Skool vs Circle
Both sell a paid community with courses attached, and both are weak as course engines. Skool is one flat monthly fee for a single feed, a leaderboard and a classroom tab, with almost nothing to configure. Circle costs more to reason about but offers spaces, live rooms, events and branded apps. Skool suits minimalists, Circle suits builders.
Niels AbrahamsenAnalyst, Security & Infrastructure
Hannah Reiter
Tomasz WierzbickiVendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
Choose Skool ifyou want a paid group running quickly on one flat fee, like the single feed and leaderboard, and do not mind that it will never look like your own brand.
Choose Circle ifyour community needs separate spaces, live rooms, events and apps under your own brand, and you accept a percentage of paid memberships on the lower plans.
Skool and Circle side by side
| Skool | Circle | |
|---|---|---|
| Our online course platform rank | #10 of 14 | #5 of 14 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| Pricing | Per community per month, published: Hobby $9 plus a 10% transaction fee, Pro $99 plus 2.9% | Per month per plan, published, from $89 on annual billing; a transaction fee of 2% to 0.5% on every plan |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | A paid group whose value is the other members in it | A paid community where the course is the joining excuse |
| Not for | A course business that needs funnels and segmentation | A catalogue of structured courses with assessment and certificates |
Both are reviewed in full in our online course platform ranking: Skool and Circle.
Where they differ
Skool 1 · Circle 1 · open 2- 01
How the fee is calculated
Skool charges one flat monthly fee per community, with payment processing separate. Circle publishes a monthly price per plan and, on its lower tiers, also takes a percentage of paid memberships, which becomes real money at membership volume. For a group with growing paid membership, Skool's bill is the simpler and steadier of the two.
Edge: Skool
- 02
Brand and design control
Skool offers almost no design control and no way to make the community look like your brand. Circle lists branded apps among its defining features. For a business that wants members to feel they are inside its own product and not on someone else's platform, Circle is clearly the stronger choice.
Edge: Circle
- 03
Structure of the community itself
Skool holds one opinion: a single feed, a leaderboard whose gamification keeps a paid group active, and a classroom tab. Circle is organised into spaces with live rooms and events. Skool's thin setup is its appeal, Circle's range is its appeal, and the better format depends on how much the community needs to be organised.
Depends on the buyer
- 04
Teaching features
Neither is strong. Skool's classroom cannot do assessment and its analytics are thin. Circle's course module is good enough for members to work through between conversations, but drip control, assessment and progress reporting stay shallow. Anyone delivering structured training will find the same gaps in both, so there is no winner.
Depends on the buyer
When neither fits
Neither fits a course business that depends on funnels, email sequences and segmentation to bring buyers in. Kajabi bundles funnels, email and courses for established sellers with no cut of sales, and Systeme.io includes funnels, email and courses with a generous free tier.
Skool or Circle: questions
3 answersIs Skool cheaper than Circle?
We cannot give figures, but the structures differ. Skool is one flat monthly fee per community with payment processing on top.
Circle charges per plan and takes a percentage of paid memberships on lower tiers. The more members pay, the more that percentage matters in the comparison.
Can you brand a community on Skool the way you can on Circle?
Not according to our data. Skool has almost no design control and no way to make it look like your brand, which is a deliberate part of its minimal approach.
Circle offers branded apps, so a business that cares about its own identity should lean that way.
Which is better for courses, Skool or Circle?
Neither should be bought for the courses. Skool's classroom has no assessment, and Circle's course module is shallow on drip logic, assessment and reporting. Both are community products where the course gives members something to do. Choose on the community format instead.