Circle vs Slack Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Circle pricing | Slack pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $89/mo | $8/mo |
| Number of plans | 3 | 4 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | — | |
| Pricing model | flat-rate | per-seat |
Price is one row. To weigh the features too, use our feature comparison template →
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
Free
- 90 days of message history
- Up to 10 apps
- 1:1 meetings
- 1:1 external messages
Pro
- Unlimited message history
- Unlimited app integrations
- Group meetings
- Group external messages
- Basic AI
- AI conversation summaries
Business+
Popular- Unlimited message history
- Unlimited app integrations
- Group meetings
- Group external messages
- Advanced AI
- AI conversation summaries
- Slackbot (personal AI agent) (New)
- AI workflow generation
- AI search
- AI daily recaps
- AI file summaries
- SAML-based single sign-on
- SCIM user management
Enterprise+
- Unlimited message history
- Unlimited app integrations
- Group meetings
- Group external messages
- Enterprise-Grade AI
- AI conversation summaries
- Slackbot (personal AI agent) (New)
- AI workflow generation
- Enterprise search
- AI daily recaps
- AI file summaries
- Multiple SAML configurations
- SCIM user management
- EMM integration support
- Native data loss prevention
Circle vs Slack FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Slack is the cheaper option, starting at $8/mo vs $89/mo for Circle.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Slack has a free plan. Circle doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Circle uses flat-rate pricing, while Slack goes with per-seat. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Circle: Circle sits mid-to-premium compared to bare-bones forum tools like Discourse or Discord, but it's cheaper than bundling a separate course platform, CRM, and community tool together. They're courting creators and course businesses who've outgrown Facebook Groups or Discord but aren't ready for a full-blown custom-built platform. Slack: Slack sits at the premium end of team chat — Teams is bundled free with Microsoft 365, and other chat tools undercut on price, so Slack's whole pitch is that the UX and integration ecosystem justify paying more per seat. They're not fighting on price; they're betting companies already sold on Slack culture won't switch for a cheaper alternative.
Still deciding? See the best Circle alternatives or the best Slack alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
Stop checking your competitors manually.
Outmano watches your competitors' prices and features for you. See how competitor pricing monitoring works.
Try Outmano free »
14-day free trial