This article is routinely updated as new features are rolled released. It was last updated 11/06/24
Introduction
With dozens of new Community Platforms popping up every year, finding the right one for your community can be a daunting task. This article aims at providing you with the information you need to make a confident choice in Circle, Skool, or realize that neither will be the best fit for you ( in which case, we explore other options like Mighty Networks, Heartbeat and Disco for you).
Read on to get a comparison of critical platform features, of watch me diagnose and gently roast each platform in the video below.
The Comparison TLDR
Circle (this is an affiliate link) is an asynchronous community platform to host your events, conversation, and content in on centralized home. It contains a simple and sleek layout that can easily be customized and white-labeled to fit your community needs. This platform is ideal for communities that use the freemium community model (parts of the community available for free and parts only privately accessible to paying members) - though I would not recommend the freemium model for communities. Circle boasts some pretty impressive communities hosted on their platform including Jay Clouse's Creator Science, Ness Labs, and The Upside. While Circle heavily targets creators looking to turn their audience into a paid community, brands are increasingly using the platform to host their own customer communities as well. Find examples of communities in their showcase. Circle's design centers on asynchronous conversation, though they have significantly expanded their features and functionality especially since securing funding.
Skool (this is an affiliate link) is a community platform centered on the use of gamification to activate members and a discoverability feature to help your community get in front of new eyeballs. While Skools been on the scene for several years, it started turning heads when Alex Hormozi became an investor and Co-Owner. Skool loves to tout what I assume is the revenue generated in their top communities from creators like Andrew Kirby at , Patrice Moore, and Max Perzon. Skool maintains and extremely simple design centered on their single feed, classroom. Most recently, "Skool Games" has come onto the scene as a Skool Community where people learn how to build businesses in Skool communities.
Acknowledging my bias:
You'll hear it right away, but I have never built a legitimate community in Skool and as of 2023, have built 16 communities on Circle.
How to decide which community platform is right for you?
At the end of the day, the platform you choose matters less than how you design and implement your community. That being said, certain platforms can create way more barriers than necessary depending on the programming strategy of your community. To learn more about the 4 Types of Communities and how they lend themselves to different types of platforms, join our free Masterclass.
For a really practical approach, for each row in the table, rate how that platform’s features stack up based on what you need. Total each column up and make a quantitative decision. But we highly encourage you to get in and test each platform yourself (each has a free trial) to play around and get a feeling for it yourself.
Compare Core Features of Community Platforms Circle and Skool
Feature | Circle | Skool |
|---|---|---|
Navigation | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Circle's navigation is fairly simple. There is a left-hand menu that shows all of the spaces available and each space title, emoji, layout, and permissions can be customized. A space could be used to host post-style conversation, a chat, events, courses, or member directory. | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Skool takes the cake when it comes to simplicity with a singular conversation post-style feed, classroom feature to host courses, events, a member directory, leaderboard, and about section. There's nothing unnecessary about their design. |
Home Feed | ✅ Circle has a home feed that aggregates posts, events, and content according to what that member has access to. | ❌ Skool does not have a feed that aggregates posts, events, or new courses, you have to click into each category to see new activity. |
Conversation | Circle's conversation can be hosted in post-style spaces or in a chat space. The post-style spaces can be formatted as a feed of posts, a list of posts, or card-style giving each post it's own large card. Posts can be sorted in the space by time, alphabetically, or popularity. Posts can be pinned at the top or to the right hand side bar. | You get one option and one format for conversation in Skool and it's under the category they call "community" (which is confusing). Posts can be sorted by topic, "best" newest, pinned, unread, and no comments. |
Courses / Education | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
Content / Resources / Knowledge Base / Information Organization | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ The best way we have seen members create a resources or knowledge base in Circle is to use the “Cards” layout to create a page of cards so that your eye can more easily catalog the information. It can be difficult to catalog content well in Circle. | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Skool does not appear to have a great solution to information organization. It seems like members are able to create a library of past events by creating a course and hosting them there. |
Events | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Members can RSVP to events directly in the platform and add the event to their calendar. You can host calls directly in Circle, or provide a zoom link. ✅ You can set up public events so that folks outside of the community can see the event, but when they go to RSVP, they will be prompted to join your community as a free member. | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Members of the community can RSVP, but there doesn't appear to be any way to make an event in a paid community available to the public. Event functionality appears to be rather basic, no native streaming, and no customization around email reminders and timing. |
Video / Livestream / Broadcasting | ✅ Broadcasting video (one or multiple speakers broadcasting to an audience like FB Live) on Professional and Enterprise Plan. ✅ Live rooms (like zoom) 🔔 Automated transcriptions | ❌ No broadcasting ❌ No live rooms |
Member Segmentation | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ You may segment members of your community in three ways, though frankly these features have been layered over each other without thoughtful planning for member segmentation: member tags, profile fields, and through invite links. Tags: Tag members with a title and emoji that can be private or public on their profile. Profile fields: Identify different types of members with a dropdown field for member type (available with Pro and above). Invite link: Create a new invite link with access to only specific spaces. | ⭐️ ⭐️ Skool does not allow you to customize segmentation, but it automatically segments folks in a specific course or at a specific level for you. |
