Kohortly vs Circle
Circle builds communities. Kohortly runs the programme around them.
Circle is one of the most flexible community platforms: spaces, events, paywalls, workflows and a branded app on its top plans. Kohortly is narrower and deeper: it is built for organisations that admit learners into cohorts, track attendance and fees, and report results.
The short answer
Choose Circle if
- You want to design your own community layout, spaces and workflows.
- Your business is an online community or course sold by card worldwide.
- You have the budget for a branded app and email add-ons on Circle's higher plans.
Choose Kohortly if
- You run intakes with applications, seats and class times.
- Learners or their employers pay by bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix or cash, in instalments.
- You need attendance, certificates and impact reports out of the box.
- You want WhatsApp reminders and an installable app under your own name, without add-ons.
Circle and Kohortly at a glance
- Price
- Circle: Professional $89/month, Business $199/month, Plus on request (billed yearly)
- Kohortly: From $49 a month ($41 billed yearly). Every feature on every plan, 0% on what learners pay.
- Fee on payments
- Circle: From 2% down to 0.5% as the plan rises, plus Stripe
- Kohortly: 0%
- Best for
- Circle: Online communities and course businesses
- Kohortly: Organisations running cohorts
- Branded app
- Circle: On the Plus tier
- Kohortly: Not yet: your community installs from the browser under your name
Feature by feature
| Feature | Kohortly | Circle |
|---|---|---|
| Community feed, categories and polls | ||
| Courses, lessons and progress | ||
| Points, levels and leaderboards | Yes | |
| Live sessions | Live rooms in the browser, with breakout groups and recording | Live streams and rooms |
| Admissions | Application forms with a review queue | Paywalls and access groups |
| Cohorts | Intakes with seats, dates and class times | Course cohorts with drip, no seats or class times |
| Attendance | Online and in person, with QR check-in | |
| Certificates | Issued on completion, with a public check page | Not built in |
| Small groups | Squads inside each cohort | Separate spaces |
| Impact reporting | Impact reports and follow-up surveys | Community analytics |
| Payments made outside a card checkout | Bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, card and cash recorded, with receipts and balances | Card checkout through Stripe |
| One payer for many learners | An employer or sponsor pays for several learners | |
| WhatsApp and SMS | WhatsApp and SMS reminders and announcements | |
| Email broadcasts and automatic sequences | Email Hub add-on | |
| Phone app | Installable web app under your own name and logo, plus the Kohortly phone app | Branded app on Plus |
| Web address | kohortly.com/yourname, or your own domain | |
| Developer access | Public API, MCP server and CLI | API and workflows |
| Fee on what learners pay | 0% | 2% to 0.5% by plan |
Circle details as of November 2026, from Circle pricing and published reviews. Prices and fees change, so check Circle's site before you decide.
What Circle really costs
The plan price is only part of the bill. Here is what each platform costs a month when 200 learners each pay $50 ($10,000 a month), on the cheapest plan that can sell memberships, billed yearly where offered: the plan, the platform's fee, and card processing where it is charged separately.
| Platform | Monthly cost | How it adds up |
|---|---|---|
| Skool Pro | $372 | $82 plan (yearly) + 2.9% Skool fee |
| SchoolMaker | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Thinkific | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| LearnWorlds Pro Trainer | $429 | $79 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Podia Shaker | $434 | $84 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe (Mover adds 5%) |
| Kajabi Basic | $493 | $143 plan (yearly) + 0% + Kajabi Payments |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $629 | $79 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Whop | $630 | $0 plan + 3% community fee + 2.7% + $0.30 |
| Circle Professional | $639 | $89 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Disco | $749 | $399 Create plan (yearly, up to 250 active members) + 0% + Stripe |
| Teachable | $889 | $39 plan + 5% Teachable fee + card processing |
| Skool Hobby | $1,008 | $7.50 plan (yearly) + 10% Skool fee |
| Maven | $1,350 | $0 to list + 10% of each sale + Stripe |
| Patreon | $1,350 | 10% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Discord | $1,600 | 10% fee + about 6% desktop processing |
| Udemy | $6,300 | Free to publish; Udemy keeps 63% of marketplace sales |
| Kohortly | $56–$406 | Starter billed yearly ($41) plus 100 more learners ($15), and 0% on learner payments. $406 if all 200 pay by card through your own provider; $56 when they pay by bank transfer or mobile money. |
Worked from each vendor's published prices in November 2026. Fees change and card rates vary by country, so check before you decide.
