In this article, we’re comparing two popular community platforms: Skool and Circle. If you’re looking for the best community platform for your needs, the answer is here.
We’ll cover:
- What Circle and Skool offer.
- Which is better for community features, courses, marketing & monetization, and apps.
- Another option that’s better-rated and offers more.
Try the community platform with the most $1 million communities, free!
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What are they?
Circle
In 2020, several of the employees of the course platform Teachable launched Circle. They saw that Teachable was missing a community feature and created Circle as an add-on. Live learning and learning communities were on the rise, and Teachable wasn’t positioned to offer these experiences. So Circle was born, with a clear vision to integrate with Teachable and add communities to Teachable courses.
Over time, Circle has added course capability and pulled away from Teachable integrations to serve as a standalone, all-in-one community platform. And creators like Pat Flynn and Brendan Burchard have supported it. Circle has a reputation as a clean, simple community platform organized into Spaces, with the options to add courses and events.
Skool
Skool is a basic community forum created by the internet figure, Sam Ovens. Recently, influencer Alex Hormozi bought a stake in the company, and has worked hard to sell Skool via his online channels and paid ads.
Skool boasts a discoverability feature to help people find communities that interest them, and Hosts on Skool can use it to run online coaching or courses. Skool has also built a calendar feature for basic schedule. Compared to other community platforms, Skool feels pretty basic and low-tech–but there are people who swear by it.
Skool vs Circle: Features we’re comparing
If you really want to understand the difference between Circle and Skool, there are a few things we need to drill down on. On paper, Circle and Skool have a lot of the same features: courses, events, and–of course–community. But these are not created equally.
Below, we’ll compare each one on:
- Community platform
- Course capabilities
- Marketing and business tools
- Apps
Skool vs Circle
Community platform
Skool
As a platform, Skool feels a bit like a late 1990s forum–with some Facebook Group characteristics. The posting is basic, and the community experience revolves around a rolling threads feature. Members can post videos, polls, GIFs, links, and attachments, and they can like, comment, and watch posts. There are also some ways to categorize posts with tags so content can be organized in themes.
The best community-building feature is probably what Skool calls “gamification:” these are leaderboards that award members with a score based on how much they engage–the theory is that this feature boosts the incentive for members to get involved. You can also add unlock options and automations to create bonus material that rewards members for engagement.
As for events, Skool has a scheduling capability built-in. There’s an events calendar. You can add event details to a discussion section and auto-send reminder emails or set events to recurring.
The Limitations: Skool works okay for what it is. But there are a few major problems you should know about before building on Skool.
- Overall the feature set is extremely limited when compared with a community platform like Circle. We’ll get to that below.
- There aren’t really tools to organize a larger community. If your community grows to thousands, you’re still limited to the same running thread of posts.
- There are no RSVPs to the events and no way to host them on Skool–you need another platform.
Circle
Circle is a community platform that can organize community content into different types of Spaces: posts (discussion-feed style), events, chat, and courses. Members can join relevant Spaces and you can charge or gate access to different Spaces too. This gives Circle the ability to host more types of content than Skool, as well as more complex community discussions. And the Spaces model also means you can host or sell subgroups within a community, which is almost impossible in Skool. You can bundle Space access together too, so you could host a community Space that comes with events and a course. This style of building gives you more options than Skool has.
Posts can be different types of media (video, text, polls). And unlike Skool, Circle has livestreaming which can be used for office hours or meetings (or live courses). You can invite cohosts onstage, toggle between speaker and gallery view, and download a recording after.
Circle also has member directories and profiles–although (and this is annoying), they aren’t always turned on by default. If they are enabled, you can see who’s in the community or a specific Space and start a conversation. And you can add member tags (public or private) to sort members by interest.
Finally, let’s talk about gamification. It was Skool’s bread and butter, but Circle recently added this feature–giving members a way to score points, and unlock levels and rewards with participation. They also added a leaderboard feature to show you who’s participating the most. And Circle has added workflows, meaning you can reward members by automatically adding workflows to lead into things like secret Spaces or special courses.
