There are many online platforms for building communities, and picking the right one can be stressful! We do extensive research and analysis to help you out.
I’ve tested Kajabi and Circle to see where each platform shines and where they could improve. Let’s explore how they compare.
Kajabi is a comprehensive platform made for digital entrepreneurs who want to build a successful business with their digital products. It includes a course creator, a community hub, and powerful marketing tools, making it a strong alternative to many tools in your marketing technology stack.
On the rise is Circle, a new competitor. This platform focuses on community building and is perfect for creators and knowledge-based entrepreneurs aiming to create a vibrant online community centered around their expertise.
In this article, we’re comparing Kajabi and Circle.so. Stick around to see which community platform fits your business needs best.
Here’s what we’ll explore:
- A brief overview of Circle.so and Kajabi
- How to build and manage a community
- Creating courses
- Tools for reporting and analytics
- Available integrations
- Pricing details
We’ve got more to cover, so let’s dive in!
An overview: Circle.so vs. Kajabi
What is Circle.so?
Circle is a comprehensive community platform launched in 2019 by Sid Yadav, the first designer at Teachable. Ankur Nagpal, who was also a key figure at Teachable, backed Circle after Teachable was sold to HotMart in 2020.
Circle has become popular thanks to its solid performance and is currently valued at $200 million. It’s considered the top community platform that I recommend!
Built with first principles thinking, Circle offers a modular design similar to modern startups like Notion and Slack. Unlike traditional platforms such as Mighty Networks, Circle focuses heavily on user experience, seamless integrations, and automation.
They quickly introduce groundbreaking features, and their roots in the Teachable founding team boost my confidence in this platform.
Who Can Use Circle?
Circle is all about building communities. It helps creators and brands bring people together online. You can use it to share posts and articles, upload online courses, host live streams or events, and interact with community members.
With Circle, you can create a personalized community space. Brands have full control over the look and feel of their community and can easily attract new members. This makes Circle a favorite for big brands and influencers, though it’s open to everyone.
How Does Circle Work?
Circle uses a flexible method for managing communities, similar to platforms like Slack. Starting with Circle is simple. You just need to create an account, set up your community, and link it to a domain or subdomain.
The platform provides ways to make money and offers tools to connect your community with your current content management system. This means if you have a WordPress blog or an online learning platform, you can still benefit from Circle’s features.
What is Kajabi?
Kajabi started in 2010 when Kenny Rueter struggled to earn money from YouTube videos. Since then, Kajabi’s goal has been to support entrepreneurs and course creators by offering a complete platform to build, market, and sell digital products.
Today, Kajabi includes a variety of features like selling online courses, offering coaching, hosting podcasts, building communities, and managing email marketing. One standout feature is its automation engine, which integrates all these tools in one place, much like having Zapier built into Kajabi.
Over the years, Kajabi has raised a significant amount of funding and is now valued at around $2 billion. This financial success has allowed them to expand their team and make strategic acquisitions to introduce impressive new features. They’re well-equipped for growth!
Who Can Use Kajabi?
Kajabi is perfect for creators looking to make money from their communities. It’s often used for online courses, but there are many other possibilities. For instance, life coaches can conduct one-on-one sessions, while podcasters and bloggers can use its tools to connect with their audience. The platform’s features for building websites, communities, and sales systems are beneficial for numerous coaching businesses.
Take Kerry Marshall JR, a guitarist and the creator of “Kerry’s Kamp.” He teaches people of all ages to play guitar and has made over $400k from his courses. Another example is Julie Soul of “Soul Sparklettes Art.” As a homeschooling mom, Julie earns $700,000 annually, sharing her art curriculum and knowledge with fewer than 10k followers.
Kajabi provides flexible tools for creators in different areas. It helps them connect with their audience and earn good money.
How Does Kajabi Work?
Kajabi helps you sell courses and memberships effortlessly. If you’re offering courses, you can choose to give full access all at once or distribute the content over time, like weekly lessons. Additionally, you can create bundles of courses. This way, you could offer an annual membership that lets users access various courses and earn a certificate after completing everything.
Kajabi’s flexibility allows you to tailor your content delivery to match your audience’s needs and preferences, keeping them engaged and motivated throughout their learning journey.
