Today in this post, it’ll be all about Circle.so vs Podia.
So, I’ve been using Podia for the past two years, and recently, I had the opportunity to try out Circle.
And you know what?
Now, I’m here to compare both of these softwares and help you find the best one for your workflows.
First let me give you an overview
Overview
Circle.so is an online community and course creation tool suited for creators, coaches, and brands. It is oriented toward building a thriving online community. It is founded in 2019 by the former team of Teachable and is well funded!
All I can say is that this platform is well thought out and built from the ground up using first principles reasoning, following the footsteps of successful startups like Slack and Notion. It is highly modular and designed to scale.
They have placed a strong emphasis on integrations and automation workflows for community management.
While Podia is a creator-centric all-in-one digital platform for marketers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and creators. It focuses more on digital product selling (like courses, communities, and downloadables).
It also offers excellent email marketing and automation capabilities, enabling you to send email broadcasts and schedule sequences.
Let’s get started with the comparison between Podia and Circle.so and decide which is best for you.
Here’s quick comparison table for your reference.
| Features | Circle.so | Podia |
| Premium pricing starts at 💲 | $49/mo | $39/mo |
| Are any discounts available? | None | You will get a 17% discount on the annual subscription |
| Transaction fees | 4% on even the paid plan | 0% on paid plans |
| Mobile apps 📱 | It has both iOS and Android apps | No apps |
| Courses | Yes | Yes (with certificates) |
| Email marketing | No (Zapier) | Yes (with automation) |
| Native live streaming? | Yes | No, but it provides integration with YouTube Live and Zoom. |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| SSO login | Yes | No |
Quick decision
What do we like about Circle.so over Podia? 👍
- Feature-rich and powerful community: Circle offers a range of features, including spaces, private messaging, group chats, a member directory, weekly digests, live streaming, and events. In contrast, Podia has limited features such as members, posts, likes, and comments.
- Built-in live streaming: Circle has a built-in live-streaming feature that enables users to conduct events, webinars, and offer coaching. This feature can be monetized by selling premium event tickets or offering paid masterclasses. On the other hand, Podia does not have native live streaming but provides integration with Zoom and YouTube Live.
- Automation Workflows: Circle has introduced automation workflows in their business plan ($219 per month and above). These workflows allow you to automate tasks and perform bulk actions, saving you money on using Zapier extensively.
- Profanity filters and moderation: Circle automatically flags comments and posts that contain profanity. Currently, Circle monitors comments and posts within discussion or event spaces, but not course comments, chats, and direct messages.
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android: Circle provides mobile apps for both iOS and Android, allowing users to access the platform on the go. However, these apps are not completely white-labeled like Mighty Networks. Circle’s apps support in-app purchases and branded notifications.
- Single sign-on: Circle offers a convenient single sign-on feature, allowing users to log in to Circle using a single login credential if they have integrated other platforms with Circle. For example, if users hosted courses on Teachable, their community members could access Circle using their Teachable credentials. Circle currently provides single sign-on with 11 platforms.
What do we like about Podia over Circle.so? 👍
- All in one platform: Podia is an all-in-one digital selling platform where you can sell courses, coaching, digital downloads, webinars, and communities in a single tool.
- Built-in email marketing tool: Podia includes a built-in email marketing tool that allows you to send broadcasts and email campaigns. While Circle lacks even email marketing app integrations. You’ll be reliant on Zapier.
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage: Podia provides unlimited bandwidth and storage on all its paid plans, eliminating the need for external tools like Vimeo or Wistia. On the other hand, Circle has storage restrictions based on the chosen plan.
- Course features: Podia offers a wide range of course features, including drip courses, cohort courses, and the ability to sell course bundles. It also provides course completion certificates for issuing to students. On the other hand, Circle’s course features are not as robust as Podia’s.
- Live chat support: Podia comes with a live chat feature that you can embed on your storefront. This allows you to connect with prospects in real time and assist them in converting.
