When Circle is the better choice
You need a broad suite with lots of automations, native mobile apps with push, or you're scaling to very large memberships with enterprise requirements. Circle gives you more surface there.
Pukalani vs Circle
The lean, privacy-close alternative — for communities that don't need a whole suite.
Circle is powerful: a broad suite, automations, scale. For small and mid-sized communities that's often more than they need – and pricier than they want. Pukalani bets on a few well-made products, hosting in Germany and a predictable price with no transaction fee.
An honest comparison
Compared honestly. Including where we're (not yet) the answer.
We only compare what we can back up — with sources and a date. Where we're weaker, it says so right here.
| Criterion | Pukalani | Circle | Skool | Mighty Networks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price per month | from €29 | $89 (Professional) | $9 (Hobby) | $79 (Launch) |
| Transaction fee | none | 2% | 10% (Hobby) · 2.9% (Pro) | 2% |
| Hosting / company base | Germany | USA | USA | USA |
| Courses with lessons and progress | yes (from Pro) | yes | yes | yes |
| Products can be switched off individually | yes | suite | suite | suite |
| Products embeddable in your own website | yes (comments, events) | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Native mobile apps with push | no | yes | yes | yes |
“n/a” means: we couldn't verify it properly — so we don't claim anything. Spot a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Sources:CircleSkoolMighty Networks
You want native iOS/Android apps with push, or a community with 50,000 members and enterprise SSO? Then the big suites are (still) the better choice. For everyone who wants to start lean, fair and privacy-close, we're the right way.
Do the math
What a percentage fee actually costs
Almost every platform in this field takes a cut of what your members pay. That cut grows with your community; a fixed price does not. Set the sliders to your numbers.
That's €6,000 a month – €72,000 a year.
| Provider | Plan | Base price | Fee rate | Fee per month | Fee per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pukalani | Pro | €149 | 0% | €0 | €0 |
| Circle | Professional | 89 $ | 2% | €120 | €1,440 |
| Mighty Networks | Launch | 95 $ | 2% | €120 | €1,440 |
| Skool | Pro | 99 $ | 2.9% | €174 | €2,088 |
| Heartbeat | Build | 49 $ | 5% | €300 | €3,600 |
| coapp | Starter | 19 € | 15% | €900 | €10,800 |
With us this column stays at zero no matter how big you get: Pro costs a flat €149 a month.
You pay the base price on top everywhere – which is why it sits in its own column and is not added in. Adding it up would be dishonest: the others quote dollars and pre-tax, we quote euros as a final price including 19 % VAT.
Payment fees are everyone's – the payment provider takes its share regardless of the platform. With Circle and Mighty Networks the platform fee comes on top of Stripe; with Skool processing is included, because Skool is merchant of record and files EU VAT itself. We aren't in your payment flow at all: you collect member contributions wherever you do today – we take nothing from it.
Added together – platform fee plus payment processing – 8 to 14 per cent of community revenue goes away at 500 paying members, depending on the provider.
Sources:CircleMighty NetworksSkoolHeartbeatcoappwbcomdesigns
Whose look is it?
Only comes with one template making all Circle communities look very homogenous and restricted in customizations.
Circle's own branding only disappears on the $199 a month plan.
Elsewhere, removing the platform's branding is a plan feature: at Circle only on the $199 plan, at Bettermode only from Growth at $1,500.
There is no "Powered by Pukalani" on your community and no foreign logo – on no plan, because there is nothing to switch off. The theme catalogue, your own fonts and your base colour are included from the first plan; a custom domain from Pro.
Quotes in the original, collected on 10 August 2026.
When Pukalani fits
You want your own community home under your name, hosted in Germany, without ad tracking and without transaction fees – and you only want to switch on the products you actually use.
Start your community – free
No risk, no minimum term, data export included.