If you’re exploring Kajabi’s capabilities, you might also want to consider how it stacks up against ClickFunnels for sales funnels. Our comparison of Kajabi vs ClickFunnels provides insights into their key features to help you choose the right platform for your business needs.
Kajabi vs. Circle: Online Communities Comparison
When comparing Kajabi and Circle, the main difference lies in their community features. Circle offers more advanced options, while Kajabi provides simpler ones. Both platforms aim to increase engagement. However, they use different approaches to achieve this goal.
Community Structures: Kajabi Circles vs Circle Spaces
Kajabi organizes its communities using “Circles.” These Circles are user-friendly but somewhat limited. They help group members and create areas for interaction, such as a feed where users can post content and engage. There is also a chat space for real-time discussions. However, the Kajabi feed is quite basic. Users can share posts, images, videos, and other media, and react with comments or emojis.
In contrast, Circle uses “Spaces” to organize communities with more flexibility. Circle is specifically designed for building online communities. This design makes it easier to manage these spaces without switching between interfaces. You can mix and match different types of Spaces like posts, events, chats, courses, or a member directory. This allows for a more interactive community experience.
Circle offers more engagement options than Kajabi. For example, you can lock content or make certain Spaces exclusive to paying members. This feature provides more ways to engage users effectively.
Member Profiles: Basic vs Advanced
Kajabi’s member profiles are quite basic. They display simple information like interests, social media links, and the Circles members have joined.
On the other hand, Circle provides more detailed profiles. These include personal bios and a list of Spaces the member is part of. Recent posts, comments, and a timestamp of their latest activity are also shown.
Additionally, members can directly message each other. This feature makes the community function more like a social network, encouraging more interaction.
Content Sharing: Circle’s Enhanced Editor
Both platforms let members share content, but Circle offers more advanced tools. Kajabi supports posts in formats like text, video, audio, and PDFs. Members can interact with these posts using comments and emojis.
Circle’s post editor, however, is more robust. It allows the same content types and also supports GIFs. It includes advanced formatting tools, such as adding headlines, bullet points, and numbered lists.
Overall, Circle’s editor provides more options for creating engaging content compared to Kajabi’s.
Events: Circle’s Flexibility in Hosting Events
Events are vital for building an online community because they keep members engaged. Circle simplifies creating events with native live streaming tools and integrates with platforms like Zoom and YouTube Live. You can also arrange in-person events.
With Circle’s flexibility, hosting webinars, live Q&A sessions, and small group discussions becomes easier within your community.
Additionally, Circle’s mobile app lets members join events from their phones, making it convenient for everyone. The app is available for both iOS and Android, ensuring it reaches a wide audience.
On the other hand, Kajabi lacks the same level of flexibility for hosting events.
Engagement Tools: Kajabi’s Gamification vs Circle’s AI Co-Pilot
Kajabi uses gamification to engage its users. By setting up challenges, you can motivate members to participate more actively. These challenges can be one-time or recurring events. This helps keep the community lively.
Circle takes a different approach. It doesn’t use gamification. Instead, it offers an AI tool called Content Co-Pilot. This tool helps generate ideas and content. As a result, it keeps the community engaged over time. Although this method is different, it can be effective for long-term involvement.
Mobile Experience: Kajabi’s Learning Focus vs Circle’s Community Focus
Both platforms offer mobile apps to keep users engaged while on the go.
Kajabi’s mobile app is available for iOS and Android. It’s designed for students and community members to access learning materials, join events, and participate in discussions. The app also includes push notifications to keep users informed. Additionally, Kajabi offers a separate Creator App for administrators. This app allows site management, performance tracking, and content creation, giving admins more control.
Circle’s app, on the other hand, focuses more on community interaction. It enables members to join discussions, access courses, and attend live streams. However, it provides fewer features for administrators, making it more user-centered.
Winner: Circle
Circle is the top choice for building vibrant online communities. It focuses on creating a community-first experience. With features like live streams, group chats, and flexible event hosting, it offers many ways to engage members.
Kajabi, on the other hand, is useful for creating courses and managing simple forums. However, it doesn’t offer the same depth of community-building tools that Circle does.
Kajabi vs. Circle: Online Course Creation
When creating online courses, Kajabi and Circle each have their strengths. Kajabi is great for quick and easy course creation. It’s straightforward and user-friendly. On the other hand, Circle offers more customization and design flexibility. It gives you more control over the look and feel of your course. Let’s explore the key differences between these platforms.
