7 Best Circle.so Alternatives for Paid Communities (2026)

Quick picks

Each of these platforms wins for a different kind of community. Start with the one that matches yours.

• Lowest fees for a paid community: Whop
• Simplest member experience, with leaderboards: Skool
• Closest to Circle's feature set: Mighty Networks
• Cheaper all-in-one under 5,000 members: Heartbeat
• Community plus email marketing and funnels: Kajabi
• Free, chat-first community: Discord
• Brand or customer community you don't charge for: Bettermode

What $10,000 a month costs on each platform

Plan prices tell only half the story, because per-sale fees decide what a paid community really costs. Here is each option at $10,000 a month in $40 memberships, which is 250 charges.

Prices as of October 2026. Sources at the end of this page.

Total = plan price + $10,000 × fee percentage + 250 × fixed fee. The percentages combine each platform's published fee with its processor: Whop's 2.7% plus 0.5% billing; Skool's all-in rate; Kajabi Payments' 2.9% plus 0.7% on recurring charges; Mighty Networks' 2% and Heartbeat's 2.5% plus Stripe's 2.9%; Circle's 2% or 1% plus Stripe's 2.9% and 0.7% billing. Discord's Monetization Terms list a 6% processing fee and a 10% platform fee calculated on what's left, about 15.4% of a desktop or browser sale.

Two caveats. Mighty Networks and Heartbeat don't say whether Stripe Billing's 0.7% applies to their subscriptions; if it does, add $70 to their totals. And Skool's Growth Boost commission on members Skool brings in isn't included. Heartbeat's $49 Build plan, with its 5% fee and 350-member cap, would come to $914.

Skool Pro's 2.9% is lower than Whop's 3.2%, so Skool Pro becomes the cheaper of the two above about $33,000 a month ($99 ÷ 0.3%). To test your own price and volume, use the fee calculator.

Why creators look for Circle.so alternatives

Most of the reasons come back to cost and lock-in, and a few are about fit.

• The entry price went up. In February 2025 Circle's pricing page still listed a Basic plan at $39 a month on annual billing. Today the cheapest plan is Professional at $89 a month billed annually, or $99 month to month.
• Fees stack. Professional takes 2% of each paywall sale on top of Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ and Stripe Billing's 0.7%, so a subscription charge pays 5.6% + 30¢ before the plan price.
• Add-ons are metered. Email Hub is priced by contacts, up to $439 a month at 100,000. Extra admins cost $10 a month each, storage overages have been billed since November 15, 2025, and extra Circle AI credits since July 29, 2026.
• Leaving takes planning. Circle disconnects Stripe only after active subscriptions and installment plans are cancelled, and the full posts-and-comments export comes from support without uploaded media.
• Some creators don't take to it. One r/onlinecourses commenter (August 2026) spent about a week learning Circle during a trial, decided they didn't like using it and moved their community to Skool.

How we chose these alternatives

We picked community platforms with published pricing that can replace Circle for at least one kind of community, then scored each one on five things:

1. Whether it can sell paid access, and a clear note when it can't.
2. Total cost at $10,000 a month in $40 memberships, from each platform's published fees.
3. Community features measured against Circle's spaces, chat, events and courses.
4. Who holds the payments and customer data.
5. Switching effort from Circle, based on each platform's documented import or migration help.

Prices and features come from official pricing pages and help centers, checked on October 3, 2026. We haven't run a paid community on every platform side by side.

We list Whop first because it had the lowest total cost in our $10,000-a-month example and it's the platform our free migration tool moves you to. We earn a referral commission if you create a Whop through our links. There are no affiliate links to the other platforms on this page.

1. Whop: best for selling community access with no monthly fee

Whop is a pay-as-you-go platform for selling memberships, courses and communities, with a Discover marketplace and an affiliate network built in. There's no plan fee. A domestic card payment costs 2.7% + 30¢, subscriptions add 0.5% for billing, and international cards and currency conversion add 1.5% and 1%.

Pros:

• Lowest total in our example: $395 at $10,000 a month, against $734 on Circle Professional.
• Whop Migrations can copy Circle's Stripe card subscriptions with their renewal dates.
• Checkout takes PayPal, crypto and buy now, pay later as well as cards.
• The Discover marketplace has charged a 0% commission since May 12, 2025.

