Today in this post, it’ll be all about Circle.so vs Podia.

Circle.so (read the review) is an online community and course creation tool suited for creators, coaches, and brands. While Podia is a creator-centric all-in-one digital platform for marketers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and creators.

Podia (read my review) focuses more on digital product selling (like courses, memberships, and downloadables), while Circle is oriented toward building a thriving online community.

If you compare Podia’s community with Circle, Podia is just 20% of Circle. But when it comes to courses, Podia is more feature-rich and Circle is 50% of Podia.

If your target audience is mobile users, Circle has both iOS and Android apps (the Android app is recently launched; they are working on its improvements). But Podia doesn’t offer any apps. This is a huge downside .

If community building is the #1 priority for you, having a mobile app is crucial. In that case, you need to go with either Circle.so or Mighty Networks (comparison here)

Let’s get started with the comparison between Podia and Circle.so and decide which is best for you.

Circle.so vs Podia: Features compared

What do we like about Circle.so over Podia?

• Circle.so is a more feature-rich and powerful community tool than Podia. You have spaces, private messaging, group chats, a member directory, weekly digests, live streaming, events, etc. Podia just has members, posts, likes, and comments. That’s it.
• Incase of Circle.so, you can create as many spaces as you want to host your conversations. While with Podia, you don’t have the flexibility of spaces. You are allowed to create only one community. If you want to create multiple communities, you must create multiple subscription plans. That’s the only way possible.
• Circle.so has both iOS and Android apps and is available on all plans. But, they are not completely white-labeled unlike Mighty Networks; where you can add your own brand logo and colors. Their apps support in-app purchases and branded notifications.
• Circle.so has a single sign-on feature (this makes logging into multiple platforms easier with a single login credential). It means if you have integrated other platforms with Circle, your users can login to Circle using a single credential. If you hosted courses on Teachable, your community members could access Circle using their Teachable credentials. As of now, it provides single sign-on with 11 platforms.
• Circle.so supports bulk actions to automate the community tasks. It supports bulk-
  • Send messages (you can send a different message to each member).
  • Create posts.
  • Add or remove tags.
  • Add or remove members from a space.
  • Add or remove members from a space group.
  • Remove members from a community.
• You can also export all the member data with a CSV file. With the exported CSV, you can –
  • Send an email to members within a specific group using your email automation tool.
  • Send an email to members who haven’t joined yet.
  • Easily identify and remove inactive members using Zapier automation.
  • Bulk tag existing members using Zapier automation.
• To prevent spam in the community, Circle has introduced profanity filters (lately in Dec 2022). You can moderate community conversations by automatically flagging comments & posts. As of now, Circle monitors only the comments & posts within a discussion or event spaces. Course comments, chats, and DMs are not monitored. Podia doesn’t offer any moderation features.
• With Circle, you can filter your members based on a few standard fields like –
  • Name
  • Bio
  • Location
  • Community Role
  • Headline
  • Online Status
  • Spaces
  • Space Groups
  • Tags
• Podia has a built-in email marketing tool where you can send broadcasts and email campaigns. While Circle.so natively integrates with SendGrid, to send emails. You can white-label the emails if you are on Circle’s Pro and Enterprise plans, but this is not possible in Podia.
• Circle.so has a built-in live-streaming feature. You can use this to conduct events, webinars, and offer coaching. You can also monetize these by selling premium event tickets or offering paid masterclasses. On the other side, Podia doesn’t have native live streaming, but it provides integration with Zoom and YouTube Live.

What do we like about Podia over Circle.so?

• Unlike Circle.so, Podia is an all-in-one digital selling platform. You can sell courses, coaching, digital downloads, memberships, webinars, and communities in a single tool.
• Podia gives unlimited bandwidth and storage on all its paid plans to host your videos and content. You don’t need any external tools like Vimeo or Wistia. On the other, with Circle.so you have restrictions on the storage based on the plan you choose.
• Podia’s courses are far better than Circle’s. You can create various courses like – Drip courses, cohort courses, sell course bundles, etc. It also has course completion certificates to issue to students.
• It has course pre-launch and pre-sell features. Pre-launching the courses helps validate your idea and create a buzz around your product. In the case of Circle.so you need to do it manually by creating a custom landing page.
• Podia doesn’t charge any transaction fees on its paid plans (except on the free plan at 8% fee). While Circle.so charges a transaction fee on all plans (4% on the Basic plan, 1% on the Pro plan, and 0.5% on the enterprise plan.).

