Circle is a fine community platform, and the community is where its product ends. ColibriOS gives you the community feed, member-only spaces, courses, live events and memberships that renew themselves, on your own domain, with no percentage taken from anything you sell, and then keeps going: booking from your calendar, email to your whole list without an add-on, and books that keep themselves.
Circle (circle.so) is a community platform where creators run discussions, courses, events, live streams and paid memberships inside one branded space, with a percentage fee on every sale.
| Feature | ColibriOS | Circle |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 booking and scheduling | Yes. Booking with intake forms, waivers and paymentsServe | No. 1:1 booking or scheduling is not listed |
| Classes, workshops and events | Yes. Classes, workshops, retreats and events with ticketing and check-inGather | Partly. Events with RSVPs, recurring series and paid tickets inside the community; in-person ticketing with door check-in is not listed |
| Capacity and waitlists | Yes. Capacity, automatic waitlists and door check-inGather | Partly. RSVP limits per event, per their knowledge base; a waitlist is not described |
| Memberships and class packs | Yes. Recurring memberships, class packs and member pricingGather | Yes. Paid memberships and member subscriptions on every plan |
| Online courses | Yes. Courses with enrollment, student payments and portalsServe | Yes. Courses on every plan |
| Website on your own domain | Yes. Editable website on your own custom domainServe | Partly. A website builder and a custom domain for the community; a general business website with its own pages is not the product |
| CRM and email marketing | Yes. Full CRM, email campaigns, funnels and textingServe | Partly. Member profiles, a weekly community digest and branded notifications; email broadcasts and marketing workflows are the separate Email Hub add-on from $99 a month for 10,000 contacts |
| Bookkeeping and tax-ready books | Yes. Income tracked as it happens, expenses categorized, tax-ready year-end reportServe | No. Not listed on their pricing page |
| Bank connection, transactions imported | Yes. Live bank feed through Plaid, statements imported on every planGather | No. A bank feed or bank import is not listed |
| Receipt capture, read into an expense | Yes. Snap or upload a receipt on every plan; Colibri reads the vendor, date and total on GatherGather | No. No expense or receipt features are listed; pricing covers community, courses, events and payments |
| Profit per event, class or offer | Yes. Profit by gathering and by offer: paid invoices in, expenses, staff fees and mileage outServe | No. Reporting and analytics are listed for the community; profit with expenses against an event is not |
| Personal finances alongside the business | Yes. A personal set of books only the owner can open: budgets, net worth, subscriptions and goalsGather | No. No expense or personal finance features are listed; the product is a community platform |
| Published pricing | Yes. $116, $297 and $597 a month, on the pricing page | Yes. Professional and Business are priced on the page; Circle Plus is custom |
| Contract required | No. Month to month | No. Monthly billing, with a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Cancel yourself, online | Yes. Settings, then Billing | Yes. End your subscription from the billing page, per their knowledge base |
Circle details checked August 2026 on Circle's own pages. Their plans change; if you see something out of date, tell us at hello@colibrios.com. A tier badge on the ColibriOS column shows the lowest plan that includes the feature; every tier contains the one before it.
Published on the pricing page. 30-day free trial, no credit card, month to month, cancel yourself in Settings.
Two published plans at $89 and $199 a month plus a custom-priced Circle Plus tier, a transaction fee of 2%, 1% or 0.5% by plan on top of payment processing, unlimited members on every plan, a 14-day free trial with no card, and no free plan. Email broadcasts are a separate Email Hub add-on from $99 a month for 10,000 contacts.
Source: Circle's pricing page, checked August 2026A comparison that says we win every row is not one you should trust. Here is where Circle genuinely does more.
Discussions, spaces, gamification, activity scores and rich member profiles; Circle is one of the best-regarded places on the internet to host a large, active community. ColibriOS community is a feed, channels and member-only spaces built for a practice, not a network of thousands.
Source, checked August 2026Live streams to 100 attendees with 10 monthly hours on Professional, 200 and 15 on Business, hosted inside the community. ColibriOS attaches a Zoom, Meet or other video link to a session or event; it does not host the stream.