- Transaction fees: Podia does not charge any transaction fees on its paid plans, except for the free plan which incurs an 8% fee. In contrast, Circle charges transaction fees on all plans, with rates varying based on the plan level.
Common downsides 👎
- Lack of community gamification: Both of these lack community gamification features such as points, challenges, badges, rankings, and leaderboards. If this is needed, go with Skool or Kajabi.
- Lack of specialist course features: Neither have specialist course features like course compliance, video level retention graphs, and heat maps for student level accountability. If you require these features, you may need to consider dedicated course platforms.
Upfront bottomline ✨:
When it comes to community building, I have to say that Circle is the clear winner.
It offers a wide range of specialist features like Spaces, chats, live streaming, mobile apps, that are specifically designed to enhance community engagement.
However, Podia has limited community features. You can create topics for members to post in and they can like and comment, but there isn’t much more. Its community offering is only about 20% of what Circle provides.
Personally, I believe that the community component is the most important aspect of any digital selling platform, and in this regard, Circle excels.
Interface and organization
When it comes to the user interface and user experience, both Circle and Podia have done an excellent job.
Navigating through the platforms is a breeze, with just a few clicks, and the loading times are impressive.
Let’s take a closer look at Circle’s community creation process.
In Circle, you have the flexibility to create multiple groups within your community.
Each group can have its own spaces, which are essentially different channels or topics for your community members to engage in.
When creating a space, you need to select the type.
For example, you can create a space where community members can post content, another space for various events and discussions, and even a dedicated space for your course where community members can access and go through the course material.
In Podia, things are quite similar. You will be creating a community, and underneath it, you can have different topics where community members can create posts.
Unlike Circle, Podia doesn’t have a concept of spaces. For instance, the webinars feature and the course features are separate from the community component altogether.
Community access
With Circle, you have the flexibility to set certain spaces as private, secret, or even public.
Additionally, under memberships, you can create multiple tiers of memberships, set pricing, and give access to certain spaces for specific membership levels.
For example, you can create a space called “Pro Membership” and allow access to only certain Spaces (discussion channels, courses, events, etc) applicable to the members in that plan.
If any of your community members encounter a space for which they don’t have access or haven’t purchased, they will be prompted with a paywall (which you can customize!).
On the other hand, with Podia, you can create multiple membership plans, set pricing for them, and then map the products that would be associated with each payment plan.
So, you might be wondering how to make certain topics available only to specific plan holders.
Well, in the above screen, it’s not possible to do that directly.
Instead, you’ll need to go to the topic page, edit the topic, and then set the privacy of the topic.
For example, you can set it as private and make it exclusively available for gold members.
This way, the topic channel will be locked for members of other plans, ensuring that only gold members can access it.
Community engagement and mobile apps
When it comes to community engagement, Circle excels over Podia.
It has features like:
- Group chat
- Private messaging
- News feed
- In-built live streaming feature
- Member directory
- Match-making filters
- Feature rich iOS and Android apps
While Podia just has topics, members, and posts.
That’s it.
Podia, despite being an established player in the space, has a major downside – it lacks any iOS or Android apps! It is be a significant drawback for users who prefer mobile accessibility.
It’s really unfortunate that Podia hasn’t addressed this aspect, especially considering the importance of mobile apps in today’s landscape.
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.
To create a course in Circle, you simply need to create a space and select the type as a course.
Once you’ve done that, you can start creating your course content.
You can have different sections and lessons within each section.
Additionally, Circle allows you to control the order in which students consume the content. You can choose to make the course self-paced, structured, or scheduled (drip feed), depending on your preferences.
The best part is that Circle offers a fully-fledged block-based editor for crafting your lesson content.
This provides a lot of flexibility in terms of organizing and structuring your course.
Another useful feature of Circle is that it automatically transcribes all the videos you upload to the platform.
This enables users to search the transcript and find specific information whenever needed.
