Circle

[Shawn Gossman1]

Have you ever heard of Circle?

https://circle.so/pricing/
These are online communities that are typically made with more modern features.

These are the online communities of 2023.

Would you use this, or is a forum better? Why?

 

[Dilip]

Can we self host it?

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

Can we self host it?

I don't think so.

It looks like a SaaS to me.

But it's about $50 a month for the basic online community. You can even charge for it with built-in payment options.

 

[Elseb1]

Is there a preview forum anyway? Interested in seeing what it looks like.

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

Is there a preview forum anyway? Interested in seeing what it looks like.

You might be able to see some examples here:

https://community.circle.so/c/showcase/

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

So, I've been a community manager on Circle for about a month now (paid position) and it's nice but it lacks a lot of features.

Their mobile app sucks to say the least. The desktop app has a lot of feature but the mobile one does not and I just think that's a bad move in 2023.

But it isn't the worst platform.

 

[Uncrowned]

I always found it super discouraging when community software doesn't have a support community built using their software.

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

I'm not sure if Circle would benefit from a forum-like support or utilizing their community. Since it's all paid, I feel like more P2P support is appropriate.