Your #1 Slack alternative
Circle is where real connections happen and meaningful communities shine
Slack’s never-ending chat leaves no room for people to breathe and get to know each other. Circle helps you build inspiring spaces where members feel part of the community.
13,000+
Brands use Circle to power their online communities
2M+
Members across Circle communities
Slack is for work
The frantic pace, the constant notifications, the urgency to reply in real-time… Slack is great at improving teams’ productivity but it can get suffocating.
Users say Slack adds to their stress
Sometimes there is a lot going on and things can get a little crazy!
Verified Slack
review on G2
The sense of fatigue and overwhelm is real, man.
Verified Slack
review on G2
It can make my phone go crazy after hours because of automated notifications from other systems
Verified Slack
review on G2
Your read count can get to stressful levels.
Verified Slack
review on G2
Different communities are in the same interface, and all the different kind of content is in the same place, and it’s arriving constantly…
Verified Slack
review on G2
Slack contributes to the stress people feel from the «always-on nature»
Verified Slack
review on G2
Build a community you’re proud of, where your people bond without fake news, drama, or distractions
Everything has a place in Circle
Slack is a disjointed collection of channels. People have a hard time understanding what each channel is for and important team conversations are often lost.
Circle lets you organize your community in spaces — similar to Slack — but once you’re in a space, it’s really easy to follow the topic and tone for each one.
People join your community to participate, not broadcast
The chat-like nature of Slack attracts self-promoters and one-liners. Interesting ideas get buried fast and serious topics can’t be discussed in depth.
Circle gives conversations room to develop. You can pin posts, pause feeds and use other features to bring people’s attention to important topics.
Circle opens your community to all
Non-techy people have a tough time with Slack. If they’re not using it at work, chances are they won’t use it in their personal life.
With Circle, there’s no app to download or install. People browse to your community and start engaging with you and each other, making everyone feel at home.
“Our members are so impressed. It’s intuitive. It’s clean. It’s distraction free. I’m so glad we made this decision.”
Cam Houser
Instructor at Minimal Viable Video
Go from workspace to a stress-free space for you and your people
Slack adds to the stress
With its work-related vibe and the constant notifications to get to, Slack can get too overwhelming, too fast.
Circle is your feel-good place
You set the tone for your community. Build a place where members have valuable conversations without feeling like work.
Chat dumbs down conversations
Slack’s real-time chat nature lowers the barrier to communicate. When messaging is easy, people tend to lean towards “fast” instead of “thoughtful”.
Ideas bloom in Circle
Go deep with your content. Post long-form articles, walkthrough videos or live stream with experts. Help your ideas grow without the limitations of group chat.
Slack is hard to moderate
People roam free in Slack. Moderation means installing 3rd party apps and still combing through hundreds — or thousands — of chats a day.
Circle plays by your rules
Circle is built for community builders and moderation is a big part of it. With Circle, you set the rules and get to enforce them.
Slack is restricted to chat
With team chat, if you’re not “on” when something happens, you’ve already missed it. Some topics need room to breathe and other ways to engage with people.
Engage how you want, with Circle
Posts, comments, videos, courses, polls, live streams and more. Circle lets you discuss topics in different ways to maximize engagement.
Slack looks like Slack
Every Slack room looks like any other Slack room. Yours won’t look any different other than a small logo on top.
Circle matches your brand
Make your community look however you want. Set up a fully branded look on your custom domain.
Slack won’t do monetization
Need people to pay for content or memberships? You’re forced to use a different tool and disrupt what they’re doing.
Circle makes payments easy
Accept payments for memberships, one-time access to content or recurring subscriptions. Everything happens inside Circle for increased conversions.
Slack stays in the background
It’s easy to forget Slack is running in the background, risking your community to become one of those “always open, never visited” tabs.
Circle gives your people focus
Circle helps members immerse themselves in the experience. The brand, the familiar faces, the content… People get hooked and engage with purpose.
You need extra apps to run on Slack
Slack is pretty bare-bones. Want to add features or automate your workflow? You need to install 3rd party apps and — usually — pay for them as add-ons.
Circle is truly all-in-one
Everything community builders need to create, engage and monetize their audience is already built-in your Circle plan.
Grow your community without growing your bills
Slack’s free plan can be limiting for successful online communities. When you move to a paid plan, you pay up to $15/mo per person. The more you grow your community, the more you pay.
With Circle you pay as low as $39/mo for up to 1,000 members, giving you room to grow without hitting your finances.
Slack vs Circle
Price comparison
Circle
Slack Pro
Slack Business
Pricing
$99/mo
for upto 10,000 members
$875/mo
$8.75 x 100 members
$1,500/mo
$15 x 100 members
Transaction fees
1%
Paywalls not supported
Paywalls not supported
Rub shoulders with community building experts and +5K creators
See how others are using Circle to build their community. Share your wins, make new friends, and have fun!
Meet and greet with seasoned community builders like Pat Flynn (Smart Passive Income), Noele Flowers (Teachable), and Pedro Hernandes (Gumroad).
Noele Flowers
Community Manager
Slack vs Circle
Circle is the right place to build your community
Circle
Slack
Communication ethos
Comment-based
Chat-based
Communication speed
Thoughtful conversations
Buried messages
Dedication
At your own pace
Real-time
Interface
Organized spaces
Infinite scrolling
Slack vs Circle
Circle gives you the tools to build a successful community
Circle
Slack
Content organization
Organize your content into relevant spaces
Channels
Private spaces
Create private spaces only selected members can join
Private channels
Courses
Available on all plans
Not available
Live streams
Yes, with multi co-hosts
Not available
Private messaging
One-on-one or private group chats
Available
Payments
Available on all plans for one-off payments, subscriptions, gated content and upsells
Not available
Custom Domain
Available on all plans
Not available
Member profiles
Searchable directories with rich profiles that help members discover each other
One-line Slack profile
Weekly email digest
Available on all plans
Via 3rd party apps
Zapier integration
Available on all plans
Available
White-labeled community
Available on Professional and Enterprise plans
Not available
Advanced reporting
Available on Professional and Enterprise plans
Not available
Migrating from Slack?
We know switching platforms can be stressful…
You don’t need to move your entire community all at once.
Get started with Circle for free, invite a few members and see how our friendly onboarding helps them feel at home in no time.
And if it doesn’t work out for you, you can still go back to what you’re using right now.
FAQs
Still can’t find the answer? Go to help center
Ready to get started?
Want to see Circle in action? Start your free 14 day trial today.
No credit card required.
