shouldiuse.io

Comparison

Thinkific vs Circle

Thinkific and Circle both land on Depends.

Circle

circle.so

Depends
Confidence: Low

Buy only if you run a paid community, course, or membership business and want community, courses, events, email, and payments in one branded hub.

Read the full report

Thinkific versus Circle
CompareThinkificCircle
VerdictDependsDepends
Best forSolo creators selling coursesCreators running paid communities
Who it's not forData-driven teams . users call the analytics weakAnyone who just needs a group chat
PrivacyPublishes a security overview, DPA and GDPR guidance, but two public CVEs are on record.⁷No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.15
Support qualityCancellation friction reported on TrustpilotNo support evidence in sources reviewed
Public sentimentUsers rate Thinkific around 4.5/5 and like course creation, but complain about feature paywalls, analytics, and cancellation friction.¹Independent user commentary in these sources is thin; the loudest voice complains about price while review counts come from Circle's own site.13
Biggest gotchaEntry $49/mo plan reportedly gates core features; expect upsells to get real value³All-in-one design makes migrating community, courses, email, and payments out painful

Pick Thinkific when

  • Solo creators selling courses
  • Small businesses doing customer training
  • Coaches bundling courses and communities
  • Knowledge entrepreneurs scaling past $100M

When Thinkific is not a fit

  • Data-driven teams . users call the analytics weak
  • Anyone needing a free-forever simple course page
  • Corporate L&D wanting enterprise-grade reporting
  • Budget sellers . the $49 tier locks too much

Pick Circle when

  • Creators running paid communities
  • Course + event + community combos
  • Digital businesses wanting one branded hub
  • Coaches monetizing memberships

When Circle is not a fit

  • Anyone who just needs a group chat
  • Budget buyers . fees reportedly top $200/mo
  • Security-auditing enterprises (no public security page found)
  • Teams avoiding all-in-one lock-in

Sources

  1. Thinkific Reviews on G2g2.com
    review
  2. Thinkific Reviews on Trustpilottrustpilot.com
    review
  3. Thinkific Review . $3.7B in Creator Sales, $49 Plan Locks Out Too Muchgroup.app
    review
  4. Thinkific Pricing 2026: Plans from $49-$199/monthcostbench.com
    official
  5. Thinkific Review . Is It Worth It Without the Free Plan?ddiy.co
    review
  6. Thinkific vs. Other Platforms . Reddit r/elearningreddit.com
    review
  7. CVE-2020-35698 . GitHub Advisorygithub.com
    security
  8. CVE-2022-2426 . Thinkific Uploader Stored XSSwpscan.com
    security
  9. Thinkific Security Overviewthinkific.com
    security
  10. Thinkific Case Study . IntelyCarelearn.thinkific.com
    official
  11. Circle homepagecircle.so
    official
  12. Circle Eclipse 2026 keynote sitecommunity.circle.so
    official
  13. LinkedIn post comparing Circle to a $200 DIY buildlinkedin.com
    review
  14. Is Kajabi Losing Customers to Circle?geoffreymoffett.com
    news
  15. Circle security page crawlcircle.so
    security
  16. Instagram: creators using Circleinstagram.com
    official