Circle is community.
Simplero is the whole business.
Circle does community well — and charges 1–2% on every paid transaction, plus $89–$199/month. To run an actual business on top of it, you still need email, a course platform, a CRM, and a checkout system. Simplero ships all of it in one platform, with 0% transaction fees on every plan.
The stack math.
Circle is one tool. Simplero is the platform.
Running a paid community on Circle Professional
At $5,000/month in community revenue:
Sources: circle.so/pricing (Professional $89/mo annual + 2% fee, Business $199/mo annual + 1% fee, Plus custom + 0.5% fee).
Circle is a community tool.
That's all it is.
Transaction fees on every plan.
Circle charges 2% on Professional ($89/mo annual), 1% on Business ($199/mo annual), and 0.5% on Plus (custom enterprise pricing). Forever. On every paid membership, every course sale, every event ticket. Simplero charges 0% on every plan.
AI Agents are Plus-only.
Circle's AI Agents — the autonomous AI feature most prospects show up for — are only included on Circle Plus, which is enterprise custom pricing. Workflows, full API access, and removing Circle branding also require Business ($199/mo) or Plus. Simplero ships AI transcripts, AI search, and custom AI bots on Skyrocket.
Email and courses are recent bolt-ons.
Circle added an Email Hub and basic courses in 2024. They're not the core of the product. Most Circle customers still use ConvertKit/Kit or Mailchimp for email, Kajabi or Teachable for courses, and a separate CRM. Simplero has been all-in-one since 2009.
Circle + ConvertKit + Kajabi + Stripe + Zapier = $200–$350/mo and 5 logins.
Simplero replaces all of them. One platform. $59/month, 0% fees.
What Circle users say.
“Before, I was managing conversations across multiple platforms like Facebook groups, Slack, and Zoom, which was chaotic. With Circle, everything is structured and in one place, making it easier to engage members, run events, and scale the community.”
“The pricing is the elephant in the room. The transaction fees especially feel like a tax on growth.”
“When I went to contact customer service, I had to contact the community itself (not Circle) asking them to remove me. Platform deletes your work, dangerous for your business and community.”
“At $99/mo for the basic Professional plan plus 2% transaction fees, Circle gets expensive fast once your community starts actually making money.”
“You'll need to combine Circle with other tools like a course platform, email marketing, and a CRM to run a complete business.”
“I don't appreciate the limitations. My network is not paying for itself yet but the features would make it better in the next tier... however, it's far too costly when it's not paying for itself. It means I have to do more work for now.”
Side by side.
Whole platform vs whole platform.
| Circle | Simplero | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans available | Professional $89/mo · Business $199/mo · Plus (custom enterprise) | Starter $59/mo · Scale $149/mo · Skyrocket $249/mo |
| Transaction fees | 2% on Professional · 1% on Business · 0.5% on Plus | 0% on every plan, every processor, every sale |
| Community + members | ✓ Strong native community | ✓ Native community, forums, posts, events on every plan |
| Courses | Basic native courses (added 2024) | Full course platform with drip, quizzes, certificates, completion tracking |
| Email marketing | Email Hub (separate billing, added 2024). Most users still use ConvertKit/Kit. | Full email + automations + segmentation included on every plan |
| CRM | — No native CRM | Full native CRM on every plan |
| Affiliate program | — No native affiliate management | Native affiliate management on Scale ($149/mo) and above |
| Native checkout / payments | Yes, but with 1–2% transaction fees layered on top of Stripe fees | Native checkout. 0% Simplero fees on top of your processor. |
| Website / landing pages | Limited — community pages only | Full drag-and-drop page builder. Multi-site. |
| Automations / workflows | AI Workflows on Business ($199/mo) and above | Native automations + triggers on every plan |
| AI Agents | Plus-only (custom enterprise pricing) | AI transcripts & subtitles, AI-enhanced search, custom AI bots, Simplero.coach AI coaching |
| Custom domain / no Circle branding | Business ($199/mo) and above only | Custom domain on every plan. Your brand, not ours. |
| API access | Business ($199/mo) and above only | API on every plan |
| Tools you still need | Email tool, course platform, CRM, affiliate tool, automation glue (Zapier) — $100–$250/mo on top of Circle | None. Everything is in the platform. |
| Support | Email tickets. Priority support on Plus only. | Real humans answer fast on every plan. 232 of 289 testimonials mention support. |
| Company | VC-backed startup. Aggressive growth + enterprise focus. | Founded 2009. Bootstrapped. Profitable. Independent. |
If community is the only thing you need, Circle is good at community. If you're running a business — with email, courses, CRM, checkout, and automations — you're going to assemble a stack around Circle. Simplero is the stack, in one platform, for less.
The difference that doesn't
fit in a feature matrix.
Circle's 1–2% transaction fee is forever. On every paid membership renewal, every course sale, every event ticket. The bigger your community gets, the more Circle takes. Simplero is 0% on every plan, every processor — we don't take a percentage of what you build.
Circle's most-talked-about feature — AI Agents — is locked behind enterprise Plus pricing. Workflows, custom branding, and API are gated behind the $199/mo Business tier. Simplero's whole platform is available from $59/month, and AI features ship on Skyrocket without enterprise sales calls.
Circle has had layoffs and is pivoting toward enterprise (where the bigger contracts are). Simplero has been bootstrapped since 2009, profitable, and aimed squarely at independent creators and coaches. Calvin still answers customer emails. We're not going anywhere, and we're not pivoting away from you.
Founded 2009 · Bootstrapped · Proud of it.
What Simplero
customers say.
“I scored 12 platforms on a spreadsheet. Simplero won. I have never worked with a software company whose support team is fast, courteous, and knows what they're talking about.”
“When I found Simplero, it literally changed my life. I migrated my entire business and never looked back. My income tripled, quadrupled in the last six years.”
“I ended up paying my annual plan for Simplero in what I was paying for one month of all my subscriptions. And I had it just in one place.”
“Over the years Simplero has become increasingly easier to use. What I love most is access to personal professional support. There are no chatbot-gates you have to get through to get support from an actual human.”
Simple, honest
pricing.
Starter
$59 /mo
billed annually · or $70/mo monthly
Community, courses, email, payments, website, automations — all in one from day one. 500 contacts. 0% transaction fees.
Choose StarterScale ✦
$149 /mo
billed annually · or $179/mo monthly
Unlimited products, courses, sites. Affiliates, help desk, upsells, API. Where most growing businesses land. 0% transaction fees.
Choose ScaleSkyrocket
$249 /mo
billed annually · or $299/mo monthly
Everything in Scale plus unlimited storage, AI transcripts, custom AI bots, split testing, sales pipelines. The full platform. 0% transaction fees.
Choose SkyrocketAll plans include email delivery, video hosting, and zero transaction fees. Pay annually, save 17%.
Stop renting your community.
Own the whole platform.
14 days. Every feature unlocked. We'll help you migrate from Circle, answer questions in plain English, and won't charge you a percentage of your community revenue — ever.
Founded 2009 · Bootstrapped · Proud of it.
Make it simplero™
