Circle is the polished option in this category, and its pricing page is polished too. $89 a month sounds like the price. It is the starting deposit. The real bill assembles itself from add-ons and a transaction fee that sits on top of Stripe's, and none of that is obvious until you are already moved in. Here is the arithmetic.
The 30-second answer
| Plan | Monthly price | Platform fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional | $89 billed annually, $129 monthly | 2% | The tier most creators land on |
| Business | $199 billed annually, $219 monthly | 1% | Workflows, API access |
| Circle Plus | Custom | 0.5% | Branded app territory |
Source is circle.so/pricing. The platform fee stacks on top of Stripe's processing cut, unlike Skool's all-in rate. Different structure, so compare carefully.
Prices verified July 2, 2026. Circle's add-on prices drift fastest of anything we track, re-check at decision time.
The add-on stack
This is the core of the post. The features you assumed were included are line items.
| Line item | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Professional plan | $89 annual-billed ($129 monthly) |
| Email Hub | $19 per 1,000 contacts |
| Custom profile fields | $49 |
| Custom sender email | $40 |
| Realistic total | $188 to $277 a month |
That lands between roughly $2,300 and $3,300 a year for a working Professional setup, before the transaction fee. The range depends mostly on billing cadence and how many email contacts you hold.
None of these are exotic. Email to your own members, fields on your own member profiles, and sending from your own domain are the table stakes of running a paid community. On Circle they are rent line items.
The fee on top of the fee
Circle's 2% platform fee is charged in addition to Stripe's processing. Here is the monthly platform-fee bill at three revenue levels, Stripe not included.
| Member revenue/mo | Circle fee (2%) | Plus Stripe processing |
|---|---|---|
| $2,000 | $40 | ~$58 more |
| $5,000 | $100 | ~$145 more |
| $10,000 | $200 | ~$290 more |
Our arithmetic. Stripe column estimated at 2.9% plus 30 cents. Contrast with Skool Pro, whose 2.9% is all-in. Circle's 2% plus Stripe's 2.9% is an effective ~4.9% on card revenue.
What the reviews say
Circle's review record splits in a way worth understanding. G2, where buyers review, has it at 4.5. Trustpilot, where more members and burned ex-customers show up, has it at 2.5 with roughly 55% one-star reviews as of April 2026. Both numbers are real. The product is genuinely good and the billing experience genuinely generates anger.
- The monthly Professional price moved from $89 to $129, described by one long-time customer as arriving “with no explanation after more than two years.”
- A November 2025 reviewer reported being double-charged $214.97 after a confirmed cancellation.
- A February 2026 reviewer wrote that “the system randomly DELETED my checkout pages,” hours of work gone.
- From G2, “$2K annually for just 20 workflows seems excessive.”
Sourced from Trustpilot and G2 review pages, read July 2026. Individual reviews are anecdotes. The pattern is the data.
Credit where due
Two things Circle deserves, stated without hedging. First, its export story is the best of the big three. You can pull a member CSV yourself, and support will assemble a fuller export of posts and spaces on request, which is more exit than Skool or Mighty offers. The export comparison has the details and the caveats. Second, the product is polished and the brand-name creators running on it are real. If you want a managed, design-forward community and the bill does not bother you, Circle is a fine landlord. This post is for the people the bill bothers.
The pay-once alternative
Seedly Communities costs $399 once. The platform fee is 0% because members pay through your own Stripe account. Members unlimited, full source code, commercial license, your own domain and branding without a $40 line item. Your ongoing cost is your own hosting, stated plainly in the five-year cost post.
Five-year figures are our multiplication of the verified monthly numbers, not a Circle quote. Even the plan-only line passes $399 in month five.
The row-by-row comparison, including where Circle wins, lives on the Seedly Communities vs Circle page.
