Circle is a solid platform — and they've shipped real features (AI Agents, Email Hub, Workflows). But every one is gated to higher tiers or sold as add-ons. Tenant.so includes the full stack at every tier, plus 60+ calculators, native crypto/BNPL/ACH payments, a Discord bot, and Cascade Intelligence liveboards Circle simply doesn't offer.
Circle has raised prices multiple times — from $99/month to $129/month, and now $89/month for a stripped-down Professional tier. No gradual rollout, just an email telling you the new price kicks in by a deadline.
Media storage is now a paid add-on at $50/month per 10 hours. Email Hub is $99/month extra. Transaction fees on every plan (2%, 1%, 0.5%). Features that were included start costing more with little warning.
Circle charges 2% on Professional, 1% on Business, and 0.5% on Plus. A community generating $10,000/month loses $1,200–$2,400/year in platform fees alone.
Circle's Email Hub costs $99/month per 10,000 contacts on top of your plan. Your real cost on the Professional plan is $188/month minimum.
AI agents and workflows are only available on Business ($199/mo) or Plus (custom pricing). The entry plan gets basic community features only.
Professional caps you at 3 admins and 10 moderators. Need more? Extra admins are $10/month each, extra moderators $20/month per 10.
Data sourced from Circle's official pricing page as of April 2026.
| Feature | Tenant.so | Circle |
|---|---|---|
| Community Spaces | Feed, Chat, Events, Course, Calculator, Dashboard, Investment, Liveboard space types | Discussions, chat, events, resources |
| Online Courses | Full LMS — video, quizzes, drip content, 24 embed types, audio recorder | Built-in courses |
| Email Marketing | Included — campaigns, 14-trigger automation, A/B testing | Email Hub: $99/mo add-on per 10K contacts |
| Events | RSVP, recurring, co-hosts, capacity limits | Events + native live streaming |
| Live Streaming | Third-party (Zoom, YouTube, StreamYard) — native streaming on roadmap | Built-in native live streams |
| Gamification | Points, 9-level leveling, streaks (with shields), recognition, leagues, Quick Props | Points, streaks, badges, leaderboards, recognition |
| AI Assistant | Jarvis — course-content-only RAG, BYO OpenAI key, citation tracking | AI Agents (RAG over posts/comments/courses) |
| Automation | 14 triggers + 7 actions + Outbound Webhooks (Zapier/Make/n8n) | Workflows (Business plan+) |
| Payment Methods | Cards, Apple/Google Pay, BNPL (Klarna/Afterpay/Affirm), ACH, 200+ crypto incl. Monero | Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay |
| Transaction Fees | 0% (Stripe processing only) | 2% Pro · 1% Business · 0.5% Plus |
| Discord Bot Integration | Native — milestone alerts, daily digests, slash commands | No |
| Slack Integration | Built-in push notifications | Zapier only |
| HubSpot CRM Sync | Built-in auto-sync (members + tags) | Zapier only |
| Member Matchmaking | Smart matching pools + auto-DM icebreaker | No |
| Auto Video Captions | Cloudflare Stream auto-captions | No |
| Customization | Themes (Light/Dark/Matrix), CSS variables, head + body code injection | Branding + custom CSS |
| Affiliate Program | Built-in (cookie attribution, recurring commission, payout workflow) | Built-in |
| White Label | Hide Tenant.so branding (Business tier) | Plus tier only (custom pricing) |
| Custom Dashboards / Liveboards | Liveboard space type + custom widgets + 10 data sources | No |
| Market Data / Cascade Intelligence | FRED, Polymarket, Unusual Whales, Yahoo Finance, FMP, CoinGecko, Recession Dashboard | No |
| Investment + Dividend Trackers | Built-in space types | No |
| Financial Calculators | 60+ built-in across 7 categories | No |
| License Key System | Built-in (Software/API/Download/Indicator/Script) | No |
| Multi-tenant (run multiple communities) | Yes (Enterprise) | No |
| Personalized Algorithmic Feed | No — full-text search + bookmarks | Yes |
| Forms / Audience CRM | Polls + Contacts DB (no dedicated forms builder) | Forms + Audience CRM |
| Visual Page / Website Builder | No — spaces only | Yes (landing/sales pages) |
| Branded Mobile App | Mobile app exists — branded native app on roadmap | Plus tier (custom pricing) |
Every dollar your members pay goes to you. No 2%, no 1%, no 0.5%. A community doing $10K/month in revenue saves $1,200–$2,400/year vs Circle's platform fees.
