⚡ 간단 평가:
- 가격: Circle starts at $89/month (Professional plan). Thinkific starts at $36/user/month (Basic plan).
- 다음과 같은 경우에 가장 적합합니다: Circle suits community builders running memberships and live events. Thinkific suits course creators selling online courses.
- 주요 차이점: Circle is built around community spaces first. Thinkific is built around course creation first.
- 저희가 선택한 제품: Circle, for most creators who want an online community platform with integrated course delivery.
Creators compare Circle and Thinkific when their audience outgrows a Facebook group.
They want one home for members, content, and payments.
Both tools promise that. Neither solves it the same way.
Circle starts with the community and adds courses on top.
Thinkific starts with the course and adds a community feature later.
That single choice shapes everything else you will build.
개요
This Circle vs Thinkific comparison covers pricing, core features, and day to day usability.
또한 각 도구가 누구에게 가장 적합한지 분석해 보았습니다.
저희 자료 출처에는 공개된 사양서, 문서 및 G2 리뷰가 포함됩니다.
저희 필진들은 두 플랫폼 모두에서 직접 실습 시간을 가졌습니다.
해당 내용은 아래 '우리 팀이 발견한 사항' 섹션에 나와 있습니다.
서클이란 무엇인가요?
Circle is an online community platform for creators, brands, and businesses.
It helps online 사업 owners build and grow a thriving online community.
You organise everything into community spaces that hold posts, chats, and courses.
Related spaces roll up into a Space Group built around a theme.
Each space can be public, private, or secret.
That is how you control access for different community members.
Here is a walkthrough of how the platform Circle offers actually works.
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Run memberships, live events, and courses in one place. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial.
서클 가격
Here is what Circle’s pricing looks like in 2026. Every tier includes unlimited members.
| 계획 | 가격 | 가장 적합한 대상 |
|---|---|---|
| 전문적인 | 월 89달러 | 개인 창작자 및 소규모 팀 |
| 사업 | 월 199달러 | Growing brands needing more advanced features |
| 기업 | 월 399달러 | Larger organisations with technical needs |
| 플러스 브랜드 앱 | 맞춤 가격 책정 | Teams wanting their own branded mobile app |
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무료 체험: Yes. All plans come with a 14-day free trial so you can test the platform first.
환불 보장: Circle does not publish a standard refund window. Use the trial period to decide.
📌 메모: The pricing Circle publishes is only part of the bill. A transaction fee of 0.5% to 4% applies to payments you receive, and it varies by plan.
⚠️ 경고: Those fees sit on top of Stripe’s standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Our 데이터 sheet lists Enterprise features instead of a figure, so the $399/month price above comes from Circle’s published pricing page.
Circle의 주요 이점
Circle을 고려해 볼 만한 이유는 다음과 같습니다.
- Organised community spaces: Public and private spaces, plus secret ones, let you run multiple spaces from one dashboard. Space Groups keep related topics together.
- Native live streaming: Host events without bolting on a 웹 세미나 tool. You can run small sessions or larger 라이브 스트림 broadcasts.
- Paid memberships: Charge for access to certain spaces through Stripe. Coupon codes and free trials are built into checkout.
- 자동화 도구: Workflows handle repetitive community management and send a welcome message to new members automatically.
- Rich community posts: Circle’s post editor supports headings, blockquotes, and collapsible sections for longer discussions.
- 모바일 앱 접근 권한: Members reach their communities, courses, events, and chats from their phone.
우리 팀이 발견한 점
우리의 작가 set up a Circle community and spent several days building spaces inside it. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
장점과 단점을 동그라미로 표시하세요.
✅ 장점
- Spaces and Space Groups organise community content around clear themes
- Native live streaming lets you host events without a separate webinar tool
- Automation workflows handle repetitive community management tasks
- Clean user interface that feels familiar to Slack and 개념 사용자
❌ 단점
- Transaction fees of 0.5% to 4% apply on top of your plan
- Course functionality is thinner than dedicated learning platforms
- Costs climb quickly once you need more advanced features
Thinkific이란 무엇인가요?
Thinkific is an all in one platform for building and selling online courses.
You can create courses, memberships, coaching programs, and digital downloads.
The drag and drop course builder needs no coding skills at all.
That makes it friendly for creators who avoid the technical stuff.
It leans toward online education and revenue, not internal corporate training.
Thinkific helps coaches, educators, and digital creators monetise what they know.
This Thinkific review video walks through the dashboard and course creation flow.
🥈 Runner Up: Thinkific
Build your first course in a few clicks. Zero transaction fees on every plan.
