In the online marketing world, few options for building a business are more gratifying than creating a community. Bringing people together from all over the world, and with so many different life experiences, is an incredible experience. Community building sounds easy in theory, but you need to find the right place to host said community. Many options exist, and I have used many of these options. Two standout solutions available for community building today include Circle and Skool.
In this guide, I want to break down:
Hopefully, this guide will help you appreciate what both Circle and Skool have to offer when crafting and creating your community. Let’s get started!
Knowing how other users have rated a platform is very important to me and likely to you, too. Here are some direct user ratings I found elsewhere to help you understand more than just my opinion.
Skool has many reviews, and the vast majority are positive about the service. Expert platforms like CoursePlatformsReview provided a glowing reference for Skool. As I have, they praised the ease of community development, the excellent user experience, and the ease of creating courses.
However, this review and others note that Skool lacks some expected features, such as video hosting. On the other hand, it has a super smooth Vimeo integration: I uploaded all my course videos to Vimeo and embedded them with a link as course videos on Skool. My other primary complaint is that while Skool is probably more ‘beginner-friendly’, it lacks advanced course creation tools. For a community management tool, though, Skool is excellent.
Circle is highly rated, with a growing number of reviews for Circle on platforms like Capterra. The average review score was 4.8/5. Some users compared Circle more to something like Facebook Groups than Skool. Most rated Circle as a platform that provided easy access to key features for community development.
On the negative side, though, some argued the continual updates had a habit of breaking features. Others also complained about the poor level of analytics provided – which I felt Skool did a great job providing.
Value for money is everything when creating a community. The price structure for both Circle and Skool is quite simple – so what provides you with the better price overall?
Skool starts at $99 per month, with a free trial, which is a flat rate. No extra fees or add-ons are included. There is no ‘premium’ option or similar. This makes Skool very affordable as you get all its features with nothing hidden behind paywalls or ‘Pro’ accounts.
I believe Skool offers some of the best value for money if you are looking to build a course that is easy to access, run through, and enjoy for your community. If you are building just a community without a course, other options might be cheaper.
Circle has a more complex, three-tier pricing setup. It is a little cheaper at $89.99 monthly, and it also provides a free trial. However, the ‘Professional’ service is relatively limited in what it offers compared to the other ‘Business’ and ‘Enterprise’ models. These, though, cost far more.
Business pricing starts at $219/month, while Enterprise pricing is $399/month. You get far more features for your money, but I found that Skool offered a greater sense of value. Circle is arguably not worth the cost if you build a solely course-focused community. If you run a community that needs more advanced features, Circle might offer greater long-term value due to scalability.
The user experience is important to me when creating a happy, positive community. What tends to provide the best overall user experience between Circle and Skool?
The user experience at Skool is excellent. So many things about Skool make it intuitive, simple, and easy to use. Despite lacking one or two key features, such as video hosting and course-building templates, Skool is simple to learn and master. In general, I found that:
If you are looking for a platform that allows you to create courses that get users involved, Skool is great. I found it easy to build courses quickly, without access to templates and other ‘expected’ features. The lack of requirement to integrate with other third parties is also a great feature. Overall, I am impressed with the user experience I have enjoyed using Circle.
Other reviews and interactions with fellow Skool users via the Skool Community provide the same response. While some, like me, are frustrated at the lack of some expected features, there is more than enough in Skool to build an engaging community quickly and easily.
The user experience I had with Circle was good, but I have to say that it is more confusing than Skool. If you are new to building a course and/or running a community, Circle can initially feel daunting. Especially regarding course building, it lacks some key features I would be looking for. In terms of advanced features and functionality, though, Circle is a brilliant tool. I liked the fact that:
However, despite the above, Circle's less detailed course creation and hosting is a real negative. Circle is great if you want to build a community you can market to and build authority within. Circle is not the right choice if your main marketing method is providing or selling a course. It does have a native course builder, but it is not really as in-depth or as effective as what Skool can offer, in my opinion.
It was very easy to use, though, with a great overall user experience. Unfortunately, Circle did not provide the root function – course creation and hosting – I needed.
Both platforms offer a great range of essential functions and features. I have used both to a considerable degree, so what are the best features of Skool and Circle?
Skool has many user features that simplify your course and community creation. Generally, the most important features I found in Skool included:
Circle also has some tremendous user features that I felt were great for building a community. This includes:
You can host live events on Circle, but not Skool. Video hosting is one of Skool’s main weaknesses, though this is expected to change as the platform develops.
Yes, both offer a monthly feature. You can also choose to pay for Circle using the annual feature – this takes the cost in one lump sum, saving you a little money at the same time.
I love it. I think it has great community and course-building features. Yes, it might lack some ‘advanced’ features, but for those building their first course-led community, Skool is excellent.
I like it, yes. It is not perfect, but it offers a great community-building platform that should work in your favour. The simplicity of use makes it great for hosting communities covering multiple topics.
You can host videos with your course on Circle, but not on Skool. This is one of the main benefits of using Circle over Skool, though I prefer Skool’s course builder overall.
Choosing what is ‘better’ comes down to what you are building. Circle might offer a course-building option, for example, but in my opinion, it is not as effective as Skool’s course-building. Skool is primarily aimed at course-led communities, though. If that is your goal, and you are not looking for the most advanced features, Skool offers more than enough to get you started.
Simplicity is the main selling point of Skool, but that does come at the cost of some more advanced features you might require later on down the line. Circle is better for those looking to build a community they can monetise in other ways. Its course-building system is simple but probably not as easy to use (to a high standard) as Skool.
Overall, I have a lot of time for both systems. If I were to go about building a course, though, I would rely on the ease of use of Skool. If I considered building a more advanced community that I expect to need more functions, I might consider Circle. Both, though, are outstanding platforms!
While you might consider Circle vs Skool the two main options, some great alternatives exist. I have previously used various platforms, including Mighty Networks, Kajabi, Circle, ClickFunnels and Teachable. I have also had some time using options such as Thinkific, Podia, Slack, Discord, and Facebook Groups.
So, you are not left with a choice of Circle or Skool. There are some other great options out there. In my personal experience, though, Skool is probably the most effective, user-friendly option. As I noted above, Skool offers the best blend of features and functionality unless you need something extremely specific or more advanced.
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