Podia and Circle are all-in-one platforms where you can build a community, publish content, make a website, and stay in touch with your audience. Both also have email marketing, affiliate marketing, and automations, so you can scale your work over time.

But Podia and Circle are designed with a few key differences, so deciding between the two ultimately comes down to how you want to structure your business.

Podia is built for creators, solopreneurs, and small businesses who want a flexible setup where community and products work together. You can sell standalone courses, downloads, coaching, and bundles alongside your community, and as your business grows, you can upgrade to remove transaction fees, so your operating costs stay predictable.

Circle is primarily a community platform where products and courses live entirely inside community spaces. Circle also has options to add enterprise-level features like AI agents, white-labeled mobile apps, and AI workflows if you need a highly specific or complex setup. As a result, their plans are higher-priced with ongoing transaction fees.

Below, we’ll break down these differences in more detail so you can decide which platform fits the way you want to build.

Community features

Both Podia and Circle have strong community features that you can use to build a space for your audience. With either platform, you can create free or paid memberships, offer monthly or annual subscriptions, and give people a free trial so they can explore before committing.

You can organize your community into different areas, and control access based on the plan or tier someone is on. Members can post, comment, react, and build profiles, and both platforms include search so participants can easily find conversations and content.

On top of that, Circle includes built-in gamification features like levels and leaderboards, where members can unlock access to products by participating more in the community. This can be useful if you want a built-in reward system to encourage engagement.

Podia keeps community features intentionally straightforward, focusing on making it easy to connect your community with the rest of your business without extra steps. You can create as many plans as you like and give people access to different products and community areas based on their plan.

Digital products and courses

Selling digital products and online courses are where Podia and Circle differ the most.

With Circle, you can make courses and products, but they’ll always live inside your Circle community. They’re created as spaces behind paywalls, which means every course, live event, or piece of paid content is tied directly to community access. You can’t offer a course or digital product as a standalone purchase outside the community.

Podia gives you more flexibility. You can create standalone digital products like online courses, templates, printables, downloads, coaching, workshops, and webinars, and sell them on their own or combine them with community access. You can also create bundles of products, include products within other products, or offer just community access on its own.

This opens up more ways to structure your business.

For example, you might offer a free course as a lead magnet, sell a paid cohort program with community access, or bundle products into a higher-tier membership. You can also add upsells at checkout to let customers know about other products right at the moment they’re most engaged with your business.

Podia also gives you more control over how products are configured. You can add access durations, seat limits, coupon codes, future start dates, waitlists, and presales. That makes it easier to test ideas, gauge interest before building, and guide customers toward the next step when they’re ready.

Podia vs. Circle plans and pricing

Pricing is another thing to think about as you decide whether Circle or Podia is the best community platform for your business.

(Speaking of pricing, it’s always a good idea to test a platform before you pay for it, which you can do with Podia’s 30-day free trial and Circle’s 14-day free trial.)

Podia Pricing:

Podia has two plans, Mover and Shaker. Both plans include your products, website, and community, as well as unlimited sales, customers, and community members.

• Mover: $39/month and 5% transaction fee ($33/month when paid annually): Includes your community, website builder, blog, landing pages, digital products and courses, customer messaging, and third-party code.

• Shaker: $89/month and 0% transaction fee ($75/month when paid annually): Includes everything in Mover, plus affiliate marketing and no transaction fees.

All Podia plans include email marketing features for up to 100 subscribers. You get automations, newsletters, email templates, segmentation, tagging, and campaigns, all connected to your community, products, and website.

If you like, you can upgrade your Podia Email plan at any time to add more subscribers as your list grows. Email pricing starts at $9/month ($7/month paid annually) for up to 500 email subscribers.

Podia also includes a free migration service on paid plans. The team will move your products, email list, and customers over from another platform so you can get started fast. Learn more about how migrations work here.

Circle Pricing:

Circle also has two core plans, Professional and Business. Both plans come with community features, courses, live events, and a website builder. There is an enterprise option as well, but this is a custom plan without any pricing listed.

• Professional: $89/month and 2% transaction fee: Includes 20 community spaces, 100GB storage, 100 live stream attendees, and 10 hours of live stream functionality.

• Business: $199/month and 1% transaction fee: Includes 30 community spaces, 250GB storage, automations, scheduled workflows, 200 live stream attendees, and 15 hours of live stream functionality.

Like with Podia, email marketing is an optional add-on, and your first 100 subscribers are free. If you decide to add on more, Circle email plans start at $19/month for up to 500 email subscribers.

Two things to note here:

First, Circle charges transaction fees on all plans, which means you can’t get rid of them as you grow. Podia allows you to upgrade to zero transaction fees on the Shaker plan, so you can pay a flat rate no matter how much you make.

Second, Circle’s website notes that all these prices are for annual billing, and the month-to-month rate isn’t listed. Usually, the month-to-month price is slightly higher, so that’s something to be aware of when deciding.

Alright, so how does this math shake out in real life?

Let’s say your business brings in $1,500 a month. This is what you’d pay with each Podia and Circle plan when you factor in transaction fees, assuming annual billing.

Podia

• Mover Plan: $33/month base fee + $75/month transaction fee = $108 per month total

• Shaker Plan: $75/month base fee + $0 transaction fee = $75 per month total

Circle

• Professional Plan: $89/month base fee + $30/month transaction fee = $119 per month total

• Business Plan: $199/month base fee + $15/month transaction fee = $214 per month total

At $1,500/month in revenue, Podia’s Shaker plan is $44/month less expensive than Circle’s Professional plan. And as your business grows, your Podia price stays the same because Shaker doesn’t have transaction fees. With Circle, your total cost will continue to increase as your revenue increases.

Who is Circle best for?

Circle is a strong fit for larger corporations or enterprise teams that need highly customized setups. In addition to community, Circle offers white-label and enterprise options, including branded mobile apps, advanced workflows, admin APIs, and built-in AI features.

These plans are typically custom-priced and designed for teams managing large communities or complex internal requirements.

Who is Podia best for?

Podia is designed specifically for independent business owners, solopreneurs, creators, coaches, and small teams who want a simple and affordable way to run their business online.

Everything in Podia is built to work together out of the box, without requiring custom development or complex configuration. The pricing is straightforward, the tools are easy to use, and you’re not paying for extra features you don’t need.

Podia is a great fit if you want your website, online community, digital products, and email marketing in one place so you can focus on building and growing a business you love.

You can try Podia for free for 30 days by signing up for a free trial. I can’t wait to see what you make.