Cons:

• Members aren't added for you. Each one claims access with their own Whop account, because Whop's API can't create memberships directly.
• You can't connect your own Stripe, and new accounts can face payout reserves and a $2,500 per-checkout cap.
• Course videos and old Circle posts don't transfer, so lessons and key threads are rebuilt by hand.

Switching effort from Circle is low for paying members, because card subscriptions move with their renewal dates and everyone else claims access from your audience CSV. Spaces, courses and posts are still rebuilt. Our Whop vs Circle comparison goes feature by feature.

Choose Whop if you sell access to chat, forums and courses and want the lowest fees with the most ways to pay.

2. Skool: best for simple, gamified communities

Skool combines a community feed, a classroom and a calendar, with points and leaderboards that reward members for taking part. Hobby costs $9 a month with a 10% + 30¢ fee per sale. Pro costs $99 a month with 2.9% + 30¢, rising to 3.9% on charges above $900. Both plans include unlimited members, courses and video hosting, and both come with a 14-day trial.

Pros:

• Very low entry price and little to configure.
• Skool is the merchant of record, so it handles VAT.
• Pro's 2.9% is the lowest percentage on this list, which makes it the cheapest option above about $33,000 a month.

Cons:

• You can't use your own Stripe or PayPal, and members always pay in USD.
• No public API, only Zapier and an invite webhook on Pro.
• Growth Boost, which is on by default, takes a 30% cut of payments from members Skool brings in through Discovery and its ads. You can switch it off in your group's Discovery settings.

Switching effort from Circle is high for paying members. Skool processes payments itself, so Circle's Stripe subscriptions can't move there and members re-subscribe. See how Whop and Skool compare, the Skool alternatives list or what Skool really costs.

Choose Skool if you want the simplest possible community and you're fine with Skool controlling payments.

3. Mighty Networks: best for a Circle-style network with apps and livestreams

Mighty Networks is the closest match to Circle: spaces, courses, events and native livestreaming in one network, billed through your own Stripe. Explore costs $35 a month ($29 billed annually) with a 5% fee and no courses. Launch costs $95 ($79) with a 2% fee, Scale $215 ($179) with 1%, Growth $425 ($354) with 0.5%, and Mighty Pro is priced by quote at 0.5%.

Pros:

• Unlimited members and spaces on every plan.
• Members get iOS and Android apps, and Mighty Pro builds fully branded apps.
• Livestreaming on Launch covers 20 hours a month for up to 100 viewers per stream.

Cons:

• Every plan takes a transaction fee on top of Stripe's processing.
• Stripe only, so no PayPal.
• iOS in-app purchases go through Apple, which Mighty's docs say takes 15%, and Apple pays that revenue out weeks later.

Switching effort from Circle is moderate. Mighty's docs say you can't transfer memberships directly. Instead you create hidden plans with free trials that cover each member's remaining paid time, and members re-enter their cards.

Choose Mighty Networks if you like Circle's model but want lower fees on higher tiers or a different app experience.

4. Heartbeat: best for an affordable all-in-one under 5,000 members

Heartbeat bundles channels, courses, events, documents and checkout into one community app. Build costs $49 a month ($40 billed annually) for up to 350 members with a 5% fee. Grow costs $149 ($124) for up to 5,000 members with a 2.5% fee. Scale costs $849 ($766) for unlimited members, a branded app and a 1.25% fee. Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ applies on top of each, and Build and Grow come with a 14-day trial.

Pros:

• Unlimited channels, courses, events and documents on every plan.
• Checkout pages, waitlists, upsells and access groups are built in.
• Unlimited admins and moderators, where Circle charges $10 a month per extra admin.

Cons:

• Hard member caps of 350 on Build and 5,000 on Grow.
• Build's 5% fee is higher than Circle Professional's 2%.
• Unlimited members and the branded app need Scale at $849 a month.

Switching effort from Circle is moderate. Heartbeat's pricing page lists a Circle import and migration support on every plan, but it doesn't say whether it can take over existing Stripe subscriptions, so plan for paying members to re-subscribe.

Choose Heartbeat if you have a few hundred to a few thousand members and want everything in one place for less than Circle Business.

