2025 Circle Review | How to create an online community, membership site, or online courses

[@witandwire]

⭐Try Circle for free with a 14-day trial: witandwire.com/circle And let me know what you think about Circle in the comments!

[@danicasnelson]

This was SO GOOD and SO THOROUGH. Thank you so much! Can’t wait to start my own community soon :)

[@witandwire]

I'm so glad this was helpful!

[@jordanthornton]

Perfect timing - been getting ready to implement community aspects into my course after multiple student requests! Thanks for this, and hope you're doing wonderfully this year, Melissa.

[@witandwire]

Thanks, Jordan! Exciting to hear that you’re expanding into community. I hope you’re doing well, too!

[@jacquelynvansant186]

This Circle tutorial was fantastic and thorough. Very well done, Melissa! Circle is something I am familiar with as a user/member, but I have been interested in how to set up a Circle community. Thank you for sharing this.

[@witandwire]

I'm so glad this was helpful!

[@RyanReichertEstes]

Thanks for sharing this content, Melissa. Your tutorials and walk throughs have been really helpful for me in narrowing down a sea of tech options that will help me manage my business offerings. I appreciate how clear, approachable and useful your videos have been!

[@witandwire]

I'm so glad our videos have been helpful!

[@BigDogMom]

Great tutorial! Did you move your courses to Circle or are you still with Teachable? I’d love to hear what you use for all the various aspects of your online business.

[@witandwire]

Great question! We have courses in both Teachable and Circle.

[@_AnthonyGauna]

This was incredibly helpful. Thank you!

[@witandwire]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@Tarzan_Movement]

super usefull tutorial for us starting the journey , I feel is so easy and smooth to learn from you ( natural talent)

[@witandwire]

Glad it was helpful!

[@LeadGuitarWorkshop]

This was great, thank you so much.

[@witandwire]

You're very welcome!

[@Woman_Up]

This tutorial was really helpful! I would've been interested to know how it compares to Kajabi as well but I will look through your other videos for more Kajabi related stuff. 🥰

[@witandwire]

Glad it was helpful! Melissa speaks about Kajabi communities at 13:25 in this video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGeppXWrq7h0bdU Hope that helps! Team Wit & Wire

[@AbsoluteValueMath]

So thorough and you sold me on creating my membership site in Circle! I've been looking for MONTHS for the perfect site and this fits all my needs! Question - if I create a course as self - paced and want to add to it after I take it out of draft mode, can I do that? Thank you!

[@witandwire]

Glad you're liking Circle! Good question, to edit a published course by navigating to your course space, click "Edit lessons," and update the content. If you're having issues, I would recommend reaching out to Circle support. Team Wit & Wire

[@SteveBubel]

Extremely helpful. Thank you, Melissa!

[@witandwire]

I'm so glad it was helpful!

[@MrAntpre]

Thanks, what the features helping to cross sell you gourps or courses . Tks. Nice video

[@witandwire]

You're welcome! And sorry, I'm not fully understanding your question. Team Wit & Wire

[@MrAntpre]

@@witandwire sorry that was really unclear 🫣. I meant : in a classic online course platform the owner of one course can see a page with all the courses available to him from that same creator on the site and can then buy additional courses from within the course site. Can you do that in circle. In some plateforme you can even advertise for other course within the lesson (this is what I meant by crossel). Sorry I m not a native speaker

[@witandwire]

I believe the answer is no, there isn’t a cross-sell feature as you’re describing. But if you’d like a more specific answer, I’d recommend reaching out to Circle’s support team.

[@PiaYoga]

Thank you. This has been very useful. Is there any recommendations on uploading videos regarding sizing?

[@witandwire]

For posts, the video upload limit is 3 GB. For courses, there is no size limit. You may also find it helpful to check out their help center! Team Wit & Wire

[@PiaYoga]

@@witandwireThanks a lot 🙏

[@adnanaboulsi]

Really helpful, thank you!! Do you have any tips/ideas on how to organize bookings for paid 1:1 coaching on Circle? Any recommendations? I know that feature is not available yet

[@witandwire]

Great question. As you already found, it’s not something Circle currently offers, so I’m not sure it’s something I would deliver via their platform. You might be able to use their Paywalls to collect payments, but that’s the most I think you’d be able to do without needing another platform to collect payments, deliver the service, or both. As an alternate, depending on what you’re looking for big picture, you might check out Stan: witandwire.com/stan

[@patriciapaints]

Thank you so much for this video. Is there a course directory to organise courses by categories or filters? I have over 50 courses and lessons and having them all listed without categorising would be so difficult for a student.

[@witandwire]

Good question! It looks like you can filter courses using topics. You may find this support article helpful: help.circle.so/p/courses/course-setup/course-directory Team Wit & Wire

[@TiagoTomas_Arg]

Awesome, but does it have another option different from stripe to create the paywall? Here in Argentina we don't have access to Stripe

[@witandwire]

Good question. If Stripe is not available in your country, consider using a payment provider integrated with Zapier on the Professional plan or above. You may be able to find more support here help.circle.so/

[@felicia-usa]

This tutorial was super helpful. Thank you so much!

[@witandwire]

I'm so glad it was helpful!

[@cimonescorner]

This video was great!! I was able to start setting up my community but I do have a question.... How would I create some sort of landing page for new members? My community is private but I would like to have a link I can post on social media that will take potential new members to a sign up page. I've been having a hard time with how to set up something like this.

[@witandwire]

Glad you found it helpful! Good question- here's a support article that goes into detail on creating landing pages on Circle: community.circle.so/c/showandtell/how-to-create-a-landing-page-on-circle-and-convert-members Hope it helps! -Team Wit & Wire

[@business-in-japan]

Thanks. Great presentation of the platform.