Common downsides

• Both these lack community gamification features like points, badges, rankings, and leaderboards. If you need these features you can consider tools like Tribe.so.
• Both these are not so advanced when it comes to marketing features. These lack automations, funnels, and email marketing features. If marketing features are of utmost importance, you can consider tools like Kajabi.

Latest product updates

Circle’s latest features:

• Recently, Circle.so has launched an Android app (lately in 2022). It is still in the development phase.
• It released live spaces for quick meetings which eliminate the need for integrations like Zoom.
• Its live events now support up to 50 speakers (which is up from 30).

Podia’s latest features:

• Previously Podia was a premium platform. Recently it has introduced a free generous plan.
• It has introduced new integrations with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and iDEAL (to ease mobile app payments).
• It has revamped single-page checkout to improve customer experience.

Upfront bottomline :

Circle is for you if you are a course creator, teacher, or coach looking to host online courses and communities on a single platform. Also, if you want to scale your existing community, Circle would be the best bet.

But as Circle lacks powerful LMS features, people use Teachable or Kajabi on top of it.

However, if you want more of an all-in-one platform that comes with courses, memberships (that can also be used as communities), email marketing, and also the ability to sell digital products, use Podia.

Top marketers like Pat Flynn are hosting their communities on Circle. It is releasing more and more features to upgrade its course creation features as well. And moreover, I believe in their product design principles (like modularity) and they are well-funded. I would go with them if I were starting today.

Overview of Circle.so and Podia

Circle.so has the power of courses + communities. While Podia is a one-stop destination for selling all digital products.

If you are in the eLearning industry and want to host your online courses or build a thriving community for your students, Circle.so is the best bet. But note that it has recently introduced a courses feature, and they are working on releasing more LMS features to beat the competition. As of now, if you need advanced LMS features, you can consider tools like Thinkific or Teachable, while hosting your communities on Circle.so.

If you are a marketer, creator, or entrepreneur looking to sell courses, digital downloads, memberships, webinars, coachings, etc., you can go with Podia.

Podia, as of now, just has a basic community tool. It is not as feature-rich as Circle.so. Will discuss more on this later.

Online communities: Circle.so vs Podia

When it comes to communities, Circle.so excels over Podia. It has features like spaces, group chat, private messaging, news feed, member directory, match-making filters, etc. While Podia just has members, topics, and posts. That’s it.

The best thing is you can create as many spaces as you need. The number of spaces you create depends on the pricing plan. Podia doesn’t have spaces and even it doesn’t support multiple communities. The only way here is to create multiple subscription plans and decide what content to offer in which plans.

Creating multiple spaces is a more flexible and practical way than managing them with multiple subscriptions.

If you want to create an unlimited number of courses and course-specific communities, Circle.so is a great choice.

If you are on the Pro and Enterprise plans, Circle provides custom color themes and dark mode features. You can customize the look and feel of your community pages, spaces, even custom code them if you are a coder. Circle’s block-based community building is an added advantage to customizing how the community pages look.

Community moderation features –

Circle.so, recently introduced moderation features to keep your community safe and secure. It has profanity filters to detect spam messages and automatically flag them.

As of now, the tool monitors only the members’ comments and posts within a discussion or event space. Course comments, chats, and DMs are out of this. Podia doesn’t offer these features.

Winner: Circle.so. It is a king of online communities. For members to access the communities and courses on the go, it has mobile apps. Also, they are actively working on making the platform more powerful by releasing new features often.

Online courses

Both Podia and Circle.so have courses feature. Circle introduced this feature recently i.e. in 2022. So, it is in the process of releasing new features and making the tool more powerful.

Unlike Podia, which offers courses even in its lowest plan, starting at $39/mo, Circle.so offers this only in its higher plan, which costs $99/mo. But hosting communities and courses both on a single platform gives more freedom to create marketing strategies.

Both Circle and Podia’s course curriculum consists of sections and lessons. With Podia, you can add text, embeds, quizzes, coaching, and files. While Circle.so supports text, audio/video, and embed codes.

Unlike Podia, it lacks built-in video hosting. So, you need external hosting platforms like Vimeo or Wistia, adding up the cost.