Thinkific 가격
Here is how the Thinkific pricing plans break down. All three tiers carry zero transaction fees.
| 계획 | 가격 | 가장 적합한 대상 |
|---|---|---|
| 기초적인 | 사용자당 월 36달러 | Solo creators with unlimited courses |
| 시작 | 사용자당 월 74달러 | Loading... |
| 자라다 | 사용자당 월 149달러 | Loading... |
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무료 체험: Yes. Thinkific offers a 14-day free trial. There is no free plan anymore, since it was retired in 2024.
환불 보장: No published refund window. The trial is the safest way to test all the features.
📌 메모: Zero transaction fees mean you keep what you earn, minus payment processor charges. Thinkific Plus sits above Grow with pricing available on request for enterprise teams.
⚠️ 경고: The rates above are the discounted figures when billed annually. Paying month to month costs more: $49, $99, and $199 for Basic, Start, and Grow.
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- Real course building tools: Interactive lessons mix video, audio, PDFs, and quizzes. The Basic plan already allows unlimited courses.
- SCORM support: Upload learning content from Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate. That matters for compliance training.
- 내장형 이메일 마케팅 기능: Send broadcasts and basic automation sequences without a third party tool.
- Sales tools and payment plans: The TCommerce suite handles subscriptions, payment plans, and bundles so students easily pay.
- Thinkific analytics: Track progress, enrollments, and revenue to judge course performance.
- Branded site builder: Customisable themes produce professional looking course pages. Higher tiers let you remove Thinkific branding for complete control.
우리 팀이 발견한 점
Our writer built a test course inside Thinkific and published it to a live course website. Here is what stood out:
The clip below covers the same walkthrough in more detail.
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✅ 장점
- Zero transaction fees on every pricing tier
- Drag and drop builder works without coding skills
- SCORM compliance suits corporate and compliance courses
- Email marketing and sales tools are built in
❌ 단점
- Video player has no automatic captioning, so SRT files go up one by one
- The community feature feels detached from the main platform
- Bulk 학생 enrollment is slow for large groups
기능 비교
Ready for a closer look at Circle vs Thinkific? We compare the key features across ten areas that decide which platform fits your business.
| 특징 | 원 | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| 시작 가격 | 월 89달러 | 사용자당 월 36달러 |
| 무료 플랜 | ❌ | ❌ |
| 커뮤니티 공간 | ✅ | ✅ (기본) |
| 네이티브 라이브 스트리밍 | ✅ | ❌ |
| Loading... | ✅ (기본) | ✅ |
| Loading... | ❌ | ✅ |
| 거래 수수료 | 0.5% – 4% | 없음 |
| 자동화 워크플로우 | ✅ | ✅ (email only) |
| 모바일 앱 | ✅ | ❌ |
| 가장 적합한 대상 | Community builders | 강좌 제작자 |
1. Community Spaces and Group Discussions
원: Community building and community engagement are the whole point here. Chat spaces support group discussions with organised threads, so a Circle community can stay tidy as it grows. Members see the entire community from one sidebar and jump between spaces quickly.
Thinkific: The community feature covers discussion forums attached to your courses. It helps student engagement, but reviewers say the community aspect feels bolted on rather than native. Students post and reply to other members without the deeper social tools Circle offers.
⚠️ 경고: If daily conversation is your goal, judge this category carefully. A course platform with forums is not the same as a dedicated space to engage members.
2. Course Building and Site Design
원: A built-in site builder lets you publish pages and attach a custom domain. You can create online courses inside a space, though the course builder stays light on structure. It works for cohort content, not for large libraries.
Thinkific: The drag and drop builder assembles interactive lessons from video, audio, PDFs, and quizzes. No coding skills are needed to arrange course content or design course pages. This is where Thinkific pulls clearly ahead.
3. Live Streaming and Live Events
원: The live streaming feature runs sessions for up to 30 participants or broadcasts to 100 viewers. You can host events and schedule reminders without leaving the Circle platform. Native live streaming is a cool feature that saves a webinar subscription.
Thinkific: Coaching and webinar tools let you sell and schedule live sessions with students. Delivery leans on connected video tools rather than streaming built into the product. That is fine for one-to-one coaching, weaker for large live events.
4. Automation Tools and Workflows
원: Workflows cut repetitive community management by triggering actions automatically. You can tag members, move them between spaces, or send a welcome message. G2 reviews note these automation tools stay basic next to dedicated workflow software.
Thinkific: Email automation runs broadcasts and basic sequences from inside the platform. Marketing features cover enrollment triggers and reminders. Reviewers describe the depth as adequate rather than advanced.
5. Member Onboarding and Lead Capture
원: Automated check-ins greet new members with tailored invitation emails and post-signup steps. New users land in the right space instead of an empty feed. That first hour matters more than most community features people shop for.
Thinkific: Lead generation tools capture signups through landing pages and free preview lessons. You can create promotions, offer students a discount, and boost sales around a launch. The focus is conversion, not conversation.