Ease of Course Creation: Kajabi’s AI Tools vs. Circle’s Flexibility
Kajabi is built to simplify and speed up course creation. Its AI-powered tool can generate a course outline in seconds—just provide a title and description. Kajabi also offers more than six pre-built templates for quick course design, perfect for those seeking a fast start.
On the other hand, Circle provides more flexibility in structuring your courses. It offers three formats: self-paced, structured, and scheduled. You can customize each lesson using the “/” command to add blocks, allowing you to design your course exactly how you want.
Content Flexibility: Kajabi Uploads vs. Circle Embeds
Both platforms let you upload and share different types of content. However, Circle offers more flexibility for embedding content from other platforms. It supports embedding videos, audio, and even code snippets from over 700 platforms, including popular ones like YouTube, Loom, and Typeform.
Kajabi allows you to upload content from your computer or cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox. It also lets you capture content live using your camera.
However, Kajabi doesn’t support direct embedding of content from third-party platforms like YouTube. To add a YouTube video, you need to go through a more complicated process and embed it as a separate product.
Assessment Tools: Kajabi’s Built-in Options vs. Circle’s Integrations
One of the main benefits of Kajabi is its built-in assessment tools. You can add quizzes to each module, which are automatically graded. This feature provides students with immediate feedback. Additionally, Kajabi allows you to issue certificates to students once they complete a course. These certificates are sent via email.
On the other hand, Circle uses third-party tools for assessments. To gather feedback or quiz your students, you need services like Google Forms, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey. These can be embedded within your lessons. This method is functional but adds an extra step compared to Kajabi’s all-in-one solution.
Drip Content: Scheduling in Kajabi vs. Circle’s Simpler Process
Both Kajabi and Circle offer drip scheduling. This means course content is released gradually rather than all at once. This approach keeps students engaged without overwhelming them.
In Kajabi, you can release content by module. When a new module is available, an email automatically notifies the student.
Circle’s drip content setup is simpler. Choose the structured course type during setup and release content at specific intervals. Circle also allows you to personalize email notifications, enhancing the student experience.
Drip content is a powerful feature that allows you to control the release of your course materials. Discover how to effectively implement Drip Content in Kajabi to enhance your course delivery and keep your students engaged.
Live Streaming: Circle’s Flexibility vs. Kajabi’s Structured Sessions
Both platforms offer live streaming, but Circle provides more options. Kajabi allows you to schedule live video sessions within your course. This feature is great for interactive Q&A sessions or live lessons. You can also record these sessions and later use them as webinars or course materials. Additionally, Kajabi supports breakout groups during live sessions, fostering student collaboration.
Circle, on the other hand, offers more freedom with live streaming. You can schedule live events, start a live room, or launch a live stream anytime. This flexibility is ideal for hosting live coaching sessions, workshops, or casual “Ask Me Anything” sessions with your community.
Winner: Kajabi
Kajabi is the best choice for course creators who need an easy-to-use platform. It offers helpful tools like AI, pre-built templates, and built-in assessments. This platform is perfect for beginners. You can get your courses up and running quickly without much hassle.
Kajabi vs Circle: Reporting and Analytics
Kajabi and Circle both offer key reporting features to track community activity, engagement, and member interactions. They provide reports on community traffic, engagement levels, leaderboards, messages, and space activities.
Kajabi goes further by offering detailed analytics. It includes student progress tracking, course performance reports, funnel statistics, and video analytics with heatmaps. The video analytics feature is especially useful, providing insights like retention graphs to show where students stay engaged or drop off during a video. Kajabi also tracks metrics such as average engagement rate, total plays, and play rate.
Circle, on the other hand, focuses on tracking community engagement and interactions between members. It provides reports aimed at fostering a strong community.
Winner: It’s a tie.
Kajabi excels in course and student analytics, while Circle is better at tracking community engagement and member activity. The choice depends on your specific needs and priorities.
Kajabi vs Circle: Integrations
Circle offers integrations with popular platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress. It also connects with other community-building tools such as Kajabi and Slack. This makes it easier to market your community on social media and link different platforms. Additionally, Circle supports single sign-on (SSO), allowing users to log in with one set of credentials.