Which is better?
Circle is. There’s no comparison. If Skool feels a bit like Facebook in 2000, Circle feels more like Slack now. It gives you the ability to organize complex conversations and run a full community, enlisting admins and moderators as you scale. With more ways to deliver content (livestreaming) and more ways to organize it (multiple Spaces and types of Spaces), Circle is delivering a quality of community that’s a decade ahead of Skool.
And Circle’s use of Spaces lets you scale community management in a way Skool doesn’t. Skool certainly has some big communities on it, but the community management for 1,000s of members just isn’t there in the same way.
Skool ’s leaderboards are cool, but it’s not clear that these translate into higher community engagement. Some users might love them, especially if they tie to bonus content that can be unlocked. But now that Circle has them too, it’s no longer a selling feature for Skool.
Courses
Skool
Skool’s courses carry through the theme word of the community platform, and the word is “basic.”
Here’s the good: you can build course modules and sub-lessons. Lessons can be made up of text or videos (these aren’t hosted natively; you can embed them from Vimeo or YouTube). The lessons can include a discussion option, and you can toggle a video transcript or drip content.
The course editing isn’t intuitive either. Until recently, courses were edited in the “settings” tab–Skool corrected this. But the editing still happens deep in the backend as opposed to a dedicated learning Space.
Once a course is live, it’s hosted in a “Classroom” tab on Skool. This part is fine. And the courses are easy-to-navigate for learners and pretty intuitive.
One final thing. Skool does not have the option to teach live. Hosting a live course or gathering would require third-party software.
Circle
In Circle, courses are delivered through a course Space. Since each Space can be paywalled or bundled, this also becomes the way to deliver a course. Course building in Circle is fairly easy. You build off of an outline with drag-and-drop course blocks. It looks and feels like a classic LMS. The lessons can be made up of audio, video, text, or downloads and you can preview before you launch. But remember, course material counts towards the overall storage limit of your plan.
Circle also has live courses, which Skool does not. You can use the live features to teach live, or host office hours, Q&As, and other live learning experiences.
Which is better
Again, Circle wins out here. Its asynchronous course platform is as good as if not better than Skool’s, with more features for course building. But you can also teach live natively–which you can’t on Skool.
Marketing & Monetization
Skool
For its shortcomings as a community and course platform, Skool has one main feature going for it. The discovery approach. Unlike Circle, people coming to Skool land on a discovery section (a bit like Substack’s homepage). This shows you a ton of communities, and potentially could help news members find you. But just a warning, this probably isn’t enough by itself to grow. There are thousands of communities on Skool–so it’s unlikely members will find yours (although a strong course niche or long-tail keyword might help).
As for monetization, Skool also has an affiliate program as well, although it’s a Skool affiliate program. It works like this; if you bring in a paid community member to Skool, and that person starts their own community, you get 40% of their monthly payment.
As of writing this, Skool just added its own payment feature. All prices on Skool are charged in USD, and if you don’t live in the US, the payout is in your local currency.
Skool doesn’t have dedicated landing pages. People can see the option to join a group or purchase a course and buy from the button. Skool doesn’t have email either.
Finally, Skool doesn’t currently have any way to add your own branding to a Skool community, other than a header image.
Circle
You can create a true affiliate program with Circle, meaning you can reward others for helping to sell and promote your community.
Circle has more branding features than Skool too, with white and dark mode, and tools to customize the look and feel of your community. You can add a custom domain to Circle too. And for even more customization, you can add in different code snippets in a Circle community. This could include styling with a CSS feature, or even coded integrations like Google Analytics tracking code.
Integrations: Circle has thousands of integrations as well–mixed between native integrations and Zapier. Native integrations include Memberstack, WordPress, Loom, Stripe, and Vimeo.
Which is better?
Skool’s Discover section is cool, but there’s no evidence it’s going to lead to long-term community growth. You’re still competing with thousands of Skool communities to get seen. Circle’s offer means less up-front visibility, but potentially fewer distractions.
