Circle vs Forumbee
Circle
circle.soForumbee
forumbee.comSide by side
| Figure | Circle | Forumbee |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $89/mo | $50/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 10 |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 8.9 (#2) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 8.9 (#10) | 8.7 (#19) |
| Spec score · Customer Community Software | 8.9 (#3) | 9.1 (#2) |
| Event hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Integrations | Circle lists integrations including Airtable, Google Sheets, Memberstack, WordPress, Memberful, Typeform, and Slack through native connections, embeds, snippets, or Zapier. | The pricing page names Slack, Google Analytics, Front, Zendesk and other integrations. |
| Mobile apps | both | none |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The pricing page lists standard support for Professional and Business, priority support for Scale, and premium support for Circle Plus. | The Premium plan includes email support, while the Enterprise plan includes a dedicated success manager with an annual subscription. |
| What it does | Circle brings community, content, events, courses, payments, email, and website tools together on one platform. | Forumbee is a cloud platform for branded communities combining forums, Q&A, knowledge-base content and idea collection. |
Plans
Circle
- Professional$89 a month
- Business$199 a month
- Scale$419 a month
- Circle PlusPriced on request
Forumbee
- Premium$250 a month
- Enterprise$750 a month
- Additional Admin Users$50 a month
- Additional Members$100 a month
- Professional Services$200 a month
- Personalized Training$300, paid once
- Assisted Account Setup Package$1,500, paid once
- Custom Theme Package$3,500, paid once
- Gamification Module$4,200 a year
- Custom PlanPriced on request
In their own words
Circle
Circle brings community, content, events, courses, payments, email and website tools into one platform. Its community features include discussions, chat, member profiles and directories, gamification and analytics. Courses can be self-paced, structured or scheduled, with sections, lessons and quizzes. Events, live streams and live rooms include Q&A, attendee participation and session recordings. Circle lists integrations such as Airtable, Google Sheets, Memberstack, WordPress, Memberful, Typeform and Slack through native connections, embeds, snippets or Zapier. It offers Admin and Headless Member APIs, with request limits varying by plan. Access includes Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and web; desktop apps are available to communities on all plans. Professional costs $89 a month with annual billing, Business costs $199 a month with annual billing, and Scale costs $419 a month with annual billing. A 14-day trial is listed, but there is no free plan. The pricing comparison lists live-stream attendee caps of 100, 200 and 500 for Professional, Business and Scale, respectively.