In today’s digital-first world, creators and educators have more opportunities than ever to turn their knowledge into thriving online businesses. Whether you’re teaching a course, coaching clients, or building a membership site, the tools you choose can make or break your success.
Two names that often come up are Teachable and Circle. While both are powerful in their own right, they serve very different purposes. Teachable is a course creation and sales platform, while Circle is primarily a community-building tool.
So, which one is the better choice in 2025? The answer depends on your goals. In this guide, we’ll break down Teachable and Circle side by side, covering features, pricing, user experience, community tools, and more, so you can decide which platform fits your needs.
Brief Overview
Teachable
Teachable is a beginner-friendly online course platform designed to help creators quickly upload, package, and sell courses, coaching, and digital products. Its focus is simplicity and monetization.
Circle
Circle is a modern community platform that allows you to build private, branded spaces for your audience. It emphasizes interaction, engagement, and connection, making it popular among creators, coaches, and businesses that want to nurture communities around their content.
Comparison Table
User Experience
Teachable
If your goal is to create and sell courses quickly, Teachable makes the process painless. Its dashboard is clean and easy to navigate. You can upload videos, PDFs, or audio files, structure them into lessons, set your pricing, and start selling.
There’s very little technical know-how required, which makes Teachable especially appealing to beginners. The trade-off is limited design flexibility, your site will look professional but may not stand out much compared to a fully custom solution.
Circle
Circle focuses on building thriving online communities. The setup process is simple, but you’ll spend more time deciding how to structure your community, choosing spaces, discussion threads, and engagement features. The interface feels modern and familiar, almost like a mix of Slack, Facebook Groups, and a private forum.
Unlike Teachable, which is designed to get you selling quickly, Circle’s user experience revolves around interaction and long-term engagement. Your members will find it easy to navigate and participate in.
Types of Products You Can Sell or Build
- Teachable: Courses, coaching packages, and digital downloads. Perfect for monetizing knowledge in structured formats.
- Circle: Community memberships, courses, group coaching spaces, events, and networking hubs. It’s less about direct product sales and more about recurring membership and community value.
Winner: Tie, because they serve different purposes, Teachable is about selling knowledge products, while Circle is about creating community-driven experiences.
Marketing & Automation
- Teachable: Provides basic marketing features like discount codes, upsells, and a smooth checkout system. For advanced automation (email sequences, funnels), you’ll need integrations with external tools.
- Circle: Offers limited marketing tools on its own. Instead, it integrates well with platforms like Zapier, HubSpot, and ConvertKit to handle email marketing and automation. Its strength lies in creating engagement loops within the community, not external marketing.
Winner: Teachable, since it has more built-in monetization tools.
Community Features
This is where Circle shines.
- Teachable: Has a community feature, but it’s fairly basic. It allows students to interact, ask questions, and engage with peers. It works, but it’s not nearly as advanced as dedicated community platforms.
- Circle: Built entirely for community. You can create spaces, groups, and events. Features like live streams, member directories, private messaging, and gamification make it feel dynamic. The mobile app ensures engagement continues on the go.
Winner: Circle, hands down.
Course Building & Delivery
- Teachable: Strong in this area, with the ability to structure lessons, drip content, add quizzes, and track student progress. Perfect for delivering structured education.
- Circle: Not designed for formal courses. You can host live events or embed course content from other platforms, but its focus is interaction rather than structured learning.
Winner: Teachable, for anyone who wants to deliver proper courses.
Pricing
Teachable
- Starter: $39/month (with 7.5% transaction fees)
- Builder: $89/month
- Growth: $189/month
- Advanced: $399/month
Circle
- Professional: $89/month
- Business: $199/month
- Enterprise: $419/month
- Plus Branded App: Custom pricing
All Circle pricing plans have zero transaction fees. Circle is way more expensive but it serves a different purpose from what Teachable offers so it is not a direct comparison.
Winner: Depends on your needs. If you want to sell just courses, Teachable is the better option and if you want to build a proper community, Circle is your best bet.
Mobile Experience
- Teachable: Has a mobile app for iOS and offers a responsive website for all users. Students can access courses on the go.
- Circle: Has a dedicated mobile app (iOS and Android) that mirrors the desktop community experience. It is seamless for member engagement.
Winner: Circle, for a superior mobile community experience.
Analytics & Reporting
- Teachable: Provides revenue data, student progress reports, and sales tracking. Useful for creators who want to understand course performance.
- Circle: Offers engagement metrics like active members, participation rates, and content interactions. Helpful for community managers who want to track member activity.
Winner: Depends. Teachable wins for course data, Circle wins for community engagement.
Customer Support
- Teachable: Offers email support, knowledge base resources, and live chat on higher plans.
- Circle: Provides email support, live chat, and a vibrant creator community where you can exchange ideas and best practices.
Winner: Circle, because its own creator community doubles as support.
Final Verdict: Which Platform Should You Choose?
The truth is, Teachable and Circle are not direct competitors, they’re designed for different purposes. Teachable is best for structured education, while Circle is best for community. The choice depends on your business model.
Choose Teachable if:
- You want to create and sell courses quickly.
- You need a beginner-friendly platform with built-in monetization.
- You’re focused on structured learning over community building.
Choose Circle if:
- You’re building a community-first business.
- You want to foster interaction, networking, and peer-to-peer learning.
- You value long-term engagement over one-off course sales.
Many creators actually use both Teachable and Circle together. They host their courses on Teachable but build their communities on Circle for deeper engagement. If your budget allows, this combination gives you the best of both worlds.
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