6. Analytics and Progress Tracking
원: Member activity tracking shows who posts, who lurks, and who has gone quiet. Managers use that to spot their most active people. The 보고 answers engagement questions, not revenue questions.
Thinkific: The dashboard reports enrollments, revenue, and completion so you can track progress per student. Student management and course performance data sit in one view. Some reviewers still want deeper insights than the standard reports give.
7. Customization, Branding, and Integrations
원: Brand colours, logos, and layout controls give you real customization options. Third party integrations connect tools like Google Forms, 자피어, and email software. G2 reviews say the integrations Circle ships are useful but narrower than rival platforms.
Thinkific: The AI landing page builder drafts pages and copy through the Thinker 어시스턴트. Themes look clean, but more control over design needs code, and full control over branding arrives on higher tiers. Custom integrations are possible, though users call out missing features in the affiliate system.
💡 꿀팁: List the tools you already pay for before you commit. New features arrive on both platforms every quarter, but an integration gap today is a manual export tomorrow.
8. Course Content and Learning Experience
원: Gamification adds points and leaderboards to keep people returning. Lessons live beside conversation, so learners discuss as they go. Circle’s features favour momentum over structured curriculum design.
Thinkific: Chapters, drip scheduling, quizzes, and certificates cover the core features most course creators expect, and the content creation tools stay approachable throughout. You can run one course or a full catalogue on the same account. Other platforms match the format list, but few make it this approachable.
9. Email Marketing and Sales Tools
원: Broadcasts reach a whole space or the entire membership. Checkout handles paid tiers, coupons, and free trials through Stripe with multiple currencies. It supports a membership sales strategy well, a product launch calendar less so.
Thinkific: TCommerce handles one-time payments, subscriptions, and payment plans, giving buyers flexible payment options. Order bumps and coupons help you sell courses successfully during a launch. For selling online courses at volume, this is the stronger engine for business growth.
10. 가격 및 비용
가격 옵션을 나란히 비교해 보겠습니다.
| 층 | 원 | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| 기입 | Professional: $89/month | Basic: $36/user/month |
| 중간 | Business: $199/month | Start: $74/user/month |
| 높은 | Enterprise: $399/month | Grow: $149/user/month |
| 맨 위 | Plus Branded App: Custom Pricing | Thinkific Plus: Custom Pricing |
| Transaction fees | 0.5% – 4% | 없음 |
원: The Professional plan opens at $89/month with unlimited members but caps admins, moderators, and spaces. The Business plan at $199/month lifts those limits, and the Enterprise plan at $399/month adds technical controls. A transaction fee of 0.5% to 4% applies on every payment you collect.
Thinkific: The Basic plan runs $36/user/month when billed annually and already includes unlimited courses. Nothing is skimmed off your sales, which changes the maths at higher revenue. Thinkific is not the only platform with zero fees, but it is the cheaper entry point of these two.
💡 테스트 결과: On $5,000 of monthly sales, Circle’s 4% fee costs $200 before Stripe’s cut. Thinkific charges nothing. Run that number for your own revenue before you pick.
다양한 시나리오
| 필요하시면 | 선택하다 | 왜 |
|---|---|---|
| 최저 진입 가격 | Thinkific | $36 vs $89 per month |
| Daily member conversation | 원 | Spaces built for discussion |
| Loading... | Thinkific | Chapters, quizzes, certificates |
| Live events in-house | 원 | Native streaming included |
| Zero fees on sales | Thinkific | No cut of your revenue |
| A members’ mobile app | 원 | Apps ship with the plan |
💰 예산
Thinkific costs less upfront and takes no cut of sales. Circle’s higher base price buys community depth you cannot rebuild cheaply elsewhere.
🔌 사용 중인 기술 스택
Check your email tool, CRM, and payment setup against both integration lists. Missing connections usually mean Zapier or a manual export every week.
📝 콘텐츠 유형
Recorded lessons with quizzes point to Thinkific. Ongoing conversation, coaching calls, and events point to Circle.
🎓 귀하의 경험 수준
Both are user friendly for beginners. Circle’s menu sits on the left hand side and feels familiar if you Slack을 사용하세요, while Thinkific wins on setup user friendliness for a first launch.
🆓 무료 체험 및 데모
Each platform gives you 14 days free. Load real content and invite five people, because an empty test account teaches you nothing.
🛟 지원 옵션
Both run email and knowledge base support channels. Thinkific’s Grow tier adds priority support, though some users report the support team sends generic replies.
전환 가이드
Already using one of these? Here is what changes when you move.
🔄 Switching from Circle to Thinkific?
✅ 얻게 될 이점:
- Zero transaction fees on everything you sell
- A proper course builder with quizzes and certificates
- SCORM uploads for compliance training material
❌ 잃게 될 것:
- Native live streaming for events
- Space Groups and secret spaces
- The members’ mobile app
📋 전환 방법:
- Export your member list and cancel Stripe subscriptions in Circle
- Rebuild your lessons inside a Thinkific course
- Bulk enroll members, allowing extra time for large groups
🔄 Switching from Thinkific to Circle?
