⚡ Краткий вывод:
- Цены: Circle starts at $89/month (Professional plan). Thinkific starts at $36/user/month (Basic plan).
- Лучше всего подходит для: Circle suits community builders running memberships and live events. Thinkific suits course creators selling online courses.
- Ключевое отличие: Circle is built around community spaces first. Thinkific is built around course creation first.
- Наш выбор: 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.
Обзор
This Circle vs Thinkific comparison covers pricing, core features, and day to day usability.
Мы также подробно разбираем, для кого лучше всего подходит каждый инструмент.
В качестве источников информации мы используем опубликованные технические характеристики, документацию и обзоры G2.
Наши авторы также провели некоторое время, непосредственно работая с обеими платформами.
Эти замечания приведены в разделах «Что заметила наша команда» ниже.
Что такое круг?
Circle is an online community platform for creators, brands, and businesses.
It helps online бизнес 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.
🏆 Winner: Circle
Run memberships, live events, and courses in one place. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial.
Круговое ценообразование
Here is what Circle’s pricing looks like in 2026. Every tier includes unlimited members.
| План | Цена | Лучше всего подходит для |
|---|---|---|
| Профессиональный | 89 долларов в месяц | Индивидуальные создатели и небольшие команды |
| Бизнес | 199 долларов в месяц | Growing brands needing more advanced features |
| Предприятие | 399 долларов в месяц | Larger organisations with technical needs |
| Плюс фирменное приложение | Индивидуальное ценообразование | Teams wanting their own branded mobile app |
Pricing verified July 2026.
Бесплатная пробная версия: Yes. All plans come with a 14-day free trial so you can test the platform first.
Гарантия возврата денег: Circle does not publish a standard refund window. Use the trial period to decide.
📌 Примечание: 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.
⚠️ Предупреждение: Those fees sit on top of Stripe’s standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Our данные sheet lists Enterprise features instead of a figure, so the $399/month price above comes from Circle’s published pricing page.
Основные преимущества Circle
Вот почему Circle заслуживает внимания:
- 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 вебинар tool. You can run small sessions or larger прямая трансляция broadcasts.
- Paid memberships: Charge for access to certain spaces through Stripe. Coupon codes and free trials are built into checkout.
- Automation tools: 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.
- Доступ через мобильное приложение: Members reach their communities, courses, events, and chats from their phone.
Что заметила наша команда
Наш писатель set up a Circle community and spent several days building spaces inside it. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
Плюсы и минусы Circle
✅ Плюсы
- 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 Понятие пользователи
❌ Минусы
- 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
Что такое Thinkific?
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.
Цены Thinkific
Here is how the Thinkific pricing plans break down. All three tiers carry zero transaction fees.
| План | Цена | Лучше всего подходит для |
|---|---|---|
| Базовый | 36 долларов США/пользователь/месяц | Solo creators with unlimited courses |
| Начинать | 74 доллара США/пользователь/месяц | Memberships, bundles, and certificates |
| Расти | 149 долларов США/пользователь/месяц | Advanced analytics and priority support |
Pricing verified July 2026.
Бесплатная пробная версия: Yes. Thinkific offers a 14-day free trial. There is no free plan anymore, since it was retired in 2024.
Гарантия возврата денег: No published refund window. The trial is the safest way to test all the features.
📌 Примечание: 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.
⚠️ Предупреждение: 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.
Key Benefits of Thinkific
Here is what makes Thinkific worth considering:
- 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.
- Встроенный email-маркетинг: 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.
Что заметила наша команда
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.
Thinkific Pros & Cons
✅ Плюсы
- 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
❌ Минусы
- Video player has no automatic captioning, so SRT files go up one by one
- The community feature feels detached from the main platform
- Bulk студент enrollment is slow for large groups
Сравнение характеристик
Ready for a closer look at Circle vs Thinkific? We compare the key features across ten areas that decide which platform fits your business.
| Особенность | Круг | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Начальная цена | 89 долларов в месяц | 36 долларов США/пользователь/месяц |
| Бесплатный план | ❌ | ❌ |
| Общественные пространства | ✅ | ✅ (базовый) |
| Прямая трансляция (Native Live Streaming) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Course Builder | ✅ (базовый) | ✅ |
| SCORM Support | ❌ | ✅ |
| Комиссии за транзакцию | 0.5% – 4% | Никто |
| Автоматизация рабочих процессов | ✅ | ✅ (email only) |
| Мобильное приложение | ✅ | ❌ |
| Лучше всего подходит для | Community builders | Создатели курсов |
1. Community Spaces and Group Discussions
Круг: 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.
⚠️ Предупреждение: 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
Круг: 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
Круг: 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
Круг: 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
Круг: 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
Круг: Member activity tracking shows who posts, who lurks, and who has gone quiet. Managers use that to spot their most active people. The отчетность 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
Круг: Brand colours, logos, and layout controls give you real customization options. Third party integrations connect tools like Google Forms, Запьер, 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 помощник. 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.
💡 Полезный совет: 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
Круг: 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
Круг: 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. Ценообразование и стоимость
Давайте сравним варианты ценообразования.
| Уровень | Круг | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Вход | Professional: $89/month | Basic: $36/user/month |
| Середина | Business: $199/month | Start: $74/user/month |
| Верхняя | Enterprise: $399/month | Grow: $149/user/month |
| Вершина | Plus Branded App: Custom Pricing | Thinkific Plus: Custom Pricing |
| Transaction fees | 0.5% – 4% | Никто |
Круг: 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.