Full campaign builder with 14-trigger automation, A/B testing, and segmentation included at every tier. Circle's Email Hub costs $99/month extra per 10K contacts.
Both platforms have RAG-powered AI now. Tenant.so's difference: bring your own OpenAI key (encrypted), course-content-only answers (no generic ChatGPT fallback), and citation tracking that shows which lessons were referenced. Available on every tier with token quotas.
Accept 200+ cryptocurrencies including Monero (via NOWPayments), Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm, and ACH bank transfers. Circle is cards-only with Apple/Google Pay.
FRED, Polymarket, Unusual Whales, Yahoo Finance, FMP, CoinGecko — plus Recession Dashboard, Capital Rotation Tracker, and the full macro suite. Liveboards with custom widgets. Circle has none of this.
BRRRR, real estate investment, 401(k), Roth IRA, FIRE, debt payoff, net worth, credit score simulator — out of the box for finance, real estate, and business communities. Circle has zero calculators.
Dedicated space types for tracking positions, cost basis, GICS sectors, and dividend growth projections. No other community platform offers this.
One-click install on your Discord server. Milestone alerts, daily digests, and slash commands keep your Discord and your Tenant.so community in sync. Circle has no Discord integration.
Sell software, plugins, indicators, or digital products with built-in license generation, expiration policies, and lesson embeds. Circle does not support this.
Run unlimited communities under one billing seat — perfect for agencies and creators with multiple brands. Circle requires a separate account per community.
Built-in migration function for Circle communities. Import members, content, and data without starting from scratch.
Both platforms include affiliate. Tenant.so's edge: per-paywall commission overrides (Business tier), recurring commissions, and cookie attribution with configurable holding period.
We believe in honest comparisons. Here is where Circle has an edge.
Circle hosts live streams directly on the platform. Tenant.so supports events with Zoom, YouTube, StreamYard, and Google Meet — native streaming is on the roadmap but not shipped.
Circle Plus offers custom iOS and Android apps with App Store submission support. Tenant.so has a mobile app but white-labeled native apps are still on the roadmap.
Circle has algorithm-based content recommendations. Tenant.so uses full-text search, bookmarks, and sidebar widgets — but no personalized algo feed yet.
Circle has dedicated form-building and Audience CRM for lead capture. Tenant.so has inline polls, member tags, and a contacts database — but no standalone form builder.
Circle includes a drag-and-drop builder for landing pages, sales pages, and websites with dynamic access controls. Tenant.so focuses on community spaces, not standalone marketing pages.
Circle has been around longer with a larger user base, more templates, tutorials, and peer support. Tenant.so is in early access with rapid feature shipping.
Themes, wrappers, liveboards, custom reactions, upvoting subsystems, granular gamification controls. Tenant.so is built for creators who want to go way beyond courses and discussions.
If you are paying for Circle plus a separate email tool, Tenant.so consolidates both into one platform at a lower total cost.
The more your community earns, the more Circle's transaction fees cost you. At 0% fees, Tenant.so saves you thousands per year as you scale.
60+ built-in financial calculators make Tenant.so a natural fit for communities focused on investing, real estate, or entrepreneurship.
Sell digital products alongside your community with built-in license key generation and management. No separate tool needed.
Jarvis answers student questions based on your actual course content — not just moderating discussions. It is a teaching tool, not a chatbot.
Request early access and be among the first to build on a platform that does not charge you fees for making money.
Already on Circle? We have a dedicated Circle.so migration tool ready to go. On another platform? Send us your export file and we will build a custom import function for your data.
“We were paying for Circle at $129/month, ConvertKit at $79/month, Zapier at $49/month, and a separate course host. That is over $3,000 a year before transaction fees. When Circle announced another price increase and started charging extra for media storage, we decided to build the platform we actually wanted. Tenant.so is what happens when you stop stitching tools together and build the whole thing from scratch.”
Jameson Brandon
Founder & Lead Developer, Terminal Blank