of Bettermode to keep in mind:

• If you want to add more community features, paid memberships, or other types of content, you need to use other tools.
• Bettermode is one of the pricier options on the market — Trustpilot reviews mention that some users on low-cost plans had their communities deleted after price increases.

How Bettermode compares to Circle

Bettermode wins for businesses and brands that want an engaging community space to connect with their customers and provide extra support.

Circle wins for creators and community builders who want to manage paid memberships alongside a more robust set of community features, like courses and coaching programs.

Bettermode is best for:

Businesses and brands that want a white-label community that supports their product.

Thinkific

If you know you want to build an income with educational content, Thinkific is one of the top course platforms on the market.

In Thinkific, everything works together for your students’ experience. While it has many of the features that a community platform like Circle has, it’s all built to create the most engaging learning possible.

Thinkific’s key features

Pros of Thinkific

Here’s why educators and content creators choose Thinkific:

• Every plan includes unlimited courses, making scaling simple if you’re just selling courses.
• It’s easy and intuitive to set up and start selling courses that are fully customized to how you teach.
• Customer service goes “above and beyond” after you encounter issues.

Drawbacks of Thinkific

Keep the following drawbacks in mind if you’re considering Thinkfic:

• Payment structures make it a “hassle” to manage customer payment issues.
• Integrations with other common platforms are limited.
• Trustpilot reviews mention multiple issues with billing and receiving payouts.

How Thinkific compares to Circle

Thinkific wins for educators who want an easy way to create customizable courses with features that support the overall learning experience.

Circle wins for those seeking a sleek, intuitive community space with the option to build courses for community members.

Thinkific is best for:

Educators who want an easy way to build and sell courses and other educational content.

Podia

If you’re starting a business and want a platform that supports everything, Podia might be the right choice for you.

Podia provides an affordable way for creators and online businesses to manage their entire web presence on one platform. Instead of spending time sorting through tools and managing subscriptions, they can handle everything in Podia.

Podia’s key features

Pros of Podia

Here’s why Podia might be the right Circle alternative for you:

• It makes setup simple for you and your audience: “It looks good, clean and it's also user-friendly for clients.”
• Customer service is strong, with one Trustpilot review calling them “over-the-top responsive”.
• There are a variety of features to try out, making it easy for new creators and businesses to experiment.

Drawbacks of Podia

Here are some drawbacks to keep in mind with Podia:

• Advanced community capabilities — like moderation and analytics — are light.
• Simple features and technical limitations mean Podia isn't suited to scaling businesses or going deeper on certain features.

How Podia compares to Circle

Podia wins for new online businesses or creators who want a simple-to-use tool to help them get started quickly.

Circle wins for established businesses and creators who want to provide more advanced community features and memberships for their audiences.

Podia is best for:

Brand new businesses and creators who want a simple way to start making money online.

Kajabi

If the idea of an all-in-one platform appeals to you, but you need more advanced business features, take a closer look at Kajabi.

Once you've established yourself as a creator, you might need multiple tools to manage your content and grow your income. Kajabi aims to replace your entire tech stack, helping you scale your business along the way.

Kajabi’s key features

Pros of Kajabi

Here are some of the best things about Kajabi:

• All-in-one capabilities let you run courses, community, and exclusive content from one platform.
• Kajabi has more advanced features like marketing funnels and CRM functionality, supporting you as your business matures.
• If you don’t have complex design requirements, Kajabi is simple to set up.

Drawbacks of Kajabi

Some of the key drawbacks to keep in mind with Kajabi include:

• While Kajabi has a strong course builder, some reviews note that other features are simple in comparison.
• Reliance on the platform’s capabilities leads to a lack of flexibility.
• If you aren’t using all of Kajabi’s features, the platform can feel bloated.

How Kajabi compares to Circle

Kajabi wins for creators who want to manage different types of content while also growing into a mature business.

Circle wins for creators who want to build a business with community-centric features at its core.

Kajabi is best for:

Creators who want an all-in-one platform with advanced business features.

When to choose each Circle alternative

There are so many ways that you can build an income from your community — the tool you choose plays a major role in how you get there. Here’s when to choose each platform.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing: after doing your research, you might still feel that Circle is the right platform for you. It’s an excellent platform, with many happy creators and community builders using it to grow their business.

But if you’re investing in memberships, you want to make sure you’re choosing the right type of platform. Not every membership business should be built around community software. Just because a platform has a lot of features doesn’t mean it’s the right place for you.

You need to consider what your members want, what you’re building, if you need business features baked in, and how the platform grows with you. The right platform for you is the one that supports your business now and in the future.