Skool and Circle are both effective platforms for integrating communities, events, and courses in one location. Each platform has distinct advantages, catering to various needs and preferences.
Circle is a platform that excels in creating communities without spam, organizing large events, and automating administrative tasks. It provides tools such as an AI content co-pilot for post ideas and segmentation for member groups. However, it does not have built-in features for gamifying member experience and can be complicated to configure.
On the other hand, Skool lacks advanced segmentation tools and has limited automation capabilities. However, it excels in promoting engagement by providing a gamified experience that includes levels, points, and gems to motivate members to interact with course material and one another. Additionally, it offers a drip scheduler feature to restrict access to courses and manage content consumption. This article will compare Skool and Circle based on the following criteria:
- Community building
- Classroom and online courses
- CRO tools & analytics
- Engagement features
- Pricing
We discussed payments and integrations to assist in selecting the most suitable community platform for your needs. Here is a comparison of their capabilities.
Comparison Summary: Skool vs Circle
- Pricing
- Community Building
- Classroom & Online Courses
- CRO Tools & Analytics
- Engagement Features
- Payments
- Integrations
What is Skool?
“A community platform for creators”
In 2019, Sam Ovens created Skool as a different option to traditional course platforms. The concept behind Skool is that creators are tired of courses and prefer interactions with like-minded individuals in mastermind groups. Skool focuses more on the people involved rather than the content itself.
The platform includes a gamified experience focused on building a community. It incorporates features such as levels, points, and gems to motivate members to interact with course content and one another. Additionally, it offers a drip scheduling feature and community leaderboards to foster engagement and create a sense of friendly competition.
Skool is a platform that offers courses to members who pay for a subscription, making it ideal for those starting out in business or content creation.
What is Circle?
“All-in-one communities for creators and brands”
Circle was founded in 2019 by Sid Yadav, Andrew Guttormsen, and Rudy Santino, providing a comprehensive community platform equipped with the necessary tools for increased productivity.
Circle provides a comprehensive solution for non-profit organizations, entrepreneurs, business owners, and coaches to create and monetize their content, convert visitors into paying members, and organize discussions. With features like flexible community design tools, automation workflows, native live-streaming capabilities, and Content Co-Pilot AI tool, Circle offers everything needed to build a community, host events, and deliver courses.
Circle provides a platform for content creators and businesses to set varying prices for different courses in one community.
Skool vs Circle: Building Communities
Both Skool and Circle offer tools for creators to monetize their community and track payments, but Circle has an advantage with its profanity filters and embed blocks.
Skool offers alternative community-building tools for creators looking for something different from traditional social media platforms.
Skool enables users to create groups and online communities for socializing and forming connections.
The community interface shares similarities with standard Facebook groups, featuring common elements such as pinned posts, comments, likes, mentions, photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and additional features.
On the settings tab, discussion categories can be added and posting permissions can be specified.
The community-building features of Skool help to create a separate space for work and social interaction, ensuring a distraction-free environment free from trolls.
School provides important community features:
- The search box can assist in locating group discussions and creating searchable help documentation gradually.
- The members hub is used for onboarding and managing new members.
- Implement a subscription model to generate revenue from your community, set up subscription paywalls, and track payment transactions.
- Community metrics provide information on growth summaries and trends.
- Zapier integration allows for connection to Zoom, hosting live events, and maintaining an active community.
Circle provides effective community-building tools for entrepreneurs interested in developing paid, spam-free communities.
Circle’s community features enable users to generate income from groups and spaces through real-time messaging and impromptu discussions.
Creators have the ability to customize their community’s appearance, adjust post permissions, and share a variety of media attachments such as videos, audio, files, and podcasts on Skool.
Circle allows for a wider range of content options compared to Skool, as it offers access to numerous embed blocks for adding content from third-party sites to your post.
Circle’s community provides distinct features that are not available on Skool:
- Profanity filters are implemented to maintain a safe and spam-free environment.
- Content Co-pilot specializes in creating, revising, and repurposing engaging content.
- Automated transcriptions can make all videos searchable and accessible.
