5 Circle alternatives in 2026, compared on total cost and AI access
The plan is $89. The bill is the plan, plus the fee, plus the email add-on, plus the tier that unlocks automation.
Why people leave Circle
- The fee never reaches zero. 2% at $89 Professional, 1% at $199 Business, 0.5% on custom-priced Circle Plus. At $20,000 of monthly sales, the fee adds $400 on top of the plan. The page does not say whether card processing sits inside it (circle.so/pricing).
- Email is a separate purchase. Email Hub is +$99 a month for 10,000 contacts, “charged on top of community plan”, and included only on Circle Plus.
- Automation and agent access sit behind $199. Professional caps workflows at 20; unlimited workflows, the API and the agent all start on Business, metered at 5,000 tool calls a month (api.circle.so/mcp).
- The floor moved. The old $39 to $49 Basic tier was retired in 2024, which is what made $89 the entry point (schoolmaker.com).
The five, in one table
| Platform | From | Cut of your sales | Courses | Agent access | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circle (yours) | $89 | 2% at $89, 1% at $199, 0.5% on Circle Plus | Add-on, +$99/mo for 10,000 contacts | Reviewers describe as thin | Business $199, 5,000 calls/mo |
| AXL | $49 Starter | 0% | Included allowance by plan, then $0.0006 per email | Graded, certificates, cohorts | Included on every plan |
| Skool | $9 | 10% Hobby / 2.9% Pro | None reported | Unlimited, simple | No public API found |
| Kajabi | $179 | 0% on Kajabi Payments; 5% down to 0.5% with your own | Unlimited | 5 on Basic | Every plan, drafts only |
| Thinkific | $54 | 0% on Thinkific Payments; 5% down to 0.5% with your own provider where applicable | No nurture sequences reported | Unlimited | Plus only, read-only, rolling out |
| ClickFunnels | $97 | 0% | 50,000 sends/mo on Launch | 3 on Launch | Scale $197, technical preview |
What each one is good at
AXL: if an agent should run it
Puts the four line items Circle sells separately (community, email, automation and agent access) on one bill with no cut of your sales. Space permissions are CRM filters, so tiers maintain themselves. Plans start at $49/month.
The catch: Circle's community experience is better than ours, and it ships branded mobile apps we do not. AXL vs Circle →
Skool: one price, one feature set
Unlimited members, courses and live calls, engagement mechanics nothing else here matches, and Discover putting your group in front of searchers. $9 Hobby at 10% or $99 Pro at 2.9%, identical apart from the rake (skool.com/pricing).
The catch: no public API, email marketing or member tagging found, and the rake is higher than Circle's; this is a simplicity trade, not a cost one.
Kajabi: a polished paid membership
Memberships, courses, coaching, newsletters and podcasts under one brand, with unlimited marketing email and an agent on every plan. $179 / $249 / $499 (kajabi.com/pricing).
The catch: twice Circle's entry price, contacts metered from 250, one community below Pro, and agent writes that land as drafts.
Thinkific: if members pay for the curriculum
Unlimited courses on every tier, communities attached, and SCORM on Plus. Basic is $54, Start $109, Grow $219 and Expand $499 a month (thinkific.com/pricing, checked 21 August 2026).
The catch: communities capped by tier, memberships and certificates excluded from Basic, and a Plus-only, read-only agent that is still rolling out.
ClickFunnels: if the membership is an offer
Funnels, checkout, bumps and one-click upsells, with 10,000 contacts and 50,000 emails a month on the entry plan and no cut of your sales. $97 / $197 / $297 (clickfunnels.com/pricing).
The catch: courses capped at 3 on Launch, reviewers report no student-side community, and its MCP server is a $197-tier technical preview.
Your reason for leaving, and where it points
| Leaving because… | Pick |
|---|---|
| The transaction fee | AXL, ClickFunnels, or Kajabi on Kajabi Payments: all 0% |
| Paying $99 a month extra for email | AXL or Kajabi: both include it in the plan |
| Automation and API behind the $199 tier | AXL: included on every account |
| You want simpler and cheaper, not bigger | Skool |
| You need certificates and graded assessment | AXL or Thinkific |
| The community experience itself is what you value | Stay. Threads, live rooms, events and branded apps are its actual product |
Where AXL fits, and where it does not
It fits the Circle owner whose spreadsheet has four lines on it (plan, fee, email add-on, tier upgrade) and whose members also buy courses and move through a pipeline.
It does not fit a community judged on its own experience. If members pay for the space rather than for what you teach in it, the move is a downgrade dressed as a saving.
Moving off Circle
- Members Imported as contacts, CSV or XLSX
- Space structure Rebuilt; permissions become CRM filters
- Courses Rebuilt by an agent
- Posts, comments, events Do not transfer
Shipping a branded mobile app through Circle is a blocker, not a task.
The migration checklist →What does Circle actually cost per month?
$89 Professional or $199 Business, plus 2% or 1% of sales respectively, plus $99 for Email Hub. That makes an $89 community selling $10,000 a month and sending email cost $388 (circle.so/pricing). Pair each rate with its own tier: 0.5% belongs to custom-priced Circle Plus, never to the $199 plan. Circle's page does not say whether card processing sits inside those percentages, so we model none of them as all-in.
Try the replacement before you cancel anything.
Import the members and rebuild one space while the old community still runs. Plans start at $49 a month, with included usage and published overage rates.
Also weighing something else? Skool alternatives · Kajabi alternatives
Competitor pricing is verified against each vendor's own page. We re-check quarterly. Spot an error? Tell us and we will fix it within a week.