Looking for a Circle alternative?
Circle is a genuinely polished community product, and it gives you white-label and a custom domain from the entry plan, which most of this field does not. What it also does is meter the structure of your community: three admins and twenty spaces at $89/mo, and a branded mobile app only on custom-priced Circle Plus. Every space you add and every person you trust is a billable resource. Ziion charges $99/mo flat with no network due on your own sales, does not cap staff roles or spaces, and ships a native mobile app as part of the product. And Circle, like everyone else here, has no way for members to sell services to each other.
Circle pricing read from their own pricing page on 2026-10-02. If they have changed it since and we have not caught up, tell us and we will fix it.
What each one charges
Every plan on both sides — no picking their most expensive tier against our cheapest. Platform fee is the cut taken off each sale, separate from card processing.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual / mo | Platform fee on sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ziion | |||
| Ziion Starter | $59 | $49 | 10% network due |
| Ziion Growth | $99 | $82 | 0% — keep 100% |
| Circle | |||
| Circle Professional | $89 | $89 | 2%Via your connected processor |
| Circle Business | $199 | $199 | 1%Via your connected processor |
| Circle Scale | $419 | $419 | 1%Via your connected processor |
Ziion's member-to-member services marketplace takes a flat 10% on both plans, and Ziion absorbs the card processing on those sales — the seller keeps a clean 90%.
What it actually costs you
Platform fee and card processing together, because some of these bundle processing and some don't. Comparing headline rates alone would hide the ~2.9% you pay Stripe either way. Ziion figures use the Growth plan.
| Your sales / month | Ziion Growth | Circle Professional | Circle Business | Circle Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $128 | $138 | $238 | $458 |
| $2,000 | $157 | $187 | $277 | $497 |
| $8,000 | $331 | $481 | $511 | $731 |
Ziion Starter is $59/mo with a 10% network due, which is cheaper below roughly $400/mo in sales. Above that, Growth costs less — and keeps costing less, because there is no fee at any volume.
What Circle does well
- Polished, well-designed community product
- White-label and custom domain from the entry plan
- Generous AI credit allotments
Premium community platform for brands and cohort-based programmes.
Where it stops
- Admin and moderator seats are capped on every plan — 3 admins on the $89 tier.
- A custom branded mobile app requires Circle Plus on custom pricing.
- Spaces are metered (20 / 30 / 100), so structure itself is a billable resource.
- No services marketplace — members cannot transact with each other.
- No credential or certification layer.
What Ziion adds
Four things that none of the platforms in this comparison offer — not cheaper versions of them, none at all.
Members who sell to each other
A services marketplace inside your community: citizens list what they do, other citizens hire them, and the nation takes a cut of a transaction that would not otherwise exist. Not one platform in this comparison has an equivalent — every one of them is built for a single creator selling to an audience.
Real multi-tenancy
Nations with their own staff roles, permissions and passports. No cap on administrators, no metered spaces. Structure is a billable resource almost everywhere else.
A credential layer
Learning paths that issue verifiable certificates and a passport ladder members carry with them. None of these platforms can certify anyone — a membership ends when the subscription does.
A native mobile app, included
A branded app is $199/mo at Kajabi, a $199/mo add-on at Thinkific, and custom-priced at Circle. Ziion ships one as part of the product.
Build the institution instead of renting the audience
Nations are by application — we are selective about who gets one. Fourteen-day trial once you're in.