Kajabi, on the other hand, emphasizes integrations that benefit digital creators and marketers rather than focusing on social media. It connects with key platforms such as:
- Analytics: Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics
- Email marketing: MailChimp, ConvertKit, and more
- Funnels: ClickFunnels
Both Circle and Kajabi can connect to Zapier, enabling integration with many other tools. However, note that using Zapier incurs an additional cost. With Circle, you also need a subscription to the Professional plan to access Zapier integrations.
Winner: Circle
Circle shines with its integrations for social media and website builders. This feature simplifies connecting with different platforms and supports single sign-on.
In contrast, Kajabi excels with its integrations for analytics, email marketing, and funnel-building. These features are included across all of Kajabi’s pricing plans.
Integrating Kajabi with platforms like Squarespace can create a seamless online experience. Learn how to set up the Kajabi – Squarespace Integration for better website management and branding.
Kajabi vs Circle: Marketing Features
Circle.so is popular for its excellent community-building tools and social media integrations. However, it lacks marketing capabilities. Many users point out that Circle lacks advanced marketing features like detailed analytics. These features are only available if you buy their Professional plan or higher, which means you’ll need to pay extra for insights into your community’s performance.
If you’re aiming to create sales funnels in Circle, you’ll need to use third-party platforms. This can increase your setup costs.
On the other hand, Kajabi excels in marketing. It offers all the tools needed to grow and monetize your business. These include:
- Pre-made sales funnels to boost revenue.
- Email marketing for creating and sending campaigns.
- Automation to simplify your tasks.
- A blogging platform for audience engagement.
- Lead generation tools to increase sales.
- Built-in podcasting tools for sharing your content.
Winner: Kajabi
While Circle shines in community-building, its marketing tools are limited. Kajabi is fully equipped with everything necessary to scale and grow your online community or business.
Kajabi vs Circle: Pricing
When it comes to pricing, Kajabi and Circle take different approaches based on the focus of their platforms.
Circle organizes its pricing plans around the size of your community and the features included. Here’s a quick look at Circle’s pricing:
- Basic: $49/month
- Professional: $99/month
- Business: $219/month
- Enterprise: $399/month
Kajabi, on the other hand, structures its plans based on the number of products and funnels you want to manage:
- Kickstarter: $69/month
- Basic: $149/month
- Growth: $199/month
- Pro: $399/month
While Circle offers a 14-day free trial without requiring credit card information, Kajabi also has a 14-day free trial, but you’ll need to enter your credit card details.
Circle is more budget-friendly, especially for those just starting out, but it comes with limitations. For example, Circle restricts the number of admins, moderators, and spaces you can have in your community. If you need more, you’ll have to pay extra:
- $10/month per extra admin
- $20/month for every 10 moderators
- $20/month for every 10 spaces
These additional costs can add up quickly, potentially offsetting Circle’s initial affordability.
On the flip side, Kajabi’s higher price comes with greater value. It not only helps with community management, but also provides comprehensive marketing tools like funnels, customizable websites, and unlimited landing pages—all essential for growing and monetizing your business. These extras can justify the higher price, especially for businesses looking to scale.
Transaction Fees
A significant difference between the two platforms is the way they handle transaction fees. Circle charges a transaction fee on any revenue you generate through the platform, whether from online course sales or membership subscriptions. These fees vary based on the plan:
- 4% for the Basic plan
- 0.5% for the Enterprise plan
While higher-priced plans come with reduced fees, these charges can still impact larger businesses.
On the other hand, Kajabi has zero transaction fees across all its plans. This means that regardless of whether you’re on the Basic, Growth, or Pro plan, you won’t face any additional fees on the revenue you generate.
Winner: Circle
Circle is a great choice for businesses focused on community-building. It offers budget-friendly plans and scalable options.
However, if you need a complete marketing solution, consider Kajabi. It provides more features, especially for those wanting to monetize and expand a large business. Kajabi does not charge transaction fees and has a wide range of marketing tools. This makes it a valuable option for businesses aiming for long-term growth.
Kajabi vs. Circle: Pros and Cons
When comparing Kajabi and Circle, it’s important to note that their focus areas are different. Kajabi is mainly designed for creating digital products and courses, while Circle is centered around building online communities.
Kajabi Pros:
- All-in-one platform: Kajabi offers everything you need to create, manage, and sell online courses and digital products.
