Circle vs Skool Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
Professional
- Circle AI
- Unlimited members
- Courses
- Discussions
- Events
- Website Builder
- Live streams
- Live rooms
- Custom branding
- Reporting & analytics
- Searchable member directory
- Rich member profiles
- Paid memberships
- Gamification
- Custom domain
- Weekly community digest
- Migration services for payments
Business
Popular- Workflows
- Custom profile fields
- Circle MCP
- Headless Member API
- Admin API
- Branded email notifications
- Content co-pilot
- Automated transcriptions
- Activity scores
- Standard migration services
- Remove Circle branding
Circle Plus
- AI Agents & AI workflows
- Custom single sign-on (SSO)
- Highest limits (Live, Storage, Workflows)
- 10k Email Hub contacts included
- Lower transaction fees
- Sandbox community
Hobby
- Unlimited members
- Unlimited courses
- Unlimited videos
- Unlimited live calls
- 10% transaction fee
Pro
- Unlimited members
- Unlimited courses
- Unlimited videos
- Unlimited live calls
- 2.9% transaction fee
- Custom URL
- Affiliates
Circle vs Skool FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Skool is the cheaper option, starting at $9/mo vs $89/mo for Circle.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Neither has a free plan. But Circle and Skool offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Circle uses hybrid pricing, while Skool goes with flat-rate. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Circle: At $89-199/mo before the custom enterprise tier, Circle sits mid-to-upper market compared to scrappier community tools but undercuts full-blown LMS or membership platforms bundled with marketing suites. They're chasing serious creators and businesses who've outgrown Discord/Slack hacks but aren't ready for a bloated enterprise stack. Skool: That $9 entry point is aggressively cheap compared to Circle or Mighty Networks, clearly designed to remove any excuse not to try it. But the $99 tier closes that gap fast, positioning Skool as budget-friendly to get in the door, then charging premium-adjacent prices once you're serious.
Still deciding? See the best Circle alternatives or the best Skool alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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We'll monitor pricing changes for Circle and Skool and let you know when something moves.