- Activity scores are utilized to gauge and enhance community engagement.
Both tools provide strong support for member profiles, but Circle excels with its use of tags and segments for managing memberships.
Members can easily join your Skool community by using a custom invite link.
The platform lacks support for stand-out lists or tagging features to manage members, with admins only able to filter based on “active” and “churned” status. On a positive note, bulk inviting potential subscribers is possible through CSV uploads or webhooks.
Circle offers the option for a custom invite link.
Circle offers a variety of tools to help you personalize your message and manage your list using tags and segments similar to a CRM system.
Both platforms have a member directory where you can search and filter community members.
The member directory in Circle showcases important information about each community member to encourage interaction, while Skool provides community managers with tools such as heatmaps and metrics to assess member engagement.
Skool vs Circle: Creating Online Courses & Classrooms
Skool provides a content editor and scheduler for managing content consumption.
The Classroom serves as the central content hub for Skool’s online courses.
The platform offers various features such as supporting videos, modules, files, searchable transcripts, and a rich text editor for creating content with different text styles, inline images/GIFs, hyperlinks, code blocks, quote blocks, and clean line breaks.
When you activate Drip for a course module and select the number of days, it restricts access to the course for the designated period after a member joins the group, enabling you to manage the flow of content consumption while your group expands.
Users have the option of organizing their posts into different categories and managing access permissions for their classroom content.
Circle offers a drag-and-drop builder to create informative pages that can help boost enrollment for courses with payment barriers.
Circle, similar to School, assists creators in consolidating their content and community on one platform to simplify their experience. Unlike “Classrooms,” Circle uses the term “Courses.”
The course hub is divided into three sections with different editing and formatting options: self-paced, structured, and scheduled.
Skool vs Circle: Engagement Features
Skool incorporates gamification for member progress through leaderboards and can integrate with multiple calendars.
Circle’s calendar syncs with Google only, while Skool’s calendar syncs with Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Outlook, allowing for a comprehensive view of all activities.
Additionally, all members on Skool have the ability to switch between calendar and event view to stay informed. However, the toggle feature is only accessible to admins on Circle.
Skool provides a gamification feature to encourage participation in group discussions and maintain user engagement.
This feature allows members to earn points and access courses that help them progress on the leaderboard.
Circle lacks a built-in gamification feature, but you can set up gamification through Airtable. However, Skool offers more flexibility and style in this aspect.
Circle offers built-in live streaming tools while Skool relies on third-party integration.
Circle’s event hub offers integrated video hosting, while Skool’s calendar does not.
Circle allows admins to broadcast events to up to 1,000 people, while Skool users require third-party integrations like Zoom or Google Meet through Zapier for hosting video calls.
The automated transcription feature from Plus Circle enables users to convert event recordings into video transcripts that can be repurposed for other platforms.
Skool vs Circle: CRO Tools
Skool offers resources for keeping track of community well-being and monitoring member participation.
School may not be the most advanced platform for conversion rate optimization, but it does provide some basic CRO features compared to other platforms like Circle or ConvertKit.
Email Broadcasts are a commonly used feature. Admins can easily send posts out via email with just a click of a button.
Skool can assist in tracking various metrics:
- Total members: Provide the total membership count for your group within a 30-day period.
- Active members: Indicate how often members visit your group, whether it be on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis.
- Daily activity: Monitoring the group’s daily activity levels throughout the year is essential.
In addition to the metrics, having a detailed member profile can be useful for optimizing conversions.
Skool tracks member profiles to provide admins with key details for easy reference:
- Provide the date that each member joined.
- The number of followers is being counted.
- The sentence above is describing users’ activity on social media platforms.
Circle has limitations when it comes to member profiles, only showing details like name, designation, and tag.
Circle provides a range of CRO tools to enhance member experience and reduce the need to outsource administrative tasks to contractors, ultimately saving money.
Circle provides CRO tools such as an analytics hub, activity score feature, and workflow automation hub that are not available on Skool.
