Drry vs Circle
A warmer home for your community, without the cut.
Circle is a refined community platform. Drry offers a similar community experience with courses built in and a free plan to start, and you keep all of your member payments.
Drry vs Circle, the full picture
| Drry | Circle | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes. 100 members, 5 GB, unlimited courses, and the community feed. No card. | Trial, then paid plans. |
| Fee on your member payments | 0%. You keep 100%, only Stripe's standard processing fee applies. | A platform transaction fee on every plan, smaller on pricier tiers. |
| Courses + community together | Both built in, in one branded space you own. | Community-first, courses available. |
| Funnels + landing pages | Built in: compose landing pages from proven sections, capture leads with email boxes and embeddable forms, and see views, joins, and revenue per funnel. 1 free, unlimited on paid plans. | A website builder for pages; no funnel analytics. |
| Your own brand and domain | Your own address like grace.drry.com on free; connect your own domain plus site white label (no Drry branding, the site is 100% yours) on paid plans, and on Growth your email sends from your own domain too. | Custom domain on paid plans. |
| Knowing who is showing up | See who is showing up, who is drifting away, which content people love, and how many finish each course. Included on Creator ($29/mo). | Seeing each member's activity is only on Circle's Business plan. |
| Where pricing starts | Free, then $29/mo (Creator), $99/mo (Growth). | A monthly fee. |
| Getting paid for 1:1s and packages | Send any client a one-time or installment link with an agreement they sign before they pay, built in, free on every plan, 0% platform fee. Most platforms make you bolt on a separate contract tool. | One-time and installment paywalls for space access, not a 1:1 invoice: no signed agreement, and a platform fee on top of Stripe. |
| Email your members | Built in on every plan: send a broadcast to your whole community or to an audience your forms captured (free covers 100 sends a month, unlimited on paid). Creator adds automations, journeys that welcome new signups, deliver a lead magnet, and win back quiet members on their own. On Growth, Spark drafts the whole email for you from your own courses and writes it in your voice. | Broadcasts, automations, and segmentation are solid, but email is a paid add-on on top of your plan, and its assistant is workflow automation on the top tiers, not an email drafted for you in your voice. |
Details reflect each platform's publicly stated model and can change. Check current terms before deciding.
Moving off Circle is easier than staying.
Keep your margin
On Drry, every member payment stays yours on every plan, including free. 0% platform cut; only Stripe's standard processing fee applies.
One tool, not five
Courses, community, payments, and funnels in one place, your brand on all of it. No bolt-on page builders or separate apps.
You own the rails
Your own Stripe account and member list. Leaving never means starting over, because your customers were always yours.
Why creators pick Drry
- Keep 100% of member payments. Only Stripe's standard processing fee applies, we take nothing on top.
- Payments run through your own Stripe account, so your customers and subscriptions belong to you, not the platform. No payment lock-in.
- Funnels built in: fast landing pages on your domain with views, joins, and revenue attributed per page. Standalone funnel tools charge $49 to $97 a month for less.
- A genuinely free tier: 100 members, 5 GB storage, unlimited courses, and the community feed, with no card required.
- Courses, a community feed, members, and payments in one branded space you own.
- Your own address like grace.drry.com out of the box, with custom domain and site white label on paid tiers, and white-label email from your own domain on Growth.
- Member analytics on the $29 Creator plan: who is showing up, what is landing, and who is quietly drifting away. The kind of insight other platforms save for their priciest plans.
- Get paid for 1:1s and packages: send a client a one-time or installment link with an agreement they sign before paying. Built in, free on every plan, and no platform fee. Other platforms make you bolt on a separate contract tool, and most never reach 0%.
- Email your whole community, built in on every plan, even free (100 sends a month free, unlimited on paid), no add-on and no second tool to wire up. Creator adds email automations: welcome journeys, lead-magnet delivery, and win-backs that run on their own. And on Growth, Spark drafts your emails AND your funnel pages for you, pulling from your own courses and writing in your voice, so you start from a finished draft instead of a blank page. Tweak it and send.
Drry vs Circle, questions
Is Drry a free Circle alternative?
Yes. Drry has a free plan with 100 members and 5 GB, so you can launch your community without a monthly fee.
Can I sell courses and memberships?
Yes. Drry includes courses and lets you charge for membership, keeping 100% beyond Stripe's processing fee.
Will I be charged a platform transaction fee?
No platform fee. Only Stripe's standard processing fee applies to payments.
Does Drry include member analytics?
Yes. Seeing who is active, who is drifting away, and which content people love is included on Drry's $29 Creator plan. On Circle, seeing each member's activity is only on the Business plan.
Try Drry free. Bring your people.
Spin up your branded space in minutes, courses and community together, and keep 100% of what your members pay you.