- Complete toolset for digital products: It provides a wide range of tools to build and market your digital products from one platform.
- Easy to use: Kajabi’s interface is designed for beginners, making it simple to navigate and use.
- AI-powered course creation: Kajabi features an AI tool that helps generate course outlines quickly, saving time in the planning process.
- No transaction fees: You won’t have to pay any transaction fees on your earnings, allowing you to keep more of what you make.
- Mobile apps for everyone: Kajabi has apps for both members and administrators, so you can manage everything on the go.
Kajabi Cons:
- Pricey for small teams: Kajabi’s pricing may be steep for individuals or smaller teams.
- Content limitations: The platform offers limited ways to integrate third-party content.
- Customer segmentation: It lacks advanced tools for segmenting and targeting specific customer groups.
- Limited live streaming: Kajabi doesn’t offer a lot of options for live streaming or interactive events.
Circle Pros:
- Strong course features: Circle provides great features for building online courses, with customizable lesson formats.
- Simple, clean interface: Its user interface is clutter-free, making it easy to navigate.
- Excellent community tools: Circle is known for its powerful community-building features, fostering engagement.
- Built-in live streaming: Circle has native live streaming and live room features, perfect for real-time interactions.
Circle Cons:
- Transaction fees: You’ll face transaction fees on any revenue you generate through the platform.
- Basic plan limitations: The basic plan comes with restricted features, requiring you to upgrade for more functionality.
- No built-in assessments: Unlike Kajabi, Circle doesn’t have built-in tools for quizzes or assessments in courses.
Kajabi vs Circle: Final Verdict
If you’ve followed this comparison, you’ll see that each platform has unique strengths tailored to specific needs.
Kajabi stands out as an all-in-one platform for creating and selling online courses, memberships, and digital products. It’s especially useful for larger teams or entrepreneurs looking for a comprehensive solution. Kajabi’s suite of tools allows you to not only create courses but also manage marketing, email, and sales funnels in one place.
Circle, on the other hand, is built for creators and coaches who want to foster strong, interactive communities. While it supports online courses, its primary focus is on creating spaces where people can connect through discussions, group chats, and live streams. It’s a platform tailored to those who want to build a thriving, engaged audience.
Choose Kajabi if:
- You want to create courses quickly using templates. This helps you launch your business faster.
- You’re an entrepreneur looking for an all-in-one solution. Kajabi lets you manage online courses and digital products in one place.
- You want to avoid spending extra on third-party tools. Email marketing and funnels are included.
- You offer more than just online courses. Kajabi supports various digital products.
Choose Circle if:
- You want to create a hub where your audience can engage with your expertise or products.
- You aim to boost community interaction through online courses, live streams, and group chats.
- You’re looking for a white-labeled platform and app to build your community.
- You want to grow a large, connected community.
Conclusion
In this comprehensive comparison of Circle.so and Kajabi, we’ve covered a wide range of features and considerations to help you make an informed decision. We began with an overview of both platforms, exploring their origins, target users, and core functionalities. We then delved into key aspects such as:
- Community building and management features
- Online course creation capabilities
- Reporting and analytics tools
- Available integrations with other platforms
- Marketing features and capabilities
- Pricing structures and transaction fees
Throughout our analysis, we’ve observed that Kajabi and Circle each have their own unique strengths. Kajabi is an all-in-one solution perfect for digital entrepreneurs focused on creating and selling online courses and products. It offers a comprehensive toolkit. This includes robust marketing features, email automation, and sales funnels. These tools make it ideal for those looking to scale their online education business.
On the other hand, Circle excels in community building. It has a user-friendly interface and powerful engagement tools. Its flexibility in course creation makes it a top choice for creators and coaches. If fostering interactive, vibrant online communities is your priority, Circle is an excellent option.
Your choice between these platforms depends on your primary goals. It also depends on the type of online presence you want to build. If your focus is on selling courses and digital products with strong marketing capabilities, Kajabi might be the best fit. However, if building a thriving, interactive community is at the heart of your strategy, Circle could be ideal.
Remember, the success of your online platform doesn’t just rely on the tools you use. It also depends on how well you leverage them to serve your audience and meet your business objectives. Focus on creating value for your community, and you’ll be well on your way to building a successful online presence.