80 → 900paying students
Charlotte SalvaneixUn Autre Atelier
The Circle alternative that feels like one product, not a pile of features.
Circle adds every feature it can. Heartbeat builds features that actually work together, so you and your members feel a community, not a checklist of modules.
- $25M+ paid to creators
- 37,000+ communities
- 750,000+ members
- 50+ countries
I compared Circle and Heartbeat and chose Heartbeat. I love that it doesn’t try to do literally everything. It’s really doubled down on what it’s good at.
Grew from $0 to $160K/year
| Heartbeat | Circle | |
|---|---|---|
| Everything built to work together | One integrated system | Separate modules bolted on |
| AI that builds your community | Pulse builds courses, offers, pages | Answers member questions only ($649 plan) |
| Take a payment | Set a price, done | Three separate things to configure |
| Automations & workflows | From $49 (Build) | $199 Business plan minimum |
| Pay-what-you-want, bundles, cohort pricing | Built in | Not supported |
| Win back members who try to cancel | Built in | Not supported |
| Charge members and guests different prices | Built in | One flat price only |
| Real-time chat & voice rooms | Every tier | Chat + Live rooms |
| Custom CSS & page layouts | Guided, less raw control | More control (most never use it) |
Everything built to work together
HeartbeatOne integrated system
CircleSeparate modules bolted on
AI that builds your community
HeartbeatPulse builds courses, offers, pages
CircleAnswers member questions only ($649 plan)
Take a payment
HeartbeatSet a price, done
CircleThree separate things to configure
Automations & workflows
HeartbeatFrom $49 (Build)
Circle$199 Business plan minimum
Pay-what-you-want, bundles, cohort pricing
HeartbeatBuilt in
CircleNot supported
Win back members who try to cancel
HeartbeatBuilt in
CircleNot supported
Charge members and guests different prices
HeartbeatBuilt in
CircleOne flat price only
Real-time chat & voice rooms
HeartbeatEvery tier
CircleChat + Live rooms
Custom CSS & page layouts
HeartbeatGuided, less raw control
CircleMore control (most never use it)
Trusted by your favorite coaches, creators, & builders
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792KSophie Richards
1.7MShelby Sapp
1.6MSons of Legion
617KChristina Lopes
284KDakota Robertson
173KMichael Stelzner
110KBrooke Glaser
Circle has lots of features. They just don’t fit together like your business needs.
Circle is the name everyone knows, the safe enterprise pick. It’s also the platform that ships features like a checklist, each one added to win the next big deal, few of them built to fit together.
You won’t feel it in the sales demo. You’ll feel it when you’re actually building, and your community is spread across a dozen modules that don’t talk to each other.
Heartbeat is built differently. Courses, offers, events, and workflows snap into each other, and our AI agent, Pulse, wires them together from a conversation.
Circle will let you hand-code custom CSS and design custom page layouts. Almost nobody does. Your members live in the feed, and that’s exactly where one product that fits together wins.
900 paying students, built on accessibility.
Charlotte Salvaneix compared Circle and Heartbeat, then chose Heartbeat. She refused the high-ticket playbook and priced her art academy from €35/mo so almost anyone could join. Today it’s over 900 paying members, with students running their own in-person meetups across five cities.
Read Charlotte’s story →Move your Circle community over this week.
Circle runs on Stripe, so exporting your subscribers is a clean, accurate path here.
Payments
~5 minMove your paying members without losing one. Export your subscribers as a CSV, upload it to Heartbeat, and our subscription importer takes over the billing. About as hard as uploading an email list to a newsletter tool.
Members
~10 minBring your people in with Pulse, our AI co-builder: send sign-up links locked to your invite list, or invite everyone straight from Heartbeat. Passwordless login means no new usernames or passwords: they enter their email, click the link, and they’re in.
Content
~15 minCourses, docs, events, all of it. Export from your old tool in any format (CSV, Markdown, .docx), hand it to Pulse, and tell it to rebuild. Pulse turns your material into real Heartbeat courses and pages for you.
Everyone I know uses Circle. Why switch?
Circle is the safe, familiar pick, the one with the longest feature list. That list wins procurement, not daily use. Ask what your members actually touch: the feed, the chat, the courses. That’s where an integrated product beats a pile of modules, and it’s why creators who wanted depth over breadth, like Emily, moved to Heartbeat.
Does Heartbeat have native payments like Circle?
Yes, on every tier, through Stripe. Subscriptions, one-time, installments, and pay-what-you-want.
Can I customize the look like Circle?
Circle gives you more raw control, custom CSS and custom page layouts, if you want to build and maintain them. Heartbeat gives you a community that looks right out of the box, which is what most people actually want. If pixel-level custom pages are your priority, Circle has more knobs. If a great community your members live in is the priority, that’s us.
Can I bring my Circle members across?
Yes, members and active subscriptions. See migration above.
One product, not a pile of features.
Want the line-by-line breakdown? Read the full Heartbeat vs Circle comparison →
1,000 is massive, congrats!! 🙌 I'm at 40 members and grinding. Exactly the motivation I needed today.