✅ 얻게 될 이점:
- Spaces, chat, and threaded conversation as the main event
- Live streaming and events without extra software
- Automation workflows for onboarding and check-ins
❌ 잃게 될 것:
- Zero-fee checkout on every sale
- Quizzes, certificates, and SCORM support
- The lower $36 starting price
📋 전환 방법:
- Export students and course files from Thinkific
- Map each course to a Circle space or Space Group
- Invite members and switch billing to Circle checkout
저희 리뷰에서 다루지 않은 내용
This comparison focused on individual creators and small teams. We did not test enterprise SSO, bulk licensing, or API work, and we did not run a community past a few hundred people. Our notes reflect the July 2026 versions of both products. If you manage thousands of learners or need custom development, your priorities will differ from ours.
최종 판결
| 범주 | 우승자 |
|---|---|
| 💰 가격 | Thinkific |
| 🏘️ Community Features | 원 |
| Loading... | Thinkific |
| 🎥 Live Events | 원 |
| 🎨 맞춤 설정 | 원 |
| ⚙️ 자동화 | 원 |
| 👶 사용 편의성 | 원 |
| 🏆 종합 우승 | 원 |
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Circle wins 5 out of 7 categories.
다음과 같은 경우에 가장 적합합니다: Paid memberships, coaching communities, live events, and creators who want conversation at the centre.
Circle and Thinkific are not really rivals. They are two answers to different questions.
Circle is a community platform that also sells courses. Thinkific is a course platform that also runs forums.
Thinkific is the better pick if your revenue comes from selling structured lessons. It costs less, takes no fees, and its builder is the stronger one.
Circle takes the overall win because more creators need the thing it does best. Membership retention comes from people talking to each other, and that is the harder half to replace.
원과 비교했을 때 더 많은 부분
Here is how Circle measures up against its closest rivals. Our full Circle review covers each of these in more depth.
원 vs 학교
Circle wins on: Space Groups for organising topics, deeper branding controls, native live streaming
학교가 승리한 항목: One flat monthly price, faster setup for a first community, simpler interface for non-technical owners
원 vs 마이티 네트웍스
Circle wins on: Cleaner post editor, smoother navigation between spaces, better received onboarding tools
Mighty Networks가 다음 부문에서 승리했습니다: Built-in member matchmaking, stronger course structure, longer track record with large networks
원 vs 카자비
Circle wins on: Day-to-day discussion tools, lower entry price, chat spaces with threads
카자비가 승리한 이유는 다음과 같습니다. Funnels and pipelines, full email marketing suite, course and product delivery depth
원 vs 베터모드
Circle wins on: Creator-focused checkout, live streaming built in, members’ mobile app
Bettermode가 다음 항목에서 승리합니다: Customisable page structures, stronger developer API, white-label site control
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Here is how Thinkific stacks up against the other course platforms creators shortlist:
Thinkific이 다음 부문에서 승리했습니다: No transaction fees at any tier, SCORM uploads, broader theme customisation
Teachable이 다음에서 승리했습니다: Built-in tax handling for global sales, simpler payout setup, tighter affiliate reporting
Thinkific이 다음 부문에서 승리했습니다: Much lower starting price, cleaner course-first dashboard, easier learning curve
카자비가 승리한 이유는 다음과 같습니다. Marketing automation depth, landing page and funnel library, all-round business tooling
Thinkific vs LearnWorlds
Thinkific이 다음 부문에서 승리했습니다: Faster course setup, friendlier pricing at entry level, simpler admin screens
Loading... Interactive video with in-player quizzes, richer certificates, deeper assessment reporting
Thinkific이 다음 부문에서 승리했습니다: Real curriculum tools, quizzes and certificates, flexible checkout and bundles
학교가 승리한 항목: Active daily discussion, gamified leaderboards, one predictable monthly bill
자주 묻는 질문
What is circle so used for?
Circle.so is used to run paid memberships, courses, events, and group chat in one place. Creators pick it when a Facebook group stops working.
Is Circle so worth it?
It is worth it if conversation drives your revenue. At $89 per month plus transaction fees, a course-only business will get better value elsewhere.
What is the transaction fee for Circle so?
Circle charges 0.5% to 4% of each payment you receive, depending on your plan. Stripe’s own 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction applies on top.
Thinkific의 월 이용료는 얼마인가요?
Plans run $36, $74, and $149 per user monthly when billed annually. Paying month to month raises those figures to $49, $99, and $199.
Thinkific의 단점은 무엇인가요?
The video player lacks automatic captioning, bulk enrollment is slow, and community tools feel separate from courses. Reviewers also want more depth in the affiliate system.
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