5. Kajabi: best for community plus email marketing and funnels

Kajabi is an all-in-one business platform where the community sits next to courses, a website, funnels and email marketing. Basic costs $179 a month ($143 billed annually), Growth $249 ($199) and Pro $499 ($399). Kajabi Payments charges 2.9%, 2.8% or 2.7% + 30¢ by plan, plus 0.7% on subscription charges and 1.5% on international cards.

Pros:

• Unlimited marketing emails, landing pages and funnels on every plan.
• A branded mobile app is included on Pro.
• No revenue share when you use Kajabi Payments or PayPal.

Cons:

• The highest plan prices on this list.
• One community on Basic and Growth, three on Pro, and Basic caps you at 2,500 contacts.
• Connecting your own Stripe adds a 2%, 1% or 0.5% fee by plan.

Switching effort from Circle is high. Kajabi's pricing page lists no Circle import, so expect to rebuild the community and courses and have paying members re-subscribe. Our Whop vs Kajabi comparison, Kajabi alternatives and Kajabi pricing breakdown go deeper.

Choose Kajabi if you want courses, community, email marketing, funnels and your website run from one Kajabi account.

6. Discord: best for free, chat-first communities

Discord costs nothing to run, and its Server Subscriptions let members buy tiers from inside your server. The catch is the cut. Discord's Monetization Terms list a 6% processing fee and a 10% platform fee on desktop and browser sales, about 15.4% in total. On iOS, Apple's 30% (15% on retained auto-renewing subscriptions) replaces the processing fee and Discord raises the iOS price to cover it. Payouts arrive within 45 days after the end of each month, with a $100 minimum for the first payout.

Pros:

• No plan fee at any community size.
• Members subscribe to tiers without leaving Discord.
• iOS purchases are supported.

Cons:

• The highest per-sale cost on this list.
• Slow payouts and a $100 first-payout minimum.
• To monetize you must be 18 or older, keep a verified email and turn on two-factor authentication.

Switching effort from Circle is high for paying members, since Discord collects payments itself and everyone re-subscribes. If you want Discord as the chat but your own pricing and payouts, read Whop vs Discord and how to run a paid Discord server with Whop.

Choose Discord if your community is mostly free and conversation-driven, with paid tiers as a side income.

7. Bettermode: best for brand and customer communities

Bettermode is a community platform aimed at companies running customer, support and product communities. Starter costs $149 a month billed yearly or $199 month to month, for up to 10,000 members and five collaborators. Growth costs $1,500 a month billed yearly ($1,750 monthly) for up to 25,000 members, and Premium is priced by quote.

Pros:

• Q&A, discussions, events and polls with a custom domain on Starter.
• SOC 2 Type II, with OAuth2, JWT and SAML sign-in on higher plans.
• Bettermode says it helps move users, content and structure from your current platform.

Cons:

• No paywalls or membership pricing are listed on its pricing page (October 2026), so it doesn't fit a paid community.
• The jump from Starter to Growth is $1,351 a month on yearly billing.
• Positioned for marketing and customer-success teams more than creators.

Choose Bettermode if you run a free community for your company's customers and need SSO, SEO and support features rather than a paywall.

Should you leave Circle at all?

Not always. If Circle's community tools are what your members pay for, cheaper fees elsewhere may not make up for what you'd lose.

Staying on Circle makes sense if:

• Your branded app is part of the product, since Circle Plus builds custom iOS and Android apps.
• You run on Circle workflows, AI agents or Email Hub and don't want to rebuild them.
• You want customers and saved cards in a Stripe account you own.
• You're on a plan bought before March 1, 2026. Circle keeps those legacy limits only while you stay on the plan.

How to move off Circle

Export first, keep Stripe connected, and move paying members before anything else. Circle's audience CSV gives you the member list, and its subscriptions export shows who pays and when they renew. Circle disconnects Stripe only after active subscriptions are cancelled, so don't cancel anything until your new platform has taken over billing.

For a move to Whop, the Circle to Whop playbook covers each step, the free migration wizard builds your products, courses and community apps, and our guide to moving subscriptions to Whop explains which card subscriptions Whop Migrations can carry over. The member CSV converter turns Circle's audience export into a clean, Whop-ready list in your browser.

What changed

• October 3, 2026: First published. Prices and fees for all seven platforms and Circle checked on October 3, 2026.

Spotted something out of date? Email hello@movetowhop.com and we'll fix verified errors within 7 days.