Source, checked August 2026Business adds automation workflows, a headless member API and an admin API; Circle Plus offers custom SSO, AI agents and optional branded mobile apps. ColibriOS has none of these, and its member portal is the web.
Source, checked August 2026Every ColibriOS plan includes a community: one shared feed, member profiles, announcements that land in members' inboxes, and sign-in by email link with no password. Gather adds topic channels, spaces locked to paying members or to the students of a course, and a weekly digest of what people missed. Recurring memberships, class packs and member pricing renew themselves, and payment runs through your own Stripe or PayPal at the processor's rate. Circle lists a 2%, 1% or 0.5% transaction fee by plan on top of processing; ColibriOS adds nothing per sale on any plan.
On Circle, email broadcasts and marketing workflows are the Email Hub add-on, from $99 a month for 10,000 contacts, on top of the plan. In ColibriOS, newsletters, campaigns, funnels and automated sequences are part of every plan, sent from your own domain to a list with no cap, with opens and clicks reported, and a CRM underneath where a member, a client and an attendee are one record.
Circle events take RSVPs, run in series and can charge for a ticket, and they live inside the community. A retreat or workshop in ColibriOS is a real room: capacity with an automatic waitlist, deposits with the balance due on arrival, intake forms and waivers answered at registration, rooming lists, door check-in, and a portal for attendees. The livestream itself is the one thing to bring: attach a Zoom, Meet or YouTube link, because ColibriOS does not host video and Circle does.
Discovery calls and 1:1 sessions book from your real availability. Courses sell with student portals, quizzes, drip release by enrollment clock or calendar date, and certificates. Your website is an editable site on your own domain on every plan, not a community page with a landing page bolted on.
Every membership renewal, course sale and ticket is income the day it lands. Connect your bank and expenses arrive categorized, receipts are read for you, and profit per gathering is a page you open. Circle's pricing covers community, courses, events and payments; bookkeeping is not listed. Colibri helps you organize your income and expenses. It is not a tax preparer, accountant, or a substitute for professional tax advice.
If the community itself is the business, a large network with live streams, gamification, activity scores and thousands of members talking to each other, Circle is excellent at exactly that, hosts the video natively, and offers APIs, automation workflows and branded apps at the top end. ColibriOS community is built for a practice: the people who book you, study with you and gather with you, in one place with everything else the practice runs on.
No, on any plan. Payment runs through your own Stripe or PayPal at the processor's standard rate and ColibriOS adds nothing on top. Circle lists a 2% transaction fee on Professional, 1% on Business and 0.5% on Circle Plus.
Serve at $116 a month is above Circle Professional at $89, until you count what the plan covers. On $3,000 a month of memberships, Circle's 2% takes another $60; email broadcasts are their Email Hub add-on from $99 a month; and booking, a business website and bookkeeping are not in the product at any price. Compare the whole stack, not the sticker.
Serve, at $116 a month, includes the community feed, courses, your website, booking, CRM, email and the books. Gather, at $297, adds recurring memberships, member-only spaces, topic channels, the weekly digest, and events with capacity, waitlists and deposits. If a paid membership or member spaces are the core, Gather is the one.
Not natively, and this is Circle's honest win. Circle hosts live streams and live rooms inside the community on every plan. A ColibriOS event or session carries a Zoom, Meet or YouTube link instead; members join from the event page or portal.
No native app. Members use a web portal that works in any phone browser, signing in with an email link. Circle Plus offers optional branded apps; if an app icon on the home screen matters to your members, that is a point for Circle.
Yes. Courses sell with student portals and payment plans, events sell tickets with deposits and member pricing, and class packs and bundles exist alongside subscriptions. Every sale lands in the books with the person attached.
Export your member list as a CSV and import it with tags and consent; members sign in to the new community by email link, no passwords to reset. Rebuild membership tiers, upload course lessons, connect your Stripe or PayPal, and point your domain when the site is ready. Announce the move inside Circle with a date, and run both for a few weeks.
For most solo practices, yes. Income lands as payments happen, bank transactions arrive categorized, receipts are read into expenses, and the year-end report is what your accountant asks for. Colibri helps you organize your income and expenses. It is not a tax preparer, accountant, or a substitute for professional tax advice.
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