Circle vs Podia 2026: Community Pricing Compared

Circle vs Podia is a comparison people usually run once their audience has outgrown a mailing list and started expecting somewhere to talk. A community platform is hosted software that puts discussions, courses, events and paid memberships behind one login, so members pay once and get access to all of it.

Circle and Podia both do that, and they meter completely different things: Circle charges a percentage of what your members pay you and bills email separately, while Podia charges a flat fee and meters the size of your list.

We read both pricing pages in August 2026, and on price alone the result is more lopsided than either company would like.

Here is the finding that shapes the rest of this article. Circle's cheapest plan is Professional at 89 dollars a month on annual billing, and it still charges a 2% transaction fee. Podia's zero-fee plan is Shaker at 84 dollars a month.

So Podia Shaker is cheaper than Circle Professional before a single member has paid you anything, and the 2% only widens the gap from there.

Full disclosure: Framekit is our own product and it is neither of these. It cannot run a community or a membership of any kind, because it has no recurring billing, so it does not appear in the comparison below except as a note about what these platforms are not.

The two ladders

Both ladders are reproduced as each company publishes them. Circle first, in dollars, with a footnote on its own pricing page stating that the figures shown are based on annual billing and exclude applicable tax.

• Professional, 89 dollars a month, 2% transaction fee. Unlimited members, courses, discussions, events, live streams, live rooms, a website builder, custom domain, paid memberships, gamification, a searchable member directory and rich member profiles.
• Business, 199 dollars a month, 1%. Everything above plus workflows, custom profile fields, admin and member APIs, branded email notifications, automated transcriptions, activity scores, and the removal of Circle's own branding.
• Circle Plus, quoted on request, 0.5%.

There is a 14-day trial and it does not ask for a card.

Email is not included on any of those plans: Circle's Email Hub is an optional add-on charged on top of the community plan, priced by contact count, and it is 99 dollars a month at 10,000 contacts with the first 30 days free.

Podia, in dollars, with the annual figure second.

• Mover, 42 dollars a month or 504 a year, 5% transaction fee.
• Shaker, 84 dollars a month or 1,008 a year, 0%.
• Earthquaker, 150 dollars a month or 1,800 a year.

There is no free plan and the 30-day trial does not ask for a card. Email marketing is bundled rather than sold separately, with included sending capped by tier at 100, 500 and 1,000 subscribers.

In one lineCircle prices community depth and bills email as an extra, Podia prices a bundle and bills you by the size of your list, which is why the two feel so different once you are actually paying.

The arithmetic

Three crossovers matter when choosing between these two platforms, and only one of them favours Circle, which is a blunter result than we expected before running the numbers.

Circle Professional against Podia Shaker. Circle costs 89 dollars plus 2%. Podia Shaker costs 84 dollars flat. There is no crossover, because Circle starts five dollars higher and then adds a percentage.

Podia Shaker is cheaper at every revenue level, and at 5,000 dollars a month of member revenue the gap is 105 dollars a month.

Circle Professional against Podia Mover. Mover is 42 dollars plus 5%, so setting the two equal gives 47 dollars equal to 3% of revenue, and the crossover is 1,567 dollars a month.

Below that Podia Mover is cheaper, above it Circle Professional is. Mover is the only Podia plan Circle beats on price, and only past that figure.

Circle Professional against Circle Business. Business costs 110 dollars more and saves 1%, so it pays for itself at 11,000 dollars a month in member revenue.

That is a distant upgrade point, and it is genuinely to Circle's credit: growth does not reprice you for a long time.

The Podia Shaker column is flat at 84 dollars all the way down, which is the single strongest argument in this comparison and the one Podia's own marketing makes least clearly.

In one lineIf your decision is purely financial, this article has a one-word answer, and the rest of it exists because most people's decision is not purely financial.

What Circle is actually selling

Circle costs more than Podia at every level in the table above, so it is worth being precise about what the extra money actually buys, because the phrase "community features" on a pricing page is not an answer to that question.

Unlimited members on every tier is the first thing, and it is rarer than it sounds. Many platforms in adjacent categories price by contact or member count, so a community that grows quickly can outrun its plan in a month.