The analytics hub in Circle is similar to Skool’s metric section, but it is not solely focused on member scoring like Skool. Admins can also utilize Circle’s analytics hub to monitor posts, comments, and messages.
Unfortunately, only users on Circle’s professional plan and above have access to the analytics hub.
Let’s discuss workflow automation next.
Circle’s automation feature includes a variety of templates for onboarding, engagement, administration, and paywall that can be personalized with specific rules and actions.
Admins have the ability to automate tasks:
- The email digests are sent out weekly.
- Routine tasks such as welcome messages.
- Send messages in bulk to all members of a space.
Circle’s automation feature is similar to Skool’s email broadcast feature, but Skool does not support automated workflows.
Circle’s activity score feature is also available.
The activity score feature analyzes members’ engagement activities over the past 30 days, similar to Skool’s rich member profile:
- Presence: Calculate the average number of visits per day and the total number of days visited in the last 30 days.
- Contribution: The number of likes and event RSVPs in the last 30 days.
- Participation: There has been a count of posts and comments made in the last 30 days.
- Connection: The number of active DM conversations in the past 30 days is.
Skool vs Circle: Price and Payment Methods
The school's plan involves implementing an auto-affiliate program and reducing transaction fees.
Skool offers a monthly pricing plan of $99, with no annual option available.
Skool allows you to create and sell subscription memberships to a single group. You can explore Skool’s paid plan with their 14-day free trial.
Skool’s single plan may be expensive for those who are new to it.
One benefit of creating a community with Skool is the auto-affiliate program. As a Skool admin, you earn 40% of the monthly subscription fee when one of your members creates a Skool group.
Next, let’s discuss the payment methods accepted by Skool.
Skool’s payment processing activities primarily occur on its Merchant platform, which incurs a flat charge of 2.9%. Skool also takes care of VAT/sales tax compliance, alleviating the need for you to register for VAT or manage any related tasks.
Skool uses Stripe for auto-affiliate payouts.
Circle’s feature-centric packages enable interesting use cases for diverse needs.
Circle and Skool have different pricing plans that cater to a variety of customers.
The Basic plan costs $49/month and may not be as robust as Skool’s single plan, but it can be beneficial for beginner creators looking to build an active community.
Circle offers a Professional plan that is feature-rich and similar to Skool’s all-in-one plan. You can try out any of Circle’s plans with a 14-day free trial before deciding on a subscription, and no credit card is needed.
Circle’s monthly plans include the following benefits:
Subscribing for Circle’s annual plan offers various benefits. For example, Business plan subscribers receive a $20 discount and a free course migration service.
Circle uses Stripe integration for payment processing, allowing you to charge members in multiple currencies including USD, CAD, AUD, EUR, or GBP.
Circle charges a transaction fee that varies from 0.5% to 4%, depending on your plan.
Skool vs Circle: Pros & Cons
Final Verdict: Skool vs Circle
Use Skool if:
- You appreciate a community similar to that on Facebook.
- Incorporating gamification features can help boost member engagement.
- I am looking for information on member engagement and interaction in the community.
Use Circle if:
- Remember to charge for one-time purchases.
- Utilizing various CRO and marketing tools can help increase engagement.
- The goal is to create a community free of spam.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I host live events on Skool and Circle?
Circle offers the capability to host live events, while Skool currently does not provide this feature. It is worth noting that Skool’s lack of video hosting is a known weakness that may be improved in the future.
Can I pay for Skool (or Circle) monthly?
Both options provide a monthly feature, but you can also opt for the annual feature with Circle, which means paying in one lump sum and saving a little money in the process.
Is Skool a good platform?
I find it to be a good platform with solid community and course-building features. While it may not have advanced capabilities, it is an excellent option for beginners creating their first course-led community.
Is Circle.so a good platform?
I acknowledge its usefulness and adaptability for establishing forums on different subjects, though there may be some drawbacks.
Can I host videos with my course on Circle and Skool?
Circle allows for video hosting within courses, whereas Skool does not. This difference is a significant advantage of using Circle over Skool, although personally I find Skool’s course builder to be more preferable.