On the other hand, with Podia, similar to Circle, you can create various sections and have lessons underneath them. You can add different types of lessons, such as text embeds, quizzes, coaching, and even digital downloads.
The lesson types may be unnecessary because, most of the time, you end up using their text lesson for more flexibility.
However, there is a shortage of blocks available here.
For example, you can’t include a quiz, a coaching class, or even a digital download inside this lesson content area when you are in their new block-based text editor.
Also, similar to Circle, Podia provides the ability to delay access to various sections and send automated emails when the sections are unlocked.
Additionally, Podia offers unique features such as :
- Support for quizzes
- Delivery of course completion certificates
However, similar to Circle, Podia lacks other specialist course compliance features such as enforcing video watching or quiz completion, as well as advanced course analytics with completion tracking for monitoring student progress (gives meaning to certificates in academic contexts).
It also does not provide heat maps or retention reports for student-level accountability.
🏆 Bottom line: Podia. It has many more powerful course features than Circle. You can add quizzes inside the lessons, offer course completion certificates, etc.
Webinars or events
Circle has a built-in live streaming feature that allows you to create live rooms for calls with up to 30 participants or you can host broadcasts for events with up to 1000 members.
As I mentioned earlier, to host events, you need to create a space and select the space type as “Events”.
Within this space, you can create multiple events and schedule them.
When creating an event, you have many options, including the date and time, repeat pattern for recurring events, etc.
You even the ability to select the location where the event will be hosted.
Most of the time, you will be choosing Circle’s own live stream, although it also has integration with Zoom and Google Meet.
This is because Circle has a really good iOS and Android app that allows both hosts and attendees to interact well during live events.
On the other hand, Podia does not have native streaming abilities.
You can create webinars. They are treated as separate products.
Instead, it integrates with Zoom and YouTube Live. You can sell access to live events or webinars and simply share the sign-up link hosted by Podia in your training courses and emails.
Once the webinar is complete, you can just drag and drop the recording to make the replays available.
Unlike other platforms, the webinar replay is not automated.
Additionally, it does not support automated webinar reminders. You need to send them manually using the webinar software or email marketing software of your choice.
For 1:1 consultations and coaching, Podia supports a different product type called coaching.
It also integrates with other calendar software such as Calendly, SavvyCal, and Acuity.
Suppose you are using a Calendly link, you need to make use of Calendly’s integration with Zoom to host the sessions, as Podia doesn’t come with live streaming abilities.
👍 Since coaching is considered a separate product, you have the option to add it as an upsell for customers who are going through the training course or are part of your community.
🏆 Bottom line: Circle. It jhas live streaming abilities making the events well integrated with the rest of the system. For instance, you can immediately make the event’s recording available under “Past events”.
Sales and marketing features
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.
Upsells and coupons
Upsells are a really good way by which you can maximize your profits.
So whenever people buy any of your products on the thank you page, you can present them with another offer to maximize your profits.
Here comes with built-in upsell functionality.
So you can see when people buy my course, which is the BloggingX Automation System, on the thank you page, they will also be offered my complete BloggingX Pro System at a discount.
This is only possible with Podia.
On the other hand, Circle doesn’t support upsell functionality.
However, both of these platforms offer coupon functionality. This allows you to set a percentage or flat amount for the coupon, as well as specify an expiry date.
Checkout page
When it comes to checkout, Circle offers a simple and professional single-step checkout process.
It only supports Stripe as a payment gateway and does not support PayPal.
The checkout page requires minimal user information to complete the purchase.
On the other hand, Podia also supports single-page checkout functionality.
Users need to create an account, enter their billing details, and provide card information to complete the checkout process.
Additionally, Podia offers upsell functionality, allowing users to be presented with upsells after completing the checkout process, maximizing profits even further.
However, one big downside I found with both of these platforms is that they currently does not have the ability to add order bumps for maximizing profit.
This means you cannot offer add-ons to customers during the checkout process.