[@witandwire]

Thank you! 😊

[@MrAntpre]

Do you know if curcle allows you to send message or email upon completion of a specific lesson of a course. Thanks

[@witandwire]

I'm not sure I fully understand your question. Students submit assignments via the course dashboard and then admin can view and grade submissions. Admin can direct message students as well. Team Wit & Wire

[@johnwoodallmd]

Thank you, Melissa. I am planning an online event for December, 2024. From the event I hope to attract participants to my free online community that will make available subscriptions to paid spaces. Can multiple subspaces be created for different themes from a free community space? How do people access the event? With Zoom, you make available a link. How do I send people to the event (sign up) from the ads in Circle? Is there a feature to help putting the back-end together? Thank you.

[@witandwire]

Good question! But this technical question is a bit more in-depth than I can answer well via KZbin. I do provide this level of support and help via Wit & Wire’s programs, but there’s no pressure to join. (You can learn more via witandwire.com/courses.)

[@anna.y.l]

Thank u for your input! For the paywall - is just credit card an option? I`m not sure how to link paypal etc. maybe you know that?

[@witandwire]

Great question! Currently, you can accept payments via credit card by connecting to Stripe. (PayPal isn’t currently an option if you use Circle’s checkout page directly.)

[@CarlaArroyo-i3x]

Hi! Thanks for this! Does circle have a email marketing feature? In which of the pricing levels is it included?

[@witandwire]

Circle does not have built-in email marketing capabilities. It only sends transactional emails like notifications and invites.

[@sophieash5883]

Great tutorial! Q: We have events that are free to members but paid for outsiders. Can Circle accommodate this structure? I want to make sure that external people can only see and attend the events, but also see discussion threads and courses behind a paywall. Thanks!

[@witandwire]

Yes, great question. It’s possible to have some Groups or individual Spaces that are available to free members (or even the public without a login) while others are just for paid members. So it should be possible.

[@islasierraco]

love this review!!

[@witandwire]

I'm so glad it was helpful!

[@bobc4764-1]

Hi Melissa, this is an outstanding video, as all of your videos that I've seen are. It looks like Circle might be an ideal tool for the platform I want to create, which will involve several online courses and an ongoing support community. My question: does Circle allow me to offer different plans and revenue models, all under the same umbrella? For example, I want to charge one-time fees for each of the courses, but I want to use the subscription model for the ongoing support plan. I'd like to offer all of the components "a la carte" to each customer via the same platform, e.g. Circle.

[@witandwire]

Thank you! I’m so glad to hear that my videos have been helpful, and great question. Yes, you can create different price structures within one Circle community. For example, as you said, you can create Paywalls for a la carte one-time pricing, and also have Paywalls for recurring memberships with various personalized access levels. I hope that helps!

[@fitfoxfamily333]

Does this platform supports vertical video format (like instagram)? I mean fully vertical , not a landscape format with black sides if you know what I mean

[@witandwire]

Circle uses standard landscape video formats (16:9), although I haven’t tested it with vertical. To see if it’s possible, I’d recommend reaching out to their support team.

[@madelcamp]

Does circle collect, remits and file taxes for me, like teachable pay + backoffice? I need that solution. Thank you so much!

[@witandwire]

Circle integrates with Stripe Tax to collect and calculate taxes. However, you must file and remit taxes yourself. I would recommend looking up a support article on Circle such as this one: help.circle.so/p/payments/taxes

[@johnmarkdyer7]

I just set up my Circle community but I cannot figure out how to invite people without giving them a free trial?! If I type in the URL it takes me to a login page, not a sign up page. Any ideas?

[@witandwire]

I believe this is optional- Invited members can receive a free trial using invitation methods. You can set this up via invitation links or bulk import. You may find this article helpful: help.circle.so/p/members/onboarding/send-an-invitation-to-add-a-member-to-your-community?locale=en Team Wit & Wire

[@RootCanalMastery]

Is it possible to have a “free” member have the ability to access some lessons of the course while locking more advanced lessons of the same course…

[@witandwire]

You may be able to do this in group access settings, but I would recommend checking out Circle Help with this question. Team Wit & Wire

[@jaceaser]

How does it compare to teachable communities?

[@witandwire]

Great question! We have a full video comparison between our top favorite course-building platforms (which includes Circle & Teachable) here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4XdeHR_r7VmqcU Plus, we'd recommend downloading our free Course Creation Toolkit with a side-by-side comparison of top course creation platforms here: witandwire.com/download-course-creation-toolkit/ We hope this helps, Team Wit & Wire ✨

[@kristinamkelly]

Do you know if Circle is HIPAA compliant?

[@witandwire]

Good question! I don't believe it is, but confirming with the Circle team would be your best bet. Team Wit & Wire

[@leameet5]

Is there a maximum community size? :)

[@witandwire]

You can add an unlimited amount of members.

[@stm8138]

Is anyone offering "Done for you" services within the LMS course platform space?

[@witandwire]

Good question! You may be able to find those types of services on: Fiverr witandwire.com/fiverr (partner link) Upwork www.upwork.com/

[@micwest5872]

Can you connect Circle to a website ?

[@witandwire]

Good question! I would recommend checking out this support article from Circle: help.circle.so/p/sso-and-integrations/s/embed-circle-on-my-website Team Wit & Wire

[@andytlaird]

Does each course I create count as one space?

[@witandwire]

Good question! Yes, it would and there are 6 different types of spaces you can create. You can check out the spaces overview here: help.circle.so/p/basics/spaces/spaces-overview

[@hansan3920]

Payouts are daily ?? Weekly Or monthly ?? In circle

[@witandwire]

Great question. Since Circle’s paywalls are powered by Stripe, it will depend on your Stripe settings. You can learn more here: support.stripe.com/questions/understanding-daily-automatic-and-manual-payouts