Circle.so might be exactly what you need for your online community, membership or digital course. Below I’ll share my own experience with hosting a community on Circle.so, as well as give you a Circle review for online coaches!
If you aspire to create a community space online, you may be looking at Circle as one of your options.
What is Circle.so?
Primary, Circle.so is a community platform. It’s your chance to move away from places like Facebook groups and create a more aligned platform, based on your and your audience’s needs.
Circle.so offers a variety of options beyond community spaces, now also including online course creation and built-in Lives.
It’s an absolute pleasure to work with!
Circle review for online coaches
What are Circle.so features?
Community
As already mentioned, the key feature of Circle.so is the community space: you can create a variety of Spaces which then can cover different range of topics.
You can allow your audience to create new posts or choose Spaces where this feature will not be available and they will have a chance to chat only in the comments.
This is the ONLY feature that will be available for the lowest paid plan. But the community space is so versatile that you can still easily share all of your content in a way that works for you.
Insight in the previous setup of Your Course Creation Membership.
Courses
On the higher plan, starting from $99/m, you can also have the option to choose a course specific space layout.
Compared to the regular Community space, Course layout is focused on your audience going through the lessons of the curriculum and marking them as done along the way.
Circle.so will host your videos, therefore, you don’t have to pay extra to upload and embed videos from elsewhere but each plan will have its limitations so look out for that.
The downside would be lack of various content support. The primary supported content is video.
Lives
One of the best features of Circle.so is an option to host Lives inside the community space.
No more Zoom calls – now you can host your Live chats in a well-designed and pretty community space. Plus they get automatically saved and shared within the space of your choice.
Another great feature is that you can choose between a Stream and a Room: Live Stream is you presenting the content vs Live Room is a chance for a group discussion where everyone can participate in the process.
Payment walls and memberships
Yes, you can charge for your community. The Payment walls are diverse enough to give you plenty of options to choose from: from one-time payment to monthly, quarterly and even daily payments. You can also use coupon codes.
Plus various paywalls can have various access levels – this means that you can combine several offers within one community space.
Is Circle.so good for hosting courses?
One thing is to have a course feature. A whole another question is: is it any good?
The truth is, I really like the layout of Circle.so course feature. While there are not many customization options, it’s a clean, nice-looking space that does its job.
However, it’s also extremely simple and if your focus is on selling courses, choosing one of the alternatives might be a better way to go – they will provide more insights in the user experiences and more diverse setup options.
For example, if you are seeking for a more course-focused platform, consider Thinkific or Teachable instead. Both have slightly more features when it comes to a variety of content to upload, quizzes and similar.
Inside Circle’s course feature, you can upload the content, upload some additional files, add the text, enable/disable downloads and enable/disable comments. That’s about it.
Related read: Circle vs Skool for online community platform
What are the downsides of Circle.so?
One of the reasons why I wanted to create this Circle review for online coaches is to showcase how there really never is that one golden platform.
Is Circle the single best course or community platform out there? Not at all. Just like any platform, it has its pros and cons. So let’s look into some of the downsides of Circle.
You’ve got to be creative
You can do a lot with the platform but often the solutions are not as straightforward so you’ve got to get creative. It might be a hustle if you want for things to be done fast and avoid the trial and error time…
There are no page builders
Probably the biggest downside for many will be the simple fact that you can’t create a sales page directly on Circle.so. Therefore, if you want to create landing pages for your offers, you have to use your own website or additional landing page platforms to get it done.
It can be quite pricey
If you want to use Course + Live features, you’re looking at $99/monthly. It can be a lot if you still have to add in a separate email marketing platform and a place where you can set up your landing pages…
However, as always, it really depends on what are your specific preferences and must-have’s.
When Circle.so might be the perfect fit for your business?
Keep in mind that Circle’s key focus is the community space. Therefore, the answer to why one would choose Circle over anything else is rather simple: if the community aspect is the key element of your offer.
For example, if you’re selling a membership where Live content and a forum space is the key to your user experience and Course or additional video content is just a bonus – Circle might be the best bet for you.
But if pre-recorded content is your primary focus and the community aspect is just the added bonus – there might be better options out there for you.
To learn more and stay connected:
- Connect with me on Instagram @coursecreationlab
- Make your online course happen with Course Creation Bootcamp
- Listen to the Savvy Offer Hub podcast