If you still require features like order bumps and the ability to add upsells, go with dedicated checkout platforms like Thrivecart or SamCart.
🏆 Bottom line: Podia (due to upsells). Both tools just offer basic marketing features. If you need features like advanced checkouts, sales funnels, and marketing automations, you can consider tools Kajabi or ClickFunnels.
Email marketing
Circle allows you to customize transactional emails that are sent for community notifications.
In contrast, Podia goes a step further by supporting email broadcasts and campaigns (sequences) using pre-made templates and a drag-and-drop builder.
You can also target specific audience segments and create automated email sequences based on user actions.
For instance, when someone enrolls in a training course, you can trigger a series of emails to provide relevant information.
On the other hand, in order to accomplish this, you need to integrate Circle with various other email marketing platforms using Zapier because it lacks any native integrations with email marketing platforms.
🏆 Bottom line: Podia. With this, you can send both broadcasts and follow-up sequences.
Automation
Apart from the entrance and exit conditions that you can have for different email campaigns to trigger them, there are not many automation options available in Podia unless you make use of Zapier.
On the other hand, with Circle, if you go with their business plan that costs $219 per month, you have access to automation workflows.
It enables you to run community management actions whenever some event is triggered, or run a bulk action for simplifying admin tasks and cleanup.
Running automation workflows inside of Circle is like having an app like Zapier right inside Circle.
For example, in the above screenshot, I have set the automation so that whenever people complete the training course – “Mindfulness for Beginners”, we can automatically send them a direct message congratulating them on completing the course.
Like this, you can mix and match various available triggers and actions to set different automation scenarios, and it further leads to the emergence of new possibilities like say gamification strategies.
Similar to Zapier, it also comes with various workflow templates for you to get started.
These are similar to Zapier templates that you can just click and set up in your community.
🏆 Bottom line: Circle
Integrations
Circle does not have full-fledged native integrations with other platforms, especially email marketing software. So, you end up using Zapier to integrate it with various other platforms.
However, it does support single SSO sign-in for different apps like MemberStack, MemberSpace, Teachable, Facebook, etc.
For example, if you have your courses hosted on Teachable, your students can use the same credentials to log into your Circle community.
On the other hand, Podia offers many more integrations. It has native integrations with popular email marketing services like ConvertKit, MailChimp, Drip, Aweber, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, Mailerlite, etc.
This is impressive because even though Podia comes with email marketing abilities, they are generous enough to offer this wide range of integrations with various other email marketing software as well.
And yes, similar to Circle, Podia also has Zapier integration.
🏆 Bottom line: Podia.
Pricing
Circle’s pricing starts at $49 per month, which does not include features like courses and live streams and has a limit of up to 100 members.
If you require unlimited member support along with additional features such as courses and live streams, you will need to opt for their Professional plan at $99 per month.
However, if you need automation workflows and other advanced features, the Business plan would be the most suitable option for most people.
And when it comes to Podia, it has a free plan that has major limitations. For example, even with 8% transaction fee, you can’t have live courses. It supports only draft courses.
Their starting plan is the Mover plan that costs $39 per month. It comes with almost all the features, except you cannot have webinars functionality, set your own affiliate program, and embed third-party code for tracking and retargeting purposes.
Except for these features, all their plans have all their features available.
Conclusion
To conclude, for most readers, Circle would be the better choice.
It offers comprehensive features for community management, and it’s led by a promising team that includes the founding members of Teachable. I have high conviction regarding the future of Circle as it follows the footsteps of successful startups like Slack and Notion.
If you are interested in knowing more about my views on Circle, please refer to my review on Circle here.
On the other hand, Podia is limited when it comes to community features. It allows you to build basic communities with various topics and engage members through posting content in discussion areas. It may still be a better choice if you need an integrated email marketing software and additional course-related features like course certificates and quizzes.
If you are interested in exploring my views on Podia, you can refer to this review on Podia that I’ve published earlier.