If branding matters to you, remember that you can’t add your own branding to Skool. For independent content creators, this is annoying. For established brands and creators, this is probably a dealbreaker. Everything happens in Skool’s ecosystem and builds their brand. Circle can be used to build a brand that reflects you. And Circle has way more integrations for building out a full tech stack.
Cost Comparison
Skool
- $99/mo +2.9% transaction fee (one plan only)
Circle
- $49/mo + 4% transaction fees - Basic Plan (Community only)
- $99/mo + 2% fees - Pro Plan (add courses, livestreaming and branding)
- $219/mo + 1% fees- Business Plan (add workflows, custom fields, email white-labels, and AI helper)
- $399/mo + .5% fees - Enterprise (add SSO, and analytics, 10 admin and 100 mods)
Apps
Skool
Skool has an app for every device that replicates most of the functions of the online web app. As of writing, it’s rated 3.6 stars in the Google Play Store and 3.8 stars on the App Store. It doesn’t have the option of a white-label app.
Circle
Circle has apps that are much better-rated than Skool’s apps (4.5 stars on Google Play and 4.9 on the App Store), making its mobile experience much better. But Circle also has the option to add branded apps to a community–getting your apps for Apple and Android.
Which is better?
Again, Circle wins here too. They have apps that perform better and match your Community Design™, and the option to jump to branded apps.
Skool vs Circle: Which is best?
Circle is. It wins on every category we reviewed here:
- Much more robust community platform with Spaces for organizing large discussions, livestreaming, and more overall features.
- The option to add your own branding and build a community or course experience that feels professional.
- Good apps for every device and branded apps if you want.
And–depending on your plan–Circle offers its platform at a comparable (or even lower) price than Skool. Why pay more for Skool when it has a fraction of the community power?
But there’s another option…
G2’s top-rated community platform
While Circle rates better than Skool, there is a community platform that’s better rated than Circle for a similar price.
Mighty Networks is G2’s #1 community platform. It’s home to more $1 million communities than any other platform, and is trusted by brands and creators like Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Jim Kwik, Marie Forleo, TED, and Matthew Hussey.
Here’s how Mighty compares to both Circle and Skool.
Better community-building
Circle offers Spaces, which help to organize a larger community. But you have to choose between the types of Spaces you want. So, you can’t technically put a course, an event, and a community in the same place.
Mighty takes Spaces a step further.
On Mighty, Spaces are containers that can hold any features: course Table of Contents, Activity Feed, Chat, Members, Recurring Events, One-time Events, a Page (an article), or Highlighted Hashtags.
Okay, so what does this mean?
This means, while a Circle community requires events, courses, and community in different Spaces, Mighty lets you build in the features you need (turning off any you don’t).
Software designed for engagement
Mighty Networks isn’t just about serving content. Our data shows with 93% accuracy which communities will succeed or fail. And it all comes down to whether members engage with each other.
We’ve designed software that does just this. The People Explorer helps your members find people who share interests, similar backgrounds, or even geographical proximity. (Mighty Co-Host™ can help them create a profile too.)
The AI engine can tell you what you have in common, and even start a conversation. Add to this smart features like the Infinite Question Engine to automate discussions (generating and posting approved questions even if you’re not online), and you’ve got a platform that’s constantly building engagement.
AI to make admin easier
Mighty is building in AI tools that make your admin easier.
- Instantly generate a community in seconds. Add a few words to Mighty Co-Host™ and it will create a Big Purpose, basic brand identity, and your first Space. (Try it free)
- Get writing prompts and improvements, discussion questions, instant course outlines, and suggested hashtags to make creation and engagement better.
- “Activity Assist” to show you members that aren’t active and instantly check in (AI will even generate the conversation starter).
These are the types of features other community platforms don’t have yet.
In the end
Mighty Networks gives you all the power to build any kind of community you want, monetize in 135 different currencies, connect ConvertKit or add over 2,000 integration embeds, and build under your own brand. It’s got great apps for every device, and has built 400+ branded apps for some of the world’s top brands and creators.
Try Mighty Networks now! You could be inviting your first members in minutes, and there’s no credit card required to try.