Circle vs Zulip 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 | Zulip pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $89/mo | $8/mo |
| Number of plans | 3 | 3 |
| 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
- 10,000 messages of search history
- File storage up to 5 GB total
- Complete team chat solution
- Hundreds of integrations
- Advanced roles and permissions
- Guest accounts
- Many organizations are eligible for a free Standard plan
Standard
- Unlimited search history
- File storage up to 5 GB per user
- Flexible permissions with custom groups
- Message retention policies
- Brand Zulip with your logo
- Priority commercial support
- Public access option
Plus
Popular- All Standard plan features
- File storage up to 25 GB per user
- SSO with SAML (Okta, OneLogIn, etc.)
- SCIM user and group sync
- Custom domain
- Limit user list access for guests
- Priority commercial support
Circle vs Zulip FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Zulip is the cheaper option, starting at $8/mo vs $89/mo for Circle.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Zulip 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 Zulip 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. Zulip: Zulip sits mid-pack compared to Slack and Microsoft Teams, undercutting Slack's per-seat pricing while still offering a real free tier — but it's not fighting on price alone since it's also chasing open-source and nonprofit communities with free Standard access.
Still deciding? See the best Circle alternatives or the best Zulip alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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