Public vs. Private | A circle community can either be public or private. If public, then each space in Circle can be: ✅ Open: Anyone in my community can see and join this space. ✅ Private: Invited members only.Non-members will see a locked page, which you can customize in space settings. ✅ Secret: Invited members only.Non-members will not see this space. 🏅 Best for communities that want to have a combination of public and private conversation and use SEO to draw people into the paid part of the community. | ✅ Communities can either be free to join (public) or paid to join (private). ❌ There does not appear to be any way to customize certain elements of a paid community as free. It seems like most creators who want to do this will have a free community and then a separate paid community. |
Email Notifications | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ In Circle, you can customize email notifications for each space and members can also toggle emails on and off. There is a weekly digest available to send to members as well. | ⭐️ I don't see any way to customize the email notification settings for your members in Skool. |
Member Directory | ⭐️⭐️⭐️Circle communities have a directory with profile information and the option to enable direct messaging to connect with other members. | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Skool's discoverability hinges in part on their members directory. Your member profile exists independently of the communities you are a part of. In each member profile you can see the communities they own and the communities they have memberships to. |
Matching or Meetup Feature | ❌ no matchups | ❌ No matchups |
Pricing + Plans | $99/month |
Compare the Member Experience and Onboarding in Circle vs. Skool
Member Onboarding Features | Circle | Skool |
|---|---|---|
Community Marketing Page | Circle does have a very basic custom description on the checkout page for the community. | Skool does have a very basic custom description available in the about page, which folks see if they haven't joined. |
Onboarding Emails | ✅ Circle allows you to customize the onboarding email that is sent with the invitation to join Circle. | ❌ Skool does not allow you to customize onboarding emails to your members. |
Application to Join | ❌ Circle does not have a custom application - you have to do this separately and use integrations to connect with the platform. They do have custom profile fields available with the business plan. | ❌ Skool does allow you to customize questions to join the group. |
Paywalls | ✅ Circle allows you to collect payments in your community through Stripe. | ✅ Skool allows you to collect payments in your community through Stripe. |
Conversion Tracking | ✅ Conversion tracking in the professional plan and up | ✅ Skool has a plugin for meta pixel tracking and google ads tracking. |
Referral/Affiliate Program | ✅ Circle has an affiliate program feature where you can reward members in a % or flat rate for referring new members. | ✅ Skool gives you an affiliate link to refer folks to Skool, but they do not appear to have a way for folks in your community to refer affiliates to your community (only to skool). |
Accessibility | Circle is finally working to ensure they adhere to the WCAG2 (not quite there yet, but making strides in their latest updates). | Skool doesn't have any information on their WCAG rating. |
Compare Customization Abilities in Circle vs. Skool
Customization Feature | Circle | Skool |
|---|---|---|
Custom logo and brand colors | ✅ In all plans | ✅ you get a custom logo and cover photo |
White-label Platform | ✅ Professional and Enterprise Plan | ❌ |
Custom App | ✅ Circle Plus offers a custom, white-label community app | ❌ |
Custom Sub-domain | ✅ | ❌ you can customize your url, but not the subdomain |
Email White-labeling | ✅ with the pro plan and above you can white-label emails | ❌ |
Custom Profile Fields | ✅ Circle has customizable profile fields when a member fills out their profile. This feature is an add-on price | ❌ |
Custom Emojis | ✅ | ❌ |
Custom Code Snippets (CSS) | ✅ In all plans | ❌ |
Compare Additional Tech Features in Circle and Skool
Other Features | Circle | Skool |
|---|---|---|
Integrations | ✅ Open API for Pro and above ✅ Tons of Zapier + Integrately Integrations available in the Pro and above accounts | ✅ Zapier API with 2 triggers and 2 actions (very limited) |
Native Automations/ Workflows | ✅ Circle offers a workflow feature directly in the platform with the business plan and above. | ❌ |
AI | ✅ Circle has an AI features available for the Business Plan | ❌ |
Gamification | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Circle recently released their gamification tool in their Circle 3.0 update. It's a super simple structure with 9 levels you can customize the names of. | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Skool is known for and usually selected for their gamification tools. You can customize the title for nine levels and upon reaching a new level, unlock a new course. If gamification is the most important thing to you, this is the platform for you. |
Moderation | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ In Circle, you have access to admin and moderator roles. You cannot customize the moderator permissions and the number of spots is limited depending on the plan. | ❌ I don't see a good way to introduce moderators into your community. Members can report posts. |
Warnings, profanity filters, and reporting content | ✅ In Circle you can set up profanity filters. If a post includes them, it must be approved by a moderator first. | ❌ |
SEO | ✅ Each Circle space has the option to be made public, private, or secret. For public spaces, you can customize SEO features and the space can even be embedded in a page on your website. | ❌ Skool does not have functionality for optimizing SEO, but it does appear that content in free communities shows up on google. |
Analytics | ✅ Analytics are available for professional and enterprise plans. Professional analytics include:Member analytics: daily active members, 30 day active members, top members, active commenters, post starters, most appreciated (likes received).Posts: # posts per day, # comments per day, top posts + comments in likes.Messages: # direct messages sent, # new direct messages, group chats, new group chats. | ✅ Skool comes with metrics tracking active members, daily activity, and total members. Gamification tracks what % of your members are at each level |
SSO | ✅ Available in Business Plan | ✅ |
Mobile | ✅ iOs App ✅Android App | ✅ iOs App ✅ Android App |
Polls in Posts | ✅ | ✅ |
Search | ✅ Search bar ✅ Filters in search bar | ✅ Search bar ❌ Filters in search bar |
Resources for Community Building | The Circle Community (for people who are building communities on Circle) has a plethora of knowledge and experts willing to jump in to answer questions. The content tends to be difficult to sort through in a linear fashion (something we know they are working on). | Skool Community (for people who are building communities in Skool) appears to be primarily a place for Skool to gather product feedback and make announcements, as well as get access to free courses for how to use Skool. |
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