Finding a membership platform that is absolutely perfect is impossible (not going to lie), but in my mind there is one membership platform that stands out from the others. It's a newer platform that's centered around doing things differently: focused around community. It's Circle.so.
Note: This blog post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase from an affiliate link, I may receive some compensation. This does not impact the price that you pay for the product(s).
The big problem with most membership platforms is their inability to integrate learning and community in the same platform.
For years, there was a constant struggle in the business world. How to provide membership content on the same platform as the membership community? Many business folks opted to host their content on platforms like Kajabi and Teachable, excellent options for delivering content in an enjoyable format, but then left the community aspect to run on Facebook Groups. Not only does this allow for a less branded (and typically less enjoyable and more difficult to navigate) user experience, but it's also meant community members are easily distracted on the platform, and they must use two different platforms in order to get the full membership experience. Something that I hate as both a consumer and a creator.
That's in part why my first two memberships were hosted on my website. I custom-built them through Wix, but it wasn't without some issues. This meant that it was less expensive than hosting on a "typical" membership website, I had more control over features, and I could try my best to integrate the content and community on the same platform.
The History of My Membership Programs
My first membership, a community for knitters named "Snickerdoodle Knits Community" that incorporated monthly mini-courses, incorporated a forum area for members to communicate. Unfortunately, I soon realized that I'd created a group I wasn't excited to run, for a number of reasons.
My second membership was for the Design Circle (now known as Pattern Design Circle), which is the resource hub, learning center, and supportive community for crochet and knitting pattern designers. Because I couldn't completely delete the Snickerdoodle Knits Community yet, I couldn't create a second forum space on my website. So, I built out the custom membership experience with all of the content on Wix, but I used Discord as the community location. From the dashboard of the Design Circle, I had a link to easily access the community from within the membership. In reality, however, folks tended to spend their time on Discord and the content of the membership ended up getting a bit forgotten. (And after a bit of time, the membership platform wasn't showing all of the videos, folks were expressing frustration with having to navigate two platforms, and the configuration of the membership just seemed to be outgrowing the setup.
And so it was clear I really ought to be looking for a better option.
As it turned out, Circle.so is the platform that checked my boxes for a membership platform.
As you may or may not have gathered by now, I can be a bit particular, erm, yes, a perfectionist, about my work, and I want my members to have the most enjoyable experience possible. A few months after starting Pattern Design Circle, I'd joined a membership located on Circle. I was extremely impressed by the aesthetics of the platform, the organization of it, and the ability to have different space groups and content types.
In March 2022, I started to look into it a bit more.
If you haven't heard of Circle before, I like to describe it as "the best of both worlds from Facebook Groups and Discord."
It has all of the amazing organizational aspects of Discord, where you can categorize content based on topic, but it also has the organizational aspects from Facebook, where conversations are isolated to a post and don't get lost among each other.
Here's what I immediately loved about Circle.so:
it looks pretty
it allows me to customize a lot of user experience aspects (including branding)
it allows me to schedule posts (what a time saver!)
it allows me to categorize/organize content
the content within the membership is searchable
it allows me to host BOTH the community and the content on the same platform
it allows me to include a calendar of events so I don't have to update calendars in 3 different locations (also a time saver!)
it sends automatic weekly overviews to members (another huge time saver!)
I was excited, so I signed up for their free trial to test it out with my members. I spent some time creating a bit of the branding, and organizing the content and community how I envisioned it for the Design Circle.
Not everyone loved it to start with. It's a new platform, and learning new platforms is almost never fun. However, folks did find it much easier to learn and navigate than Discord; they enjoyed having the content and community in the same place; and they were supportive of it saving me loads of time. One member knew she wouldn't use it as often, since she uses Discord a lot. And then several members were Android users and said there was no way they'd use it until there was an Android app. So, I chose to wait for the Android app.
It seemed to take forever. I was so ready to just move to Circle already! And finally, in the fall of 2022, Circle announced their Android app was in beta, so I hopped on, got everything moved
over, and haven't looked back since!
After six months of using Circle.so with my community, these are my favorite parts.
Everything is cohesive, all on the same platform, and for the most part, tech issue free! Not only can I share all of the content replays, host the community, have different access levels, and share the community calendar.... but I can also go live within the community, imbed photos and videos into the posts, and so much more!
It saves me so much time and energy, gives me a better experience, and gives my members a more enjoyable experience!
They're constantly adding features. Sometimes I kick myself for hopping on the bandwagon of these newer companies because their features can be a bit more limited, but honestly, I really love how excited they are to help their customers and grow their platform to be the best it can be. (Did you know Circle has a whole free community with loads of content to support their customers?! It's pretty epic!)
And since I keep things real and honest, these are my least favorite parts.
It's not perfect yet. I still believe it's the best option out there, but it's not perfect. There are things like (a) I can't co-host videos with guest speakers without them having an account, (b) if someone declines video and audio permissions on a call, it can be a pain to help them undo it, and (c) they don't have the ability to accommodate affiliates yet.
The number of space groups allowed can feels a bit limiting.
Workflows are limited to the Business and Enterprise tiers.
Excited to learn more about Circle, the best platform for hosting a membership?
Sign up for a free 14 day trial! There's nothing to lose, and I truly hope you love it as much as I do!
These are the 4 tier levels Circle offers their customers.
Circle currently has 3 tier levels: Basic, Professional, and Enterprise.
The Basic level is $49/month or $468/year. It allows you to host all of your content and facilitate a community of up to 100 members with up to 10 spaces.
The Professional level, at $99/month or $1068/year, has the same features as the Basic level, but with unlimited members and 20 spaces, plus the ability to:
utilize courses
host live streams
access advanced analytics
The Business level is a new level! It's $249/month, but with a new member price of $199/month for a limited time. It includes access to:
workflows
custom profile fields
free course migrations
The Enterprise level, at $399/month or $4788/year, includes all of the features of the Professional level, but with 100 spaces, plus:
more customization options
API access
dedicated CSM
Stop waiting. Start exploring. Create your new favorite membership today with Circle's 14-day free trial.
Note: This blog post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase from an affiliate link, I may receive some compensation. This does not impact the price that you pay for the product(s).
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