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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Circle Community Platform

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ACircle is an all-in-one branded community platform. Circle empowers creators and businesses to bring together their community, events, courses, and so much more — all under their own brand.

    $39

    per month

    Discourse

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ADiscourse is a community management and moderation product.

    $20

    per month

    Pricing
    Circle Community PlatformDiscourse
    Editions & Modules
    Basic
    $39
    per month
    Professional
    $89
    per month (billed annually)
    Business
    $199
    per month (billed annually)
    Enterprise
    $360
    per month (billed annually)
    Enterprise
    $399
    per month
    Starter
    $20
    per month unlimited members and 2 staff
    Pro
    $100
    per month unlimited members and 5 staff
    Business
    $500
    per month unlimited members and 15 staff
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Circle Community PlatformDiscourse
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    Circle Community PlatformDiscourse
    Small Businesses
    Higher Logic Thrive
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Higher Logic Thrive
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Higher Logic Vanilla
    Score5.5 out of 10
    Higher Logic Vanilla
    Score5.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Verint Community
    Score10 out of 10
    Verint Community
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Circle Community PlatformDiscourse
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (4 ratings)
    8.9
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Circle Community PlatformDiscourse
    Likelihood to Recommend
    CircleCo, Inc
    Circle offers all the main functionalities that are needed to build a Community from scratch. It is very easy to set up even for someone like me with ZERO technical skills. I really enjoy managing the Community on Circle as it is very intuitive and smooth and doesn't require a lot of time to learn of to work around it
    Read full review
    Civilized Discourse Construction Kit Inc.
    [Discourse is by] far the best online forum platform in the industry. It may be a little pricey for people looking for a cheap option for their hobby forum, but for any type of business that relies on a forum, the pricing is more than fair.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    CircleCo, Inc
    • Community Engagement, connection and communication
    • Courses
    • Payments
    • Channels/Spaces to specific topics and conversations
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Civilized Discourse Construction Kit Inc.
    • User Privileges : Teams, Trust Levels, Moderation, Private and Public Threads make it possible to have as much transparency, privacy or power decentralization as one wishes.
    • Gamification: Badges and Achievements can be customized for User Activity and frequent readers and writers.
    • Mailing List mode: Users can choose to use forum threads without the User Interface by subscribing via mailing list mode.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    CircleCo, Inc
    • Deeper analytics and more customization in metric views
    • More accurate tracking for invite links (Not just clicks; actual joining would be useful)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Civilized Discourse Construction Kit Inc.
    • Some configuration UIs are difficult to follow
    • Not well-suited for managing workflows (grant management as an example)
    • Bulk operations across multiple threads either impossible or difficult to figure out
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    CircleCo, Inc
    Overall, great. Platform could be easier to navigate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Civilized Discourse Construction Kit Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    CircleCo, Inc
    It was the easiest to set up and it was suggested by a lot of people as the best one for my needs! I have zero previous experience about building a community so I tried to listen to suggestions of ppl with more experience than myself. So far it has been a good choice
    Read full review
    Civilized Discourse Construction Kit Inc.
    Vanilla's mobile functionality was downright awful and it felt like it was stuck in the 2000s. While they have similar features, Discourse blows them away in almost every department. We don't regret switching at all.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    CircleCo, Inc
    • $500 a month, instead of needing several different platforms to do the things I need, Circle does most of them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Civilized Discourse Construction Kit Inc.
    • Community Members are eager to jump into the discussion.
    • Conversations can be tracked easier without the risk of being lost in a sea of messages as people tend to construct their posts more carefully than on any workspace messenger.
    • It's open source and configurable with many other add-ons to help integration with other services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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