💡 Результат теста: 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.
Различные сценарии
| Если вам это нужно | Выбирать | Почему |
|---|---|---|
| Самая низкая цена входа | Thinkific | $36 vs $89 per month |
| Daily member conversation | Круг | Spaces built for discussion |
| Structured curriculum | Thinkific | Chapters, quizzes, certificates |
| Live events in-house | Круг | Native streaming included |
| Zero fees on sales | Thinkific | No cut of your revenue |
| A members’ mobile app | Круг | Apps ship with the plan |
💰 Ваш бюджет
Thinkific costs less upfront and takes no cut of sales. Circle’s higher base price buys community depth you cannot rebuild cheaply elsewhere.
🔌 Ваш технологический стек
Check your email tool, CRM, and payment setup against both integration lists. Missing connections usually mean Zapier or a manual export every week.
📝 Ваш тип контента
Recorded lessons with quizzes point to Thinkific. Ongoing conversation, coaching calls, and events point to Circle.
🎓 Ваш уровень опыта
Both are user friendly for beginners. Circle’s menu sits on the left hand side and feels familiar if you используйте Slack, while Thinkific wins on setup user friendliness for a first launch.
🆓 Бесплатные пробные версии и демо-версии
Each platform gives you 14 days free. Load real content and invite five people, because an empty test account teaches you nothing.
🛟 Варианты поддержки
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.
Руководство по переключению
Already using one of these? Here is what changes when you move.
🔄 Switching from Circle to Thinkific?
✅ Что вы получите:
- Zero transaction fees on everything you sell
- A proper course builder with quizzes and certificates
- SCORM uploads for compliance training material
❌ Что вы потеряете:
- Native live streaming for events
- Space Groups and secret spaces
- The members’ mobile app
📋 Как переключиться:
- 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?
✅ Что вы получите:
- Spaces, chat, and threaded conversation as the main event
- Live streaming and events without extra software
- Automation workflows for onboarding and check-ins
❌ Что вы потеряете:
- Zero-fee checkout on every sale
- Quizzes, certificates, and SCORM support
- The lower $36 starting price
📋 Как переключиться:
- 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
Что не было рассмотрено в нашем обзоре
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.
Окончательный вердикт
| Категория | Победитель |
|---|---|
| 💰 Цены | Thinkific |
| 🏘️ Community Features | Круг |
| 🎓 Course Creation | Thinkific |
| 🎥 Live Events | Круг |
| 🎨 Индивидуальная настройка | Круг |
| ⚙️ Автоматизация | Круг |
| 👶 Простота использования | Круг |
| 🏆 Общий победитель | Круг |
🏆 WINNER: CIRCLE
Circle wins 5 out of 7 categories.
Лучше всего подходит для: 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.
Больше информации о Circle по сравнению с другими компаниями.
Here is how Circle measures up against its closest rivals. Our full Circle review covers each of these in more depth.
Круг против Школа
Circle побеждает в следующих областях: Space Groups for organising topics, deeper branding controls, native live streaming
Школа побеждает в: One flat monthly price, faster setup for a first community, simpler interface for non-technical owners
Круг против Могучие сети
Circle побеждает в следующих областях: Cleaner post editor, smoother navigation between spaces, better received onboarding tools
Компания Mighty Networks побеждает в следующих областях: Built-in member matchmaking, stronger course structure, longer track record with large networks
Круг против Каджаби
Circle побеждает в следующих областях: Day-to-day discussion tools, lower entry price, chat spaces with threads
Kajabi побеждает по следующим показателям: Funnels and pipelines, full email marketing suite, course and product delivery depth
Круг против Bettermode
Circle побеждает в следующих областях: Creator-focused checkout, live streaming built in, members’ mobile app
Bettermode побеждает по следующим параметрам: Customisable page structures, stronger developer API, white-label site control
More of Thinkific Compared
Here is how Thinkific stacks up against the other course platforms creators shortlist:
Thinkific побеждает в следующих областях: No transaction fees at any tier, SCORM uploads, broader theme customisation
Teachable побеждает в следующих областях: Built-in tax handling for global sales, simpler payout setup, tighter affiliate reporting
Thinkific побеждает в следующих областях: Much lower starting price, cleaner course-first dashboard, easier learning curve
Kajabi побеждает по следующим показателям: Marketing automation depth, landing page and funnel library, all-round business tooling
Thinkific vs LearnWorlds
Thinkific побеждает в следующих областях: Faster course setup, friendlier pricing at entry level, simpler admin screens
LearnWorlds wins on: Interactive video with in-player quizzes, richer certificates, deeper assessment reporting
Thinkific побеждает в следующих областях: Real curriculum tools, quizzes and certificates, flexible checkout and bundles
Школа побеждает в: Active daily discussion, gamified leaderboards, one predictable monthly bill
Часто задаваемые вопросы
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.
Сколько стоит Thinkific в месяц?
Plans run $36, $74, and $149 per user monthly when billed annually. Paying month to month raises those figures to $49, $99, and $199.
Какие недостатки у Thinkific?
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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