Circle vs Memberful (2026): Which Pays Better?

Both are popular membership & community platforms. Here is how Circle and Memberful stack up on requirements, what you keep, payout terms, strengths and weaknesses, and which one we would pick.

Circle

Community platform with paid memberships, courses, events and live streams, from $89 a month.

8.4 /10

Pricing: Paid from $89/mo

Pros

Spaces, chat, courses, events and paid tiers in a polished branded app
Widely used by creators moving off Facebook groups and Discord

Cons

Expensive at entry
Transaction fees on lower plans

Visit Circle ↗

Memberful

Membership billing that plugs into your own site, newsletter and Discord; Patreon's more customisable sibling.

8.1 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $49/mo

Pros

Members belong to you: your Stripe account, your site, your email list
WordPress, Discord, Mailchimp and podcast feed integrations

Cons

Fees are not cheap at scale
Requires your own site for content

Visit Memberful ↗

Circle vs Memberful at a glance

	Circle	Memberful
Editor score	8.4 / 10	8.1 / 10
Pricing model	Paid	Freemium
Starting price	$89/mo	$49/mo
Web rank	#19k	#49k
Minimum traffic	None	None
Revenue share / fee	From $89/mo; transaction fees of 0.5-4% by plan plus Stripe	10% + Stripe fees on the free plan; 4.9% + fees at $49/mo
Commission	–	–
Payout	Via Stripe	Via your Stripe
Methods served	memberships subscriptions, online courses, paid webinars events	memberships subscriptions, paid newsletter, paywall premium content, online courses
Niches accepted	General, Tech & SaaS, Finance & Insurance, Health & Supplements, Gaming & Esports, E-commerce & Retail	General, Tech & SaaS, Finance & Insurance, Health & Supplements, Gaming & Esports, E-commerce & Retail
Reader upvotes	0	0
Best for	community, courses, events	membership, stripe, wordpress

Our pick

Circle edges it with a score of 8.4 versus 8.1. Circle is the better fit if you value: spaces, chat, courses, events and paid tiers in a polished branded app, widely used by creators moving off facebook groups and discord. Choose Memberful instead if you need: members belong to you: your stripe account, your site, your email list, wordpress, discord, mailchimp and podcast feed integrations.