Circle does not do that, and for a community that might go from 200 to 2,000 people in a good year, removing that variable is worth paying for.

The second is that the community surface is genuinely deep rather than a comment thread attached to a course.

Live rooms and live streams, events, gamification, a searchable member directory and rich member profiles are the machinery that makes a paid community feel like somewhere people go rather than somewhere they were enrolled.

If members talking to each other is the product you are selling, that machinery is the product.

The third, on Business, is the API surface. Admin and member APIs, workflows and custom profile fields are what let a community be wired into the rest of a business, and nothing in Podia's ladder is aimed at that.

In one lineCircle is priced as a community product that also sells courses, and if you are not going to use the community depth, you are paying 89 dollars a month for an expensive content folder.

What Podia is actually selling

Podia's case rests on consolidation rather than on any single feature, and it is a strong case for a specific size of business, though it weakens in one particular way that the pricing page does not draw attention to.

One bill covers courses, digital downloads, memberships, coaching and email marketing, which for a solo creator replaces three subscriptions with one.

Circle's equivalent requires the community plan plus the Email Hub add-on, and at 10,000 contacts that is 89 plus 99, so 188 dollars a month against Podia Shaker's 84.

That comparison is the one to run if you currently pay for email separately, and it is also the one to check carefully, because Podia's included sending stops at 100, 500 and 1,000 subscribers by tier.

A creator with a 3,000-person list is billed above the cap on Podia and would be paying Circle's add-on too, so at large list sizes the consolidation advantage narrows and both platforms start charging for the same thing.

Podia's second advantage is that a flat fee never punishes a good month. At 25,000 dollars a month of member revenue, Podia Shaker still costs 84 dollars while Circle Professional costs 589.

In one linePodia is the cheaper bill for almost everyone, and the qualifier that matters is the size of your email list rather than the size of your revenue.

The branding tax on both sides

Neither platform lets you remove its name from your community at the entry tier, and the price of doing so is worth calculating rather than accepting, because it is one of the larger single line items in this comparison.

Circle's branding comes off at Business, which is 199 dollars a month on annual billing, so removing it costs 110 dollars a month more than Professional.

Note that Professional does include custom branding in the sense of your colours and logo, which is not the same thing as Circle's own branding being absent.

This is worth pricing rather than assuming. For a community sold to peers who do not care what software it runs on, the badge costs nothing and 110 dollars a month is a poor trade.

For anything sold to corporate buyers, or positioned as a premium programme, it undercuts the price before the first login.

In one linePrice the badge against what your members are paying, because at 110 dollars a month it needs to be costing you at least one member to be worth removing.

Where neither platform is the answer

Both of these platforms assume the community is the business, and if it is not the business, both of them are considerably oversized for what you are actually trying to do.

A creator selling a handful of digital products with no discussion, no cohort and no membership does not need either, and the fee arithmetic makes that obvious: on 1,000 dollars a month of sales, a storefront with a 5% cut costs 50 dollars against Podia Shaker's 84 and Circle Professional's 109. Payhip against Podia works that comparison through in full, and finds a free plan that runs memberships.

There is also the case where what you actually needed was a website. Both platforms give you a place for members to gather, and neither gives you a portfolio that persuades a stranger to become a member in the first place.

Framekit is an AI website builder that generates a portfolio site and a digital store from a description of your work, and it solves that half of the problem and none of this one, because it has no recurring billing and therefore cannot run a membership at all.

In one lineAsk whether people are paying you for access to each other, because if they are not, you are shopping in the wrong category.

Fees, tax and the cost underneath

Both platforms charge their percentage on top of card processing rather than including it, which means every figure in this article is understated by roughly three percentage points, and you should add your own processor's rate before comparing either platform against a merchant-of-record product whose single headline rate covers the card as well.

On tax, neither Circle nor Podia acts as your merchant of record, which means that on a cross-border digital sale you remain the seller and the registration and filing obligation is yours.

This catches community operators out because membership revenue from EU members is a digital service, and EU VAT applies from the first cross-border sale with no small-seller threshold.

The European Commission's guidance on VAT for digital services is the primary source worth reading once before deciding it does not apply to your members.

