Circle vs Meetup

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.

Meetup helps people discover local groups and events built around shared interests, while giving organizers tools to create and manage communities. Membership is free, and the service runs on Android, iOS, web, and an API. Organizers can create groups and events, communicate with members, and appoint a leadership team. The mobile app supports event discovery, group discovery, post-event contact, group management, and event planning. Meetup provides private spaces and moderation tools. Listed organizer plans range from Starter, with one group, unlimited members, two in-person events per month, and 10 attendees per event, to Standard with three groups and unlimited events and attendees, and Pro with unlimited groups, events, and attendees. Standard Organizer subscription is $29.99 a month, while PRO Organizer subscription is $47 a month billed every six months per group. Prices can vary by location and offers. Meetup Pro adds attendee email access, custom registration forms, exports, Mailchimp integration, and community insights.