Circle vs SocialEngine
Circle
circle.soSocialEngine
socialengine.comSide by side
| Figure | Circle | SocialEngine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $89/mo | $29/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 15 |
| Spec score · Social Networking Software | 8.8 (#1) | 6.7 (#24) |
| Spec score · Community Building Platforms | 8.9 (#2) | 6.8 (#26) |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 8.9 (#10) | 7.5 (#89) |
| Event hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Mobile apps | both | both |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes | Yes |
| Paid from | 89 | 29 |
Plans
Circle
- Professional$89 a month
- Business$199 a month
- Scale$419 a month
- Circle PlusPriced on request
SocialEngine
- Development$29 a month
- Early Stage$49 a month
- Startup$99 a month
- Growth$149 a month
- Expanding$199 a month
- Professional$349 a month
- EnterprisePrice not published
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Essential$199 a month
- Essential$199, paid once
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.
SocialEngine
SocialEngine is a paid platform for building online communities on the web, iOS, and Android. It provides event hosting, private spaces, and moderation tools, with mobile apps for members. Cloud plans are billed monthly. Development costs $29 a month and allows five active users with 1 GB memory, 2 TB transfer, 40 GB SSD disk, and a two-core processor. Higher cloud tiers include Early Stage at $49 a month, Startup at 99.00 USD, Growth at 149.00 USD, Expanding at 199.00 USD, and Professional at 349.00 USD, each with different infrastructure allocations and, on some plans, staging sites. Self-hosted Essential and Advanced licenses are listed at $199 a month and $399 a month respectively, each for one domain; the fee is described as one-time. SocialEngine was founded in 2007. There is a 14-day trial and no free plan.