Cohorts, not just a membership
Circle organises a community into spaces, and courses can drip lessons to a group. There is no admissions queue, no seat limit and no class timetable for an intake. Kohortly starts from the programme: you open an intake with a start date, seats and class times, people apply, your team admits them, and they move through the cohort together until graduation.
Every learner has a record that follows them: which intake they joined, which sessions they attended, what they paid and which certificate they earned. When a funder or board asks how the last cohort went, the answer is already there.
If you only need an open membership that anyone can join with a card, Circle may be all you need. If you admit people into programmes that start and finish, that structure is what Kohortly is for.
Getting paid the way your learners pay
Circle sells access through Stripe-powered paywalls, with a platform fee from 2% to 0.5% depending on the plan, and Stripe's own fee on top. Many of the organisations we work with are paid by bank transfer, mobile money such as M-Pesa, UPI or Pix, a company cheque, a card on their own machine (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) or cash at the first session, often in instalments.
Kohortly records each payment against the learner's fee account, issues a receipt, shows the balance and reminds people before an instalment is due, by email, WhatsApp or SMS. Nothing is taken from what your learners pay: Kohortly charges 0%.
When an employer pays for ten staff, one payer covers all ten seats and gets one invoice, while each learner still has their own place in the cohort.
Reaching people where they already are
Circle reaches members through its app, email notifications and, with the Email Hub add-on, newsletters. It doesn't send WhatsApp or SMS. Kohortly sends class reminders on WhatsApp with "I'll be there" and "Can't make it" buttons, and the answers appear on the attendance list. Announcements can go by email, WhatsApp, SMS and the in-app bell at once.
Learners can also add your community to their home screen as an app under your own name and logo, so they open your programme, not someone else's brand. The Kohortly phone app keeps all their communities under one sign-in.
Attendance and certificates that prove the work
Circle can run live events and streams, but it doesn't keep an attendance register or issue certificates with a public check. In Kohortly, people who join a live session are marked present automatically, and for in-person days staff can tick a register or learners can scan a QR code at the door, even on a weak connection.
Completion rules can require attendance as well as lessons. When a learner finishes, their certificate is issued with a public check page, so an employer can confirm it is genuine.
Where Circle is the better choice
No platform suits everyone. Circle does these things better than Kohortly:
- Customisation: Circle gives you far more control over layout, spaces and branding than most platforms, including Kohortly.
- Workflows and integrations for teams building a large online community business.
- A mature product with a big ecosystem of agencies and templates.
Moving from Circle to Kohortly
- Request a community. We set it up with your name, logo and colours, at kohortly.com/yourname or on your own domain.
- Import your members from a CSV export, with their names, emails and phone numbers.
- Recreate your programmes and courses. Lesson videos can be uploaded or embedded, and we can help with the move when we agree your plan.
- Invite members to sign in. Their history starts in Kohortly from the next intake.
Questions
Is Kohortly a Circle alternative?+
For training organisations, yes. Kohortly covers the community, courses and live sessions, and adds admissions, intakes, attendance, offline fees, certificates and impact reports that Circle doesn't do.
How does Circle pricing compare with Kohortly?+
Circle starts at $89 a month on Professional and $199 on Business, billed yearly, with a 2% to 0.5% fee on payments, and its Email Hub and branded app cost more. Kohortly is one plan by invoice with everything included and 0% on payments.
Does Circle track attendance?+
Circle runs events and live streams but doesn't keep an attendance register. Kohortly marks live attendees automatically and supports in-person registers and QR check-in.
Can Circle take M-Pesa, UPI or bank transfers?+
Circle's paywalls charge cards through Stripe. Kohortly records bank, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, card and cash payments with receipts, balances and reminders.
When is Circle the better choice?+
When you want to design a highly customised online community, sell access by card worldwide and have the budget for its higher tiers.
Other comparisons
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