In one lineA 2% platform fee and a 0% platform fee are both sitting on top of processing and both leaving the tax with you, so neither headline is the number you will actually pay.

Which should you pick

Work down this list and stop at the first line that describes your situation.

• You want the cheapest bill and the community is straightforward. Podia Shaker at 84 dollars flat, which is cheaper than Circle Professional at every revenue level.
• Members talking to each other is the product. Circle Professional at 89 dollars a month on annual billing plus 2%. Pay the difference for live rooms, the member directory and gamification.
• You earn under about 1,567 dollars a month and want to spend as little as possible. Podia Mover at 42 dollars plus 5%, and move to Shaker once you pass that figure.
• You have a large email list. Price both including email. Podia bills above 100, 500 or 1,000 subscribers by tier, and Circle's Email Hub is a separate add-on at 99 dollars a month for 10,000 contacts.
• You are past 11,000 dollars a month in member revenue on Circle. Circle Business, which is where the lower percentage finally overtakes the higher plan fee.
• You sell to corporate buyers. Circle Business, because that is where Circle's own branding comes off.
• Your income is products rather than access. Neither. Compare the storefronts instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Circle or Podia cheaper?

Podia, at every revenue level we tested against its Shaker plan. Shaker costs 84 dollars a month with no transaction fee, while Circle's cheapest plan is 89 dollars a month on annual billing plus 2%.

Circle only beats Podia's entry-level Mover plan, and only above about 1,567 dollars a month in member revenue.

Does Circle include email marketing?

No. Circle's Email Hub is an optional add-on charged on top of the community plan and priced by contact count, at 99 dollars a month for 10,000 contacts with the first 30 days free.

Podia bundles email into its plans instead, with included sending capped at 100, 500 and 1,000 subscribers by tier.

What is Circle's transaction fee?

2% on Professional, 1% on Business and 0.5% on Circle Plus. Unlike most platforms in this category, the percentage never reaches zero on a published plan, so a share of member revenue always goes to Circle on top of the monthly fee.

When is Circle Business worth it over Professional?

At 11,000 dollars a month in member revenue. Business costs 110 dollars more and saves one percentage point, so 110 divided by 0.01 gives the crossover.

Below that figure Professional is cheaper, which makes it an unusually distant upgrade point and a genuine point in Circle's favour.

Does either platform limit how many members I can have?

Circle includes unlimited members on every tier, which is rare and is one of the clearer reasons to pay for it. Podia does not cap members either, but it does cap the email subscribers included with each plan, which becomes the effective limit as your audience grows.

Can I remove the platform's branding?

On Circle, at the Business plan, which is 199 dollars a month on annual billing. Circle's Professional plan includes custom branding in the sense of your own colours and logo, which is a different thing from Circle's own branding being removed.

Do these platforms handle VAT on membership fees?

No. Neither acts as merchant of record, so you remain the seller and the obligation is yours. Membership revenue from EU members counts as a digital service, so the rules apply from the first cross-border sale rather than at a later threshold.

Do I need a community platform at all?

Only if people are paying for access to each other. If you are selling files, or a course nobody discusses, a storefront does the same job for a fraction of the cost, and the community machinery you are paying for every month goes unused.

The verdict

On price this is not a close comparison. Podia Shaker at 84 dollars a month is cheaper than Circle Professional at every level of member revenue, and by 25,000 dollars a month the gap is 505 dollars a month.

Any article that presents these two as neck and neck on cost has not done the arithmetic.

Circle still wins the cases it is built for, and they are real.

Unlimited members on every tier, live rooms, events, gamification and a searchable directory add up to a product where the community is the thing being sold rather than a feature bolted to a course.

If members are paying to be in a room with each other and with you, that is worth more than the five dollars and two percent it costs, and the 11,000 dollar upgrade point means growth will not reprice you for a long time.

The trap on both sides is email.

Podia's bundle looks like consolidation until your list passes the tier cap, and Circle's community price looks competitive until you add the Email Hub and find yourself at 188 dollars a month against Podia's 84.

Price your list before you price the platform, because on these two products that is where the money actually moves.