One notable feature of Circle is that it natively integrates with Mux to offer the best-in-class video experience with encoding and content delivery via edge caching and CDNs.

To avoid students binge watch the course content, you can drip schedule the lessons on both platforms.

If you are hosting academic courses, Podia offers course completion certificates. This motivates students to complete the courses, and you will see higher course completion rates. Circle.so lacks this. But as a workaround, you can use external tools like Accredible and issue the certificates using Zapier triggers.

What about the course compliance features?

Unlike dedicated LMS tools like Thinkific, these lack course compliance features like – enforcing:

• Quiz completion
• Video watch duration
• % of lesson completion

Winner: Podia. It has much more powerful course features than Circle.so. You can add quizzes inside the lessons, offer course completion certificates, add as many upsell as you wish, etc.

Digital products selling

In case of Podia, apart from courses, you can sell webinars, bundles, coachings, and other digital files. With Circle.so, you can use its live streaming feature for selling coachings/events/webinars. To sell digital files, you must host the product on other platforms and send users an email with a link to download them.

To sell webinars in Podia, you need integrations with YouTube Live or Zoom. It allows you to access all future meetings and webinars from the dashboard itself.

To sell 121 coachings, Podia integrates with booking services like Calendly, SavvyCal, Acuity, or YouCanBookMe, making it easy for users to book the sessions easily. The best thing is you can embed the coaching sessions inside the courses and sell them as an upsell, to increase sales.

Product bundles:

With Podia, you can create and sell product bundles. You can add as many products as you wish. Even you can add upsells to increase product sales. Circle doesn’t support bundles as of now.

Winner: Tie. With both, you can easily create and sell various types of digital products. For selling coaching or for conducting live events with Podia, you need external integration with Zoom or YouTube live.

Sales and marketing features

To increase sales, Podia and Circle have features like upsells, coupons, and discounts.

With both tools, you can add as many upsell as you wish. With Podia, you can offer discounts even on upsells, for immediate purchases.

To increase conversions, both tools support multiple currencies. You can sell in the user’s native currency.

In Circle, you can even gate access to your content via Paywalls. You can create premium spaces, private groups, sell high-ticket events as a part of monetization.

Winner: Tie. Both tools just offer basic marketing features. If you need features like advanced checkouts, sales funnels, and marketing automations, you can consider tools like Kajabi.

Email marketing and automation

Both Circle and Podia have built-in email marketing tools. Podia allows you to send broadcasts and email campaigns (series of emails). Unlike tools like Kajabi, it lacks email templates.

With Circle, you cannot send follow-up sequences. For this, you need to integrate with external tools using Zapier.

When it comes to automations, both tools lack these. To automate the community tasks or want to implement gamification to increase member engagement, you need to use Zapier triggers and integrate with external tools.

Winner: Podia. With this, you can send both broadcasts and follow-up sequences. If you need access to email templates, split testing, tags, lists, etc, you better go with third-party integrations.

Pricing

Circle’s premium pricing starts at $49/mo. To get courses, native live streaming, custom single sign-on features, you need to go through its Pro plan, which costs $99/mo. Choose Circle if you are more concerned about building thriving communities.

Podia is a freemium platform and its lowest pricing starts at $39/mo. Its free plan charges an 8% transaction fee. Choose Podia if you want to scale your digital product selling.

Unlike tools like Kajabi, both these support unlimited products and courses.

Winner: Tie.

Integrations

Podia has more integrations (25+) than Circle.so (nearly 12+). The latter provides integrations with tools like –

• Memberstack
• MemberSpace
• Memberful
• Teachable
• Outseta
• Bubble
• Auth0
• Facebook
• Stripe
• Etc.

It also has Zapier integration to connect with 1000s of other tools and services.

While Podia provides integrations with –

• GetResponse
• MailChimp
• ActiveCampaign
• ConvertKit
• Stripe
• PayPal
• Zoom
• Google Analytics
• HotJar

It also has Zapier integration. To know more, click on this link.

Conclusion

Circle is an all-in-one LMS and community platform you can use to build a strong customer base for your business. For monetization, it has paywalls, memberships, private spaces, events, etc. It also has iOS and Android apps to help users consume content on the go.

On the other hand, Podia is for you if you are more into digital product selling. It is an affordable platform that you can even use to build communities for your business. Unlike Circle, it doesn’t have mobile apps.

I hope you found this post on Circle.so vs Podia helpful.