COMPARE · COMMUNITY.IO VS CIRCLE
Circle's 2% isn't 2%.
Circle advertises a 1–2% take — then Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ stacks on top, and a realistic setup runs ≈ $277/mo. community.io is all-in merchant-of-record pricing, with AI at every tier and white-label without the Plus gate.
Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026
The feature ledger
Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026
| Feature | community.io | Circle |
|---|---|---|
| Honest all-in fees (processing included) | All-in MoR: 4.9% / 2.9% flat / 2.4%, + 30¢ — nothing stacks | 2% take + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ stacked ≈ 4.9% all-in (Pro) |
| Engagement engine (points, levels, leaderboards) | Skool-grade gamification: points, levels, leaderboards, level-gated content | Engagement complaints — polished but quiet |
| AI operations | AI onboarding, churn-risk flags, moderation, health digest — every tier | AI Agents — gated to enterprise/Plus tiers |
| Branding & white-label | Custom domain on Pro; full white-label + branded app on Scale ($199) | White-label gated to the Plus add-on |
| Public API & webhooks | Open API + webhooks on Scale ($199) | Real API — on $199+/mo tiers |
| Course tools (quizzes, certificates, drip, progress) | Built in on every tier — a classroom, not a video list | Course spaces exist; certification depth is thin |
| Data export & lock-in | Full export — posts, courses, members, history. No exit penalty. | Member + content exports available |
The fee math, all-in
Total monthly cost — fees + subscription. Computed, not quoted.
| Platform | Growing — $10k/mo · $50 avg | At scale — $100k/mo · $50 avg |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | $679/mo | $4,719/mo |
| community.io Free$0 + 4.9% + 30¢ all-in | $550/mo | $5,500/mo |
| community.io Pro$49 + 2.9% + 30¢ all-in — flat, no $900 cliff | $399/mo | $3,549/mo |
| Switching to community.io Provs Circle’s cheapest setup at each point | keeps $3,240/yr | keeps $14,040/yr |
Where Circle wins
Both columns of the ledger — strengths first.
Their column
- AI Agents and a genuinely deep feature set
- Real public API
- White-label available (gated to the Plus add-on)
- Email Hub built in
What it costs you
- Advertised 1–2% take stacks Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ on top — realistically 3.9–4.9% all-in
- Price stacking: a realistic setup runs ≈ $277/mo
- Engagement complaints — creators report communities feel polished but quiet
pricing source: circle.so↗ · Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026
Run the numbers at your revenue.
The same math behind every table on this page — every formula published at /fees.